Category: Retail Execution

Top Takeaways from Dreamforce 2024

Dreamforce 2024, the world’s largest software conference, delivered new innovations that are set to transform industries. Highlights include the launch of Agentforce, Salesforce’s autonomous AI suite, and major updates to Data Cloud and the Customer 360 platform. Powerful Retail & Consumer Goods sessions with McKee Foods, Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC), and Dole Fresh Fruit showcased how Consumer Goods Cloud is helping businesses optimize processes, strengthen relationships, and drive growth. Here are the top takeaways from Dreamforce 2024!

Agentforce

The biggest news coming from Dreamforce 2024 was, of course, Agentforce. Salesforce’s new Agentforce suite represents a major leap in the AI landscape, with CEO Marc Benioff claiming, “The Agentforce platform represented the third wave of the AI revolution.” The autonomous AI agents are designed to handle tasks independently across sales, marketing, service, consumer goods, commerce, and more. Unlike traditional chatbots or copilots, Agentforce analyzes data, makes decisions, and takes action autonomously. This significant breakthrough allows organizations to quickly scale their workforce, responding to business demands in real-time without requiring human input.

The true power of Agentforce is its ability to operate accurately and efficiently by integrating deeply with Salesforce’s Data Cloud. Whether resolving customer service inquiries, qualifying sales leads, or optimizing marketing campaigns, these agents can perform tasks that free up human employees to focus on more strategic and high-level activities. This will increase productivity and customer satisfaction, making Agentforce a game changer in AI.

With its bold vision of empowering one billion agents by 2025, Salesforce is not just advancing AI technology but redefining what’s possible in the workplace. As Marc Benioff says, “This is the biggest and most exciting piece of technology we have ever worked on, and we are just starting.” For businesses across industries, Agentforce offers the opportunity to enhance efficiency, improve customer relationships, and drive growth—all with a few clicks and without the complexity of traditional AI implementations.

Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Success Stories

Three leading consumer goods companies took the stage to share how they harness the power of Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to transform their businesses.

Jack Corrao, Managing Partner of Corrao Group, highlighted McKee Foods’ success in optimizing trade promotions using Salesforce Trade Promotion Management. With trade spending being one of the biggest challenges in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) industry, McKee Foods has found that the right tools can make a significant difference. By leveraging TPM, they have been able to navigate the complexities of trade promotions, maximize ROI, and enhance their overall business performance.

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) showcased how they use Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud and Data Cloud to unify B2B and B2C data on a single platform. The session focused on how integrated planning and new data sources are helping RNDC make smarter, more profitable decisions, ultimately transforming their route-to-market strategy.

Dole Fresh Fruit shared its success story of improving planning and forecasting with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Planning & Forecasting (CPF). By utilizing Salesforce’s CPF capabilities, Dole has strengthened their relationships with retailers and boosted revenue through more accurate forecasts. Salesforce CPF has set a new standard for driving business growth and enhancing retailer partnerships.

All three of these sessions highlighted the transformative impact that Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud has across the consumer goods industry, empowering companies to make data-driven decisions, optimize processes, and achieve greater success. Corrao Group has been proud to partner with McKee Foods, RNDC, and Dole Fresh Fruit to ensure a seamless rollout and successful adoption of these cutting-edge solutions.

Data Cloud

Salesforce’s Data Cloud continues to show impressive growth and innovation, with a 130% year-over-year increase in customers and the capacity to process over 2.3 quadrillion records per quarter. Salesforce’s Data Cloud, the foundation of the Salesforce Platform, and Agentforce continue to drive innovation in unifying customer and business data to deliver personalized, contextually relevant experiences across Customer 360 applications, Flows, Analytics, and Agentforce. “In this new era of AI and Agents, customer data and metadata are the new gold for the enterprise,” said Rahul Auradkar, EVP and GM for Data Cloud at Salesforce. At Dreamforce 2024, Salesforce introduced several key innovations that enhance Data Cloud’s capabilities, cementing its role as the heartbeat of Salesforce’s AI ecosystem.

One of the most notable additions is Data Cloud’s support for unstructured data, which can natively process audio and video content such as customer calls or webinars. This opens up new opportunities for deeper customer insights and enhances the accuracy of Agentforce’s agents. Data Cloud also features a standardized semantic data model, allowing AI and human users to interpret and use data consistently. With improved search capabilities, Data Cloud enables a quicker discovery of relevant information. Real-time data activations also enhance the ability to instantly respond to changing customer needs, providing organizations with more dynamic and timely customer interactions.

Finally, Salesforce has strengthened Data Cloud’s data security and governance features. New policy-based governance allows organizations to maintain strict control over how sensitive data is shared with AI agents. These innovations, combined with Data Cloud’s role as the foundation for Agentforce, enable businesses to harness the power of AI while safeguarding their crucial data and operations.

Customer 360 Platform Innovations

Salesforce unveiled a range of exciting new innovations within its Customer 360 platform, further enhancing AI-powered, personalized experiences across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. These innovations leverage shared data and services to deliver a seamless customer experience while integrating powerful analytics and collaboration tools such as Tableau and Slack. Built on the Salesforce Platform, Customer 360 ensures that every touchpoint is connected, enabling businesses to deliver customer interactions that are both efficient and impactful.

Among the standout innovations announced is Tableau Einstein, which opens up the power of business intelligence (BI) and analytics to everyone who wants to make data-driven work scalable, efficient, and more valuable. By bringing data and insights across workflows in Customer 360 apps, Agentforce, Pulse, and Slack, teams can make data-driven decisions faster and more effectively. Slack has also introduced a new user interface for agents, enabling users to interact directly with data, surface insights, and collaborate in real-time. This includes an integration with Agentforce agents, making it easier for teams to stay aligned and move work forward by connecting Salesforce CRM records with Slack channels. (More updates on Slack are below).

Salesforce has also enhanced its core products with AI innovations. Sales Cloud now features Agentforce SDR and Sales Coach and capabilities like account planning, forecasting, and compensation management. Similarly, Service Cloud’s new features provide service agents with step-by-step resolution plans, sentiment tracking, and AI-based recommendations to improve the customer experience. Agentforce’s Service Agent can autonomously handle customer cases 24/7, seamlessly escalating problematic cases to human representatives when needed. These innovations and the introduction of Agentforce agents tailored for commerce, field service, and marketing demonstrate Salesforce’s commitment to transforming every role and workflow across industries with AI.

Slack Innovations

Salesforce announced a new series of Slack innovations, transforming the platform into an agent-powered work operating system that unifies company knowledge, data, agents, apps, and automation in one seamless interface. Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack, mentioned, “We’ve moved beyond collaboration; every day, millions of teams are leveraging purpose-built AI, with customer data, automation, and now agents seamlessly integrated into the flow of work. This isn’t just about getting work done. It’s about unlocking new productivity levels to drive results and move business forward for every team and department.”

With an Agentforce integration, teams can now collaborate with AI-powered agents directly in Slack to surface insights, automate tasks, and access customer data from Salesforce. Additionally, third-party AI agents from partners like Adobe and Anthropic can be deployed securely within Slack, allowing users to work smarter and faster. New features like Slack AI huddle notes, automated workflows, and enhanced search capabilities further streamline productivity, while Salesforce channels bridge CRM data and Slack conversations to keep teams aligned. These innovations position Slack as a central hub for boosting department efficiency and collaboration.

Free AI-Training

Salesforce has announced a major initiative to offer free hands-on AI courses and certifications through 2025, investing over $50 million to help bridge the growing AI skills gap. Salesforce will provide premium AI training through Trailhead, making AI education accessible to everyone. Additionally, Salesforce plans to open AI centers at its San Francisco headquarters and global offices, providing community and employee training spaces. This initiative reflects Salesforce’s commitment to preparing the workforce for the future of AI, equipping individuals with the tools and skills needed to succeed in an AI-driven world.

Dreamforce 2024 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. The energy around San Francisco was electric as attendees gathered to witness and learn what new features Salesforce would release next. We are already getting excited for Dreamforce 2025!

If you would like to learn more about any of the new features from Dreamforce 2024 and how it can relate to your business, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to flawlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Top Salesforce Retail & Consumer Goods Dreamforce 2024 Sessions Not to Miss

Dreamforce 2024 is just around the corner, and it’s shaping up to be an incredible event for anyone in the retail and consumer goods sectors. As Salesforce continues to push the boundaries of innovation with AI, data, and cloud technologies, this year’s sessions promise to deliver insights and strategies that will empower businesses to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. From enhancing trade promotion management and retail execution to driving growth through AI-powered customer experiences, these top sessions will provide the tools and knowledge to stay ahead of the curve and ensure your business is ready for the future.


Consumer Goods Cloud Roadmap

  • Hear the latest innovations for Consumer Goods Cloud across data, AI, and planning and execution.
    • Objective 1: Learn about the latest innovations from Consumer Goods Cloud.
    • Objective 2: Understand the focused investments driving Consumer Goods Cloud vision and preview the next three releases in our roadmap.
    • Objective 3: Discover how Data Cloud and generative AI create a seamless planning and execution solution for consumer goods companies.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 3:45 PM – 4:05 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom A

And

  • When: Thursday, September 17
  • Time: 12:45 PM – 1:055 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom A


Consumer Goods: Improve Planning and Execution with Data

  • Intelligent, integrated planning and execution are critical to success. Hear about innovations improving the route to market and how incorporating new data sources makes this even more powerful.
    • Objective 1: Understand how Data Cloud brings B2B and B2C data together in one platform.
    • Objective 2: Hear how RNDC is using data to improve the route-to-market with integrated planning and execution.
    • Objective 3: See how Salesforce’s new innovation makes planning more intelligent and profitable than ever.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM PDT
  • Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 6

And

  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom C


Consumer Goods Keynote: Profitable Growth with #1 AI CRM

  • AI + Data are changing consumer goods (CG) faster than ever. See how leading CG companies partner with Salesforce to deliver profitable growth through integrated, intelligent planning and execution.
    • Objective 1: Understand how consumer goods companies are uniting and activating data as a foundation for AI.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to improve your route-to-market with integrated planning and execution and new innovations.
    • Objective 3: See how embedded AI comes to life in the flow of work across integrated planning and execution.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 1:45 PM – 2:35 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Grand Ballroom ABC


Deliver Perfect Retail Execution

  • Hear how Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution is improving productivity and efficiency for field reps, merchandisers, and now direct store delivery and van sales drivers.
    • Objective 1: Hear how the route-to-market is evolving in consumer goods, creating new challenges to perfect retail execution.
    • Objective 2: Hear how Pepsico’s uses Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution to deliver the perfect store.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT
  • Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A


Future of Data, AI, and Service for Apparel and Beauty

  • See how apparel, footwear, accessories, and beauty companies are using data, AI, and service to create new experiences and increase brand relevance.
    • When: Tuesday, September 17
    • Time: 4:00 PM – 5 PM PDT
    • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Stockton


Empowering the Retail Store of the Future with Salesforce

  • The retail store is not dead and is actually more important than ever. Learn how to harness the full power of Salesforce within the physical store to deliver next-generation omni-channel experiences.
    • Objective 1: Learn how to build long-lasting relationships with your customers and how to boost customer loyalty.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to modernize your loyalty program, optimize member engagement, and transform your program into a value advantage.
    • Objective 3: Learn how to effectively use technology to help modernize your loyalty programs.
  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L4, Cathedral Hill


Get Started with AI for Consumer Goods

  • See how you can get started with AI for Consumer Goods to grow customer satisfaction and revenue. Learn how to utilize predictive and generative AI to deliver service excellence to customers at scale.
    • Objective 1: Discover Large Action Models and how LLMs are evolving to take action, driving the future of AI agents and multi-agent systems.
    • Objective 2: Get acquainted with our industry-leading xLAM family, including the acclaimed “Tiny Giant,” as featured in VentureBeat.
    • Objective 3: Watch a demo of multiple xLAM-powered agents working autonomously to solve real customer challenges.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Marina


Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness

  • Trade spend remains one of the largest categories for consumer packaged goods. Hear how you can manage, optimize, and win in trade promotion planning with Consumer Goods Cloud.
    • Objective 1: Understand the main challenges to trade promotion in the consumer goods industry.
    • Objective 2: Hear how McKee Foods is using Consumer Goods Cloud Trade Promotion Management to improve the bottom line of their programs.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT
  • Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A


Modernize Productivity for Retail Front-Line Workers

  • Join retail peers for a discussion about the challenges facing retail store managers and associates. Hear how Slack is innovating to keep work flowing from headquarters to the point of sale.
    • Objective 1: How H-E-B uses Slack across hundreds of storefronts.
    • Objective 2: Why Slack is an ideal solution for retail frontline productivity.
    • Objective 3: How we’re innovating to solve unique frontline challenges.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L5, Stockton


Plan and Forecast More Effectively with Consumer Goods Cloud

  • Strong relationships with retailers start with strong forecasts and plans. Hear how a leading Trailblazer is leaning into customer planning to improve revenue.
    • When: Thursday, September 19
    • Time: 1:45 PM – 2:05 PM PDT
    • Where: Moscone South, ILL, Content Pavilion, Stage 8


Retail and Service: Preparing for the Future of AI

  • Join us for a discussion on the emerging AI technologies and future trends that will have the biggest impact on customer service in the retail industry.
    • When: Wednesday, September 18
    • Time: 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PDT
    • Where: Moscone West, L2, Service Lodge Roundtable 3


Retail: Finding Retail Holiday Success in 2024 and Beyond

  • With growing complexities, costs, and evolving expectations, retailing is not easy. Come learn about the top challenges and priorities in modern retailing, and how Salesforce can help.
    • Objective 1: Learn about the top challenges and priorities in modern retailing.
    • Objective 2: Learn how Salesforce can help you succeed during the holiday shopping season.
  • When: Wednesday, September 18
  • Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT
  • Where: Intercontinental, L3, Marina


Retail: Drive Faster Retail Media Revenue Growth

  • Learn how one Trailblazer grew revenue by launching and monetizing retail media experiences.
    • Objective 1: Learn how one Trailblazer grew revenue by launching and monetizing retail media experiences.
    • Objective 2: Learn how to run your retail media network from one connected platform.
  • When: Tuesday, September 17
  • Time: 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM PDT
  • Where: Metreon AMC, L2, Theater 11


Secrets to Digital Customer Service Success in Retail

  • Say goodbye to abandoned carts and hello to growth. Learn how to create personalized end-to-end shopper experiences from discovery to post-purchase with an effective digital channel and AI strategy.
    • When: Wednesday, September 18
    • Time: 12:30 PM – 12:50 PM PDT
    • Where: Moscone West, L3, Cloudy Theater


Slack: Where Work Happens for Retail and Consumer Goods

  • Through industry use cases and customer stories, learn how Slack is helping the world’s top brands and retailers improve customer experiences and deliver new products to market faster than before.
    • Objective 1: Learn what Slack is and why it’s the ideal work operating system.
    • Objective 2: Learn why Slack is a powerful tool for brands and retailers.
    • Objective 3: Discover real-world demos and customer use cases.
  • When: Thursday, September 19
  • Time: 1:30 PM – 1:50 PM PDT
  • Where: Moscone West, L3, Slack Theater


Unlock Efficiencies and New Shopper Experiences with AI

  • The possibilities of generative AI in omni-channel retailing are endless. Join us as we unpack the best practices and use cases of where to start and how Salesforce helps retailers get there faster.
    • When: Thursday, September 19
    • Time: 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PDT
    • Where: Intercontinental, L4, Twin Peaks

If you would like to learn more about the Dreamforce 2024 Sessions, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to flawlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Come See Corrao Group’s Clients at Dreamforce 2024

We are thrilled to announce that our clients — McKee Foods, Dole, and Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) — will take the stage at Dreamforce 2024 to share their success stories and insights on leveraging Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud. Each session will showcase how each company is driving innovation in trade promotion effectiveness, planning and forecasting, and retail execution. As valued clients of Corrao Group, they are at the forefront of transforming the consumer goods industry, and we are excited to have Salesforce highlight their achievements. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear from these industry trailblazers and gain strategies to elevate your business!

Improve Trade Promotion Effectiveness: McKee Foods

Trade spend continues to be one of the most significant expenses for consumer packaged goods companies, with managing and optimizing this spend often posing a challenge. At Dreamforce, join our Managing Partner Jack Corrao as he shares how McKee Foods is at the forefront of utilizing Salesforce’s Consumer Goods Cloud Trade Promotion Management to streamline trade promotion planning, ensuring every dollar spent effectively drives growth. Join this session to discover how to enhance your trade promotion strategies and win in a competitive market.

When: Wednesday, September 18

Time: 12:15 PM – 12:35 PM PDT

Where: InterContinental, L5, InterContinental Ballroom A

Link to Event

Plan and Forecast More Effectively with Consumer Goods Cloud: Dole

Building strong relationships with retailers begins with accurate forecasts and well-crafted plans. Dole, a leading Trailblazer, is leveraging Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Planning & Forecasting to enhance their customer planning and forecasting processes, ultimately driving revenue and fostering stronger partnerships. Don’t miss the opportunity to improve your planning and forecasting efforts to stay ahead of the curve/competition.

When: Thursday, September 19

Time: 1:45 PM – 2:05 PM PDT

Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 8

Link to Event

Consumer Goods: Improve Planning and Execution with Data: RNDC

In today’s fast-paced market, intelligent and integrated planning and execution are more crucial than ever. RNDC is pushing the boundaries by incorporating new data sources into their strategies, leading to more powerful and effective routes to market. This session will explore the innovations RNDC is embracing to revolutionize their approach to planning and execution.

When: Wednesday, September 18

Time: 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM PDT

Where: Moscone South, LL, Content Pavilion, Stage 6

And

When: Thursday, September 19

Time: 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM PDT

Where: Intercontinental, L5, Intercontinental Ballroom C

Link to Event

Don’t miss out on the chance to hear directly from industry leaders about the innovative ways they’re using Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud to transform their business. Whether you’re looking to improve trade promotion effectiveness, enhance customer planning and forecasting, or integrate new data into your strategies, these sessions will produce valuable insights you can apply to your business.

Be sure to add these sessions to your Dreamforce 2024 agenda! We hope to see you there!

If you would like to learn more about how Corrao Group was able to help McKee Foods, Dole, and RNDC, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

Corrao Group is a top Salesforce consulting partner in the retail, consumer goods, and professional service industries. Since 2002, we have helped organizations of all sizes and industries optimize and streamline their business processes with Salesforce. Our mission is to translate your business processes into Salesforce flawlessly, promoting successful integration and widespread user adoption.

Salesforce Winter ’25 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

The Winter ’25 Release Notes are here, bringing a wave of innovation and improvements across the Consumer Goods Cloud landscape. This release significantly enhances Trade Promotion Management (TPM) with support for custom months and quarters in reports and KPI exports, along with customized promotion workflows for faster promotion creation. New TPM permission sets simplify user management, while sales data clustering improves prediction accuracy.

On the Retail Execution (RTX) side, features like Van Sales Delivery Execution and Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2 enhance efficiency. The mobile app now supports Bluetooth keyboards and hybrid mode for real-time data access, boosting field productivity. Discover how these updates can elevate your business operations to new heights.

Trade Promotion Management (TPM)

Do More with Enhanced Support for Custom Months and Quarters

Include data for custom months and quarters in real-time reports and export KPIs for custom months and quarters. Previously, you could include data only for custom weeks in real-time reports or KPI exports. When you copy a promotion to create the new one, save time and effort by transferring any manually adjusted data for custom months and quarters to the new promotion.

Create Promotions Faster with Customized Promotion Workflows

Give your key account managers customized derive and copy promotion workflows to help them create promotions with their business-relevant details faster. Use customizations to add fields to newly created promotions or delete a field from the current derive and copy wizards. Configure a metadata wizard to customize user interface workflows for derive and copy promotions. Use the Business Object APIs to customize the Apex process that derives and copies promotions.

Manage TPM Permission Sets Efficiently

The Consumer Goods managed package now has new permission sets, such as TPM Finance User and TPM RBF User. These permission sets are automatically updated whenever the managed package is upgraded. Assign your users these permission sets to save the hassle of managing permission sets every time you upgrade to the latest version of the Consumer Goods managed package.

Enhance Prediction Accuracy by Clustering Your Sales Data

Segment your sales data based on historical sales patterns to create meaningful data clusters for training prediction models. Use the Scoring Framework to create a CRM Analytics app that effectively clusters accounts and product categories, enhancing the relevance of your data for baseline predictions. This feature streamlines data preparation and eliminates the manual selection of required accounts and products before installing the TPO Baseline app.

Retail Execution (RTX)

Streamline Delivery with Van Sales Delivery Execution

With van sales orders, the tour drivers can place orders and deliver products during each visit with available on-truck inventory. During delivery execution, the tour drivers can initiate a visit and deliver products or collects returns through orders. Tour drivers then finalize the orders, generate cash invoices, print or share invoices, and complete orders. Use van sales orders to optimize the efficiency of truck drivers, streamline the delivery process, and integrate sales, merchandising, and logistics.

Experience Enhanced Performance with Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2

With Penny Perfect Pricing Batch V2, increase batch performance by increasing the number of pricing conditions processed in a batch run. Run the enhanced batch process to improve logging, support rebuild mode, and provide better scalability of processed pricing conditions. However, you can continue to use the existing version (Batch V1) of Penny Perfect Pricing.

Boost Mobile App Productivity with Bluetooth Keyboards

Connect a Bluetooth keyboard to your mobile device and easily enter single or multiline text (such as notes) when processing orders and during other retail execution activities on the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app.

Manage Tab and User Permissions for Deployed Profiles

If you create profiles through Metadata API version 60 or later, you must assign the new unmanaged permission set CGCloud Retail Standard User to all existing and new retail users. Use the new unmanaged permission to ensure your retail users have the necessary tab access for standard objects and user permissions for retail execution activities. If you clone and manually create profiles, you already have the required permissions and don’t need to assign the new unmanaged permission set to the users.

Ensure Accurate Inventory Reconciliation

Inventory Reconciliation Batch updates product quantities to ensure that the reconciled inventory records are accurate and current. Use this batch process when using the inventory framework in Retail Execution and Direct Store Delivery solutions. Streamline inventory management and ensure product availability using the Inventory Reconciliation Batch.

Increase the Effective Account Manager Sync Batch Performance

Consumer Goods Cloud batch process runs a new, enhanced version of the account manager batch (EffectiveAccountManagerSyncBatch) by default. The new version creates or updates an account team member record only when there are changes in customer managers. This prevents re-creation of account team members with each batch. New customers automatically get the enhanced version; however, existing customers must configure a custom setting to use the new version.

Generate Reports in Non-Latin or Custom Fonts in Consumer Goods Offline Mobile App

Sales reps can now generate and preview reports such as Order Confirmation PDF reports in non-Latin fonts like Korean, Chinese, and Thai, or custom fonts in their Consumer Goods offline mobile app.

Use Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App in Hybrid Mode With Remote API Calls

Consumer Goods offline mobile app now supports online interactions with Salesforce. This change helps the offline mobile app receive data directly from Salesforce or from external endpoints set up via Salesforce using remote API calls. For example, sales reps can make informed order decisions by referring to real-time data in Salesforce. You can implement workflows that require online data by integrating the offline mobile app with Salesforce endpoints (Apex-based REST API calls).

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,200+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,400+ Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources:

Salesforce Winter ’25 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce Summer ’24 Release Notes: Consumer Goods Cloud

It’s that exciting time again as we reveal the much anticipated Salesforce Summer ’24 Release Notes, bringing a wave of innovation and improvements across the Consumer Goods Cloud landscape. This release is packed with features designed to empower your teams, streamline operations, and elevate performance. From Retail Execution enhancements enabling seamless delivery management to Trade Promotion Management tools strengthening promotional effectiveness, each update is crafted to meet the evolving needs of the industry.

Retail Execution

Plan and Start Tours Activities Efficiently

With Direct Store Delivery and Van Sales, deliver consumer goods products directly to retail customers and manage deliveries seamlessly. Set up tours and routes for specific markets by using the Direct Store Delivery data model. Direct store delivery drivers can load their vehicles and start the delivery process by following the tour schedule.

Capture Store-Related Data Easily

Enable your sales reps or supervisors to choose a picklist option during a store visit for comparison with the target value. Configure the picklist values for a visit assessment task to help your users measure store performance with more flexibility.

New and Changed Objects in Retail Execution

Do more with the new and updated Retail Execution objects. Use these tour and route custom objects in Retail Execution to support the Direct Store Delivery and Van Sales feature. Link to see new and changed objects in REX.

Trade Promotion Management

Retain Manually Entered KPI Values for Periods
With the new Rounding feature within the Period rounding type, retain the KPI values manually entered for a period. This rounding type adjusts the KPI values only within the period where the value is manually entered, and you don’t lose the changes you made in the previous period.

Download and Share Promotion Data Easily

Key account managers can download data from the promotion P&L grid to a CSV file, and easily share the data with other stakeholders or use it in third-party systems. To ensure that they download only the required data, they can filter the promotion P&L grid data before starting to download.

Share Claim Data With Third-Party Systems

Use the Payment API to extract KPI values, such as Payout Amount, for each product and product level for every claim tactic that you want to use in third-party systems. You can extract up to 60 KPIs per claim.

Execute Push Promotions Faster

Configure system settings to change how batch processes are orchestrated. As a result, the Push Promotions process is completed faster.

Improve Promotion Effectiveness with Analytics Dashboards

Analyze account participation during promotional periods by using the new analytics dashboards for Trade Promotion Management. Use the data on sales volume, value, and product placement compliance to assess the impact of promotions. Gain insights into your brand and product performance. Compare the insights with competitor categories, brands, or products to measure and monitor the effectiveness of your products.

Upgrade Your CG Managed Package Seamlessly

Test a new version of CG Managed Package (CGPS) in your sandbox environment to verify that your business workflows are working seamlessly with the updated CGPS. Test the new CGPS version in the sandbox early on to ensure you don’t face any hiccups when upgrading your production org to use the latest Trade Promotion Management features.

Manage Permission Sets Efficiently

Assign new permission sets, such as TPM Funds Calculation Worker and CG Cloud Retail Supervisor User, to users and save yourself the hassle of managing permission sets every time you upgrade to the latest version of the Consumer Goods Cloud managed package. The new permission sets are now shipped with the managed package and are automatically updated whenever the managed package is upgraded.

Sync Management

Centrally Administer Your Sync Experience

Get a consolidated view of the most relevant sync features and manage the feature settings on the Sync Settings page. Determine the usage of those sync features for your users. Optimize your sync experience by downloading only relevant incremental data and setting a threshold on the maximum number of users who can sync simultaneously. Trace sync logs using unique IDs and resolve sync configuration issues by sending sync-related KPIs to Salesforce.

Expedite Sync Using Optimized Named Fetch Trees

Save on data volume and the time taken to download data as well as avoid redundant data transfers by downloading incremental REST-based named fetch trees updates.

Identify Sync Records in Logs Easily with Sync IDs

Use the unique ID assigned to each synchronization operation to improve your debugging and troubleshooting experience. With the sync ID appended to the logs, you can easily filter and trace sync transactions and plan necessary actions.

Process Simultaneous Sync Request Load Efficiently

Configure the maximum number of concurrent users on the Sync Configuration tab. Prevent overloading the system and maintain optimal performance when the number of sales reps initiating sync simultaneously from their mobile devices exceeds the configured limit.

Improve Support for Solving Sync Issues by Logging Extended Sync KPIs

Get better support and assistance to analyze and resolve your sync configuration issues by sending sync-related KPIs to Salesforce. Sync admins can review the KPIs collected for a sync process and take actions to optimize sync performance. Improve support for solving sync issues by logging extended sync KPIs

Include CPU Calculation Time in APEX Calculation

Protect your system from reaching potential Apex CPU governance limit exceptions by incorporating a buffer in the calculation of sync execution time.

New and Changed Objects in Consumer Goods Cloud Sync

Do more with the new and updated objects in Consumer Goods Cloud Sync Management.

Visual Studio Code-Based Modeler

Simplify Contract Customization with Keyword Suggestions

Use the auto-completion capability in your VS Code-based Modeler to create or customize a well-formed and accurate actionType keyword in the process flow contract and the pagePattern and bindingMode keywords in the UI contract.

Add Validation Methods in A Few Quick Steps

Avoid the manual creation of validation functions during customization. The sf modeler workspace add CLI command now supports the creation of the validation method type of business logic contract.

Deep Link Additional Apps in Your Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App

Your sales reps can collaborate, manage data efficiently, and streamline their field operations by using these third-party apps – Facebook, Workplace from Meta, GoSpotCheck, Star PassPRNT, and MicroStrategy Library.

Misc.

Consolidate Your Customer Data with Data Cloud for Consumer Goods

Install Data Cloud for Consumer Goods Data Kit to deploy data streams and connect to pre-configured data model objects (DMOs) in Data Cloud. Use the data streams to ingest data from Consumer Goods Cloud to Data Cloud, and use the integrated data to segment retail customers and strategize planning activities.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,200+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,400+ Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources:

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Release Notes

Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes: Retail Execution

The Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes are here, as they bring a host of innovations and enhancements! Among these updates, Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution introduces many transformative features set to streamline your retail operations. Explore the exciting possibilities the Retail Execution release notes hold for optimizing your retail and consumer goods processes.

Place Orders Efficiently

Use a prepopulated product list to select products easily from the Order Items window while placing a New Advanced Order. Products are prepopulated based on the authorization list of the relevant trade org nodes in the account hierarchy. Enter the quantities for the listed products directly without manual search and add products from the product master.

Use the new filters and customer attributes in customer lookup to perform an advanced search for customers and to select the right customer on the New Order window. Narrow down the search for products on the Add Items window by using the Description, Product Code, GTIN, Category, Brand, Promoted, and Listed filters. You can further search for products on the Order Items window by using Category, Brand, and Order Template.

Add Custom Attributes in Penny Perfect Pricing Calculation

Use the new object, Pricing Context Definition, to add custom attributes to the pricing context. Use the custom attributes to search for pricing conditions and in user exits.

Enhance Promotion Planning and Execution

Leverage advanced analytics to implement a promotional dashboard by using the additional metadata in the Job Definition Template object. Use the updated picklist values in the Primary Survey Policy field to analyze store participation, placement, and quality of the display of assets. Also, use the new Competitor Relevant field to analyze competitor situations (promotions, price, or placement of assets).

Easily Share Attachments in Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App

Use the app’s sharing feature to share attached files (with file types such as PDF, XLS and DOCX) from various tiles such as Customer, Sales Folder, Promotion, and Products.

Analyze the Trend and Effectiveness of Promotions

Customize the Related list to view the approval history of a promotion. You can effectively streamline, track, and manage the approval process for standard promotions.

Preview Signatures in the Print Layout

Use signature templates to configure the signature flow for an object and to include the signatures of multiple roles in the Print Layout. As an out-of-the-box solution, Order Confirmation PDF now includes the Store Manager’s signatures confirming the order. You can even create custom print layouts for other processes such as customer contracts and daily reports. We delivered this feature thanks to your ideas on IdeaExchange.

Additional Permissions for Sales Org

Using the additional metadata, get create and edit permissions on the Sales Org object. Starting with Winter ‘24, you’re no longer required to add these permissions manually.

Optimize the Settings of Your Mobile Synchronization

Experience the speed and reliability of the synchronization processes for large datasets between Salesforce and the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app. Admins can set the increased default response time limit for the execution of batch SOQL and named fetch trees (NFT).

Allow Bluetooth Permissions for Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App in Android Devices

Make sure that you allow bluetooth permission after you upgrade to the Winter ’24 version of the Consumer Goods Cloud offline mobile app on your Android devices.

If you would like to learn more about the Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes for Retail Execution, please contact us.

About Corrao Group

For two decades, Corrao Group has stood as a pillar of expertise, assisting B2B organizations across various industries and sizes in implementing and optimizing their business processes through Salesforce and integrated third-party applications. With an unwavering dedication spanning 21 years, we have cultivated a deep knowledge and understanding of Salesforce as power users ourselves. This recognition of Salesforce’s flexibility empowers us to cater to various departments’ needs, ensuring seamless alignment. Our mission is to seamlessly translate your business processes into Salesforce, promoting not only successful integration but also widespread user adoption.

Sources

Salesforce Winter ’24 Release Notes Retail Execution

How Salesforce Retail Execution Empowers Field Reps

Retail and consumer goods sales field reps often handle and monitor numerous stores across a city. Normally on the road, reps depend on their mobile phone or tablet to plan and lay out their day. Crippled by their company’s old-dated technology, field reps deal with disconnected labor-intensive processes with no visibility into key data. Consider the daily routine of field reps tasked with planning and executing store visits to multiple different retailers. They must not only plan how they will fit the visits into their day, but also manage in-store execution tasks like inventory checks, planogram compliance audits, selling new products, or delivering inventory.

Consumer Goods managers want field reps to spend less time on operational activities and more time building relationships with retailers to ensure customer satisfaction and sales. Brands spend millions of dollars branding and marketing their products to satisfy customers’ expectations. Fulfilling these customer expectations requires planning better visits and selling in retail stores. The ultimate goal is to put the right products with the right promotions on the right shelves at the right time. But the question remains: How do you connect your channels, departments, and data to produce the one-to-one journeys and experiences your customers expect? Today, consumer goods companies are turning to Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution to provide field reps with an effective planning mechanism to manage their stores, assortments, products, promotions, planograms, and more. According to Salesforce, companies using Salesforce’s Retail Execution saw:

    • 36% increase in field rep productivity.
    • 12% in saved time for sales reps.
    • 10% growth in perfect store performance.

How Salesforce Retail Execution Helps

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud for Retail Execution provides brands with a single source of truth that empowers your field reps to manage and execute in-store tasks online or offline. Salesforce optimizes field execution by driving efficiency for your field reps and drivers with task management, mobile order capture capabilities, and optimized route plans. Here’s how Salesforce Retail Execution helps:

    • Access comprehensive data on key accounts with details on billing and shipping details, promotions, orders, and product assortments.
    • Use location details like Salesforce Maps to create an optimized route for field reps to prioritize their day and visits.
    • Lightning App Builder and Flows can extend the capabilities of triggering automated tasks, page customization, and more.
    • Optimize Sales agreements, order management, and action plans.
    • Gather data for specific store groups, in-store locations, and stores for product categories, products, and assortments to check for compliance and monitor the overall health of stores.
    • Monitor key processes such as promotion checks, planogram compliance, inventory audits, return order processing, and in-store surveys with predefined templates.
    • Einstein Object Detection helps audit shelves, manage stock, measure share and shelf, and optimize product mix and sales.
    • Advanced CRM Analytics dashboards provide insights.
    • Use various data types like decimal, boolean, number, perfect, text, date-time, and more to gather information on sales, effectiveness, and availability of products.

The Consumer Goods offline mobile app gives field reps an intuitive mobile solution that offers enhanced mobility with real-time visibility while offline. The offline mobile app can be used with Android and IOS tablets or phones. The Consumer Goods Cloud Mobile Offline App helps by:

    • Integrated route planning using map support and GPS.
    • Support for different service delivery models in different geographies.
    • Easy-to-use features including data entry and process-guided navigation.
    • Process-driven usability.
    • Laser-based barcode scanning.
    • Intelligent handling of high data volumes for offline devices.
    • Execution of complex business processes offline, supported by background sync and sophisticated trace and monitoring options.
    • Create custom themes that reflect your brand.
    • Cockpit-based UI: The Retail Store cockpit provides a 360° view of a store and visit-related information with live, in-store reporting.

Investment Protection With Salesforce

Right now is the perfect time to make a digital transformation from homegrown systems or spreadsheets to Salesforce. Investing in the right technology can save your company time and money in the short and long term. According to MuleSoft, the average enterprise company uses 976 applications. Consolidating numerous systems into one single source of truth will help simplify, streamline, and automate complex processes to become more efficient.

If you would like to learn more about Salesforce Retail Execution, please get in touch with us.

About Corrao Group

As everyday Salesforce power users, we understand how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. We’ve worked with nearly 1,000 customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,100 Salesforce projects. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help your company, read our reviews on G2 or contact us today!

Win at The Shelf With Salesforce Retail Execution

Salesforce Retail Execution Drives Profitable Growth

Digitization, rising consumer expectations, and disruptive business models have been challenges in the consumer goods market since COVID-19. Add on the economic rise of inflation, supply chain issues, buying behavior changes, and the great resignation; brands are using Salesforce Retail Execution to operate fast and intelligently across different teams. As the holiday season approaches, Salesforce Retail execution is helping brands drive profitable growth, win at the store, and improve insights across the organization in real time.

Consumer Goods Retail Execution Today

Brands invest millions of dollars into marketing and branding their products to meet client expectations. To see clearer ROI, this requires planning better visits and selling smarter in retail stores. Using offline disconnected systems like spreadsheets to share and engage in sales, promotions, and forecasts is time-consuming, error-prone, and labor-intensive.

Brands need managers and field reps to spend less time on operational tasks and more time creating connections with merchants to increase sales and consumer satisfaction.

Salesforce Retail Execution for Consumer Goods Cloud empowers managers and field reps with key data insights, automated action plans for customer growth, and intelligent scheduling to deliver store execution both online and offline.

How Salesforce Retail Execution Drives Growth

Salesforce Retail Execution allows brands to turn every store into the perfect store with retail planning and execution on a single platform. Online interests and behaviors offer a treasure trove of insights into your customers. Connect your channels, data, and departments to deliver a seamless experience for your consumers and to get the right products with the right promotions on the right shelves at the right time.

The Consumer Goods Cloud Offline Mobile App allows reps to record data in real time, whether online or offline. This gives users visibility into their tasks for the day and week, so they can execute them more effectively.

Here’s how Salesforce Retail Execution unlocks profitable growth:

    • Improve Efficiency in Every Visit
      • Design plans, optimize visits, and track teams to work safely and efficiently.
    • Power Productivity to Maximize Selling Time
      • Prioritize and schedule visits, streamline repetitive tasks, and provide a 360 view of the customer.
    • Deliver Perfect Retail Execution Regardless of Connectivity
      • Ensure the right product is on the right shelf, at the right price, with intelligent object detection for planogram and inventory audits.
    • Win at the Shelf with Direct Store Delivery
      • Prioritize deliveries, track and reroute your fleet based on business needs with full visibility into order and fulfillment information.
    • Turn Order Takers into Order Makers
      • Guide reps to the right store, with optimized tasks, utilizing Einstein AI including mobile order capture to maximize sales.

Salesforce Retail Execution Cockpit UI provides a 360 view of a store and visit-related information with live, in store reporting
Cockpit-based UI: The Retail Store cockpit provides a 360° view of a store and visit-related information with live, in-store reporting.

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Corrao Group has been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry with Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce TPM Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources

Salesforce Retail Execution 

Is Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Right for You?

Trade Promotion Management Today

As we are midway through the year, the Consumer Goods industry continues to confront economic challenges. Supply chain and customer demand continue to be volatile as consumers are making buying decisions based on what they can afford versus what they want. As these issues extend, competition in the industry will only increase. Digital Transformation is now no longer seen as an option but as a necessity. As Salesforce recently stated, customers expect fast, digital, and on-demand experiences or they will take their business elsewhere. Leaders across the country are focusing on efficient growth, cost savings, and increased productivity. In our last blog, we mentioned that Trade Promotion Management was one of three investments that were prioritized for CG leaders during 2020. Managing and optimizing trade spending is vital to driving profitable growth in today’s economy.

What is your ROI from Trade Promotions?

One of the most relevant issues facing brands right now is how they are managing and optimizing trade promotions. According to Mckinsey, CPG companies worldwide invest about 20% of their revenue annually in trade promotions. Stunningly, 59% lost money (72% in the US). Clearly, there is a huge opportunity for both CPG manufacturers and retailers to improve ROI on their TPM investment. If CPG leaders want to focus on growth, cost savings, and increased productivity, the current systems being utilized are not working just to break even.

Some companies are managing their Trade Promotion on homegrown systems, which is associated with risks such as limited knowledge, internal integration problems, and future enhancements. At the end of the day, whether you use a homegrown system or not, can you accurately measure ROI from trade promotions? If you can’t, then it’s time to start thinking about moving to a digital and unified platform.

Salesforce Trade Promotion Management

Salesforce recently released its Consumer Goods Cloud Retail Execution solution, Trade Promotion Management, to help the consumer goods industry drive revenue growth and collaborate across teams on one connected platform. Having a centralized system that supports integrations with ERP, POS, and other data sources is critical. Salesforce TPM helps accelerate the monitoring of key metrics and improve ROI and forecasting in real time. Salesforce Post-event analysis allows brands to conduct an analysis to determine the ROI achieved for individual activities, contracts, programs, and account plans. If you are managing more than $30 million in TPM funds, you should be looking into Salesforce’s TPM solution.

If you would like to learn more about Salesforce TPM or Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud please contact us.

Learn More about Salesforce Trade Promotion Management

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Segmentation

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud has released new features specifically on retail execution to help the consumer goods industry digitally transform. Exciting releases of the Consumer Goods Cloud Summer ’22 Offline App include Penny Perfect Pricing, Conditional Surveys, Asset Management, Payment Collection, Inventory & Quotas, Live Reporting, Substitution Management, Gamification, Supervisor Management, and Customer Segmentation.

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Segmentation

Salesforce Consumer Goods Cloud Customer Segmentation clusters customers and outlets to focus on retailers with the highest potential and improve personalization. Customer Segmentation benefits brands by giving them the power to:

    • Segment accounts based on specific classification attributes, such as priority, class of trade, store size, number of checkouts, etc.
    • Store results in reusable dynamic customer sets which can be assigned to promotions, activities, and penny-perfect pricing.

If you would like to learn more about Customer Segmentation or the Consumer Goods Cloud Summer ’22 Offline Retail execution release, please contact us.

Consumer Goods Cloud Consultant Leader

Over the years, we have been using our experience to help digitally transform the consumer goods industry. As our main industry focus, we are proud to be on the Consumer Goods Cloud Partner Advisory Board, in addition to being the exclusive US launch partner of the Salesforce Trade Promotion Management (TPM) Pilot.

About Corrao Group

Since 2002, we have been helping B2B organizations of all sizes optimize their business processes with Salesforce and their third-party applications. As everyday Salesforce power users, Corrao Group understands how flexible the Salesforce platform is to support every business department. We’ve worked with nearly 1,050+ customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing over 2,150+ Salesforce projects. If you are interest d in learning more about how Corrao Group can help your company, read our reviews on G2!

Sources
Salesforce