In the manufacturing session of our recent “Industries Week” events, we identified several trends that are sure to impact the industry in the coming months. Among the topics discussed were sustainability, connectivity, dynamic data, and a dispersed workforce. And, of course, a renewed focus on the customer experience.
Like with most industries today, crafting a great customer experience in manufacturing means thinking “digital-first.” The customer should be able to perform every task in their journey within a single digital platform - and do it easily. And with a hybrid work environment likely here to stay, the platform should be just as seamless for your employees to navigate as well.
For many manufacturers, that platform of choice is Salesforce, which provides an out-of-the-box, industry-tailored solution in Manufacturing Cloud, not to mention other clouds that have best practices for the manufacturing industry. With everything available and actionable in one platform, like quote configuration, product service management, price management, field service management and more, Salesforce allows both customers and employees to have a single source of truth for all of their processes.
What to consider when digitizing operations
Adopting a CRM like Salesforce is a critical first step in many manufacturers’ digital transformations. But there are implications that come with the transition that many companies overlook. Implementation issues, integration challenges, and user adoption, just to name a few. And then there is that pesky issue of data protection. With all of your data now under one roof, keeping it safe becomes even more important.
Here’s how Simplus and Own can help manufacturing organizations make the move with peace of mind:
Get your Salesforce instance set up right
To confidently move your manufacturing organization to the cloud, you need to consider the implications beyond just technology implementation. Of course, you’ll want to get your Salesforce CRM instance started on the right foot by making sure it integrates and stays in sync with all other relevant technologies necessary for a frictionless customer experience, but that’s just the beginning. People and processes are the key elements that will keep the implementation thriving long-term.
People: To guarantee success for your move to Salesforce, make sure your manufacturing team members are also on board. Carefully consider your business maturity, any previous technology implementations your team has gone through, and what resources they’ll need to adopt most optimally to Salesforce. Be careful not to overwhelm your team, especially if this is the first time they’ve moved to a digital-first, cloud-based environment. Consider grabbing small wins or low-hanging fruit that can build into bigger wins down the line, and enlist a change champion network to promote adoption. Simplus offers widely-praised change management services to help guide these “human side of change” initiatives.
Processes: You should also take this time as an opportunity to not only harmonize internal processes but potentially re-evaluate them in light of the new cloud configuration. Some operations will fundamentally change, such as no longer requiring offline spreadsheets to get the job done. You should view your implementation of Salesforce as a chance to re-engineer dated processes and modernize for a more customer-centric future to establish processes that are both customer and employee-friendly.
Simplus’ advisory services has years of experience connecting the technology, processes, and people for a seamless implementation sure to yield results as soon as possible. Learn more about our roadmap and discovery workshops here.
Protect your Salesforce data and stay compliant
Many manufacturers might assume that moving their data to the cloud will mean instant and automatic security. And while cloud software has made significant strides in data security and threat protection (Salesforce in particular guarantees 99.9+% uptime), the same vulnerabilities that exist when data is on-premise exist in the cloud as well. The biggest culprit continues to be not malicious attacks, but human error, making up just less than half of all incidents.
For manufacturing organizations in particular, stringent intellectual property security protocols, as well protocols for other sensitive data, such as PCI and PII, make data protection and compliance a forefront issue. That’s why these organizations must consider a comprehensive cloud data protection solution for their data.
With Own, our proactive smart alerts will ensure that you are the first to know about data corruption or deletion, not your customer. Our compare tool helps immediately identify data additions, modifications, or deletions, significantly reducing recovery time and helping you focus on field service and operations. Own will also support your compliance needs by helping you meet Data Subject rights, such as Right to Rectification, Right to Erasure, and Right to Data Portability, as it applies to personal data within backups.
To see how Own can help you protect mission-critical data, click here.
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