Salesforce Foundations: A New Era of Integrated CRM Capabilities

Consider this- 79% of customers expect smooth, consistent interactions across departments, but 55% report that it often feels like they are dealing with disconnected teams rather than a unified company. With the introduction of Salesforce Foundations, businesses can now unite their departments on a single platform, ensuring a seamless and cohesive customer experience across all touchpoints.

Salesforce recently introduced Salesforce Foundations, a transformative suite that enhances existing CRM capabilities by integrating essential features from multiple Salesforce Clouds, including Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Data Cloud. Designed to provide a comprehensive, user-friendly experience, this upgrade is free of charge for customers with Enterprise, Unlimited, or Einstein 1 editions of the Salesforce enterprise. Let’s explore the value Salesforce Foundations brings, how it works, and the benefits it offers for businesses.

What is Salesforce Foundations?

Salesforce Foundations delivers core functionalities across key clouds into a single platform, eliminating the need for additional integrations. This ensures users benefit from seamless cross-departmental collaboration. Organizations using Sales Cloud or Service Cloud can access foundational Salesforce features across other clouds like Marketing and Commerce Cloud, along with Data Cloud’s customer segmentation tools, all integrated into a unified enterprise.

Core Features Include:

  • Sales Tools: Manage leads, opportunities, and forecasting within Service Cloud.
  • Service Features: Offer case management and use knowledge-sharing tools directly within the Sales Cloud.
  • Marketing Campaigns: Launch targeted email campaigns with segmentation powered by Data Cloud.
  • Commerce Enhancements: Generate secure payment links for faster transactions.
  • Unified Customer Profiles: Data Cloud centralizes information into actionable customer profiles for personalized interactions.

The enhanced user interface (UI) adds a vertical sidebar for easy app navigation, with customizable home pages showing key metrics such as open opportunities and service cases.

Why Salesforce Foundations is a Game-Changer

1. Seamless Cross-Cloud Collaboration

Salesforce Foundations makes it easy for organizations to move toward multi-cloud environments by sharing Salesforce capabilities across sales, service, and marketing functions. This collaboration drives efficiency, as teams can now access relevant tools without needing additional third-party integrations.

2. Enhanced Data-Driven Decisions

With Data Cloud running in the background, businesses can consolidate data from multiple systems into unified profiles, which is also called the Salesforce Customer 360. This helps marketers and sales teams make better decisions with real-time insights, using targeted segmentation and personalized outreach strategies.

3. Faster Payment and Sales Processes

The addition of Commerce Cloud’s “Pay Now” feature enables sellers to collect payments via secure links directly from opportunity records, improving cash flow and customer convenience.

4. Optimized User Experience

Salesforce Foundations offers a streamlined UI, giving users quick access to apps through a vertical navigation bar. Teams can customize their home pages to display tasks and priorities tailored to their roles, boosting productivity.

How Organizations Can Benefit from Salesforce Foundations

  • Sales Teams can prospect more effectively by launching personalized campaigns and accessing customer support history in one place.
  • Service Teams gain visibility into open deals, enabling them to offer proactive support, upselling opportunities, and faster resolutions.
  • Marketing Teams can leverage email tools integrated into Salesforce, allowing them to design targeted campaigns and nurture leads efficiently.
  • IT Teams benefit from easier adoption of AI and automation tools, without requiring complex integrations, setting the stage for further innovation.
Additionally, Salesforce Foundations offers extended free trials of over 25 top partner apps on AppExchange, helping businesses unlock new features like document management, contract automation, and communication tools.

“With Salesforce Foundations, businesses of all sizes and industries can now automate sales, service, marketing, and commerce with unified customer data on a single platform, empowering them to integrate their entire front office and deliver real-time, personalized customer experiences to drive revenue, answer service issues, create marketing campaigns, set up payments, and more.”

– David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer

A New User Experience

Salesforce Foundations offers a preview of its refreshed, intuitive user interface (UX), which organizations can enable or disable based on their preferences. The updated UX enhances productivity by consolidating all applications into a vertical sidebar, allowing users to switch between apps with just a single click​.

Source- Trailhead

Wrapping Up:

Salesforce Foundations is a significant step forward, simplifying access to powerful cloud capabilities and enhancing collaboration across business units. By unifying data and processes within the Salesforce ecosystem, it empowers organizations to work more efficiently, improve customer experiences, and accelerate business outcomes. With no additional cost involved, Salesforce customers can unlock these new capabilities immediately and start driving growth.

For businesses looking to explore multi-cloud functionality and streamline their operations, Salesforce Foundations offers a perfect entry point. To get started, organizations should contact their Salesforce Account Executive and work with their administrators to activate the features best suited to their needs.

This all-in-one solution lays the foundation for integrating AI-driven tools and automation across workflows, setting businesses up for long-term success in a competitive landscape. Learn more by exploring the official Salesforce documentation and resources.
Want to know more about Salesforce data and AI? Contact us today!

FAQs

1. What is Salesforce Foundations, and how does it work?

Salesforce Foundations is a comprehensive suite of core features drawn from multiple Salesforce Clouds, including Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Data Cloud. It integrates these capabilities into a unified platform, allowing seamless collaboration between departments and eliminating the need for additional integrations. This upgrade is available at no additional cost for customers on Enterprise, Unlimited, or Einstein 1 editions

Salesforce Foundations offers several key benefits:

  • Seamless cross-cloud collaboration, enabling teams from different departments to work together effectively.
  • Enhanced data-driven decisions through unified customer profiles powered by Data Cloud.
  • Faster sales processes with features like “Pay Now” links for secure payments.
  • Optimized user experience with a customizable interface and streamlined navigation

Salesforce Foundations includes key functionalities from:

  • Sales Cloud: Lead and opportunity management, forecasting.
  • Service Cloud: Case management, knowledge sharing.
  • Marketing Cloud: Targeted email campaigns and segmentation tools.
  • Commerce Cloud: Secure payment links and e-commerce features.
  • Data Cloud: Centralized customer profiles and real-time segmentation capabilities

Salesforce Foundations introduces an updated UI with a vertical sidebar for easy access to applications. Users can customize their home page with cards displaying key tasks like open opportunities or service cases, enabling them to switch between apps with a single click. This streamlines workflows and boosts productivity across teams.

Salesforce Foundations is available to customers with Enterprise, Unlimited, or Einstein 1 editions of Salesforce Sales Cloud or Service Cloud. Organizations can contact their Salesforce Account Executive to activate the suite’s features and access the new capabilities immediately

Salesforce Foundations addresses several challenges:

  • Disconnected departments: It unifies teams on a single platform to deliver consistent customer experiences.
  • Data silos: Data Cloud ensures that all customer data is consolidated into unified profiles.
  • Slow sales cycles: Commerce Cloud features like “Pay Now” accelerate payment processes.
  • Complex integrations: With built-in multi-cloud capabilities, the suite eliminates the need for additional third-party tools
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Nilamani Das

Nilamani is a thought leader who champions the integration of AI, Data, CRM and Trust to craft impactful marketing strategies. He carries 25+ years of expertise in the technology industry with expertise in Go-to-Market Strategy, Marketing, Digital Transformation, Vision Development and Business Innovation.

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CEPTES, an award-winning Salesforce Summit Partner, leverages Data, AI & CRM to accelerate the business value of your Salesforce investment through expert consultation, digitalization, and innovative solutions.

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