Salesforce – Tableau: Top 5 Things Clients Will Get from This CRM – Data Analytics Union
Could this be a match made in heaven for anyone who deals with customers, clients, and all the data they generate? Co-CEO of Salesforce.com Marc Benioff said it best in the official press release about Salesforce’s recent purchase of big data firm Tableau software: “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers–bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.”
In other words, Salesforce can help organizations track and manage their clients, as well as collect valuable data, and Tableau will now help leaders make better sense of the data – along with better graphs, charts, and other business intelligence visualizations.
One of the things we’ve always loved about Salesforce at RTS Labs is the company’s drive to expand its offerings as a truly unique platform that serves multiple business needs. We see that when we help clients take advantage of Salesforce’s Einstein AI service offerings; myTrailhead, a white-labeled version of the Trailhead learning technology; and with the newly announced Customer 360, an omnichannel sales and marketing integration service.
The actual purchase of the company won’t go into effect until October. According to all sources, when that happens, it will be business as usual. But as avid users of both platforms, we can’t help but speculate what the reality will look like when the most powerful CRM on the market joins forces with the most powerful data analytics and data visualization tool on the market. Here are the top 5 things clients will get from this CRM-data analytics union.
Deeper insights
If you are a Salesforce user, you know that although its services are extremely powerful, the data and reports you have to work with provide just one picture of your overall business analytics. As RTS Labs team member and Salesforce expert Jeanine Lundeberg puts it, “Salesforce data is Salesforce data. Whatever you put into Salesforce is what you can report on within Salesforce. Salesforce reports display only Salesforce data.”
Tableau, however, is a business intelligence tool. It pulls in all your data and gives you the ability to create custom reports. You can really slice and dice your data however you want. It is a powerful reporting tool that has much more flexibility and functionality when it comes to creating strong visualizations of your data.
As Salesforce looks to increase its offerings, the big data and data visualization piece is a natural extension, and Tableau is the best choice!
“With Tableau, Salesforce will play an even greater role in driving digital transformation, enabling companies around the world to tap into data across their entire business and surface deeper insights to make smarter decisions, drive intelligent, connected customer experiences and accelerate innovation,” according to the official Salesforce press release.
Data visualization that makes data more accessible
Tableau’s data visualization tools are really where the company shines. We love them. Our RTS Labs customers love them, and we can’t wait to see if and how these tools will be incorporated within Salesforce.
With Tableau, big data can be used and manipulated without the need for a data analyst. It’s that powerful. Tableau gives you the ability to handle all your business data and build reports with it so that anyone inside or outside your organization can make sense of it. That kind of data accessibility is game changing for businesses looking to really take control of their data and leverage it for decision making and reporting.
A way to accelerate Salesforce 360
Salesforce announced its 360 service in September of last year to help customers connect Salesforce apps and deliver a unified customer experience. The service makes it easier for companies to bring service, commerce, and marketing together into one customer profile and deliver personalized, connected experiences.
This acquisition could accelerate the Customer 360 service offerings to give better data analytics and visualization.
More robust data stories
The RTS Labs communications team has an internal goal to make the hashtag #DataStories popular. It’s because your data – with the right context and visualizations – tells a story. We’re not talking about pie charts and graphs here. We’re talking about large sets of data that really tell (and show) the growth your business, the habits of your customers, and the success you’ve achieved. We think combining Salesforce and Tableau will help you tell more stories … more #DataStories … about your customers, successes, and business growth.
Having better #DataStories will in turn help you gain better perspective on your progress and your future goals. These are stories you can not only use in marketing campaigns – you can also use them to make better decisions about the direction your organization should take to keep succeeding.
Better customer experiences
Most RTS Labs customers love Salesforce and are big-time Tableau users. Now, this acquisition means the two services will be part of one ecosystem. This makes for a better customer experience for Salesforce and Tableau clients (and for the vendors who help them develop and implement the tools), which in turn means clients and their developers can better focus on the experience of they’re creating for their customers.
For these reasons and many others, we are excited about the future for this CRM-data analytics union. The team of Salesforce and BI developers at RTS Labs can’t wait to see how the new partnership plays out for our clients.
RTS Labs founder Jyot Singh predicts, “Tableau is one of the best analytics platforms. People use Tableau for stuff that is outside of Salesforce. At some point, we will see the best of both worlds in one place. It’s pretty exciting.”
If you’re not a Tableau user yet but now you’re curious about what it might be able to do for you and your organization, check out this article from the RTS Labs archives that lays out several ways Tableau can transform your business with data analytics.