Category: CRMNews

CRMNews

DOJ Wants More Info on Salesforce/Slack Deal

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked for a second round of information on Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack.

Salesforce announced in December that it was purchasing Slack for $27.7 billion. The move was seen as a way for both companies to better compete with Microsoft. Salesforce has come under increasing pressure as Microsoft has gone after Salesforce’s core CRM business. Likewise, Slack has gone from the market leader in corporate messaging to falling far behind Microsoft Teams.

One of the biggest factors in Teams surpassing Slack is its being bundled with Microsoft Office. In fact, Slack filed a complaintwith the EU over Microsoft’s actions.

The last hurdle before the sale can be finalized is regulatory approval. According to CNBC, the DOJ has asked for additional information from the two companies. Salesforce does not anticipate any delays as a result of the additional inquiry, with the company still expecting to close the deal in the quarter ending in July.

Nonetheless, the second inquiry could be another indication of additional scrutiny of tech mergers. Facebook and Google are both facing antitrust cases. In Facebook’s case, in particular, the company’s acquisitions of smaller competitors, such as WhatsApp, has been cited as a concern.

The US may be preparing to take a tougher stance on tech consolidation, especially if it places too much power or control in the hands of one company.

February 17, 2021
Microsoft and SAP Partner to Integrate Microsoft Teams

Microsoft and SAP are partnering to integrate Teams across SAP’s suite of solutions, with the goal of streamlining customers’ cloud transitions.

Microsoft Teams and Slack are the two dominant corporate messaging platforms on the market. Salesforce recently inked a deal to acquire Slack in a move that was seen largely as a way to fend off threats and remain competitive. It’s not surprising that Saleforce’s rivals would want to offer similar levels of integration. This is especially true for SAP and Microsoft, both among Salesforce’s biggest competitors.

The partnerships builds on a joint commitment by the two companies, and will see Teams integrated with SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Customer Experience.

“New ways of working, collaborating and interacting completely transform how we operate,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP SE and member of the Executive Board. “By integrating Microsoft Teams across our solution portfolio, we will bring collaboration to the next level, jointly determining the future of work and enabling the frictionless enterprise. Our trusted partnership with Microsoft is focused on continuously advancing customer success. That’s why we are also expanding interoperability with Azure.”

“The case for digital transformation has never been more urgent,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “By bringing together the power of Azure and Teams with SAP’s solutions, we will help more organizations harness the power of the cloud so they can more quickly adapt and innovate going forward.”

The new integrations are expected to be available in mid-2021.

January 22, 2021
Slack CEO: No Intention To Make Slack Free

“There is definitely no intention to make Slack free,” says Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield. “What we’ve seen in the last little while is the biggest telco in North America is wall-to-wall on Slack. The operator of the largest integrated health care system in the United States is on Slack. The single largest government contractor in the United States is wall-to-wall on Slack.”

Stewart Butterfield, CEO of Slack, says that both Slack and Salesforce have no intention of making Slack free for enterprises:

Slack Connect Key To Value Unlock Of Salesforce Deal

The simple version of the back story is this is a really unique combination. We believe we can accomplish in the next five years what might have taken us 20 years to do otherwise. That’s the heart of it and it’s a pretty big milestone for us. We’re excited. It wasn’t expected by the outside world but we have a lot of momentum now. We came out of this quarter and we announced our results and Salesforce announced their results. Then we announced the acquisition all at the same time.

A little bit of this got lost but we added 12,000 new paying customers in that quarter. It’s up 140 percent from a year ago. It matches the crazy surge that we saw during the early days of the pandemic. That momentum is coming from product improvements and it’s coming from Slack Connect which allows two organizations to communicate across organizational boundaries. That’s actually going to be key to the value unlock over the next few years. Salesforce is all about CRM. It’s all about customers and Slack Connect is 95 percent customer-vendor relationships.

Engagement Layer: Everyone Will See It Later

This (acquisition) is 100% offense. There are some really unique aspects of this particular combination. We weren’t looking to sell the company. I have a great relationship with Brett Taylor, President, and COO of Salesforce. We’ve known each other for a couple of decades at this point. There’s a way in which we see the world that i think very few people see it today but everyone will see it later. One way to say that is to look at the engagement layer. That’s kind of a weird term but it is the place where the conversations are happening, the places where the decisions are being made, as the perfect place to bring together workflows across organizational boundaries.

Salesforce has a really broad suite. But of course, we have 2,400 apps in the app directory for Slack. We have 700 000 custom integrations that were developed by customers. These are like unique little integrations, some of them very small, just sending notifications into Slack, and some of them are sophisticated workflows that run entire businesses. That’s something that we will see an increasing degree of sophistication in the messaging environment and an increasing degree of work getting done directly where the decisions are made.

No Intention To Make Slack Free

When Brett and I were talking we talked about the opportunity for something that’s one plus one equals seven. If you think back to the 90s and Cisco acquiring small hardware startups and then plugging it into their network of 20,000 salespeople and just selling a lot more of that thing. That’s not it. We will do that as well. We obviously have incredible distribution and incredible reach and incredible relationships across all industries and across all geographies. So we’ll sell more Slack.

Salesforce recently announced their plan to get to $50 billion in revenue and we’ll play an important part in that. We’ll also be an accelerant for the adoption of Salesforce’s core products. There is definitely no intention to make Slack free. What we’ve seen in the last little while is the biggest telco in North America is wall-to-wall on Slack. The operator of the largest integrated health care system in the United States is on Slack. The single largest government contractor in the United States is wall-to-wall on Slack.

We win in media and technology, kind of famously, but we also win in retail and apparel and industries that people don’t imagine seeing us. We have 142,000 customers right now. There’s going to be a lot of overlap with Salesforce but there’s also going to be 100,000 plus of those customers which are SMBs and kind of outside of Salesforce’s purview so far. We think there’s the opportunity to bring them into the fold and to connect them all together with Slack Connect.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield: No Intention To Make Slack Free

December 16, 2020
Salesforce Buys Slack for $27.7 Billion

Salesforce announced that it is buying Slack for $27.7 billion in cash and stock. The company says that combining Slack with Salesforce Customer 360 will be transformative for customers and the industry. They say that the combination will create the operating system for the new way to work, uniquely enabling companies to grow and succeed in the all-digital world.

Under the terms of the agreement, Slack shareholders will receive $26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares of Salesforce common stock for each Slack share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $27.7 billion based on the closing price of Salesforce’s common stock on November 30, 2020.

The transaction is anticipated to close in the second quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2022, subject to approval by the Slack stockholders, the receipt of required regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told the Wall Street Journal that he is joining Salesforce and will continue to run Slack as a unit of Salesforce after the deal’s close.

“Stewart and his team have built one of the most beloved platforms in enterprise software history, with an incredible ecosystem around it,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. I’m thrilled to welcome Slack to the Salesforce Ohana once the transaction closes.”

“Salesforce started the cloud revolution, and two decades later, we are still tapping into all the possibilities it offers to transform the way we work. The opportunity we see together is massive,” said Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO and Co-Founder. “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility. Personally, I believe this is the most strategic combination in the history of software, and I can’t wait to get going.”

Slack to Become the New Interface for Salesforce Customer 360

Salesforce:

Salesforce is the #1 CRM that enables companies to sell, service, market and conduct commerce, from anywhere. Slack brings people, data and tools together so teams can collaborate and get work done, from anywhere. Slack Connect extends the benefits of Slack to enable communication and collaboration between a company’s employees and all its external partners, from vendors to customers.
Slack will be deeply integrated into every Salesforce Cloud. As the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360, Slack will transform how people communicate, collaborate and take action on customer information across Salesforce as well as information from all of their other business apps and systems to be more productive, make smarter, faster decisions and create connected customer experiences.

December 1, 2020
Facebook Buying CRM Startup Kustomer

Facebook has reached a deal to acquire Kustomer, the maker of a “customer service CRM platform built for today.”

The deal, rumored to be worth at least $1 billion, would be a departure from Facebook’s traditional acquisitions. The company usually buys companies aligned with its consumer-oriented focus, whereas Kustomer’s software is aimed at businesses.

The move demonstrates Facebook’s interest in monetizing some of its existing businesses, specifically WhatsApp. The company looked at integrating ads in the platform before abandoning the idea due to backlash. Instead, the company has focused on providing businesses with a way to communicate and support their customers via the platform.

Executives Dan Levy, Facebook VP of Ads and Business Products, and Matt Idema, COO, WhatsApp, made it clear Kustomer is integral to those goals:

As businesses adjust to an evolving digital environment, they’re seeking solutions that place people at the center, especially when it comes to communication. Any business knows that when the phone rings, they need to answer it. Increasingly, texts and messages have become just as important as that phone call — and businesses need to adapt.

Kustomer’s platform will help businesses better support and engage with their customers:

Kustomer is an omnichannel CRM platform that brings customer conversations from various channels together into a single-screen view. It helps businesses automate repetitive tasks so their agents can maximize the time and quality of interactions with customers. Facebook plans to support Kustomer’s operations by providing the resources it needs to scale its business, improve and innovate its product offering, and delight its customers. That way, more people will benefit from customer service that is faster, richer and available whenever and however they need it, whether it’s phone, email, web chat or messaging.

Facebook is already under scrutiny over antitrust concerns. It remains to be seen if there will be any obstacles to Facebook’s latest acquisition, especially with the incoming Biden/Harris administration.

November 30, 2020
Salesforce/Slack Deal Expected Tuesday

Salesforce and Slack are expected to announce a sales agreement Tuesday, in what would be Salesforce’s biggest acquisition to date.

The two companies made headlines Wednesday with news that Salesforce was looking to purchase the iconic corporate messaging app. At the time, talks were thought to still be in the preliminary stages, with no indication a deal was in sight. Within hours, however, outlets starting reporting the talks were in the advanced stages.

Things have progressed quickly, as a new report from the Wall Street Journal says a deal could be announced as early as Tuesday after market close. CNBC’s David Faber reports the deal will be roughly half cash and half stock, although it may be slightly weighted toward the cash side.

Similarly, while initial reports valued Slack at $17 billion, it appears Salesforce will be paying a significant premium. Faber said the deal is not expected to reach $30 billion, but may come close.

Experts believe the acquisition will help Slack, as well as Salesforce, fend off Microsoft. Slack has been hurt by a number of factors, most significantly Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with Office. Microsoft’s tactics prompted Slack to file an antitrust claim with the EU, a claim Jim Cramer calls “strong.”

At the same time, Microsoft continues to go after Salesforce’s core CRM market. Its most recent inroad was a partnership with C3.ai and Adobe to create AI-driven CRM.

The combination of the two companies may ultimately help both compete with Microsoft more effectively.

November 30, 2020
Salesforce Beware: Microsoft, Adobe and C3.ai Reinvent CRM

Microsoft, Adobe and C3.ai have joined forces to use artificial intelligence (AI) to reinvent customer relationship management (CRM).

The new product, C3 AI CRM, is powered by Microsoft Dynamics and fully integrates with Adobe Experience Cloud. The goal is to deliver “the first enterprise-class, AI-first customer relationship management solution is purpose-built for industries.”

Salesforce, in particular, should be worried by this development. Microsoft has been trying for years to dethrone Salesforce as the CRM king, with little success. While Dynamics 365 has certainly carved out a corner of the market, Salesforce is still the undisputed leader.

The combination of Dynamics’ foundation, C3.ai’s artificial intelligence and Adobe’s “AI-driven solutions for marketing, analytics, advertising, and commerce” may be just the winning combination Microsoft has been looking for.

“This year has made clear that businesses fortified by digital technology are more resilient and more capable of transforming when faced with sweeping changes like those we are experiencing,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Together with C3.ai and Adobe, we are bringing to market a new class of industry-specific AI solutions, powered by Dynamics 365, to help organizations digitize their operations and unlock real-time insights across their business.”

The companies made a point of highlighting how the digital transformation had changed the requirements for a CRM solution, with general-purpose software no longer meeting customers’ needs.

“Microsoft, Adobe, and C3.ai are reinventing a market that Siebel Systems invented more than 25 years ago,” said Thomas M. Siebel, CEO of C3.ai. “The dynamics of the market and the mandates of digital transformation have dramatically changed CRM market requirements. A general-purpose CRM system of record is no longer sufficient. Customers today demand industry-specific, fully AI-enabled solutions that provide AI-enabled revenue forecasting, product forecasting, customer churn, next-best product, next-best offer, and predisposition to buy.”

Microsoft’s open approach to data and integration have already been labeled a big advantage over Salesforce’s approach. Should this new partnership deliver on its promise, Salesforce may soon find itself scrambling to catch up.

October 27, 2020
Microsoft’s Approach to Data a Major Advantage Over Salesforce

Microsoft’s approach to customer data could help the company make major headway against Salesforce.

Salesforce is one of the leading customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise application software companies in the US. According to Business Insider, Futurum Research analyst Dan Newman believes it could be at a big disadvantage versus Microsoft because of its focus on collecting data primarily from its own tools.

In contrast, Microsoft has moved towards openness in recent years, under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella. In the past, Microsoft was fiercely territorial about its own products and services. Windows and Office were Microsoft’s two cash cows, and the company was focused on keeping customers locked into that ecosystem.

Under Nadella, however, Microsoft has embraced other platforms and operating systems. Their focus has shifted to providing the best products, apps and services on any platform, rather than fiercely protecting their own.

This approach is serving it well in the CRM market, where Microsoft Dynamics 365 competes with Salesforce. Unlike Salesforce, Microsoft’s products integrate with a wide range of tools and services, including those from competitors. Microsoft seems to be taking the approach of being the central hub where that data comes together.

“We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of out-of-the-box connectors that allow our customers to connect to the data they already have, wherever it is: Whether it’s sitting in a system 360 mainframe from the 1970s or it’s sitting in the latest-and-greatest SaaS business application,” said James Phillips, President of Microsoft’s Business Applications Group.

Microsoft’s efforts may force Salesforce to adapt in order to stay competitive.

October 6, 2020
Salesforce CEO: We Are In A New Digital World

“We are in a new digital world―in an ALL digital world,” says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. “The past is gone and it’s not coming back. We are not in the future. We are in the present moment. We are now in this new digital future and we need to rebuild our companies and organizations. This is a moment where if we all decide that we are all going to be successful and that the past is gone, we can create the future that we want.”

Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, discusses how we are not living in the past or the future, we are living in the present. He says that the present is a new digital world in an all digital world:

This Is About Helping Our Customers Thrive

We are, of course, in an unpredictable time. There’s never been greater uncertainty in the entire world because you have a global pandemic, you have a global economic crisis, you have a racial justice crisis, you have a global leadership crisis, and you have a global environmental crisis, and they are all happening simultaneously. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world. That’s why we all really have to focus and get really clear on what we want right now and how we are going to succeed through these times.

This is a time that you can no longer do what you were doing six months ago. You have to do something totally new and if you can do something totally new you can have tremendous success. Salesforce is now an example of that success. We delivered a 29 percent growth quarter. It was amazing. That followed a 30 percent growth quarter. We also had record margins and we had record large deals. It was amazing how many very large transactions we were able to close during that time.

Ultimately, this is about helping our customers succeed and helping them thrive during this time. It was a 63 percent increase in seven-figure deals for our quarter. It is really because the largest most important companies in this world are all making dramatic changes and we’re there to help them connect with their customers in a whole new way.

We Are In A New Digital World… In An All Digital World

We are in a new digital world―in an ALL digital world. The past is gone. It’s not coming back. We are not in the future. We are in the present moment. This is a be here now moment. Everyone needs to realize that the past is gone. We are now in this new digital future and we need to rebuild our companies and organizations. Ultimately, we need to rebuild ourselves to be successful in this new digital future.

I just had a Board meeting last week. I had a Board member and they were talking about how great Zoom is and how we participated in this great IPO and successful it is. The Board members said that Zoom is really the future. I said, look, Zoom is not the future. Zoom is the present. This is our present reality. We are in a new world. This is our reality. We need to all make changes and we need to make them now because this is not going to shift anytime soon. If we’re going to succeed through this we need to realize that the past is gone.

We Can Create The Future That We Want

We are never going back to how it was. All of our employees are at home. Even in countries where we are open like Japan employees don’t want to even come in to the office because they have reskilled themselves. We have a whole reskilling engine called Trailhead.com. They use our tools. We have a tremendous salesforce automation tool that lets our employees sell to our customers remotely digitally. Our Sales Cloud is why we have tremendous sales, productivity, and success. Our Service Cloud is why we are having tremendous ability to service from anywhere and market from anywhere. The reason we’re the fastest growing top five software company in the world is because we use our own products.

This is just a minute in time where I say, wow, I didn’t see this coming. Nobody did. But now that we’re here we have to rebuild ourselves. At the same time we have to also augment for our customers what we can do. We are doing now contact tracing for thousands of companies. We run pandemic response management for 35 states. We didn’t have a pandemic response capability six months ago. Now we have to have it.

We have to be there for our customers to help them be successful whether they are public sector organizations or whether they are the world’s most important companies. This is a moment where if we all decide that we are all going to be successful and that the past is gone, we can create the future that we want.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: We Are In A New Digital World

September 23, 2020
Businesses Being Reimagined In A World That Is Now Entirely Digital

“There’s a real recognition that digitization and transformation are not doing what you used to do in the physical world,” says Publicis Sapient CEO Nigel Vaz. “Digitizing that and translating that is essentially the journey of going from being a caterpillar to a butterfly. Real transformation. How do you reimagine yourself in the context of a world that now is entirely digital? Customers are thinking very actively about how they actually create products and services that essentially create value for customers entirely digitally.”

Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient, discusses how the current pandemic has forced organizations to reimagine their businesses digitally. Nigel works closely with clients such as McDonald’s, Nationwide, and Unilever to deliver transformative experiences and business models:

https://youtu.be/VOKcTLcxHXw
Businesses Being Reimagined In A World That Is Now Entirely Digital

Digitization Has Become Existential For Business

I think Digital has always been important for business. Now more than ever what’s becoming very clear is this has gone from being something that’s important to something that’s existential. How do you support customers to make orders entirely online when your stores are closed? How do you create mashups with other partners to be able to facilitate deliveries when your own deliveries don’t suffice? How do you try to create experiences online through self-service that minimize the impact of people calling your call centers?

All of these things are things clients are facing on a regular basis. Most CEOs I’m in conversation with are acknowledging the fact that this has now got to be a priority, that they have to be ready more so than they’ve ever thought before.

3 Key Things Happening With the Transformation

There are three things happening here in terms of transformation. The first is the change in human behavior where I think there’s a recognizable shift now. We’re seeing significant accounts of over-70s, for example, ordering from retail and ramping that up. We’re seeing a big shift in institutions like schools and educational institutions, which historically had not thought about transformation as particularly applicable to them.

We’re also seeing a shift in industries like leisure looking at creating virtual experiences since physical experiences are essentially restricted and people can’t use them. The human behavior shift is translating to big investments in technology and technology platforms that enable this.

Businesses Being Reimagined In A World That Is Now Entirely Digital

Then lastly, new business models. There’s a real recognition that digitization and transformation are not doing what you used to do in the physical world. Digitizing that and translating that is essentially the journey of going from being a caterpillar to a butterfly. Real transformation. How do you reimagine yourself in the context of a world that now is entirely digital?

Customers are thinking very actively about how they actually create products and services that essentially create value for customers entirely digitally. There are plenty of examples in this from telemedicine and from the educational space with new courses coming online which can scale faster than traditional courses limited by a classroom and a professor.

COVID-19 Is Forcing Businesses To Change

September 20, 2020
How Marketers Can Have a Great Voice in the C-Suite

Marketers often think that their voice is not listened to and that there is often a disconnect with C-suite execs. Unilever CMO Keith Weed said, “I often joke with my CFO, he counts where the money’s going, I say where the money’s coming from.” How can you as a marketing executive effectively get through to others in your organization?

Marketing Week recently asked several prominent marketers how they ensure their voice is heard by the rest of the C-suite:

Alex Naylor, Marketing Director, Barclaycard

The key thing is to talk to them about how you can help them achieve their objectives rather than trying to convince them to help you achieve yours. Many people approach marketing with an open mouth but in reality, many people don’t understand it. Business leaders see it as a tax on their business. The role of a marketing leader is to help them understand that marketing is an enabler that helps them achieve their business objectives and their business strategy. Once they see it as something they own then they’ll be prepared to invest in it.

Zaid Al-Qassab, CMO, BT Group

The secret to having your voice heard in the C-suite is caring passionately about what all the other people around the table do. If you’re myopically focused on just the marketing then you won’t be taken seriously. You need to understand everything about the finances of the business, about how the sales channels are working, about the HR problems, and the organizational opportunities. You need to understand the whole thing.

Debrah Dolce, SVP, Group Brand & Marketing Director, TJX Europe

I think to be effective in the C-suite, clearly, it’s going to be about relationships and a business approach that can showcase the impact that marketing can have on the commercial side of the business as well as the long-term brand building and customer engagement that we’re obviously all responsible for.

For me, it would very much be about the partnership and the relationships within the C-suite. As the world becomes more connected and more integrated I see that only becoming more and more important. To function as a high-performing exec team it’s going to take everybody to care about the customer. I think that’ll be critical for all marketers moving forwards to share that passion.

Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Unilever

There is no stainable growth other than consumer or customer demand-led growth and marketers should be at the core of consumer demand-led growth. If you can do that you can tell the people around the table where the growth is coming from. I often joke with my CFO, he counts where the money’s going, I say where the money’s coming from, and that’s important for business.

Troy Warfield, President, Topgolf International

The way marketing leaders can ensure that their voices are heard in the C-suite, number one is they’ve got to be able to talk the language. So really understand what the business is about, understand finance, and then think about you know what is core to making that business grow. If you can combine all those three you’ll have a great voice in the C-suite.

Tony Miller, VP, Digital Marketing & CRM, EMEA, Disney

In order to make our marketing leaders’ voice heard to the rest of the C-suite group it’s about really open dialogue, being honest with your peers, and having the ability to have debate and encourage debate and discussion around things that are happening in the industry and specifically within your brand and your sector.

I think marketers today need to ensure that they have everything backed up through data and insight, whether it’s about kind of proving return on investment of that marketing value through brand engagement or customer satisfaction or sales and return on investment. Having the data and letting that help speak and guide those conversations.

John Rudaizky, Partner, Global Brand and Marketing Leader, EY

I would say from point of view, how does your marketing and your brand contribute to the growth agenda? You really have to work hard at making sure that that’s clear. Most businesses are looking at growing through very disruptive times at the moment. The next thing is from a digital transformation point of view, I think marketing has never been more relevant in the boardroom.

When you think about the total customer experience being changed through digital and technology, marketing has probably got the best ever moment in time to have a seat in that conversation. Thirdly, I’d say trust, every business is going through change and if you think about digital things reputations can be affected overnight. From a brand point of view, marketing and brands can play an active role in helping the boardroom navigate through these disruptive times.

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September 15, 2020
Customer Meetings Will Change Forever, Says Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec

Some things in the new world will change forever. Customer meetings will change forever. In the past, I never thought that I could do a Zoom call or a Teams call with the CEO of a company I’m trying to sell to. In the future, I don’t think my customers will want me to come and see them. There’s continued opportunity for remote access. Anything that allows you to connect with clients online or build the brand is going to be really valuable. I had an Instagram Live yesterday with Kris Jenner. She’s been selling online for years now. Every business needs to move online, especially small business.

Robert Herjavec, mega entrepreneur and Shark Tank star, says on CNBC that the coronavirus crisis has caused the word to change forever. Meetings will never be the same and many other post-pandemic changes are in store:

Customer Meetings Will Change Forever

When all of this first happened we wanted to use Zoom because all our customers use Zoom. But I have got to tell you, some of the security issues are really pretty bad within Zoom. So we’ve switched over to Microsoft Teams. I think that’s one of the reasons that Microsoft stock is doing so well. The use of Teams at the corporate enterprise level is really taking off. We’re also seeing Webex usage really go up. There was also the acquisition of BlueJeans (by Verizon), another video conferencing platform.

I have become very optimistic about the return, whenever the return is, and what the world will look like. Some things in the new world will change forever. Customer meetings will change forever. In the past, I never thought that I could do a Zoom call or a Team’s call with the CEO of a company I’m trying to sell to. In the future, I don’t think my customers will want me to come and see them. There’s continued opportunity for remote access. Anything that allows you to connect with clients online or build the brand is going to be really valuable. I had an Instagram Live yesterday with Kris Jenner. She’s been selling online for years now. Every business needs to move online, especially small business.

We’re Into This For The Long Haul

I used to think that we were in a light switch moment where miraculously President Trump will get on the news and say we’re all back on this date. But I think what we’re seeing now in California and in New York is that it’s going to be⎯⎯we’re into this for the long haul. Certain parts of the economy will go back quickly. But even the ones that do go back are going to be limited.

Restaurants will have to distance half the tables. If I have more space in my restaurant can I charge more along that line? I think it’s going to be challenging but with all those challenges there’s going to be opportunities. The key for me about going back is testing. What that means and how people get tested. There’s a great new saliva test that was approved by the FDA where people can do it at home and I think we just have to be able to do that at scale.

Nobody Wakes Up And Says “I Want My Life To Suck”

Shark Tank is a mirror to what’s happening in the American economy. When we started the show twelve years ago it was during the financial crisis. Nobody could get a loan. So people started a lot of businesses that you didn’t need capital for. Then we moved to online selling. This will be the same thing. If I’ve learned anything on twelve years from Shark Tank it is that the human condition is about hope. Nobody wakes up and says I want my life to suck. Every time somebody comes on Shark Tank they are full of hope and they’re full of optimism.

This is a challenging time but entrepreneurs will figure it out. The key though is you’ve got to have a growth plan. The stimulus plan, the protection plan, all these relief funds, are simply survival funds. They are not growth funds. If you don’t have a plan to grow, if you don’t have a plan to gain market share, getting a stimulus today is just keeping you in business. It’s not helping you to grow. You’ve got to have a game plan for that.

I want to know what people’s plan is for survival. It makes me want to invest in two types of companies, either a company that has a very strong balance sheet or companies like an Uber or a small business that can scale back its costs. I want to invest in a company that can quickly scale its expenses to meet a decline in revenue or vice versa. So fluidity and the ability to adapt in a small business is really going to be the key. I don’t want to invest in a business with a large infrastructure, buildings, equipment, and all that kind of stuff. That stuff is very difficult to scale down.

Customer Meetings Will Change Forever, Says Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec

August 10, 2020
6 Ways to Achieve Great Employee and Customer Engagement
There are six things that you need to think about with employee engagement and customer engagement says Andrew McMillan, a renowned customer experience expert based in the U.K. “The most important thing is what you do for each other is actually what you do for customers.”

Andrew McMillan, a leading customer experience expert, recently discussed customer engagement strategies at the London Business Forum:

Customer Experience is Simple

For me, customer experience is simple. I think the first part is to know who you are as a business and to know what your personality is going to be. Friendly, kind, thoughtful, helpful, or forward thinking? What’s the personality of your brand? Then come up with some attributes and behaviors that are going to enhance that personality. That’s what you then start to try and recruit in terms of your employees.

How You Treat Employees is How Employees Treat Customers

The most important thing, I think I learned from John Lewis, was actually what you do for each other is what you do for customers. Create that working environment for your employees so they find their managers are friendly, thoughtful, and kind to them. I believe then, it’s just a leap of faith but I proved a ton time again, that they will then be friendly, thoughtful, and kind to their customers.

What is Your Companies Vision?

The North Star, some people will call it visions and some people call it purpose. It’s just why do we exist? Why should anybody care about this? Why should anyone want to do any business with us? John Lewis’s was a bit of a strange one actually. The purpose in 1929 was to have an organization where employees were happy.

So these can be really highly aspirational and lofty or they can be very very simple. But having something there, the idea is that people come to work inspired and having a sense of purpose.

John Lewis Partnership – Vision

6 Ways to Achieve Employee and Customer Engagement

There are six things that you need to think about with employee engagement and customer engagement:
1. The first one is to define what your personality is going to be in terms of behavior and attitude. It can be friendly, kind, thoughtful, whatever you want to be as a business.
2. The second one is to measure that and measure it with employee surveys and customer surveys. This is inside-out. This is what you do for your employees and what you hope they’ll do for customers.
3. The third thing is to communicate it. Communicate it at inception. Then continue to tell stories about people who’ve lived up to those behaviors and attitudes to see what it’s done for customers and what it’s done for them to bring it to life, so people can see what it looks like.
4. The fourth thing is leadership. That’s probably one of the biggest things I see that’s lacking in organizations. There should be leaders modeling the behavior that we talked about and then actually coaching it in their team’s to encourage them to deliver that behavior for each other and for their customers.
5. The fifth thing is HR really. It’s a Reward Recognition Appraisal to make sure those are links to not just the outcomes people achieve but the alignment with the behavior with which they achieve those outcomes. So it’s about how they do things, not just what they do.
6. Finally, the sixth part is the recruitment. If you’ve done the first five really effectively and really built a cohesive network around those first five, you’ve got a great blueprint for exactly the sort of personality and individual you want to recruit into your business.
August 4, 2020
The CIO Is Now Central To The Business Strategy

“The CIO now has become front and center and central to the business strategy,” says Aongus Hegarty, President of International Markets at Dell Technologies. “From the c-suite perspective, they are now seen as a key individual around investment in technology to enable the business from a growth and transformation point of view. There has been a fundamental change in the role of the CIO.”

Aongus Hegarty, President of International Markets at Dell Technologies, says that the CIO role is now core to the business strategy in the enterprise. Hegarty was interviewed by Tim Crawford, ranked as one of the most influential CIOs and is the CIO Strategic Advisor at AVOA:

The CIO Is Now Central To The Business Strategy

If you stand back and look at the CIO role I think it’s gone from being a role traditionally which was very much in the back office. The CIO was focused on keeping the systems working and maybe often only out in the c-suite discussions when there was a challenge or an issue with systems or email, etc. The CIO now has become front and center and central to the business strategy. From the c-suite perspective, they are now seen as a key individual around investment in technology to enable the business from a growth and transformation point of view. There has been fundamental change.

What’s driving the change is the recognition by CEOs, c-suite, and companies that technology is disrupting industries and disrupting businesses. It’s driving significant efficiency and operational enhancement and/or a brand new set of business models, products, and services enabled by technology. Companies need to quickly move forward around their digital transformation or they will be left behind or significantly disadvantaged quite quickly. There’s an urgency in the c-suite to bring the technology strategy front and center underpinning the business strategy.

The CIO: A Critical Role Now And Into The Future

The CIO within that c-suite is in an absolutely critical role now and into the future. The breadth of skills and competencies required has broadened significantly. Now the CIO role very much encompasses an individual who has vision and collaborates across the organization. The CIO has strong communication skills and ability and can work and navigate between obviously the tactical and executional elements of the role but also the strategic elements of the IT strategy. They they must match that and understand how it fits into the business strategy.

To all the CIOs out there I think it’s absolutely an exciting time and a great opportunity. You can be sure that Dell Technologies will be there every step of the way with you.

https://youtu.be/8SXISxJj7aI
The CIO Is Now Central To The Business Strategy

July 14, 2020
Verizon Chooses Google Cloud Contact Center AI

Google Cloud has scored a major win as Verizon has chosen its Contact Center AI to help power its customer service experience.

Google has developed a reputation as being one of the most AI and machine learning-friendly cloud solutions. This latest deal lends credence to that, as Verizon is looking to use Google’s conversational language AI to help speed up wait times and improve customer service.

Verizon plans to deploy the technology to assist both customers and live agents. For customers, the conversational AI will help them get to the right agent faster, without having to go through menu prompts. They’ll be able to simply speak or type their request and the AI will route them to the agent or department that can best assist. For the live agents, the AI will contribute by retrieving documentation and other materials that can help the agent better assist the customer.

“Verizon’s commitment to innovation extends to all aspects of the customer experience,” said Shankar Arumugavelu, global CIO & SVP, Verizon. “These customer service enhancements, powered by the Verizon collaboration with Google Cloud, offer a faster and more personalized digital experience for our customers while empowering our customer support agents to provide a higher level of service.”

“We’re proud to work with Verizon to help enable its digital transformation strategy,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “By helping Verizon reimagine the customer experience through our AI and ML expertise, we can create an experience that not only delights consumers, but also helps differentiate Verizon in the market.”

This is a big win for Verizon’s customers and Google Cloud, and will help Google further its reputation in the AI field.

July 13, 2020
ServiceNow CEO: At The Forefront Of The Digital Transformation Rage

“Digital transformation is the opportunity of this generation,” says ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott. “If you look at the Zoom partnership as one example, all companies want simple, easy, seamless experiences for their people and their customers. This is how you transform companies. This is how you grow and this is how you navigate a digital experience to win. We’re at the forefront of the digital transformation rage in the cloud.”

Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow, discusses their partnership with Zoom and how that is part of them being at the heart of the current digital transformation rage in the cloud taking place with every major company worldwide:

We’re At The Forefront Of The Digital Transformation Rage

Digital transformation is the opportunity of this generation. If you look at the Zoom partnership as one example, all companies want simple, easy, seamless experiences for their people and their customers. This is how you transform companies. This is how you grow and this is how you navigate a digital experience to win. We’re at the forefront of the digital transformation rage in the cloud. We’re super excited.

If you look at Zoom, they had 300 million users utilizing their system in the heart of this COVID crisis. I expect that will continue to grow. The question was how do you handle 300 to 400 million users, most of them concurrently on a global scale? They turn to ServiceNow to solve that problem. Our customer service management solution is like no other in the marketplace. We can not only use self-help tools for customers, but we can also use virtual agents. Best of all, most of the service that will be required when Zoom does have to remediate an issue will be done predictively on the Now platform.

ServiceNow At The Epicenter Of Helping Zoom Innovate

Furthermore, they also want to have a hardware as a service business model that they’ll bring to offices all over the world. The idea here is simple, touch it once–instant collaboration, instant linkage to the ServiceNow workflow, and then the users get a great experience. That hardware as a service business model will be very large for them because they want to displace existing legacy vendors with their modern solution. ServiceNow is in the epicenter of helping Zoom utilizing our great innovation and ultimately taking both of these solutions to market to help many many customers around the world.

If you look at the tech sector for cloud, companies that are at the forefront of creating great digital experiences, these companies are going to continue to scale, continue to hit new highs and continue to grow. Nine out of ten CEOs have a digital-first strategy before COVID. Now I suspect that 10 out of 10 would have a digital-first strategy. It’s the only way to navigate these choppy waters.

We Get Things Done In Days and Weeks, Not Years

The companies that will do less well, and I’m just basing this on research and current results, are the ones that have heavy time-consuming elongated project cycles or potentially commodity hardware where customers are just not going to invest in that. Whatever they invest in they want a return and they want that return to come quite quickly. In the case of ServiceNow, our business cases show 5, 6, 7 times return on investment and we get things done in days and weeks, not years. That’s what makes the big difference. Speed, value creation, and truly illuminating great employee and customer experiences are what this market is all about.

One of the things that we covered in our last earnings call is that 20 percent of our business is in one-way shape or form tied to industries that would be highly impacted by COVID. What was amazing is we didn’t have one down-sell or one cancellation in that total customer group. What you’re seeing is when you have a platform company that truly can innovate, make work actually work better for people, take cost out, and improve business productivity, that’s the last place even challenged industries are going to cut.

We’ve been very fortunate because the partnerships that we have built with this hungry and humble culture and our near 100 percent retention rate are paying off even in the most challenging industries like the airlines, hospitality, and retail.

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott: At The Forefront Of The Digital Transformation Rage

July 11, 2020
Digital Transformation Is More Important Than Ever, Says VMware CEO

“In this environment, digital transformation is more important than ever,” says VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. “If you think of it only a few percentages of employees worked from home before this (pandemic). Now it’s 97 percent. Given the length and challenges that people faced this doesn’t go away.”

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, discusses how the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and dramatically increased the work from home trend for enterprise companies:

Digital Transformation Is More Important Than Ever

In this environment, digital transformation is more important than ever. If you think of it only a few percentages of employees worked from home before this (pandemic). Now it’s 97 percent. Given the length and challenges that people faced this doesn’t go away. We are going to be here for the next two years where the majority of workforces, a substantial portion, are going to be work from home distributed workforce.

In the face of that IT and technology are more important not less. Sometimes it takes a decade to make a week of progress and sometimes a week gives you a decade of progress. All of a sudden, education, healthcare, and work from home are making huge steps forward. That’s what gives us the view that long-term tech is going to be stronger and software and cloud will be stronger yet than the overall economic environment.

Work From Home Is The New Normal

For VMWare, we were 20 percent work from home. I expect as we continue in this environment we will end up in at 50 to 60 percent over time. I don’t think we are atypical. We’re doubling and tripling the amount of work from home. When you think about that distributed workforce, essentially you go from 100 or 200 sites depending on the size of your company to 10,000 or 20,000 sites.

When you think about every home becoming a new worksite they need to be managed, connected, and productive. They need to be secure. They need good quality and bandwidth. Then they need capacity. That’s where VMWare cloud comes in. That’s our business continuity focus for the future.

We don’t see ourselves as atypical here. This is the new normal. We’re excited to see these transformations happening across the industry and we’re making good progress with customers around the globe.

Every CIO Is Adjusting Their Priorities

We used to generate new projects with POC’s and being face to face with customers. The salesmen always liked to shoulder up with the potential customer. We have to make adjustments. Every CIO is also adjusting their priorities due to this radical shift of a distributed workforce and the new demands that are being placed on them.

Digital Transformation Is More Important Than Ever, Says VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger

May 29, 2020
Beat The Corona Slump By Acquiring These 9 Freelancing Skills

Learning new skills during the corona crisis is essential to put you ahead of the curve both during the pandemic and in its aftermath.

Economically, this is a trying time. If we believe the experts, the world could soon plunge into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Most freelancers have already seen a drop in gigs. The stock markets are under heavy pressure. Unemployment numbers in the US alone have skyrocketed to 26 million.

There is not much anyone can do about that right now.

What you can do is improvise, adapt, and overcome.

There are many ways for freelancers to steer their businesses through the crisis with a steady hand. One of them is to invest in personal growth, in adding new abilities to your skillset.

Research says that learning a new skill takes 20 hours. That’s an amount you can scrape together during the lockdown.

But this is not about mastering sourdough bread or new yoga poses.

Some project a surge in freelance work in the wake of the crisis. By taking advantage of the current lull, you can extend your capabilities to boost your freelance business and career prospects post-corona.

But where to focus?

Here are 9 fields in which to pick up highly sought-after skills that increase your business efficiency and visibility.

1 – AI and Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data are three essential components of modern business. In a report released in January 2020, the World Economic Forum identified AI literacy as the number one data skill of the future.

Companies use AI and machine learning for data management, predicting consumer behavior, and detecting fraud. They can personalize marketing, and improve customer service with chatbots or interactive voice response for calls.

Mastering any of these aspects will give you an edge on the freelance market and increase the efficiency of your own business besides.

Even basic fluency in AI fundamentals will go a long way towards a better understanding of modern business practices.

2 – Analytics and Big Data

Data is important. Big data even more so.

Businesses rely on data to gain market insights, boost conversion rates, manage risk, design new products, drive innovations, and manage their supply chains.

In a Forbes interview with CEOs on in-demand freelance skills during COVID-19, the majority listed mining and analyzing a variety of data.

You won’t become a high-profile data scientist during coronavirus lockdown. But a certain degree of data literacy and an understanding of how to harness big data for business purposes will raise you a mile above most of the competition.

3 – Cybersecurity

During the corona crisis, a multitude of businesses has undergone a digital transformation. They have – often abruptly – shifted a large part of their operations online and suddenly work in remote teams.

Security considerations have often been neglected in the rush.

Unsurprisingly, hackers are seizing the opportunities right now. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a sharp uptick in the number of cyberattacks.

Consequently, freelancers who are knowledgeable about cybersecurity are in high demand.

4 – Web Development and Web Design

With a huge part of business shifting online, web development and design are seeing significant demand.

Now more than ever, company websites need to be flawless and unique to stand out from the competition.

That means now is the time to step up your WordPress game, get to know the newest trends and plugins, and learn how to build a truly stunning website. Going further, learning the foundations of writing markup and coding, or extending your knowledge on the subject, will go a long way towards raising your profile.

5 – Content Creation

Vast numbers of people are stuck at home right now, and they’re hungry for content.

Learning how to write impactful texts for a variety of purposes – blog posts, video scripts, press releases, newsletter campaigns, website copy – is a valuable and marketable addition to your skillset.

The same holds for design and video editing. Visuals are a huge part of marketing, and video is a key trend in marketing in 2020, with platforms like TikTok on the rise.

Whether you hone these skills to expand your own online presence or reach the level at which you can provide services to others, content creation is an essential skill.

6 – SEO

Search engines are the largest source of traffic to business websites.

As a consequence, Search Engine Optimization is crucial to drive organic traffic to your website, increase your visibility, and ensure business success.

Providing high-value content is a major factor in SEO, but building your SEO skills can go much further. Optimizing content, local SEO, and technical SEO all play critical roles in improving your website’s search engine rankings and gaining visibility.

Ultimately, brushing up on your SEO skills won’t just leave you with a much stronger online presence, but also with abilities that are coveted in the job market.

7- Digital and Social Media Marketing

With the corona-induced shift to life online, digital and social media marketing have become critical. Digital marketing experts are highly sought after.

Doing research on crucial digital marketing trends in 2020, and developing your skills accordingly, will put you ahead of the curve. Which are the most prominent (social) media channels in your industry? What are the best strategies to gain an audience there? What sort of content is needed?

Answering these questions can give you the focus and knowledge you need to promote your own business and develop highly marketable skills.

8 – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

It’s not all about marketing and technology. 2019’s State of the Workplace Report by the Society of Human Resource Management found that almost 40% of employers found the problem solving and critical thinking abilities of candidates to be sub-par.

Creative problem solving is an essential skill for succeeding in the workplace – whether you’re a full-time freelancer running your own business, or working remotely.

Luckily, these skills don’t depend on innate abilities but can be trained and honed through exercises and courses, together with other valuable soft skills.

9 – Emotional Intelligence

Another critical soft skill in high demand on the job market is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to be aware of your own emotions, express them appropriately, and control them when necessary. It includes awareness of the emotions of others.

Connecting to people on an emotional level, and establishing rapport is essential in any business relationship. Whether you’re leading a team, interacting with customers, or expanding your network.

Investing time in developing your EQ will show returns in your own business life, and represents a valuable addition to your CV.

Final Thoughts

Your time is valuable. And using it well, especially during the corona crisis, is essential.

Acquiring skills that are valuable to your business, and that complement your freelance profile, will help you adapt to the post-corona market.

Whatever you choose to learn, online resources like Skillshare, edX, Coursera, Codecademy, or Udemy provide the learning materials you need to succeed.

At the end of the day, though, committing to continually expanding your skillset, and adapting to new situations, is the most valuable skill you could possess.

May 12, 2020
How Amperity Uses Machine Learning To Unlock Data and Supercharge Marketing

“Nobody was using machine learning to point at the underlying consumer data to help make sense of it and bring it together,” says Matthew Biboud-Lubeck of Amperity. “We put together cloud computing that was scalable with better economics alongside a machine learning algorithm that we were pointing at the data to help make sense of it. We realized that what we had was a pretty scalable solution to help brands get to that nirvana of a single view of the customer.”

Matthew Biboud-Lubeck, VP of Strategic Services at Amperity, discusses how their platform helps brands create a complete view of their customers in an interview on the B2B Growth podcast:

Helping Brands Create a Single View of Their Customers

We are a CDP (customer data platform) based in Seattle that is helping brands create a single view of their customers and to unlock personalized experiences from that data. If you look back to the founding of Amperity about three years ago our founders were canvassing the marketplace. What you saw was a marketplace using a lot of buzzwords but having a lot of trouble executing them. You heard about personalization, customer 360, and a 360 view of the customer. Marketers across major consumer brands were super frustrated.

They spent a fortune trying to cobble some view of their customer. They invested in technology to help them send better emails, to make their media more targeted, and to unveil better analytics. All of those tools that they have invested in talked about the notion of a single view of the customer because they fundamentally needed that to operate. The reality was that nobody was getting to the solution. We came in to say maybe there is a better way.

Machine Learning Helps Brands Get To Nirvana

There were two things that changed in the marketplace that we capitalized on. First of all, it was that cloud computing got a lot cheaper. It used to be that if you were a big brand and got hundreds of millions of customer interactions, it’s just a lot of data. Part of the reason that no one was able to create an easy solution to putting that all together was because it was cost prohibitive.

The second really interesting evolution in the market is that machine learning has become much more mature. What we found was that everyone in the marketplace was using machine learning to make that last mile to the marketer a little bit better. It was used to decide which products to show a customer or to decide which offer to show a customer or to create a customer care solution that’s automated. You go online and type toward a solution and some bot talks back to you. Nobody was using machine learning to point at the underlying consumer data to help make sense of it and bring it together.

We put together cloud computing that was scalable with better economics alongside a machine learning algorithm that we were pointing at the data to help make sense of it. We realized that what we had was a pretty scalable solution to help brands get to that nirvana of a single view of the customer. That’s how we were born. What’s interesting is that the customer data platform space is a little bit confusing. You have a lot of companies that started as something else that rebranded as a CDP. We were purpose-built from the ground up as a customer data platform designed to bring all of a brands data, reconcile that data to create a notion of identity on it and then to unleash that data back to the brand anywhere that they want to use that data.

>>> Listen to the full B2B Growth podcast here.

April 30, 2020
Microsoft Reports Quarterly Results, Azure Scores Big

Microsoft has released its quarterly earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2020, and Azure stands out as one of the company’s big hits.

Analysts were deeply interested in Microsoft’s earnings for this quarter, in view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. How the company faired would be a good indicator of the overall impact the pandemic is having. In its earnings, Microsoft beat analysts exceptions, reporting revenue of $35 billion, representing a 15% increase over the year-ago-quarter.

A particular standout was the company’s Azure cloud business, which saw revenue growth of 51%.

“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security – we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “Our durable business model, diversified portfolio, and differentiated technology stack position us well for what’s ahead.”

“In this dynamic environment, our sales teams and partners executed a solid third quarter, with Commercial Cloud revenue generating $13.3 billion, up 39% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. “We remain committed to balancing operational discipline with continued investments in key strategic areas to drive future growth.”

The quarterly report was good news, and Microsoft made a point of highlighting that the pandemic had minimal impact on its revenue. However, there was a note of caution, as the company acknowledged “the effects of COVID-19 may not be fully reflected in the financial results until future periods.”

April 29, 2020
There Is No Aspect of Healthcare That Is Not Being Transformed Digitally, Says AMA Chief Experience Officer

“A lot of times it’s better to think about (digital transformation) in retrospect after you’ve gotten something done, but the digital platform is essential in helping you achieve your business objectives, and that’s really what it boils down to,” says AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger. “Even though my purview here is mostly communicating between us and physicians, ultimately, I’m there to help them in what they care the most about, which is patient care. There is no aspect of healthcare right now that is not being transformed digitally.”

Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer for the American Medical Association, discusses how digital transformation is ultimately about improving patient care in a video interview (watch below) with industry analyst Michael Krigsman on CXOTALK:

I Don’t Start Anything That I Do With Digital Blinders On

I don’t start anything that I do with digital blinders on. The first thing is to figure out what the job that you’re trying to get done is. Inevitably, of course, these days, if you’re trying to meet people where they are, that does involve digital platforms. We are, in essence, like any other subscription business in that we have something that we’re trying to get people to belong to. If you’re going to communicate with people and build a subscription business, you do need to have that platform in place.

I think, basically, today, most organizations or businesses, they have to act in three ways. They’ve got to have the consumer product focus of a company like Proctor & Gamble. They need to have the publishing experience and content management experience of a New York Times or Washington Post, and they need to have the data and analytics platform and skillset of like an Amazon. That’s a tough organization to build these days. But if you’re going to succeed in creating a member experience and really interacting with people, you’ve got to be able to do all three things.

There Is No Aspect of Healthcare That Is Not Being Transformed Digitally

I think digital transformation is a bizarre and scary term. I don’t walk in the door saying, “We need to have a digital transformation,” because that is really kind of meaningless to people. A lot of times I would say it’s better to think about that in retrospect after you’ve gotten something done, but the digital platform is essential in helping you achieve your business objectives, and that’s really what it boils down to.

Even though my purview here is mostly communicating between us and physicians, ultimately, I’m there to help them in what they care the most about, which is patient care. There is no aspect of healthcare right now that is not being transformed digitally. One of the most exciting places, and I think it probably has more relevance on the long-term care side, is remote patient monitoring. You look around at most systems and they’re equipping themselves to have people not come to the hospital, not come into the office, but to provide people with the technology to be able to do what they need to do from home and to be able to communicate with them from a remote place and have their progress monitored.

Driving The Future of Medicine

I’d say the final way that we (are an ally in patient care) is through something I don’t think a lot of people know about, which is driving the future of medicine. We are facilitating the changes that are happening in medicine right now. I talked about remote patient monitoring, but telemedicine is something that’s increasing in usage and all of the infrastructure that underlies that needs to get put into place to make sure that doctors have what they need to be able to do that and, from a technology payment standpoint, all of that kind of stuff.

The other thing and this is affecting every aspect of business out there is data. One of the key things about data right now in healthcare is, it’s not necessarily hooked up in a way that can connect the input when a patient comes in the door and the outcomes. There are different systems that underly that data input and the portability of that. We are putting in place an infrastructure and what we would call an innovation ecosystem to facilitate the flow of that data so that it can actually deliver better patient care in the end.

There Is No Aspect of Healthcare That Is Not Being Transformed Digitally – AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger

April 14, 2020