Salesforce highlights three major challenges from data explosion

During the annual Salesforce Cloud Tour conference, the American company presented forecasts on the global growth of data. According to Salesforce, this rapid growth, combined with increased mobility and online communities, is already posing new challenges for businesses.

Data explosion

Data grows faster than companies

Over the past 12 months, nearly 90% of all digital data ever created in the last decades has been generated worldwide. This growth continues to accelerate: Salesforce predicts that by 2020, the volume of data processed by companies globally will increase 10 to 50 times. Mobile data will grow 10-fold, unstructured data 19-fold, and product-related data will increase 50 times compared to current volumes. In the face of such growth, companies are not only forced to act faster — meaning they must process larger data volumes to efficiently run business processes — but also need to decide which categories of data to use in their operations, since analyzing everything entails excessive costs and reduces efficiency.

Changes on the consumer side

Customers more aware and demanding

Parallel to the logarithmic growth of data, the market on the demand side is also changing. Customers are becoming increasingly aware and more willing to share opinions about products through online communities — a phenomenon businesses cannot ignore. According to Salesforce, by 2017, over 2.3 billion people (about 31% of the global population) will be participating in online communities. More people are using the internet for purchases, including — already today — most who conduct searches via mobile devices. It is no surprise, then, that customers are becoming more demanding. For business practice, this means the necessity of improving customer service — faster responses, accuracy, timely delivery, and — increasingly important today — personalizing relationships. Salesforce data shows this is not easy, as currently 77% of customers say they are not sufficiently engaged in the products and services they purchase. On one hand, this reveals huge potential for building customer loyalty. On the other hand, the common claim that customers are becoming less loyal is frequently repeated. The truth is, everyone wants to be served appropriately, according to their expectations. In today’s world, companies need proper data processing to meet these demands. And, as emphasized by Salesforce, the challenges include:

• Speed of response to customer inquiries — reacting quickly to individual needs and expectations;
• Personalization of relationships with customers — engaging users with tailored content, offers, and communication;
• Proper selection of data sources and categories for analysis and further processing — prioritizing categories to optimize analysis costs and avoid information overload (staying focused on goals, identifying real customer expectations).

Fast changes: opportunities and threats

Sales growth of 37%

Every change presents both risk and opportunity for business. This is clearly visible today, especially in companies that have adapted to new market realities. Salesforce research shows that companies that have adopted platforms for integrating, analyzing, and processing data in sales, customer service, market communication, marketing, and customer relationship management increase sales efficiency by an average of several dozen percent. For example, they achieve an average sales growth of 37%, a 45% improvement in customer retention (loyalty), and a similar level of customer satisfaction growth. Businesses that have learned to quickly process data and communicate with markets (sales/marketing/support) have improved conversion rates of leads by 43%.

It may seem that in today’s intense competition, achieving double-digit growth within a year is exceptionally difficult. This is likely true for companies that fail to adapt to change.

Summary

Salesforce emphasized during the Cloud Tour that in the past 12 months, nearly 90% of all digital data ever created has been generated. By 2020, the volume of data processed by companies is expected to increase 10 to 50 times, and product-related data alone — 50 times. Infrastructure is no longer the key; instead, the ability to choose valuable data categories for analysis becomes crucial.

Simultaneously, consumer awareness is growing: by 2017, over 2.3 billion people will be participating in online communities, and 77% of customers feel under-engaged. Companies that have implemented analytics platforms are reporting an average 37% sales growth and a 45% improvement in customer loyalty.