Technology is the most powerful equaliser of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and above all – connection.Salesforce is the world’s #1 CRM, making it easy for businesses of any size to manage their customer data and interactions on a single platform.
We were lucky enough to attend the Salesforce World Tour held at the ICC in Sydney on March 6th and hear industry leaders across a range of sectors talk about their experiences on the platform, how they have used technology to transform their businesses and put their customers at the centre of everything they do.
The size and breadth of the event (11,000 people in attendance, 120 break-out sessions and over 200 speakers) ensured that there was plenty of choice for participants looking for topics relevant to their role or company. Sharing their stories were executives from a heavy-hitting list of brands including Telstra, Flight Centre, Big Red Group, NAB, Paykel & Optus to name a few.
A big theme running throughout the event was the rise of AI and what this means for jobs and the customer service industry at large. The general outlook was optimistic, with sentiment leaning largely towards the eradication of low-level tasks; these being replaced by bots and self-service tools for customers on platforms, thereby freeing up staff to focus on customers with more complex enquiries, resulting in customer centric processes that address the bigger more challenging questions and delivering results quickly and seamlessly.
The conference is tailored very much towards existing or potential Salesforce customers. The sessions were practical and carefully programmed to demonstrate the benefits of existing and new tools such as Einstein Analytics (AI-powered analytics platform) and MuleSoft (recently acquired by Salesforce, MuleSoft helps businesses connect and integrate apps, data and devices), with a good dose of inspiring case studies presented by executives who have used the suite of Salesforce tools to drive transformation in their businesses.
Dominic Hatfield, News Corp CIO, spoke about how News Corp benefit from Salesforce by improving efficiencies. The company which connects with 16 million Australians every month faced the challenge of moving from being both ‘product and geo-centric focussed as a business’ to squarely putting the focus on customers.
“Our challenge was how do we do that in as seamless way as possible,” said Dominic Hatfield from News Corp. “We embarked on a large transformation that moved us from being product to customer centric. That caused us to look at our own technology to optimise the platform and ecosystem. We now have integrated products, campaign tracking, analytics, and introduced CPQ for a consistent work flow.”
“We now have integrated products, campaign tracking, analytics, and introduced CPQ for a consistent work flow.”
Asked what’s next for News Corp, Dominic said: “We are looking at additional automated fulfilment, data driven insights, and we’re starting to look at AI and self-serve models for customers.”
The Salesforce Tour day was action-packed, with plenty of options for professionals of all levels, if you missed out this year, we highly recommend you add a calendar note for next year.
