Dreamforce 2019 Recap: Digital Adoption Front & Center
San Fransisco was completely converted into ‘Salesforce world’ for four action-packed days of Dreamforce 2019. Every year it is an incredible event for all things sales, and also serves as a microcosm for the business world at large.
With an event-wide emphasis on migrating to Lightning and how the transition can drive sales strategy to implementation, we at WalkMe felt more than ever, that digital adoption was the unnamed star of the show. Our team networked nonstop, ran a booth with constant traffic, and hosted value-packed sessions with customers, executives, and leaders.
If you weren’t able to make it to all of the WalkMe events, here are some of our top moments at Dreamforce 2019 and the lessons we learned from them.
Keep a finger on the pulse of adoption
Dreamforce manages to unite people from a wide range of industries, providing an opportunity to gather unique insights on the common threads. Our team surveyed the Dreamforce attendees on training and onboarding, software adoption, and ROI. The respondents were from a variety of industries including retail, finance, travel, food and beverage, manufacturing, and media. The trend is overwhelmingly clear: sales professionals across all industries need to develop a digital adoption strategy.
The sales ecosystem is migrating… Lightning is just one example
The average sales professional uses more than fourteen applications in a workday. With platforms constantly being upgraded, and new ones implemented, salespeople are bombarded by software demands. Onboarding is ongoing and training can no longer “cut it.”
WalkMe CEO Dan Adika presented the digital adoption platform as an effective digital adoption strategy to tackle DX challenges. He demonstrated using examples such as Salesforce, cross-platform usage, WalkMe’s ActionBot, and app automation, to show how WalkMe can circumvent time-consuming and frustrating processes in order to allow the user more time and efficiency.
Dreamforce 2019 put an emphasis on the migration from Classic to Lightning that many businesses are avoiding. Lightning includes new features that bring more information and usability to the forefront with a significantly more intuitive and sleek design.
The benefits of Lightning include more than 150 new features including mobile-first accessibility (with the newly released Mobile App), Lightning Voice, and an overall more customizable and efficient interface.
WalkMe conducted a study to see if this difference in productivity could be measured. They found that sessions in each version to achieve identical tasks were 20% faster in Lightning than in Classic.
But many businesses haven’t made the switch. Why?
The reason is simple: migrating to a new version of software causes a major disruption. This is where WalkMe’s digital adoption platform is a real game-changer.
What happens at the WalkMe Party stays at the WalkMe Party
1,400 Dreamforce attendees came to Temple Nightclub to party with WalkMe Tuesday night. The talented Ido B graced the stage playing the saxophone and music spun by DJ Nimble and DJ Tregger had party-goers dancing until midnight.
WalkMe was thrilled to shower Salesforce Celebrity Ben “Salesforce Ben” McCarthy with love as our Party VIP. Also, the party of the year wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors, Gong, GlassBox, OwnBackup, and Cirrus Insight.
This party sells out every year, and once again, attendees wanted to join last minute. The most important takeaway here is to RSVP as soon as the party page is launched. Put it on your calendar now for Dreamforce 2020.
Video demos on digital adoption showcased tremendous progress in sales technology
We were so impressed by the incredible submissions by our customers who entered the Salesforce Demo Jam Competition. The challenge was to create a two-minute video demo of WalkMe for Salesforce Build. The innovative ideas and excellent quality presentations made selecting the winners a difficult task.
We selected one winner for each category and the winners are:
- For Scalability: Robert Half International, submitted by Steffaney Zohrabya
- For Productivity: Schneider Electric, submitted by Timothy Spink
- For Visibility: AMN Healthcare, submitted by Melissa Layton
- Honorable Mention for Easiest Quick Win: Nationwide Financial, submitted by Ashley Flynn
These contestants tackled the most prominent challenges that companies face when trying to adopt on a large scale and their solutions for tackling them using WalkMe. We learned how to maintain alignment and communication between departments, how to boost employee productivity, and how to onboard and train effectively.
Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all of our customers for submitting fantastic videos.
Sales professionals want to know how to scale digital transformation in businesses
Do you have questions about digital transformation that you wish you could ask top executives?
WalkMe was honored to host the Executive Thought Leadership Panel with Rodney Tupai, Marriott, VP Product Management, Jeff McKittrick, Hitachi Vantara, VP Sales Business Capabilities, and Meghan Wilkinson, CenturyLink, VP Sales Enablement. The panel moderator was Mike Kelly, Redhat, CIO.
The questions included how their companies are tackling digital transformation, how effective transformation can unlock unprecedented ROI, and why attempting transformation without a digital adoption strategy is a catastrophic mistake. The answers were candid, in-depth, and incredibly insightful.
We got to hear the innovative voices of these top business leaders today discuss our favorite topic: digital adoption and how to scale it in a constantly evolving environment.
Our customers motivate us to keep developing
This year we loved sharing the stage with our customers, who offered insight, practical tips, and statistics on how digital adoption has impacted their companies and organizations.
Kim Clark and Nick Johnson from Robert Half shared their experience migrating over 11,000 users across 400 offices, in 18 different countries from Classic to Lightning successfully. This transition was made seamless and efficient with WalkMe and we were so proud and grateful to have them share their experience with Dreamforce attendees.
Our customers Susan Rowell from American Red Cross and Jamie Dalsimer from JustWorks also joined us at our booth to answer questions about their digital transformation journey with WalkMe.
A turning point in digital transformation and a focus on user experience
The conversations on the floor with Dreamforce attendees revealed that a digital adoption strategy is no longer a nice-to-have in the sales world. Across all industries, the need for an adoption strategy is critical, and this year at Dreamforce we saw that businesses are finally able to put their finger on the problem.
The focus on how to address the growing gap between humans and technology in the workforce continues to rise at corporate conferences. We learned an incredible amount about the needs and developing demands on the ground from our booth, lounge, sessions, and events. As the demand for digital adoption solutions continues to grow, we continue to grow as well.
Dreamforce gave us the opportunity to remember that even though our product is digital, our customers are human. Maintaining the focus on people and the user experience is always our top priority.
See you next year at Dreamforce 2020!
