Dreamforce 2022: What's New?

Dreamforce 2022 went by in a whirlwind of announcements, innovations and golden hoodies, as it usually does.  

Salesforce have sustained their growth rate over the last 23 years, with successful acquisitions and clever advancements in their digital CRM offerings. So, what are they doing now to keep innovating and maintain their 20+% growth YoY? 

Let’s take a look at the biggest announcements from Dreamforce 2022… 

Salesforce Genie 

The biggest announcement, and the showstopper of Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor’s keynote address, was the introduction of Salesforce Genie. 

Salesforce Genie will transform Salesforce into the world’s first ever real-time CRM. Genie takes real-time customer data streams, plus historical data, from every app and device of an organisation (even non-salesforce apps), and amalgamates this into a single customer data profile/graph, or ‘single truth’ as they call it. Combining the Salesforce Genie real-time customer graph with real-world customer interactions should allow businesses to deliver ‘the most relevant, personalised, and compelling experiences, in every moment’ for their customers.  

Genie will be natively integrated with the platform, across the Clouds, Slack, Tableau, Mulesoft, and every aspect of Customer 360.  

It will run on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s public cloud infrastructure, meaning customers will benefit from the data residency, scalability, security, privacy and agility that Hyperforce offers. 

Salesforce Genie is immediately available, and we’re excited to see the results of the seamless integration of new real-time insights with the CRM platform. 

New Slack Features 

Slack was acquired by Salesforce in 2021, and just over a year later, they’re expecting to deliver 100+ enhancements to their customers for 2022. Slack is a digital HQ for your business, offering higher levels of communication and collaboration in the new world of work. There were a few new features that caught everybody’s eye… 

Slack Huddles 

Slack huddles are a great way for teams to collaborate in real-time, even if they are remote. To make for even more cohesive co-working, Slack are introducing lightweight video huddles, multi-person screen sharing, and emojis, reactions and stickers. They’ve also introduced a new feature where huddle message threads are saved to the channel, so the information you’ve shared is readily accessible.  

These new huddle features are available immediately. 

Slack Canvas 

Slack canvas has been introduced to create seamless working across Slack and other elements of the Customer 360 platform. It’s the result of integrating Quip with Slack, so if you’re familiar with the software, Slack canvas won’t look too alien to you. It will provide a new surface where you can see a summary of information, including relevant people, account overviews, integrations with the 360 clouds, document management, workflows and more. You can even run a workflow directly from the canvas, without leaving Slack. You can also attach a canvas to huddles, so team members can add notes and create next steps.  

Slack canvas is expected to be available in 2023. 

New Integrations 

Slack is being integrated further across the Salesforce platform. Offerings include Sales Cloud for Slack, Service Cloud for Slack, Digital Command for Slack, Flow in Stack, CRM Analytics for Slack, Financial Services Cloud for Slack, and soon, Apex SDK for Slack. The new Slack platform is now available in open beta, and will allow Developers to use their Apex skills to build out Slack integrations and Apps, making it simpler to build, run and deploy code. 

Slack Partner Industry Solutions 

Slack have collaborated with Slack and Salesforce partners to offer industry-specific, personalised solutions to suit an organisation’s needs. This service will be available from certified partners such as Accenture, Atrium, Capgemini, Deloitte, Globant, IBM, KPMG, NeuraFlash, PwC, Silverline and Slalom. Slack customers will be able to receive specialised advisory and consulting services from consulting partners that meet the needs of their specific industry. Some industries that will benefit from this include financial services, manufacturing, communications, retail, media and technology, among others. 

Sustainability 

Salesforce have been pioneering sustainability within the business world, championing ecopreneurs and offering solutions to help organisations go Net Zero.  

The trillion trees project is well under way, with Salesforce planting 44m trees so far. The aim is to conserve, restore and grow 1 trillion trees by 2030. You can check out the 1t project here. 

One of the announcements at Dreamforce 2022 was the introduction of the Net Zero Marketplace, which integrates with the Net Zero Cloud. The Net Zero Cloud offers organisations a place to manage their own sustainability data, track their emissions, forecast, and thus reduce risk.  

The Net Zero Marketplace is a new addition that acts as a ‘climate change hub’. Businesses can use it to learn about climate change and carbon projects that align with their own values and goals. Marketplace sells carbon credits to companies that have made net zero commitments, incentivising a reduction in emissions.  

Net Zero Marketplace will be available in the US in October 2022, and elsewhere in 2023.  

With plenty of exciting new features on the table, are you thinking about implementing Salesforce in your organisation? Finding the right talent to get you up and running, and leverage the best functionality of your Salesforce solutions, can be a daunting task. Our Salesforce Recruitment Specialists can consult on how to build the right team for your specific needs and provide you with the top talent. Get in touch today for a consultation.