There are incredible opportunities in the Financial Services space right now, and we had a chance to see the best of what Salesforce has to offer now and going into 2019.

The amount of disruption and the overall pace of transformative change is historic, but with those changes come challenges. Salesforce, by paying careful attention to the feedback from partners over the past year, is well poised to address those challenges head-on. Trailblazing with partners was a big theme in the Financial Services Keynote this year, with customers that represent the entire breadth of the Financial Services landscape from all over the globe.

As Rohit Mahna, SVP and General Manager of Financial Services, said in his opening remarks, “This is the time to be in Financial Services.”

Here are my key takeaways from Dreamforce.

Financial Services in The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Industry convergence driving invisible finance is one of the more exciting areas of fast-paced change we’ve seen this year. Banking capabilities are being fused directly into a retail-style shopping experience, giving the transparency and convenience customers in this segment are asking for. With one tap customers can make a payment or gain access to capital.

Merging of Personal Financial Needs and Business Financial Needs

Using the customer example of WeChat, Rohit showed us how a company can take financial services capabilities directly to the platform. WeChat made it easy to get a loan and easy to interact with an insurance carrier to get quotes. They even baked in wealth management capabilities so clients can start investing in products and funds, all in one platform. This experience is just as relevant on the business side. So, how do other financial services organizations respond to these strategies?

One of the biggest issues in financial services is the decades of complexity in the industry due to legacy systems, something we, at Silverline, have navigated with our clients for quite some time.

Layers of complexity slow down the transformation of the industry and prevent a unified customer experience. Rohit referred to this meandering trail of links to silos, core systems, complex integrations, and duplicate discrete functions, as industry spaghetti. No one is happy with this soggy meandering spaghetti, all ending in a fractured view of the customer. The key to solving this problem is viewing the requirements as a journey, one we are all on together with our customers and their customers to a unified financial services front. Customers are looking for someone to support them on their personal and business financial journey in life. This is the driving force of why Salesforce decided to build Financial Services Cloud, and certainly how Silverline approaches our customers and their needs.

Rohit encouraged everyone to think of Financial Services Cloud as an industry bridge that helps you get to unified capabilities fast, straightening the crazy spaghetti in your business. By building it on the Customer Success Platform, this has led the Financial Services Cloud to 235% increase in lead conversion.

Financial Services Cloud: Built on the Customer Success Platform

Financial Services Cloud, built on the Customer Success Platform, extends the core capabilities in sales and service, providing out-of-the-box industry specifications. This is the bridge that will help straighten out that industry spaghetti. FinTech partners across each sub-vertical, leveraging the Financial Services Cloud partner ecosystem. We partner with them to learn what capabilities are needed to bring them right into the Financial Services Cloud.

The Agile Platform for Regulatory Compliance and Commercial Banking

Regulatory compliance is a requirement the world over in the financial services space. Charlie Ritchie, VP of Product Management with Salesforce, announced that in Winter 2019 there will be a new commercial banking app within Financial Services Cloud, working within the context of business accounts. The goal is to continue unifying customers’ experiences. In addition, Salesforce will be including action plans that allow agents to drive, build, and leverage repeatable templates of tasks to drive those customer engagements across every quadrant of your business while remaining safe and compliant.

Financial Services Cloud Surveys will debut in winter 2019. Every organization will get five creator licenses which means you can start building and branding right in the Financial Services Cloud, capturing rolling CSAT scores right away.

Einstein Bots for Financial Services Cloud for Winter 2019

Einstein bots for Financial Services Cloud for Winter 2019 represents Salesforce’s first foray into the bots market, starting with retail banking. Two of the most in-demand services according to feedback are reporting a lost card and notification of international travel. These bots will address this need automatically and deflect those calls from the call centers.

Capturing High-Value Interactions Between Business and Customers

One concern expressed by clients about the race to digital was how some high-value interactions have been left out, removing the customer from the center of the experience. So, where do financial institutions place those person-to-person interactions to make sure they count?

Enter the Lightning Scheduler, coming out in Spring 2019 and available natively inside the cloud. The Financial Services Scheduler experience will embed those high-value interactions into any standard Salesforce workflow.

New Innovations Coming in Spring 2019

Einstein’s Next Best Action

Introducing Einstein’s Next Best Action. This solution will help customers take the onus off agents to know what to propose next to the customer, creating streamlined customer journeys and suggestions for next steps, with products based on a customer’s personal and business lifestyles.

Mulesoft in the Anypoint Platform

Aided by Mulesoft, Salesforce can now provide one of the world’s leading platforms for building application networks that connect enterprise apps, data, and devices across any cloud and on-premise system. Mulesoft will be part of Salesforce Integration Cloud, enabling all enterprises to surface data no matter where it’s living and deliver intelligent 360-degree connected customer experiences across all touch points. Mulesoft will be incredibly valuable when it comes to enabling us to unlock data across legacy systems, cloud apps, and devices, helping drive radical digital transformation.

2018 has been an exciting year for innovations and success in the Financial Services space. 2019 looks just as promising, with Salesforce’s continuing commitment to maximizing your ROI on everything from your data to your customer touchpoints, creating digital transformations set to take your business to the next level of industry evolution.

Silverline will be at the forefront of these innovations and we look forward to partnering with you to help transform your business. If you’d like to talk further about your business needs or schedule a demo, reach out to us.