Employees may come back to a very different office from when they were last there. There could be motion-activated doors and voice-activated elevators, fewer desks, or desks that look entirely different. Working from home could be the new norm with organizations being forced to find ways to successfully do so during Covid-19. While a number of companies will return to the office just as they were, many companies are going to begin working remotely because they can. To successfully run a company from home requires the right management, employees, procedures, and technology. The most likely future impacts of companies working from home include different looking office spaces and new germ/virus protection measures.
New Office Designs
No one will feel comfortable on their first day back in the office if they’re sitting within three feet of their coworkers all day. A few sneezes and coughs later from coworkers and employees will spend more time worrying about not getting sick than getting work done. We are going to see a complete remodeling of how office spaces are laid out going forward. Starting at the building’s entry point, automated doors could become everyday normality. Grocery stores have automated doors and we only visit those a couple of times per week, so why are we touching the building’s entry handle multiple times a day?
Today, open office floor plans are extremely popular. It allows employees to interact easier in a more collaborative effort than in the past. Prior to this were taller cubicles where employees were separated from each other, but could still stand up to speak to their neighbor next door. The cubicles provided a barrier that many people today might want in order to return to work. While these cubicles may take up more space than the current desks, not as many desks may be needed with some of the company working from home. Although, open floor plans will not completely die off. Other organizations, such as Cushman and Wakefield, are keeping open floor plans and adapting the “6 Feet Office” approach to make employees feel safer.
Antibacterial, Germ and Virus Protection
Companies will soon find that not as much space is needed due to some employees working from home, so not as many cubicles are required either. Some may match a shared space office building where their employees do not have a specific desk they sit in each day. An increase in shared desks requires additional safety measures in order for employees to use a desk that could have been used by a sick employee the day prior. Businesses will have to turn to germ and virus protection solutions to provide a clean workspace. Taking things a step further, there are antibacterial bundled solutions made specifically for specific industries – small businesses, doctor/dental, restaurants, education, etc. They can even come into your organization, perform an audit to see where and what employees interact with to then provide solutions that fit your custom environment.
These germ-killing solutions will be critical even beyond desks and into break rooms, conference rooms, individual offices, and other shared spaces. When employees first return to the office, conference rooms may be off-limits, and break rooms may only be visited to grab or store something in the fridge quickly. Companies can make their employees feel more comfortable with door handles, UV lights, and other solutions that reduce 99.9% of germs on surfaces.
What Makes Your Employees More Comfortable?
No matter what companies do to make their employees feel safer upon first returning to work, they’re still going to be uneasy. Even if they were isolated in a recently-disinfected room all day, there’s nothing that will rid them of all their uneasiness. Companies must do whatever it takes to make their employees feel comfortable returning to work. Since each group is different, we encourage companies to ask their own employees what would make them feel more comfortable. Whether it’s office furniture, cleaning products, or new procedures, the requests could range from A-Z. Coastal Health USA offers services to come onsite to your facility to recommend antimicrobial solutions to help reduce germs and viruses at your company.
Work from home (WFH) employees are not the same worker as they are when they’re in the office. They have different surroundings, applications, and family or friends around them. With an entirely new setup, some may have never worked from home before; they might need appropriate furniture and technology requirements, including better WiFi. Other employees may already be working remotely and have their own setup. It is recommended that this group shares their experiences when working from home with the rest of the company. We’ll cover the most notable differences between how an employee works at the office compared to how they work from home.
Environmental Distractions
Depending on one’s office and department, their office setting could either be louder or quieter than their home setting. There are co-workers on calls, typing and printer noises, doors opening and closing, etc. At home, there could be children playing or being homeschooled, landscaping outside, or friends/family in the other room watching TV. In smaller settings, loud neighbors working from their homes could cause a daily distraction. Noise-canceling headphones may be better for the home office because it’s more appropriate to drown out outside noises than valuable insights from their coworkers.
Systems and Technology
When employees are given all the technology and resources their job requires, they are set up for success. They’re able to login to secure systems, print or scan anything they need, and have access to a great internet connection. At home, they might not be able to recreate the same setup. Many employees may be working on kitchen or foldout tables in chairs that are not designed to be used all day. If they’re lucky, they are able to bring home an extra monitor from work. While working from home, additional virtual meetings are required for companies to check in more frequently as they normally would in the office. This requires a robust internet connection and if two people are now working from home, the current WiFi plan may need to be upgraded to the next level. If children are conducting school online, it will only put even more stress on the WiFi. Upgraded WiFi is one thing companies have been helping their employees with.
With CRM technologies like Salesforce, many companies can successfully work from home without skipping a beat. Businesses of all industries and sizes can optimize their entire company with Salesforce while empowering employees to collaborate while working from home. All leads and contacts, deals, service tickets, contracts and more are stored in real-time backed by automated processes to make sure steps are followed and nothing falls through the cracks. Users can log in both at the office as well as at home, and be productive no matter which setting.
How to Help Your Employees Work From Home
Research if your company can create and fund a requirements checklist for your employees to work from home. See if your employees require items like monitors, chairs, and desks to enhance their productivity.
Onboard the company to an instant messaging program. Programs like Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Zoom are the most popular applications to keep your company connected.
Provide access to applications that your business processes are tied into. If it’s their first time working from home, make sure the IT department has enabled any remote access to applications. Ensure all security measures are followed and that any confident data is stored on a locked and secure device.
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With a great number of people asked to stay inside during this time, one can run out of things to do fast. There is only so much television we can watch, books to read, and other things before something new is needed. We’ve put together a list of things to do during the week that can help out in many different areas. The list includes activities that are both fun and also tasks that should make you feel more accomplished while staying inside.
Review Budgets to Save Money
Review your monthly subscriptions for necessity
– Business Subscriptions, Music, Clothes, Food – are these necessary for the next couple of months?
Update Family Budgets
– How does eating out less and cooking more affect your situation?
– Contact your Gym to make sure you’re not paying for this month.
– What are your cost savings for gas as well as time not in traffic?
– Can you adjust your car insurance, based in miles, for the next 3 months?
Create a simple spreadsheet with 2 columns, “WFO” and “WFH”, and compare the costs to see how much you’re saving and where you can save more.
Productive Activities Around the House
Clean up the garage
– It’s time, don’t hold it off any longer. Keep the door open as well to get some fresh air.
– If you find things that you don’t need anymore, donate it to help people in need right now.
Change the oil and fluids in your car(s)
– It might be a good time for a self-detail as well.
– If you have children make this fun and educational for them!
Fix things around the house
– Loose screws, squeaky doors/cabinets; now is a good time to fix those.
– Lightbulbs and batteries for alarms.
– Have you always wanted to paint that room? It’s time to schedule this on your calendar if so.
Cook an extraordinary dinner!
– Take out that day-long recipe you’ve always wanted to cook and get to it. Make sure that if someone else is enjoying your dish, they do the dishes – it’s the rules.
– Kick off a Zoom meeting and have a virtual potluck with your friends and family.
Clean more
– Cleaning more frequently makes it less of a task each time you do it. Having a clean space can also boost productivity and happiness.
– This is a great task to keep the kids busy. Make it a fun project and reward them for completing their jobs.
Catch up on entertainment
– Pull up the list of shows and movies your friends have been telling you to watch. Call your friends afterward to discuss it and catch up. If you’re fortunate to have kids, show them one of your favorite movies from when you were their age.
Go through the family photos
– Relive all the great times over the years through your photos. Send pictures to anyone else in the older photos to connect with them!
Get ready for summer by cleaning the backyard and planting the garden
– This is a great exercise to do with family and could be great for the kids to learn how to pull weeds! A win-win situation.
Game Nights, Trip-Planning and More
Family game nights
– Break out all of the board games and make it a fun night. Maybe even tally the wins per player over the next few weeks and see who is the ultimate game night champion!
Learn an instrument
– Have an old instrument in the garage you never finished learning? Dust it off and look at some free online videos for help. Maybe someone else in the family would like to learn with you.
Plan a trip
– Plan for a future trip. Do all the research about places to stay, visit, and dine at. Plan for a few trips and figure out which ones to take first.
Stay connected with your extended family and friends.
– If they are not tech-savvy, show them how to use tools like Skype and Zoom. You could play games such as chess and others through video chat.
– Schedule frequent calls to stay connected and foster a positive mental outlook.
These are some activities you can do both during the week as well as the weekend. This is only a small list – there are thousands of other activities you can do. If you’d like to stay up to date on other things to do during this time, please fill out the form below and we’ll send you an email each time we post content like this. Always wash your hands multiple times per day! If your hands feel dryer than usual, it’s because you are washing them more frequently than usual – find some lotion to help keep your hands from getting too dry. Set reminders to get fresh air and go for walks.
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.
Active January 1st, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was put in place to protect the data and privacy of consumers.
Active January 1st, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was put in place to protect the data and privacy of consumers. It gives California consumers the right to see how businesses use their personal information. Businesses must tell what type of data they are collecting and have to give the consumer the option to say no to them selling their data. If the company has its data breached, the consumer has the right to sue the company.
CCPA applies to companies that:
Exceed an annual revenue of $25 million.
Obtain personal information of 50,000 or more California residents, households, or devices per annum.
Secure 50 percent or more of their annual revenue from selling California residents’ personal information.
You should determine if your company wants to have different privacy items for California residents or have one single united notice. Either way, a large majority of US companies must update their privacy policies to comply with these new rules.
Your company will also have to:
Review and understand the personal information you have collected
Know how the consumers’ personal information is collected and confirm that the information sold to third party companies and is shared
Train present and future employees on how to properly handle customers’ information
Update your internal and online privacy policies
Prepare procedures to quickly respond to customers who request access to, deletion from, or information related to the sale or disclosure to their information.
Review contacts with third-party service providers that have customer information you have given away
Ensure third-party service providers who have your consumers’ personal information comply with the new CCPA rules
Prepare tech solutions that process requests made by customers to opt-out of the selling of their information
Review your internal policies on how the collection of personal information is gathered
This is just the beginning. By 2025, there will be even more states to sign similar legislation giving every US consumer the right to know how their data is being used.
I hope that after reading this you have a grasp on the new rules and regulations that the CCPA has put into effect. If you meet the criteria, don’t wait to make changes, be the first and set the example for others to follow. If you have any questions, please feel free to visit our website and reach out to us. Hope to hear from you soon!
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
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.
