Salesforce lands Transamerica as Financial Services Cloud customer, adds Einstein AI

Salesforce said it landed Transamerica Financial Network as a customer for its Financial Services Cloud, which was updated to include the Einstein artificial intelligence platform.

For Salesforce, the trick is to migrate financials services companies, which were already using the company in many cases for customer relationship management offerings, to its more vertical-focused cloud. Rohit Mahna, general manager of Salesforce's financial services unit, said more firms are moving from the company's horizontal applications to more industry-focused clouds.

Transamerica previously had multiple customer systems. Salesforce will be used to bring Transamerica advisors, agents, and customers onto one customer platform. The migration strategy was drawn up with the help of Deloitte. Salesforce already has 9 of the top 10 wealth management firms and US and European banks in its cloud.

In a nutshell, Transamerica is hoping to produce one view of the customer across multiple channels.

According to Salesforce, the Einstein addition is designed to allow financial advisors to connect relationships and clients with visualization tools. These relationship graphs will enable advisors to see family relationships and a more holistic view of a client's life.

"Financial services companies are getting back to basics and focusing on how they manage relationships with clients and households," said Mahna. "The best investment they can make is in relationships."

The financial services space has a bevy of emerging trends to navigate. First, there will be $6 trillion of wealth that will change hands over the next 30 years as Baby Boomers age, noted Salesforce. What happens to those dollars under management remains to be seen. Financial services firms will need to focus more on relationships and use artificial intelligence and other technologies to make connections.

Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud with Einstein adds the following:

• Insights based on sentiment analysis, competitor mentions by clients and overall engagement. The heads up from Einstein will allow advisors to reach out to clients at the right time.
• Relationship building tools so clients and their households can be aggregated in one place. Groups can also be added to cover multiple households, trusts and business groups.
• Mapping for relationships to visualize a client's "family wealth ecosystem" and financial accounts.

Overall, the value in Salesforce's Financial Services Cloud will be in using artificial intelligence to help advisors with timing. For instance, if someone appoints another person power of attorney, when is the best time to make contact? Timing will be everything for advisors who are looking to build a book of business.

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