Salesforce
Salesforce is a cloud computing service as a software (SaaS) company that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM). Salesforce's services allow businesses to use cloud technology to better connect with customers, partners and potential customers. The software has become the number one for customer success and helps businesses track customer activity, market to customers and many more services.
As of 2017, Salesforce reportedly had 150,000 companies using their software - among which include Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report , Adidas (ADDYY) , ADP (ADP) - Get Report , American Express (AXP)
Companies use Salesforce to understand their customers, connect with them on a variety of levels and help grow their customer base.
The cloud-based software allows companies to track (in real time) analytics, customer success and support, customer complaints and a variety of other CRM functions with the ease of cloud storage and access wherever the users are.
How Does Salesforce Work?
The company is a service as a software (SaaS) - which means it uses a cloud-computing, software distribution model that hosts applications and makes them available online.
Salesforce hosts numerous different cloud platforms that allow companies to interact with different data and service their customers in various capacities.As of 2020, Salesforce has multiple different cloud platforms - a service cloud, marketing cloud, health cloud, app cloud, community cloud, analytics cloud, IoT cloud, Chatter cloud, commerce cloud, Heroku engagement cloud and more.
According to the company, Salesforce's sales cloud gives companies the ability to track contacts, opportunities and manage a team to increase sales. The service cloud allows companies to connect with customers and deliver premium customer service through showing customer activity and resolving issues. With their marketing cloud, Salesforce helps companies track customer journeys while providing multichannel marketing campaigns, while their community cloud allows companies to directly interact with their customers and allows their customers to interact with each other.
Additionally, Salesforce has been implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into their Einstein platform, which helps simplify the analytics workflow and produce more accurate forecasting, among other benefits.
Still, Salesforce's entire model supports customer relationship management (CRM).
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is "a technology for managing all your company's relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships. A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability," according to Salesforce.
On a basic level, CRM helps companies understand customer needs and data and facilitates deeper customer development and retention.
Cloud-Based Software
Salesforce was the first to successfully implement a cloud-based CRM software. As a cloud-based service, Salesforce capitalizes on the benefit of data storage and accessibility from anywhere to draw a customer base.
Using a cloud-based software allows companies to track live data, community discussions and manage analytics from anywhere - and with constantly updating speed and accuracy.
Salesforce Business Practices
Salesforce created the 1-1-1 Model of Integrated Philanthropy, where companies contribute 1% equity, 1% of their product and 1% of employee hours back to the community. The service developed Salesforce.org to give to nonprofits and educational institutions, supporting them with technology, volunteering and grants, according to their site.