Salesforce Launches Cloud Manufacturing and Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce, the San Francisco software company that has spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing analytics and customer service solutions, revealed this week that it is doubling its operations in two key areas: manufacturing and consumer goods. The company today unveiled two new products, Manufacturing Cloud and Consumer Goods Cloud, designed to unify market data from disparate sources to maximize revenue while improving customer satisfaction.

"Manufacturing Cloud … provides a new level of visibility and collaboration to the sales and operating organizations of a manufacturing company, [while] Consumer Goods Cloud … Will Help Consumer Goods Companies Transform Their Business [with solutions for] field representatives, streamlining operations and improving in-store experiences for the end consumer, "Salesforce said in a press release. "[Both] To allow [businesses] to have a better view of their customers. "

Manufacturing cloud

Manufacturing Cloud, part of the Salesforce Customer 360 platform for manufacturers, addresses issues related to demand forecasting and inventory outages or resulting stockpiling, which can increase storage costs. Specifically, it combines sales contracts and forecasting tools, which in theory allows sales, operations and accounts teams to generate more robust projections.

With respect to sales contracts, manufacturers can use Manufacturing Cloud to reconcile negotiated contract terms with run rate data stored in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and systems. order management. All changes to contracts are immediately reflected in existing sales contracts and their impact is reflected in customizable measures, including validated order volumes, actual volumes and contract performance against expectations.

Account-based forecasting, another flagship feature of Manufacturing Cloud, enables team members to develop more accurate forecasts and adjust these forecasts in real time, taking into account new customer or market requirements. .

"In the manufacturing sector, the changing demands of customers and the market can have a devastating effect on the bottom line. So it's imperative to be able to understand what's happening on the ground is critical to success, "said Cindy Bolt, vice president of Salesforce for Manufacturing and GM. "Manufacturing Cloud brings teams closer to sales and operations while providing them with more predictive and transparent business so they can build deeper, more reliable relationships with their customers."

Cloud of consumer goods

Salesforce for Consumer Goods Cloud, on the other hand, is specifically designed for field representatives working in "brick and mortar" businesses. To this end, it is packed with tools to streamline store operations by ensuring that products are in stock and that prices and promotions are aligned with the company's expectations.

Consumer Goods Cloud provides a daily list of prioritized and assigned store visits with the required and suggested activities, all of which are mapped and routed through Salesforce Maps. Representatives have access to smartphone-optimized store and segment models for inventory planning, planogram checks, order processing, and surveys.

Consumer Goods Cloud also ships with Einstein Vision for Consumer Goods and Einstein Analytics for Consumer Goods, two new features based on Salesforce's proprietary predictive analytics and the Einstein Artificial Intelligence Platform. Representatives have at their disposal image recognition and detection for inventory, planogram and derivative compliance checks, which they can use to take pictures of shelves and see if they are properly arranged. These same representatives (and their managers) obtain predefined key performance indicators, such as out-of-stock and an increase in the percentage of orders per visit, as well as tailored suggestions for their customers.

"Retail execution remains one of the most important elements of the consumer brands strategy, but there is a lot to lose if the field representative does not have the data and technology to do so. to make smart decisions, "said GM and SVP John Strain. "Consumer Goods Cloud provides these field representatives with the tools they need to succeed in the field, while helping to create business opportunities and strengthen relationships with their retail partners."

Manufacturing Cloud and Consumer Goods Cloud will generally be available from October 15th. Einstein Analytics for Consumer Goods will follow in February 2020.

Manufacturing and consumer goods clouds are not the first Salesforce commitments in emerging vertical markets this year. In May, the company announced Salesforce Blockchain, a code-based platform that enables organizations to create networks, workflows, and blockchain applications that make it easy to share distributed and verified datasets across partner and third-party networks. . And in June, at his Connections conference in Chicago, he launched Commerce Page Designer, a Commerce Cloud feature that allows businesses to visually create and manage e-commerce sites.