Dreamforce has become the largest enterprise software event for businesses in the United States, and it is evident why when looking at it this year. With over 170,000 business and IT professionals attending, Salesforce came to show off upcoming product announcements and innovations. This year's biggest focus was on Einstein Voice (a personalized and intelligent conversational assistant), integration with other platforms, and Salesforce Customer 360. The last of these is the start of an answer to a problem we have well documented; businesses struggle getting a full view of the customer and provide a frictionless response to issues and interactions. For the full breakdown of Dreamforce 2018, and my analysis of all the largest announcements, watch my hot take video.
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Topics:
Salesforce.com,
Customer Experience,
Machine Learning,
Marketing,
Voice of the Customer,
CRM,
Dreamforce,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SPM,
Digital Technology,
Digital Marketing,
Robotic Process Automation,
AI,
natural language processing,
Intelligent CX
I have been meaning to write about Salesforce since its Dreamforce 2015 conference. Salesforce provides a platform, tools and applications for business and IT who claims to be the ‘no software’ company which as you will read is exactly what happened on May 10th. Heck, Salesforce is making a lot of advances on its platform, its applications and even with Analytics and the Internet of Things. These changes are at the center of what at our analyst firm calls digital business innovation. Much of what it’s doing is very good, but now I am questioning whether the company’s foundation of business processes and technology platform has reached a point at which it can’t grow any further without impacting its own customers’ operations and success. That may be a harsh statement, but I think my reasoning will become clear as you read this perspective.
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Topics:
Sales,
Salesforce.com,
Marketing,
NA14,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Cloud Computing,
Customer Service,
IOT,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM)
Most people in business management admit that sales is more an art than a science. Organizations have long struggled to find the right mix to improve its effectiveness, and few get the most out of available technology. For many the default is still to use sales force automation (SFA) and spreadsheets to manage processes and try to increase the productivity of sales staff. In our view they should take a holistic approach to sales processes from contact to close and support everything from sales forecasting to pipeline management to compensation with applications designed for these purposes. Those in sales operations need to apply analytics to understand and fine-tune sales activities. Those in sales management need applications that can help recruit, engage and retain the best talent. Even more than elsewhere in business, in sales people matter, and the organizations that most empower their teams are likely to get the best results. Optimizing people and processes requires a balance of information and technology to support the various needs of the sales organization.
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Topics:
Sales,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Recurring Revenue,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Forecasting,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Cloud Computing,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
SFA
Most organizations see improving the effectiveness of sales as a way to increase productivity. Those organizations that take advantage of the latest sales applications and technology are finding themselves with a competitive advantage, but many organizations lack the time and resources to assess and deploy appropriate platforms. That’s a shame, since most sales organizations have plenty to improve in their selling, forecasting, incentives and planning according to our latest research on sales performance management. We found a high demand even for many of the basics; for instance, many organizations still use personal spreadsheets or outdated applications that are costly to manage. At the same time, marketing organizations are investing heavily to be more revenue- and sales-focused to ensure they maintain relevance and contribute to their organizations’ performance and profitability. Both sales and marketing have fixated on specific processes and how they can work better together.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
PIM,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Forecasting,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CPQ,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
Product Information Management,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SFA,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
I attended Oracle’s annual OpenWorld conference this week. The company claims it holds the world’s largest technology conference, with 50,000 attendees and a million people viewing sessions online. It was a great opportunity to get close to the Oracle Fusion Applications, which the company presented as proven and ready, with customers using them on-premises and in private and public cloud computing usage methods. In keynotes from executives Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd and Thomas Kurian and application-focused sessions with executives Steve Miranda and Chris Leone, Oracle repeated the message that Fusion Applications are not just for cloud computing and web services but are also accessible through mobile technology called Oracle Fusion Tap that operates natively on the Apple iPad. The company left no confusion about its applications’ readiness for cloud and mobile computing, and provided insight into future advancements.
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Topics:
Sales,
Salesforce.com,
SAP,
Social Media,
Mobile Technology,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Social Collaboration,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Cloud Computing,
Oracle,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Information Management (IM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SFA,
Workday,
Workforce Analytics,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
Businesses aim to make their sales function as productive as possible, but they don’t always support that goal with investment in technology. I recently wrote about sales needing a swift technology kick. Sales application vendor Xactly provides a boot with the release of Xactly Incent 8 and will make parts of the application suite available from the Apple App Store for the iPad in the coming weeks.
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Topics:
Mobile,
Sales,
Sales Operations,
Uncategorized,
Compensation,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
I attended NICE Systems’ annual Interactions (Twitter #Interaction2012) conference in Nashville to get the latest from this growing global software business that focuses on customer-centric applications. If you have not heard of NICE you might not be primarily involved in managing and interacting with customers, the area in which NICE has been growing organically and by acquiring technology providers that complement its existing portfolio. As we discussed in recent analyses, and NICE acquired Merced Systems for its sales- and service-centric performance management applications and Fizzback for customer feedback management software. Both have helped it become a more strategically focused software business. NICE Systems targets enterprise contact centers as well as financial risk, compliance and security. NICE makes its applications available not just on-premises but also in software as a service and hosted environments.
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Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Social Media,
Customer Analytics,
Customer Experience,
Customer Feedback Management,
NICE Systems,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Social CRM,
Speech Analytics,
Voice of the Customer,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Cloud Computing,
Customer Service,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Operational Intelligence,
Call Center,
Contact Center,
Contact Center Analytics,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Desktop Analytics,
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Interactive Intelligence,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Text Analytics,
Unified Communications,
Workforce Management,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
Investing wisely in sales-related people and processes is a key to business success. In 2012, helping sales staff perform at their highest levels should be a top priority for management. That may take some effort, according to our benchmark research, which indicates that only 14 percent of sales organizations operate at the highest level of innovation and competitiveness. In recent years, most organizations merely discussed moving beyond using only their sales force automation application and Microsoft Office for improving sales efficiency. Now sales organizations can move beyond systems that were designed decades ago, thanks to the availability of a broad range of applications to support sales activities and processes. In fact dozens of new types of sales applications are available to help sales focus on selling, which creates another issue. Where should sales organizations focus their limited resources and budgets?
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Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
Planning,
Sales,
Social Media,
assets,
Learning,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Performance,
Reporting,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Force Automation,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
channel,
coaching,
commission,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
Sales Performance Management,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SFA,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM)
Salesforce.com made a surprising announcement of its agreement to acquire Rypple, a software company that defines its product as a social goals application. I call this a surprise because although Salesforce has been extending its reach beyond sales and customer service to IT in providing a platform, tools and a database for building applications and storing data in the cloud, until now it has not entered directly into other lines of business. After its annual Dreamforce conference last summer, I analyzed the company’s strategy and products. Now I want to consider what this acquisition means for Salesforce and the human capital management market.
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Topics:
Salesforce.com,
SAP,
Human Capital Management,
Marketing,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Business Technology,
Chatter,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Information Management,
Oracle,
Business Applications,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
CRM,
HR,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
SalesCloud,
Service Cloud,
SFA,
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Talent Management,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Digital Technology
I attended the annual SAP Influencer Summit (Twitter #SAPSummit), at which executives from SAP meet with analysts and customers from around the world to discuss the company’s direction. Pointing out that in 2012 SAP will reach its 40th anniversary of operations, chief communications officer Hubertus Kulpus and chief marketing officer Jonathan Becher kicked off the summit, then passed the microphones to co-CEO Jim Hagemann-Snabe and CTO Vishal Sikka for overviews of the business and technology strategies. They presented a well-rehearsed dialogue on SAP’s definition of its software business as being in two areas, the “system of record” and “system of engagement”; the first term describes its transactional applications and the second its portfolio of business analytics.
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Topics:
Mobile,
Sales,
SAP,
Social Media,
Sustainability,
Human Capital Management,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Smart Phones,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
Information Technology,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Business Applications,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
COO,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
HR,
Information Applications (IA),
Information Management (IM),
IT Performance Management (ITPM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Sybase,
Tablets,
Talent Management,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Digital Technology
