If I told you that you (yes, you) could easily harness the power of artificial intelligence and deep learning for your Salesforce CRM, would you believe me? Do you think you have the aptitude to delve into the intimidating field of artificial intelligence?
Not so long ago, this was something that could only be accomplished by data scientists using complex code and algorithms. Of course, this is not forgetting that achieving this great feat in the first place would be preceded by a (very) long stint at university! But today, this really is something you can get involved in and, it’s not as hard as it sounds.
Since 2014, Salesforce have been building a product that allows anyone to become a data scientist without the hassle! This product is called Einstein Analytics (previously ‘Analytics Cloud’ and ‘Wave’) and, in just a few paragraphs, we are going to tell you why you should get to know this creation and where to try it out.
Firstly, let’s start by understanding the basics:
Data: Dataset
In very simple terms, Einstein Analytics (EA) allows you to gather all your data from Salesforce and external systems, load it into the EA platform, and explore it interactively on any device, anywhere with an internet connection. Naturally, this humble explanation is rather vague, so let’s explore EA in a little bit more detail.
If you’re like most other companies in the world, you probably have data stored in a variety of locations across different platforms and systems (including Salesforce of course). Have you ever tried to analyse this decentralised data? We have and, trust me, it isn’t easy. With the EA platform, you can connect any data into one place and store it securely and safely. Your data will then become known as a ‘dataset’.
Exploration: Lens
Once your data is secure on the EA platform, you can start the fun bit, a.k.a. “the exploration phase” and, wow, what a discovery this will be! The EA platform is designed to allow you, the user, the ability to create something called a ‘lens’. If you don’t know what a lens is, think of it as an interactive report. You can use the lens to display and analyse your data, visualising it in a whole host of different formats while applying functions such as groupings and filters. The result is rather astounding, and you can see two exciting examples in the images below:
Lenses are extremely useful for finding quick answers to your business questions and, you guessed it, you can collaborate and share the lenses with your team and the rest of the company!
It certainly looks good, but the enjoyment doesn’t stop here. We still haven’t looked at dashboards yet.
Overview: Dashboard
The EA platform allows you to build dashboards from your lenses using a simple drag and drop interface. The brilliance of dashboards in EA is that, like the lenses, they are truly interactive. You can explore and discover dashboards by clicking on any of the displayed components and, if you feel the need, you can drill into the data to get a better understanding of it. You can collaborate on dashboards too, which means, for example, you can set and track goals for yourself or your team with ease. There is an abundance of other features that we are craving to share with you, but, this is a blog post, not a full ‘how-to’ manual, so we will have to stop there, but just look at the screenshots below. Brilliant isn’t it?
The simplicity of the entire platform makes it a breeze for anyone to use, but of course, like all things, you will need to ensure you have set the platform up correctly before you invite your users to get lost in your data. Amongst other issues, a good implementation will ensure that your security and sharing standards are adhered to and that your data is extracted correctly. To learn best practice, we would recommend the Trailhead Go To Market Einstein Analytics courses:
Click here to view more about the Mobile and Desktop Exploration in the Einstein Analytics (ANC-101) course, here to view more about the Building Lenses, Dashboards, and Apps in Einstein Analytics (ANC-201) course, and click here to view more about the Working with Data and Dashboards in Einstein Analytics (ANC-301) course.
We can’t tell you everything about the Einstein Analytics platform in this blog, but don’t stop now. Try this amazing platform for free, by getting an EA developer org here: https://developer.salesforce.com/promotions/orgs/analytics-de .
A good place to continue the learning journey is the ‘Explore with Analytics’ trail on trailhead which you can conquer here: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/trails/wave_analytics_explorer .
Happy trailblazing!