Still Dreaming of Dreamforce? Dreamforce came to an end and we are still talking about it. Salesforce has pulled off another year of Dreamforce; four days of networking, innovation, education, parties and giving back. You can read some of the keynotes here.
1) Microsoft and Salesforce Strengthen Strategic Partnership at Dreamforce 2015
Following a partnership announced at last year’s Dreamforce user conference, Salesforce announced plans to extend its strategic partnership with Microsoft even further this year, linking the Salesforce Customer Success Platform to Microsoft Office productivity apps and services.
Salesforce CEO, Marc Benioff attended Microsoft’s Build developer conference in early May, where Salesforce showed off plug-ins as part of the strategic partnership announced last year. This time it was Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella’s turn; Dreamforce this year announced an integration of OneNote, Skype for Business and Office 365 into Salesforce and the creation of a Windows 10 Salesforce app.
These new integrations will build on previous joint solutions that linked Salesforce applications to Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Excel, Power BI, and Office 365.
This year, the two companies have committed to working together to bring the following solutions to life in 2016:
- Skype for Business Integration with Salesforce Lightning Experience: Salesforce will integrate Skype for Business (formerly known as Lync) into its new Lightning Experience. Office 365 customers will be able to use Skype for Business for Web conferencing, presence awareness, chat, and voice and video calls from the Salesforce Lightning Experience.
- OneNote Integration with Salesforce Lightning Experience: Users will be able to associate notes with Salesforce records and view and edit notes directly in OneNote from the Salesforce Lightning Experience.
- Salesforce Integration with Office Graph and Office Delve: Office 365 users will be able to view and discover Salesforce content, such as sales opportunities, customer accounts, and service cases, inside Microsoft’s new search technology.
- Salesforce1 Mobile App for Windows 10: Salesforce will deliver apps for the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system.
Satya Nadella called this latest partnership “a new era of collaboration” that will help companies “reinvent the way they do business.”
http://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2015/09/150916-3.jsp
2) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Did Salesforce Live Demo on an Iphone
During a fireside chat, Nadella talked about how salespeople can use Microsoft software like Outlook with Salesforce’s software to manage customer accounts. What was most surprising was that he showed off the demo using an Apple iPhone and not a Windows Phone.
He explained to the crowd “It’s not my phone, but it is an iPhone,” and he started joking around “I’d like to call it the iPhone Pro because it has all the Microsoft software on it,” and the crowd laughed. The joke is that Apple’s new iPad Pro for businesses mimics many capabilities of Microsoft’s own Surface Pro tablet, including having an optional stylus pen and keyboard.
3) Largest book drive in history #DF15
Giving back is always one of Salesforce’s core values, and Dreamforce proved it. Each day was devoted to a different cause, including women in tech, the environment, veterans, and education but the main focus was on Education.
Last year was all about the “bring a can to Dreamforce,” the goal was to deliver one million meals to fight hunger, the one million cans that turned into three million cans. This year they sought to collect one million books to donate to kids in need, and they did it! The total number was 1,006,225, making it the world’s largest book drive ever. These books are going to be donated to schools and libraries all around the world.
There were many creative ways to donate, for example Uber made it possible for people to donate $1 when they requested an Uber ride. This was one of the many ways that helped Salesforce achieved this milestone, making the experience fun and human.
http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF15/giving-back.jsp
4) Dreamforce Gala Event Raises Millions for UCSF
Salesforce prides itself on being one of the most generous companies with its 1:1:1 model that was pioneered by CEO and cofounder Marc Benioff. The model means that Salesforce gives up one percent of its profits, one percent of its time and one percent of its technology to what it considers to be worthy causes.
Dreamfest, Dreamforce concert, is part of this model where Salesforce expects to raise $10 million for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital this year.
Performers such as The Killers, John Legend, will.i.am, MC Hammer, Gary Clark Jr., and The Foo Fighters joined Dreamforce’s lineup in the Dreamfest Concert for Kids after-party on Thursday, September 17.
Dreamfest after-party played a key role in raising money for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals this year. The event had a goal of raising $10 million to aid cancer research efforts for the hospital.
5) App of the Week
Last week we mentioned that Salesforce released Salesforce IQ for Small Businesses at Dreamforce, and this week we are making SalesforceIQ for Sales Cloud our app of the week.
SalesforceIQ for Sales Cloud brings the power of Relationship Intelligence to your inbox. These apps – available on iOS, Android, and Chrome desktop – seamlessly connect Sales Cloud and email to help salespeople sell smarter from anywhere. Features like predictive notifications and email tracking surface promising opportunities to the top of the inbox. And time-saving productivity tools for email and calendar keep deals moving forward, even while salespeople are on the go.
If you want to learn more, visit the Salesforce Appexchange web-page, or Contact us for more information by clicking here