Major German Brands Turn to Salesforce to Navigate Fourth Industrial Revolution

By STS News Desk On Jun 12, 2018

Deutsche Bahn, Siemens, and Villeroy & Boch select Salesforce to power their digital transformations and connect to their customers in a whole new way

Salesforce has announced new customers, including Deutsche Bahn, Siemens, and Villeroy & Boch, and expansion plans in Germany to further support the company’s rapidly growing base of customers in the region. The announcement was made at CEBIT where Salesforce is the premium event partner and largest exhibitor at the show, hosting a Trailblazer community of more than 100 customers and partners exhibiting in the Salesforce Hall and Salesforce Park.

Salesforce is experiencing rapid growth in Germany and has increased its real estate footprint with the opening of its new German headquarters in Munich last year. The company also plans to expand its data centre capacity by 100% in Germany in 2019. The increased office space and data centre capacity will further support the company’s rapidly growing base of customers in the region.

Joachim Schreiner

“Germany is home to some of the most digitally advanced businesses in the world today,” said Joachim Schreiner, Country Leader, Germany, Salesforce. “Many of our customers are the global market leaders of their industry and at the forefront of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, working with new technologies such as cloud, social, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to transform how they connect with their customers. We are delighted to host our Trailblazer community at CEBIT – a meeting place for innovators and pioneers.”

New German customers include Deutsche Bahn, Siemens and Villeroy & Boch
Salesforce is growing its customer base in Germany as businesses look for a strategic partner to support their future digital transformation programs. Today, 85% of the DAX30 companies are Salesforce customers and recent new customers include Deutsche Bahn, Siemens, Hapag-Lloyd and Villeroy & Boch.

Deutsche Bahn selected Salesforce to meet increasing expectations for customer service and customer experience in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. DB Systel GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of DB AG and digital partner for all Group companies, will implement a wide range of digital projects for the companies of DB AG all powered by Salesforce. Christa Koenen, CEO of DB Systel and Group CIO Deutsche Bahn, will discuss the challenges facing Transportation in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Deutsche Bahn’s digital transformation strategy in a fireside chat hosted by Salesforce on Friday, 15 June at 1 PM on d!talk stage in Hall 9.

Siemens is driving forward its transformation with Salesforce. A key element is a corporate cloud architecture system for digital collaboration across different services, products and solutions underpinned by innovative technologies including AI.

Hapaq-Lloyd has decided to use Salesforce to provide a compelling customer experience at each commercial touchpoint of the entire logistics process. Hapag-Lloyd aims to enable its employees to react better and faster in order to increase customer loyalty and improve overall productivity.

Villeroy & Boch is an example of how the mittelstand is embracing technology to transform their business. Villeroy & Boch wants to increase customer loyalty and to win new customers through a personalized shopping experience. For that, Villeroy & Boch chose Salesforce with the goal to get a more holistic customer view and to make optimum use of the potential of existing data from across the business through intelligent analysis.

Trailblazers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution gather at CEBIT

Salesforce will host a week-long program at CEBIT dedicated to innovation, fun, learning and giving back. The Salesforce hall will host the largest keynote theatre of the trade fair with 14 keynotes as part of the d!talk programme – the platform for showcases dedicated to the digitization of business and society.

The Salesforce Hall and the Salesforce Park will bring together a community of more than 100 partners and customer trailblazers, such as Canyon Bicycles, KONE and REWE digital, all demonstrating practical examples of how successful companies are leveraging new technologies to advance the digital transformation of their business.

Canyon Bicycles the bicycle manufacturer and digital pioneer has chosen Salesforce as its strategic platform to connect with its customers, partners and employees in a whole new way. In the Salesforce Park at CEBIT, Canyon Bicycles invites visitors to watch demo bikers riding on a pump track and try the latest bikes. Inside hall 9 visitors can use virtual reality glasses to explore the future of biking.

KONE demonstrates how it is leveraging AI technologies, Salesforce Einstein and IBM Watson IoT to deliver intelligent customer service. With a virtual elevator experience, the Finland-based manufacturer illustrates how Salesforce provides its field service technicians with better and more timely information, enabling them to be more proactive in the way they service their elevator and escalator equipment.