For the first time in its 17-year history, Salesforce had to hold a virtual version of its annual conference, Dreamforce, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As is to be expected, this was a bummer for many Salesforce professionals who’d been looking forward to getting together for networking and learning. Dreamforce is the largest tech conference in the world, after all, bringing about 170,000 attendees to San Francisco during the fall.
But a virtual Dreamforce wasn’t without its upsides, the biggest of which was that an online version of the event meant that more people from around the world were able to participate than ever before. And if you weren’t able to tune in to the conference as it happened, not to worry—Dreamforce lives on, with keynotes and sessions available for viewing whenever, wherever.
Here are our top 3 takeaways from Dreamforce 2020:
1) The Acquisition of Slack Signals the All-digital Future
It was no surprise that the news dominating the event was Salesforce’s $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack. Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff kicked off the virtual event in a holiday-themed Salesforce Park along with Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack. Butterfield explained the vision of the acquisition as one where Slack’s focus on the community and social side of the business, combined with Salesforce’s data integration and management capacities, will create the operating system for the new way of working in the all-digital world.
It’s still too early to know exactly how Slack will integrate with the Salesforce suite. But the acquisition is another step forward in Salesforce’s mission to help companies and remote teams work more efficiently.
2) Salesforce Hyperforce is Here for the Work-from-anywhere World
Another major announcement during the keynote was Salesforce Hyperforce. Hyperforce is a reimagination of the company’s platform architecture built to securely and reliably deliver Salesforce Customer 360, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Industries, and more on major public clouds.
Salesforce executives call Hyperforce the most significant technological shift in the platform since the creation of Salesforce over 21 years ago. And it’s one that couldn’t come at a better time. With more Salesforce customers working remotely than ever before, Hyperforce provides reliable and secure access from anywhere.
Here are some Hyperforce highlights:
Horizontally scalable – With the public cloud’s elasticity, customers can access computer capacity as needed and drastically reduce implementation time.
Local data storage – Customers can choose where to store data to support compliance with regulations specific to their industry or region.
Built-in trust security and compliance – Security architecture limits users to designated access levels to protect sensitive data and information.
100% backwards compatibility – All Salesforce apps (regardless of cloud) will run on Hyperforce.
3) Salesforce Einstein Automate Proves Data is Still King
Another innovation that supports the digital shift was the announcement of Einstein Automate. An end-to-end workflow automation solution, Einstein Automate enables anyone to build intelligent workflows and integrate data across any system with low-code tools. Salesforce has been doubling down on its investment in AI since they released Einstein four years ago.
Einstein Automate is all about helping organizations streamline tasks and automate time-consuming processes to help employees be more productive. A key part of Einstein Automate is translating data from sales conversations into actionable business insights. Einstein Automate will be available in the summer of 2021.
The Digital Imperative is Here
The central theme of Dreamforce was the transformation to digital. Bret Taylor, Salesforce President and Chief Operating Officer, drove that message home during the keynote, saying, “This year is all about change. We have gone digital overnight. And we’ve been using this phrase with our customers, ‘the digital imperative,’ because, let’s be honest, it’s 2020. If you don’t have a digital business, you don’t have a business.”
If, like most businesses, you’re going through a digital transformation right now, you don’t have to go alone. Our senior-level Salesforce consulting team can help you implement or optimize the perfect solution to address whatever challenges you may be facing. If you’re ready to succeed in this new digital normal, contact us today to get started.
