Salesforce has launched clouds for manufacturing and consumer product goods companies as it continues to target industries and take on the likes of SAP and Oracle through its customer-focused platform.
The Manufacturing Cloud consists of a series of modules including the following:
Sales Agreements to unify manufacturers' run rate business with ERP data and order management systems. Contract terms such as volume and revenue are available for operations and sales teams to view the customer holistically.
If changes to agreements are made, they are incorporated in the Manufacturing Cloud.
Account-Based Forecasting to unify sales, finance, and operations in one view. Planning and forecasting are adjusted in real-time for profits, revenue, and transactions.
Einstein Analytics with account health, demand planning, product penetration, and sales agreements as well as key performance integrators.
Salesforce's approach with its Consumer Goods Cloud is similar to manufacturing. Consumer Goods Cloud aims to use sales data and technology for field reps to optimize product sales in retail stores. In many ways, Salesforce is running the same industry play: Leverage its base of front-end sales and service users to tap into the back-end data.
Consumer Goods Cloud enables field reps to:
Improve visit planning.
Field reps will have access to a list of prioritized and assigned store visits for the day with required and suggested activities, with in-app map functionality to intelligently manage routing. In addition, reps can analyze the health of their business across stores while surfacing new opportunities for their products.
Optimize visit execution.
Once at the store, reps have access to customizable templates based on store or segment types to help ensure that specific store needs are met every time, from inventory and planogram checks to return order processing and surveys, all from a mobile device.
Harness Einstein AI to optimize compliance and product placements.
Einstein Vision for Consumer Goods Cloud delivers an image recognition and object detection solution that enables easy inventory, planogram and merchandising compliance checks, allowing field reps to spend less time on auditing activities and more time building relationships with customers. For example, a rep can take a picture of a shelf and immediately understand if it is set up correctly without having to manually count and input the data into their system.
Easily capture orders and data.
Through mobile order capturing capabilities, a rep can capture orders during a store visit, collect important data such as, product, quantity and pricing. This ensures they've completed all their assigned tasks and reported them correctly while providing executives with a complete view of the visit.
