Salesforce cofounder: The Apple Watch is 'creating even more ADD'
flickrSalesforce cofounder Parker HarrisSalesforce was one of the first enterprise software companies to jump on the Apple Watch platform. In fact, Salesforce was the only true enterprise app shown during the Apple Watch launch event in March.
But Salesforce is still trying to figure out how exactly Apple Watch could help its users.
"I think there's still a lot to learn. It's a small screen, a small device, so what kind of things are the right things to solve on a watch versus a phone, a tablet, or a desktop?" Harris said at Bank of America's Global Technology Conference on Wednesday.
Aside from the quick phone calls and text messages, Harris said, workflow and approvals seem to be the best use cases for a Salesforce Watch App at this point. For example, if a deal needs approval, the user can quickly tap or swipe the watch without having to take out a phone or a laptop, speeding up the entire business process.
But Harris also pointed out that the Apple Watch could create more interruptions, and if not used properly, could end up being less effective at work.
"I also think it's creating even more ADD," Harris said with a laugh. (That's attention deficit disorder, not some enterprise technology acronym.)
"It's not reducing the amount of time I'm getting interrupted, so I think we have to figure out how do these things make us more effective versus less effective - and so we're exploring it."
In order to find the answer, Harris said he's already been working with a few customers and getting feedback. "It's really the customers that will guide us on how people will use this going forward," he said.
One area where Salesforce could dive deeper with the watch is data visualization. At the Apple Watch launch event, Salesforce demonstrated how it could display all the different data sitting in Salesforce's servers in intuitive visual graphs on the Watch's small screen. The app, built on top of Salesforce's Wave Analytics platform, was able to show things like target sales quota and opportunities left for individual sales reps.
Harris reiterated that point during his talk Wednesday, pointing out the biggest opportunities will come from "the number of devices that are IP-enabled," or internet-connected devices. Those devices will generate tons of data, and it's up to companies like Salesforce to turn them into useful information for the end user.
"How do you take all this data and make sense of it - and provide value back to the customer?" he said.