Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce Communities--Ending the Era of Legacy Portal Software

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com [NYSE: CRM], the enterprise cloud computing company, today launched Salesforce Communities, ending the era of legacy portal software. With new Salesforce Communities, customer companies will be able to create social communities with business data and processes embedded at the core to transform how they sell, service and market. Communities can also be created for any customer experience—in a mobile banking app, in a video game or even in a car. Leading customer companies, including Food and Drug Administration, GE, Pernod Ricard and the World Economic Forum have deployed Salesforce Communities to connect with customers, partners and products in entirely new ways.

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Comments on the News

• "Today marks the end of the legacy portal software era," said Alex Dayon, president of applications and platform, salesforce.com. "The next generation of enterprise apps are social with business data embedded at the core and accessible from any device. With Salesforce Communities, customer companies can connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways and from anywhere."
• "Pernod Ricard is now democratizing knowledge inside and outside of our institution with social technology," said Alexandre Ricard, deputy CEO and COO, Pernod Ricard. "Managers are empowered with the information needed to act quickly, shape our strategy and identify future opportunities. Salesforce Communities will empower our managers to partner with our distributors, ensuring that our brand image is preserved."
• "Connecting communities through interactions, insights and impact is at the core of our organisation," said Jeremy Jurgens, chief information and interaction officer, World Economic Forum. "Salesforce Communities allows us to address each of these elements by extending our social community to the business, political, academic and other leaders of society that shape global, regional and industry agendas."
• "Over time, communities will evolve with processes associated to the community becoming embedded in core business workflow processes," said Vanessa Thompson, research manager of enterprise collaboration and social solutions, IDC. "Salesforce Communities is able to build on the strong base of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud to extend specific workflow and enable an ongoing conversation with customers, partners and suppliers."
  

New Salesforce Communities: The End of Legacy Portals
Today, more than ever, companies need to connect with their customers and partners in new ways. The popularity of crowd sourcing in social communities such as Yelp, the level of engagement on social networks like Facebook, and the increase in connected devices in the consumer world—all combined with the unprecedented growth in global adoption of mobile devices—have created a new generation of customers and partners who have new expectations for how they want to engage with a company.

But companies have not been able to offer this kind of collaborative, engaging experience in their business. Previously, they had to choose between legacy portals, which are strictly transactional, and social point solutions that are conversational, but disconnected from the business. By combining the power of social communities with the business data, processes, and platform of the world's #1 CRM solution, new Salesforce Communities enable companies to quickly create networks that connect customers, partners and even products in entirely new ways.

Salesforce Communities: Transform Sales, Customer Service, Marketing and More
Powered by Salesforce Chatter, the leading enterprise social network, Salesforce Communities will put social and mobile at the core of every community. And because it is built on the Salesforce Platform, Salesforce Communities is extensible and can be embedded into any experience—in a mobile banking app, in a video game or even in a car.

Using Salesforce Communities, customer companies will be able to increase sales efficiency among partners and distributors, deliver unmatched customer service, bring brands and agencies together around in-the-moment ad campaigns, and create a community for anything they can imagine.

• Salesforce Communities for Sales: Now companies will be able to create customized communities to connect with channel partners, distributors, resellers and suppliers in entirely new ways. With complete visibility across the entire channel, companies will be able to drive more sales and increase revenue through seamless lead sharing and deal registration, access to proven sales tools and direct collaboration with experts.
• Salesforce Communities for Service: Customers will have a single destination to get answers quickly—whether from a company's knowledge base, members of its community or directly from company experts or service reps. And because communities are accessible from any device, customers can solve problems and get answers from anywhere.
• Salesforce Communities for Marketing: Companies will be able to connect with customers and agencies in entirely new ways to better market products. Companies can develop communities to collaborate on product development with customers to accelerate innovation. They can also create communities with agencies to provide access to the company's latest creative concepts and brand guidelines— streamlining creative development for faster approvals and ensuring everyone stays on the same page.
• Salesforce Communities for Any Experience: For the first time, customer companies will be able to quickly create and deploy any custom community to connect with customers, partners and products. Whether communities are built to connect employees to customers for new product ideation, connect devices with manufacturers and dealers to streamline feedback loops or connect machines to customer purchase patterns to strengthen customer loyalty, now any business process can be social and mobile.

Customer Companies Connect with Customers, Partners & Products in New Ways

Leading global brands are realizing new levels of success with Salesforce Communities today by deepening their relationships with their customers, partners and products. For example, the Food and Drug Administration leverages Salesforce Communities to humanize and streamline the federal approval process for drugs and medical devices. And Pernod Ricard can now streamline operational processes to place, promote and price their brands globally across distributors and harness the wisdom of customers to plan campaigns.

Pricing & Availability

• Pricing for Salesforce Communities will start at $500 per month.
• Salesforce Communities is currently scheduled to be generally available by the Summer '13 release.

Additional Information

• For more information on Salesforce Communities, please visit: http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/communities/
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About salesforce.com

Founded in 1999,salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader.Salesforce.com's social and mobile cloud technologies enable companies to transform into customer companies by connecting with their customers, employees, partners and products in entirely new ways. Based onsalesforce.com's real-time, multitenant architecture, the company's apps and platform revolutionize the way companies sell, service, market and innovate.

• Grow your business with the #1 sales app,Salesforce Sales Cloud
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• Build and deliver social and mobile apps with theSalesforce Platform, and extend success with the world's leading enterprise app marketplace, theAppExchange

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