Salesforce.com Launches New Cloud--Salesforce1 Community Cloud--Defining the Next Battleground for Customer Engagement

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the world's #1 CRM platform, today launched the Salesforce1 Community Cloud, defining the next battleground for customer engagement. For the first time, companies can now create trusted destinations for customers, partners and employees that are not only personalized and mobile like LinkedIn, but connected to their business processes. Salesforce.com's ecosystem has also embraced the Community Cloud. With 4,000 consultants dedicated to the digital experience, Deloitte Digital unveiled a new practice to help customers build thriving digital communities. Leading global organizations including British Sky Broadcasting, Cornell University, GE Capital, Honeywell, Key Bank, Pearson, Pono Music, State of Colorado, Tata Communications and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth are using Community Cloud to connect with customers in a whole new way—propelling salesforce.com into the fast growing $3.5 billion enterprise collaboration market.

Comments on the News

• "More than 2,000 active communities have gone live since we first offered a communities product just over a year ago," said Nasi Jazayeri, executive vice president of Salesforce1 Community Cloud, salesforce.com. "Based on the success we have seen with customers, tremendous market opportunity and support from our ecosystem, salesforce.com is doubling down on communities with our new Community Cloud."
• "The Community Cloud represents an important moment in the industry, ushering in new lattice-like business models for how people work, how they engage their customers, and how they connect," said Cathy Benko, vice chairman and managing principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
• "Any company can benefit from creating an engaged community," said Vanessa Thompson, research director of enterprise collaboration and social solutions, IDC. "Salesforce.com raises awareness of the immense value of community solutions with Salesforce1 Community Cloud by putting business processes at the center of engagement."
• "When you take on a challenge like transforming government, you need a partner to help you connect directly with the community. That's why we work with salesforce.com and use Community Cloud," said Rich Negrin, deputy mayor and managing director, PhillyRising, City of Philadelphia. "Our community members say it all—helping us to empower citizens like Pastor Cookie and Marsha Walls to run a mobile citizen community, and the people of Hartranft and Kensington decrease car burglary by 70 percent."

Introducing Salesforce1 Community Cloud—Defining the Next Battleground for Customer Engagement
The world is becoming completely connected. Every day, millions of new products, apps and devices are connecting to the Internet. And, behind every product, every app and every device, there is a customer. Welcome to the Internet of Customers—where customer engagement is more important than ever before. In fact, according to a recent IBM study, more than 75 percent of C-level executives want to know their customers better and are doubling down on digital engagement. [1]

Companies now have an imperative to transform their business and are looking to next-generation collaboration solutions to solve the engagement gap. According to IDC, spend on collaboration tools is forecasted to grow to $3.5 billion from 2013-2018, framing the massive market for communities. [2]

LinkedIn is an example of a company, that, among other things, in the consumer world, has created a community for recruiters and job seekers. Members can personalize their job search, connect with colleagues and discover and share information about job openings—all from any device. Today, companies want to create their own communities with the same personalization and mobile access of LinkedIn, that are also completely connected to their business processes.

Create Trusted Communities to Engage Customers, Partners and Employees in a Whole New Way 
By combining the power of the Community Cloud with the business data and processes of the world's #1 CRM platform, companies can quickly create trusted destinations to engage with customers, partners and employees in a whole new way. Now every company can build communities that are:

• Personalized—Companies can now create communities that are personalized to each member's unique needs. Community members can follow topics and people and stay up-to-date about the issues that are most important to them. Each member's profile page is updated with content and suggested groups that match their specific interests. Through profiles, endorsements and reputation ratings, members can find the most knowledgeable and trusted experts on any topic that interests them. For example, a runner could personalize their community experience to get the latest news on shoes and local trails, while a cyclist would see information on new equipment and races in their region.
• Connected—Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, the new Community Cloud is connected directly to Salesforce CRM and essential business processes. Now resellers can update leads, employees can create and escalate service cases and customers can review and rate products all from within the community. Additionally, with new SEO optimization and unauthenticated access, companies can now attract potential new members through their Internet search engine queries. For example, a musician can discover and join a brand's community based on an Internet search on a specific guitar model.
• Mobile—With Community Cloud, companies can create communities with a device-responsive design to ensure every member has the same amazing experience whether they are on a tablet, smartphone or laptop. For example, now every member of a home improvement community—from contractor to engineer—can easily see the tools they need to tackle a new project from any mobile device. And, admins and community managers also love Community Cloud because they can track trending topics, monitor content and update files—all from the Salesforce1 Mobile App.
• Fast—Companies can now create communities faster than ever, using a community template that provides a proven engagement framework with a modern design. In addition, with community designer, non-technical community managers can easily customize their deployment to accommodate company requirements and match corporate branding. For example, an admin can quickly create a self-service community for a particular subset of customers designed to suggest best practices, videos or any other answer to common questions with a consistent look across all the corporate marketing digital properties.

Salesforce.com Ecosystem Embraces Community Cloud
In response to customer demand, partners from the salesforce.com ecosystem are creating dedicated practices for Community Cloud. Today, Deloitte Digital unveiled a new practice, harnessing the digital experience of more than 4,000 consultants to accelerate Community Cloud success with best practices across customer, partner and employee engagement as well as digital strategies and high-growth industries.

Global Organizations are Connecting with Customers, Partners and Employees in a Whole New Way
Now with more than 2,000 active communities, Community Cloud is helping companies transform their engagement through their own trusted communities that are personalized, mobile and connected to business processes. Leading global organizations, including British Sky Broadcasting, Cornell University, GE Capital, Honeywell, Key Bank, Pearson, Pono Music, State of Colorado, Tata Communications and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth use Community Cloud to connect with customers, partners and employees in a whole new way.

Pricing & Availability

• Salesforce1 Community Cloud starts at $500 per month and is currently available with new advances expected to be generally available in October of 2014.

Additional Information

• Learn more about the Salesforce1 Community Cloud: http://www.salesforce.com/communities/overview/  
• Like salesforce.com on Facebook: http://facebook.com/salesforce  
• Follow @Salesforce on Twitter: http://twitter.com/salesforce  

About salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the world's largest provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software. For more information about salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

[1] IBM Institute for Business Value (2013) Exploring the Inner Circle - The Customer-Activated Enterprise [Research paper]. Retrieved from http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/en/c-suite/csuitestudy2013/ 
[2] IDC (2014) Worldwide Enterprise Social Networks 2014-2018 Forecast and 2013 Vendor Shares [Research paper]. Retrieved from http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=249846

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130612/SF30598LOGO

SOURCE salesforce.com