Cloud Management Insider

Is Cloud The Only Reason Behind Salesforce’s Dominance?

Akarshan Narang

What is Salesforce?

You may have heard of Salesforce when researching customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for your business. Your employees may have used it in previous work, and as your company grows, they may ask you to help them manage their relationships with customers. But what is Salesforce, and what does it do?

Salesforce is a cloud computing software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that has been in business since 1999. It started as a cloud-based CRM software company for many years before it was ubiquitous across SaaS companies. More than 150,000 companies run Salesforce in some form.

Salesforce CRM Product Customer 360 is an integrated platform that includes modules for sales, service, marketing, business, engagement, analytics, communities, productivity, and more.

Customer 360 allows you to use third-party applications or create your own to extend its functionality. This includes the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to connect any application, data, or device you use.

Customer 360 provides industry-leading solutions for financial services, health, and philanthropy. Companies use vendors for everything from tracking customer information to analyzing customer data for marketing and promotional opportunities.

How It All Began?

Founded in 1999, Salesforce has partnered with Amazon, one of the premier evangelists in the cloud-computing department. “No Software!” Launched by Mark Benioff with the bold idea that Salesforce has become the world’s largest SaaS vendor. It recently became the only public company in U.S. history to record an increase in revenues every quarter for 20 consecutive years. Adjust the company’s name was Benioff’s early vision of online applications for sellers – Salesforce has evolved into what calls it “the customer company” with its fast-growing business. The company’s Dreamforce event, which takes place every fall in San Francisco, has become one of the largest conferences in the enterprise-technology industry. It highlights the rapid growth and widespread embrace of cloud computing.

Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions were delivered on a company’s server before Salesforce. Can you imagine the cost and time that companies spend on handling their own CRM solutions? Well, it took months or even years to set it up, and the cost went up to millions of dollars. After setting up, they were complicated to use. What is the possible solution? I hope you guessed it – create an affordable CRM software and offer it as a service online. This is the main idea behind Salesforce. Launched as a service (SaaS) software, Salesforce has grown into the world’s fifth-largest software company.

What was the reason behind its instant hit?

The answer to this is simple; it is cloud computing. Salesforce is not about making a better product. This is about changing the lengthy installation process and moving everything to the Internet. They changed the business model – there were no long-term contracts or expensive licensing deals, and anyone could use Salesforce with a minimal monthly subscription fee.

Cloud computing is the most efficient way to provide computing resources. With cloud computing, software and service environments are subscription-based – users pay a monthly fee instead of buying licenses. The software and platforms are managed by the providers and continuously updated for maximum performance and security. Computing power is far from centralized, so users can tap into additional capacity if the business is sharp. Many people can access a shared program or file and collaborate in real-time from different locations.

Cloud computing eliminates the headache of storing your data because you do not manage the hardware and software – it is the responsibility of an experienced vendor like Salesforce. Shared infrastructure works like an app: you only pay for what you need, updates are automated, and it’s easy to scale up or down.

Cloud-based applications can run in days or weeks, and they cost less. With the Cloud app, you open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.

3 Reasons for Salesforce being unique

Fast – It takes more than a year to deploy traditional CRM software, and it can be compared to Salesforce in months or weeks.

Easy – You can spend more time using it and less time finding it.

Effective – Customers find Salesforce very useful because it is easy to use and can be customized to meet business needs.

Salesforce is on the Cloud, so your team can use it anywhere with internet access. 

If you are a fast-changing business, or if you are an experienced company that has been around for many years, your business may also change. Salesforce is absolutely measurable for your growth.

Salesforce integrates seamlessly with 3rd party applications. If you want to integrate Salesforce with Gmail, if you want to integrate it with your accounting software, you can do that. On the other hand, integration with other CRMs is difficult.

Salesforce is affordable, especially if you consider its various capabilities. Even startups and small businesses can use Salesforce.

Cloud Services offered by Salesforce

Salesforce Sales Cloud – is the hub for sales-related CRM operations. With in-depth insights into the customer journey, Sales Cloud provides an integrated view of the entire sales process. Multi-device functionality allows you to track team performance and sales process from any device. Increase your sales team’s productivity with a sophisticated UI that provides a 360-degree view of your customer’s predictive lead score, automated operational capture, and lightning dialer components. Sales Cloud Salesforce is baked into the Einstein functionality, which gives you the ability to retrieve data from the sales process through artificial intelligence. Many tools and workflows with back-end integration with social media platforms help your customers create a personalized sales experience. Automatic CPQ features and AppExchange integrations serve as the icing on the cake, making the Sales Cloud the perfect selling platform for all sales and customer acquisition needs.

Sales Cloud provides:

Salesforce Service Cloud – With the advent of the subscription era, support services have become an integrated business component. Use Salesforce Service Cloud to deliver an effective personalized experience to your customers. Salesforce Service Cloud comes with intelligent features driven by Artificial Intelligence, which brings the right information to your vendor support agents, monitors customer behavior, and predicts their actions. Service Cloud takes customer support and communication to a whole new level with a standardized dashboard and phone integration. Strengthen your customer support team with Salesforce Service Cloud to help you keep track of customer orders, history, cases, and more in one place.

Service Cloud provides:

Salesforce Marketing Cloud – Order your marketing efforts and pull life support through Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Use marketing cloud tools to target your marketing efforts with the help of the following:

Marketing Cloud Overview: Pull customer data from multiple sources to understand behaviors, buying preferences, and habits. Map customer journeys, predict changes, and use real-time events to motivate customers.

Pardot: Automate common marketing tasks through the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Send automated emails based on pre-defined triggers with ExactTarget Salesforce integration, use customer data to send personalized messages, or target your future activities by integrating Marketing Cloud with social media platforms.

Digital Marketing: Social Studio uses customer functions on social platforms to provide market insight into your products and services. Use this to track discussions on social forums and gain insights into your brand’s feelings. Integrate social activities with customer data in CRM to add more details to your customer base. It can be used to provide effective customer support based on customer interactions on social platforms. Use this customer data in digital advertising and campaign management to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Mobile Marketing: Send targeted mobile messages and analyze customer data on the go. Use geo-fence messages to keep up with ads and offers, or use time-sensitive alerts to drive specific customer response.

Salesforce Social Cloud – Merge your business ecosystem in one place with Salesforce Social Cloud. Diversify your market intelligence by engaging your partners, customers, and employees on this cloud-based collaboration platform. Social Cloud helps increase customer satisfaction across the board with data integrations and increases online brand recognition. Salesforce Social Cloud is divided into:

Salesforce Customer Community: Take customer relationships to the next level by providing them with a means to communicate, share, and provide feedback about your brand and services.

Salesforce Partner Community: Bring all Salesforce partners, including sellers, resellers, and distributors, to promote your sales. Give them a platform and serve as a mutual benefit communicator.

Social Cloud provides:

Salesforce Commerce Cloud – Update your company’s eCommerce functions through Salesforce Commerce Cloud, providing a streamlined experience across multiple platforms. With a wide range of capabilities including digital, social media, and mobile integrations, Commerce Cloud provides you with all the eCommerce essentials you need to provide your customers with the right shopping experience:

Implementing new platforms, new features, and new integrations seamlessly.

Integrated multi-site management with built-in localization capabilities, such as currencies and languages.

The cloud-powered environment eliminates redundancies and provides a seamless customer experience.

Commerce Cloud provides: