Microsoft's Nadella Banks On LinkedIn Data To Challenge Salesforce (reuters.com)

Microsoft is rolling out upgrades to its sales software that integrates data from LinkedIn, an initiative that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told Reuters was central to the company's long-term strategy for building specialized business software. From the report: The improvements to Dynamics 365, as Microsoft's sales software is called, are a challenge to market leader Salesforce.com and represent the first major product initiative to spring from Microsoft's $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, the business-focused social network. The new features will comb through a salesperson's email, calendar and LinkedIn relationships to help gauge how warm their relationship is with a potential customer. The system will recommend ways to save an at-risk deal, like calling in a co-worker who is connected to the potential customer on LinkedIn. [...] The artificial intelligence, or AI, capabilities of the software would be central, Nadella said. "I want to be able to democratize AI so that any customer using these products is able to, in fact, take their own data and load it into AI for themselves," he said. On Monday, LinkedIn said it has surpassed 500 million members globally, one of the first big milestones for the business social network since its acquisition.

Comments

oh, this will go well

[Thud457]

I'm sure some infinitesimal fraction of LinkedIn's data is accurate and not just puffery. Didn't we have people complaining here on slashdot that linkedin or other users were certifying them as experts at skills they themselves did not claim to have?

Linkedln offers advice

[gtall]

LkdIn: Hi there Big Guy, I see your customer A says he hates your guts, would you like me to contact him for you and explain you are a nice guy?
Big Guy: No, I can handle this.
LkdIn: Errrmm...how about if I send him some flowers?
Big Guy: I'll take care of it.
LkdIn: Flowers are very nice gesture, might I suggest a nice floral arrangement?
Big Guy: He's my customer, I can deal with him.
LkdIn: Have you considered candy?
Big Guy: Will you leave me the fuck alone, I'll handle it.
LkdIn: Not worry, I sent him a sympathy card over his death.
Big Guy: What? He's not dead!!
LkdIn: ...well, he will be some day, my AI programming was very firm on this.
Big Guy: (pulls out gun, shoots self in head)
LkdIn: Look bucko, I'm not sending you a sympathy card after that gratuitous gesture.

more justification to cut off salesmen

[albeit unknown]

Now I get to look forward to co-workers being further tricked into influencing me. As an engineer, I've come to realize that the only mission of a salesman is to manipulate your otherwise objective decision making in their favor. ("Objective" to the extent possible for a human). Where possible, I no longer accept sales calls or meetings with sales. Sometimes, it's hard to let go of the feeling I'm being rude. Companies who don't have a hard-boiled, experienced purchasing person doing most of the talking during major buying efforts are fools. Unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Re:more justification to cut off salesmen

[Baron_Yam]

> I've come to realize that the only mission of a salesman is to manipulate your otherwise objective decision making in their favor.... Sometimes, it's hard to let go of the feeling I'm being rude.

Just remember that part of being an effective sales person is to deliberately use the potential customer's social conditioning against them. They are unrepentant manipulative bastards who have few scruples... and consider that they are intruding into your time, for their own purposes at your cost. Shutting them down ASAP is not rude, it's returning them the same (if not better) level of consideration they're showing you.

Now, I've had some great relationships with *technical* sales. People who simply know their products exceptionally well and have some social skills. But regular sales? Like people in advertising, they can rot in Hell.

Their app sucks on purpose

[Bender Unit 22]

9 ouf out of ten "notifications" from their iPhone app, the little number in red, are paid(I suppose) notifications. So I ended up uninstalling it some time ago.
Sort of like before I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts, they liked to "ping" me if I hadn't used their app in a day or two. "Someone posted something" or "someone tweeted something". Was it a message directed at me, or did it "tag"/include me? Had I participated in the discussion? Nope, they just wanted to make sure that I used their app and got trained properly so that I would end up checking the damn thing every minute.

Why do people keep running from Dynamics?

[Chas]

Seriously.

My company deals with CRM platforms. And just about anybody who's ever had experience with Dynamics has pretty much run away from the platform, screaming.

And I can understand why.

When even MICROSOFT cannot recover a proper SQL backup out of their own data with regards to MULTIPLE versions of Dyanmics and SQL Server. you KNOW something's wrong. Hell, even a simple contact export seems beyond them.

And let's not even get into (lack of) usability or (dearth of) performance...