The Nimble AMS Product Development Team are always looking for innovative ways to extend functionality in order to best serve associations and their members.
One of the most important aspects of Nimble AMS is that features allow themselves to be extended and configured to fit a wide array of different needs — needs that might not have been anticipated when the feature was originally built..
Here are a few key takeaways from my experience at Dreamforce 2018:
Customer 360:
This was the big product announcement at Dreamforce. Customer 360 is a new cross-cloud technology initiative from Salesforce that makes their B2C Marketing, Commerce, and Service products work better together. It supports their view that “The Customer Demands to Be at the Center.” Customer 360 will provide a complete view of unified customer data across different Salesforce apps as well as with data from systems outside of Salesforce. For associations, Customer 360 means that if you’re using a Salesforce-based association management software system like Nimble AMS, you’ll now be able to deliver connected member experiences across channels and departments like never before.
Einstein:
There is so much going on with Einstein, Salesforce’s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that it’s hard to summarize in a short paragraph. But here’s the gist: Newest additions include Einstein Discovery, Next Best Action, Vision, Voice and Bots – all AI tools to make it easier to get a job done in Salesforce. Associations might be a little slower to adopt AI than many for-profit companies, but they’ll get there using these new tools coming from Salesforce.
For associations, Customer 360 means that if you’re using a Salesforce-based association management software system like Nimble AMS, you’ll now be able to deliver connected member experiences across channels and departments like never before.
myTrailhead:
It was great to see for the first time the configuration side of myTrailhead, which allows organizations to customize the Salesforce Trailhead learning environment with their own content and branding. Just like everything else in the Salesforce world, it looks like easy-to-use point-and-click tools to create your own Salesforce learning paths. Going from “pilot” to “general availability in Spring 2019, it will require additional licensing.
MuleSoft:
Salesforce’s messaging around MuleSoft, the application network-building platform that Salesforce acquired earlier this year, was more subtle than other announcements at Dreamforce. But it was it was clear that MuleSoft is important in the future of Salesforce and a critical component of Customer 360. MuleSoft’s Salesforce integration solutions make it easy to integrate CRM, ERP, and other applications needed to run your association with Salesforce. I see this as a way to ensure a consistent experience across all channels, increase member satisfaction, and drive revenue growth.
Lightning
Lightning, the latest version of the Salesforce CRM platform, was the only version mentioned at Salesforce. New features and functionality are touching all aspects of the Salesforce experience, making it easier to user and optimizing the user experience, including:
- Search capabilities within Lightning List Views
- New Flow Builder and Lightning Flow Screen component
- New Lightning Record Pages for SV (Staff View) versus MV (Mobile View)
- Ability to Manage Field Layouts in the Lightning Record pages (versus classic page layouts)
- More Granular Security of Sections and Fields on Lightning Record pages
- New Lightning Object Creator
- New capabilities to differentiate layouts in Staff View versus Mobile as well as new tools for field layouts and field level access.
At Dreamforce 2018, Salesforce reminded us why they’re the number one customer relationship management (CRM) platform. Their continued innovation around CRM, artificial intelligence and more is one reason why Nimble AMS is able to help associations stay on the leading edge of membership management technology.
