Salesforce and NVIDIA announce a partnership
Status: 09/18/2024
NVDIA is one of the leading providers of AI computing. The goal of the partnership is to develop AI capabilities for enterprises with a focus on autonomous agents and interactive avatars.
Salesforce introduces new AI tool “Agentforce”
Status: 17.09.2024
Agentforce, a new AI agent development platform, has been unveiled by Salesforce. The suite of various low-code tools is designed to help users from different areas such as customer service, sales, marketing and retail with their daily tasks. The provider’s aim is to increase efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Tasks such as answering customer service inquiries, qualifying sales contacts and optimizing marketing campaigns could be performed independently by Agentforce’s AI agents. They could analyse data, make decisions and optimize marketing campaigns autonomously. Agentforce enables user companies to easily create, customize and implement their own agents for every use case and every industry.
Salesforce buys data protection company Own Company for 1.9 billion dollars
Status: 06.09.2024
Salesforce strikes again after making two smaller acquisitions within a month with PredictSpring and Tenyx. The company announced that it would acquire data protection and data management provider Own Company for around $1.9 billion. Organizations can use Own Company to ensure the availability, security and compliance of business-critical data. This also allows users to gain deeper insights into this data.
Salesforce unveils new AI chatbot
Status: 17.07.2024
A new service agent based on a large language model has been unveiled by Salesforce. In future, the Einstein Service Agent will support service teams in their interactions with customers. However, only a preview version of Einstein Service Agent is currently available as part of the Service Cloud and can be configured via the Einstein 1 platform. At least Ryan Nichols, Chief Product Officer Service Cloud at Salesforce, promises that this will be as easy as setting up a new Copilot.
Einstein is published
Status: 25.04.2024
In 2023, Salesforce presented its artificial intelligence together with the large language model Einstein Copilot in beta version. The final version is now available in the Salesforce software environment
“Einstein Copilot” customer data dialog system
In future, the “Einstein Copilot” dialog system will act as a link to end customer data. In the chat, the large language model (LLM) responds to queries involving natural languages. The artificial intelligence “Einstein 1” (Einstein One) examines the end customer’s data in order to provide the Copilot with suitable purchase recommendations based on previous customer behavior, for example.
Data Graphs Enhancements
Status: 08.04.2024
The spring release of Salesforce Data Cloud introduces a feature called “Data Graphs Enhancements”. Customers can use Data Graphs to determine which connections should be made between data endpoints. This means that SQL-based queries or the manual creation of data joins are no longer necessary.
New head of Germany
Status: 25.04.2024
Alexander Wallner is the new Head of Germany at Salesforce. He was previously Managing Director at PlusServer. Wallner takes over responsibility for the umbrella region.
Salesforce expands with Apple
Status: 13.12.2023
Customer communication via Apple Messages for Business enables customers to contact customer service, make appointments, place orders via Apple Pay and receive personalized shopping recommendations. Employees can efficiently manage conversations in the Service Cloud in both voice and digital communication and access all the data they need to resolve issues quickly. For example, you can use chats to provide your customers with individual, data-based recommendations for products as well as information on sizes, stock levels, exchanges and more.
Apple ARKit allows field service employees to use augmented reality features in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. With Apple ARKit, employees can create precise 3D renderings of large areas, measure rooms and create objects with simple image processing. For example, they can determine whether a fresh refrigerator will fit through the door and can therefore be placed without any problems.
The Salesforce Field Service iOS widget allows employees to see important account information directly on the home screen of their iPhone, saving them time. This includes work order information, work order information and information on how to get to the job site.
Salesforce presents new AI purchasing assistant
Status: 16.01.2024
Salesforce presented the new AI Shopping Assistant at NRF 2024. The new AI solution is designed to increase efficiency and offer a better customer experience through better processes. Personalized interactions on e-commerce platforms are to be played out with targeted offers.
Salesforce announces enhancements to the Einstein 1 AI platform
Status: 15. 12.2023
Einstein Copilot Search can now answer complex queries directly from the Data Cloud. Unstructured data such as PDFs, emails, audio or social media content should also become more usable for companies. With the Data Cloud Vector Database, standardized company data can be used quickly and easily in any AI prompt.
Salesforce has also integrated the Data Cloud with Google Display & Video 360 and LinkedIn. This allows advertisers to securely use their first-party data to create unified customer profiles from the Data Cloud
Salesforce expands with Apple
Status: 13.12.2023
Customer communication via Apple Messages for Business enables customers to contact customer service, make appointments, place orders via Apple Pay and receive personalized shopping recommendations. Employees can efficiently manage conversations in the Service Cloud in both voice and digital communication and access all the data they need to resolve issues quickly. For example, you can use chats to provide your customers with individual, data-based recommendations for products as well as information on sizes, stock levels, exchanges and more.
Apple ARKit allows field service employees to use augmented reality features in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. With Apple ARKit, employees can create precise 3D renderings of large areas, measure rooms and create objects with simple image processing. For example, they can determine whether a fresh refrigerator will fit through the door and can therefore be placed without any problems.
The Salesforce Field Service iOS widget allows employees to see important account information directly on the home screen of their iPhone, saving them time. This includes work order information, work order information and information on how to get to the job site.
How do you always manage to keep up to date? e.g. like this.
As of 12.09.2023
Rohit Bhalla shows what is possible. Within Salesforce’s certifications, the topic of AI is at the top of the list. Click here for the article.
What’s new at Salesforce? The Winter 24 Release Plan
Status: 28.08.2023
Sure, it’s still being phrased cryptically in places, but by and large things will come. Sooner or later. We all know. Release planning is not that easy. Especially in a construct as complex as Salesforce.
Here’s the link to the Release Winter 24 plan.
After the Dreamforce is before the Dreamforce
Status: 28.08.2023
There will be a preview on 09/13/2023. Via web conference or Salesforce+ an “EMEA edition” of Dreamforce can be enjoyed.
Registration is possible under this link
Salesforce-World-Tour: Germany – The Recap Video
How Aevi is overtaking the competition with automated marketing journeys
Status 08/28/2023
AEVI is a payment service provider. This company is considered a hidden champion in the FinTech industry.
What Sarah Koch, Director of Marketing & Communications at Aevi, has to say is fascinating, as she comprehensibly explains how sales and marketing have come closer together.
Business Process Automation: How to free your company from routine tasks
Status as of 28.08.2023
Business Process Automation (BPA) refers to the use of technology to handle individual process steps that were previously performed manually in companies.
The goals? Among other things, companies want to make faster decisions, optimize supply chains, avoid regulatory risks and minimize costly process errors.
The idea of automation is not new. We’re familiar with assembly line manufacturing, robots and aerospace autopilot. We associate these systems with large companies that have appropriate capabilities to develop such technologies themselves.
You can read the entire article here.
New Salesforce innovations help financial services firms deliver personalized insights with AI, data and CRM
Update: 06/29/2023
Salesforce has launched Personalized Financial Engagement, a new solution that helps financial institutions use AI, real-time data and CRM to manage their customers’ financial plans and deliver intelligent, personalized financial insights at scale. With Financial Services Cloud, Marketing GPT and Data Cloud, marketers in financial institutions can now deliver automated, personalized customer experiences based on generative AI and trusted first-party data.
Salesforce’s new Sales GPT and Service GPT boost productivity and personalize customer interactions with generative AI
Update: 06/29/2023
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global CRM leader, has introduced generative AI capabilities for Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to transform how sales and service teams work and interact with customers. Sales GPT embeds generative AI into the workflow and automatically generates customer emails, call summaries, account research and more. Service GPT will automatically generate service responses, automatically summarize customer interactions into easily accessible knowledge articles for service teams, and better prepare field service representatives before they arrive at the service location.
Salesforce adds ESG reporting capability to Net Zero Cloud
Update: 06/29/2023
Salesforce today introduced the SASB Report Builder for Net Zero Cloud. This new feature enables companies to automate the disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation’s SASB standards, which identify the ESG issues most important to a company’s financial performance and value.
Salesforce unveils new AI, data and CRM capabilities for consumer products industry to drive profitable growth
Update: 6/20/2023
Salesforce announced new innovations including Consumer Goods Cloud for Service, Trade Promotion Effectiveness Dashboards and Mulesoft Direct for Consumer Goods. These innovations help drive revenue and profit growth, increase customer satisfaction, and more effectively manage the billions of dollars brands spend on trade promotion with Einstein AI and automation.
How YETI uses Salesforce to prepare customers for the next adventure
Booth: 06/06/2023
This week at Connections 2023, Yeti – the global designer, retailer, and distributor of innovative outdoor products – will demonstrate how it is using Salesforce technology to engage with customers in new and innovative ways that are authentic, personal, and true to its brand.
What’s the Impact: With Salesforce Customer 360, YETI is able to quickly access customer information, provide personalized support, place and change orders on behalf of customers, respond to and close cases faster, and provide an enterprise-wide view of customer interactions all from a single location.
How one integrated healthcare company saved more than 5,000 hours and $439,000 through automation
As of 11/05/2023
Adobe Population Health, an innovative care management company, turned to automation to modernize patient billing, care data, and health insurance validation. Thanks to MuleSoft technology, workflows, tasks, and processes are now automated, saving the company more than 5,000 man-hours and over $439,000 in labor, efficiency, and cost savings annually.
An article on Forbes.com “About CRM: The Inconvenient Truth About Salesforce”
Status: 01/19/2023
Author Gene Marks, formerly a senior executive at KPMG and since 1994 owner of Marks Group PC, a 10-person customer relationship management consulting firm based outside Philadelphia, has written an interesting article. The following is a translated excerpt:
“Should we in the CRM industry be worried about Salesforce? I don’t think so. The company, like many other large technology companies, is taking cover from an economic and financial slowdown to lay off tens of thousands of unproductive employees.
But Salesforce’s problems bring to light an uncomfortable truth that many of us in the industry have known for a long time: The cost of their software is unjustifiable to most customers.”
Salesforce products become more inclusive with new gender identity and pronoun data options
Status: 02/14/2023
Salesforce is introducing new fields to capture gender identities and gender pronouns. Companies should be able to capture and manage customer data more accurately and comprehensively. The new fields will be available for lead, contact and persona account management features. This will allow companies to standardize these fields and capture more accurate customer data.
https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/gender-identity-pronouns-data-fields/
Twitter retains 75% of royalties for Salesforce
Status: 02/14/2023
Twitter has cut its contract for Salesforce’s customer management software by 75%, effective immediately. The former $20 million has been reduced to $5 million per year. Twitter justifies the contract change with its wave of layoffs after the acquisition by Elon Musk and the resulting lower number of users.
MuleSoft recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS)
Status: 01/31/2023
MuleSoft has been recognized by Gartner as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a Service. The award is based specifically on Mulesoft’s platform, which can be tailored to any industry and provides easy-to-use tools for integrating systems and data from any location. MuleSoft’s success is also based on both global (SaaS) and local (On Premise) availability, with automation and integration being key elements.
Salesforce announces the appointment of three new independent directors
Status: 01/27/2023
Salesforce has announced that three new members will join the company’s board of directors, effective March 1, 2023. The new members are Arnold Donald, Sachin Mehra and Mason Morfit.
In addition, it was announced that Sanford Robertson and Alan Hassenfeld will not stand for re-election at Salesforce’s 2023 Annual General Meeting.
New Salesforce Retail innovations aim to personalize every shopping moment
Status: 01/12/2023
Retailers are always looking for new ways to profitably use information about their customers. The new Salesforce Retail innovations help better leverage first-party data by offering new audience insights, targeting capabilities and better use of resources to drive ad revenue. The new features include:
- Harmonizing first party data to give ad buyers direct access to audiences.
- Leveraging automation and workflows to optimize advertiser relationships, increase operational efficiency, and accelerate sales cycles
- Optimize campaigns with actionable insights and timely reports
Partnership: Walmart Commerce Technologies and Salesforce to open up local fulfillment and delivery solutions for retailers
Status: 12/01/2023
The goal is to provide retailers with technology and services that enable seamless local pickup and delivery for customers. Walmart Store Assist technology and Walmart GoLocal local delivery solutions will now be available through Salesforce AppExchange to help retailers better meet the challenges of today’s hybrid shopping world. This will enable:
- Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS).
- Manage local deliveries with Walmart GoLocal, meaning same-day delivery as a white-lable experience
- Improve the Omnichannel Shopping Journey: with Commerce Cloud and Order Management from Salesforce, retailers can efficiently manage their customers’ omnichannel shopping experience through one platform, while leveraging AI and real-time data to deliver connected, personalized experiences to customers.
Salesforce unveils commerce cloud innovations
Status: 01/11/2023
The new updates now offer users:
- Easily create digital storefronts for a digital commerce platform
- Improve the post-purchase customer journey
- Optimize self-service purchasing functionality and subscription management
- Automated inventory routing
- Guided Selling
Salesforce Spring ’23 Release
Status: 01/10/2023
The update is available on 02/13/2023 and includes the following highlights:
- Account Discovery is a dashboard built on CRM Analytics and accessible directly from the Account List view. It leverages Einstein Discovery to provide instantly configurable, AI-driven state and upsell scores that help identify at-risk customers and customers with potential
- WhatsApp business messaging is now directly integrated
- Automotive Cloud Intelligence: automotive companies can now embed pre-built KPIs and dashboards into Automotive Cloud. With the help of AI, better evaluation of leads, inventory and sales of the vehicle portfolio as well as vehicle and part forecasts are now possible
- Service Process Automation for financial service providers: they can now easily set up automated processes for common service requests. In addition, they can quickly create a process or select a pre-built process template with low/no-code tools and make API calls to third-party systems at scale with high-performance integrations
Investor Elliott Management Corp. hedge fund apparently gets into Salesforce
Status: 01/23/2023
According to reports, Elliott’s stake is several billion US dollars.
The hedge fund Elliott is known for exerting strong pressure on corporate decisions as an investor. What role it played in the layoffs earlier this year is not known.
“We look forward to working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value that is appropriate for a company of its size,” said Jesse Cohn, managing partner at Elliott.
The Salesforce Automotive Cloud – Specific Commerce Cloud extensions for automotive manufacturers and dealers.
Status: 01/03/2023
All new Commerce Cloud features, scheduled to be available in spring 2023, are designed to make online car sales easier for manufacturers and dealers.
Commerce Cloud will leverage new merchandising tools to drive website traffic, help customers find dealership locations, configure product sets, improve part search, and expand commerce globally to more than 80 languages and currencies.
Salesforce expands AppExchange commerce ecosystem for retailers
Status: 12/15/2022
Across the new digital and interoperable capabilities, customer experiences are said to be faster and easier to deploy, as well as build with greater cost savings.
With pre-built integrations like Builder.io and Algolia, customers can quickly and easily add third-party functionality to their Salesforce app.
More than 60 proven commerce apps on the AppExchange – like Adyen – enable integrated payments across online, mobile and in-store channels. These apps help improve transaction performance and the customer payment experience.
Salesforce releases DevOps Center for development teams to shorten development and release times
Status: 12/15/2022
DevOps Center makes it easier to collaboratively build, test and deploy custom solutions in Salesforce – including automations, apps and experiences – that are connected to real-time customer data.
These improvements are expected to be achieved through the following features:
- Better organized work
- Automated change tracking
- Customized pipelines
- Seamless integrations with source control (e.g., GitHub)
- Easy ways to migrate and deploy changes with a few clicks
- Supports merged teams
Salesforce lays off one in ten employees
Status: 01/06/2023
Up to 8,000 jobs are to be cut at Salesforce in the coming weeks. The workforce of Tableau, the analytics and visualization specialist acquired in 2019 for $15.7 billion, appears to be particularly affected. Similarly, Tableau’s messaging service, acquired in 2020 for $27.7 billion. It is not known to what extent the nearly 1,300 jobs in Germany are affected.
The layoffs are being justified in particular by a weak global economy and too much hiring during the pandemic.
Salesforce expands its Net Zero cloud
Status: 12/08/2022
With the Net Zero Cloud, Salesforce provides companies with a tool to more easily implement and monitor the topic of sustainability across all business areas.
The new so-called “ESG tool” for the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) divisions manages data from these subdivisions in a central location, enabling more efficient real-time reporting.
Salesforce Genie now linked to Tableau
Status: 12/08/2022
The Customer Data Cloud “Genie” is now supported by Tableau.
For companies that have stored and harmonized their data in Genie, there is now the possibility to analyze it with the help of Tableau, to automate these analyses or to visualize them afterwards.
In addition, because Genie is natively integrated with Tableau, organizations can reduce data storage and interface costs, shorten time to insight, and thus enable better decision making by bringing all data and analytics together in one place.
Salesforce releases “Automation Everywhere” package
Status: 12/01/2022
The new Automation Everywhere bundle is designed to accelerate end-to-end workflow orchestration, automate across systems, and embed data- and AI-driven workflows everywhere.
Workflows will be automated and replace manual workflows through new Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities, a new API management platform, and the no-code “composer” for building automations.
Salesforce releases “Automation Everywhere” package
Status: 12/01/2022
The new Automation Everywhere bundle is designed to accelerate end-to-end workflow orchestration, automate across systems, and embed data- and AI-driven workflows everywhere.
Workflows will be automated and replace manual workflows through new Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities, a new API management platform, and the no-code “composer” for building automations.
Bret Taylor steps down as Salesforce vice chairman and co-CEO – Marc Benioff to become chairman and CEO
Status: 11/30/2022.
Brett Taylor will step down from his current roles at the end of fiscal 2023 on Jan. 31, 2023. As of that date, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff will become chairman and CEO of the company.
Salesforce reports quarterly results for Q3 of fiscal 2023
Status: 11/30/2023
Key numbers for this quarter are:
- Q3 FY23 revenue of $7.84 billion (up 14% year-over-year).
- Q4 FY23 revenue guidance is expected to be in the range of $7.932 billion to $8.032 billion (+10% year-over-year)
- Full-year FY23 revenue guidance expected in the range of $30.9 billion to $31.0 billion (+17% year-over-year)
MuleSoft Recognized as Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management
Status: 11/17/2022
For the 7th consecutive year, MuleSoft has been recognized as a Leader in this area.
“From our perspective, being recognized as a Full Life Cycle API Management Leader for the seventh consecutive year is a testament to our Connected Experiences and customer success,” said Brent Hayward, Chief Executive Officer of MuleSoft.
Salesforce launches new marketing effectiveness bundle
Status: 11/17/2022
The Marketing Effectiveness Bundle is designed to help companies improve the effectiveness of their marketing campaign performance and increase customer value and ROI through personalization.
These goals are to be enabled by combining the Customer Data Platform, the Marketing Cloud Personalization Tool and the Marketing Cloud Engagement Tool.
At its core is the unification of all customer data into a single source of truth to deliver relevant and personalized offers to customers across all channels.
Salesforce launches a new analytics bundle
Status: 11/15/2022.
Aims to consolidate customer analytics tools to provide employees with an easy-to-use, self-service platform that delivers real-time insights about customers.
The new analytics platform is based on Tableau and can be integrated into the existing enterprise architecture.
Salesforce expands offering for healthcare industry
Status: 11/09/2022
With its latest product, Patient 360 for Health, Salesforce aims to further automate its healthcare ecosystem while optimizing cost and productivity factors.
The innovations Salesforce cites in this effort are: Behavioral Health, Advanced Therapy Management, Salesforce Genie for Healthcare and Care Coordination. You can find out exactly what these features can and do in the article via the link below.
Mulesoft’s 7 trends for digital transformation 2023
Status: 11/03/2022
The 7 trends in the article linked below have their focus particularly on enhancing the customer and employee experience to better differentiate themselves from the economic pressures of competitors.
In this regard, Matt McLarty, Global Field CTO at MuleSoft, sees automation, low/no-code tools, and cybersecurity as the most important technologies of the future.
All trends at a glance:
- Investing in automation
- Compatibility as a central pillar
- Low/no code for all users
- More engagement with total experience (TX) strategies
- Seize opportunities with automated data-driven decision making
- Cybersecurity becomes multi-layered and integrated with complex threats
- IT investments for greater sustainability
Salesforce ranks No. 1 in CRM market share for ninth consecutive year
Status: 11/02/2022
International Data Corporation (IDC) has ranked Salesforce as the #1 CRM vendor when it comes to market share in its latest Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker. This is the ninth time Salesforce has achieved first place.
has grown its overall market share and increased CRM revenue year over year, but also has a leading market share in IDC’s segments for sales, customer service, and marketing applications, model-driven application platforms, and enterprise community applications.
Salesforce lays off hundreds of sales employees
Status: 11/10/2022
Current reasons for the layoffs of employees are the increased costs for Salesforce as well as a more restrained buying behavior of Salesforce’s customers. In addition, there is pressure from investors for more margin, who are not positive about the current revisions to annual revenue from $31.8 billion to $31 billion.
Salesforce doesn’t give a figure for how many employees were let go, but gives the following rationale for the sales layoffs: “Our sales performance process encourages accountability. Unfortunately, this can lead to some leaving the company …”. By putting this much sales pressure on employees, this clearly pulls down customer focus. The focus is on the salesperson’s revenue rather than the right product for the customer.
Salesforce is not alone with these layoffs – ORACLE has already had numerous layoffs, especially in the marketing area. We already reported on this in September.
https://www.computerwoche.de/a/salesforce-setzt-hunderte-angestellte-auf-die-strasse,3613199
Salesforce’s Marc Benioff named CEO of the year
Status: 10/21/2022
The award recognizes bold, long-term leadership for shareholders and society. It is considered one of the most exceptional awards in the business world because the honorees are not selected by editors or analysts, but by a selection committee made up of peer CEOs.
We found an interview with Marc Benioff about this:
Salesforce introduces new technology that offers contact center solution
Status: 10/25/2022
The new technology gives new tools at your fingertips. One of them is Innovation in Action, which allows financial service providers to use Omni Routing to proactively route customers to the appropriate department. In addition, communications service providers can use a combination of AI and automation to proactively reach out to customers, and healthcare providers are armed with up-to-date, real-time data to meet patient needs and drive conversations.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud ranked a leader by Forrester Enterprise Marketing Suites
Status: 10/20/2022
In addition to Salesforce, Adobe was also ranked as a Leader, closely followed by SAS.
Tableau version 2022.3 is now available and offers new features
Status: 10/19/2022
Highlights include faster insights with advanced analytics and forecasting, dynamically showing and hiding dashboard zones to create custom experiences, balancing speed and cost by scaling background services on a schedule, and getting detailed event data and monitoring permissions to implement a robust control book.
Salesforce releases “Automative Cloud” for creating next-gen customer experiences
Status: 10/13/2022
Automative Cloud is designed specifically for automotive manufacturers, automotive dealers, automotive finance groups and their customers. This new software solution from Salesforce is designed to help deliver better service and experiences to customers in every interaction with “Driver 360.” This is said to be made possible through industry-specific automation as well as intelligence and real-time analytics adapted to the automotive industry in the Salesforce applications.
Salesforce Multiple Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant
Status: 10/11/2022
Marketing Automation Platform
“Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement” was evaluated and it achieved the best ranking on the “completeness of vision” axis. In particular, the orchestration of the customer journey to support B2B customer acquisition, retention, and growth goals was highlighted in this spot.
Status: 10/05/2022
Sales Automation Platform
Gartner named Salesforce a Leader for its ability to execute and complete its vision. Salesforce Sales Cloud is particularly praised for delivering information that lets users work with customers, not data tables.
Salesforce with hiring freeze
Status: 10/14/2022
Recently, we reported on a major wave of layoffs at Oracle. That trend now appears to be hitting another software giant lightly. Salesforce will not make any more hires until the end of its fiscal year 2023 – that is, until the end of January 2023. In the course of this, 90 employees who were responsible for new hires were also laid off.
https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/salesforce-cuts-90-recruiters-amid-hiring-slowdown
Salesforce names Robin Washington lead independent director
Status: 10/21/2022
Salesforce today announced the appointment of Robin Washington as Lead Independent Director of the Board of Directors, effective September 15, 2022. Robin Washington continues to serve as Chair of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. She has served Salesforce as a director in various roles since 2013 and brings deep expertise in the technology sector and finance.
More Salesforce Genie features in Marketing Cloud to create real-time customer platforms
Status: 09/21/2022
At Dreamforce ’22, Salesforce introduced Genie, the new hyperscale real-time data platform that transforms data into seamless, highly personalized experiences. The result is real-time personalized moments, cross-channel automation, and intelligent marketing and business analytics on one platform.
But what features does Genie use to deliver these results?
- Customers can now connect real-time data in Salesforce and external data via Mulesoft, native connectors and Salesforce AppExchange
- Improved real-time integration between Marketing Cloud Customer Data Platform and Personalization Platform
- Extensive data transformation capabilities enable customers to more quickly capture and unify data from anywhere within CDP using out-of-the-box, pre-built connectors to third-party data sources such as AWS Redshift and Microsoft Azure
Salesforce is confident that these new capabilities will accelerate customer interactions by 30x.
Salesforce deepens partnership with Amazon Web Services to expand machine learning
Status: 09/20/2022
Salesforce and AWS have announced new integrations between Salesforce platforms and Amazon SageMaker. The new integrations are designed to enable customers to use Amazon SageMaker (the AWS machine learning service) along with Einstein (Salesforce’s artificial intelligence AI technology) to build new AI models.
These AI models are intended to better reflect the needs of businesses and can be used in real time through Salesforce’s Customer 360 Cloud.
Salesforce and WhatsApp launch WhatsApp business messaging for Customer 360 Cloud
Status: 09/20/2022
Salesforce is offering customers a new way to sell, market and support directly from a chat with the integration of WhatsApp Business Messaging. This is designed to improve customer engagement and accelerate selling.
Salesforce customers like L’Oréal will transform their customer engagement through a WhatsApp brand experience that enables faster, richer interactions, continuous and ongoing conversations, and 24/7 support – all within a messaging thread
New: Salesforce Genie – what can the hyperscale real-time data platform do?
Status: 09/20/2022
Real-time data is delivered through secure and open real-time data exchange between Salesforce and Snowflake. In addition, Genie data is partitioned by business unit with Data Spaces.
Realtime automation is enabled by first-party advertising with partners such as Amazon Ads or Meta. This is supported by WhatsApp Business Integration, where Robotic Process Automation bots can also be deployed.
Realtime Intelligence works through ‘Bring your own AI’ with Amazon SageMaker and AI predictions without code with Custom Propensity Score Builder based on Einstein.
New Slack innovations and Salesforce Customer 360 integrations for the “Digital HQ”.
Status: 09/20/2022
Slack Canvas provides teams with a new interface for capturing and sharing knowledge, as well as the ability to access Customer 360 Cloud data directly in Slack.
New features for Slack Huddles include video and screen sharing for multiple people, as well as message threads with multiple people.
Salesforce and Snowflake expand partnership for real-time data exchange
Status: 09/15/2022
This deepening of the partnership between the two companies is designed to help customers securely share data in real time between the Salesforce Customer Data Platform (CDP) and Snowflake.
In doing so, the new “zero copy data sharing” technologies are designed to minimize the risks and costs of traditional synchronization methods.
New Invests for Salesforce Trailblazer
Status: 09/15/2022
The need for more and more specialized professionals who are knowledgeable in the Salesforce ecosystem is growing and is projected to grow even more in the coming years. For example, a study by IDC projects that Salesforce will create 9.3 million jobs by 2026. For this reason, Salesforce is turning its attention to training its Trailblazers. By 2028, up to 20,000 new Trailblazer roles are expected to be
New Salesforce Customer 360 innovations
Status: 09/14/2022
According to Salesforce, the updates are particularly aimed at further automating users’ work and supporting it with artificial intelligence.
For example, the Sales Cloud is supported by new “Einstein Bot for Sales” functions in task processing, in which this bot executes tasks in a sales process in parallel, such as assigning salespeople or finding appointments.
In the Service Cloud, the new “Contact Center” makes it possible to proactively offer customers the right products on an individualized basis using new real-time data.
With the Marketing Cloud, the “Account Engagement API Enhancements” provide B2B sales teams with the possibility of closer collaboration, which makes better use of the Salesforce Customer Data Platform via a new API.
Salesforce and NBCUniversal launch new docu-series “The Shift”
Status: September 2022
The documentary series, produced by NBCUniversal and Efran Films, shows how seven companies have implemented their Digital Transformation in different market environments.
The first episode features OneUnited Bank’s development of a digital financial product, with subsequent episodes featuring Formula 1, Pandora, Enlightened, the band Metallica, Rocket Companies and CarMax.
Episodes can be streamed on CNBC.com, Peacock and Salesforce+.
https://www.salesforce.com/plus/series/The_Shift
Salesforce Winter ’23 Release
Status: 08/29/2022
The preview for Salesforce’s upcoming Winter Update is now available, revealing what new features will be available starting October 17.
The two prominent changes Salesforce has announced are listed below:
Dynamic Forms Enhancements: customers can now migrate the fields and sections of web page layouts as individual components and configure them like other components on the page to display only the fields and sections users need.
TikTok Integration for Commerce – Salesforce simplifies social commerce on TikTok with new dynamic video/collective ads and automated smart product feeds through a rich in-app experience.
MuleSoft named a leader in new Forrester report on API management solutions
Status: 8/29/2022
According to Forrester, MuleSoft offers “API engagement with a strong developer experience” and “highly engaging portals and tools to connect.”
Organizations see continued growth and efficiencies through Mulesoft’s API management by providing flexible and scalable digital experiences that support customers through integration, automation, security and governance.
https://www.mulesoft.com/press-center/aug-2022-release-mulesoft-forrester-wave-apim
Salesforce announces results for second quarter of fiscal 2023
Status: 08/24/2022
Salesforce announced results for the second quarter of fiscal 2023, reporting:
- A revenue of $7.72 billion (+22% year-over-year)
- A third quarter revenue guidance of $7.82 billion to $7.83 billion (+14% year-over-year)
- A full-year FY23 revenue forecast of $30.9 billion to $31.0 billion (+17% year-over-year).
However, this guidance is a reduction from the company’s own targets, which were $32 billion after the end of Q1.
- In addition, Salesforce announces $10 billion share buyback
Salesforce easy now available
Status: 08/22/2022
Salesforce Easy is an offering designed to help companies evolve by giving them the ability to try, buy, and grow Salesforce at their own pace. This is supported by self-service purchasing options and a three-click setup that makes it easier and more cost-effective for companies to grow with Salesforce as their business needs evolve.
Salesforce aims to increase diversity in its workforce
Status: 08/11/2022
Recently, Salesforce committed to having at least 40% women and non-binary employees in four years.
In 2019, Salesforce launched three representation goals to promote transparency and accountability for society. Two goals have already been met: doubling the representation of people of color at the executive level (VP and above) and increasing the representation of underrepresented populations in the company. So in the next 4 years, the final step is to add more women and non-binary employees to Salesforce.
Comment:
We reported on women in top positions within the MarTech industry back in June. Salesforce is now taking an important step and pursuing this through its own company policy.
For the 7th year in a row – Sales is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant
Status: 08/17/2022
The darn seventh year, my ass. Salesforce has once again been named a Leader in Digital Commerce by Gartner. Salesforce’s “complete vision” for its product and the “execution quality” of its applications were highlighted in particular.
Salesforce introduces Composable Storefront – a solution for digital commerce
Status: 08/08/2022
At eTail East, Salesforce announced Composable Storefront. A fully customizable, headless digital storefront designed to enable online retailers to make site changes quickly and flexibly.
Salesforce also unveiled packages designed specifically for headless implementations (i.e., decoupling front-end and back-end) and use cases with trading partners. These include integrations, and implementation accelerators from across the Salesforce ecosystem, all anchored in Commerce Cloud.
Comment:
Two years ago, we reported on Salesforce’s acquisition of Mobify, a headless commerce provider – and now that acquisition appears to be translating into initial products.
Salesforce plans savings
Status: 07/21/2022
The economically turbulent times due to inflation and recession feared by many are now also showing up in Salesforce’s economic plans. Alongside other tech giants such as SAP, Microsoft and Google, the CRM developer from San Francisco is planning to make savings – whether these will affect budgets or hiring is not known.
Salesforce to close Hong Kong office
Status: 08/05/2022
Salesforce is looking to further expand its CRM platform in China. To do so, the company plans to intensify its strategic partnership with Alibaba and, as a result, optimize its business structure to better serve the Greater China region.
For this reason, a new team of product managers and software engineers is being created in Guangzhou. In return, Salesforce is closing all of its offices in Hong Kong.
5th consecutive year – Salesforce ranked as a Leader in Gartner’s 2022 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs
Status: 07/22/2022.
In today’s digital world, customers expect personalized experiences from companies at every point. This is exactly what Salesforce Marketing Cloud does so well to support its customers that it has been recognized as a leader in the market.
The Multichannel Marketing Hub orchestrates diverse channels such as websites, mobile apps, social networks, direct mail, call centers, paid media, and email marketing.
Salesforce achieves 2nd level of compliance with EU Code of Conduct for Cloud Data
Status: 07/20/2022
Launched in 2017, with Salesforce as a founding member, the EU Cloud Code of Conduct is a charter that enables cloud service providers to easily demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation.
“Cloud computing is the foundation for digital transformation, and people and businesses will only use digital services they can trust,” said Jörn Wittmann, managing director of SCOPE Europe, the code’s dedicated watchdog. “Salesforce maintains its commitment to trust by transparently communicating its efforts to comply with the EU Code of Conduct for the Cloud.”
Slack raises its prices
Status: 07/20/2022
Slack, the messaging service owned by Salesforce, is getting more expensive. Initially, customers with Pro plans will be affected.
From September 2022, the Pro version is to cost $8.75, per user and month. For users, this means nine percent higher costs. Customers with an annual contract will also have to dig deeper into their pockets. Here, the price will rise by eight percent from $6.67 to $7.25. Those who renew their contract before September 1 can still secure the current conditions for at least another twelve months.
https://www.computerwoche.de/a/slack-erhoeht-seine-preise,3553791
Shopping via WhatsApp: Salesforce invests in Berlin start-up Charles
Status: 07/20/2022
Two years ago, when the Berlin-based startup Charles was founded, conversational commerce was already considered one of the top trends in the industry. The young company managed to close a $20 million funding round, which was led by Salesforce Ventures.
The goal now is to become the leading conversational commerce-as-a-service platform.
Charles is an all-in-one operating system that aims to integrate all the features familiar from e-commerce into WhatsApp and other chat apps. The solution enables companies to sell products in a highly personalized way, send newsletters and handle customer inquiries via chat with deep system integration.
https://t3n.de/news/einkaufen-ueber-whatsapp-startup-1486530/
Salesforce Austria strengthens its management team
Status: 07/19/2022
Salesforce continues to expand its presence in Austria, bringing on board two experienced sales professionals in Katrin Lamberger and David Hable.
Katrin Lamberger has been Salesforce’s Regional Sales Director for small and medium-sized enterprises since July 1. David Hable joined the Salesforce team in Austria on July 1 as Regional Sales Director for the Enterprise Business Unit.
Salesforce unveils latest version of Mulesoft
Status: 06/29/2022
The new Mulesoft is designed to provide Salesforce customers with a unified automation, integration and APIs solution that makes it easy to automate any workflow.
With new low-code and no-code features, both tech-savvy teams and teams lacking technical expertise should now be able to quickly adapt to the constant change and complexity of their own tasks.
All new features are available to Salesforce customers with licenses for “Salesforce Flow1”, which is part of the Customer 360 Cloud.
Fujitsu and Salesforce Japan aim for personalized healthcare solutions
Status: 07/07/2022
The two companies aim to develop digital solutions for healthcare in Japan through the collaboration.
At the core is the development of AI solutions that help predict individual disease risks. With this prediction, potential policyholders will receive more personalized insurance products.
In addition, both companies plan to revolutionize insurance models in Japan – these will now be based more on personal data and will influence prevention, diagnosis, treatment as well as prognosis in a detailed and comprehensive way. The goal is to reduce the cost of medical care through better analysis of correlations.
Salesforce unveils new client for financial service cloud
Status: 06/23/2022
Salesforce has expanded its offering for financial service providers. The expansion will especially benefit banks, asset managers and insurance companies. Salesforce for Financial Services now offers more targeted and reliable automation and AI enabled by “Client 360.”
The updates include a new Customer Data Platform, Intelligent Virtual Assistant, Intelligent Agent Desktop, Customer Service Coordination features and advanced analytics for financial services providers.
New feature at in the Salesforce Customer 360 Cloud.
Status: 06/21/2022
The newly introduced functions are particularly aimed at supporting the consumer goods industry.
One new function is “Trade Promotion Management” for an overview of the trade budget, which sales staff can use to ensure that their promotions are further optimized and additional expenditure is avoided.
Also new is the “MuleSoft Accelerator” for integrating key trade data to better manage trade planning. The “MuleSoft Accelerator” unifies critical systems, data and applications, such as trade promotion management, enterprise resource planning and product information management, into a holistic trade planning solution.
For all other new additions to the Salesforce Customer 360 Cloud, please see the link below.
Salesforce announces new Customer 360 innovations for commerce and marketing clouds
Status: 06/08/2022
Changes in data privacy laws and an increasingly likely future without cookies is putting pressure on companies to develop a first-party data strategy that is consistent across the enterprise. The new Customer 360 Cloud features are designed to help.
Among the changes, for example, are “Triggered Campaign Messages,” a feature that combines Marketing Cloud Personalization and Engagement tools for personalized 1:1 customer engagement. Another new feature is “Commerce Marketplace,” which allows companies to quickly create, manage and scale a marketplace solution on Commerce Cloud to expand their catalog offerings with products from other companies and reach new channels and buyers.
All the new changes can be found via the link below.
New Salesforce AppExchange Partners
Status: 06/08/2022
Salesforce will expand its Customer Data Platform ecosystem through partnerships with Annalect, Acxiom, Criteo, LiveRamp, MediaMath, Metarouter, Neustar, Nine Digital, Streamlytics, The Trade Desk, Yahoo and WPP Resolve.
Additionally, Salesforce will expand its commerce ecosystem through partnerships with Amplience, Avalara, Bringg, AppFrontier, Forter and Poq.
This large number of new partners will deliver new marketing and (e)commerce specific apps on the AppExchange, and is expected to extend the power of Salesforce applications. The new apps are designed to help companies increase efficiency, deliver personalized experiences, and build better customer relationships as a result.
Salesforce expands its social commerce platform with TikTok
Status: 06/02/2022
Salesforce is partnering with TikTok to give Commerce Cloud merchants easier access to their own TikTok community. The new interface is expected to improve advertising for individual users, among other things, as well as provide greater visibility for the merchant’s products.
Other social commerce interfaces already exist with Snapchat and Instagram, for example.
Salesforce posts strong results for first quarter of fiscal 2023
Status: 05/31/2022
Key numbers at a glance:
- First quarter revenue of $7.41 billion (up 24% year over year)
- First quarter operating cash flow of $3.68 billion (up 14% year over year)
- Second quarter revenue guidance of $7.70 billion (up 21% year over year)
- Updated full-year revenue guidance:$31.8 billion (up 20% year over year)
Tableau Cloud is the new Tableau Online
Status: 05/17/2022
Tableau Cloud is the evolution of Tableau Online and is now fully Tableau hosted, cloud-based, and built to the latest security guidelines.
With new features such as Advanced Management and Data Stories, benefits such as time savings, agility, and lower costs are designed to help deliver better data-driven results that support decision-making.
https://www.tableau.com/products/cloud-bi
https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2022/5/power-your-analytics-advantage-tableau-product-innovations
Rami Habib is new general manager for Switzerland
Status: 05/11/2022
Rami Habib is Salesforce’s new general manager for Switzerland. Habib has been with Salesforce for eight years, most recently leading the cloud sales team in Switzerland and serving as a member of the Swiss Country Leadership Team. He succeeds Petra Jenner, who has left the company.
Salesforce buys Troops.ai
Status: 05/09/2022
Troops.ai is a leading provider of revenue communication solutions.
Revenue communication is used to improve sales velocity, forecasting, visibility, and cross-team collaboration. Upon completion of the acquisition, Troops.ai will become part of Slack. However, the acquisition closing is not expected until Q1 2023.
Salesforce Summer Update
Status: 05/06/2022
The Summer Update is the second of three release updates that Salesforce will publish over the year.
We have summarized the most important changes for you:
- Swarming: Salesforce customers will be able to solve tasks faster by getting real-time support from experts in the relevant departments
- Subscription Management: New automation processes in Sales Cloud will help customers manage and monetize recurring subscriptions through self-service channels
- Intelligent Fraud Management: Loyalty Management includes an intelligent fraud detection feature to help customers identify and respond quickly to potential program fraud
- Triggered Campaign Messages: Marketing Cloud Personalization users can trigger personalized experiences for their customers based on catalog changes or behavioral cues such as cart abandonment. This opens up a new opportunity to re-engage customers through their preferred channel.
Exciting: Former CIA chief information security officer joins Salesforce
Status: 05/05/2022
Former Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has joined Salesforce as SVP, Security Product and Program Management, BISO, and Acquisition Integration.
Why it’s important: Every company needs to implement a cybersecurity strategy to prevent sensitive data from being accessed maliciously. MacMillan’s service at the CIA provides Salesforce with a deep understanding of the threat landscape facing today’s business.
