In an age where digital transformation is imperative, it’s hard to find a better example of using digitalisation to get ahead of the curve than consulting firm PwC, the Salesforce Award Partner of the Year for 2020 in the Middle East.
PwC and Salesforce recently spoke about how organisations can thrive in the digital revolution, why joint value propositions set up businesses for big wins, and how organisations can get back to work in the New Normal.
Before we get started, let's take a moment to introduce our featured speakers:
Mukesh Kumar, pictured on the left, is the Alliance & Channels Director for the Middle East. With a background of Accenture and employed at Salesforce for over 10 years, Mukesh is tasked with growing a successful partner ecosystem in this emerging region by working closely with our strategic partners and executing go-to-market strategies. Connect with Mukesh on LinkedIn.
Arun David is a Partner at PwC Middle East and a leader in the PwC Digital Services team with over 16 years of experience. He specialises in combining business strategy, experience design, and technology to deliver customer-centered transformation programs. Connect with Arun on LinkedIn.
How have Salesforce implementations affected PwC internally?
Arun David: PwC is an avid user of Salesforce, and it has transformed how we engage with our clients. We established a global strategy to enable us to thrive in the digital revolution, transforming our sales and marketing operations to better serve our clients.
PwC performed a single, globally shared deployment of Salesforce to bring all our teams on to a single platform. We knew that to be successful, we had to change our culture. So, we put a team together which has continuously driven this change and sought management buy-in across territories.
The results have been phenomenal. We’ve seen consistent increases in all of our target metrics from the value of opportunities, through the sales pipeline, wins, and revenue. It has also brought us closer together, allowing us to work collaboratively as a global team.
Mukesh Kumar: On behalf of Salesforce, I’d like to thank PwC for their trust in our platform, and for making us a critical part of their digital revolution.
Using Salesforce enables PwC to connect with their customers in a whole new way. The power of our core platform – Sales cloud, Service cloud and marketing, and the value we offer to cement customer relationships – are all positive engagements that PwC can share with their own clients.
This has a positive impact on our partnership, where Salesforce and PwC collaborate closely to implement transformational solutions to end clients.
What are the strategic objectives of PwC and Salesforce?
Arun David: To build a better future, it takes more than just technology. It requires human ingenuity and imagination, combined with business understanding and the ability to navigate a complex environment. Digital is what we do, and, even more importantly, how we do it. We help our clients to disrupt markets, engage with customers and citizens, transform their business, and build trust. We do it by our BXT methodology, combining Business: The knowledge to transform; eXperience: The imagination to create; and Technology: The commitment to deliver. Leveraging the best technologies such as Salesforce allows us to realise these strategic objectives.
Mukesh Kumar: Salesforce relies on a strong partner ecosystem to position our platform as the driver of digital transformation. As a trusted advisor, with deep industry experience, PwC has invaluable expertise. That’s why we see PwC as a Salesforce enabler in the Middle East region.
They are continuously investing in driving new capabilities and Salesforce skills, which grow alongside our portfolio of solutions such as Mulesoft and Tableau. The growth of Salesforce in this market has been supported by the regional PwC Digital Team, who have delivered credible use cases and helped to secure our presence across the UAE.
PwC is a trusted partner; for example, in one of our recent COVID-19 webinars, our SVP Strategic Customer Advisor in the Office of CIO at Salesforce appeared alongside PwC to discuss the ‘New Normal’ for businesses. PwC uses Salesforce strategically, leveraging the power and the tools of the platform.
What’s the joint value proposition for our customers?
Arun David: In a fast-paced digital world, businesses need new ways to interact with their customers, employees, and partners – anywhere, anytime, across any device. When it comes to digital, one size does not fit all. Every business has unique customer needs, processes, and governance mandates. PwC combines deep industry and business transformation experience with customised digital solutions, powered by Salesforce, to give our clients a competitive advantage in the digital economy. PwC provides a suite of cross-industry and digital solutions powered by Salesforce and wrapped by consulting services, providing access anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Mukesh Kumar: As cloud adoption and Salesforce usage matures, customer expectations also rise. Digital transformation is about giving customers access to deep industry expertise, not just multiple Salesforce solutions.
With PwC, we have access to experts from specific industries. Leveraging those resources, and addressing challenges with world-class CRM solutions on the Salesforce platform, is a very compelling proposition for our Middle East customers.
For example, Salesforce is helping businesses to get back to work after the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it's through back-to-work support with work.com or rapidly responding to customers, employees, and partners through Salesforce Care.
PwC has also leveraged the platform to build tools such as Crisis Response Solutions for COVID-19 by PwC. This is the power of our partnership and our joint value proposition.
What's next? What does the Middle East market look like for PwC & Salesforce?
Arun David: Re-imagining the way organisations do business is no longer optional. It is mandatory in order to not just survive but to acquire market share. The end customer is more willing to explore other options, which makes it imperative for our clients to innovate, retain customers, and drive loyalty. The Middle East is resilient. Government entities are proactively introducing policies to fuel growth. Consumer confidence is also showing a sharp improvement.
PwC is also investing in our Experience Centre in Dubai. We want to drive change by focusing on the customer experience. Understanding what customers want is critical to creating the right level of impact. The key is to "wow" customers in every interaction.
We will continue to help our clients transform using our insights and technology competencies, continuing the growth that we have seen through our partnership with Salesforce.
Mukesh Kumar: We see two trends: first, businesses are accelerating their digital transformation programmes; second, more companies are exploring cloud technology, because many employees are having to work from home.
New industries are also opening up conversations around CRM, for example, energy, financial services, and the public sector. These present new opportunities for both Salesforce and PwC.
In the Middle East, Salesforce is continuously evolving to better serve our customers. The fact that PwC has been one of the early adopters in the region has allowed us to establish a strong relationship supporting the transformation journey.
For more insights from PwC, check out their on-demand webinar, Transitioning to the New Normal.
To find more information on tackling the challenges posed by the pandemic, download the COVID-19 Response Playbook today.
