Working from home can bring many benefits for employees; however, workers who are used to going into an office could be struggling with adapting to their new environment. Getting thrown off your daily routine brings many different challenges in terms of productivity, adjusting, and distractions. Being able to work remotely for the past 18 years, our company put together five tips to help you improve your productivity from home.
1. Have a Morning Routine
Do not wake up and jump right into work. It is essential to set up a morning routine to prepare your mind for the day of work ahead. Here is what we recommend for a morning routine:
Morning Walk
Yoga
Read a book, magazine, or the news
Make some breakfast and coffee
Listen to your favorite podcast or music
Set up your goals and review your calendar for the day
2. Have a Dedicated Workspace
Setting up a workspace in your home will help you stay focused and concentrate on high priority tasks. It’s important to avoid places in your home that could distract you like the kitchen, TV, or couch. Additionally, ask your company for a second monitor or chair to help you improve your productivity. If your company can’t complete your requests, we recommend visiting Kensington’s website. Kensington, a leader in desktop and mobile accessories, helps workers boost efficiency. With the help of Kensington’s products, you’ll be able to work from home like a pro! Below is a list of products that could help you maximize your new dedicated workspace to be more productive and comfortable.
Mobile Docks for Home & On the Go
Desktop Dock for Ultimate Connectivity & 4k Support
Trackballs
Mice
Keyboards
Laptop Risers
Footrests
Backrests
Monitor Stands and Arms
Wrist Rests
3. Schedule Time for Productive Work
Once you have found a dedicated workspace that allows you to focus and is comfortable, it’s time to plan and prioritize your calendar. You know yourself the best, schedule a 2-hour block on your calendar to get your most important tasks done for the day. For example, if you are most productive and less distracted in the morning, make sure you get those challenging projects or tasks done in the morning. Turning off notifications from your cell phone or social media will also help you focus on the task at hand rather than the incoming notifications. If you don’t have a workspace with a door, it is worth investing in some noise-canceling headphones to block out any distractions or noise in the background. Finishing your most significant challenge for the day will give you the feeling of accomplishment, and will help you be more productive throughout the rest of the day.
4. Be Communicative
Working from home doesn’t give you everyday visibility to all your coworkers like in an office. It’s vital to update your calendar in real-time to provide coworkers visibility into your scheduled day. Additionally, communicate and update your coworkers on any deals, documents, or accounts so that everyone is updated and on the same page. Daily meetings are encouraged to go over what tasks need to be done and track current progress. Finally, we suggest adopting a unified messaging system like Microsoft Teams for workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files), and application integration.
5. Take Breaks and Walk
According to Psychology Today, “Working for long stretches without breaks leads to stress and exhaustion.” We recommend going on a walk to help you relax, get active, and reduce stress. A walk away from work will let your mind recharge and refocus. Sometimes, a walk inside or outside of your house could be enough to get you past the problem or task you might be stuck on. Make sure to stay hydrated throughout the whole day as water will help boost energy levels and brain functions.
Working From Home
Adapting to working from home is all about finding a routine that helps you boost productivity. Implementing these five tips into your routine will give you a significant boost in efficiency. In your free time, catch up with family or friends, find a new hobby, or clean a part of the house that’s always needed to be cleaned. We have been able to work remotely since 2008, and if you or your company is struggling to adjust, please feel free to reach out to us at wfh@corraogroup.com
Are you receiving any positive feedback or results from your sampling program(s)?
Have you lost complete visibility into rebates across your entire ecosystem?
Does it take forever for your account receivable team to collect payments?
Corrao Group understands the frustration of manufacturers who experience these pain points on a daily basis.
For the past two months, we’ve been explaining the invaluable benefits and exciting features of Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud. New features include: Sales Agreements, Account-Based Forecasting, Performance Reporting, and more.
Over the next two months, Corrao Group will be releasing three individual blogs to identify, explain, and offer solutions for three critical manufacturing pain points: Product Sampling, Rebates, and Collections. As a long time manufacturing-focused partner, we have been able to work with 100+ manufacturing companies to find the best-in-breed solutions for their wants and needs.Our solutions for product sampling, rebates, and collections are tailored, optimized, and exclusively built for the Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud Platform.
Manufacturing Cloud was designed for manufacturers to have greater transparency and collaboration across their entire business ecosystem. According to Cindy Bolt, “This unified view provides a clear picture of manufacturing customers through new sales agreements and account-based forecasting solutions that enable them to accurately forecast, plan, and drive predictable (and better) business outcomes.” Old and traditional manufacturing methods or systems can’t compare to the faster, transformative, and newer technology of Salesforce. To learn more about Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, please visit their blog.
Corrao Group’s experience and discipline with manufacturing pain points dates back to 1982 with our Managing Partner. Jack Corrao has developed numerous operational infrastructures to support hardware and software companies to deliver the best in breed solutions. Since 2008, Corrao Group has been helping manufacturers utilize Salesforce to create an automated closed-loop system for channel-centric manufacturing. To learn more information about us, please visit our website. If you would like to learn more about Manufacturing Cloud, please check out our blog posts linked below:
Tracking the overall performance of your company is an essential component for a successful business. Full visibility into your reports can become arduous if your data is siloed across multiple spreadsheets or systems. Manufacturers should move to Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud for a “More predictive and transparent business” (Salesforce). Manufacturing Cloud becomes your central location to house all your data, KPIs, metrics, reports, and more.
Reports are Difficult to Create
It’s important to have a dashboard of reports that identify the business’s health, performance, and areas for improvement. Reports such as KPIs, run-rate, financial reports, forecasting, and sales pipeline are all critical to track in real-time. Reporting may seem impossible if you don’t have full visibility into your business’s data or metrics. Additionally, it can be frustrating for manufacturers if creating reports is difficult or demanding. Both pain points can lead to performance reports being indistinguishable from each other. For example, your run-rate reports may be mixed with your new logo reports, which results in you not being able to understand your actual business performance or sales costs. Manufacturing Cloud gives all your users a reporting vehicle that captures your entire business ecosystem.
A Solution Built for Manufacturers
Manufacturers now have the ability to operate in a much more profitable point of view as Manufacturing Cloud delivers efficiency, speed, accuracy, and consistency. Additionally, it integrates with your Salesforce and other users to have everyone on the same page. Manufacturing Cloud combined with Einstein Analytics gives your users a complete 360 view of your customers, data, and reports. Utilize Einstein Analytics to gain crucial insights into your account health, demand planning, product penetration, sales agreements, and your KPIs. Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud provides your company with the predictability and consistency that is needed in the manufacturing industry.
Working With Manufacturers Since 2002
Working with Salesforce since 2002, we’ve seen the invaluable benefits that a CRM can have for companies, especially those in the manufacturing industry. Salesforce’s new Manufacturing Cloud will allow customers and their partners to have company-wide visibility into all their business processes. With tools such as sales agreements and forecasting, data can be analyzed faster and effortlessly. Reporting on performance becomes easier with Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud. Salesforce consulting services have been just as important to us as business process optimization, and we strive to help businesses maximize their investments into their CRM and Manufacturing Cloud.
Salesforce solved a significant pain point for the manufacturing industry as manufacturers no longer have to negotiate blind. Salesforce figured out another challenge for the manufacturing industry: No Timely Visibility into Sales Agreements. Sales Agreements in spreadsheets can become very confusing and frustrating to track. Manufacturers must veer away from spreadsheets to a single source of truth.
Losing Track of Sales Agreements
Manufacturers are often so busy that losing track of sales agreements becomes a regular occurrence because most agreements are managed or hosted outside of the ERP. Manufacturers can’t make the necessary changes to help their company if a sales agreement is lost and underperforming. Data spread out across multiple spreadsheets or silos will cause multiple problems for your company in terms of tracking, updating, and sharing deals. Without full visibility into every deal, you’ll lose an opportunity or two without making any adjustments to the agreements or releases.
Salesforce’s Solution
Manufacturing Cloud gives you a flexible central location to house all your customer data, sales agreements, and forecasts. Sales agreements give your sales users the ability to put actual orders beside planned and forecast amounts in real-time. Additionally, manufacturers can receive automated platform alerts on missed targets to make quick adjustments to underperforming agreements. Real-time visibility allows manufacturers a way to manage complex deals and release schedules.
Salesforce Power Users
Salesforce solving the pain point of no timely visibility into sales agreements is another victory for the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing Cloud becomes your single source of truth that trickles data to your vendors, partners, and the factory. Everyone in your company has real-time visibility into all the important metrics with Manufacturing Cloud to work more efficiently and productively.
As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every department of your business. Salesforce “off the shelf” is rarely tailored to your unique requirements. We work with you to remedy that. We’ve worked with nearly 1,000 customers; implementing, customizing, and optimizing Salesforce. Since 2002, Corrao Group has been helping B2B organizations of all sizes successfully optimize their business processes with Salesforce and our full-scale digital marketing agency. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about how Corrao Group can help you.
Our 2020 challenge to every company is simple: Adopt a nonprofit organization NOW. Words like care, commitment, love, and generosity come to mind when we think of the word adoption. When you adopt an animal, child, or nonprofit, it’s forever. Adoption doesn’t just mean you get together a couple times a year to feel good. Adoption means you are giving a commitment level that happens 365 days a year.
Give Beyond The Holidays
For many companies, it’s the same story every year. The holidays arrive, and companies conduct one or two fundraising events for charitable nonprofit organizations. How is your company contributing to solving social problems the other 11 months of the year? The need to give back to your community hasn’t stopped because the holidays are over.
It’s time for the executive leadership of companies to adopt a nonprofit organization to help make a difference year-round.
The Importance of Adoption
Adopting a nonprofit involves ingraining the organization into your company, culture, and business plans. Adoption is a deep and passionate commitment to helping a nonprofit every day of the year. It’s about making sure your company accepts, assists, and engages with both the events and mission of their adopted nonprofit.
You should take the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for adoption as seriously as any other company KPI’s. Our managing partner, Jack Corrao states, “When I look at our revenue and profitability goal, I think our nonprofit (Emilio Nares Foundation) goal the most important. The Emilio Nares Foundation’s (ENF) flagship program is to provide transportation for children with cancer to and from their hospital appointments. Funding rides for kids means we’ve hit our revenue numbers, we have happy customers coming back to us, and we have a healthy business culture. For me, it is the ultimate metric for Corrao Group.”
Nonprofit organizations need help. Many people working for nonprofit organizations don’t have a business or financial background. In today’s world, employees want to put in a fair amount of work, make a livable wage, and want to be associated with a company that makes a difference in their community. CEOs who adopt this model are more likely to attract people who are passionate about both their work and making a difference.
Our Beginnings – Saint Augustine High School
Our adoption started with Saint Augustine, a private intercity Catholic High School in San Diego. Saint Augustine reached out to our Managing Partner and their own Alumni, Jack Corrao, about his interest in being a part of the technology committee in 2001.
Because Saint Augustine shaped Jack Corrao’s core values, he wanted to do more.
Jack joined the Saint Augustine High School board of directors to provide consultative guidance for their future mission. Their first initiative – the rebuild of Saint Augustine High School into a new state of the art facility. New facilities included high-tech classrooms, a library, and a Gymnasium.
Health issues caused Jack to leave the board of directors in 2012. However, Saint Augustine remains a part of Corrao Group’s culture. The Corrao Group’s internship program provides high school seniors with early mentorship and guidance on the basics of business operations. Early professional guidance for students provides them with purpose and direction to help start their business careers. After students complete their internships, Corrao Group stays connected to them via advanced summer internships, LinkedIn, and summer visits. Many former interns become full-time Corrao Group employees after graduating from college.
St. Augustine High School located in San Diego
The Emilio Nares Foundation
We decided to adopt and become a part of the ENF family in 2006. ENF helps families navigate through their child’s journey with cancer. Their flagship program, Ride with Emilio, provides free transportation for underprivileged children and their parents to and from the hospital for cancer-related appointments. Ride with Emilio currently serves children in San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. Their goal is to bring Ride with Emilio nationwide.
Here’s how we helped grow and expand ENF since adopting their organization in 2006:
Corrao Group gladly welcomed ENF into our office when they needed additional workspace.
We implemented their Salesforce Org to help manage their donations and events.
A Corrao Group staff member has been on ENF’s board of directors to make sure we are physically a part of their organizational goals.
The most important part of our commitment and KPIs for ENF is Ride with Emilio. For every hour we bill our customers, we provide $5 to ENF which has resulted in over 3,396 rides for children to and from cancer treatment. It is a donation we happily send once a month to help them grow and expand as an organization.
“Using the Salesforce CRM tool has allowed us to increase our outreach and improve our donor relations. We are able to better manage our campaigns. Our Salesforce team, Corrao Group, has given us outstanding service, and they have become an integral part of our organization. Because of their excellent service, we have been able to grow and serve additional families whose children are battling cancer treatment.” – Richard Nares, Founder of ENF
Corporate Examples
Lebron James
Lebron James, an NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers, recently opened a school in Akron, Ohio. Lebron’s “I Promise” school opened up in 2018 for 240 at-risk third and fourth graders. Kids who attend the school will receive:
Marc Benioff
Marc Benioff, Founder and CEO of Salesforce, recently set forth a challenge for every CEO: Adopt a public school. Benioff writes about a random visit to Presidio Middle School in his new book, Trailblazer. He didn’t have an appointment, but he walked into the principal’s office and asked to help out. Since his visit to Presidio Middle School, Salesforce has adopted 107 public schools. Additionally, Salesforce has given out $70 million dollars to local San Francisco and Oakland public schools. Salesforce also provides volunteerism, mentoring, and technology to the schools. Benioff recently explained the power every CEO has to make a difference in schools, “You’d be surprised at the power your company can have to improve your local public schools. And do you want to know who are in the schools? It’s the children of your employees.”
Domino’s
Domino’s selected St. Jude as its’ national philanthropic partner in 2004. Domino’s has raised more than $57 million for St. Jude through its participation in the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign since 2004. “St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats, and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Treatments invented at St. Jude has helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since it opened more than 50 years ago, and they won’t stop until no child dies from cancer” (St. Jude Mission Statement).
Richard Branson
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, has been a big proponent of giving back instead of using the money for his personal use. Branson found Virgin Unite to “Unite people and entrepreneurial ideas to create opportunities for a better world. Since then, together with some great partners, we have inspired and incubated a number of wonderful collaborations – like The Elders, Ocean Unite, Carbon War Room, The B Team, and The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship – which have spurred much needed change in the world.”
Adopt a Nonprofit
Our 2020 challenge to companies is to find a local nonprofit to adopt. Committing to a nonprofit is not just about writing a check for them every month. It’s about making sure your company embraces, participates, and supports all their events. You will have a successful adoption if you find a nonprofit that you are passionate about, and an organization that aligns with your company’s culture.
Where will your company priorities be in 2020? You are disconnected from our world if money is your only priority. We are in a new decade. It’s time to wake up and make a difference for people who need our help… TODAY!
Salesforce’s announcement of Manufacturing Cloud has given manufacturers the tools needed to take control of their business. Before the release, it was difficult for manufacturers to have full visibility into sales agreements. Negotiating blind occurs for companies when their sales team doesn’t have what it needs to plan, sell, or close the right deal. As a result, negotiating blind was the first significant pain point that Salesforce solved for the manufacturing industry.
Outdated ERPs and Forecasts
Ongoing changes to sales orders that are not communicated back to the original sales agreement are a major challenge for manufacturers today. The changes to sales orders are not fully visible to manufacturers because the sales agreements are managed outside of the ERP, or the deals are across multiple ERPs. In addition, inaccurate forecasting becomes an issue when updated sales orders are not synced directly to the sales agreement. Without accurate data in real-time, manufacturers tend to create forecasts based on their own best interests rather than relying on accurate data from past or present performances.
Salesforce’s Solution: Manufacturing Cloud
Manufacturing Cloud provides a central location to surface orders from multiple systems. All your employees and partners have real-time visibility into planned orders that can be compared to actual orders. All of your important data housed under one single source of truth will help Manufacturers improve their forecasting as employees cans see changes made to sale orders in real-time. With the help of Salesforce Einstein, forecasted data on the agreement can outline the internal assumptions that went into the contract so that you never forget crucial insights from your previous deals. In addition, Einstein can generate insights automatically to help you plan, sell, or close a deal when you store all your customer data into Salesforce. Manufacturers should no longer have to negotiate blind with the ability to have one single source of truth.
How Forecasts Help You
Let’s say you’re the Managing Partner of a manufacturing company that makes reading glasses. In order to make the glasses, you need to engage with a metal company for the frames and a plastic company for the lens.
After reviewing your forecasts without using the insights from Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, you estimate you will require 10,000 eyeglass units. With the ability to forecast accurately in real-time with Manufacturing Cloud, you’re alerted you have the potential to make more than 12,000 and save in costs. Manufacturing Cloud gives manufacturers better confidence in their actual production units because of the ability to have accurate forecasting that can be broken down per month.
Now, you’re able to circle back to your vendors and negotiate a better price for your company based on the volume of material that’s coming in. Manufacturing Cloud takes the guesswork out of forecasting.
Corrao Group Can Help You
Solving the first pain point of the current Manufacturing industry is a significant accomplishment for Salesforce. With the recent release of Customer 360 Truth, Salesforce is giving its customers a single source of truth that houses all your customer’s data. Much like Customer 360 Truth, Manufacturing Cloud gives Manufacturers a more precise picture of their entire business with additional features that will help improve their company. If you would like to learn more about Manufacturing Cloud’s capabilities or features, please reach out to the Corrao Group team. The Corrao Group team is here to help you integrate and advise you on the best practices involving Manufacturing Cloud.
Salesforce has scheduled to enable the Lightning interface for all Salesforce users that have not yet migrated in January 2020. Salesforce users will still be able to access the classic interface, but there are many reasons why users should make the switch to Lightning. Customers on Salesforce’s new UI interface have increased their productivity by nearly 25%.
Corrao Group recommends all classic users to plan for the switch in 2020. You can start by turning Lightning on per user per department. Try Lightning out with the Sales or Service teams to get them trained, and when they feel comfortable, start with the next department. Your employees will become much more productive and find better results once they make the move to Lightning.
What is Lightning?
The Lightning Experience is a new interface that helps users build apps faster, create custom business logic, customize your user interface, and more. With a complete redesign, Lightning is a modern-day interface that allows users to build Lightning pages without code, using custom-built Lightning Components. Corrao Group doesn’t see Lightning as just a new interface. The Lightning Experience allows you to improve your processes and do so much more with better user adoption. Today is the best time for your company to re-evaluate and re-optimize your Salesforce system based upon your unique business needs. Lightning is also integrated with Einstein, Salesforce’s automated intelligence platform. Einstein provides helpful insights to help make jobs easier and boost production.
How Is Lightning Better Than Classic?
Better User Interface
First of all, the Lightning experience looks and feels better than Classic. Your company can personalize Salesforce to fit your company’s brand logo and colors. Customized pages allow you to drag and drop different components on to your page so that every page can look different based upon the record type or app you find most relevant for your business.
In addition to the look of the instance, Lightning is easier to use than Classic. Everything on the Lightning platform from creating records to editing records is faster. For example, when you are on a record for a lead and you want to give them a call, Lightning allows you to call prospects directly from the lead page with a click of a button. If they don’t pick up the phone, use one of your pre-recorded voice mails, drop the message, and keep on working. A new feature, Salesforce’s Quick Actions, allow users to update records faster with the ability to log a call, send an email, or create a task from any page within Lightning.
New Features
All new features released by Salesforce going forward will be specific for Lightning. Classic users are missing out on tons of improvements to the Salesforce system that helps improve your employee’s productivity. Lightning is integrated with Einstein to look at your datato predict outcomes on your sales deals. Einstein now offers insights into whether deals are likely to get bigger, smaller, or get pushed out to the next month. In addition to Einstein, the list below contains new features released by Salesforce that Classic users are missing out on. You can see the full difference between the two orgs right here.
Pardot Einstein Campaign Insights
Einstein Activity Metrics and Pricing Guidance
Marketing Cloud Integration with Google Analytics 360
Advertising Studio
Mobile: Customized Mobile Experiences and the New Salesforce Mobile App
Salesforce Essentials
Salesforce Einstein: Quarterly Forecasting, Case Routing, and Code-Free Predictions on Records
Field Service: Time Sheets, Health Check, and Extended Match Work Rules
Knowledge: Expanded Channels, Flexible Styles, and Improved Article Management
Recycle Bin now in Lightning
Lightning Flows
Customized Reports and Dashboards
Kanban View
Quick Actions
Enhancements On Existing Features
Salesforce took the pain points that users had in classic and made improvements to make them better in Lightning. For example, there are added enhancements on existing features such as reports and dashboards. Lightning dashboards look much better in Lightning now that you are not limited to the 3 Column layout. Users can now customize dashboards to a specific size or style that best fits your interests. In addition to the look and feel of dashboards, Salesforce has added a Kanban view which has been a big hit for Salesforce users. The Kanban view allows users to take any list you want, and with a click of a button, users can see each record as a card with the ability to drag and drop the cards into different stages depending on where your deal is.
Corrao Group Can Help You Make The Switch
As a partner of Salesforce for over 11 years, Corrao Group can help your company make the transition from Classic to Lightning. We have grown up using Classic and have made the switch to Lightning over a year ago to find a new UI system that allows our business to run quicker, better, and faster. Lightning should not be considered as “something we will get to eventually.” Migrating to Lightning is something you will need to budget for, and eventually implement by the end of the year. Look at switching to Lightning as a move that will help your entire company in terms of use and ease. As a partner of Salesforce for 11 years, our recommendation would be to contact a professional who has been through this before and can help you through every step of your process.
Please visit our contact us page to get a quote or assessment before it is too late!
Dreamforce, the world’s largest software conference, had another fantastic event filled with incredible speakers, new features, and lots of customer success stories. The four-day event held the attention of the business world as Salesforce hosted more than 170,000 attendees and over 13 million online viewers. Dreamforce 2019 brought together thought leaders, industry pioneers, and Trailblazers from all over the world. With over 2,700 sessions, the Corrao Group team was active to ensure we captured the important announcements and partnerships. Here are our top 5 takeaways from Dreamforce 2019.
1. Apple Partnership
Continuing their ongoing partnership with Apple has given Salesforce an all-new mobile app that is both conversational and smart. In addition, Apple has helped Salesforce with the ability to build mobile apps tailored to address unique user needs, and the ability to learn on the go with the new app Trailhead GO. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, joined Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, for a fireside chat where they both expressed the future of productivity is mobile. Benioff told Cook during the conversation that he runs his $143 billion company from an iPhone, “I don’t even own a computer anymore. The phone has become an extension of my office. Where ever I am, if I have a phone, I can work.”
The fireside chat involved some exciting dialogue between the two business leaders as they discussed the future of productivity on a mobile device, artificial intelligence, Steve Jobs, values, and more. Benioff asked Cook the most important value in his life, in which Cook answered, “In my upper thirties, it became clear to me that we’re almost searching your whole lifetime for your purpose. I’m sure some people in the audience have done this too… and, you are almost convinced early in life about your purpose in life is this and that… but it keeps changing as you move ahead in life. Soon you realize that the purpose of life is to help somebody else. That is the sole reason that we’re here. Life gets so much simpler once you get that in your head…That’s my North Star.”
We are excited to see the partnership that will unfold over the next couple of years between Apple and Salesforce. Cook believes there is a tremendous growth trajectory for enterprise apps specifically built for the Apple and Salesforce partnership to help users improve productivity. We will have to wait and see what Salesforce and Apple do next; for now, we have a new Salesforce Mobile App that can host your entire business on a mobile device that is conversational, and smart.
Tim Cook with Marc Benioff at Dreamforce 2019
2. AWS Partnership
Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company, announced an expansion of their global strategic partnership with Salesforce, the global leader in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Salesforce introduced their new Einstein Voice, which seamlessly integrates with Amazon Connect to provide service agents with a complete set of tools to deliver the best quality service to their customers. Salesforce is offering AWS content available on Trailhead to train anyone who wants to become proficient in the cloud.
The biggest headline from all of Dreamforce 2019 was Salesforce releasing its new Einstein Voice. Delivering excellent customer service over the phone is still a challenge for many companies, and that is where the new Service Cloud Voice can help out. Einstein Voice offers AI-driven insights on a call with a customer, integrates calls easily, and can boost productivity by closing cases faster with insights from Einstein. If your company is off business hours, let Einstein answer the phone for you to help quickly solve customer issues. Service Cloud Voice-enabled State Farm to provide a faster resolution for customers – 31% times faster.
The release of Einstein Voice will help service workers improve customer relationships. Having the ability to see real-time insights into what could potentially help solve customer issues faster is effective and exciting. Corrao Group is interested in how Einstein Voice will affect the field service workers. Could Einstein Voice help service technicians who are not hands-free report issues faster with the ability to speak directly to Einstein? We will have to wait and see for that answer. For now, the ability to have Einstein Voice will be beneficial to all service teams.
A Preview Shown of Einstein Voice at Dreamforce
3. Einstein Call Coaching
Einstein’s Call Coaching uses AI technology to analyze audio clips and present insights for your sales reps. It can help your sales manager understand what’s going on in the customer calls. Einstein Call Coaching empowers insides sales teams with management-level visibility into critical moments during a call, conversation trends, and a conversation library, which highlights the team’s best examples of successful calls. Einstein uses this information and gives insights to help your sales rep performance.
Sales Managers can utilize Einstein Call Coaching to give sales reps the information they need to become top performers, or informed decision-makers at the company. Sales managers have analysis and visibility into every single call with insights from Einstein. Insights for sales managers and reps can range from trends such as which competitors are being mentioned in conversation, how are we positioning different products, and how are we handling objections. We are interested to learn more information about Einstein Call Coaching as it is only still being piloted with a rollout plan to be made available to users in June 2020.
Einstein Call Coaching Dashboard
4. Salesforce 360 Truth
Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, announced Customer 360 Truth, “a new set of data and identity services that enable companies to build a single source of truth across all of their customer relationships” (Salesforce). “Now, this is a computer science holy grail that we’ve been trying to put together for a long time,” added Benioff, the founder of Salesforce. Salesforce 360 Truth aims to let Salesforce users and clients achieve a clear understanding of their customers by managing data and prior interactions all in one single source of truth. In addition, Einstein can be paired with 360 truth, and can help “guide you and help you run your business and connect with your customers in a whole new way,” Benioff said.
We’ve always believed that having a single source of truth is crucial to have an optimized Salesforce instance. Corrao Group lives by the motto, “If it’s not in Salesforce, it doesn’t exist.” Housing all your data in one system will improve your ability to have a clearer picture of customer data, reports, and more. Salesforce 360 Truth will help businesses provide better customer service, predict sales opportunities, and create a personalized marketing journey, all with the help of Einstein insights and recommendations.
5. Salesforce Mobile and Trailhead GO
A fully redesigned CRM app, Salesforce will add Einstein AI, analytics, and integration with iOS features such as Siri and Face ID to their new mobile app. In the mobile app, Siri and Einstein’s voice assistant can add tasks, update CRM records, and take notes. The new designed CRM app is all apart of Salesforce’s plan of moving the Customer 360 Platform onto the mobile device. In addition to the new CRM app, Salesforce is also launching a learning app called Trailhead GO with exclusive features and more than 700 training models available to Apple’s iOS and iPadOS. The release of the new mobile app and Trailhead GO signals a new era for productivity as Benioff believes the future of productivity involves a mobile device rather than a desktop or laptop.
Salesforce creating the new Salesforce app to boost productivity will undoubtedly help your mobile workforce. Your marketing, sales, and service teams can work on the go and use the CRM app as if they are on a desktop or laptop device. Einstein being integrated with the Salesforce app will have a profound impact. Bret Taylor, Chief Product Officer of Salesforce, explained, “With Salesforce Mobile, Salesforce and Apple are empowering sales, service and marketing professionals on the go to deliver game-changing customer experiences, powered by AI.” Salesforce creating Trailhead GO is also a significant accomplishment as users will be able to learn on the go anytime and anywhere. Marc Benioff and Tim Cook both believe that the future of productivity is using mobile devices, and Salesforce has created two powerful apps for trailblazers to work and learn wherever they are.
Announcing a New Global Partnership
Dreamforce 2019 Conclusion
Mark it down as another successful Dreamforce event by Salesforce. We want to give a big shout and thank you to Salesforce as they put on an extraordinary event that featured some incredible guest speakers like Barack Obama, Emilia Clarke, Tim Cook, and Stephen Curry. The energy around the city of San Francisco was electric, as more than 170,000 attendees gathered to witness and learn what new features Salesforce will release next. We are already getting excited for Dreamforce 2020!
If you would like to learn more about any of the new features from Dreamforce 2019 and how it can relate to your business, please contact us.
The release of Salesforce’s new Manufacturing Cloud will help manufacturers gain access and visibility into their full business operations. Having one single source of truth is critical for collaboration on sale agreements, forecasting, and more. Salesforce solved major points for the manufacturing community by creating a new cloud for the next generation of manufacturers. Below is a list of our favorite Manufacturing Cloud features.
Sales Agreements
Manufacturers can unify their run-rate business with information housed on the Enterprise Resource Platform (ERP) and order management system. Both the account and operations teams will now have access to a single source of truth, continually updating in real-time as changes to the deals are made. Sales Agreements give users full visibility into committed and actual order volumes, the performance of the agreement against the forecast, and other time-phased metrics.
Account-Based Forecasting
Manufacturers can now gain insights into their current business as well as future opportunities. Leverage account-based forecasting to develop more accurate forecasts for your sales, finance, and operation teams. “Account teams can also add updates on changing customer needs or market demands, allowing the team to collaborate and adjust forecasts in real-time (Salesforce).”
Einstein Analytics
Automatically gain insight into your account health, demand insights, product penetration, and sales agreement process. According to Ashish Kofhani, the Senior Vice President of Products, Einstein Analytics is his favorite new feature. He says, “Of all the new features, my personal favorite is the Manufacturing Einstein Analytics Pack. Einstein analyzes all the data from net new business, run rate business, past orders, current orders, etc. and churns out insights and recommendations on which accounts to target, products to position, and prices to quote. It is AI in action.”
Community Cloud
Extend pre-built sales agreement templates to your channel partners to collaborate on deals, leads, and opportunities. Leverage Community Cloud for company-wide visibility into all business processes to ensure all your partners are on the same page. Through integrating the Community Cloud platform, you can extend real-time transparency and collaboration capabilities in Manufacturing Cloud to your clients and partners.
Mulesoft AnyPoint Platform
The Mulesoft Anypoint Platform’s ERP plugins and templates make it easy to collect order information from your ERP or order management systems. By unifying your back office with your front office, you can reduce the complexity of integration. Mulesoft’s platform helps manufacturers maintain a real-time, accurate view of their account activity.
Forecasting
Manufacturing Cloud allows users to take control of their forecasts to have a more accurate description of their entire business. We talked more about how forecasting will impact manufacturers in our last blog, which you can find here.
Decades of Manufacturing Experience
Working with Salesforce since 2008, we’ve have seen the invaluable benefits that a CRM can have for companies, especially those in the manufacturing industry. Salesforce’s new Manufacturing Cloud will allow customers and their partners to have company-wide visibility into all business processes. With tools such as sales agreements and forecasting, data can be analyzed effortlessly. Salesforce consulting services have been just as important to us as business process optimization, and we strive to help businesses maximize their investments into their CRM and Manufacturing Cloud.
The release of Manufacturing Cloud is a fantastic accomplishment for Salesforce. Manufacturing Cloud takes the current pain points of the industry and turns them into an experience that is flexible in reacting to the customer’s ever-changing demands. In this blog, we are going to share with you the importance of Salesforce’s latest release.
Forecasting
Salesforce knows that the manufacturing industry contains more than just customers. Suppliers, contractors, dealers, service technicians, distributors, and internal warehouse and factory all play a crucial role in the development of your product and the experiences of your customers. Manufacturing Cloud helps users collaborate in real-time across the ecosystem to ensure your forecasts are accurate and updates to your schedules are automatically communicated to warehouse and purchasing departments.
According to Salesforce, “Manufacturers need a clear understanding of all past shipments, current production plans, and future production forecasts.” Forecasting in Manufacturing Cloud is all about taking control and allowing flexible releases to your customers’ needs. Manufacturers often have very different sales and forecasting processes that your supply and chain teams must know when to deliver new items. Manufacturing Cloud gives users the upfront awareness of what you think you’re going to sell, and when you are going to sell it. Having critical insights into the timing of selling your product will make every part of your business sufficient.
Forecasting in Salesforce isn’t just about how you’re going to sell your product on your unique timeline. It’s about knowing how you need to staff your factory: Do I need a second shift, or can I get by with the first shift? Manufacturers always have absurd spikes where their employees are forced to work long hours to get their product out. Forecasting in Manufacturing Cloud gives manufacturers an overview of all their businesses, allowing them to take control and make smarter decisions.
Partner Collaboration
Manufacturing Cloud extends benefits to all your partners to collaborate across the same forecast order and demand data in one single source of truth. For example, the Partner Community allows your vendors and partners to see and engage in real-time updates to your sales forecasts. Additionally, analytics will be tied directly to order data with additional information into the territory, customer, agreement, product line, or product performance. Improving inventory management allows manufacturers the chance to analyze their customer data, and gain insights into every product and territory performance.
A New Era
Manufacturers for far too long have used old proprietary systems that have never been scaled. In addition, these systems are not cloud friendly. Salesforce being able to tie manufacturing into the leader of the cloud is a big deal. The era of using and exporting spreadsheets or pivot tables is over. A new era is emerging for manufacturing, and it allows manufacturers to have complete control over the ability to operate their business in a much more profitable point of view.
Our experience with manufacturing dates back to our Managing Partner, Jack Corrao. Jack has developed numerous operational infrastructures to support hardware and software companies to deliver the best in breed solutions. As our #1 vertical, we are here to help you integrate and train you on best practices involving Manufacturing Cloud.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be releasing a new blog related to Salesforce’s new Cloud. We’ll cover manufacturing pain points Salesforce solved, our favorite features, and how to integrate Manufacturing Cloud. If you would like to learn more, please contact us.
