“The future of every company depends on customers, not technology,” said Eric Berridge, Bluewolf CEO, while preparing for his Dreamforce ‘15 Session. The longtime Dreamforce speaker added, “I have seen a lot since the first Dreamforce in 2003 — some failures, many successes — so I know a thing or two that can help.”
 
Eric will be taking the stage Tuesday at Dreamforce with Anil Chakravarthy, Informatica Acting CEO, and Stan Slap, best-selling author of Under The Hood, during a session on the Age of the Customer: 3 Ways to Maximize Engagement to Drive Profitability. Together, they will be discussing the intersection of design, data, and culture and how the right combination of the three can help business achieve results.

Why is data so tied to customer experience?
 
EB: Today there is an unlimited amount of data about customers. That’s both an opportunity and a challenge. It used to be that companies collected a finite amount of data about their products, their employees, their facilities, even their customers. This was the age of ERP.

Now, we suddenly live in a world where the majority of our data comes from outside of our walls— from social media, self-service content, and even machines. For most businesses, it has become impossible to decide which data to collect and where it should come from, since every digital action gives us clues about our customer and about what to do next.

You can never know too much about your customer. That much we can all agree on. But if customer data is unlimited, where do we stop?

What should companies do with unlimited customer data?
 
EB: They need to use their data to answer the following questions: Do I know what customers care about right now? Do I know what their health is? Do I know my next best action?
 
However, unlimited data can hurt more than help if it isn’t structured. The CIO of a big enterprise needs to be responsible for tracking and securing all data, and making everything available in real-time. That’s a tough job if you don’t have a strategy in place.
 
AC: Data is our customers’ key asset and a true differentiator today. In order for users to harness data for their key business processes and imperatives, they need to build an architecture where data is the central focus. That data needs to be scalable, as well as clean, safe, and connected. 
 
Today the use for data is wide-ranging across businesses. Many people have access to the data, so it is critical to maintain control of the data in order to gain the most business value. Informatica is focused on delivering that data so clients have greater insights and can grow their business.
 
Has the speed of the cloud necessitated real-time data?  
 
AC: Customers are looking for a  wide range of data requirements. It runs the gamut from real-time data access, to streaming, to batch. Some data needs to be accessible real-time, while it is okay for other data to be batch.
 
If you are a customer and are checking your bank balance, you expect that to be real-time data to reflect your latest transition. But if you are a weather company and your updates are a few minutes delayed, that is sufficient…as long as the delay is not yesterday’s weather! Streaming data works just fine in this instance. Alternatively, if someone is doing analytics on customer churn, users actually prefer the data to be batch.
 
Each of these data requirements is useful to different customers; need is based on the application and the context that the user requires. Informatica supports all scenarios, batch, real-time and streaming.
 
What are the best companies doing with real-time data?
 
EB: We all know that if we’re not careful, unlimited data can become unlimited Salesforce fields, objects, reports, dashboards, workflows, alerts, integrations, and ultimately terrible adoption. The best companies are creating user experiences that offer Uber-like moments, where live data interacts with a simple design to achieve frictionless engagement.  This is the most important aspect of driving both employee and customer engagement through Salesforce.
 
Register for Age of the Customer: 3 Ways to Maximize Engagement to Drive Profitability, taking place on Tuesday, September 15, 12:30-1:30PM during Dreamforce at the Moscone South, Gateway Ballroom. Reserve your seat now.