Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform that delivers various business applications and solutions. So what does that mean?
C-R-M stands for Customer Relationship Management, essentially a CRM system helps businesses manage their customer data and any information that may be related. A CRM can store many different kinds of information about a businesses customers like contact information, accounts, marketing leads, sales opportunities, and contracts. Any business can use a CRM, a small business could use it to track its customers purchases while a large business could use it to track millions of prospective customers, the purpose of a CRM is to help any business make the most out of their connections with the customer.
Company Origins
Salesforce was founded in 1999 by the former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a software as a service focused company. Salesforce quickly became one of the largest technology companies in the world with their industry leading CRM solutions. In June of 2004, the company was listed on New York Stocks Exchange under the symbol "CRM" and raised 110 million dollars. In 2016, Salesforce was listed at one of the most highly valued American cloud computing companies with a market above 61 billion dollars. Salesforce headquarters is located in San Francisco, California. The company's revenue not only comes from the success of their CRM product but also in large part due to their strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
CRM Industry Leaders
There are a lot of different CRM solutions available today, and each may be better suited for different purposes. While Salesforce is the CRM industry leader it might not be the right solution for everybody, so it is important to research your options when looking to get a CRM. Some of the most popular CRM platforms are listed below
Salesforce.com - Delivers a wide variety of services that can be tailored for most any kind of business.
SAP AG - One of the worldwide leaders in CRM, SAP focuses on six industry sectors: process industries, discrete industries, consumer industries, service industries, financial services, and public services.
Oracle - As the second largest software maker by revenue, after Microsoft, Oracle has many different technologies to offer companies aside from CRM, such as Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) and Human Resource Management (HRM).
Microsoft Dynamics - The largest software company in the world, Microsoft, offers a business sweet that focuses mainly on Sales, Marketing, and Service (help desk) sectors.
CRM Structure
Typical CRM's have contact records that are linked to any other types of relevant records such as products, accounts, opportunitys, transactions, etc...
What can Salesforce do?
Salesforce offers a variety of different solutions and you can use more than one if you'd like. Each solution is called a "Cloud" because Salesforce requires no software as it is a SAAS (Software as a Service) technology.
Sales Cloud - Focused around driving leads to sales, Sales Cloud provides a variety of tools that help sales people manage a customers journey from prospect to long time customer.
Service Cloud - Is one of Salesforces most popular clouds and is focused towards Product support and Service industries. This suite of tools includes everything from customer support to account management.
Analytics Cloud - A suite of tools that is focused mostly on managing data, from collecting and analyzing reports to distributing information.
Marketing Cloud - This cloud provides a way for businesses to create the most out of every customer interaction in areas such as email, social media, and advertising.
Community Cloud - Allows companies to create and manage rich and engaging online communities, from support sites to social sites.
App Cloud - Build, run, manage, and optimize various custom apps for any business purpose.
IoT Cloud - Internet of Things is Salesforce newest cloud that manages the customers most important data while allowing real-time interactions with any connected device the customer may be involved with.
Force.com Platform Technologies
Salesforce has developed custom technologies that can only be used on their Force.com platform, however they can easily be integrated with other systems.
Apex - Apex is an object-oriented programming language similar to Java. Almost everything in Salesforce is Apex code including out-of-box processes, buttons and links, scheduled jobs, and custom components.
Visualforce - Visualforce is a view oriented code that is similar to HTML, and is used to build pages within a Salesforce environment. HTML, CSS, and Javascript can all be used within Visualforce code.
Lightning - Lightning is a platform that Salesforce used to build their mobile app, and it has been made public for the use of customers. This WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type framework allows companies to build beautiful streamlined processes for any custom application.
Who uses Salesforce?
Salesforce Customers
Many successful companies today use Salesfoce as a CRM solution, a large list can be found here. A few companies that use Salesforce are listed below:
Salesforce (Salesforce.com)
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM platform that delivers various business applications and solutions. So what does that mean?C-R-M stands for Customer Relationship Management, essentially a CRM system helps businesses manage their customer data and any information that may be related. A CRM can store many different kinds of information about a businesses customers like contact information, accounts, marketing leads, sales opportunities, and contracts. Any business can use a CRM, a small business could use it to track its customers purchases while a large business could use it to track millions of prospective customers, the purpose of a CRM is to help any business make the most out of their connections with the customer.
Company Origins
Salesforce was founded in 1999 by the former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Dave Moellenhoff, and Frank Dominguez as a software as a service focused company. Salesforce quickly became one of the largest technology companies in the world with their industry leading CRM solutions. In June of 2004, the company was listed on New York Stocks Exchange under the symbol "CRM" and raised 110 million dollars. In 2016, Salesforce was listed at one of the most highly valued American cloud computing companies with a market above 61 billion dollars. Salesforce headquarters is located in San Francisco, California. The company's revenue not only comes from the success of their CRM product but also in large part due to their strategic partnerships and acquisitions.CRM Industry Leaders
There are a lot of different CRM solutions available today, and each may be better suited for different purposes. While Salesforce is the CRM industry leader it might not be the right solution for everybody, so it is important to research your options when looking to get a CRM. Some of the most popular CRM platforms are listed belowCRM Structure
Typical CRM's have contact records that are linked to any other types of relevant records such as products, accounts, opportunitys, transactions, etc...What can Salesforce do?
Salesforce offers a variety of different solutions and you can use more than one if you'd like. Each solution is called a "Cloud" because Salesforce requires no software as it is a SAAS (Software as a Service) technology.Force.com Platform Technologies
Salesforce has developed custom technologies that can only be used on their Force.com platform, however they can easily be integrated with other systems.Apex - Apex is an object-oriented programming language similar to Java. Almost everything in Salesforce is Apex code including out-of-box processes, buttons and links, scheduled jobs, and custom components.
Visualforce - Visualforce is a view oriented code that is similar to HTML, and is used to build pages within a Salesforce environment. HTML, CSS, and Javascript can all be used within Visualforce code.
Lightning - Lightning is a platform that Salesforce used to build their mobile app, and it has been made public for the use of customers. This WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type framework allows companies to build beautiful streamlined processes for any custom application.
Who uses Salesforce?
Salesforce Customers
Many successful companies today use Salesfoce as a CRM solution, a large list can be found here. A few companies that use Salesforce are listed below:
References
Explore SAP Solutions | SAP. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from http://go.sap.com/solution.html
Oracle CRM - Customer Relationship Management | Oracle. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://www.oracle.com/applications/customer-experience/crm/index.html
Put Your Customers First | Microsoft Dynamics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/default.aspx
Salesforce Products | Salesforce. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://www.salesforce.com/products/
Salesforce Success Stories | Salesforce. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://www.salesforce.com/customers/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com