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The Salesforce World Tour Sydney is all wrapped up – and it was an amazing day. If you couldn’t make it, here’s what you’ll want to catch up on.
There were so many highlights throughout the day - it’s tough to choose just a few, but here they are.
Our CFO Mark Hawkins talked about connected things. Actually, he talked about connected things as a way of talking about just how many customer touchpoints there are, and how many there are about to be.
Currently, there are 6 billion smartphones in the world. Behind each one is a customer. Before long, we’ll be looking at a world with 75 billion smart things – every one of them a customer touchpoint. Let’s put this into perspective - the world’s population stands at around 7 billion. And there are about to be more than ten times as many smart things as people.
This means that managing your customer connections, and so, your customer experience, takes some serious thought. So, Transport for NSW showed us what they are doing to live up to the expectations of a truly digital world.
Transport for NSW knows that they can’t set or limit their customer expectations. In fact, they know that their customers’ expectations are set by the interactions they have with every other brand they touch.
So, lofty goals are needed – to stand out, a brand needs to lift the bar. Every. Single. Time.
Before we move on, can we talk about the keynote pre-show for a moment? Because Jessica Mauboy was there, belting it out at 9am. And, as if that wasn’t enough to get us all pumped, AIME CEO Jack Manning-Bancroft inspired us with tales of his great company’s work with young indigenous Australians.
Mark Hawkins also announced some big news for our customers. If you haven’t seen this in the papers already – we're continuing our international infrastructure expansion on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud to the AWS Sydney Region in order to support our growing customer base right here in Australia.
Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, App Cloud, Community Cloud and Analytics Cloud will all be available locally. Hooray!
Our first ever PitchComp was a stellar success. Three brilliant startup founders took the stage and pitched themselves to our superstar judges - Annie Parker, Pip Marlow and Steve Baxter. And were they ever impressive.
Zipline, PractiFi and Get Bennie are three impressive startups. They have passionate founders who really believe in what they are creating, and they have solid plans about how to create it. On the day though, it was PractiFi that shone.
They stood out because they know exactly who their customer’s customer is. They have a crystal clear vision of what their customer’s customer wants, and the challenges their customer has meeting them. And they have the solution. They are also rock solid on the numbers, knowing exactly what they need to do to turn a profit, as well as how to do it.
There’s a lesson here, entrepreneurs – look at the problem you are solving, know it intimately, and never, ever leave the numbers to chance.
If you don’t know all about Einstein yet, let’s get this done. We believe AI is for everyone. And your customers do too – they use it every single day. Businesses, on the other hand, see AI as something that will help them some time in the future. That there are more pressing demands on their time.
You know what would reduce some of those pressing demands? AI. Sorry - had to be said. AI, in the form of Einstein, makes a business fast, relevant and personal in every connection with a customer.
It means 38% faster decision-making, apps built five times faster with half the code, and 25% higher marketing ROI. It means 45% higher customer satisfaction. It means a 25% revenue increase.
In 2018, 500 million business users will save an average of two hours each day with AI-powered tools. And smarter employees equal happier customers.
Did we mention that AI is for everyone? It’s time to decide it’s for yours.
And speaking of things that we believe are for everyone – equality.
We finished the day on such a high – with Salesforce Chief Equality Officer Tony Prophet, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Professor Gillian Triggs and refugee advocate Deng Adut talking about the role of businesses in shaping the future.
Wondering what Gillian Triggs thinks of the political furore over the Australian CEOs who banded together to demand marriage equality? She told us – business leaders have the power to address continuing inequality. The letter they wrote reflects community values. As you’d expect, she believes business can be the solution to equality and injustice. We kind of have to say, we’re with her.
Deng Adut, holy moly – his story. He asked us where we thought his mother, born in Sudan and one of six wives, stands in terms of equality (tbh, I don’t think he expected an answer to that one). He told us that the war that came to his door was never his war. But that it took so many lives, including many from his family. That it drove him from his country. That it saw him shot, tortured, smuggled. That all of that never killed his hope.
“I am not ashamed. I am begging your understanding,” he said. “I don’t want your sympathy. I am begging your understanding.”
He told us that asking for equality – for equal treatment – doesn’t seem like much. But that it was too much, too far out of his reach, in Sudan and Ethiopia.
He told us that it is the job of everyone to sell human rights properly. It isn’t simple, he said. It requires effort. But, he told us, it must be done.
We talked marketing, sales, service and so much more throughout the day. We had thousands of people come through the doors, learn with us, listen with us, talk with us, and even pack boxes of food for families in need with us – 2086 of them, to be precise!
We watched high-schoolers build battling bots – what fun! Just quietly, this hands-on experience also helped students build the sort of analytical skills that could lead them down STEM career paths, and showed them that STEM is for everyone. Ssshhh.
It was the best day, and if you missed it, we look forward to you joining us next time.
Action from the day is available now on Salesforce LIVE and you can also access the presentation decks from the sessions here.
