Salesforce announcements on different topics - but are they different?

The News

In the past month, Salesforce made announcements around some interesting topics. First, beginning of October, the company introduced Einstein’s Guide to AI Use Cases, a web tool that is targeted at helping businesses identify viable use cases and provide some information about what it takes to support it.

It starts with information and videos that explain AI, terms around AI and give some examples how AI can help improve different aspects of a business.  According to Sarin Devraj, Associate Product Marketing Manager Salesforce Einstein, for time being the site covers some fifty use cases but will be updated regularly to increase the coverage of relevant and interesting use cases. The website is intended to be top-of-funnel.

The second and more recent announcement was about introducing Lightning Order Management, which shall enable brands to deliver end-to-end commerce experiences from shopping to shipping. Lightning Order Management is currently in beta and will be made available later this year. Right now it focuses on B2C processes. Based upon Lightning and enabled by Salesforce’s vast partner network, Lightning Order Management offers a low code platform that helps companies to easily create order management flows, including some partner applications. Salesforce expects the number of partner applications to increase steadily.

Lastly, in the beginning of November, Salesforce announced its own Salesforce CMS, a hybrid content management system designed to help easily create and deliver content across channels. Salesforce CMS is designed to be simple, fast yet flexible, and closely connected to the Salesforce infrastructure. For time being Salesforce CMS is geared towards the Salesforce B2C e-commerce solution, but shall be extended to support B2B e-commerce.

The Bigger Picture

The global of engagement control (or, as exceptional humans say, experience management), is tightly coupled and needs many distinct sorts of programs running tightly protected, consisting of the need to create and disseminate facts. In distinctive phrases, it has turned to be a platform worldwide.

These three announcements that cover hugely superb topics, however towards the identical aim, show the price that lies in a strong era platform which facilitates an atmosphere that creates a win-situation now not simplest for the platform proprietor, however moreover for companions, customers, and their customers.

There is a tremendous potential in implementing business applications that are supported by AI, both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. However, the decision about the application of AI in businesses has a number of challenges, ranging from ethical questions, via compliance, security and strategic right down to operational questions. All of them need to be addressed to successfully implement AI in an organization on more than just a tactical level.

Salesforce cites 3:

1.     Identification of a viable use case and having the right data to support it

2.     Addressing change within the employee work force and embracing new technology

3.     Trusting whether the AI is correct and aligns with company values

Out of those they tackled the most era oriented ? And the very best to put into effect one, which is also the only Salesforce can assist first-class with. The second one is also approximately manner of life and the 1/3 one is surely hard to do because it also and mainly consists of the need for an AI with the intention to give an explanation for itself.

Covering the order manage component of e-alternate is one of the most critical abilities a supplier of e-change software program wishes a good way to cowl. This is through its very nature a functionality that gives full suite carriers an side over front place of job focused agencies like Salesforce. And even for suite providers a number of the vital capabilities are past their scope, like tracking and tracing of a transport (that is protected through a logistics company) or charge, this is blanketed by using a price issuer, e.G. To be higher capable of ensure PCI compliance. Topics like a price ticket control that is incorporated into the e-alternate answer are table stakes. What honestly topics is the capability to without problems installation and correctly keep a technique that permits e-commerce customers to achieve their goal with minimum private try from recognition thru useful resource stages in their individual journey.

And a CMS is all approximately allowing the shipping of the good facts in an powerful, constant, and green manner. That?S why, whilst a very good headless CMS does the task (and a great one to it), an own CMS this is tightly covered into the platform, can offer even more fee. It reduces the time to rate for the consumer thru providing an amazing integration into related quantities of the suite, be them an e-trade solution,

My Analysis and PoV

Let?S begin with Einstein?S Guide to AI Use Cases. It actually is a nifty net web page that offers exciting and useful statistics. A corporate internet web website online being what it's far: a advertising and marketing tool ? Einstein?S Guide to AI Use Cases is of direction geared around Salesforce merchandise. While there's not anything wrong with this, by using except partner solutions it restricts its usefulness, even in the Salesforce surroundings.

The website on line can be up to date with new use times from a monetary institution of current ones. This will show up twice a 12 months. It despite the fact that being a more youthful device, Salesforce can determine to increase its scope at any time to cowl more answers, inclusive of associate answers. This might be a great idea, specifically thinking about that Salesforce has a thriving accomplice surroundings. Salesforce and the accomplice environment may want to get promoted with the resource of a preference closer to this.

Lightning order management reduces an opening that Salesforce has qua undertaking: The company has its focus on front workplace techniques and enables returned place of job strategies, like order control, with the aid of different feature of a strong surroundings and by means of providing the glue to attach the particular quantities of necessary software program. This is exemplified proper here. Salesforce offers to connect an incredible extensive kind of transport processes to assist the e-alternate technique. I suppose that the purchase of Mulesoft had a primary have an effect on in making this feasible, together with the combination of the provider functionality, which, to be frank, is desk stakes inside the contemporary international. Still, Salesforce associated it into one competitive and seamless complete.

This is also evidenced by way of way of Salesforce e-alternate solution being a part of a tightly spaced chief group in Gartner?S latest magic quadrant on digital trade answers (together with Adobe?S Magento, Oracle and SAP Commerce).

The addition of the CMS is the icing at the cake. To make sure, it's miles a brand new solution that also has a few gaps, such as appropriate assist for responsive layout. But given a while, it sincerely will now not handiest assist net web page fragments but might help in constructing entire websites with a decent integration into e-alternate, advertising and marketing, earnings strain automation and customer support. Not to mention analytics. Think Hubspot on steroids.

Three separate announcements ? One undertaking ? Displaying the power of a platform. I can best bet that those trends passed off in a harmonized manner. If not, trust what might also want to seem if there was a harmonization.

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