Salesforce Attempts to Give Small Companies Amazon-Type Analytics

            When it comes to innovation, it seems like the “little guy” is always one step behind.  Big companies, such as Amazon, Google and General Electric, are at the forefront when it comes to technological innovation, which gives them better analytical data.  This gives them the ability to create better products and services for their consumers.  Analytics help companies anticipate what consumers want before they know they want it.  Marc Benioff, the founder and CEO of Salesforce, is making it possible to employ the same analytics that big companies use across a wider variety of smaller companies.  They intend on doing this by using “The Internet of Things” that the company had already implemented.

In my opinion this can greatly help businesses all over globe to provide better goods and services to their customers because it can help them personalize their products.  This will give people a product that is better suited to fit their personal needs, rather than a broad product that might not completely satisfy, or not satisfy as much as it could have.  What this is going to do is create better relationships between consumers and producers.  This mutually beneficial relationship will help generate more revenue for companies, and will also help consumers get better products.  But how is Benioff trying to accomplish this?

            In his article, Quentin Hardy explores how Benioff’s idea of gathering similar information that Amazon gathers would affect small businesses across the country positively, by showing that they can increase the efficiency of the companies and their abilities to provide better goods and services.  Salesforce does this through “The Internet of Things.” Hardy writes, “This service would combine data from devices like sensors and smartphones with customer information already inside Salesforce, like personal profiles and previous transactions” (Hardy).  A smaller company, such as an insurance company can use these analytics.  This can be used to detect car accidents.  It would then take that data and send the driver phone messages, which would include what their coverage is, what tow trucks are near by, and what service centers are near by (Hardy).  Another product that Salesforce created is called Wave.  It is used to provide people with the ability to keep an active calendar, without actually having to manually put in events (Hardy).  Wave is a way to visualize data and analytics making them easier to comprehend and apply (Salesforce.com).  Being a cloud based software program means that it can be a part of Salesforce’s “The Internet of Things” and can also be accessed from almost anywhere from almost anywhere. 

By selling these products to other companies, Salesforce has given the “little guy” the same capabilities as large companies to provide specialized goods, because they can see the same analytical data that big companies use, which draws consumers to them.  The relationship between man and technology has never been better, and with “The Internet of Things” that relationship can be used to provide better products to people and help companies create those better products.

             

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