Business operations could differ between Organizations, not to mention the new age modern organizations which operate based on different Business models, ever evolving strategies and KPIs. In this quick article we are going to take common business operations that most of the organizations have, discuss about how Salesforce CRM Cloud helps improve and reshape.
This article first touches base on the difference between SME vs Enterprise / Modern vs Traditional Enterprise. Later gets to how Salesforce transforms them digitally and addresses their challenges they face. The final section covers how Salesforce improves Operational agility, Cost efficiency, Data centralization and Security.
Difference between Modern and Traditional enterprises
Though there is a lot of things different between Modern and Traditional type of businesses, there are a few departments that seem to be common. For e.g. Modern companies have data related departments that do a lot of daily work on pure data. Be it data consolidation for data coming from different systems, data cleaning, data manipulation, etc. This could not be a department in a traditional organization. Likewise, any digital transformation initiative would have pushbacks in a legacy company, however, in a modern enterprise things start digitally.
Below are a few of the key departments in a traditional Organization:
- Sales and Marketing
- Customer Service
- Finance and Accounting
- Research and Development (R&D)
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Information Technology (IT)
- Business Intelligence and Analytics
- Legal and Compliance
- Human Resources (HR)
- Risk Management
- Procurement
- Facilities Management
- Supply Chain Management
Given the size of the companies, both SME and Enterprise level organizations would need tools that can (a) Automate (b) Reduce time & efforts and (c) Make life easy for employees on a day-to-day basis. Below tabular column provides examples of Organizations we are referring to. Some examples of well-known modern enterprises across different industries: This list is given to give you a perspective of the type of benefits Salesforce Cloud can provide.
| Enterprise | SME – Mid Size |
|---|---|
| Technology: ● Apple ● Microsoft ● Google (Alphabet) ● Amazon ● Meta (formerly Facebook) | Technology: ● Basecamp (project management software) ● Mailchimp (email marketing platform) ● Zapier (workflow automation tool) |
| E-commerce: ● Alibaba ● eBay ● Shopify | E-commerce: ● Allbirds (sustainable footwear) ● Warby Parker (eyewear retailer) ● Casper (mattress and bedding company) |
| Retail: ● Walmart ● Target ● Costco | Food and Beverage: ● Oatly (oat milk producer) ● Beyond Meat (plant-based meat substitutes) ● Brewdog (craft beer brewery) |
| Entertainment: ● Disney ● Netflix ● Sony | Health and Wellness: ● Headspace (meditation app) ● Peloton (exercise equipment and virtual classes) ● Hims & Hers (telehealth platform) |
| Telecommunications: ● AT&T ● Verizon ● Vodafone | Education Technology: ● Duolingo (language learning app) ● Coursera (online learning platform) ● Kahoot! (game-based learning platform) |
Now that we know the modern-day enterprises and Mid-Size & SME (Small and Medium enterprise) companies, we would also agree that both of them commonly need agility and speed. To understand how this is achieved, it would be ideal to know the difference between the processes involved in Traditional vs Modern enterprises. Followed which it would be easier to understand their current challenges and how they overcome that using Salesforce Technology. In the later part of this article, we could get into understanding how digital transformation works for Modern companies in terms of Cost efficiency and improving Customer Relationship Management.
By now we would have covered the business aspects of operations, we can then get into the technical side of Salesforce solutions like (1) how it could help with improving operational agility, (2) Scalability, (3) Integration with other applications and (4) Internal team collaborations. The final part of the article would touch the key points on (a) Data Security and (b) Centralization with their associated benefits.
Let’s get to the specific challenges modern enterprises face and how Salesforce Cloud addresses them?
The 3 main teams that are predominantly part of any organization (both Modern and Traditional). Sales & Marketing, Customer Service and Operations Teams.
Sales and Marketing Teams:
(a) Helping Sales teams to go Mobile:
Salesforce Solution helps Maximizing sales rep efficiency and effectiveness with the help of the Salesforce Mobile App. This allows reps to access and update information on-the-go, while Einstein Activity Capture automatically logs emails and events.
Salesforce also helps them with quick and real time insights with its prebuilt predictive Analytics and Dashboards. By which the Sales teams are able to Derive actionable insights from vast amounts of data on the go!
(b) Understanding targets and balances:
Field and Inside Sales reps run against time most of the time. With the help of modern-day website tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo and the likes now selling has become far more efficient and in-fact easier than before. But this also helps competition to be more efficient. Having said that sales teams benefit with the right information at the right time. Salesforce Solution like Sales Cloud and Einstein provide AI-powered recommendations and next best actions for Sales teams. Most of it can now be automated based on rules, which massively saves time. All this is achieved by understanding the yearly, monthly and weekly Targets vs their current progress. Sales Managers can jump in and be involved when and where required as they have an overall view of their team’s progress in real time.
Customer Support teams:
As the saying goes, “We are not a product company with a customer service team, but we are a customer service company that has great products.” Every team in a modern organization is a Customer Service / Sales organization. A bank’s customer service rep tries to sell products as they also have sales targets, likewise a Sales rep also provides Customer Service for all the first level support requirements of his/her customer.
Howard Schultz (former Starbucks CEO): “We are not in the coffee business serving people, but in the people business serving coffee.”
Girish Mathrubootham (Founder and Chairman of Freshworks): “Customer support is not just about fixing things when they’re broken. It’s about being a partner in your customer’s success.”
(a) Salesforce for small business with 360-degree feedback loop:
With the help of Salesforce Software cloud, the 360-degree feedback loop has become imperative. It starts from Marketing. From the launch of a campaign, to the time the customer first landed on the website, filling the form for a product demo, negotiation and closing. This loop continues to product deployment/implementation/Sales. Gathering and acting on customer feedback to improve service quality gets carried forward to the customer service teams. This 360-degree feedback loop is done seamlessly by Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud. Having all the data in a single pane of glass gives Gathering and acting on customer feedback to improve service quality better leverage to an organization to take informed decisions and provide the best Customer Satisfaction.
(b) Salesforce Surveys:
Integrated with Service Cloud allows for automated collection and analysis of customer feedback, Knowledge Management, Maintaining an up-to-date, easily accessible knowledge base for both agents and customers. Another key Salesforce Solution” Knowledge Base” that is available with Service Cloud provides a centralized platform for creating, organizing and sharing knowledge articles. This helps the customer service reps to quickly get the answers they are looking for.
How does Salesforce Cloud enhance customer relationship management (CRM) for modern enterprises?
Now that we have seen how the newer departments work, let’s get into the sales aspect of it a little deeper. Salesforce CRM being the world’s top Customer Relationship Management tool, it packs more power under the hood when it comes to Sales workflows. In today’s world the Customer needs his service / product right away. Wants to get a resolution to his product or service issues right that moment. With robust Sales and Service workflows, Salesforce CRM for small business helps achieve this.
Be it a SME or a modern enterprise, both compete in the same market and try to win the same set of customers. Having said this, the SME would require all the power the enterprise has, Salesforce for small business comes to help here.
What specific challenges do modern enterprises face that Salesforce Cloud can address?
Before we get to the challenges, lets quickly understand the key pillars of a Modern Enterprise. Data, Customer sentiments, customer Acquisition cost, finally the ROI are the most important pillars for a great customer experience. Salesforce Cloud, be it the Sales Cloud which is predominantly a CRM or the other apps that are used for Customer Support, Marketing, eCommerce, etc, are built to provide a great customer experience. Modern enterprises are driven by Data. Recently it has been the AI that gets more power with the data that gets fed. Every modern organization needs the AI, as building the AI would cost less than not having the AI at all.
Data needs to be cleaned and fed to the AI system. AI needs retraining and be inferred to make sure it serves the purpose. The Data that gets generated from different apps across any modern enterprise needs to be integrated into Salesforce. This significantly enhances customer relationship in several ways.
Quick look at the few ways Salesforce accomplishes this:
- Unified Customer View:
- Challenge: Fragmented customer data across different systems.
- Salesforce Solution: Provides a 360-degree view of each customer by integrating data from sales, marketing, service, other touchpoints.
- Automation and AI:
- Challenge: Manual, time-consuming processes.
- Salesforce Solution: Einstein AI automates routine tasks, provides predictive analytics, offers intelligent recommendations.
- Mobile Accessibility:
- Challenge: Accessing CRM data on-the-go.
- Salesforce Solution: Mobile app allows teams to access and update CRM data from anywhere, anytime.
- Omni-channel Engagement:
- Challenge: Consistent customer experience across channels.
- Salesforce Solution: Enables seamless customer interactions across multiple channels (email, phone, social media, etc.).
How does Salesforce Cloud support the digital transformation initiatives of modern enterprises?
Most followed digital transformation initiatives of a Modern enterprise include but not limited to –
Cloud migration, AI implementation, Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, Workspace transformation, Process automations, Org digitalization with customer self-service portals.
Salesforce Cloud plays a significant role in supporting the digital transformation initiatives of modern enterprises across various aspects of business operations. Key digital transformation areas –
- Data Analytics and AI Implementation:
- Salesforce Einstein Analytics offers AI-powered business intelligence
- Tableau (acquired by Salesforce) provides advanced data visualization and analytics
- Einstein AI integrates across Salesforce products for predictive analytics and automation
- Cloud Migration:
- As a cloud-native platform, Salesforce supports the shift from on-premises to cloud-based operations
- Heroku (owned by Salesforce) enables custom app development and deployment in the cloud
- Process Automation:
- Tools like Salesforce Lightning Flow, APEX, Visual Force, Lightning Web Components allow for the creation of automated business processes
- Einstein Automation provides AI-driven process automation
- Digital Workplace Transformation:
- Salesforce Chatter enables enterprise social networking and collaboration
- Quip (acquired by Salesforce) offers collaborative document creation and project management
- IoT Integration:
- Salesforce IoT Cloud enables the integration and analysis of IoT data within the CRM ecosystem
- Customer Self-Service:
- Experience Cloud enables the creation of branded self-service portals and communities
- Cybersecurity Enhancement:
- Salesforce Shield provides enhanced security and compliance features
How does Salesforce Cloud help modern enterprises achieve cost efficiency?
Technical efforts: Imagine all your teams work on a single tool, which looks and feel same, navigates easily. Also, any new automation or customization requirement doesn’t take months or weeks to be deployed. The speed to market and less hands to maintain provides a greater control over efforts and cost.
Data driven decision making: Decision making is done with data generated in real-time. Different apps across the org generate data, management and executives have clear analytical insights to take decisions.
Optimized Sales Processes: AI-driven lead scoring, Salesforce Mobile app with Lead / opportunity insights help sales teams focus on high-value prospects.
Enhanced Customer Service Efficiency: (a) Self-service portals reduce support ticket volume (b) Generative AI-powered chatbots handle routine inquiries, reducing support staff workload.
Improved Productivity: By automating routine tasks frees up employee time for higher-value activities. Since the Platform is Unified across teams, it reduces time spent switching between different systems or even different pages in the same app. This also means Data is consolidated between Systems. Unified platform reduces costs associated with maintaining multiple siloed systems.
How does Salesforce Cloud contribute to operational agility in a rapidly changing business environment?
Salesforce is built for scale, be it scaling the number of users, increasing API capacity, storage capacity, data integration capability, Salesforce CRM is built for scalability with enhanced operational agility, allowing businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs.
It helps with (a) quick implementation of new features and processes. Point-and-click tools allow for quick customization of workflows and processes. (b) Pre-built solutions by other Salesforce partners are made available in Salesforce market place (AppExchange). This helps is getting other required software tools for rapid functionality expansion. (c) Low-Code/No-Code Development with Lightning FLOW (as mentioned earlier) helps with rapid development of custom apps without extensive coding. (d) Rapid Prototyping with Sandbox environments allow for quick testing of new ideas without risk to production systems.
By providing these capabilities, Salesforce enables businesses to respond swiftly to market changes, customer demands, internal needs. This agility is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment, where the ability to pivot quickly can be a significant competitive advantage.
In what ways can Salesforce Cloud improve collaboration within a modern enterprise?
Salesforce CRM has both in built tools and 3rd party tools that offer numerous collaboration capability. Here’s a detailed breakdown of how Salesforce improves collaboration:
- Chatter (Enterprise Social Network):
- Facilitates real-time communication and file sharing across teams
- Allows following of colleagues, documents, business processes
- Enables creation of topic-based groups for focused discussions
- Quip (Collaborative Productivity Suite):
- Provides real-time document collaboration (documents, spreadsheets, slides)
- Integrates chat, tasks, project management within documents
- Embeds Salesforce data directly in collaborative documents
- Salesforce Meetings:
- Enhances video meetings with relevant CRM data and AI-powered insights
- Facilitates pre-meeting preparation and post-meeting follow-ups
- Slack Integration (post-acquisition):
- Enables seamless communication between Slack and Salesforce
- Allows sharing of Salesforce records and updates directly in Slack channels
- Experience Cloud (formerly Community Cloud):
- Creates collaborative spaces for employees, partners, customers
- Facilitates knowledge sharing and self-service
These features collectively create a collaborative ecosystem within Salesforce that breaks down silos, enhances communication, promotes teamwork.
Can Salesforce Cloud integrate with other tools and systems used by modern enterprises?
Not all Salesforce Clouds integrate with other systems. Salesforce CRM comes with different edition that is suitable for all the different type of companies that are out there. Prominent ones namely Salesforce Essentials, Professional, Enterprise and Unlimited. In these 4 editions, only Enterprise and Unlimited support APIs. Having said that, only these 2 editions will be able to connect with other systems via direct integration. The Salesforce CRM pricing also differs between these models.
Now, that we have seen the editions that support, let’s get into the type of integration and ‘why’?
There are 3 types of integration. (a) Salesforce AppExchange integration; Salesforce AppExchange is a market place developed by Salesforce. Like google play store and Apple App store, 3rd party app developers build their apps and deploy them in Salesforce AppExchange. So that Salesforce users can simply select a given app and install it on top of Salesforce for quick usage (unlike trying to code the integration), (b) Various third-party middleware solutions offer Salesforce integration capabilities. Like MuleSoft, Zapier, Dell Boomi, etc, (c) Custom Apex Integrations which allows developers to write custom integration logic using Salesforce’s Apex programming language like REST API, SOAP API, Bulk API, Streaming API and Metadata API.
Using these integration methods Salesforce can be integrated with other tools and external apps.
How does Salesforce Cloud support scalability and growth for modern enterprises?
Salesforce Cloud offers several key capabilities to support scalability and growth for modern enterprises like Flexible infrastructure which can easily scale up or down based on an organization’s needs, allowing companies to add users, data storage and processing power as they grow. Multi-tenancy model to allow Salesforce to efficiently allocate resources across customers, providing cost-effective scalability. Integration capabilities with Robust APIs and integration tools allow enterprises to connect Salesforce with other business systems and support growth.
In the upcoming sections let’s take the same 3 departments which any modern organization would have, see what specific challenges they face and how it’s being addressed by Salesforce software namely Salesforce Marketing cloud, Sales Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud.
Salesforce Sales Cloud for Sales Department Scalability:
- Lead Management: As the volume of leads grows, Salesforce’s lead scoring and routing capabilities automatically prioritize and assign leads, ensuring efficient handling of increased lead flow.
- Sales Process Automation: Workflow rules and process builder can automate repetitive tasks, allowing the sales team to focus on high-value activities even as the workload increases.
- Territory Management: Salesforce’s advanced territory management features help organizations manage complex and growing sales territories, supporting expansion into new markets.
Salesforce Cloud for Data Science and AI Department Scalability:
- Einstein Analytics: Provides scalable analytics capabilities that can handle growing datasets, allowing data scientists to derive insights from increasingly large and complex data.
- Salesforce Einstein: Offers pre-built AI models that can be customized and scaled, reducing the need for extensive AI infrastructure as the company grows.
- Big Data Processing: Integration with big data platforms like Hadoop allows processing of massive datasets as data volume increases.
Salesforce Cloud for Customer Service Department Scalability:
- Agent Force: A customer service solution within the Salesforce ecosystem designed to empower contact center agents. When it comes to scalability, Agent Force leverages Salesforce’s cloud platform, allowing organizations to easily scale up or down based on demand without significant infrastructure investments. Has AI-powered assistance and built-in AI tools that can handle increasing volumes of routine queries.
- Omni-Channel Routing: Automatically routes cases to the right agent across multiple channels, helping manage increased volume and complexity of customer interactions.
- Case Management: Automated case assignment, escalation, and tracking help manage growing case volumes without a proportional increase in headcount.
Why is data centralization important for modern enterprises and how can Salesforce Cloud help?
Data centralization is crucial for modern enterprises for several reasons. Salesforce Cloud plays a significant role in facilitating this centralization. Let’s explore why it’s important and how Salesforce helps.
Data in a single pane of glass (Single source of truth) ensures all departments work with consistent, up-to-date information and improved decision-making. Salesforce provides a holistic view for business managers and executives with increased efficiency by reducing time spent searching for or reconciling data from multiple sources. Thus, facilitates better analytics to derive insights for quick decision making
All this helps with better customer experience, with quick and personalized interactions.
What security features does Salesforce Cloud offer to protect modern enterprises' data?
Salesforce Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of security features to protect modern enterprises’ data. Here are some of the key features:
- Salesforce Shield:
- Event Monitoring: Provides real-time monitoring of data access and changes, enabling organizations to detect and prevent unauthorized activities.
- Platform Encryption: Encrypts sensitive data at rest and in transit, ensuring robust protection against unauthorized access.
- Field Audit Trail: Tracks granular changes to important fields in Salesforce records, creating an audit log of all modifications. However, the total number of fields that can be audited differs with the edition of Salesforce.
- Security Centre:
- There are various security measures in the user level and layout levels. Which includes Profiles, Permission sets, etc. Centralizes all permissions and controls into one dashboard, enabling quick identification of misconfigurations and incorrect user permissions. Security can be enabled in (a) “Record type” level, (b) field level, (c) layout levels, etc.
- Mobile App Security:
- Secures business-critical data at every mobile endpoint with Mobile App Management. This includes implementing mobile security policies, blocking file sharing and copy/paste capabilities, and specifying browser and dialler type apps.
- Customer Identity Management:
- Creates a single profile for customer identity by consolidating identities from custom apps, commerce sites, and connected devices. This helps manage customer identities and profile data in Salesforce.
Conclusion
As businesses continue to evolve in a digital landscape, leveraging Salesforce’s capabilities will be crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Ultimately, adopting Salesforce Cloud can lead to more streamlined processes and a superior customer experience across various industries. Salesforce Cloud significantly transforms business operations for modern enterprises by enhancing efficiency, agility, and customer relationship management. Its comprehensive suite of tools supports automation, data integration, and real-time analytics, enabling organizations to respond swiftly to market changes. By centralizing data and providing a unified view of customers, Salesforce empowers teams to make informed decisions that drive growth and improve service quality.
