It’s an exciting time for sales! Now, more than ever, technology is paving the way for sales people to crush quotas and deliver the best experience to their customers. On June 13th Salesforce.com (SFDC), the CRM platform that is leading the pack, came out with their Summer ’15 Release. It would take several days to talk about the 225+ new features to the already innovative, industry-leading CRM so here are the improvements most impactful to you. SFDC highlights their improvements to the Analytics Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Salesforce1 Platform, Marketing Cloud, and Community Cloud.
We’ll start with the main improvements to Analytics Cloud. The key takeaway from this update is that you can take your analytics with you literally. It is now possible to view the most relevant “key metrics” right on your Apple Watch. About to walk into a meeting and need some up-to-date business data? It is available at the turn of your wrist. This is just the tip of the iceberg because with The Wave Mobile Connector, SFDC now allows you to import data sets and construct dashboards from anywhere with an internet connection. To put the icing on the cake, The Wave Links update allows you to flow effortlessly between The Wave and Salesforce1 mobile apps, allowing you to link specific “data sets, charts, or dashboards.”
Improvements to the Sales Cloud start with Sales Cloud Engage. This tool gives sales reps the power to be their own marketers by combining the power of Salesforce1 and Pardot the marketing automation tool. With the integration of Data.com, reps can easily and more efficiently acquire a unique knowledge of their prospects and their industries, enabling them to have “smarter conversion” of opportunities. Lastly, the addition of Cumulative Forecast Rollups provides a “real-time” rolling tally of what your sales numbers will be for that month or quarter. This can be specified for any particular category in your pipeline.
Service Cloud has a few great additions of its own, including Omni-Channel. This allows companies to “dynamically push” prospects to the agents that are best suited for the job. It also takes factors like availability, capability, and capacity into account. Another improvement that we find innovative is the SOS feature. This allows companies to “embed a help button into any mobile app.” If your client has an issue, all they have to do is tap the help button and you are able to automatically connect via one-way video chat and two-way audio. This tool will aid you in optimizing your customer experience raising satisfaction to a whole new level.
The Salesforce1 Platform has always been a playground for Admins, Developers, and IT. But now, the Summer ’15 Release has torn down that playground and created an amusement park. With features like Lightning App Builder, Lightning Components, and Lightning Connect Salesforce Connector you can build, create and connect “custom apps for any device” “faster than ever” all while connecting “data across multiple Salesforce orgs in real-time”. Much like an amusement park, if you’re in one of the three categories listed above then, these improvements are likely to get you excited!
Moving on, we encounter the Marketing Cloud. Of the updates, the most noteworthy were the Triggered Sends for Marketing Cloud Connector and Social Listening/Customer Care in Social Studio. With Triggered Sends, you can deliver automated emails directly from the sales/service cloud instantaneously. The Social Listening highlight promotes genuine relationships with your social audience by giving you the power to study brand discussion on your social networks.
Finally. In this seemingly endless list of additional features, we get to the Community Cloud. The integration of Files Connect in Salesforce1 Mobile app and Files Connect for Google Drive you may acquire SharePoint, OneDrive, and Google Drive files wherever you go. Community Cloud goes further with the Custom Recommendations feature, helping to lead “members to specific groups, files, or actions. ” This update makes it easier than ever to share relevant information to the right audience.
The Summer ’15 Release from Salesforce.com wields the tagline “Instantly turn insights into action with the customer success platform” and given all of the information, they have made significant strides in improving the user experience. Their focus on “powerful insights” that the user can take action on and collaboration throughout all wavelengths of the funnel aligns this release with its mission statement. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide how helpful these tools are and which ones you choose to leverage to your advantage. Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think is most helpful!
For the full article check out: http://www2.sfdcstatic.com/assets/pdf/misc/summer15_ReleasePreview.pdf
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