Salesforce est une entreprise américaine devenue célèbre pour sa plateforme CRM et ses nombreuses solutions basées sur le Cloud : une technologie qu'elle a été l'une des premières à exploiter. Découvre tout ce qu'il faut savoir sur son histoire, ses différents logiciels et comment devenir un expert !
Our story begins in 1999, on the eve of the new millennium. It was then, in a small bedroom flat in San Francisco, that Marc Benioff and Parker Harris decided to revolutionise the way companies manage their relationships with their customers.
And to achieve this, they relied on innovative tools to optimise sales, customer service, marketing and much more. A year later, in 2000, they launched one of the first cloud-based software solutions: the Salesforce platform.
Much more than a revolution in CRM, the first building blocks of a Cloud empire had just been laid.
Thanks to its ability to innovate rapidly by investing in research and development, making strategic acquisitions and forging solid partnerships, Salesforce was destined to become one of the world leaders in enterprise software.
Today it is a globally recognised giant, serving companies of all sizes from start-ups to multinationals to help them improve operational efficiency, drive revenue growth and deliver an exceptional user experience. Here’s everything you need to know!
The different Salesforce platforms
Over the years, Salesforce has diversified its product portfolio. The Sales Cloud is its main cornerstone, designed to optimise the sales process for businesses.
It offers a comprehensive range of tools for lead management, opportunity tracking, task automation and sales forecasting.
With features such as a customisable dashboard, advanced analytics and integration with other applications, sales teams can work smarter and more efficiently.
For its part, Service Cloud is a complete solution for customer service management. It enables businesses to provide exceptional customer support through features such as a knowledge base, omnichannel contact centre, intelligent routing tools and live chat.
This platform helps organisations resolve issues faster, improve customer satisfaction and build customer loyalty.
The Marketing Cloud, meanwhile, offers marketing automation, campaign management, data analysis and personalised customer interactions.
With advanced tools such as email marketing, social networking, behavioural targeting and analytical reporting, marketers can create more targeted campaigns and measure their impact.
With the rise of e-commerce, Salesforce has responded to growing demand with Commerce Cloud. This enables companies to create exceptional online shopping experiences.
Features such as catalogue management, shopping carts, promotions and payment integrations enable merchants to deliver a seamless, personalised experience to their customers across all channels and devices.
At the same time, Salesforce also offers platforms for developing custom applications and integrating with other systems. Examples include Force.com, which enables custom business applications to be created, and Heroku, which offers a cloud platform for developing scalable applications.
Find out more about our Marketing course
Salesforce solutions owe their popularity to several major advantages. Firstly, they offer a consistent user experience across different devices: desktop, tablet, smartphone, etc.
This allows users to stay productive and connected, wherever they are. Secondly, its platforms are designed to adapt to the specific needs of each business.
With flexible customisation tools and a wide range of third-party applications available on the AppExchange, businesses can create a bespoke CRM solution that meets their unique requirements.
What’s more, at a time when cyber threats are on the rise, Salesforce makes data security a top priority. Many advanced features are available, such as two-factor authentication, data encryption and compliance with international regulations.
Salesforce also integrates easily with many popular tools and applications. This enables companies to orchestrate their business processes, centralise data and improve operational efficiency.
More than an ecosystem: a community
The power of Salesforce also lies in its community of millions of professionals, developers, administrators and experts who share their knowledge, practices and resources.
Forums, local user groups and events such as Dreamforce allow members to connect, collaborate and stay up-to-date with the latest trends and features.
In addition, Salesforce’s AppExchange marketplace brings together thousands of applications and solutions developed by partners and third-party developers.
Companies can find and integrate ready-to-use applications to extend the functionalities of their Salesforce instance: marketing automation, financial management, team collaboration, etc.
Over the years, Salesforce has also forged strategic partnerships with a number of leading technology companies, including AWS, Google Cloud and IBM.
These collaborations enable us to integrate complementary solutions, exploit innovative technologies and offer reliable and robust Cloud services worldwide!
Salesforce embraces generative AI with Einstein GPT
Generative AI is the most disruptive technology of recent years, and Salesforce has not missed a beat. In March 2023, the firm launched Einstein GPT: the first AI dedicated to CRM.
It delivers AI-generated content for sales, marketing, commerce or even IT interaction to transform the customer experience.
Combining OpenAI’s GPT with Salesforce’s AI models, Einstein GPT is able to ingest, harmonise and unify a company’s customer data.
Using simple natural language prompts, it becomes possible to generate content that continually adapts to customer needs based on real-time data.
For example, it is possible to generate personalised emails to send to customers, responses for customer service, targeted marketing content or even code for developers.
This technology allows customers to benefit from massive time savings thanks to automation and to improve the personalisation of their marketing and customer experience!
Conclusion: Salesforce, a cloud pioneer looking to the future
Going forward, Salesforce will continue to innovate with the integration of emerging technologies. This includes AI, but also Machine Learning, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and future innovations such as quantum computing.
These technological advances enable it to offer increasingly intelligent, predictive and personalised solutions. As a result, Salesforce’s value to its users is greatly enhanced.
With an ever-expanding customer base and a well-established global presence, the company continues to grow through new acquisitions, strategic partnerships and investments in emerging markets.
By expanding its ecosystem and diversifying its offerings, it aims to consolidate its position as leader in CRM and cloud solutions for businesses. For all these reasons, mastering Salesforce can open many doors in your professional life…
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You know all about Salesforce. For more information on the same subject, read our full report on Amazon Web Services and our report on Microsoft Azure!
