Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzword — it’s how companies are responding to the extensive new technologies that have ushered in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These incredible new technologies such as VR, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, mobile, social, big data, and more, have quickly and radically transformed the way business is done. While ushering in new and amazing ways for businesses to connect with customers, these technologies have also brought new layers of complexity and fragmentation to customer experiences.

Digital transformation is about the ability of organizations, along with their leaders and employees, to adapt to the rapid changes brought about by the digital technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Connecting the customer experience in a seamless and continuous journey — that helps customers get what they need faster and with less friction — is a top priority for companies today. In fact, executives surveyed by Altimeter picked complete omni-channel experiences as their #1 digital transformation priority: connecting commerce, ads, social, mobile, stores, and more in one seamless experience.

That’s why we believe digital transformation starts and ends with the customer.

Why a connected journey matters

Today’s customer has a multitude of options for how to interact with the brands they love, such as in-store, website, text, and social channels. However, as these experiences are often delivered via siloed functions within the company, it's clear to see why connecting the customer journey is no easy feat.

For example, a customer — let’s call her Rachel — may have made a purchase using a guest check-out, called for a customer service issue on another occasion, and responded to an emailed offer with a different email than both previous interactions. Yet, Rachel doesn’t distinguish or care that these experiences come from different functions within the company. She expects a seamless experience.

So, how do you develop a holistic understanding of all her interactions so her experiences become frictionless? Here’s where integration with Salesforce Customer 360 helps you give customers like Rachel the kind of experiences they want.

A focus on a single unified ID

The Salesforce Customer 360 platform is a new way to plug into the power of Salesforce through a single unified ID. This evolution marks the move to a simplified model that enables your CRM, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and external data sources (via Mulesoft) to query and synchronize data to achieve this unified view.

The Salesforce Information Model will provide a single representation of data for all connected systems. With these capabilities, you will be able to connect your customer data, and leverage the integration connections for all types of deployments, no matter how large and complex.

We’ll go into more detail on the Salesforce Information Model and our new Data Federation Service in a future post. You’ll also learn how Salesforce aims to make the customer service agent’s “swivel chair” integration a thing of the past and how the Salesforce unified ID will enable powerful mapping capabilities.

In the meantime, check out these helpful recorded sessions, download a solution kit, or join the Customer 360 mailing list to stay abreast of product and solution updates.