Salesforce Introduces Consumer Goods Cloud And Manufacturing Cloud

Salesforce, one of the most successful names in the world of customer relationship management (CRM) products and capabilities, that has made hundreds of billions of dollars developing solutions eyeing customer service and analytics, has announced the debut of Manufacturing Cloud and Consumer Goods Cloud.

These new products are designed with a purpose to unify market data from disparate sources for maximizing revenue while enhancing customer satisfaction.

In a press release, Salesforce said Consumer Goods Cloud will assist customer good enterprises to transform their business with seamless and out-of-the-box solutions for field representatives, streamlining operations, and significantly improving in-store experiences for the end customer. 

It was also added that Manufacturing Cloud will focus on delivering an enhanced level of business visibility and collaboration for the operations and sales teams of manufacturing enterprises. Both these clouds will enable success-driven enterprises to have a better and streamlined view of their customers.

Manufacturing Cloud

Manufacturing Cloud, which is a part of Salesforce’s Customer 360 Platform for manufacturers, emphasizes on addressing challenges around predicting demand and resulting inventory buildups or stock-outs that can increase warehousing costs. Specifically, Manufacturing Cloud collates forecasting tools and sales agreements that enable account, sales, and operations teams (in theory) to generate more robust projections.

Manufacturers get the opportunity to tap Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud to reconcile negotiated contract terms with run-rate data stowed in order management systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Any alterations to agreements are propagated immediately to existing sales contracts and their impact gets reflected across a wide range of customizable metrics, including actual volumes, committed order volumes, and the performance of the agreement against the forecast.

Account-based forecasting, another important feature of Manufacturing Cloud, lets team members develop more precise and accurate forecasts. It is also beneficial to adjust those forecasts in real-time, accounting for new market demands or customer requirements.

Salesforce manufacturing SVP and GM Cindy Bolt remarked changing market and customer demands can have a detrimental effect on the bottom line, so being able to understand what is really happening on the ground is critical for success. Manufacturing Cloud bridges the gap between operations and sales teams while ensuring more transparent and predictive business, so they can build more trusted and deeper relationships with their customers.

Consumer Goods Cloud

Salesforce for Consumer Goods Cloud is aimed squarely at field representatives working from brick-and-mortar enterprises. It is power-packed with toolsets that are intended for streamlining store operations by ensuring products are in stock and promotions and pricing are aligned with corporate expectations.

A daily list of assigned and prioritized store visits with suggested and required activities, all of which are routed and mapped by Salesforce Maps, thanks to Consumer Goods Cloud. Representatives get access to smartphone-optimized segment and store templates for planogram checks, inventory planning, return order processing, and surveys. This helps them capture orders during store visits and collect data of products like pricing and quantity.

Consumer Goods Cloud also ships with Einstein Analytics for Consumer Goods and Einstein Vision for Consumer Goods, two new capabilities that are powered by Einstein, the proprietary predictive analytics and AI platform of Salesforce. 

Salesforce retail and consumer goods GM and SVP John Strain said retail execution remains one of the most important pieces of the goods brand strategy of a consumer but a huge majority gets wasted every now and then, especially when the field representatives don’t have the required technology and data to make smarter decisions. Strain added Consumer Goods Cloud would help field reps with the tools they require to be successful on the ground and help them build both stronger relationships and business opportunities with their retail partners.

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