As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Bas de Vos, VP of IFS Labs
I first met him at the IFS Unleashed event in Miami last month. He presented on the main stage on 5 themes.
He then kindly gave me a tour of the show floor where you saw many of the concepts he presented in their physical manifestation complete with a miniature wind turbine. The opposite of a digital twin - a physical twin of what he had described on stage. See the full presentation below.
Next, I invited him to the Analyst Cam series and he discussed the role of IFS Labs, his definition of innovation, and summarized what he presented in Miami for our audience.
Too many vendors talk glibly about hybrid events and functionality. Spend some time watching both his Unleashed presentation and our conversation since – one 20, the other 30 minutes. In person on the show floor, on stage and on Zoom, Bas showed how effortlessly you can present complex use cases in industrial settings both in digital and physical, paper, analog world.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Achyut Jajoo · SVP and GM, Manufacturing and Automotive presenting an update on their Manufacturing Cloud.
Unlike other industries Salesforce has presented in recent Analyst Cam episodes, the Manufacturing Cloud is not new. It was launched in 2020. Salesforce is focused on the customer facing side of manufacturing – what it calls “digitizing the front and middle office”, not operational functionality for the shop floor or product lab that many ERP vendors target.
Achyut identifies that for most manufacturing businesses, less than 10% of revenue is net-new business. Most of the business is in “run rate, long term customer agreements, or you're bidding on long term projects and programs”. Most companies were using Salesforce as a CRM for net new business. 90+% of the business was being done in Excel spreadsheets or by tapping into the ERP or other sources where long-term customer agreements are recorded.
Some of the use cases the Manufacturing Cloud focuses on – modernizing commercial operations, simplifying partner engagement and transforming service experiences. That translates to focus on functionality identified below
Achyut also identifies 4 “sub-sectors” they are focused on: a) complex equipment manufacturers, b) production parts suppliers (like automotive suppliers) whose products are inputs for other manufactured products and equipment. c) chemical manufacturers. d) distribution-oriented manufacturers that distributing their products through a channel ecosystem.
He presents on 2 customers – Swissbit (sensors and chips) and Tenneco (automotive components).
He also asked me to pass along that Salesforce is hosting a Manufacturing Summit on December 1 in Chicago. If you're interested in connecting with the team at the event, you can find the agenda and registration information here.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Sean Nolan, CEO of Blink, which offers mobile access for frontline workers in a variety of verticals – “nurses, refuge collectors, retail staff, hospitality staff, aged care workers, anyone who doesn't sit behind a desk all day, they probably don't have a workplace device, like a laptop or a phone given to them so probably has got personal devices. Most don't have a workplace email address or sort of digital identity necessarily.”
He provides a use case at the UK transit carrier, Stagecoach – where drivers use his app to access Trapeze rostering, GreenRoad telematics and Oracle HCM applications. The more useful the applications. the more engagement of the frontline workers and more chances they will adopt even more digital functionality
I know I am a broken record asking vendors to verticalize but it is heart breaking to hear so many essential workers are in his words “to a large part digitally disconnected from the organization.” His goal is to fix that but giving them access to a variety of relevant applications like training, benefits and even accident and near miss reporting, which he says is one of the more attractive use cases for their software.
Listen to his pitch and applicability in the verticals they are targeting. Nicely done in under 20 minutes. He was introduced to me by Workday Ventures, one of their investors.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Eynat Guez, co-founder and CEO of Papaya Global. Papaya offers a global workforce management platform in 160+ countries. Her elevator pitch: “Global payroll technology was broken. So we fixed it.” I was introduced to her by Workday Ventures, one of her investors.
As you listen to her, it becomes clear that payroll processing across so many jurisdictions is hairy enough. Their efficiently handling payments to employees, to taxing authorities, benefit plans etc. with the fragmented global financial services landscape, one pay cycle after another, is even more valuable to clients.
Eynat covers the fragmented competitor landscape – payroll outsourcers, HCM software vendors, Employer of Record service providers and firms that provide 1099 type contractors. One of her big advantages is a highly streamlined onboarding process for clients.
They have 1,500 clients. 30% of which are F5000 companies. Customers let them handle their processing, or avail of a technology licensing model. Eynat says the latter is growing significantly in popularity.
She talks about one of her clients CyberArk with over 2.000 global employees. She describes how Papaya consolidated what was being done by multiple providers.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Achyut Jajoo · SVP and GM, Manufacturing and Automotive presenting on their new Automotive Cloud.
The world of mobility – cars, trucks, bikes and so many other forms of transport - is going through massive changes. It is moving from a hardware, engineering focused past to a software defined future. The acronym CASE – for Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified – summarizes the changing industry with new business models including vehicle features on a subscription basis, direct to consumer channels and the growing need for first-party data, new service delivery mindsets, and transformed supply chains with software, sensor, satellite support and battery charging and many other ecosystems.
Achyut does a nice job covering these trends, the variety of new providers and experiences in the sector and the niches which Salesforce plans to focus on. More details in their announcement here.
Very nicely done in 25 minutes. I have invited him back to come present with a couple of customers as the launch continues.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Jujhar Singh, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Salesforce Industries, a repeat guest. He had planned to give our audience a sneak preview of their growing Industry Clouds prior to Dreamforce. His schedule changed and we had to postpone. I saw him twice at Dreamforce but as expected he was swamped. I had to evacuate for Hurricane Ian last week. So when we finally connected, he was very generous with his time.
Given the length of the recording, we broke it into 6 segments that emphasize a variety of different industries. So, here we go with some of my brief comments on each.
Jujhar talks about the vitality of their Industry Clouds business. It is now one of the top 3 pillars of growth for Salesforce. It is a sticky business. Industry attrition rates are 2% lower than those in their lowest horizontal clouds.
Holistic Health Powered by Genie (~10 mins)
One of the biggest announcements at Dreamforce was Genie which is aimed to harmonize, in real-time, all your data into a single view of the customer across any cloud. Jujhar applies the lens from a patient perspective and provides other updates around their healthcare and life sciences offering, including support for Advanced Therapy Management. It is a nice update to the overview Amit Khanna, SVP and GM had presented in July here.
Automotive Cloud – new offering (~4 mins)
Jujhar provides a preview of a new Industry Cloud which will become generally available on October 17. It takes Salesforce into the emerging world of electric vehicles, direct to consumer (D2C) selling and new business models that are dramatically transforming the auto industry. I will run a longer interview with Achyut Jajoo, SVP and GM, Manufacturing and Automotive on this offering later this week.
Net Zero Marketplace – new offering (~7 mins)
Jujhar provides an overview of another offering announced at Dreamforce – this one aimed to accelerate customer sustainability initiatives. Built on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the Net Zero Marketplace enables “ecopreneurs” to browse and purchase carbon credit projects from various sellers. Salesforce has enlisted third party reviewers to provide transparent reviews and risk assessments on the available projects. Ari Alexander, GM of that cloud business had provided a longer perspective here.
Service Excellence Across Industries – examples from Insurance and Healthcare (~2 mins)
Salesforce is building industry-specific service consoles and Jujhar provides examples from healthcare and auto insurance.
Composable Case Management - for Public Sector, Nonprofit and Education (~4 mins)
Jujhar presents a new approach to customer service for public sector domains like child welfare, nonprofits focused on mental health and staff health and wellbeing in education. He describes the composable case management solution: “You are not dealing with tickets; you are dealing with people in complex scenarios. Families may be involved, even communities. Instead of one provider, you may need a network of providers. It is about a different orientation – not about closing out a ticket, but about outcomes. The caseworker can follow the process all the way from intake to outcomes.”
I would recommend you watch all 6 segments. In total, they only add up to half an hour. The range of industries and the wide landscape Jujhar covers in each is truly impressive.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Ari Alexander, GM Net Zero Cloud at Salesforce
Fresh off announcements at Dreamforce this past week, he spent time with me describing their scope.
He describes the 6 pillars of the offering in the graph below:
He drills into the Net Zero Marketplace, which facilitates carbon trading and interaction with what Salesforce calls “ecopreneurs”. It is open to any company, not just Salesforce customers
He also describes work with 3 customers – MasterCard, MillerKnoll (the furniture company) and Crowley (the shipping company)
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is David Fan, GM of the Salesforce Communications Cloud
He discusses trends in the sector, presents results from a recent survey and details industry specific capabilities like Promotions and Offers and Loyalty Management, and their use cases around the world with customers like Telstra in Australia, Telus in Canada and KPN in the Netherlands.
He also gives a sneak preview of what he will preview at Dreamforce next week.
As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission) as part of my Analyst Cam series.
This time it is Derek Belch, CEO of Strivr, which positions itself as a platform to elevate employee performance through virtual reality-enabled immersive experiences. I was introduced to him by the Workday Ventures team.
Derek played football at Stanford from 2003 to 2007. He went back to Stanford as a graduate assistant for the football team in 2013 and simultaneously worked on a Master’s thesis on training football players using virtual reality. “The whole premise was here's a VR device, a headset. The quarterback puts this thing on their face. Their body is off the field, but their brain thinks they're on the field. It's a much more realistic way to see what's going on during a play. And you can get an infinite number of reps in a short amount of time.”
The quarterback simulator was their first application and he says it was reasonably successful (I think he is being modest – Tom Brady used the tool for reps when he arrived in Tampa in 2020 and went on to win his 7th Super Bowl). Importantly, it led to an introduction at Walmart and a foray into enterprise applications. He says “six years later we have over 20,000 headsets out in the field at Walmart, Bank of America, Verizon and FedEx among others.”
Classroom and keyboard-based learning are ineffective, he says. “Goes in one ear and out the other.” “We're building a flight simulator for any job from quarterback to janitor to CEO and everyone in between…we want the VR headset to be part of every employee’s starter pack along with a phone and a laptop”
He walks through various front line and knowledge worker use cases. The ROI is pretty compelling. “we've had customers take three-hour long lectures and e-learning (content) and boil them down to 20 minutes on a headset. Some of our customers are cutting their on-boarding times in half. And the outcome is the similar in terms of proficiency. So that is a major ROI opportunity when you add up 10s of 1000s of people. Some of these are very high churn roles.” He says there may be focus on augmented reality and blue collar roles down the line. Plenty of white collar opportunities to focus on for now.
He walks through his platform and the content creation ecosystem he is growing. Very nicely done in about 20 minutes. There is plenty of sports talk, quotes from Confucius and use cases for the white-collar Metaverse.
BTW I think I have found another recruit for my Technology and my Passion series. He has 264 golf balls and growing in his “stamp collection” from courses from around the world.
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