Transformation @ Work

There are few experiences more frustrating for a customer than having to repeat crucial information again and again. Yet when buying a car, the customer is often expected to answer the exact same questions when shopping for a vehicle, negotiating a deal, and having the vehicle serviced. It raises the question: When your data is kept under one roof, why isn’t that information being shared between teams? Oftentimes, the answer is because each individual team is working with siloed processes and technology, which limits the flow of data and unnecessarily fragments the customer experience.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we look at how effective digital tools can help teams bridge departmental silos and centralize customer data to create a more seamless experience from beginning to end.

Key Insights

03:46: What causes automotive sales, service, and marketing teams to become so siloed, and how does that siloization impact the customer experience?

05:25: The role technology plays in establishing (and eliminating) information silos

06:58: Envisioning a better customer experience: How digitalized dealerships could transform the car buying experience and provide easy access to previously siloed data

09:16: How automotive dealerships and OEMs can leverage digital tools to unify their sales, service, and marketing teams

11:04: Specific features of Salesforce Automotive Cloud that can help dealers centralize, standardize, and share data across teams

13:11: Establishing a single source of truth: How to bring multiple sources of data within Salesforce

16:21: Managing stakeholder approval, and using Salesforce to ensure leadership has insight into every individual team’s operations

17:55: Introducing the Automotive Cloud Accelerator: How Gerent helps teams eliminate the hurdles associated with Automotive Cloud implementation

Guest Bio

Nikhil brings over 11 years of experience in mechanical engineering, business consulting, digital strategy, and a lifelong passion for cars, to his role as Gerent’s Automotive Practice Lead. This background gives him a firsthand perspective on how efficient teams within the automotive industry can be when processes are aligned and working in harmony, and the potential pitfalls associated with siloed, closed-off data.

From the keynotes to the Q&As to the learning sessions to the after-hours business dinners, when we look back at Dreamforce 2022, there was one word on everyone’s lips: Genie. But for all the buzz coming out of the event, with Genie’s ability to process real-time data and deliver “customer magic” mentioned on nearly every keynote, many of us are still asking the question, “what exactly is ‘customer magic,’ anyway?”

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re taking a deep dive into Salesforce Genie: what it is, what it offers businesses in manufacturing, and how teams can best utilize the solution to deliver real-time personalized experience for their customers.

Key Insights

2:39: What is “customer magic,” and how can Genie help businesses deliver it for their customers?

7:19: Translating personalized customer experiences into the B2B manufacturing industry

11:34: Leveraging real-time IoT data to proactively manage, update, and safeguard products in the field

16:35: What businesses need to know before implementing Salesforce Genie

19:43: How Genie can help manufacturers navigate supply chain disruptions and deliver stand-out customer service

Guest Bios

Anandhi Narayanan

Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation in Manufacturing, Gerent

Anandhi brings over 17 years of experience in manufacturing, not just with technology, but with the people and processes that can lead to meaningful change. During her tenure in IT, she led digital transformations for finance, supply chain, operations and sales operations. For the past 4 years as a consultant, she has directed cross-cloud implementations, driving strategy and thought leadership for supply chain organizations across the Salesforce ecosystem.

Ryan Bjorgaard

Manufacturing Product Lead, Gerent

As Gerent’s manufacturing product lead, Ryan is responsible for deeply understanding Salesforce’s product stack and how the technology connects with the needs of the manufacturing industry. He brings years of experience in delivery and solution architecture to the role, as well as a deep passion for the technology and how it can help businesses succeed. He also runs Gerent’s manufacturing, automotive, and energy innovation team, helping the company identify opportunities for new solutions and accelerations within the space.

For too long, larger insurance providers have competed solely on price, and left customer experiences on the back burner. But the times are changing, and a wave of smaller providers and insurtechs are offering faster claims and more personalized experiences–and customers are taking note. According to a 2021 J.D. Power survey, 87% of customers feel that claims experiences influence their decision to stay with an insurer, and 86% say they’d pay more for a better experience overall. The message is clear: If larger providers want to stay dominant, they need to be able to offer a best-in-class claims experience, and that means leveraging digital tools to make that a reality.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at the claims process in insurance, and how Salesforce can allow larger providers to truly personalize the experience for their customers.

Key Insights

03:23: Key ways smaller insurers and insurtechs have changed the game when it comes to customer experience

06:51: Unlocking larger insurers’ competitive advantages through digital tools

08:11: How digitalization allows insurers to offer a more personalized experience to customers

09:21: How a CRM allows insurance agents to maintain a human connection with their customers

13:56: The importance of tracking communications preferences in building a better claims experience

17:57: How better digital tools lead to increased efficiency, which can translate into better training and support for internal teams

20:53: The role of a qualified technology partner in helping insurers implement a better claims process

Guest Bio

Pat Murphy, Former Director of Program Management, Erie Insurance

With 26 years of insurance experience, 24 of which being claims-specific, on top of 13 years of accounting and financial experience, Pat has an incredible eye for how process, people, and technology coexist in the insurance space. As director of program management for Erie Insurance’s claims division, Pat led multiple implementation projects from small to extra large, delivering complex implementations ahead of schedule and with more features than were initially scoped out.

If you want a clear picture of what’s coming to Salesforce in the new year, there’s no better place to look than Dreamforce. This year’s event was no exception: Dreamforce 2022 was jam-packed with announcements that are going to impact businesses in a big way during the new year. From the rollout of Salesforce Genie, which brings game-changing real-time data to Salesforce, to major announcements on newly-introduced products such as Automotive Cloud and Net Zero Cloud, to key conversations about Salesforce’s direction in the year ahead, there was something for virtually every industry during the event.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we sit down with the Gerent ambassadors who attended Dreamforce for an in-depth look at what makes the event so special, and what businesses need to pay attention to in 2023.

Key Insights

01:36: What exactly is Dreamforce, anyway?

02:30: What made Dreamforce so special (especially in 2022) for the ambassadors in attendance

05:41: Automotive Cloud: a massive opportunity to reach new customers in an underserved industry

07:49: Net Zero Cloud: promising potential to transform the nonprofit sector and help change the world

8:49: The importance of equity in healthcare, and how Salesforce can help

9:26: The one concept on everyone’s mind at Dreamforce: Real-time data

10:41: Salesforce Genie: game-changing real-time data capabilities for customers across industries

Guest Speakers

Anandhi Narayanan, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation in Manufacturing, Gerent

Anandhi brings over 17 years of experience in manufacturing, not just with technology, but with the people and processes that can lead to meaningful change. During her tenure in IT, she led digital transformations for finance, supply chain, operations and sales operations. For the past 4 years as a consultant, she has directed cross-cloud implementations, driving strategy and thought leadership for supply chain organizations across the Salesforce ecosystem.

Donn Vucovich, Insurance Practice Lead, Gerent

Donn has worked in the insurance industry for over 30 years, acting as a business executive and trusted advisor to senior executives across the industry. He has a keen interest in building long-term partnerships and helping insurers address their most pressing pain points through digitalization.

Jenny Hall, Senior Vice President of Education and Nonprofit, Gerent

Jenny brings to her current role a background that spans the education, nonprofit, and health sectors, and over 27 years of experience. Her wide-ranging expertise uniquely positions her to help institutions of all sizes identify the ways that digital tools can impact processes and deliver better outcomes. She has a passion for people, and for building processes that optimize organizational resources while building scale.

Jim Rogers, Senior Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Gerent

A registered nurse by training, Jim Rogers has been in healthcare for over 27 years, with 23 years of those spent as an RN and over 15 years running healthcare operations and service lines. He also brings 12 years of experience as a Salesforce customer and partner and, prior to joining Gerent, dedicated 7 years to helping payers and providers create engaging patient experiences with Salesforce Health Cloud.

Imagine how you would feel if, every time you tried to process a healthcare claim or spoke to your doctor, you had to remind them your name. It’s an annoying feeling, right? Now, imagine how it would feel if they consistently forgot your pronouns, failed to deliver communications in a language you could read, or forgot to loop in the person legally tasked with overseeing your health decisions.

Being aware of patients’ communication preferences is absolutely crucial to Managed Care Organizations, MCOs for short. It’s so important, in fact, that new legislation went into effect in New York State on October 1st that made tracking these electronic communications preferences not just important, but mandatory for compliance purposes. For payers inside and beyond New York, managing patient communications preferences is more important than ever – which makes the need for effective digital tools more pressing than ever before.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re talking about new legislation for MCOs in New York, and how it relates to the broader issues of tracking, maintaining, and applying patients’ communication preferences.

Key Ideas

04:29: What exactly does this new legislation facing MCOs in New York entail?

05:37: Defining “communication preferences” and outlining why they’re so important

08:44: Required steps for MCOs in New York to maintain compliance with this new legislation

13:21: Why MCOs outside of New York state need to pay attention to this legislation

14:33: Specific challenges MCOs face with implementing digital tools to maintain compliance

16:24: How digitalized vs. non-digitalized businesses fare when it comes to addressing compliance issues

21:18: How MCOs can implement the necessary changes to stay compliant (and make them happen fast)

22:21: How Salesforce can help when it comes to collecting, tracking, updating, and sharing customer communication preferences

23:35: The role a qualified technology partner plays in helping MCOs implement the necessary tools to maintain compliance

Guest Bio

Cheryl Gibson, Director of Health and Life Sciences, Payers, Gerent

Cheryl has been in the payer industry for 32 years and has deep experience working with accounts spanning the local to national level. During her time at a large national payer, she oversaw a complex Salesforce implementation and played a major role in building a roadmap and solution that served the needs of her clients. She has a tremendous passion for process improvement and for helping payers build infrastructure they need to serve their members.

Whether they’re buying a car or getting their vehicle serviced, customers want to be treated like people. In a field as high-stress as the automotive industry, the value of having someone know your experiences, your needs, and your pain points simply cannot be overstated. When it comes to buying something as important as a car — the vehicle we drive to work in, take on vacation, pick up our kids with — that human touch makes a world of difference. That’s the power of first-party data: it lets your customers tell you their story, in their words, so you can meet them where they are.

But while it’s easy to talk about how important first-party data is, collecting it, analyzing it, and utilizing it is a much trickier proposition. Businesses in automotive and manufacturing have historically struggled to take advantage of first-party data, largely because they lack the tools to do so. If the automotive industry wants to deliver a better, more personalized experience to their customers, they need effective digital technology.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re talking about first-party data: Why it’s so important for businesses in manufacturing and automotive, the hurdles these businesses face in collecting it, and how Salesforce can facilitate that process and deliver a more personalized customer experience.

Key Ideas

04:21: What makes first-party data so valuable to businesses in manufacturing and automotive?

06:00: How manufacturers can use first-party data to personalize the marketing and service experience for customers

07:49: Why the automotive industry has historically struggled to take advantage of first-party data

09:41: The major value proposition for dealers and OEMs in leveraging first-party data

11:53: Strategies for collecting first-party data, and how digital tools can facilitate that process

13:38: The unique challenge of collecting first-party data when selling through third-party intermediaries

15:31: Tips for building a data flow that supports the gathering of first-party data from multiple sources

17:00: How Salesforce supports the collection, tracking, sharing, and utilization of first-party data

18:56: Specific ways manufacturers can leverage Salesforce to collect first-party data and use it to personalize the customer experience

Guest Bios

Anandhi Narayanan, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation in Manufacturing, Gerent

Anandhi brings over 17 years of experience in manufacturing, not just with technology, but with the people and processes that can lead to meaningful change. During her tenure in IT, she led digital transformations for finance, supply chain, operations and sales operations. For the past 4 years as a consultant, she has directed cross-cloud implementations, driving strategy and thought leadership for supply chain organizations across the Salesforce ecosystem.

Nikhil Bhatia, Automotive Practice Lead, Gerent

Nikhil brings over 11 years of experience in mechanical engineering, business consulting, digital strategy, and a lifelong passion for cars, to his role as Gerent’s Automotive Practice Lead. This background gives him unique insights into the challenges the automotive industry faces as it relates to first-party data, and how Salesforce can help companies deliver a best-in-class customer experience.

A tool is only useful if you use it, and people are only likely to use a tool if they know how it works. You could spend millions of dollars and months of employee time on the latest and greatest piece of technology, only to watch it languish, unused, because you didn’t invest in adequate training. With that kind of monetary investment and time commitment… wouldn’t you want to take every possible step to ensure your employees take full advantage of the technology?

Effective training is a crucial part of solution adoption, especially in the days immediately following deployment. Yet, in spite of that, businesses often fail to properly invest in building their training plans, leading ultimately to stalled adoption and failed implementation. Tech training can’t be something thrown together last minute; it has to reflect employees’ specific needs, take into account their backgrounds and passions— and, at the end of the day, it has to be engaging enough to keep their attention.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at what makes a highly effective training plan, and how that feeds directly into high levels of solution adoption.

Key Ideas

04:04 - Key reasons businesses should invest in a tech training plan prior to deploying new digital technology

04:58 - Why industries have historically underestimated the need for training (and how that impacts adoption of new CRMs)

06:29 - Gap analysis: the importance of identifying employee needs and pain points before training begins

08:10 - Identifying and cultivating champions during the tech training process

10:49 - Why being flexible is one of the most important qualities to possess during tech training

12:48 - Positioning new technology as a natural part of employees day-to-day lives

13:44 - The role gamification can play in making tech training more engaging for employees

15:25 - Addressing the “boring” parts of training: how to make technical and detail-oriented sections enjoyable and engaging

17:32 - Potential pitfalls in the tech training process, and how team leaders can avoid them

19:41 - How team leaders can address employee resistance to new technology through their training plans

21:02 - How training and change management work together to drive employee adoption of new technologies

22:48 - Putting the pieces together: How effective training can deliver huge wins in employee engagement, adoption, and enthusiasm

Guest Speakers

Antonia Moore

Senior Business Analyst, Gerent

Antonia brings over 15 years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem to her current role as a Senior Business Analyst at Gerent. In that time, she’s led countless training sessions and helped employees at all levels understand what they can accomplish with Salesforce. Her love of training, mentorship, and education runs through everything she does. Case in point: in addition to her customer-facing training efforts, she provides mentorship to multiple coworkers at Gerent.

Guest Bio

Nikhil Bhatia, Automotive Practice Lead, Gerent

Nikhil brings over 11 years of experience in mechanical engineering, business consulting, digital strategy, and a lifelong passion for cars, to his role as Gerent’s Automotive Practice Lead. This background gives him unique insights into the challenges the automotive industry faces as it relates to CRM adoption and how comprehensive training plans can help to drive that adoption.

Lead generation is both the cornerstone of successful marketing campaigns and a perpetual challenge for teams of all sizes and skill levels. The responsibility for managing campaigns often falls directly on employees’ shoulders – and over time, that burden can start to weigh on team members, leading to burnout, subpar performance, and even turnover.

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (also known as Pardot) gives teams a tremendous advantage when it comes to scoring, grading, converting, and tracking incoming leads. It’s a powerful tool that can transform teams’ marketing efforts — but as we know, a tool is only useful if people actually use it. So, how can team leaders get their employees to adopt and take advantage of what Pardot has to offer?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at adoption: how new and established teams alike can incorporate Marketing Cloud Account Engagement into their lead-gen efforts and drive campaign success at scale.

Key Ideas

03:08 - The three biggest value-adds that Marketing Cloud Account Engagement offers marketing teams

06:48 - Pardot in action: the ideal process for integrating Marketing Cloud Account Engagement into a team’s lead-gen efforts

09:31 - When should team leads consider bringing Pardot into their lead-gen campaigns?

10:48 - Developing lead-gen campaigns from the ground up with Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

12:35 - Using Pardot to supplement existing, long-running marketing efforts

15:24 - The role of tech training in encouraging employee adoption of new tech solutions

17:52 - Common stumbling blocks of Pardot deployment — and how team leaders can avoid them

20:57 - A few successful Marketing Cloud Account Engagement deployment use cases

Guest Speaker

Lisa French

Senior Business Analyst, Gerent

Lisa has spent 10 of her almost 14 years in the Salesforce ecosystem working directly with Pardot. Having used the solution even before it was acquired by Salesforce, she acted as Gerent’s Pardot practice lead before the solution was eventually folded under Marketing Cloud. She now acts as Gerent’s Senior Business Analyst, Solution Architect, and CPQ Practice Lead.

Anyone who has bought, sold, or taken a vehicle in for service knows that customer experience is a major pain point for the automotive industry. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), dealers, and service providers alike have long struggled to give customers the clear communication and personalized experience they need, especially as the industry shifts into a digital-first model. But to meet consumers’ increasingly high expectations, they need effective digital tools– which is exactly what Salesforce’s newly-announced Automotive Cloud intends to provide.

In this episode, we’re taking a high-level look at Salesforce Automotive Cloud: why businesses need it, how it stands to impact automotive dealerships and OEMs, and how Gerent’s new Automotive practice is positioned to help businesses take advantage of the solution.

Key Ideas

03:19: How the automotive industry has reacted to the massive data-first, customer-driven shift towards digital experiences

04:44: Identifying the gaps in process that lead to the familiar pain points associated with car buying

07:48: How digitalization and digital tools can help OEMs and dealers meet customers where they are

09:32: How Salesforce Automotive Cloud can facilitate data sharing and transform the customer experience

11:19: Facilitating better long-term customer communication through Automotive Cloud and Driver 360

14:00: What does a truly differentiated digital customer experience look like?

16:09: Managing data security and protecting customer information with Salesforce Automotive Cloud

18:37: Key strategies for team leaders looking to encourage Salesforce adoption

20:03: How Gerent’s new automotive practice is positioned to help dealers and OEMs get the most out of Salesforce Automotive Cloud

Guest Bio

Nikhil Bhatia, Automotive Practice Lead, Gerent

Nikhil brings over 11 years of experience in mechanical engineering, business consulting, digital strategy, and a lifelong passion for cars, to his role as Gerent’s Automotive Practice Lead. This background gives him unique insights into the challenges the auto industry faces as it relates to data sharing and security, and how digitalization can help companies deliver a best-in-class customer experience.

References

https://www.automotive-fleet.com/136735/americans-spend-an-average-of-17-600-minutes-driving-annually#:~:text=Photo%20courtesy%20of%20AAA%20Foundation,AAA%20Foundation%20for%20Traffic%20Safety

https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/trends-in-automotive-form/chapter-1/

https://money.com/new-car-prices-average-50000/#:~:text=New%20Car%20Prices%20Rise%20Closer%20to%20Average%20of%20%2450%2C000%20in%202022%20%7C%20Money&text=Best%20Mortgage%20Lenders%20Independently%20researched,data%20based%20on%20originated%20loans

The Bullwhip Effect: Small changes on the consumer side that have cascading effects on vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers. Navigating the bullwhip effect can be a challenge during the best of times – but when supply chains are volatile and industries strained by the lasting effects of COVID-19, it can feel nearly impossible. Market pressures have put an enormous pressure on the interactions between manufacturers and suppliers and, if left unchecked, could continue to strain relationships even after the world returns to something approaching “normal.” Now more than ever, manufacturers need effective digital tools that can streamline communications, track essential data, and ensure business runs as smoothly as possible.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we discuss relationship building between manufacturers and suppliers, and how digital tools can facilitate seamless operations even during uncertain times.

Key Insights

03:24 - How the supply chain disruptions of the past few years have impacted manufacturers and suppliers

07:46 - How the “bullwhip effect” impacts relationships between manufacturers and suppliers in the short term and long term

09:33 - The impact of digitalization on manufacturers’ ability to react to sudden supply-side changes

11:00 - Demonstrating reliability during turbulent times through digitalization

14:10 - How integrating systems and embracing digitalization helps businesses maintain steady operations despite market disruptions

Guest Bio

David Vancina

Field CTO, Manufacturing, MuleSoft

As MuleSoft’s strategic client architect for the past four years, as well as the company’s acting Field CTO for Manufacturing, David has played a crucial role in MuleSoft’s mission of connecting technologies to create seamless cross-platform experiences. He brings 20 years of integration experience and almost 35 years of software experience to his role. He has a noted passion for and expertise in integration and technology, specifically within manufacturing.