15 Experts On Tech Trends & Innovation

EXPERTSONTECHTRENDS ANDINNOVATION

CONTENTS Introduction 3 How do you learn about technology trends? 4 What are the new trends in technology? 7 What do customers expect from new technology? 9 How does your company approach innovation? 11 Who is responsible for innovation at your company? 13 How do you innovate while delivering value? 15 What are the technology trends to come? 18 Featured apps to help you innovate 20 Conclusion 21

INTRODUCTION Is the rate of tech innovation making you dizzy? Artificial spreading yourself too thin or missing the mark on what’s intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things – important to your customers. like it or not, they’re here. That means the pressure is on How do AppExchange partners continue to innovate, to innovate and keep your standing with your customers. and what technology trends are both exciting and top Look at it another way: No matter your industry, you’ve got of mind? We enlisted Salesforce MVPs – customers a golden opportunity to create new services. Your goal? recognized for their contributions to the Salesforce To engage, win, and keep customers. Ohana – to interview executives from eight AppExchange But innovating can be challenging. Whether your partners. Read on to learn how these executives and their company is large or small, staying innovative while still companies stay innovative. meeting the demands of current customers is a balancing Meet Appy, your guide to the partner ecosystem. act. Innovation requires research, resources, planning, She’s in the know about AppExchange solutions and focus. Without these important pieces, you might risk and really wants to share her knowledge with you. 3

HOW DO YOU LEARN ABOUT CEDRIC SAVARESE MIKE DUENSING DENISE CARBONE TECHNOLOGY CEO, FORMASSEMBLY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SKUID SALESFORCE MVP I learn by reading, first and Publications and blogs. I look TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > TRENDS? foremost. I read a lot of blog posts at TechCrunch, VentureBeat, TWITTER> and news. I’m especially fond of eWeek, Wired, and Medium; the Hacker News, Y Combinator’s forum investment/capital communities A customer since 2004 and Chicago The news can barely keep up with the pace of and news aggregator. I also talk to and their respective trade User Group leader, since 2008, innovation, which makes staying on top of the co-workers, clients, and partners to publications; and the industry Denise has multiple Salesforce latest technological changes a daunting task. We see what they find interesting. analysts such as Forrester and certifications and has presented at asked our experts what resources they use to stay Gartner. I look at the broader many Salesforce events, including abreast of the latest trends in technology. context of world economies, Dreamforce. Denise has a deep level so The Economist, Reuters, of respect and appreciation for all and Bloomberg. who engage in the Salesforce Ohana. Listen to Denise’s interview with Screen-Magic’s Nitin Seth. 4

NITIN SETH ERIK SEVERINGHAUS HENRY EVANS CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SCREEN-MAGIC CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER We look at how messaging apps are evolving I try not to get too swept up in the hype, and One of my favorite resources is a site called SaaStr. across different parts of the industry, including instead ground myself in classical thoughts It’s the largest community of people who are Google Play or the Apple App Store downloads, around historical trends, and how history inspires building and are part of SaaS companies. They and the usage trends for those apps. interesting or counterintuitive ways of thinking for have great events and interviews for us to model the future. and see what other people are doing. 5

BOB DeSANTIS JAKE FABBRI VINCENT CABRAL COO, CONGA VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, FONTEVA VP PRODUCT, NINTEX I was lucky to attend the largest technology event We use an idea board in the same inspiration that, Salesforce is always pushing the limits. Years ago, in the world: Dreamforce. That’s a very important say, Salesforce does for our customers. But our it was mobile; from there, it’s Lightning, this new part of how I keep in touch with what’s happening. staff uses that same idea board for our products. experience for the end user. This year, it’s AI. I keep I spend my time with the new and innovative When we consider things from our product in touch with Salesforce, because they’re on the technology companies. They’re solving problems initiatives, we focus on where we want to go for edge of helping businesses improve how they’re that the bigger players may be missing. that individual user. Is this going to make their life doing work today. better, easier, and so on? TAKEAWAY Stay up to date with technology trends from a variety of sources, including trade and national publications, events, and your customers. 6

WHAT ARE THE NEW TRENDS IN CEDRIC SAVARESE VINCENT CABRAL TECHNOLOGY? CEO, FORMASSEMBLY VP PRODUCT, NINTEX One trend that is very interesting for us is the drive Some of the ones that I’ve seen are going from a for more consumer privacy protections. There’s “low code” trend to a “no code” trend. Salesforce Artificial intelligence, driverless cars, machine a new regulation coming out of the European has been the leader of this for years. Previously, it learning, and the Internet of Things all get tons Union called the General Data Protection was necessary to have a Salesforce developer or of press. But those weren’t the only things our Regulation (GDPR) that is going to affect a lot of a whole Salesforce development team. Now you experts brought up when we asked them about our customers, including U.S.-based customers. can make updates in Salesforce with little-to-no the technology trends that are top of mind for Not a week goes by without hearing about data development. them. Read on to see what they said. breaches and data leaks, and everybody is well aware that when you share data online, it’s a risk. And so everyone has a strong interest in seeing more efforts toward data privacy and security. JAKE FABBRI VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, FONTEVA Virtual reality and augmented reality come up, and they’ve gone from being expensive, more virtual, and less reality, to being put in the hands of anybody out there with a smartphone and a portable headset. 7

HENRY EVANS MIKE DUENSING AMBER BOAZ VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SKUID SALESFORCE MVP We’re seeing more people getting comfortable We’ve all seen artificial intelligence emerge quite rapidly. I TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > with doing everything in the cloud. I met with a still believe it is an emerging area, and there’s a long runway TWITTER> customer who offers a completely outsourced ahead. Salesforce and others are leveraging AI to provide Amber is a runner, volunteer, and technology solution to small businesses in a couple more value in their product offerings. AI is not a trivial Salesforce MVP. She holds numerous of niches. They don’t have to have a server. They investment, as we all know. It’s very significant. Salesforce certifications, including don’t even have to install any software on their Certified Service Cloud Consultant. computer. It’s all virtualized. Amber has deep knowledge of the contact center industry and experience administering and BOB DeSANTIS configuring Salesforce. COO, CONGA ERIK SEVERINGHAUS One of the biggest trends we’re seeing is around customer CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM experience. Customer experience makes work easier and It’s further off on the horizon in terms of business more intuitive. If we can provide both intelligence and cases, but the hype is building quickly for a better experience in our products, we can have a real Listen to Amber’s interview with blockchain. The immutable distributed ledger, and positive impact on our customer base. Bob DeSantis from Conga to learn more about how the some of the use cases that it involves – particularly company thinks about innovation. in the Salesforce ecosystem, which is focused on TAKEAWAY documents and contracts – is going to be really, Artificial intelligence capabilities are rapidly really interesting. expanding and the technology is improving daily. 8

WHAT DO CUSTOMERS ERIK SEVERINGHAUS MIKE DUENSING EXPECT CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SKUID The combination of technical innovation with a For our customers, mobile is a big area. More and FROM NEW user experience that’s incredibly intuitive is where more of the workforce is using mobile. Providing we’re finding the sweet spot of the most value. solutions that will accommodate mobile form TECHNOLOGY? There’s a lot of stuff that we’re focused on around factors is very important. A lot of our customers technical development and really forward-thinking, are evaluating Salesforce Lightning and looking next-generation technology. But the things that to understand what it’s going to take to move to Alongside changes in technology are changes really unlock the value for the customer are where Lightning. in customer behavior and expectations. As technology innovation is highly useful and very customer expectations of business technology valuable for that customer. blend with consumer apps, the innovation challenges to companies grow. We asked our experts what they’ve heard from customers when it comes to expectations for new technology. VINCENT CABRAL VP PRODUCT, NINTEX Customers want things to be easier. They want to do it faster. Most of the time, it’s taking something that’s really complex or labor-intensive — there are a lot of clicks, or there are a lot of steps to do it — and making it simpler for them. To me, that’s where we get our visions of innovation. 9

BOB DeSANTIS CEDRIC SAVARESE DEEPA PATEL COO, CONGA CEO, FORMASSEMBLY SALESFORCE MVP Customers are trying out technology solutions in There are a lot of questions about how we’re going TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > smaller ways, utilizing more proof of concepts as to help our customers meet GDPR requirements TWITTER> opposed to diving into the deep end of the pool. and answer questions from the European Union. A Salesforce MVP since 2012, Deepa I think customers are also getting more and more When you collect data about citizens of the is the founder of DPCRMGURU. Her comfortable with the idea that technology can European Union, whether that data goes into many certifications include Service actually solve their problems. Salesforce or elsewhere, customers have the right to Cloud Consultant, Sales Cloud understand the data we have about them, as well Consultant, Marketing Cloud Email as the ability to review, edit, and delete their data. Specialist, Pardot Specialist, and TAKEAWAY Salesforce Certified Administrator. Different industries allow for different customer expectations. The most important thing you can do is listen to them. Listen to Deepa’s interview with Mike Duensing to learn more about innovation at Skuid. 10

HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY VINCENT CABRAL NITIN SETH APPROACH VP PRODUCT, NINTEX CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SCREEN-MAGIC About 90% of what we add to the product is from While the product manager uses data to make INNOVATION? customer feedback. Innovating for the enterprise inferences, it’s important to double check with has always been our focus, but we also make it the salesperson (who is actually interacting with Most companies start with an idea large enough simple and applicable for small- and medium-sized the customer) about whether we are interpreting businesses. Regardless of the organization size, we information correctly. There are sometimes to build a business. As they grow, however, want to help our customers grow their businesses, gaps between the salesperson, the recorded staying ahead of the curve (and the competition) and we learn about their challenges to see how we conversations, and the product manager’s is critical to retaining and acquiring customers. can help solve them. perceptions. We also go to prospects or customers In this chapter, we hear how companies in the with wireframes. High-level concepts don’t always AppExchange ecosystem have organized their get the job done; you need to break down the companies to stay innovative. customer problem and give them a usable solution. BOB DeSANTIS COO, CONGA We try to hire great people who are doing much more than I do, are likely to stay in touch, and have their fingers on the pulse of new trends. We also engage and listen really carefully with our customers. They guide our innovation because they’re the ones whose business problems we’re trying to solve. 11

JAKE FABBRI CEDRIC SAVARESE KRISTI GUZMAN VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, FONTEVA CEO, FORMASSEMBLY SALESFORCE MVP Innovation is a core value at Fonteva. Our founders As a CEO, I am ultimately responsible for making the strategy TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > have talked about it from day one. At every all- decisions and setting the visions for the company, but it also TWITTER> hands meeting, our founders discuss invention, takes the efforts and the contributions of everyone in the Kristi is a self-proclaimed #SFNerd. and the idea of creating something new that drives organization to surface issues and opportunities we can use to She is a Salesforce MVP, with value for our customers. We have a system in drive innovation. We reach out to our customers when we have multiple Salesforce administrator and place where you have access to the CTO who can something that we want to share. developer certifications. She has also listen to your ideas and prioritize and plan hours spoken at multiple Salesforce events, dedicated to innovation. including Dreamforce. HENRY EVANS VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER ERIK SEVERINGHAUS PhoneBurner strives to be very customer-centric. We engage Listen to Kristi’s interview with CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM with our clients. We listen to their needs and ask how we Cedric Savarese to learn more Because we’re an open platform, innovation doesn’t can improve their sales process. These conversations drive about FormAssemby and all have to be done by our engineering or product innovation. We’re also avid users of our own software, so we’re its approach to innovation. teams, talented though they may be. We can always looking for opportunities to improve and expand. incorporate more and more of the innovation that’s happening out in the ecosystem, and we can use that to drive our platform forward. 12

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WHO IS RESPONSIBLE NITIN SETH CEDRIC SAVARESE FOR INNOVATION CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SCREEN-MAGIC CEO, FORMASSEMBLY I would not say that innovation is one person’s It’s a companywide responsibility beyond the AT YOUR responsibility. It’s across the organization. In our CEO. Whether you’re in product or business organization there are characters who thrive in development or on the customer success side, COMPANY? an uncertain environment, and who look for new everybody has a voice and is able to share ideas to pieces of information that can become trends push the company forward. When we surface issues tomorrow. The product team is looking at all of from customers, we see that as an opportunity to Ultimately, it’s employees who keep their these trends, and other teams, such as marketing, do better and bring innovation into our product. companies innovative. At each company, sales, and research, also assist. innovation rests with a different set of employees, from product teams to executive leadership, to sales and marketing teams that interface with customers. We asked our experts to tell us who at their company is part of the innovation cycle. HENRY EVANS VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER It really is a team effort. We believe that good ideas can come from anywhere. Our sales team uses the software daily. Customer service is exposed to constant actionable feedback. The marketing team looks at UX and the competitive landscape to win new clients and drive up value. Strong communication between our teams means that good ideas get heard no matter where they originate. 13

BOB DeSANTIS VINCENT CABRAL PHIL WEINMEISTER COO, CONGA VP PRODUCT, NINTEX SALESFORCE MVP Everyone at Conga is empowered to drive It is a global effort to push for innovation. We have development TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > innovation. In fact, adaptability is one of the teams working around the clock in Melbourne, Australia; Kuala TWITTER> foundations that Conga is built upon. We encourage Lumpur, Malaysia; Bellevue, Washington; and Irvine, California. Salesforce MVP, holder of 18 all of our employees to succeed by humbly Each team collaborates with each other and filters through the certifications, and author of Practical challenging the status quo. We embrace our roles as product managers. As a VP, it is part of my role to guide them Salesforce Development Without change agents and our responsibility to continually with the big picture in mind, upcoming trends, and features that Code, Phil is focused on engaging raise the bar on our products, services, and will benefit our customers. customers by combining community, ourselves. While our entire team drives innovation, context, and collaboration. our senior leadership team owns continuous innovation. In particular, a core group of executives, including our VP of product, VP of engineering, VP of development, and VP of strategy, work as a group MIKE DUENSING to track emerging trends and to identify those that CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SKUID Listen to Phil’s interview with might make sense for our customers. We don’t have one person who’s in charge of innovation. Erik Severinghaus to learn We are all in charge of innovation. One of the things that we do: about innovation at SpringCM. We give our engineers a great deal of leeway in allowing them TAKEAWAY to experiment and try new things. We meet weekly and discuss Collaboration and teamwork new ways we could be approaching problems. That motivates our engineering and product teams, because they feel like they across your organization are the keys have the freedom to try new things. Some of the capabilities to staying innovative. that have come out of these kinds of sessions are amazing. 14

HOW DO YOU INNOVATE MIKE DUENSING HENRY EVANS WHILE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, SKUID VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER Similar to our personal lives, we can get caught We are a bootstrapped and customer-funded DELIVERING up in the tyranny of the urgent. There are so many organization. We have not taken a large amount of pressures from the market, our customers, and funding. We aren’t publicly held. So client value is VALUE? our goals that sometimes we don’t make the the metric that matters. Deciding what projects to time to stop and think and prototype. Make the focus on is all about balancing the positive impact time to talk to your customers. Make the time to for clients and opportunity to win new ones, with Staying innovative is a balancing act for many understand the needs of the broader markets. the time and resources required to make it happen. companies. Avoiding chasing after the big, shiny object is a real issue companies must deal with, especially when they hear about new, exciting trends from the media and customers on a daily basis. Our experts confirmed that the innovation struggle can be real, but said that there are ways to innovate without sacrificing customer success. 15

ERIK SEVERINGHAUS BOB DeSANTIS TAL FRANKFURT CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM COO, CONGA SALESFORCE MVP We try to be thoughtful, and impose discipline Every decision you make has a consequence. For example, if TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > into a challenge, because the easiest thing for a we want to make some changes over in the opportunity area of TWITTER> sales and a go-to-market organization to do is to Conga Composer, it may ripple through to the contract or to the Tal is a Salesforce MVP, and founder constantly be asking the product team to build quote or to the account. Companies should take a step back from and CEO of Cloud for Good and more, build more, build more. Then you end up the quick fixes, the quick hits, the Band-Aids, and consider long- CRM Market. with this Frankensteinian mess. term. What is the impact of implementing new packages or new custom-built solutions on your business? Listen to Tal’s interview with Nintex’s Vincent Cabral to learn about Nintex Document CEDRIC SAVARESE Generation and how the CEO, FORMASSEMBLY company stays innovative. When you deliver an innovative feature or product, it must work flawlessly. If you have a self-driving car, you want it to stay on the road 100% of the time. When you use AI or machine learning, it has to really deliver to impress your customers. It’s a huge commitment over time to do it right. 16

VINCENT CABRAL JAKE FABBRI JEFF GROSSE VP PRODUCT, NINTEX VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, FONTEVA SALESFORCE MVP The pace of innovating is definitely one of the biggest Innovation is hard and can be painful at times. Being the first TRAILBLAZER COMMUNITY > struggles. There needs to be a balance of solving at something can certainly be painful because nobody else has TWITTER> problems quickly while keeping a clear vision of done it. But if it were easy, everybody would do it. There’s a quote Jeff is a Salesforce MVP, cloud fanatic, the bigger picture. Create a framework that allows from Marc Benioff that our CEO quotes when it comes to this: Salesforce admin turned consultant, new customers to adopt quickly, but also gives the “You have to get to the future first, and meet your customers and Evernote and Disney freak. enterprise confidence that the product will not break. when they’re ready to arrive there.” That’s a mantra for us. He holds Salesforce Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Developer, TAKEAWAY Service Cloud Consultant, and Sales Don’t make decisions in a vacuum. Listen to customer Cloud Consultant certifications. needs before making product decisions. NITIN SETH CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, SCREEN-MAGIC The key is to have the customer’s voice Listen to Jeff’s interview with represented, because the technology is only Jake Fabbri to learn about valuable if it’s valuable to the customer. Fonteva and how it keeps up with the pace of innovation. 17

WHAT ARE THE TECHNOLOGY JAKE FABBRI HENRY EVANS TRENDS TO VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING, FONTEVA VP OF CHANNEL SALES, PHONEBURNER It all comes back to the ability to drive a better I think that the AI conversation is only going to get COME? experience for customers. AI and predictive bigger. AI is this catch-all phrase for technology analytics tools are going to be important in the next getting better at predicting human behavior. When year. Analytics are going to not only look at what’s I use Salesforce, I now see Einstein predicting Technologists and C-suite executives alike must happened in the past and the current trends, but things. It’s really incredible how software is finally always keep one eye fixed on the future. While there based on that, what’s most likely to happen to getting connected enough and smart enough. are hot trends in technology today, we also wanted optimize revenue or customer experience beyond to know what our experts thought was in store in where it is today. the next year or two in technology, and how that might play out for companies and customers. CEDRIC SAVARESE CEO, FORMASSEMBLY I think we’ll talk about AI, and we’ll talk about machine learning. They’re becoming more available, and they’re definitely in the mainstream now. So we’ll see more and more applications that benefit consumer and businesses. 18

ERIK SEVERINGHAUS VINCENT CABRAL BOB DeSANTIS CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, SPRINGCM VP PRODUCT, NINTEX COO, CONGA I think fundamentally, the improvement of UX AI will soon help people to make better, more We’re very focused on contract lifecycle management, and voice-based user experience is going to informed decisions. Right now, data is collected, or CLM. And right now our VP of product says we’re continue to be transformational, improving the monitored, and analyzed. The next wave of approaching the fourth wave of innovation. That’s way that we can connect with these machines innovation will be optimizing processes to be more being driven by AI, and a renewed awareness of that do all of this work. We still haven’t necessarily efficient and predicting the next step in the process. the value of contracts and contract assets as part of crossed that threshold where it’s more efficient to running a business, especially a sales business. use voice-based or user experiences other than the typical mouse and keyboard, but I think the Listen to our interview with Henry Evans days of the mouse and keyboard are numbered. TAKEAWAY to learn more about PhoneBurner and I think that number is starting to come in terms Continue to be a forward thinker. how the company innovates. of months, not years. Get there before your customers do. 19

FEATURED APPS TO HELP YOU INNOVATE Conga Contracts PhoneBurner Conga Contracts shrinks contract cycles by up to 50%, PhoneBurner’s power dialer can make 447% more accelerating negotiations and closing deals faster. calls per hour, boosting inside sales productivity. Fonteva Events SMS-Magic Fonteva Events enables online registration for events SMS-Magic uses text messaging to engage, win, and and management of the entire lifecycle of events right retain customers, and creates stronger customer in Salesforce. relationships with conversational messaging. FormAssembly Skuid FormAssembly streamlines data collection and Skuid unifies all your data, apps, and business complex processes, saving time, resources, and money. processes so you experience more employee productivity. Nintex Document Generation SpringCM Contract Management Nintex Document Generation saves time, energy, SpringCM makes work flow by generating, and resources by automating documents — and automating, and managing document and accelerating sales. contract processes. 20

CONCLUSION It’s clear that technology is moving in new directions at an astonishing pace, and that companies have the opportunity to serve their customers in new and exciting ways. But setting up your company to be successful through innovation requires companywide planning and execution, from researching new trends to creating a roadmap to working with customers to make sure you’re planning maximum value. We hope this e-book provides inspiration to help your company innovate faster and more effectively in the future. VISIT APPEXCHANGE.COM 21