Manufacturers face a combination of robust decision making components that are factors for any business globally. With the ongoing unknown of 2020, and incoming massive new tariffs (trade deal phase 1), moving some parts of your production back to North America could become the new norm as early as 2021. The component price will always be lower overseas, but what if you could control your entire manufacturing process? Gaining flexibility is now available with the use of Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud. Before discussing the motives of moving production back onshores, it’s important to understand how manufacturing evolved.
Early Manufacturing
In the early 1970-1980s, manufacturing within the United States was booming. Local manufacturing jobs were thriving, and all production was done here on shores through quick runs. The era of quick runs soon became an era of the past. Having to go back and forth on prototypes became expensive, and with rising new technology came a vision of manufacturing processes (Structural Design) done quicker and cheaper. China began creating large factories with low-cost labor and tolling resulting in a more affordable and faster way of manufacturing. With labor costs so cheap, China would go on to become the world leader in manufacturing.
Starting to Move Production Back
As 2020 moves forward and companies start to prepare for 2021, moving some operations to North America is becoming the priority with most manufacturers. When you factor in the new tariffs from the trade deal and managing the supply chain from afar, it becomes a lot to maintain. Final assembly, software packaging, trail producing, and testing are aspects of production that can be moved back to the United States or Mexico. Moving production back onshore is an opportunity to take some of the raw components and assemble them in the US. For example, final assembly in Mexico could become extremely cost-effective with easy access of driving materials across the border. Having one-week shipments being readily available vs. six-week shipments allows you to be less dependent on your supply chain. Integrating your Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) with Manufacturing Cloud will give you control over your entire business processes.
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud
The advantage of adding Manufacturing Cloud to your S&OP is that it can drive demand, and tell your factory what to build in real-time based upon your specific schedule. Adding modules in your system through real-time reporting in manufacturing will provide you visibility into what your factories are currently building, what product is coming in, and more. With a central location of all your data and correct scheduling, your sales team will be updated and on the same page. Data spread out across multiple spreadsheets or silos will cause various problems for your company in tracking, updating, and sharing deals. Overall, integrating your manufacturing processes into manufacturing cloud gives you the flexibility of not being so dependent on products coming from offshore.
Our Manufacturing Experience
Corrao Group’s experience and discipline with manufacturing pain points date back to 1982 with our Managing Partner. Jack Corrao has developed numerous operational infrastructures to support hardware and software companies to deliver the best in breed solutions. Since 2008, Corrao Group has been helping manufacturers utilize Salesforce to create an automated closed-loop system for channel-centric manufacturing. We’ve worked with nearly 1,000 customers, implementing, customizing, and optimizing Salesforce and have been everyday power users ourselves since 2008. Corrao Group can help you maximize your investments in Salesforce and Manufacturing Cloud. For more information, please visit our Salesforce page. To learn more information about us, please visit our website.
To our St. Augustine High School Class of 2020 interns:
Nobody could have predicted how this year would go. In January, we were discussing the future and teaching work ethics and helping you all gain a little knowledge of the workplace. You all accepted the challenges we gave you and tackled them head-on. Not once did any of you turn down a job assignment, even though you didn’t have the experience.
You asked questions, gained your knowledge, and proceeded to succeed in your tasks. Now, you face different challenges going forward. Corrao Group has the utmost faith that you will all take these challenges presented to you, examine them, and come to a determination on how best to succeed given those obstacles.
We congratulate Griffin Miller, TJ Roeder, Jonathan Bonanno, and Noah Shroeder as you enter the next phase in your lives. Remember good work ethics are important in school as well. Congratulations to the Class of 2020! We expect to see great things from you Saintsmen!
Today we’re highlighting the first guest of our Work From Home spotlight series: Paul Mobley. Paul leads sales and legal operations at Ephesoft, a tech company in Irvine, CA. “I have always worked where I’ve needed to work,” he mentioned before explaining that he’s worked at multiple WeWork locations, traditional corporate offices, conference rooms, hotel rooms, and from home. A flexible attitude is what makes working from home, and ultimately anywhere, not a large hassle for Paul.
Staying Connected With The Team
Paul says he’s been more communicative than ever before, utilizing many different tools such as Google Hangouts, Salesforce Chatter, and Zoom to keep in touch. His team used this technology before COVID-19, so there was no additional learning curve. He uses whichever communication method is preferable for the situation and the other people’s needs. Instant Messaging may be used for something needed immediately, where Zoom meetings are held for higher priority and more complicated topics. Texts and phone calls are not out of the question, they’re still great ways to have conversations and meetings “on the go” and get some fresh air.
“The internet has changed the distance barrier we used to have,” stated Paul. He explains that in the past, most people thought that we’d have more interaction with someone in the same office compared to someone working remotely. Yet, it could easily be the case where we actually interact more with co-workers that are remote. It comes down to who you report to, who is on your team, and/or who reports to you. Regardless of where employees are located, today’s technology allows us to connect within seconds with the ability to screen share and turn on our videos. It doesn’t matter if that person is in the same building or on the other side of the world.
Spending Extra Free Time
Many people who are new to working from home have some extra time on their hands now that they don’t commute to and from the office. Some use the specific time they usually spend in the morning driving to work on other activities such as walking, meditating, reading, listening to the news, sleeping in, the list goes on. Paul doesn’t think of it in a way that it gives him extra time, but that it allows him to allocate his time throughout the day more effectively. He sometimes uses that time early in the morning to get a head start on the day and block out time later in the day for a break to refuel and refresh.
“Taking small risks is like trying new foods. As our palettes change, it gives us more opportunities to try new things.”
This “extra time” also allows us the freedom to try something new. It’s time for employees to step up and take on more responsibility within the company if they have the time. It could be learning more in-depth about other departments’ processes within the company or more about current customers’ needs to see how you can further help them solve business challenges. This time can also be used to recover from a stressful day. Paul also enjoys regular bike rides to clear his head during busy days. Finding your head-clearing activity can help reset when it feels like you’ve been working for too long.
Being Authentic and Developing Closer Relationships With Your Team
Working from home gives employees the ability to show their personality today more than ever before. At the office, we are allowed to have pictures, fun mugs, and other items on our desk, but it’s never as personal as what’s at home. Paul recommends you go into meetings with the mindset of it being held on your terms versus the company’s because it’s in your personal space. You get to choose how public or private you want to be when you attend a meeting from your own home. When meetings are held in the office, it’s standard to wear nicer clothes, have no distractions, etc. At home, the expectations are different and it allows us to show our authentic selves through the clothing we wear, our backgrounds, and our overall presentation. We are only limited by our creativity. For example, sometimes he feels cooped up inside and needs a change of pace. Using wifi on his computer or using the data connection on his phone, Paul has the freedom to roam. Most people on these calls or videos understand this because they may be experiencing similar feelings of being stuck!
“Have fun – you don’t have to work from home, you get to work from home,” said Paul towards the end of our discussion. He mentioned people may not want to lose what they’ve gained while working from home. This could be enjoying a new morning walk routine so much that upon returning to the office, they wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual to walk before heading into the office. It could also include something more substantial, such as a 2-hour mid-day break where employees make up that time later in the evening at home. He doesn’t view working from home as uncomfortable because, “If you live there every day, it shouldn’t be uncomfortable. It’s only uncomfortable because we haven’t done it before.”
ABOUT EPHESOFT
Ephesoft is the leader in Context-Driven Productivity solutions, helping organizations maximize productivity and fuel their journey towards the autonomous enterprise through contextual content acquisition, process enrichment, and amplifying the value of enterprise data. Customers use this innovative technology to automate any document-based business processes or tasks, improving accuracy, increasing efficiency, and reducing costs. Ephesoft’s focus is to improve enterprise productivity, which results in better customer experiences, more fulfilling careers, and higher business profitability.
Sign up below to hear more from, and even be a part of our work from home series.
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.
If you’d like to keep up to date with our work from home tips, please sign up below to receive our weekly blog posts.
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.
