There are insights to be discovered in the copious amounts of data your teams dig through daily. In a perfect world, all of our data would be perfectly packaged for us within Salesforce, and reports and dashboards would be able to predict the future. But that's not possible. Is it?
The Salesforce Winter '17 release of Wave Analytics makes it even easier to turn your data into dynamic visualizations and insights. Look beyond static reports and dashboards, and instead, explore data that is purpose-built, contextually relevant, contains guided actions, encourages behavior shifts and is mobile-friendly.
Is Wave Analytics new to you? Think of it this way—Wave Analytics gives Sales, Service and Organization Leaders the ability to visualize data from multiple systems within one tool. That one tool looks across the data to understand trends, white space, cross-sell and upsell opportunities, optimize channels and system monitoring, all with one click!
The Winter '17 release has refreshed functionality and created new functionality for all types of users. If you’ve demo’d Wave in the past, you may want to give it another go. Here are the highlights:
- This release has a Trend in Wave feature to track where your business was, is and will be. After trending a report, weekly snapshots are added to a dataset and can be used to track data over time.
- New charting functionality is being introduced in the form of thematic maps, annotation and new charts. The maps allow users to view data in context, in any shape and with shaded areas that pop high-value information. Annotation allows users to post comments in real time, allowing for collaboration right on a dashboard. Also making their debut are Pyramid, gauge and rating charts.
- Dashboards can be presented live with real-time access to data using Full-Screen Presentation Mode.
- Admins will be happy to know that there is a new Dashboard Designer that includes templates, layouts and widget properties. All clicks NOT code!
- Smart Notifications allows self-service dashboard notifications on criteria that you choose!
- The Data Manager puts all of your data prep tools in one place, making it easier to integrate your data from other systems.
The biggest additions to Wave Analytics beyond the Sales Wave refresh are Service Wave (for Customer Service Professionals) and Event Monitoring Wave (for IT professionals). Service Wave can be directly embedded into the Service Cloud Lightning Console. It helps teams and managers get insights and create instant actions right where they work. IT professionals can leverage Event Monitoring Wave to visualize what/how/where users are accessing information, discover best practices and understand feature adoption.
If you're going to Dreamforce, be on the lookout for Einstein, Salesforce’s first Artificial Intelligence for machine learning. Einstein is not stand-alone—it will power the other apps to “get smarter”. For example, Einstein will support the Analytics Cloud for predictive analysis, insights and prioritization for smart data discovery. There will be 17 Einstein features across 5 different clouds, and next year, that number should triple!
The Winter '17 refresh of Wave Analytics is helping employees work smarter and putting data at the center of your organization’s strategy. As a Salesforce Gold Partner, Summa can help you learn more about the future of Wave Analytics. Contact us today!
