Earlier today, IDC released a white paper outlining the massive impact of the Salesforce economy, which is projected to support 3.3 million new jobs and $859 billion in new business revenue over the next five years.
Within the manufacturing sector, Salesforce is estimated to drive more than $159 billion in revenue and generate nearly 640,000 jobs.
As the partner of choice for the manufacturing vertical, we’ve seen first hand how leveraging the Salesforce® customer success platform can revolutionize industry and help U.S. manufacturers compete in the high-tech global economy.
Moving from the traditional manufacturing space into Salesforce’s digital, cloud-based ecosystem --- and undertaking the cultural shifts within the organization needed to make that possible --- has helped our clients extend lean principles beyond the shop floor and deliver their products and services faster, better and cheaper.
Aside from the practical tools it provides, the Salesforce® platform has served as a framework we use to spur discussions around how people, processes, technology, and data to move their businesses forward.
For example, Service Pump and Supply (SPS), an industrial distributor and manufacturer offering water management solutions, recently worked with our team to overhaul their business through integration of cloud-based CRM and ERP. Founded in 1980, SPS needed to sunset legacy systems and processes.
As SPS’s trusted advisor, we worked closely with team members at all levels of the company to streamline their business processes and develop smart solutions to meet their unique needs. With onsite training provided by our team, SPS experienced instant go-live success and immediate increases in productivity.
“Working with Mountain Point to implement Salesforce has helped us become a leaner and more agile company,” Patrick Farrell, owner of Service Pump and Supply said. “We make better decisions in managing our supply chain, and we are able to mobilize resources far more quickly to respond to emerging situations. The recent series of hurricanes, for example, put our new system to the test. We were thrilled to find that it enabled us to work faster and smarter than ever before to meet the needs of customers throughout the southeastern United States.”
Similarly, we were able to leverage the Salesforce® platform and Appexchange® to help Matouk, an 85+ year old manufacturing company move toward peak performance. Matouk is a luxury bedding and bath textile manufacturer that is both an online B2C and B2B provider to well-known retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, and Nordstrom and direct to consumer through influencer relationships with designers and reps.
Using Cloud ERP from the AppExchange® as the backbone solution, we were able to help Matouk manage their workflow with greater efficiency and ease. We used Jitterbit to process Magento E-Commerce sales orders and EDI sales orders into Rootstock and to integrate transactions from the Salesforce Platform to MS Great Plains.
We also put the power of Salesforce into the hands of Matouk’s mobile shop floor employees through the deployment of iPod Touch devices with a custom mobile application. We used VisualForce to develop custom solutions alongside Appexchange products like Conga to manage their B2C and B2B document requirements. To help them better communicate with retailers, we enabled partner communities and leveraged Zenkraft to replace their shipping station processes.
“The process improvements are extraordinary,” George Matouk, CEO, said.” We were able to reduce our production (lead) time from 4 weeks to 2 weeks. With more sophisticated planning and visibility, our in-stock levels have improved dramatically --- data can be shared in real-time across departments driving efficiency in all corners of the business.”
By leveraging Salesforce, we’ve been able to help dozens of companies like SPS and Matouk make the transition to Industry 4.0, where innovation, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) are the cornerstones to gaining a competitive advantage. And Salesforce has been a crucial component of our own company’s success, helping us to become one of the fastest growing companies in our region. The economic impacts outlined in today’s IDC release are reflective of the productivity increases we see on a daily basis and offer a glimpse of the monumental growth we expect Salesforce to help drive within the manufacturing sector in the next decade.