Expanding a company to compete in larger markets can be challenging, necessitating the integration of powerful utility software. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software is a vital tool in this journey, with Salesforce standing out as a prime example. Wondering what Salesforce is and how it can benefit your business? This article delves into the intricacies of Salesforce, covering its functions, user accessibility, and its role in enhancing team collaboration and customer response analysis.
What Is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based platform that offers its users an affordable solution to develop, analyze and expand their businesses. It is a leading customer relationship management (CRM) provider that helps them manage their marketing and sales, effectively close deals, and provide better customer value.
To further understand what Salesforce CRM is, you will have to look beyond customers. The platform does not just offer opportunities that help companies to improve their customer interaction with their business, but it also assists them in finding new prospects and conveniently utilizing the resources.
A Brief History
The company was started in 1999 and was the first online, cloud-based solution for CRM needs. The former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Dave Moellenhoff, Frank Dominguez, and Parker Harris initiated it as the CRM vendor, which soon became an industry-leading SaaS provider.
In 2001, the platform bloomed as one of the fastest-growing CRM companies, and its popularity even upscaled in 2003, when sForce 2.0 (first on-demand application service) was introduced.
The company’s major releases were AppExchange services in 2005 (third-party platforms can develop their integrations for the platform) and Salesforce 1 in 2013 (customers can use their phones to run businesses).
In 2015, Fortune 500 Companies included Salesforce on their list, and in 2019, it became the No.1 CRM platform.
What Is Salesforce Used For?
Since it is a CRM platform, it helps companies to understand and manage their customers’ requirements and develop changes in their products or services that can benefit the existing ones while attracting more.
So, what is Salesforce used for? In simple terms, it is to assist companies in gathering and retaining more customers and investors that can increase sales.
Different companies, from small-scale to big enterprises, use the platform for their marketing & sales strategies, customer analysis, and effective deals.
As of now, Salesforce is a collection of different utility software and tools that can help a business in many ways, you will find numerous opportunities to get benefits from any of its services.
How to Use?
The usability of Salesforce is straightforward due to its online nature and you can use it from different devices. It is also fast, efficient, and quick loading.
You also don’t need to be an IT or technical expert, and the tools are already available on the platform’s services in the form of software packets.
Another great advantage is that Salesforce hosts many training courses around the world to assist its users in driving the best from its services.
Platform Breakdown
Starting as just a CRM vendor, Salesforce now is a gigantic infrastructure of many software tools to assist any business in their operations.
So, what is Salesforce platform? Below you will learn about its different services and the architecture that makes it the top choice of many companies.
Architecture
The Salesforce architecture is versatile, flexible, and open. It is based on a multi-tenant structure, in which every customer uses the same and latest version of the software. The updating process is automatic.
It also has a powerful API source and runs on the metadata-driven model that helps the developers to focus on integrating programs or mobile apps. It increases customization, scalability, and management.
Moreover, it also makes new features’ introduction into the apps precise.
Services
Salesforce offers three types of services to its customers:
1. SaaS: The Software as a Service (SaaS) model helps people to readily use the built-in software packets from the platform and customize them according to their requirements to develop programs or apps.
2. PaaS: The Product as a Service (PaaS) model offers people a platform, framework, and tools to build their mobile application or website and personalize it according to their industry needs.
3. IaaS: The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model is rarely used but is one of the effective ones. It assists people and even helped Salesforce develop business and company models.
Cloud Services
The Salesforce cloud services provide online, ready-to-use, and diversified cloud-based solutions to different aspects.
Each cloud service is designated to a specific process. So, the software of that particular field is well-programmed for progress. Here is a list of its cloud services:
1. Sales Cloud: It helps the teams to focus on driving more sales and generating new leads. It is based on the CRM data collected from different metrics.
2. Marketing Cloud: It merges all the marketing channels in one place for easier data analysis and helps teams further strategize their marketing campaigns.
3. Service Cloud: The cloud provides AI-driven customer care and helps to connect employees with customers via channels like live chat, messages, email, or social media.
4. Experience Cloud: Formerly known as Community Cloud, it allows users to develop different digital communities, mobile applications, landing pages, and help centers for effective customer experience.
5. Commerce Cloud: This cloud is dedicated to e-commerce companies and provides information on customer engagement through any channel. It also increases the UX by providing suitable recommendations.
6. Analytics Cloud: Also known as Salesforce Wave Analytics, it helps companies in decision-making by providing useful answers and solutions on different analytics driven by Einstein AI and Tableau tools.
7. App Cloud: This cloud is for the developers to develop applications efficiently and rapidly without writing a single line of code. These applications will run on the Salesforce platform.
8. IoT Cloud: It collects data from customers’ interaction with smart devices, sensors, gadgets, and other equipment and combines it in the form of presentable and executable customer data.
9. Financial Services Cloud: Salesforce’s Lightning framework powers this cloud that helps the financial sector and companies to analyze and work on monetary services.
10. Health Cloud 2.0: It is a useful service for many companies and government agencies to manage the health safety of their employees and customers from the first interaction to medical billing.
11. Integration Cloud: This cloud also acts as a merger by providing a single space for large data. Users can connect and analyze data from various cloud platforms in one location for better working.
12. Manufacturing Cloud: It allows manufacturing companies to view data from operations and sales and act as a bridge between both departments for effective communication.
13. Education Cloud: Powered by Salesforce Lightning and Education Data Architecture, it supports different educational services, including student engagement and management, academics, admissions, and other functions.
14. Non-Profit Cloud: This cloud is beneficial for non-profit organizations to facilitate their fundraising or marketing campaigns. It also helps in their program and team management digitally.
15. Vaccine Cloud: Due to the influence of Corona Virus, this cloud was introduced in 2021 to help healthcare and non-profit centers effectively manage their vaccine programs.
Application
The Salesforce applications come under its App Cloud and have software, tools, and infrastructures to facilitate app development and mobile management.
This diversified area is operable due to its powerful yet flexible API for easier development. Below are some tools that help to create Salesforce applications conveniently:
1. Salesforce Platform: First known as Force.com, Salesforce Platform is a PaaS that allows users to create new websites or applications from Apex.
2. Mobile app development platforms like Resco: a third-party tools that enable developers to create mobile applications utilizing Salesforce data.
3. Salesforce Shield: The tool creates strong app encryption that increases transparency and protection.
4. AppExchange: It allows third-party developers to create their program’s integrations for the Salesforce Platform. It also increases customization and flexibility for their software packets.
5. Salesforce Identity: It provides a single, secure, unique, and trusted identity to the customers, employees, and even partners that help to collect, manage, and analyze data.
6. Salesforce DX: This unique tool enables customers to develop, manage, and modify Salesforce applications throughout their lifetime.
7. Salesforce Sandbox: It is an effective tool for developers as they can test their application or program in a trustable, controlled, and isolated environment for better bugs or error tracking.
8. Salesforce Trailhead: Trailhead is an educational tool with numerous tutorials for developers to understand how to code different applications on the platform.
9. Salesforce Connect: This tool allows users to connect with the other Salesforce departments, third-party platforms, or sources while staying in their native platform.
What Is Salesforce Technology?
We’ve learned about different Salesforce tools and cloud services. All these useful and efficient services are not possible without their powerful technology.
So, what is salesforce technology? Below are its four highly innovative and powerful technologies that make it the best CRM platform:
Apex
Apex is a highly versatile programing language developers use to create applications or software for the Salesforce platform. It is an object-oriented and case-insensitive language, somewhat similar to C#.
However, its versatility, flexibility, ease to use and easy-to-test convenience, low maintenance, and data-focused nature hardly raise problems for developers.
Visualforce
Visualforce is a framework for UI that developers use to create dynamic interfaces for the Salesforce Platform.
With proper utilization of Apex, they can develop enticing pages for websites or applications with the next level of customization.
Anyways, Visualforce is based on Model View Controller (MVC) framework, supporting traditional MVC and mobile rendering to AJAX interactions and much more.
Lightning
Salesforce Lightning is the application-building framework for the platform, introduced in 2014 for Salesforce mobile apps.
It was introduced for people with minimal to no coding skills so they could create their software or apps for the platform.
It helps them to develop responsive SaaS programs or mobile applications for any device.
Salesforce Einstein
Einstein is the latest AI addition to this CRM platform, especially for the Salesforce Customer Success Platform.
This AI technology is designed to provide better insight and more precise sales and marketing data from different clients and customers.
It also brings updated stats and results for quick analysis and effective decision-making by team members.
Benefits
There are many advantages of using Salesforce, here is a list of 10 distinctive ways in which it can help your business to grow and offer better customer management:
1. Easy to Use
While some CRMs can be complex and difficult to use, Salesforce is designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate.
It helps businesses conveniently keep track of their customers and sales while practicing effective marketing strategies.
2. Accessibility
Being a cloud-based CRM makes it easily accessible because it’s available on any device with an internet connection. It even reduced the time of longer loading options making it fast and effective.
3. Better Time Management
Salesforce can help you keep track of your to-do list by automatically sending reminders. It can also help you manage your schedule by giving an overview of upcoming meetings and events.
4. Help Generate More Revenue
You can also generate more revenue by automating sales processes. The software can even provide insights into customer behavior, helping you to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling.
5. Effective Communication
One of the most important features of Salesforce is its communication tools. These tools include email, chat, and voice call capabilities.
Salesforce also offers a social media monitoring tool, but its partnership with Slack gives communication a new meaning within the platform.
6. Quick Integration
Another reason Salesforce is so beneficial is that it integrates with many different types of software through AppExchange.
There are over 3,000 apps on AppExchange, and new ones are added all the time to facilitate your requirements.
7. Efficient Planning
Since the software provides tools for sales and marketing teams to collaborate and plan their activities, they can save time and money by streamlining their processes.
It has also helped them to improve their customer relationships and keep track of their needs.
8. Trusted Reporting
Salesforce’s reporting capabilities are based on data from its robust CRM platforms. This data is reliable, accurate, and presented in different forms like standard or customized reports or dashboards.
9. Flexible
Thanks to its wide range of features and integrations, it’s one of the most flexible. Businesses of all sizes related to any field or industry can utilize its services, products, applications, clouds, or technologies according to their needs.
Who Uses Salesforce?
Due to its extreme usability and diversified services, many businesses use Salesforce to remain up to the mark. Here is a short list of some of the most popular giants from different fields:
PayPal
PayPal is the world’s leading platform for online payments and transactions. It has over 400 million active accounts from various businesses and individual customers.
To manage such a huge number of active users, PayPal uses Salesforce services to collect data from multiple departments.
It gathers information from different CRM platforms, operating teams, surveys, and processes in one place.
Sony
From photography equipment to gaming consoles, Sony is undoubtedly a business Godzilla in many industries.
So, to easily gather data from its different platforms and sources, Sony uses Salesforce Service Cloud to collect and unify all processable data in one place.
It helps Sony’s 9 out of 13 contact centers to quickly identify customers’ problems and provide the necessary solution.
L’Oréal
The world-leading brand in cosmetics and beauty products, L’Oréal, requires Salesforce Marketing services to strategize, manage, and analyze their advertising plans.
The company also uses cloud services to create a social networking platform so they can communicate with their distributed stylists and event managers for their campaigns.
American Express
American Express is another famous card payment platform that benefits from Salesforce Sales Cloud to manage real-time interaction with customers.
The company is an old user, connected to Salesforce in 2010. Since then, they have been using data from the platform to get its customers’ engagement ratio and opinions worldwide.
Pizza Hut
Even a largely popular restaurant and fast-food chain, Pizza Hut, feels a need to get Salesforce services. They target smartphone applications when the company needs to develop its online and digital presence for better customer interaction.
For this purpose, Pizza Hut uses Salesforce App Cloud and Marketing Cloud to interact with foodies anywhere.
Industries
The examples of big companies above indicate that Salesforce Clouds and services are used for numerous fields and industries.
It is possible due to the platform’s versatility, scalability, and diversified nature. In fact, almost every business from any industry can use Salesforce Services as the platform is made to target every company’s requirement.
Whether it is a startup, small-scale company, medium-sized business, or an industry-leading enterprise, anyone can use any of the platform’s Cloud, Service, or Technology.
Here’s the comprehensive list of some of the common industries and businesses that can benefit from Salesforce:
- Healthcare
- Life Sciences
- Retail
- Financial Services
- Manufacturing
- Consumer Goods
- Communications
- Media
- Government
- Public Sector
- Transportation
- Hospitality
- Automotive
- Tech Giants
- Energy
- Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs)
- Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)
- Information Technology (IT)
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Education
Certification & Training
Salesforce is a trendsetter in marketing, CRM, and many more industries. But to make people facilitate more from the platform, the company has started Trailhead Services to help them in Salesforce training and get certified.
The program educates people on numerous sections and offers more than 40 certifications, which are highly in demand for many employers of different industries.
Revenue
The company’s success is visible from the annual revenue they generate from its different sectors.
According to the annual report for the fiscal year 2021, Salesforce generated a total yearly revenue of $21.3 billion, a 24 % increase from the previous year’s income.
Their compound annual growth revenue over the last 10 years only is 29%. The most significant factor is their share in the CRM market, which is 19.8%.
The fascinating aspect about this figure is that it is even greater than its 4 competitors’ share combined: Adobe, Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft.
Introduction to CRM
CRM, or customer relationship management, is a business strategy designed to help companies manage customer interactions more effectively.
By using CRM software, businesses can track customer data and activity, automate tasks such as marketing and sales, and improve communication across the organization.
How Salesforce Revolutionized It?
Salesforce has revolutionized the CRM concept by making it cloud-based. Since the entire software is available on the Internet, it is accessible to anyone, anywhere, with minimum loading time. Moreover, it has further facilitated people by offering numerous utility services and tools.
How Is It Different From Dynamics?
Microsoft Dynamics is another CRM software similar to Salesforce, but the latter has some edges over the former. Salesforce has a cleaner and more user-friendly interface than Dynamics. It offers a wide range of features and services, while Dynamics lacks many of them.
Moreover, Salesforce is primarily used by sales and marketing teams to manage customer relationships, while Dynamics is more focused on driving the business’s finances, operations, and supply chain.
Allies & Partners
Over time, Salesforce grew and developed many allies, partners, and acquisitions to help them become the world’s leading CRM platform. Some of those notable companies include:
- Tableau Software Inc
- ClickSoftware
- MuleSoft
- CloudCraze LLC
- Rebel
- Apple
- Datorama
- Zorap
Supported Languages
Salesforce supporting languages are divided into three different categories. The platform fully supports 18 languages, most spoken around the world.
For multilingual people, 17 are dedicated to the end-user’s section. However, there are 120+ platform-only languages that natives worldwide can select for their convenience.
Conclusion
So, what is Salesforce in simple terms? It is a world-leading cloud-based CRM platform that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer relations.
Salesforce has been phenomenal in giving a new direction to CRM platforms and has become a one-stop solution for numerous reputable companies.
Its versatility, usability, flexibility, and convenience make it a complete platform for any company to analyze, manage, and grow its business.
Despite the industry your business falls into, you may find Salesforce helpful if you use any of its services.
