SALESFORCE

Salesforce Inc. is a cloud computing and social enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider based in San Francisco. Founded in March 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff and Frank Dominguez, the company started off as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform vendor.

The concept behind Salesforce is software as a service (SaaS), where instead of client software installed on each user’s computer, they access the service through a web browser. This spares the end-user the hassle of upgrading and managing their client software beyond the browser. All software and user data is in Salesforce data centers and transmitted over the wire to a user’s browser.

Since its launch in 1999, Salesforce has grown to become the leading SaaS powerhouse over time, offering multiple cloud platforms that serve specialized purposes. For its most recent fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2023, Salesforce reported revenues of $31.3 billion -- an 18% increase over the $26.5 billion in revenue from the previous fiscal year.

What does Salesforce do?

Salesforce offers a diverse infrastructure of software products designed to help teams from different industries -- including marketing, sales, IT, commerce and customer service -- connect with their customers. For example, by accessing the Salesforce Customer 360 app, teams across an entire organization can connect and share a single view of customer data on an integrated platform.

Salesforce CRM provides helpful insights into customer behavior and needs through customer data analysis. By bridging the gaps between data silos from different departments, Salesforce provides a holistic view of every customer interaction with a brand.

Why is Salesforce used?

Salesforce enables organizations of every size and industry to better understand and connect with their customers at a deeper level and grow their customer base. Businesses typically integrate Salesforce into their ecosystem so employees can share customer views from any device, regardless of their department or location.

Salesforce provides a 360-degree view of the customer lifecycle with streamlined workflows, centralized cloud-based data management and real-time tracking of customer analytics. According to Salesforce, more than 150,000 companies -- from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies -- use its secure and scalable cloud platform.

For example, Pardot, which was renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement in April 2022, is a Salesforce business-to-business (B2B) marketing automation tool that's designed to help organizations accelerate their sales with better sales intelligence, generate high-quality leads with powerful marketing tools, automate lead qualification and nurturing, and track campaign performance.

Salesforce cloud services

Salesforce offers a diverse portfolio of products and services -- from CRM software and marketing and sales management options to advanced analytics. Of its cloud platforms and applications, the company is best known for its Salesforce CRM product, which is composed of the Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Commerce Cloud and the Analytics Cloud.

Other Salesforce cloud offerings that address specific applications and industries include the App Cloud, IoT Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, Health Cloud, Integration Cloud, Manufacturing Cloud, Education Cloud, Nonprofit Cloud and the Vaccine Cloud.

The following list examines Salesforce cloud services and their prominent features.

1. Salesforce Sales Cloud enables sales teams to focus on the sales components of CRM in addition to customer support.

The main features of the Sales Cloud include the following:

• helps track customer information and interactions in one place;
• automates complex business processes;
• provides pipeline and forecast management;
• helps keep all information up to date;
• nurtures leads; and
• helps monitor the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud combines all marketing channels in one place and automates the marketing processes.

The main features of the Marketing Cloud include the following:

• personalizes email marketing at scale;
• engages with mobile messaging and mobile apps;
• connects social to marketing, sales and service;
• helps manage ad campaigns to increase customer acquisition;
• delivers personalized and efficient web content;
• automates the export of marketing data into databases; and
• creates one-to-one customer journeys across channels.

3. Salesforce Service Cloud provides a fast, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven customer service and support experience to customers and enables businesses to scale their operations efficiently.

The main features of the Salesforce Service Cloud include the following:

• enables service teams to communicate in real time with customers through the Live Agent tool;
• offers seamless collaboration with customers and faster query resolutions with the integration of Slack-First Customer 360;
• enables customers to reach across multiple digital channels, including mobile messaging, AI-powered live chat, social media and email;
• helps set up a self-service center for customers that includes communities and convenient options for booking appointments, paying bills or checking account balances;
• uses omnichannel routing to automatically deliver cases and leads to certain employees based on their skill sets or availability;
• helps turn insights into actions with the Salesforce Wave analytics app; and
• provides a comprehensive view of workforce management -- including order placement, delivery, scheduling, installation and tracking -- through the Salesforce Field Service option.

4. Salesforce Experience Cloud enables organizations to create connected digital experiences so they can expand their reach across multiple digital channels while maintaining their brand identity. It was formerly known as the Community Cloud, which only enabled users to build communities, whereas the Experience Cloud enables users to create mobile apps, landing pages, portals and help centers.

The main features of the Experience Cloud include the following:

• helps deliver personalized content based on a customer's expertise, interests or other demographics;
• enables the infusion of data from various digital experiences and third-party platforms under one roof;
• provides endless customization options for creating experiences. For example, the Lightning App Builder enables a quick setup of mobile responsive forms for gathering customer information and feedback; and
• provides options to recognize and reward active members of the community by dispatching scores, ranks and recognition badges.

5. Salesforce Commerce Cloud unifies the way businesses engage with customers over any channel. It offers a suite of apps and software services that focus on the e-commerce business.

The main features of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud include the following:

• offers a personalized and engaging shopping experience on websites;
• provides highly relevant product recommendations to customers through the Salesforce Einstein AI predictive intelligence platform;
• offers real-time reports and dashboards for analytics;
• enables businesses to manage digital commerce with integrated options for commerce, point of sale and order management;
• helps launch new sites and create new customer experiences; and
• brings stores online and integrates partner technologies.

6. Salesforce Analytics Cloud, or Salesforce Wave Analytics, is a business intelligence platform that enables organizations to instantly get answers and start making data-driven decisions. Powered by Einstein Analytics and Tableau tools, this platform enables medium and large-sized organizations to extract and analyze huge amounts of data efficiently and quickly.

The main features of the Analytics Cloud include the following:

• enables users to act on data instantly;
• connects easily to Sales and Service Cloud data;
• enables users to view, filter, group, measure and share data from their mobile devices through the mobile-first analytics app;
• analyzes data for better insights and uses analytics apps for every function, including sales, service, marketing, human resources and IT;
• provides a dynamic visualization engine for data builders and business users; and
• offers multiple dashboards to accept both structured and unstructured data from tools including enterprise resource planning, CRM, RFID sensors, websites and social media.

7. Salesforce App Cloud?is a collection of development tools that enable developers to quickly and intuitively create applications that run on the Salesforce platform without writing code. App Cloud provides native integration, eliminating the need for IT. It enables users to build apps that integrate customer data for more engaging customer experiences. It helps automate business processes and extend powerful APIs for added security.

Benefits of Salesforce

Salesforce products are designed to help organizations meet customer expectations and enhance customer satisfaction. The following are popular benefits of using Salesforce:

• Time management. Salesforce offers comprehensive customer information and planning resources in one centralized location. Organizations can save time, as they don't have to search through logs and other important files. The built-in calendar tool helps them visualize the daily, weekly, monthly or yearly schedules, which helps with setting meetings, planning projects and staying on top of leads so they can be quickly transformed into customers.
• Increased revenue. Salesforce helps organizations sort through vast amounts of data, which if done manually can take a lot of time and effort. By incorporating Salesforce, organizations can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time building successful customer relationships.
• Easy accessibility. Salesforce enables organizations to safely access important files and client updates anywhere with an internet connection. The Salesforce app is supported on various mobile platforms and devices, including Apple iOS and Android OS. This provides great flexibility for business owners who are always on the go or travel frequently.
• Enhanced collaboration. Salesforce Chatter provides swift and easy communication between team members. It enables team members to collaborate individually or within groups regarding work-related tasks, and members from different teams can be added to accounts or activities that require extra attention.
• Business scalability. Salesforce's underlying architecture can rapidly scale to accommodate the needs of businesses and their customers.
• Seamless integration. Salesforce can be easily integrated with most third-party apps, such as Gmail or accounting software. Some of the third-party apps that Salesforce integrates with include Google Cloud, WhatsApp, QuickBooks, LinkedIn, Mailchimp, DropBox and Heroku.
• Trustworthy reporting. Salesforce keeps track of pertinent business data from all business channels -- social media, app information, website analytics, business software -- and keeps it organized. This feature is designed to sort and analyze vast amounts of data with accuracy.