A Roundup of Dreamforce 2019: Lessons Learned and Shoptalk ft. MVP Sarah Amin
Dreamforce 2019 is officially through, and there’s just too much to take in all at once.
There’re announcements at the keynote, apps, partnerships, sessions, memorabilia, ISVs, and discussions to split your attention a million different ways. It’s impossible not to miss out.
So, we turned to Senior Consultant at North Peak and MVP, Sarah Amin to talk shop ask about what recent advancements in the ecosystem mean to her. Here’re what went down:
Dreamforce Day 1
- Voice capable Einstein, Customer 360 Truth announced.
- Bias in AI and 5G take center stage.
- Trailhead GO goes live.
1. Customer 360 Truth and Einstein Voice make a splash
With the opening keynote kicking off the event, straightaway, you’re swooped with two announcements.
Firstly, the Customer 360 Truth or ‘Single Source Of Truth’ or (conveniently) ‘Truth’ got announced.
SARAH AMIN
Salesforce MVP
Senior Consultant, North Peak
“Customer 360 talks about having a highly interconnected technology stack, a true end to data silos without replicating data across platforms. Organizations are able to make their best strategic decisions when they have all of their customer/constituent information.
In my role as a Senior Consultant, I’m able to make better recommendations for our clients and smarter decisions about system design knowing which platforms have the best cross-cloud connectivity.”
This is a platform enhancement to 360 centered on doubling down on your org’s truth or patrons. Instead of pursuing dead-end leads, the approach lets you contain sales and marketing efforts. Needless to say, AI functionalities come baked into the platform.
Next drop? Einstein Voice! You can create your own voice skills and deploy them to any device. A physical Alexa-for-Salesforce demonstration stole the show as an illustration of capability.
We asked Sarah what change Voice meant to the business process. Here’s her take:
“I see Einstein Voice as being a game-changer for the mobile workforce. Many of our clients already use their mobile device microphone for talk-to-text to get their meeting notes into Salesforce. Einstein Voice takes that to the next level by finding and updating relevant records and fields. It can also create follow up tasks. Talk about powerful! Where an admin or consultant might recommend automation to tackle some of these record creations or updates, Einstein Voice would do it for them. It would simplify the implementation of any business process.”
2. Service Cloud also gets Voice
This one’s all about resolution enablement. Transcription and assistive, next-step insights for service reps surface in real-time through the new Amazon Connect partnership.
3. Dynamic Forms For Abstracted Views
If you ask Sarah, she’ll tell you that system design is a large part of what consultants do for their clients. For her, Lightning Experience and especially some of the recent changes with Lightning Record Pages has brought a lot of power and flexibility to system design
“ ‘Dynamic Forms’ makes another big splash in the ocean of my role. allowing consultants and admins to improve the ease and efficiency with which our users can consume the data that exists in their Salesforce. ‘Dynamic Forms’aims to take that to the next level, making individual fields dynamic further empower system designers to only display what the user needs to see at any given time. ”
4. Treading the reskilling and diversity tightrope
Discussion deliberated the advantages of diverse founding groups that can ask tough questions. This should, at least to some extent, mean less unintended hiccups.
Also noted was how not as many people have still jumped on the AI and 5G train. Businesses also have domino effects from 5G rollouts to think about, and will need to rise to the occasion through renewed alliances and inclusive efforts.
Dreamforce Day 2
- SDGs will take over the next decade, but not without some housekeeping
- AI-Transformation is about questions
The second day put the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals front and center. Potentials for digital transformation and an economy around goalkeeping might be the shared answer to most feasible roadmaps.
5. Questions to ask for AI-Transformation
Notably, Single Customer Views are generally the intent when it comes to Customer 360.
But better adoption depends more on incorporating the right features when creating profile views.
6. Bridging the trust deficit through values for responsible progress
With eye-opening trust-deficits, the young have lost confidence(and appropriately so) in the way institutions are run. Consciousness is the only way forward to make good on the SDG promise. More so, when business is geared toward change-making through the next decade’s financial possibilities.
7. Trailhead Go and AWS for learners, and Partner Apps make noise
Among a graduation-day like warmth, Trailhead GO for Apple iOS, and an AWS certification partnership make an entrance.
Coming over to Appexchange and Partner apps, Sarah has a soft corner for Spekit, a comprehensive learning platform for Salesforce instances.
“As a consultant, one area almost all Orgs struggle with is adoption and rollout of new features as part of the continuous innovation of their platform.
Apps like Spekit bring learning into the business process without disrupting workflow. Users don’t have time to go to another site or shared doc to learn what they need to know to get their job done, and 1:1 training is not at all scalable.”
8. It isn’t DF without giveaways
There’s so much moolah you could rake in that this is probably its own article. (Warning: You could drown in stuffed animals.) But that’s probably not what you care about – there were puppies involved. There’s no way you can top that. Period.
9. Jam-Mode-ON: Fleetwood Mac Under The Stars
What could be the best way to blow off some steam after a long day of networking?
A musical headbang – Psych!
The 50-year-old British band and 40 million ‘Rumours’ musicians left everyone spellbound last night while they rolled out hits one after the other, with the onlookers swaying to their beats.
“Go Your Own Way” and “Don’t Stop” blasted through as the sun went down on Oracle Park
Dreamforce Day 3 - A Recap
- Human social-cultural issues took center-stage; Execs discuss representation via invitation, allying
- Holistic food systems, urgent climate action also encouraged
10. Representation through Invitation: Visibility For the Under-represented
When it comes to representation, top C-Suite execs and CEO’s need to get involved. Middle management might not always come through without consequences. Up against this, platform sharing through invitation needs to be paid forward through appropriate bias training.
Furthermore, it makes for a better business case and talent pool, financial Independence for women, and less tokenism
11. Climate Justice - Crisis mode ON
Protesting comes to a head- the youth know they’ll bear the brunt of generations past.
They’re confronting powers on all counts, like displacement and deforestation while demanding accountability.
The progress so far builds on reform, awareness, and consistency from the young.
12. Food Systems- Holistic Relook
Food pipelines have too much riding on them, so new innovations shouldn’t solve one problem by creating others. As a major emissions contributor, the entire process from production to delivery needs a radical rethink.
Dreamforce Day 4 - A Recap
- Awareness, metacognition for decision-makers
- Focus on mindfulness, self-reflection
13. Being Here. Being Present - Parting Notes - Mindfulness in the workplace
Ever so often, achieving clearer visions for the right course of action may need us to pass up on distractions. This becomes harder in a world run on social media. Breaking away from habituated, Pavlovian responses will need more scrutiny, more cognizance of our actions in the present. Teachings such as those from Plum Village, Bordeaux(France) embody this.
These practices assume more significance as businesses grow into their roles as platforms for change, socio-economic solutions, and SDGs.
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