IBM-Owned Salesforce Superstar Bluewolf Will Release Telco Platform Uniting IBM And Salesforce AI

Bluewolf, one of the first and largest Salesforce consultancies, is preparing to release a platform geared for the telecommunications industry that integrates artificial intelligence tools from the CRM leader and Bluewolf parent IBM.

Bluewolf AI Now for Telecommunications is the New York City-based system integrator's first Salesforce Fullforce solution, and the first product through that Salesforce initiative encouraging partners to develop industry solutions that unite technologies from IBM and Salesforce.

The platform, pulling components from IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein into workflows for consolidated billing, sales and customer communications, will become generally available on June 15, said David Trinh, a managing director at Bluewolf.

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Bluewolf was a pioneering Salesforce partner that rapidly scaled its cloud-based CRM practice before being acquired by IBM last year. It has since become a lynchpin in the relationship between the two cloud-focused vendors, who entered their own partnership in March around their respective AI platforms.

Bluewolf AI Now also integrates an application suite from Salesforce technology partner Vlocity that offers omnichannel sales solutions designed specifically for communications providers, as well as the Matrixx Digital Commerce Platform for charging and billing.

It's "the best of AI and the best of CRM coming together," Trinh told CRN, delivering to customers next-best-action recommendations, intelligent lead scoring, and customer insights based on social profiles and non-structured data.

IBM Watson's natural language processing, sentiment- and tone-analysis capabilities will be worked into a chat bot for customer apps and websites. Data ingested from that bot will flow into the Salesforce CRM, which will then engage Einstein's artificial intelligence to enhance the digital experience for self-servicing customers.

Telecoms, cable companies and utilities historically have not been praised for the customer-support they provide, Trinh said. Bluewolf intends its solution to help those companies strengthen their brands with rich digital experiences.

Bluewolf focused in the first quarter on developing the telecom product because that industry presents such a large market and a natural point of synergy between IBM and Salesforce, Trinh told CRN. But similar solutions for the financial services, health care, and retail industries are in various stages of the pipeline.

Bluewolf's latest integrated software product is another example of a growing trend in the channel – traditional implementation partners developing unique intellectual property.