Alan Trefler—The Digital Transformer: The CRM Influential Leader Awards

Pegasystems has experienced tremendous success in recent years, thanks to the efforts of its chairman and CEO, Alan Trefler. The company’s stock is up considerably, and businesses are increasingly adopting its software.

But where the company that Trefler founded in 1983 has really shone of late is in its focus on digital transformation, as it has placed a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies such as blockchain. This was evidenced by the recent launch of Pega Infinity, a digital transformation software suite that encompasses all of Pega’s solutions. Pega Infinity incorporates the Pega Blockchain Innovation Kit, which enables Pega clients to integrate their Pega on-boarding software—including Pega Know Your Customer (KYC) and Pega Client Lifecycle Management (CLM)—with Ethereum blockchain technology. Another part of the Pega Infinity suite is Self -Optimizing Campaigns, a new Pega Marketing capability that leverages artificial intelligence to help marketers transition from segment-based campaigns to real-time, one-to-one engagements. It uses AI to find the most relevant targets and update its selections as campaigns progress; introduce a nearly unlimited number of offers, treatments, and test scenarios in a single campaign; and then balance the campaign mix.

To further demonstrate its commitment to AI, Pegasystems in March launched the AI-Powered Sales Coach within Pega Sales Automation. The software analyzes more than 50 actions sales reps take each day and then proactively alerts managers to underperforming sellers and generates real-time coaching tips.

Pega Sales Automation received another infusion of AI to aid in lead ranking, integrating 19 predictors that span lead, contact, organization, and sales rep data to prioritize lead qualification and follow-up.

Pega KYC and Pega CLM also saw the addition of AI to help financial services firms with product and service offers during customer on-boarding.

And lastly, through an integration of Pega Sales Automation and Pega Marketing software with LinkedIn Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Matched Audiences, the AI-powered Pega Customer Decision Hub can now analyze customer interactions in real time and suggest the next best action for each targeted prospect on LinkedIn.

During his keynote at the PegaWorld user conference this past spring, Trefler emphasized the importance of this kind of digital transformation. “From our inception…our mission has been to fundamentally change the way the world builds and uses software to really help them create outcomes, not just projects, and to really focus on customer engagement and operational excellence,” he said.

Digital transformation, done right, he said, is “about developing fundamental capabilities that will let you compete, that will let you satisfy clients. For us, it’s about developing the capacity to build for change.”

Perhaps ironically, that, too, was the title of Trefler’s 2014 best-selling book. Build for Change describes a new generation of customers that have unprecedented power to make or break companies, as well as the changes businesses must make to succeed in today’s digital world.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Trefler is a chess master and was 1975 World Open Chess co-champion.