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The retail industry is dealing with increasing costs, declining sales, disgruntled customers, and stiff competition. This has encouraged retailers to adopt technology tools and solutions to enhance operational efficiency and improve customer interactions. In fact, the retail industry offers a lot of scope for technological transformation in areas of supply chain management, inventory management, sales, marketing and more thereby empowering retailers to increase the overall efficiency and profitability of their business.  One such technology that has the potential to transform the retail sector is artificial intelligence, which has helped retail businesses boost their speed, efficiency, and precision. Let’s dive in a bit deeper to find out how: Cognitive Inventory Management: The thinking capability of AI can be leveraged to determine the inventory components basis of the current sales trend. Depending upon the data available, AI draws inferences and forecasts of probable scenarios, provides recommendations, and even takes necessary actions with human approval. Well trained algorithms can be used to make decisions, which improve efficiency. An AI-powered system can process huge amounts of data and help create an inventory that is tailored as per the current market trends and customer demand.  Customer Purchase History: With an AI-powered CRM, organizations can target the specific interest of buyers. By breaking down huge volumes of data, AI tools can be used to identify the purchasing pattern of customers and understand their preferences. The AI-powered systems can further recommend similar kinds of items to the customers for purchase. To integrate an AI-powered CRM, retailers should consider partnering with a Salesforce implementation partner. Interactive Interactions: Customers always look for a prompt response and with an AI-driven chatbot customer service can be improved significantly. These chatbots are trained to communicate with customers and provide answers to frequently asked questions and provide customers with the necessary support. These bots gather useful customer data and use it to determine their preferences and purchasing pattern. Streamlining Supply Chain: The retail industry can streamline their supply chain by leveraging AI-powered tools. This might involve categorizing in-demand products, transporting them, tracking the shipment, and inventory management. With an AI-powered CRM in place, the retail industry is poised to attain new levels of efficiency while maintaining a good customer relationship. Why Should Retail Businesses Consider Leveraging Salesforce Einstein?  Salesforce Einstein is an AI-powered CRM that integrates predictive analytics, and machine learning. Apart from this, there are other features such as Einstein discovery that allow users to figure out hidden data patterns in customer data. Other important features such as Einstein prediction builder provides for business predictions through custom AI models. Bots connected to CRM along with the integration of computer vision make use of deep learning models for identifying the make, model, or brand via product images. Another innovative feature is the Einstein voice assistant that helps in interacting with users in real-time. Quick Wrap-up:  Given the growing preference for online retailing by customers, organizations working in the retail sector are gradually adopting AI-powered solutions to enhance operational efficiency and business productivity. With a robust AI-powered platform like Salesforce Einstein in place, retailers can provide exclusive customer experience while taking business efficiency to the next level. If you are looking for implementing Salesforce Einstein within your business ecosystem, it’s in your best interest to get in touch with a reliable Salesforce consultant.   

The global insurance sector is undergoing a dynamic change due to digital transformation. This digital disruption has forced insurance providers to either make significant changes to their business models or face the risk of being ruined. However, insurers, especially traditional insurers may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage owing to their age-old business models, as well as hefty investments made in infrastructure. In fact any change to their business model might be extremely difficult for some insurers as it may cannibalize their existing business. To create efficiencies leading to higher profitability or a competitive position, insurers are leveraging innovative technology solutions that too without making significant changes to their business models. Insurance regulators are indeed viewing technology as an enabling solution that can help them better realize their mission of warranting a competitive and sustainable insurance market. Today, insurance providers are doing away with traditional customer servicing methods and are opting for robust insurance CRM software that has helped them manage everything from a single place. Let’s take a quick look as to how a robust CRM like Salesforce drives positive growth for businesses that are a part of the insurance sector: Personalized Services: CRM software provides users a great way of increasing the understanding of existing and potential customers. This enables them to provide personalized services according to the unique requirement of every client. Financial service cloud by Salesforce paves way for marketing automation, which enables brokers to nurture leads and then turning them into customers while connecting with customers at the right time, and with the right product advice. Salesforce CRM software for insurance also helps in delivering personalized services to the policyholders. To implement Salesforce insurance CRM software within their business ecosystem, insurance organizations should consider partnering with an experienced Salesforce Implementation Partner. Improve Customer Loyalty: Offering superior customer service is a key way of improving customer loyalty. Insurance companies that have implemented robust cloud-based CRM get access to meaningful insights that are required for providing personalized sales, claims, and service-related interactions for a huge client base. Moreover, a cloud-powered solution can be integrated with different departments such as sales, marketing, etc., which allows staff and clients to connect irrespective of their location thereby paving way for a more integrated environment. Secure Repeat Business: A robust CRM can be leveraged to utilize multiple aspects of a business. This presents a cost-effective way of bringing people together, breaking data silos, providing a single view of customers. This allows insurance teams or brokers to sell (up-sell and cross-sell) more while making repeat sales to existing customers by keeping the need of each customer at the center of communication regarding sales, marketing, and support. Wrap Up: Salesforce CRM software for insurance provides insurance companies an opportunity to support their customers in a way that extends their journey with the organization rather than providing momentary service and support. With competition within the industry becoming fiercer, Salesforce CRM for the insurance sector can make organizations stand out of the crowd. Organizations looking forward to enhancing business efficiency and ROI by implementing Salesforce insurance CRM should should seek assistance from a reliable and certified Salesforce consultant.

Technology has made its way into every aspect of our lives and the higher education sector isn’t any different. Today higher education institutes irrespective of their sizes and affiliations are striving to provide superior student experience by empowering them to become forerunners of the future. While higher education institutes are utilizing innovative technology solutions to fulfill the long-lasting commitment made to every single student, yet most of these solutions leveraged by the institutes manage to partially fulfill the commitments made.  This is because the solutions utilized by these establishments are greatly siloed and thus fail to create a single perspective of the entire student journey right from admissions to student accomplishment and progression. Apart from this, increased student expectation for a more personalized and connected experience has put immense pressure on higher education institutes to provide students with a positive experience. This is where the Salesforce education cloud comes to picture.  As a cloud-based solution, the Salesforce education cloud empowers institutions to deal with most pressing challenges across their campus while drive student success across the entire life cycle i.e. from prospect to alumni. With a wide array of features, the education cloud by Salesforce has become the number one CRM for providers of higher education. Here’s what makes this platform a go-to choice CRM for higher education institutes:   Hassle-free Admission Process: This cloud solution helps institutions connect with prospective students who are seriously looking for a well-suited university and course. Institutions build brand awareness and campaigns to attract students besides leveraging the data of various applicants by maintaining a database at a single location. This not just provides a holistic view of the prospective students but also acts as a platform to provide personalized services to the students.  Convenient Student Experience: The CRM enables institutions to address specific challenges faced by students’ w.r.t to educational decisions while providing seamless service to enhance standard success. Apart from this, institutions have the option to communicate with the students via their preferred mode of communication. Finally, institutions can provide their students with access to lucrative career opportunities through the regular job posting, handling career fairs while staying connected with the alumni network.  Data Architecture: The education data architecture (EDA), which lays at the very foundation of the Salesforce education cloud enables the usage of standard objects that can be used to manage student relationships, co-curricular and more. The EDA can be customized as per the specific requirement of the institution, which further is made simpler by eliminating the need for coding. In fact, modules, custom fields, and objects, etc. can be created using a drag and drop functionality. Apart from this, EDA also updates itself on a weekly and biweekly basis and can be tailored as per the specific needs of the users through the App Exchange. It is also supported by a diverse community known as the Trailblazer community, where users collaborate and share their ideas.  Advisory Services: One of the significant benefits of using the Salesforce Education cloud is the provision of SAL (Salesforce Advisor Link) solution, which allows students to seek advice on career-related queries. Students can set up appointments with the advisors via mobile application as these appointments integrate easily with the advisors’ calendar. The CRM also integrates office management software that manages appointments and walk-ins. Quick Wrap-up:  As an innovative platform, the Salesforce Education Cloud is equally beneficial to the institutions, students, and alumni alike. Together with a robust and useful education data architecture (EDA) and advisory link, this powerful platform stands tall among all other available education CRM system. If you are keen on implementing this cloud solution, it’s in your best interest to engage the services of a reliable Salesforce implementation partner .

As businesses face growth and expansion, so do their challenges to sustain and remain competitive. This requires them to leverage new technologies that can prepare them to deal with the ever evolving challenges, which usually legacy systems fail to resolve. Legacy systems are inefficient; fragile, obsolete, and difficult to integrate with new cloud and web-based services. Moreover, replacing them can be an extensive and expensive process. Consider a case in which you have a customers’ order history data in one legacy system and customers’ web interactions with the brand in a modern and robust CRM like Salesforce. Without the CRM’s integration with the legacy system, your business would lose out on valuable insights that could otherwise be achieved by merging the data and creating one single view for their customers. Another case would be in which a large-scale company has many subsidiaries and it does not want to migrate its business to a new Salesforce environment but wants the Account, Contacts, Leads, and Opportunity data to be synced in with their existing CRM environment for a detailed analysis using Einstein analytics. The problems stated above creates the need for a co-existing system in which the legacy system is still operational with the data being transferred simultaneously to the new system. This article throws light on new technology solution i.e MuleSoft integration. What is MuleSoft? MuleSoft provides exceptional business agility to companies by connecting applications, data, and devices, both on-premises and in the cloud with an API-led approach. Using MuleSoft’s anypoint Platform; companies can integrate their SOA infrastructure with their legacy systems. They can migrate their technology infrastructure to the public or private cloud and prioritize the adoption of SaaS applications, as well as other cloud technologies. As represented from the diagram MuleSoft helps in connecting any CRM or service portal to any Database or third-party application. It also can perform hybrid integration between legacy systems and cloud-based systems. How will we achieve this? In this article, we will be demonstrating a technique to integrate two Salesforce environments so as to sync the creation of each account record. For this, we will need 2 Salesforce orgs and MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform. Step 1: Create 2 global configurations for the 2 Salesforce environments. For this, you will need the UserName, Password and the Security Token for your Salesforce. If you don’t know how to get the Security Token you can refer this Salesforce help article: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=user_security_token.htm Repeat the step for the second environment. Step 2: Use the On New Object component from the Salesforce module in the flow component.  In the On New Object select the following fields: Connector Configuration: The source Salesforce connection i.e the legacy system. Object: Account Scheduling Strategy: Fixed Strategy Frequency: 10 (You can change it as per your business requirement) Time Unit: Millisecond Step 3: Use the Transform message component to map all the fields that you want to migrate from the Source org to the Target org. Step 4: Use the Create component from the Salesforce module. Select the Connector Configuration for the Target org. Add a Logger to check the account sync. Step 5: Open the Source Salesforce environment and create an Account.  The account will be synced to the Target org. Conclusion: We can say that traditional architectural approaches are centered on point-to-point integration that is unable to address concerns inherent to legacy system. Using MuleSoft’s Anypoint platform, Legacy systems can be integrated seamlessly and in an efficient manner. This will allow organizations depending on their legacy systems to adopt   more efficient technology solutions. In addition, organizations can lower their costs by reducing dependency on legacy system while eliminate the need to re-develop complicated legacy system interfaces.  About Girikon – As a reputed provider of reliable IT services, Girikon offers a wide array of services including Salesforce implementation, Salesforce consulting and Salesforce support.