WebProNews

Tag: Salesforce

  • Salesforce Announces Einstein GPT, a ChatGPT-Powered Einstein AI

    Salesforce Announces Einstein GPT, a ChatGPT-Powered Einstein AI

    Salesforce has announced Einstein GPT a major upgrade to its Einstein AI that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to improve its abilities.

    On the heels of an announcement by Microsoft that it was releasing Dynamics 365, the world’s first ERP/CRM copilot, Salesforce has fired back with Einstein GPT. The company describes it as “the world’s first generative AI CRM technology, which delivers AI-created content across every sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT interaction, at hyperscale.”

    Salesforce says Einstein GPT will help transform the entire customer experience, thanks to generative AI.

    Einstein GPT will infuse Salesforce’s proprietary AI models with generative AI technology from an ecosystem of partners and real-time data from the Salesforce Data Cloud, which ingests, harmonizes, and unifies all of a company’s customer data. With Einstein GPT, customers can then connect that data to OpenAI’s advanced AI models out of the box, or choose their own external model and use natural-language prompts directly within their Salesforce CRM to generate content that continuously adapts to changing customer information and needs in real time.

    “The world is experiencing one of the most profound technological shifts with the rise of real-time technologies and generative AI. This comes at a pivotal moment as every company is focused on connecting with their customers in more intelligent, automated, and personalized ways,” said Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce. “Einstein GPT, in combination with our Data Cloud and integrated in all of our clouds as well as Tableau, MuleSoft, and Slack, is another way we are opening the door to the AI future for all our customers, and we’ll be integrating with OpenAI at launch.”

    Sales personnel will be able to use Einstein GPT to generate personalized emails to customers, while service personnel will be able to use the tech to generate articles based on case notes, as well as auto-generate personalized interaction with customers.

    Slack will also see Einstein GTP integration, giving users the ability to see in-depth insights.

    Marketing personnel will be able to use Einstein GPT to generate personalized content and engage with customers across mobile, email, web, and advertising.

    Even developers can get in on the action, using the technology to help generate code.

    “We’re excited to apply the power of OpenAI’s technology to CRM,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “This will allow more people to benefit from this technology, and it allows us to learn more about real-world usage, which is critical to the responsible development and deployment of AI — a belief that Salesforce shares with us.”

    https://youtu.be/YAsKRxXdyj0
  • Walmart Teams Up With Salesforce to Sell Its Retail Software

    Walmart Teams Up With Salesforce to Sell Its Retail Software

    Walmart is making a major move into retail software and services, teaming up with Salesforce to sell its solutions to other retailers.

    Walmart revolutionized the retail market thanks to its focus on logistics, fulfillment, and delivery. The retail giant is looking to make money off of its innovative solutions by selling fulfillment and delivery solutions to other retailers and teaming up with Salesforce to make it happen.

    “Through this partnership, retailers can leverage the same innovative and scalable technologies that power Walmart’s pickup and delivery experiences,” said Anshu Bhardwaj, senior vice president, technology strategy and commercialization, Walmart Global Technology. “The same technology that powers Store Assist has enabled Walmart to fulfill over 830 million orders across over 4,700 Walmart stores. Together with Salesforce, retailers can scale their business and deliver the personalized, convenient experiences shoppers expect.”

    “Salesforce is thrilled to partner with Walmart as it transforms its business and further expands into the digital technology market,” said Tyler Prince, Executive Vice President, Alliances & Channels, Salesforce. “Through this partnership with Salesforce, Walmart can grow its business in new ways by productizing its proven retail processes – empowering other retailers to create new and personalized experiences for their customers.” 

    Walmart says retailers will be able to take advantage of three major features, including Buy Online and Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS), use Walmart GoLocal to manage local deliveries, and take advantage of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Order Management to manage the entire omnichannel shopping experience.

    “Shoppers continue to expect brands to deliver highly connected and frictionless experiences across physical and digital touchpoints. In fact, 1 in 5 online orders placed the weekend before Christmas were picked up in store,” said Rob Garf, vice president and general manager of retail, Salesforce. “With the combined power of Walmart and Salesforce, retailers can drive success with best-in-class technology to advance their omnichannel capabilities, drive efficiency and ensure that every purchase quickly gets into the hands of the shopper – no matter where they are.”

  • Marc Benioff Thinks More Tech CEOs Will Copy Elon Musk

    Marc Benioff Thinks More Tech CEOs Will Copy Elon Musk

    Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has some good — or bad — news, depending on whether or not you’re a fan of Elon Musk.

    Elon Musk may be the world’s richest man, but he certainly didn’t get there by winning any popularity contests. What popularity he did have has taken a major hit since his Twitter acquisition. The mercurial CEO has slashed the workforce, axed his most loyal executives, made demands of staff that many consider unreasonable, introduced drastic changes seemingly on a whim, and raised prices or begun charging for various services.

    While Musk’s management style has put many off, Benioff believes it may become far more common, with many tech CEOs already asking if they need to follow his example.

    “Every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, ‘Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?’” Benioff told Business Insider in an interview.

    “That is an existential question that if you are any kind of executive in the company,” Benioff added. “You have to look at him and say, ‘Wow, it’s a very unorthodox management style,’ but, as I’ve said, you can’t underestimate what he’s done.”

    While Benioff has not taken such drastic measures as Musk, he did say that he had to step back into more of a hands-on role following the departure of co-CEO Bret Taylor. The company’s recent layoffs and cost-cutting measures reflect that involvement.

    “I had no choice but to step in and to guide the company’s performance,” Benioff told Insider. “And that’s the results that you’re seeing here today with these numbers.”

    While there’s no denying Musk’s approach may meet with a measure of success, it’s hard to imagine it as a sustainable business model. After all, at some point, every CEO still need employees that are willing to work for them.

  • Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor Are Starting an AI Company

    Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor Are Starting an AI Company

    Salesforce’s former co-CEO Bret Taylor is starting an AI firm with Clay Bavor, current VP of Google Labs.

    Bret Taylor shocked the industry in early December when he announced he was stepping down as co-CEO of Salesforce. Taylor was widely seen as Marc Benioff’s heir-apparent, leaving quite a vacuum when he left. At the time, Taylor said he had ‘decided to return to his entrepreneurial roots.’

    That is exactly what Taylor is doing, teaming up with Bavor to found an AI startup, according to a LinkedIn post by Bavor:

    Bret and I have known each other since our early days at Google, and I have always admired his keen product sense and entrepreneurial spirit, his technical chops, and, above all, his character and integrity. We share an obsession with recent advances in AI, and we’re excited to build a new company to apply AI to solve some of the most important problems in business.

    I’ll be setting out with Bret on this next adventure in March, and will have more to share once we get started. Until then, I’ll be focusing on transitioning my teams and projects, and wrapping things up properly at Google.

    With AI in the spotlight as much as it is, it will be interesting to see what the executives accomplish.

  • Microsoft Adding ChatGPT Email Creation Into Viva Sales

    Microsoft Adding ChatGPT Email Creation Into Viva Sales

    Microsoft is taking another crack at Salesforce, integrating ChatGPT email creation into Viva Sales to make it easier for salespeople to communicate with clients.

    Microsoft unveiled Viva Sales in mid-2022, touting it as “a new seller experience application.” The app is designed to work with various CRMs and integrate their data with Microsoft’s suite of apps.

    The company is now integrating ChatGPT into Viva Sales so salespeople can use the AI to write emails for them. According to Bloomberg, the software “will cull data from customer records and Office email software. That information will then be used to generate emails containing personalized text, pricing details and promotions.”

    Microsoft is investing heavily in ChatGPT and its creator, OpenAI. The company is planning to unveil a version of Bing that utilizes a new and improved version, and has invested billions in OpenAI.

    The company clearly sees potential for ChatGPT to help it in its efforts to take on Salesforce’s dominance in the CRM market.

  • Salesforce Bows to Investor Pressure, Appoints New Board Members

    Salesforce Bows to Investor Pressure, Appoints New Board Members

    Salesforce is bowing to investor pressure, appointing new board members shortly after activist investor Elliott Management invested in the company.

    Sales announced it had appointed three independent board members late last week “as part of its ongoing board refreshment process.” The new board appointments go into effect March 1, 2023.

    The new board members are:

    • Arnold Donald, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation & plc;
    • Sachin Mehra, Chief Financial Officer of Mastercard; and
    • Mason Morfit, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of ValueAct Capital

    “We’re excited to welcome Arnold, Sachin and Mason to the Salesforce Board,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce. “As highly respected business leaders, they each bring valuable experience to further enhance and balance the diverse skills on the Board and advance our value creation initiatives. We look forward to benefiting from their expertise and insights as Salesforce continues to drive durable top- and bottom-line growth and build on our position as the world’s #1 CRM.”

    “The addition of these three new independent directors to our Board demonstrates Salesforce’s commitment to ongoing refreshment in action,” said Robin Washington, Lead Independent Director of the Board. “Arnold’s proven cross-industry leadership experience, Sachin’s expansive financial, technology and operational expertise and Mason’s investor perspective and record of helping public companies build sustainable, long-term value will further strengthen our Board’s depth of expertise and diversity of thought. Ensuring we have the right Board in place to guide the Company’s strategy and oversee its ambitious goals continues to be a top priority. Over the past year, we have benefited from the valuable input of our investors and look forward to continuing that dialogue as we drive value for Salesforce shareholders.”

    Salesforce’s decision to appoint additional board members is likely in response to Elliott’s multibillion-dollar investment in the company, and may be an effort to avoid an all-out proxy fight. Elliott has a long history of heavily investing in companies and then aggressively pushing for executive and board changes.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, that appears to be exactly what Elliott is doing with Salesforce, with the investment firm preparing to nominate its own slate of directors.

    “Salesforce is one of the pre-eminent software companies in the world, and having followed the company for nearly two decades, we have developed a deep respect for [Co-Chief Executive] Marc Benioff and what he has built,” said Jesse Cohn, managing partner at Elliott, at the time of investment.

    “We look forward to working constructively with Salesforce to realize the value befitting a company of its stature,” added Cohn.

    Elliott’s involvement comes at a difficult time for Salesforce. The company has seen the departure of some of its top executives in recent weeks, as well as layoffs that have impacted roughly 10% of its employees.

  • Tableau Bears the Brunt of Salesforce Layoffs & Reorganization

    Tableau Bears the Brunt of Salesforce Layoffs & Reorganization

    Salesforce may have spent $15.7 billion to acquire Tableau, but the division is bearing the brunt of Saleforce’s recent issues.

    Salesforce announced Wednesday that it would be laying off roughly 10% of its workforce. According to Bloomberg, however, Tableau has seen a larger percentage of its workforce laid off than the rest of Salesforce.

    The gutting of Tableau is being seen as a lack of confidence in the division, given Tableau’s performance issues.

    “It makes a lot of sense to me that Tableau would have a disproportionate contribution to this layoff,” John DiFucci, of Guggenheim Research, told Bloomberg. “That company was not growing new business when they bought it, and they paid a lot.”

    The cuts come on the heels of most of Tableau’s top leadership exiting the company. The latest departure was CEO Mark Nelson in December and, according to Bloomberg, the majority of top execs that were with the company when Salesforce acquired it have left.

    With the economy in a downturn, it seems that Tableau doesn’t measure up to Salesforce’s current needs.

  • Salesforce Is Laying Off 10% of Its Workforce

    Salesforce Is Laying Off 10% of Its Workforce

    Salesforce has become one of the first major companies to announce layoffs in the new year, with plans to cut 10% of its workforce.

    Layoffs became a major fixture of the tech industry during the latter half of 2022, with tens of thousands of workers laid off. Salesforce has rung in the new year by informing employees that 10% of them will be let go.

    The layoffs mark the latest in a string of setbacks the company has experienced, including the loss of co-CEO Bret Taylor and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield.

    A copy of CEO Marc Benioff’s email to employees was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

    Date: January 4, 2023 Subject: Important Company Update

    As one ‘Ohana, over the last 23 years, Salesforce has built the #1 CRM that drives incredible customer success across every line of business for every industry around the world. We have never been more mission-critical to our customers. We have an unparalleled ecosystem, with thousands of partners and millions of Trailblazers building their companies on our platform.

    However, the environment remains challenging and our customers are taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions. With this in mind, we’ve made the very difficult decision to reduce our workforce by about 10 percent, mostly over the coming weeks.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about how we came to this moment. As our revenue accelerated through the pandemic, we hired too many people leading into this economic downturn we’re now facing, and I take responsibility for that.

    Within the next hour, employees who are initially affected by this decision will receive an email letting them know. Our leadership will reach out directly to these employees, and provide clarity for their teams about changes within their organizations.

    For those who will be leaving Salesforce, our priority is to fully support them, including by offering a generous package. In the U.S., affected employees will receive a minimum of nearly five months of pay, health insurance, career resources, and other benefits to help with their transition. Those outside the U.S. will receive a similar level of support, and our local processes will align with employment laws in each country.

    The employees being affected aren’t just colleagues. They’re friends. They’re family. Please reach out to them. Offer the compassion and love they and their families deserve and need now more than ever. And most of all, please lean on your leadership, including me, as we work through this difficult time together.

    I’m grateful for every single one of you who has contributed to our continued success as a company, and the hard work and sacrifices you have made to generate success for our hundreds of thousands of customers. You’ve built our company — for all of our stakeholders — and you’ve shown incredible resilience every step of the way.

    With gratitude, Marc

  • Marc Benioff Wants to Re-Recruit Departed Executives

    Marc Benioff Wants to Re-Recruit Departed Executives

    Marc Benioff has made clear he wants to re-recruit top executives that have departed Salesforce in recent weeks.

    Salesforce has had a rough few weeks, with co-CEO Bret Taylor and Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield leaving, among others. The departures have sparked speculation about what is happening behind the scenes.

    According to Business Insider, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff attempted to put the issue to rest during a company all-hands call, making it clear he has no hard feelings about the execs’ departure and would like them back.

    “Some people come in, some people leave, it’s sad when they go, and it’s great when they come in — it’s a bigger story of life itself,” Benioff said. “I will support them when they are leaving and I will recruit them back.”

    Insider reports Benioff was surprised and disappointed with Taylor’s exit, in particular. Taylor was long-seen as Benioff’s heir-apparent.

    “Everyone deserves to be able to manifest and achieve their own self-actualization to live the life they want and do what makes you happiest, to do what makes you healthiest, to do what is necessary for you to have loving relationships with your family, your friends, to be successful with your work and have impact on the world,” Benioff added to employees. “If you can do that at Salesforce, we’re going to do everything we can to make that for you, and if you have to leave, we will support you, but we will recruit you back.”

  • Stewart Butterfield, Slack Founder and CEO, Leaving Salesforce

    Stewart Butterfield, Slack Founder and CEO, Leaving Salesforce

    Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield has announced his departure from Salesforce, effective January 2023.

    Stewart Butterfield founded Slack, with its initial release in 2013. The company quickly went on to become a dominant force in corporate messaging, ultimately being acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion in mid-2021.

    Barely over a year later, Butterfield has announced he is leaving Salesforce, according to an internal Slack message seen by Business Insider. The executive made clear his departure has nothing to do with Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor leaving the company.

    “FWIW: This has nothing to do with Bret’s departure. Planning has been in the works for several months! Just weird timing,” Butterfield wrote. 

    Lidiane Jones has been tapped as Slack’s next CEO, a decision Butterfield had a hand in.

    “Stewart is an incredible leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack. He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce and today Slack is woven into the Salesforce Customer 360 platform,” a Salesforce spokesperson told Insider, saying Butterfield was “instrumental” in Jones’ selection.

  • Bret Taylor Stepping Down as Salesforce Co-CEO

    Bret Taylor Stepping Down as Salesforce Co-CEO

    For the second time in three years, a co-CEO is leaving Salesforce as Bret Taylor announces his departure from the role and the company.

    Bret Taylor joined Marc Benioff as co-CEO in late 2021, replacing Keith Block who resigned from the role in early 2020. Taylor was well-respected within the company and widely viewed as Marc Benioff’s heir-apparent. Despite holding the job for just one year, Taylor is stepping down and leaving the company, effective January 31, 2023.

    “I am grateful for six fantastic years at Salesforce,” said Taylor. “Marc was my mentor well before I joined Salesforce and the opportunity to partner with him to lead the most important software company in the world is career-defining. After a lot of reflection, I’ve decided to return to my entrepreneurial roots. Salesforce has never been more relevant to customers, and with its best-in-class management team and the company executing on all cylinders, now is the right time for me to step away.”

    “It’s bittersweet that Bret has decided to step down as my Co-CEO,” said Benioff. “He made his mark on Salesforce as an incredible technologist, leader and friend to us all. Bret founded two incredible companies so it’s understandable why he wants to return to his entrepreneurial roots. I’m excited to see his next chapter unfold, as I’ll always be his biggest champion and he’ll always be part of the Salesforce ‘Ohana.”

    According to CNBC, Taylor is stepping away to found a new company.

    “We have to let him be free, let him go, and I understand, but I don’t like it. And Bret, you know that you’re always going to be our brother. We love you deeply, you have a home here, we’re gonna try to get you back somehow. Don’t think you’re gonna somehow get out of this alive because you’re not,” Benioff told analysts.

    In the meantime, Benioff has made clear he has no intention of ever leaving the company.

  • Salesforce and AWS Deepen Partnership With Salesforce Genie

    Salesforce and AWS Deepen Partnership With Salesforce Genie

    Salesforce and AWS are deepening their partnership with the release of Salesforce Genie.

    Salesforce and AWS are the leaders in their respective industries, making collaboration between the two companies a natural step. As part of Dreamforce, the two companies have announced deepening integration between their two platforms. Customers will be able “to use Amazon SageMaker, AWS’s machine learning (ML) modeling service, alongside Einstein, Salesforce’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology.”

    The key to these new integrations is Salesforce Genie, “a hyperscale real-time data platform that powers the entire Salesforce Customer 360 platform.” The new tool is designed to help companies make the most of the data they have, adapting to changes in real-time.

    “Einstein makes it easy for our customers across every industry to get started with AI. With over 175 billion predictions per day across the Salesforce Customer 360, Einstein operates at a massive scale and helps our customers across every industry sell smarter, deepen customer relationships, scale customer support, and personalize experiences,” said Rahul Auradkar, EVP and GM, Unified Data Services and Einstein at Salesforce. “By opening our platform, we’re enabling data scientists and developers to bring their own AI models with SageMaker, and quickly deploy custom AI into the Salesforce Platform. And, with Salesforce Genie, tap into real-time data that makes it easier than ever to hyper-personalize every moment and every application, in real time.”

    “The biggest challenge customers face today isn’t that they don’t have data — it’s that the data isn’t connected, and it’s difficult to glean business insights or easily put that data into action. With Amazon SageMaker and Salesforce, we aim to solve this challenge by enabling data scientists and developers to successfully build, deploy, and run high-quality machine learning models at scale,” said Ankur Mehrotra, Director, Amazon SageMaker at AWS. “Amazon SageMaker offers the deepest and broadest set of machine learning services and we’re excited to help our joint customers accelerate innovation and time-to-value by bringing our collective product suites, ecosystems, and resources together.”

  • Salesforce and WhatsApp Are Joining Forces

    Salesforce and WhatsApp Are Joining Forces

    Salesforce and WhatsApp are partnering to integrate WhatsApp messaging with Salesforce’s CRM platform.

    Salesforce is the top CRM platform, while WhatsApp is the top instant messaging service. The partnership will allow companies to leverage the power of WhatsApp to better communicate with their customers.

    Companies will be able to use the all-new Salesforce Genie to activate their customers and gain real-time insights. Salesforce Genie will also help inform companies’ Click-to-WhatsApp ad campaigns on both Facebook and Instagram.

    “L’Oreal is on a mission to invent the future of beauty, which also requires us to revolutionize how we connect with our customers around the world. Our customers move fast – we not only have to keep up but exceed their expectations across every interaction. As more customers use their mobile devices as their primary way to engage our brand, we need a single messaging solution that pulls in information across sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT, to help us deliver personalized customer service, deliver product recommendations, and increase sales. Being able to do all of the above on WhatsApp as a single messaging platform could have a tremendous opportunity in beauty, to drive conversational commerce and build greater engagement,” said Asmita Dubey, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at L’Oréal.

  • Salesforce-Owned Heroku Eliminates Free Plans

    Salesforce-Owned Heroku Eliminates Free Plans

    Salesforce-owned Heroku announced it will eliminate all free plans, citing the cost involved in combating “fraud and abuse.”

    Heroku is a cloud application platform that helps developers “build, deliver, monitor and scale apps.” The company was one of the first cloud platform as a service (PaaS) companies and was snapped up by Salesforce in 2010. Heroku has allowed developers to maintain free accounts, but is now discontinuing them.

    Bob Wise, Heroku General Manager and Salesforce EVP, outlined the change in a blog post:

    Our product, engineering, and security teams are spending an extraordinary amount of effort to manage fraud and abuse of the Heroku free product plans. In order to focus our resources on delivering mission-critical capabilities for customers, we will be phasing out our free plan for Heroku Dynos, free plan for Heroku Postgres, and free plan for Heroku Data for Redis®, as well as deleting inactive accounts.

    Starting October 26, 2022, we will begin deleting inactive accounts and associated storage for accounts that have been inactive for over a year. Starting November 28, 2022, we plan to stop offering free product plans and plan to start shutting down free dynos and data services. We will be sending out a series of email communications to affected users.

    Wise points out that Heroku’s plans start at just $7/mo and include additional certificate management and better app responsiveness than the free plans.

  • Microsoft Takes Aim at Salesforce With Viva Sales

    Microsoft Takes Aim at Salesforce With Viva Sales

    Microsoft has unveiled its latest attempt to take on Salesforce, launching Viva Sales, “a new seller experience application.”

    Microsoft has been working on challenging Salesforce’s dominance in the CRM market for years. The company’s latest effort is the Viva Sales tool, designed to with with any CRM and integrate its data with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365.

    “The future of selling isn’t a new system. It’s bringing the information sellers need at the right time, the right context, into the tools they know, so their work experience can be streamlined,” said Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Microsoft. “Empowering sellers to spend more time with their customers has been our goal — and we’ve done that by reimagining the selling experience with Viva Sales.”

    Viva Sales allows sales reps to tag customers in Outlook, Teams, or Office apps, automatically capturing the data as a customer record. The software then uses AI to help move a customer through the sales process, prioritizing the next steps and providing valuable insights. The AI also helps sellers with recommendations to improve customer engagement and follow-through.

    “Sellers rely on digital collaboration and productivity tools to connect with customers and close deals, but a lot of the insights they uncover with these tools don’t make it into the CRM,” said Paul Greenberg, founder and managing principal, The 56 Group. “Microsoft is taking on this challenge by offering a solution that complements the CRM. Viva Sales automates the busy work, captures critical information about the customer and helps sellers get the job done.”

    Salesforce clearly sees Microsoft as a significant threat to its business, with many believing its acquisition of Slack was a way for the company to better fend off the Redmond giant.

    While Viva Sales works with any CRM, the app could represent a significant foothold effort. If companies find that Viva Sales lives up to expectations, it’s one more piece of Microsoft software integrated into their workflows. Eventually, they may find a full switch to the company’s CRM is the next logical choice.

  • Salesforce Has New COO Amid Executive Shakeup

    Salesforce Has New COO Amid Executive Shakeup

    Salesforce has a new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and its Chief Revenue Officer has been moved to a strategic role within the company.

    Salesforce filed an SEC document detailing a small but significant executive shakeup. Brian Millham, who has been serving as Chief Customer Success Officer, has been appointed President and COO, effective August 8, 2022.

    Simultaneously, Gavin Patterson has been moved from President and Chief Revenue Officer to Chief Strategy Officer, also effective August 8, 2022. Salesforce says Patterson will “help the Company continue to innovate and deliver customer success” in his new role.

    “Over the last two years, he has been our CRO, overseeing the most rapid growth period in Salesforce’s history,” a memo seen by Business Insider states. “Gavin will help guide our strategy as we innovate, deliver customer success, and supercharge Salesforce’s growth for decades to come.”

  • Helium Called Out for Being Dishonest About Its Clients and Partners

    Helium Called Out for Being Dishonest About Its Clients and Partners

    **Updated with company statement to WPN.**

    Helium has been lauded as a Web3 success story, but the company has egg on its face after being dishonest about who its customers are.

    Helium is creating a decentralized wireless network that serves as a peer-to-peer network for IoT devices. One of its main selling points is that it allows customers to earn crypto. The company prominently features a number of companies as customers and partners in an effort to add legitimacy to its service. There’s just one problem: Some of them aren’t customers or partners and never have been.

    A report by Mashable found that, despite claiming Lime was one of its customers, Lime was not using Helium’s platform. In fact, other than a testing period in which it evaluated the possibility of adding Helium devices to its scooters, Lime was never a paying customer, let alone a partner.

    “Beyond an initial test of its product in 2019, Lime has not had, and does not currently have, a relationship with Helium,” Russell Murphy, Lime senior director for corporate communications, told Mashable.

    “Helium has been making this claim for years and it is a false claim,” Murphy said

    It appears Lime is finally preparing to take action and is planning to send Helium a cease and desist.

    Lime isn’t the only company Helium appears to have been dishonest about. According to The Verge, Salesforce has also denied being a Helium partner.

    “Helium is not a Salesforce partner,” Salesforce spokesperson Ashley Eliasoph told The Verge. When asked about Salesforce’s logo, which appeared on Helium’s website, Eliasoph said that “it is not accurate.”

    A spokesperson for the company reached out to WPN to provide the following statement:

    “Since the Network launched in 2019, we’ve worked with a variety of companies on various applications and pilots. In the case of the brands mentioned in recent articles, we had approvals to talk about the use cases but we’re going to be much more rigorous now about the logo approval process going forward to avoid any confusion. Both Nova and our partner the Helium Foundation have removed the reference.”

    Helium’s Financials

    Helium has already been called out for only bringing in $6,500 in revenue per month, despite receiving $365M of investment, with Andreessen Horowitz taking the lead in the fundraising. The VC firm called Helium the “fastest growing wireless network ever” at the time.

    Interestingly, according to Mashable, Helium CEO Haleem and Helium investor Kyle Samani confirmed the revenue numbers.

    For a company being held up as the poster child of Web3, Helium certainly has a lot to answer for. Only time will tell if these are the only revelations to come out or if there’s more yet to come.

  • Marc Benioff: ‘Office Mandates Are Never Going to Work’

    Marc Benioff: ‘Office Mandates Are Never Going to Work’

    Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has weighed in on return-to-office mandates, proclaiming they “are never going to work.”

    Companies large and small are struggling to adapt to the workplace changes brought by the pandemic. Some have embraced remote and hybrid work, while others are insisting employees return to the office (RTO). Benioff has made no secret of his belief that remote and hybrid workflows are here to stay, and he reiterated that at a company event Thursday, according to AOL.

    “Office mandates are never going to work,” Benioff said.

    See also: Hybrid Work Disparity Is Fueling the Great Resignation

    Although many companies are working hard to return to the pre-pandemic status quo, the evidence has so far supported Benioff’s assertion. The more companies have demanded employees return to the office the more those employees have pushed back.

    Even high-profile companies like Apple and Google have not been immune, with both companies receiving significant pushback from their employees. In fact, Apple even lost its top AI executive over its RTO policies. Google has similarly had to push back RTO deadlines in response to employee demands.

    In contrast, Salesforce has focused on its “Success from Anywhere” approach, giving employees “the flexibility to work how, when, and where works best for them.” The company’s acquisition of Slack has dovetailed perfectly with its efforts, helping round out its suite of tools and services to enable remote and hybrid workflows.

  • Bill Gates: Crypto and NFTs ‘100% Based on Greater Fool Theory’

    Bill Gates: Crypto and NFTs ‘100% Based on Greater Fool Theory’

    Don’t count Bill Gates as a fan of cryptocurrency or NFTs, with the tech icon calling them “100% based on greater fool theory.”

    The crypto market is in the midst of a massive downturn, one that has seen billions wiped from the ledgers. While many are looking at this as a buying opportunity, Gates is not impressed with crypto or NFTs, according to CNBC. Gates referred to both, but especially NFTs, as being “based on fool theory,” meaning the value on an already overvalued asset only goes up when enough investors want them.

    “I’m used to asset classes … like a farm where they have output, or like a company where they make products,” Gates said, regarding NFTs.

    On the topic of crypto, Gates said: “I’m not involved in that. I’m not long or short any of those things.”

    Interestingly, Gates comments come at a time when NFTs are increasingly gaining mainstream support. Salesforce recently unveiled its own NFT platform, NFT Cloud, as a way for companies to mint and sell NFTs. The company emphasized their intention of making their platform a trusted marketplace, one that would be environmentally friendly, addressing two of the biggest critiques of the burgeoning tech.

    Only time will tell if the crypto market will recover, and if NFTs will continue to gain steam. In the meantime, it doesn’t sound like Gates will be investing in either.

  • Salesforce Launches Its NFT Platform

    Salesforce Launches Its NFT Platform

    Salesforce has launched its anticipated NFT platform as a pilot program, providing a way for customers to mint and sell NFTs.

    The NFT market has experienced explosive growth, with Bloomberg reporting the market topped $40 billion in 2021. Salesforce announced plans to establish an NFT marketplace in February, even dealing with employee backlash over the plans. The company has now launched its platform, Salesforce NFT Cloud as a pilot program.

    Salesforce touts its solution as providing a trusted way to launch NFTs.

    We are building security and trust into every layer of the NFT Cloud pilot, including audited smart contract templates to protect sellers and buyers; branded first-party marketplaces to provide controlled, secure checkout experiences; and fraud prevention tools to help keep your brand’s NFTs out of the hands of bots and bad actors.

    The company also says NFT Cloud will not support proof-of-work blockchains, instead applying its goal of delivering net zero solutions to NFT Cloud.

    In line with our net zero emissions commitment, and to help our customers reach or stay net zero, our NFT Cloud pilot will automatically calculate carbon emissions of blockchain options, and allow the user to offset the emissions through trusted, high-quality carbon credits. Beyond our direct impact, we are collaborating with organizations, such as the Crypto Climate Accord, to drive sustainability in the Web3 space.

    Salesforce has clearly taken the objections of its employees to heart, as environmental concerns and the “unregulated, highly speculative financial assets” were two of the biggest objections they had to the company’s plans.

  • Box for Salesforce Updated to Provide Box Sign Digital Transaction Processes

    Box for Salesforce Updated to Provide Box Sign Digital Transaction Processes

    Box has announced an update to its Box for Salesforce on the Salesforce AppExchange, bringing Box Sign functionality.

    Box is one of the leading cloud storage platforms and has been moving into the digital signature market with its Box Sign service. The company’s latest update brings the power of Box Sign to AppExchange customers.

    The global pandemic greatly sped up the transition to digital documents, with remote teams needing a way to handle agreements and digital signatures. Box first entered the market in mid-2021, building its product on its SignRequest acquisition earlier that year. Since then, the company has been gaining customers and competing with existing players in the market, such as DocuSign and Adobe.

    Read More: COVID Accelerated Digital Transformation, Says DocuSign CEO

    “From streamlining customer relationships to closing deals from anywhere, we are excited to fuel growth for our customers,” said Diego Dugatkin, Chief Product Officer at Box. “The innovation we are delivering today helps end-users work more fluidly with their Box content right from within Salesforce and gives developers additional flexibility to support a wide range of business processes. We are only scratching the surface of what Box and Salesforce can do together for customers, so you can expect to see even more developments between our two platforms in the future.”

    For its part, Salesforce welcomed the new update and what it means for AppExchange customers.

    “We are excited that Box is continuing to innovate on AppExchange to help our hundreds of joint customers move their critical business process to the cloud,” said Woodson Martin, GM of Salesforce AppExchange. “Digitizing transactions is a critical step in the process and with Box Sign for Salesforce, Box is simplifying the execution of documents from anywhere in a cost-effective way. AppExchange is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our customers, and we love watching our partners evolve alongside us.”