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September 18, 2014

10 things Salesforce does apart from CRM

Almost every aspect of your business can be managed by the tech giant.

By Jimmy Nicholls

Salesforce has made its name largely off the back of its customer relationship management software, but the company’s tentacles stretch far more widely. Through a mixture of acquisitions and expansion the firm has moved into every aspect of business.

Here’s what they cover so far:

1) Knowledge

Salesforce Knowledge was originally built off the back of Instranet, a customer service knowledge base that the company bought for $31.5m back in 2008. The service functions something like an internal encyclopaedia of customer support knowledge, which employees can add to as they break new ground.

2) Administration

Do admins ever make it out this office? Salesforce thinks they do, and as such it has produced SalesforceA, a mobile app for managing users on the go. All the usual user management features are present and correct, including freezing and unlocking accounts, tweaking permissions and resetting passwords.

3) Customer Service

Based off the acquisition of Assistly, Salesforce’s customer service software now comes under the name Desk.com. Included as part of the package are a series of tools to help customer service agents be more productive, as well as the software needed to create FAQs that customers can search through.

4) Sales Performance

Salesforce’s Work.com software is directed towards sales coaching, with the intention of integrating performance information and team management into one package. The suite allows managers to manage every aspect of their sales team’s activity, from boosting successful pitches to reducing turnover.

5) Social networks

Salesforce Chatter acts like the Facebook of the enterprise world, functioning as a messenger, contact book and information feed, with the intention of driving relevant information in the direction of those who need it. Like other items on this list it was also built off the back of an acquisition, in this case GroupSwim bought in 2009.

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6) Business Data

The purchase of the Jigsaw Data Corp was one of the first major moves Salesforce made into the world of business data. Now named Data.com, the service is integrated into the main Salesforce package, and provides both contact information, and commercial information from the specialist firm Dun & Bradstreet (D&B).

7) Marketing

The explosion in online marketing in recent years has prompted Salesforce to create suitable software to allow its customers to make the most of it. Pardot allows marketing campaigns to be managed from inside the Salesforce suite, from generating good leads, creating targeted emails and monitoring return on investment (ROI).

8) App Marketplace

Salesforce has a pedigree for funding young firms and buying up promising ones, and its AppExchange is just another part of that attitude. It functions similarly to the Google Play store, but instead focuses on enterprise apps that extend the capacity of its own software.

9) Venture Capital

Only this month Salesforce announced that their funding arm would set up a $100m venture capital fund focusing on mobile app development. Early recipients of investment include transactional manager DocuSign, fashion company i.am, telephony firm InsideSales and app creating platform Skuid, with more promised in the future.

10) Charity

The Salesforce Foundation is the charitable wing of the company, and pledges to donate 1% of the company’s products, equity and time to good causes. Such projects cover a range of industries, including education, construction and information technology, mostly concentrated in the North America.

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