As Dreamforce 2023 draws to a close, it’s evident that the event’s newly unveiled technologies are poised to exert a profound and far-reaching influence on the Salesforce ecosystem, with their full impact only just beginning to emerge. The theme of this year’s Dreamforce has been all about the future of data and AI, with a special focus on how to incorporate these solutions into Salesforce CRMs with trust and effectiveness in mind.
One of the most fascinating storylines coming out of this year’s Dreamforce is the effect these new Salesforce solutions will have on the public sector. Cloud for Good Partner Alliance Director Kristin Kiester was in attendance for the Dreamforce 2023 Public Sector Keynote and is ready to pass on her instant reactions and insights on the exciting address.
What were your first impressions of the Dreamforce 2023 Public Sector Keynote?
This was a highly anticipated keynote, as was evidenced by the long line that formed over an hour before the keynote began. Dreamforce has been full of new innovation and excitement this year, and this keynote connected Salesforce’s new visions to the established and growing missions of the public sector and the many agencies therewithin.
Salesforce talked at length about the keys to accelerating digital transformation within the public sector. The first key touched on the importance of expert communities, such as professional services, the partner ecosystem, and Salesforce’s broad network of Trailblazers. The next key was all about pre-built public sector components, like data models, business processes, template libraries, and analytics. Finally, the third and final key discussed the need for a scalable and extensible platform, one capable of blending infrastructure services, low code/no code tools, data services, and application services to create transformational change.
What were your biggest takeaways from the keynote?
Whether you are a local, state, or federal government agency, everyone is struggling to produce more with less, and Salesforce is here to help. Salesforce stressed the importance of sharing stories with one another and helping others in the sector succeed through technology. To that point, the importance of agility was also hit hard, as digital transformation for agencies requires quick stand-up, constant iteration, and added requirements.
The tone and messaging at this keynote were similar to that of the Nonprofit Keynote in that agencies are like a nonprofit as far as being very mission-oriented and feeling that legacy technologies fail to create enough support for modern innovation. This is where Salesforce comes in.
How do you foresee the Public Sector utilizing the new technology revealed in the keynote?
Government agencies strive to service constituents faster and better but are experiencing significant challenges with legacy systems and staffing shortages. The Salesforce platform, including new AI-based solutions sure to create a great impact in the sector, is part of the solution to solve these challenges. Salesforce talked extensively about the importance of trustworthy data that is free of bias, compliant with standard procedures, connected, efficient, and smart. Data Cloud will be a huge player in making these aspirations realities through its ability to create “knowable” data across agencies that leverage AI to build intelligent experiences.
Salesforce’s vision for an “AI-driven government” hit on three main priorities with complementary themes: Trust (Know Your Data), Usability (Flow of Work), and Responsibility (Human in the Loop). To help exemplify these priorities, Salesforce brought on a couple of high-profile public sector guests to bring home the point.
The first of which was the California Department of Motor Vehicles. As the largest customer-facing government agency nationwide, millions of in-person visits are facilitated by the California DMV across 230 locations every single year. The key to their Salesforce success was to focus on the business transformation and not get bogged down in the technology, instead letting the system (Salesforce) do all the heavy lifting. Even with government regulations and red tape galore, Salesforce was able to mindfully manage an extensive amount of data and make it trusted, usable, and responsible for the agency.
Another example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), showcased how Salesforce facilitates a student engagement program to engage with future STEM leaders. Using Salesforce, these emerging leaders utilize current research and field data to understand how NASA technology can help solve environmental challenges. An example was made of researching flooding and utilizing NASA satellites to identify areas where people could move out of flood zones to find safe ground. A community built on Salesforce powers this initiative, and the critical agency is looking to bring more and more of its vital work onto Salesforce.
As Salesforce mentioned during this keynote, sharing stories of past success is one of the greatest ways to promote future success for agencies within the sector. Make sure to visit Cloud for Good’s Customer Success Stories page to read more about how organizations around the world are leveraging Salesforce to create positive change through technology.
Contact Cloud for Good today to learn more about what the Dreamforce 2023 announcements will mean for the future of Salesforce. Couldn’t make it to this year’s big event? Recap the biggest announcements and presentations on Salesforce+.
