Grow Sales with Effective Customer Management

The leading SaaS Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution on the market, Salesforce.com offers on-demand CRM solutions for all sizes of companies, from small, medium, large, to global enterprises.

Solution Highlights: 

• Suite of tightly integrated applications that work together seamlessly
• Excellent Sales Force Automation and Marketing Management applications
• Good Customer Service Management application
• Robust on-demand Cloud Computing infrastructure managed and maintained by Salesforce.com
• Flexible customization with point-and-click configuration tools
• Multi-lingual support
• Extend capabilities by installing applications from the AppExchange application marketplace
• Develop custom SaaS applications on the Force.com platform without the need to manage the infrastructure

Description:  

Salesforce.com, the first Software as a Service and Cloud Computing provider to pass the $1 billion revenue mark, is the leading cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) provider, serving over 63,000 customers worldwide. With Salesforce.com’s SaaS (Software as a Service) solution you can gauge revenue, monitor employee sales, manage current contacts, and more. Unlike with on-premise CRM applications, with this SaaS product it is unnecessary to have a system administrator to maintain the database; the user interface is designed to provide easy configuration and management for anyone who uses it. Saleforce's "click, not code" motto enforces that customers can efficiently customize their Cloud Computing CRM instance without the strain and knowledge of writing expansive code.

Main Features

Salesforce.com’s powerful features efficiently aide users with sale leads, automation, marketing, tracking contacts, and building high-quality, meaningful client relationships. The main modules of this cloud-based SaaS CRM solution offer:

• Sales Force Automation
• Marketing Management
• Customer Service Management
• Partner Management
• Content Management
• Ideas Management
• Analytics
• Mobile
• Application Marketplace
• Platform as a Service Development Environment

Users have a full view of accounts and contacts along with their related activities; the details of these elements can be customized. The user interface is quite simple, which is great for new users—however, may be too basic once users gain more experience. One noteworthy feature is the ability to allow end customers to view documents such as PowerPoint slides right from within the Salesforce.com browser window. Once the file is posted, the Salesforce.com user can grant access to their customer so they can log in and view the file. The user can track if the customer has logged in, what time they accessed the information, and so on.

Companies are able to improve their business workflow and efficiency with this comprehensive cloud-based solution. Salesforce.com is useful for anyone from single users to large enterprises and all data is combined within one powerful tool. There is no need to have an IT professional maintain the database—the administration is simple enough for any user of the application. Online help is also offered 24 hours per day, if needed.

 The ability to access pertinent information from a remote location is extremely advantageous. This will lead to a better organization of data and higher productivity because one is able to track contacts and sales in an orderly fashion outside the office. The intuitive interface of the Salesforce.com CRM SaaS application allows the user to record information easily and without heavy technological insight or contact management skills. Salesforce.com has the option for an offline component, however, the data available is limited. This limitation is a current issue but slowly fading with upcoming changes to the software.

Salesforce.com also offers the ability to access and update Salesforce.com data from a variety of handheld devices, including BlackBerry, iPhone, or Windows Mobile products.

In addition to the Salesforce.com CRM application, they offer two additional services - Force.com and AppExchange. Force.com is a Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) that enables users to create custom applications that can be implemented into the Salesforce.com workflow. The AppExchange provides third-party SaaS solutions created for Saleforce.com that one can add to their Salesforce.com instance.

Customization

The customization features available varies depending on the edition of Salesforce.com one chooses to purchase. Salesforce.com customization is rather complex in comparison to its other components, although still passably manageable by the typical user. Online tutorials are offered on Salesforce.com to guide the user through the database customization, and with some time and effort one can successfully implement any changes.

One can modify, for instance, the navigation tabs near the top of the web page (Campaigns, Leads, Accounts, etc) and add tabs for sections of Salesforce.com not otherwise noted. Though these customizations can be implemented by any knowledgeable user, its full and robust flexibility options may be overwhelming. It may take awhile to ramp up system but once it is running, the time it takes to implement is fast.

Though the application provides several customization options, its tools may be daunting to some users. It is overly flexible and overly complex in these areas.

Pricing

For a reasonable price per month, there are numerous advantages of the Salesforce.com SaaS solution—no commitment in high-dollar software, SSL encryption is provided with each session, and the advantage of mobility. Salesforce.com offers several editions so the buyer can choose the right one to fit their business, based on their specific needs. Starting a $9/user/month for the Contact Manager Edition in which you can store contacts, manage customers, tasks, and meetings, and run activity reports. The pricing scales up to $250/user/month for the Unlimited Edition, providing 24-hour customer support, complete mobile access, unlimited customization and development, increased storage limits, and much more. Salesforce.com is recommended for anyone that needs to manage contacts and track sales, run targeted marketing campaigns, and manage customer support. 

The Bottom Line: 

As the leading Software as a Service CRM provider, Salesforce.com gains a lot of its strength from its widely recognized brand name. It is one of the most highly rated CRM applications on the market and depending on the edition purchased, can offer the best value for the money. This cloud-based CRM application provides several customization options, however its tools may be daunting to some users and can seem overly flexible and complex in these areas. The AppExchange marketplace and Force.com Cloud Computing platform offer additional value in enabling the user to expand the capabilities of their Salesforce.com to further meet their needs.