Earlier this week Salesforce held their 2016 Analyst Summit. At this event, they shared information about their product and marketing plans, we heard customer stories, and we were able to ask questions to several top executives. In the video below I provide an overview of the Salesforce product portfolio, explain some of the terminology they use (ex: Lightning, Thunder, Wave, Salesforce1), and highlight some of their strengths in the collaboration market.
While not covered in the video, there are areas I would like to see Salesforce improve in their collaboration portfolio, such as:
- Better project/task management
- Real-time communication (1:1 or group video chat)
- Long form content creation (i.e. notes/documents that are longer than Chatter posts)
I asked about each of these, and while I am not able to disclose Salesforce's replies, I can tell you they are aware of each of these shortcomings. In some cases these areas will be addressed by Salesforce building new features, some by product acquisition and some things will be solved by integration with partner products.
I look forward to seeing Salesforce's progress in 2016 around personal productivity, team collaboration and customer engagement. I'll be keeping a close watch on how they leverage intelligence (AI), analytics, and the Internet of Things (IOT) to improve each of these areas.