deal architect

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Verticals – Manufacturing Cloud

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.

 

 

Analyst Cam: Blink – Empowering Frontline Workers

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.

Burning Platform: The state of US Healthcare

In the 80th episode of Burning Platform, we host Dr. Geeta Nayyar (“Dr.G”), SVP and Chief Medical Officer at Salesforce

Jujhar Singh, EVP & GM, Salesforce Industries recently gave us an update on Salesforce’s health and life sciences cloud from their Dreamforce event.

With Dr. G,  the conversation is more about how to fix US healthcare – we spend a fifth of our GDP on that sector and our health outcomes don’t reflect that. She identifies a slew of areas she would prioritize for tackling

We talk about how most enterprises turned on a dime at the start of COVID and how McKinsey says if we can sustain that intensity, we may have the most innovative decade ever. And whether that is likely to happen in healthcare, given its ossified nature.

We talk about the promise and frustrations of electronic medical records. We discuss why public health performed inconsistently during the pandemic and how we can build public trust in those institutions

Healthcare is stubbornly regional, even country specific in medical practices, regulations, even payer/provider structures and how we can move to benchmark more across countries. We talk about a consumer-led movement transforming healthcare and a proactive focus on wellness versus the traditional focus on treating symptoms.

Dr. G covers an incredible amount of ground in around 20 minutes. Must see TV!

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Verticals – Automotive

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.

 

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Industry Clouds at Dreamforce

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.

Industries Introduction & Dreamforce Industries News (~5 mins)

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.

Analyst Cam: Salesforce – Net Zero Cloud

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)   

Very crisply done in about 18 minutes.

Verticals at Dreamforce

I am looking forward to the Salesforce event next week, and expect to be spending time in the  “Industries” Zone in the Dreamforce Campground. My FitBit is going to be pleased - the Campground is 40,000 square feet in size!

 I hope to get updates with several execs who have presented on their sectors in the Analyst Can series over the last few weeks.

• Eran Agrios, Financial Services
• Amit Khanna, Health and Life Sciences
• David Fan, Communications
• Sunil Rao, Consumer Goods
• Nasi Jazayeri, Public Sector

Under embargo. I was briefed about a new one this week. Will run that after the event.

I also have a post-Dreamforce recording planned with Jujhar Singh, EVP Industry Clouds.

Look forward to meeting several of you there!

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Verticals – Telecommunications

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.

Very crisply done in under 15 minutes.

 

Analyst Cam: Wellthy

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 Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, Co-Founder and CEO of Wellthy, which provides a caregiving support solution. I was introduced to her by the Workday Ventures team.

Lindsay starts with her personal experience. She supported her mother through a chronic condition for 28 years (it started when she was a kid) and found the healthcare system in the US (and most other countries – they also service Canada, UK and Ireland)) assumes aging care is the responsibility of family members. She says families take on 90% of long-term care in the US.

They have since diversified beyond the focus on aging parents to also cover kids with special needs, spouses with chronic conditions, and during the COVID pandemic expanded into child care. About the last, she says “it remains a crisis. We've seen daycare shutdown, a reduction in the number of folks who are taking jobs as nannies or in-home aides. Families are really struggling to set up care as many companies have returned to more hybrid work environments, encouraging people to come into the office.”

The solution broadly consists of 3 components

• Care Dashboard – digital tools such as medication trackers, document storage
• Care Concierge – a dedicated coordinator and shared access to other team members who help advise on Medicare, insurance, other funding sources, care nuances etc.
• Wellthy Community

They started the business in 2015, supporting families and started working with employers in 2016. Business exploded through the pandemic. Today they support 1.1 million covered individuals. And expect to be closer to 2 million by the end of the year. Lots of big brand employers and 4 of the top 6 companies on the Fortune 100 Top Places to Work list.

They can show quantifiable outcomes like lowered absences and attrition at employers which offer their service as a comp benefit. The best endorsement she says comes from employees moving companies who say to their hiring person, “you know, I would like to retain access to this very important benefit”.

She says it is a  “very sticky benefit.”

Very nicely done in 20 minutes.

Analyst Cam: Salesforce Verticals – Health and Life Sciences

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 Amit Khanna, SVP and GM, Health and Life Sciences at Salesforce.

The health and pharma markets have gone through an extremely challenging last couple of years. How will they emerge from the ups and downs? Amit presents on some of the trends they are seeing:

• 42% of the members say they're frustrated by the experience they get from their health plans/providers
• 77% of the providers say that non-traditional care revenues, such as retail health, care anywhere, are becoming more important
• 93% of the pharma companies are still not using AI effectively because they believe it's too complex or are unsure where to start.
• Almost a third of the $3.5 trillion the US spends on healthcare (nearly 20% of its GDP) is in administrative costs, much of it waste.

He explains where Salesforce plays – around the areas where EMR and ERP vendors play. Salesforce is more focused on longitudinal care outside the hospital, multi-channel engagement and the entire chain to provide personalized care.

He covers a lot of ground around vaccine management, telemedicine and other trends which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, over and over it comes back to making the patient the center of the universe. I like his closing “Simple concepts (we are used to in other sectors) don’t seem to apply to healthcare. Providers ask you the same questions over and over…my date of birth doesn't change. Knowing about me is a concept (which seems foreign to) healthcare. If we can solve that, through the lifecycle of the consumer, we will reduce tremendous amount of waste in the system.”

Very crisply done in about 15 minutes.