Dreamforce 2019 was big, and it was overwhelming: there were big partner awards (including our own win for ‘most innovative partner’ with BoConcept) and big product announcements. These product announcements meant an even bigger ecosystem of possibilities for delivering better customer experience.

In the interest of bringing the bulk of information together into a single story, we share three key lessons we believe Dreamforce 2019 taught us about technology, people, and processes.

Technology: A single source of truth

Held in the crucible of innovation, San Francisco, Dreamforce was a great occasion to introduce Customer 360 Truth – the most talked-about product announcement of the entire event. This platform’s promise is to authenticate customer identities across touchpoints, stitch together disparate customer data across multiple environments and combine these into a single application that spans sales, service, marketing, and commerce.

Which sounds like something every brand wants, right?

People: The power of partnerships

But with great power (and unified customer data) comes great responsibility.

The past months spent working alongside our client BoConcept paid off at this year’s Dreamforce event. It made us incredibly proud to celebrate the success of this global furniture brand, whom we helped to deliver personalised, premium retail experiences across their customer channels, across countries, and across franchises.

This was proof that success with new technology doesn’t assume a one-size-fits-all approach to implementation; it means getting the right expertise and experience sitting next to you… people who will listen to your unique organisational needs, then operate at both a global and local level to make sure the right data is available to the right employees, from a user-friendly interface.

This means first asking ‘who?’ and ‘why?’ to find the right path towards value for teams and their customers just as we did with BoConcept, before getting too tied up with tools and technologies. You can read more about what we did and how over here.

Processes: What use is a platform if there’s 0 employee adoption?

Much to our delight, another theme regularly touched on at Dreamforce was the importance of adoption.

It’s true what they say: digital transformation isn’t about technology. It’s about cultivating the behaviours and systems that make it work.

So when your 360 customer view is set up and ready to scale, with tech investments and business goals fully aligned, it’s time to facilitate real change by focusing on how employees can benefit from these shiny new capabilities – incrementally introducing ways to make their lives easier and their performance greater using a proven framework for adoption.

ROI doesn’t happen magically with cloud migration, nor does it happen without the processes and culture to make tech adoption sustainable.

The real single truth is that it takes hard work, top-down support, communication, and feedback.

And with another year of exciting possibilities and exciting technologies, we’re ready to rise to the challenge.