How Manufacturing Cloud Creates Connected Customer Experience

How Manufacturing Cloud Creates Connected Customer Experience

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is a modern-day comprehensive CRM that helps manufacturing companies connect their products, sales, planning, and stakeholder engagement across their business touchpoints. Today’s manufacturers demand a scalable solution to help them adapt and improve their customer experience, focus on fulfilling orders, and modernize their operations to be more in sync with their customers. Here’s why you need Manufacturing Cloud in your business to provide a connected experience to your customers.

Customer-Centric Business Experience

All digital transformation starts and ends with the customer. In a recently published connected customer report, 85% of business buyers and 79% of consumers mentioned that a company’s experience is as important as its products and services. To stay competitive, businesses must find ways to intentionally focus on the customer experience. Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud makes these new focuses easy by delivering a unified experience between consumers, products, and employees. The platform, loaded with features and capabilities specially suited to manufacturers, connects sales, service, marketing, pricing, and order management with one unified user experience, keeping data secured across multiple touchpoints. This simplified experience is what customers demand from the manufacturers they do business with.

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud
Watch Manufacturing Cloud In Action
Accurate Business Predictions

Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is a unified platform with immense insight from its reporting dashboards crafted to help capture the most vital data for a healthy manufacturing operation. These insights provide valuable product information such as highlighting what products are selling best and under what conditions as well as what product lines need more help to get out the door . Manufacturers can utilize this information to identify trends and predict better resource allocation based on market demand. Manufacturers can instantly find product return rates and usages with a connected system helping them control production costs and accurately forecast their customer demands.  

Simplifying Inventory Management

Often manufacturers plan production to meet the estimated demand in the market. A lot goes into these estimates, but if we have a system that can seamlessly and accurately track customer demand, businesses can save on production, operations, and marketing costs accordingly. With a 360-degree customer view, Manufacturing Cloud provides just the right experience that today’s manufacturers need: Produce what is in demand with focused inventory management so that you don’t suffer revenue leakage or customer attrition from inventory management errors. 

 Streamlining Contract Management

Manufacturing Cloud offers an automated digital process of workflows for contract management, which makes life easier for all. Most manufacturers face issues managing separate updates to client agreements from various parties, which creates version-control problems. Any changes done to the contract from any parties get automatically updated and instantly accessible by all stakeholders. With a single source of truth, all your operations are unified, legal issues are reduced, and together the business functions to establish its value proposition.

Easy To Create Sales Agreements
Connected experience sales agreement
Take a look at the Demo

Manufacturers often struggle with creating and, more importantly, maintaining and tracking sales agreements. They need to collect the product demand from the customer, check with operations, plan product frequency, and manually apply discounts and rebates to create the sales agreement which binds them to the customer. With Manufacturing Cloud, the process is automated and streamlined. The data gets collected from all the touch points of the consumer lifecycle, and sales teams can easily create the agreement with just a few clicks.  Moreover, by leveraging the power of Manufacturing Cloud Sales Agreements exposed to partners and customers via Salesforce Experience Cloud, a manufacturer’s stakeholders can directly participate in this process driving deep customer engagement and long-term relationships.

Manufacturers often struggle with creating and, more importantly, maintaining and tracking sales agreements. They need to collect the product demand from the customer, check with operations, plan product frequency, and manually apply discounts and rebates to create the sales agreement which binds them to the customer. With Manufacturing Cloud, the process is automated and streamlined. The data gets collected from all the touch points of the consumer lifecycle, and sales teams can easily create the agreement with just a few clicks.  Moreover, by leveraging the power of Manufacturing Cloud Sales Agreements exposed to partners and customers via Salesforce Experience Cloud, a manufacturer’s stakeholders can directly participate in this process driving deep customer engagement and long-term relationships.

Track Leads And Conversions

If manufacturers receive insights from the first point of sales, it becomes more functional for them to understand what strategies work and which need a change. One of the key features of Manufacturing Cloud is its ability to track leads through the sales process. The automated system can track leads and measure conversion rates. Additionally, it is powerful enough to identify any attrition in the customer sales journey and send out an alert to account managers to immediately identify and address the pain point. This helps sales teams adjust their strategies, so prospects don’t fall out of the pipeline, leading to better sales and increased revenue via returning customers.

Unified Cloud Solution

In this age of the customer, it is essential to have your business unified across all touchpoints. Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud can be integrated across all business touchpoints to enhance organizational workflows. Having a single source of truth and a unified cloud solution puts customers and collaboration at the forefront of your operations, making your organization a trustworthy digital-first company with a positive customer experience. 

In this Manufacturing Summit, Salesforce will guide you to leverage technology to drive greater efficiencies and streamline operations on a single platform. Our demo can help you better understand the transformative possibilities a fleshed out tech stack built around Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud could have on your organization. We, as your trusted and experienced implementation partners, are ready to help you design and conceive of the right plan and approach to grow profitability, unlock data-driven automation, and successfully navigate these challenging times. 

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Satch Patel, Executive Vice President, MD, UK & EMEA

Satch brings 25+yrs of enterprise global solution experience having contributed to the growth of some of the worlds largest marquee software and hardware giants in the industry from Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Cisco/EMC, to Apttus & Salesforce.
 
Satch has helped many blue chip organisations realise their vision to modernize their systems from the front office to back office revenue operations to meet the demands of today’s radically transforming and digitally-driven business models, having worked with the likes of Linklaters, CliffordChance, Barclays, RELX Group, Microfocus, Novartis, Siemens, PayPal, Vista Equity Group Companies, London Stock Exchange, TPICAP and Princes Trust.
 
With his leadership approach, experience and passion for helping companies drive transformative change, Satch has a deep expertise in many industries, technologies and best practices across the lead to revenue lifecycle and how driving such digital transformation(s) can improve business growth and increase operational efficiencies  as well as preparing businesses for M&A activities.

Brion Schweers, Board Observer

Brion Schweers is a Senior Vice President of Product Management at Salesforce, currently managing the Revenue Cloud Solution Excellence team. During the past 30 years, Brion has assisted enterprises around the world in transforming their business by focusing on their Product-to-Cash processes. Prior to joining Salesforce Brion was VP & GM, CPQ at Apttus, VP, Sales & Success at A5 Consulting, served on the OAUG ConfigSIG Board and spent 15 years at Oracle in various roles related to their CX and CPQ products. Brion is also the executive Sponsor of Vetforce – Carolinas and is actively involved in the Salesforce Military program where he mentors Veterans and their spouses with actionable, personalized career advice.

Joseph Truhe, Board Member

Joseph Truhe has over 20 years of investing experience. Prior to joining Jefferson Capital in 2013 Joseph was a Portfolio Manager with Whitney Bank in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he oversaw the company’s Trust accounts and served as the Energy sector analyst for the Hancock Horizon Funds. Prior to Whitney, Joseph worked as an analyst and member of the investment committee at HFR Asset Management, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund platform in Chicago, Illinois. There, Joseph reviewed and maintained investment discretion over the firm’s Event Driven and Asia-focused hedge fund allocations. He was also responsible for the expansion of the firm’s Asia-focused fund offerings.  Joseph holds a BA in Economics from Yale University.

Steve Swartzman, Board Member

Steve Swartzman is a Principal and co-founder of CPC. Previously, as a co-founder of C3 Capital, he helped originate and manage over 35 investments, including national brands such as American Apparel, Traeger Grills, and Grunt Style. Steve’s chief focus remains consumer brands and e-commerce enablement businesses, and he currently serves on the boards of Grunt Style, Accel Clinical Research, Spoke Custom Products, Warne Scope Mounts, and New World Natural Brands.

Prior to C3, Steve structured and managed subordinated debt investments at KC Venture Group, and he spent 7 years as a Vice President with Citibank in New York, managing client relationships for emerging markets clients and structuring over $1 billion in complex trade financings. He is a past President of the Midwest chapter of the Small Business Investment Alliance, and he serves on the board of the International Center for Music at Park University in Kansas City.

Steve received a MBA from Columbia Business School and an AB in History and Literature from Harvard College.

He resides in Kansas City, where he was raised, with his wife Evelina and two sons, Harrison and Zandy. When he’s not working, his favorite activities are fishing, golfing, and eating.

Charles Scripps, Board Member

Chad has over ten years of experience investing in dynamic, growing businesses in diverse industries and geographies. His private equity experience includes HIG Capital, which has over $12B in capital under management, and AEA Investors, which manages over $3B of invested and committed capital. While at HIG and AEA, Chad led diligence, structuring, and financial analysis of potential and existing investments, and completed transactions in the industrial products and consumer services industries. Chad also has experience investing in the public equity markets, most notably as a Managing Director at Fox Point Capital, a $1B fund seeded by Julian Robertson of Tiger Management. He invested across a number of industries, including industrials, financials, technology, and consumer products, and led Fox Point’s international research. Prior to focusing his career on investing, Chad was a management consultant at McKinsey and Company, solving strategic problems for the world’s leading companies. Chad earned an MBA with Honors in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS with Distinction in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lester F. Alexander II, Board Member

Les Alexander is a partner with Jefferson Capital Partners where he provides mezzanine and equity capital for growth and buyout transactions. Mr. Alexander is a member of the firm’s investment committee and serves on the board of directors of several portfolio companies where he is actively involved in strategic planning and corporate governance. Prior to joining Jefferson Capital, he worked at Advantage Capital Partners where he completed several portfolio company investments and served on the investment committee. Before becoming a private equity investor, Mr. Alexander served as president of Ferrara Fire Apparatus, Inc., a leading fire truck and emergency vehicle manufacturer. At Ferrara, he was responsible for managing a workforce of 450 employees producing over 300 vehicles annually for its domestic and international customers. As an investment banker for 15 years with such firms as Howard Weil, Southcoast Capital, and J.C. Bradford & Co., Mr. Alexander completed over 50 public offerings of debt and equity securities, private placements, and merger and acquisition transactions totaling more than $7 billion for public and private companies in a variety of industries. Mr. Alexander is an adjunct professor at Tulane University and Loyola University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in investment banking, private equity & venture capital, advanced financial management, investments, and entrepreneurship. He is also the board president for Benjamin Franklin High School, a public charter school in New Orleans. Mr. Alexander is the former Chairman Finance of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and served on the global Board of Directors. He is a founder of the Louisiana chapter of ACG and was a recipient of the ACG global Meritorious Service Award and the Louisiana chapter’s Outstanding Service Award. Mr. Alexander received his bachelor of science in Commerce from the University of Virginia in 1989 and his MBA from the University of North Carolina in 1993.

Patrick F. Healy, Board Member

Based in Kansas City, Mr. Healy is a co-founder of C3 Capital. He has been an active private equity investor since 1985 and was a co-founder of C3 Holdings in 1994. Prior to this time, he sponsored and structured equity investments in real estate. He gained extensive workout and restructuring experience as chair of the creditor’s committee of a $1 billion bankruptcy and from being called upon to rescue a publicly-traded company from a major fraud. Mr. Healy was a senior tax partner at Mayer Hoffman McCann, a regional CPA firm, for eleven years. He received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Kansas.

Chris Waters, VP of Strategic Sales

As Vice President of Strategic Sales, Chris guides and influences all strategic sales activities at A5 , starting in presales activities, successful sales methodology, sales process, and continued revenue generation and expansion opportunities. Furthermore, he will provide oversight in strategic sales function for the company and develop strategic sales plans that will promote growth in sales and customer satisfaction. Chris has proven his commitment to sales leadership and organizational success through field leadership as National Sales Manager at Deluxe Corporation, Field Sales Manager within the Social / Analytics Cloud at Oracle, US Regional Manager for CPQ Major Accounts at Oracle and now as Vice President on Sr. Leadership Team at A5.

Keith Fox, GM Salesforce Canada

Keith Fox is a software and consulting veteran for the past 34 years. Keith started his career at EDS which was followed by 4-year stint offshore in Bermuda. Keith then returned to Canada where he held a number of progressive sales and technical positions with software companies such as Sybase, BEA, and Oracle. After his stint with Oracle, Keith founded Cloudware Connections, a premier Salesforce consulting partner. 11 years down the line, Cloudware was acquired by A5, and Keith joined as GM for Canada.

Tarun Sharma, Vice President Delivery

Tarun Sharma is Vice President Delivery at A5 and is responsible for customer success, project operations, recruitment, resource utilization, and sales operations functions for Oracle practice. As a business and technology leader Tarun helps businesses develop solution strategies to streamline the sales process and improve customer relations to drive revenues, profits, and build brand loyalty. Tarun has led customers through digital transformation journeys. He has commanded strategic and tactical initiatives to shorten sales cycles, increase deal values and productivity, improve brand awareness and help organizations become easier to do business with. He has helped customers modernize their sales enablement tools and present a single source of information to support an omni-channel sales approach. This includes global roll-out for multiple business units included multi-currency and multi-language. Tarun graduated from Texas A&M University with a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering.

Adam Rosenfield, VP of Salesforce Practice

As Vice President of A5’s consulting practice – Adam is responsible for both strategic alliances with partners and expanded sales growth through the entire portfolio of A5 services. With over 20 years of Sr. level management consulting expertise – Adam has worn multiple hats in his career including practice development, sales, and client advisory. He has sold & delivered countless enterprise transformational initiatives creating a measurable competitive advantage for his customers. In addition to various technical software certifications, Adam holds an undergraduate and master’s degree in Accounting & Information Technology from the University of Texas at Austin and resides in El Paso Texas with his wife and 3 children.

PJ Alfrejd, CFO

As the CFO, PJ is responsible for all things financial at A5. With over 20 years of experience in financial leadership positions, PJ has worn all the hats required of a growing tech business. His extensive knowledge of the consulting industry, experience with M&A, and strength in operational finance is another catalyst to take A5 to the next level in its growth trajectory. PJ is a CPA with a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and has held various finance leadership positions at Exodus/Savvis (acquired by Centurylink), Neohapsis (acquired by Cisco), and mFoundry (acquired by FIS).

Vinay Kruttiventi, President & CEO / Chairman of the Board

As the CEO of A5, Vinay plays an active role in all aspects of day-to-day business operations. He is also actively involved in establishing a strategy and vision for the company. As a true customer advocate with Salesforce and Oracle product development, Vinay is actively engaged in various industry user/special interest groups. Since founding the company in 2004, Vinay has grown the business into a leading Salesforce, and Oracle partner focused on multi-cloud transformations.

Vinay has successfully implemented and architected CPQ solutions and multi-cloud complex transformation projects for various Fortune 500 companies since 1996. He has a strong authority over industry, process, and technology in Configure-Price-Quote and ERP applications. Vinay graduated from Osmania University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree and JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University) with a Master in Technology degree.