Last week an estimated 5,000 people gathered at the London ExCel centre to hear first-hand about the exciting solutions Salesforce had unveiled at Dreamforce in the US earlier this month.
As Coforge attended as a sponsoring partner, we were in a great position to gather some valuable insights from throughout the day – in particular, the main drivers that according to Salesforce will shape customer oriented companies and customer experiences in 2020.
So, if you didn’t make it – don’t worry! We’ve got you covered, with our top 4 highlights from Dreamforce To You 2019.
Highlight #1 “Business is the greatest platform for change” (Marc Benioff – Salesforce Founder)
Jayne-Anne Gadhia (Co-CEO of Salesforce UKI) started off the keynote by exploring how businesses can “do well, while doing good.” Her main influence being the founder of Salesforce – Marc Benioff, the man at the helm of the company, who believes technology in the right hands can “change the world.”
It appears to be working for Salesforce – since Benioff introduced the 1-1-1 model of philanthropy (giving 1% of Salesforce’s equity, product and employees’ time back to communities around the world) – the company has established itself as a Fortune 500 company and the 1# best place to work/15th most admired company in the world by Fortune.
The key takeaway here? That social activism and “giving back” are qualities closely intertwined with business growth and brand recognition, because they are universal causes that we can all (consumers, employees and businesses) get behind.
Highlight #2 “culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia Co-CEO)
Our next highlight is on Salesforce’s attitude to company values and culture. Gadhia argued that “you could have the best strategy in place, but it won’t mean a thing if you don’t have the culture to fulfil and execute it.”
For Salesforce it is their values (trust, customer success, innovation, and equality) that are the bedrock of their resilient company culture - one that inspires all employees, at every level, to do the best work of their lives. This in turn leads to the success of the business overall. When you consider how drastically technology is changing how businesses operate, it is the companies with value-driven direction that will endure.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, we will agree with Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, in that even the best strategy will fail if it is not backed by a strong company culture.
Highlight #3 “The pace of digital disruption and transformation has never been more intense than it is now” (Paul Smith Co-CEO UKI)
With customer expectations soaring after every ‘connected’ interaction, Salesforce is pioneering technology that will serve their customers well in what they are calling: “the customer revolution.
This revolution is all about customer empowerment - they know what they want, they’ve done their research and they are expecting the same high level of personalisation from every interaction they have with brands.
Key takeaway: the digital disruption created by businesses who aim to meet this expectation will change how brands and customers interact. Meaning that constant technological innovation won’t just be an add-on, but a necessity for growth.
Highlight #4 “MuleSoft enables us to bring previously inaccessible data into that Single Source of Truth” (Adam Spearing CTO UKI)
The key case study given in the talk was Salesforce’s work with Louis Vuitton (with many speakers sporting some impressive LV threads and sneakers on stage.)
Einstein and the 360° Customer View were used to gather unique customer data in a secure SSOT- “Single Source of Truth”. Einstein, with artificial intelligence at its core, gathered information that was specific to the customer, and then masterminded recommendations that were driven by real-time data.
It would be nice if all of this data came from Salesforce environments – however, this simply isn’t realistic – more than likely, companies will be stuck with large datasets from other applications that they cannot access in Salesforce.
As an established MuleSoft partner, it was exciting to see how Anypoint Platform was used to integrate this data in the 360° Customer View. A whole array of information had now been unlocked by using MuleSoft’s API-based integration platform – enabling that comprehensive and personalised experience customers now expect from every interaction.
On the same topic, Salesforce’s CTO for UKI – Adam Spearing outlined how Salesforce customers can use Einstein and Tableau (the most recent acquisition of Salesforce) to surface deeper insights, driving innovative solutions using real-time data.
Final Thoughts
The vast array of Salesforce solutions and innovative technologies presented to us at Dreamforce To You was extremely impressive. The talks only further supported their reputation as a forward-thinking, people-first company who really do believe that business and technology can “change the world.”
We hope you enjoyed reading our highlights from the day, the sheer amount of information can seem overwhelming at times and it can be hard to know where to start with all of the solutions in front of you – we have over 200 experts who can show you the potential of your platform - for an overview of our Salesforce services click here.
If you would like to find out more about how you can get more value out of your Salesforce implementation, with reduced risk and disruption to your business, do give us a call at +44 (0)203 475 7980 or email us at Salesforce@coforge.com
Other useful links:
Case study: Fat Face Enhances Customer Experience
Salesforce services
6 reasons to keep an eye on MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform and the Salesforce Integration Cloud
