What is Salesforce? Key features of the #1 CRM?

• Salesforce is a PaaS (Platform as a Service) company, a concept born from the application of the SaaS (Software as a Service) model to software development. This model covers the entire cycle of developing and implementing applications over the Internet.

• Salesforce Core consists of four core components, which together make up Salesforce Core.

• Sales Cloud (the core CRM application), Service Cloud (for customer support), Community Cloud (for building customer-facing web applications) and Lightning Platform. (formerly known as Force.com). The first three constitute the SaaS part of Salesforce, while the Lightning Platform constitutes the PaaS component.

1. What is Salesforce for?

Salesforce was created as a tool for salespeople, which can be inferred from its name. As a result, their functions include tracking prospects and companies, adding offers and accessing sales collateral. But in recent years, Salesforce has come a long way, now offering a wide range of additional products. For example, Salesforce can be used to manage marketing campaigns, handle customer service requests, record calls and create reports.

One of its main features is that the software runs in the cloud, so all applications are hosted online. This way, users can access Salesforce from anywhere and from any device, making it easier to work without having to be in a specific physical space. In addition, it also allows businesses to get up and running quickly, without having to install hardware or applications on site.

To get started, companies can sign up for a 30-day trial of Salesforce. They will begin by identifying and prioritizing business objectives so that they can implement the services and applications that are most important to the business, and then acquire additional functionality.

For example, if a company needs a place for their sales team to capture details about customer interactions, they might start with Sales Cloud. Over time, you could implement the Marketing Cloud application so that your marketing team can start implementing personalized, automated email campaigns.

Once registered, user types will be created that will open data for specific roles, such as a sales manager user type that can view all data related to the sales team's interactions with customers. You'll also define your sales processes, set up accounts and contacts, import your data, and customize Salesforce to meet your business needs.

2. Platform, Clouds and AppExchange: What is Salesforce used for?

In general, companies use Salesforce to understand and interact with their existing customers and to acquire new customers. To make this possible, Salesforce offers a wide range of functionality that we can leverage in our system or business processes:

-Salesforce Platform is the standard, generic functionality that Salesforce offers you to tailor the system to specific needs. It is generic in nature, so it can be used in any industry.

-Clouds are groupings of functionality for specific business areas and processes, such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud and Marketing Cloud, among others. The reality is that these are very versatile features that can even be used for purposes other than those offered by Salesforce.

-The AppExchange is Salesforce's "marketplace" where developers and partners offer addons, applications and solutions. All very easily accessible.