The Salesforce platform sought to change that by offering a sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that for the first time, kept each customer\u2019s data under a single Cloud-based roof, accessible to the entire sales team. By being able to view all prior interactions, touchpoints, and product \/ service transactions between a company and its customers, salespeople became much more effective at following up, anticipating customer needs, and ultimately improving customer satisfaction as well as adding new customers. [1]<\/p>\n
Example of a Potential New Customer\u2019s Profile [2]<\/em><\/p>\n But CRM was only the beginning. Salesforce developed similar platforms for marketing automation and customer service and support. It offered managers the ability to track opportunity pipeline and marketing campaign performance, as well as analytics tools to identify trends and productivity enhancement opportunities. The power of the platform has transformed the company into a $6.7bn revenue business. [1]<\/p>\n Sales Pipeline Analytics Screenshot [3]<\/em><\/p>\n Marketing Campaign Screenshot [4]<\/em><\/p>\n How does Salesforce make money?<\/strong><\/p>\n Salesforce has a SaaS operating model, deriving its revenues from (a) subscription fees paid by its customers to access its enterprise cloud services, (b) customer support fees, and (c) professional services related to implementing its solutions for its customers. Its customers\u2019 information is stored on the cloud, accessible anywhere and backed up by data centers around the world with the highest security measures, affording its customers the peace of mind that its valuable information will never be lost or destroyed. [1]<\/p>\n The platform also offers unique customization capabilities, making it applicable to all industries, from private equity to music to industrial robots.<\/p>\n Staying ahead of the curve by incorporating the Internet of Things (IoT)<\/strong><\/p>\n In October during its annual Dreamforce expo, Salesforce announced an exciting array of new products in artificial intelligence (\u201cEinstein\u201d) and IoT data integration (\u201cThunder\u201d). [5]<\/p>\n The internet of things represents a revolution in information technology by packing consumer and industrial devices with microcomputers and sensors. These generate massive volumes of data that many companies collect but few have harnessed successfully so far, because there is simply too much data and the devices often speak different languages. Salesforce aims to change that with its \u201cThunder IoT Cloud\u201d offering. [6]<\/p>\n Thunder allows users to connect data from IoT to records in Salesforce, enriching customer\u2019s profiles by layering in information about the products they are using, real-time. Thunder\u2019s processing engine can \u201cingest billions of events from connected devices and trigger personalized engagements with customers.\u201d For example, a robot in a factory can stream data indicating its arm is out of position, triggering an alert for maintenance or repair on the robot manufacturer\u2019s Salesforce, before the customer may have noticed. The robot manufacturer could also visualize real-time the state of all its robots, release software updates remotely, and fix issues as they arise. [6]<\/p>\n Complementing its IoT solution, Salesforce is keenly aware that modern companies increasingly need data scientists to sift through the Big Data resulting from IoT. Thus, it is offering an AI machine learning solution called \u201cEinstein\u201d to enable companies to automatically draw customer insights, build predictive models, and proactively recommend best next actions. [7]<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n Salesforce was a disruptor of the antiquated sales model, where each salesperson maintained customer relationships by reacting to requests rather than anticipating them. Its platform enabled teams to track performance and keep key information organized to make better, more informed decisions. IoT presents an opportunity to do just that for product performance, enabling them to harness the data their connected devices are generating to provide customers with the perfect experience.<\/p>\n However, in pursuing Thunder and Einstein, Salesforce is undertaking its biggest challenge yet \u2013 it is trying to compete with IBM Watson on artificial intelligence and with Siemens, Google, Microsoft and others in big data interpretation. Taking on both technological fronts simultaneously while being less well capitalized than such competitors is a bold move. It should carefully monitor their progress and hedge itself by developing apps that would enable it to partner with these companies and offer their technology through the Salesforce platform. That way they can continue to offer the best CRM tool, their core value proposition, regardless of who wins the IoT race.<\/p>\n Word Count: 789<\/p>\n ~*~*~*~*~<\/p>\n Sources<\/u><\/p>\n Salesforce\u2019s ubiquitous CRM tool enables users to better monitor, understand, and serve customers, but will it be able to harness the power of insights generated by the IoT revolution?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2023,"featured_media":19395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-19394","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\n![\"company-profile\"](\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Company-Profile.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n