Once again, San Francisco geared up to host one of the world’s biggest tech events. This year was very special for S4G not only for the large number of customers we were able to go with but also because we had the chance to speak at Dreamforce, contributing our insights and good practices together with other global partners….but let’s start at the beginning.
This year’s Dreamforce was held from 19 to 22 November but to get the absolute most out of an event of this type the Spanish delegation flew out on Sunday 17 November.
This year we comprised:
- 50 Salesforce employees
- 70 partners
- 109 customers
This was my fourth Dreamforce and I’ve got to say one of the best. Not as good as the first one perhaps, as that was a watershed for me, but I would compare this year’s to when you return to a city you already know and plan every day to make sure you get the most out of the sessions, the vibe, the customers… Also, I have to say the weather in San Fran did its bit and made covering the many kilometres we trekked between sessions that much more enjoyable.
As always, the Spanish Salesforce delegation was extremely well organised and ensured that the time outside the Dreamforce sessions was filled with plans for enjoying the city and each other’s company.
This year we went to Napa Valley, where we had the opportunity to do a train tour of the vineyards and one of the wineries.
One day a cocktail party was organised at Salesforce Tower that was well worth it, as the views were incredible.
As in 2018, we attended as a platinum sponsor of the Spanish delegation. For us this year was very special. 20% of the delegation’s companies at Dreamforce were our customers. It was the year when the most companies joined Dreamforce. This shows how strong S4G’s growth has been over the past year.
We were able to introduce the company to the delegation, presenting a video on us and what we do in just a few minutes, accompanied by our customers’ results after implementing Salesforce. Here is the link so you can see the video. As I often say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope you like it.
This year’s numbers were astonishing, with over 16 million online visitors, 171,000 registered people from over 120 countries and more than 2,700 sessions and workshops.
To enjoy the Dreamforce experience and not knock yourself out trying, it is very important to plan the sessions as there are so many it’s hard to get to the 10% that may be of interest to you. This year I attended the keynote sessions for an overview of the big releases coming next year, as well as a number of talks on Einstein and Salesforce.org and I visited suppliers at the Expo to discuss specific project issues we have with customers (Conga, Tableu, Maps, Docusign, Mulesfot, etc.).
I personally loved the session with former president Barack Obama and Marc Beniof – for those of us who could be there it was a thrilling experience.
This year Fleetwood Mac performed at the event. I have to admit I didn’t know who they were and didn’t have high expectations for the concert, but to my surprise the organisation of the event, held at the Oracle Arena Stadium, was brilliant and many of the songs were very familiar. In other words, we had a ball over the two-plus hours of the show.
In any case, below is the link where Salesforce has published the videos of the sessions. It’s a good way to review the ones we were unable to attend.
https://www.youtube.com/user/salesforce/videos
Dreamforce 2019 News
Customer 360. SSOT: “Single Source of Truth”.
The main product announcement at Dreamforce was Customer 360 Truth, which connects sales, service, marketing, e-Commerce data and more to create a single Salesforce ID for each customer. Previous customer interactions and shared preferences combine to create a complete profile – a “single source of truth.” This enables businesses to provide better customer service and create a personalised marketing journey with product recommendations. It also helps predict the best sales opportunities, propose product recommendations, etc.
Enhancements to Einstein Voice
- Salesforce introduced Einstein Voice Assistant last year to enable customers to query their Salesforce data using voice commands and has now expanded the product portfolio with customisable Einstein Voice Skills. Einstein Skills will enable administrators and developers to create customised voice applications tailored to any function or industry in a matter of clicks.
Both Einstein Voice Assistant and Einstein Voice Skills will be available for all apps generated in Salesforce. A beta version will be released in February and full implementation is expected in 2021.
Service Cloud Voice
This embeds telephony into Service Cloud, unifying voice calls, digital channels and CRM data in real time. The new transcription capabilities will turn voice into text, allowing Einstein to support customer service agents by providing recommended responses based on artificial intelligence, knowledge articles (KBs) and next best actions.
Trailhead GO. The Trailhead mobile app.
Salesforce has listened to Trailblazers’ requests for this mobile platform. A “Trailhead Go” app has been created so that users can skill up and get Trailhead badges anywhere.
Salesforce Evergreen
Evergreen is the latest addition to the Customer 360 platform so you can fast-track modern app and connected experience creation using Salesforce data and business logic. With Evergreen, developer productivity can be leveraged using features and microservices, along with open source standards such as Kubernetes to create experiences that are responsive, personal and intelligent.
Redefining the future of Field Service.
It wasn’t an announcement, but it did show how Field Service Lightning capabilities, along with the power of the recently acquired Salesforce Maps (Mapanything) and ClickSoftware, are set to take this cloud to a higher level, with a likely market leadership for Field Service solutions.
These were just some of the highlights. But if you don’t want to miss any of the latest news, Salesforce has published the main sessions from Dreamforce 19 in the link below:
https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2019/11/dreamforce-content-guide.html
S4G at Dreamforce
This year we had the good fortune of having seven people from S4G attend Dreamforce, from management, sales, pre-sales and consultants, who enjoyed a wonderful week as part of the world’s largest technology event.
Salesforce also suggested we engage in one of the Dreamforce sessions together with four global partners, where the goal was to convey each one’s best practices and the keys to getting where we are today. We were proud to take part and share our 11-year experience in the world of Salesforce and our vision for the future.
Taking stock of the week, besides the sessions (which were wonderful), the different manufacturers you can talk to directly and all the activities that Salesforce organises,
I was struck by the human connection. It’s fantastic to have a week to share with different people from branch, customers, partners and Salesforce employees and get to know each other more.
We have the year ahead to put into practice everything we learnt over the past couple of weeks and build new success stories with you all, which with any luck we’ll be able to present at next year’s Dreamforce.
Dreamforce 2020 will be held from 9 to 13 November. We look forward to seeing you there – and if we don’t, rest assured we will fill you in on what went on.
PS: Check out the photos of our team at the Dreamforce 2019 sessions and events.
Sara Mesonero. Senior Account Manager