Salesforce Customer 360
is more than just a CRM
For over two decades, Salesforce has gained a reputation for being one of the most dynamic and reliable CRM systems on the market. While many may know the standard functionalities of this platform, some may wonder how it can actually deliver exceptional customer experiences. This is where Salesforce Customer 360 comes in.
A Glimpse into the History of Salesforce
Salesforce was first conceived in 1999 as a CRM SaaS. The idea was to eliminate the need to download software and interface over the internet, which back in 1999, was a difficult concept to help users understand. This was just the beginning for Salesforce. Since their founding, they have done an excellent job keeping up with various technology trends, and expanding their platform beyond a CRM system.
At the forefront, Salesforce is and always will be a CRM platform. However, there is ultimately more to the integrations that drive this tool. Salesforce serves to be a cornerstone in your digital transformation journey. The first step of the digital transformation journey is getting a complete view of your customer. As the author and customer experience expert Annette Franz puts it,
“You can’t transform something you don’t understand. If you don’t know and understand what the current state of the customer experience is, how can you possibly design the desired future state?”
Salesforce Customer 360 is not a single product; it is the entire portfolio of technology and services that helps companies unite teams with a shared view of every customer. This 360-degree view of the customer allows companies to adopt a customer centric strategy that aligns the development, delivery of its products, and services with the current and future needs of their customers in mind.
How Does Salesforce Customer 360 Work?
There are many use cases demonstrating how Customer 360 works, and the characteristics that help make Salesforce more than just a CRM system. With the number of offerings Salesforce has, providing use cases or details for everything would make this article a bit long-winded. Here are a few general solutions that make Salesforce Customer 360 a well-rounded platform:
Sales Cloud – Customizable CRM designed to help sales people sell smarter and faster by centralizing customer information and sales activity
Service Cloud – Enables the delivery of faster and more personalized customer service by automating and streamlining service processes
Marketing Cloud – Platform for delivering relevant, personalized journeys across channels and devices
Experience Cloud – Establish communication between employees, customers, and partners to create next generation customer portals
MuleSoft – Integrate data from any system and automate complex tasks to deliver connected customer experiences
Genie – Customer data platform that brings all customer data together and makes every interaction automated, intelligent and in real-time
Einstein AI – The first comprehensive AI integrated into the CRM platform that makes Salesforce Customer 360 more intelligent
Salesforce is a Platform-as-a-Service which means developers, or even non-developers, can create custom applications on top of the Salesforce framework. This is a big deal because it allows developers to focus on business logic without worrying about other complexities associated with development.
In fact, Salesforce development partners have built ERP systems on the Salesforce platform itself. These are available on the Salesforce AppExchange and can easily be managed with the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.
Tableau
Data is the fuel that runs organizations and systems. Salesforce has created an easy way to get the most out of the data stored in Customer 360, using the business intelligence platform, Tableau. Tableau can take any kind of data from almost any system and turn it into actionable insights with the help of intuitive visualizations.
Salesforce also offers a native analytics product called CRM Analytics which allows visual and predictive insights directly in the Salesforce user interface, including Account and Opportunity pages. Einstein Discovery feature provides AI-enabled insights and decision-making capabilities.
Salesforce as a Source of Truth
If Salesforce is more than just a CRM, its position as a system of record in your organization becomes more valuable. With great responsibilities, comes great power! And when you have more power, you need more integrations! External platforms outside the bounds of Customer 360 will in fact empower the model, and you may have legacy systems that you can’t yet rip and replace.
Here’s are a few ways to extend Customer 360 outside of the Salesforce family:
Dell Boomi
Dell Boomi combined with Salesforce transforms the way an organization can connect, create, manage, exchange, flow, and govern its applications and data.
Power BI
Build dynamic dashboards and reports using live data straight from your Salesforce system by integrating Microsoft Power BI.
A Bright Future for Salesforce
Salesforce has been leading technology trends since their founding in 1999, and they plan to continue that pace for years to come. For companies starting their digital transformation journey, Salesforce provides a way to stay ahead of technology trends by providing the best solution possible for the user experience.
Optimizing your enterprise systems and business processes is a critical step to increasing productivity and profitability. Salesforce offers solutions to create an efficient, streamline lead to cash process with features to support each sub-process.
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