We use the solution for opportunity identification, pipeline management, and forecasting. Those are primarily the areas.
Managing Director at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Reliable, has good automation features for reporting and offers knowledgable technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The dashboards and dashboard customization are great."
- "The reporting formats could be better."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has provided our company with a common platform, a common process, and has created a common skill set, and institutional awareness of major transactions. It's provided easier audit for opportunities, deal reviews, and automation features for reporting.
What is most valuable?
The dashboards and dashboard customization are great.
The solution is stable and reliable.
You can scale the solution easily.
The setup is pretty fast.
Technical support is helpful and knowledgeable.
What needs improvement?
The reporting formats could be better. We'd like to be able to graphically, optically, change what the selections are that we can choose to put a report or format in, just in how they appear, the aesthetics. There could be more presentation formats that are incorporated that would make them easier to transfer over to a PowerPoint or something. We should be able to export documentation capabilities that are more presentation-friendly outside of the system.
II want to be specific about what it looks like, what the actual report actually looks like. For example, the optics of the report, the colors that are used, the format that it's in. That's the main comment. The data is fine. It's how the report actually looks that's an issue.
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Sales Cloud
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Sales Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for more than 12 months at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. It's reliable. It's a good solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales well. A lot of people need to own that the solution will only work as well as its design, and how people apply it. The more information that can be given upfront about what the outcome requirements are, the better.
That's a conditional situation. It really depends on how engaged the client is in providing their requirements and then giving that stuff over so that it can be executed. It's a pretty well-thought-out solution that performs and scales well.
We have more than 5,000 users at this point. That's across departments in the services division. The solution is extensively used.
How are customer service and support?
I've dealt with technical support. They were good. They were on the better side. Nobody's perfect, however, they were pretty knowledgeable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used multiple CRMs and NetSuite by Oracle in the past. In this organization, we had a homegrown solution that would not have been commercially marketed.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex, however, it was well planned. There was a good approach. It was very formulaic. It allowed for customer feedback to help customize the solution. I thought it was a very interactive process.
The configuration part was relatively quick. It was the planning that took longer as it required a lot of internal reviews to discern what was important information and what wasn't. It's hard. I would say that the process was six months, however, the actual flipping the switch wasn't that long - maybe a couple of weeks.
That's why it's hard for me to discern where the breakpoint is. It was a lot of reviews, communication, et cetera. However, the enabling of the technology did not take very long. It was more or less deciding on how to enable the technology that took long.
There is a team that handles maintenance for the product. I don't deal with that directly.
What about the implementation team?
I've done it probably two ways. One was an internal engagement. The other one was external. I know that Accenture was involved in that. I myself actually had to go to Chicago to train at one of the Accenture facilities to be a champion for their transition.
What other advice do I have?
I'm an end-user. I'm using the most recent version of the solution.
I'd advise potential new users to make sure you're good by researching what's best for your organization and make sure that once you choose to go down that path, that you've put the right steps in for adoption. This or any other CRM will fail if the organization doesn't agree on the value or use of the tool.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. It is highly available, handles the majority of our business needs, and the consistency of its function is pretty strong. The capacity of capability is good.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Provides good business accuracy and monitors customers, projects, and sales
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are increased productivity and business accuracy."
- "The solution's design could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for CRM and to monitor customers, projects, and sales. We are using Salesforce Sales Cloud as a forecast platform. The solution forecasts the current data, current project stages, and the probability of it happening or not happening.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are increased productivity and business accuracy.
What needs improvement?
The solution's design could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a scalable solution.
What was our ROI?
With Salesforce Sales Cloud, you have visibility and competency and see all the information you need from the sales side on one page.
What other advice do I have?
We chose Salesforce Sales Cloud because we need everything in one place to have one forecasting platform, one sales platform, and one customer management platform. The solution's forecasting feature gives us visibility on one page to give us better guidance and understanding of what's going on and what could happen. Since the solution is an appliance, there's nothing to deploy.
I would recommend the solution to other users. From my perspective, it's a tool that should be used for every purpose because it could be scalable from a small number of users to huge ones. Usually, it's flexible enough to implement all the features that customers could need. Salesforce Sales Cloud is a native integrated solution.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Mar 20, 2024
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Salesforce Sales Cloud
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Sales Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Managing Director with 51-200 employees
Integrates with other systems, scalable, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are ease of use. It is very simple for the sales team to use. You can integrate it with a lot of other systems."
- "The setup of Salesforce Sales Cloud is complex. You need specialists in that area to be able to have a good setup. Once it's set up properly, running it is seamless. That's the most beautiful thing about Salesforce Sales Cloud."
What is our primary use case?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is used to track and manage businesses sales. The solution can manage the sales team and evaluate how effective their tools have been. It can determine if they are delivering value.
The sales team populates all their activities on the Salesforce Sales Cloud. We have been given the number of calls to make to new customers that have come in, to track the prospective customers, and many other aspects will be captured. You are able to make direct calls to the customer from inside Salesforce Sales Cloud. We are able to link Salesforce Sales Cloud with a voice-over IP that can make direct calls to customers. The solution is highly versatile and it's integrated with our ERP solution of the company. When the potential customer becomes a customer, it does populate instead of having to start putting new things in the ERP system. It has good compatibility between the CRM, the Salesforce Sale Cloud, and our ERP system.
We try as much as possible to look at how loyal has the customer been. We have some of those KPIs that are coming out from the use of Salesforce Sales Cloud. It's a very great tool that the organization is using to track their business, sales team, sales, and effective management of the customers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are ease of use. It is very simple for the sales team to use. You can integrate it with a lot of other systems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Salesforce Sales Cloud for approximately eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Salesforce Sales Cloud is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is scalable. However, it depends on the licenses and what modules you require. For example, if you want voice integration, they have it. The ability for you to make your call to the customer directly from the system instead of picking up a phone.
In Nigeria, we have approximately 60. In some other countries, it depends on the number of staff that they have because all the systems have a user license. All the finance team is part of it. We have the marketing team and there are some others, such as the customer loyalty score users. Some of the service users that are rendering technical services, such as customer service staff are also part of using this solution.
The number of users can be quite large. It depends on your operations and the area that you want it to cover. Overall the solution is scalable.
Whether we expand or not depends on the business and how it grows. For example, if the sales teams increase, as a result of the business opportunities that are available in the country, we will increase usage of this solution. However, I am not sure because of the COVID-19 situation. It has impacted a lot of business. The possibility of an increase this year and next year is very slim because most organizations are only getting their sales goals.
How are customer service and support?
Our teams in the head office that manages the entire system may need to escalate an issue based on the request of a country. In this case, they will contact Salesforce Sales Cloud who will advise on what to do.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions in this category, such as SAP. Salesforce Sales Cloud and SAP, are very similar solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of Salesforce Sales Cloud is complex. You need specialists in that area to be able to have a good setup. Once it's set up properly, running it is seamless. That's the most beautiful thing about Salesforce Sales Cloud.
Salesforce Sales Cloud is a big system, it stretches across to approximately eight countries for the entire group. The full implementation took approximately six months. It was not done country by country. In my country of Nigeria, it took them close to two months to do the implementation. After it is complete there is a process of improvement. It was approximately two months before everything was finalized and in operation.
What about the implementation team?
We are consultants directly from Salesforce and we have some other consultants from different regions of the country. We have consultants that manage each of the countries' rollout. We did the implementation.
The deployment stretches across different countries and the maintenance is centralized. They have a centralized team at the head office. There are approximately 10 people covering the entire country. We call them the Effectiveness Managers. Each country has what we call the Effectiveness Manager that whose major role is to maintain and look at what is going on in the processes and address any gaps. When they identify something, they report to the central team in the head office.
Then you are talking close to approximately 20 people in the maintenance department. It's a big system for us as far as the capabilities are concerned. It's a big business the team cannot be compared to smaller or medium-size organizations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the Salesforce Sales Cloud is expensive. We pay monthly for the solution but we are billed quarterly.
The price of the solution could be less expensive.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others wanting to implement Salesforce Sales Cloud is you have to make sure that you are ready to absorb the price of the solution, it is very expensive. I normally recommend a lower version, such as an open-source CRM.
They have to judge the capability of the financial department of their organization before. The organization has to know their business information well, such as sales, turnovers, the visions, the strategy of the management, and what are they trying to achieve overall.
The business is what will enable me to know whether Salesforce Sales Cloud will be a good fit for them because if they don't have financial strength, the licenses are expensive and they might not be able to afford it.
I rate Salesforce Sales Cloud an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Independent Security Consultant/ Virtual CISO at Galbraith & Associates Inc.
Easy to use with insightful conversion rates and good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The solution can scale massively. I've been quite impressed."
- "If they could have convenient APIs into the other parts of the corporation that I wish to share data with, that would be helpful."
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use the solution for persuing sales. You can follow up on opportunities very easily when you use it. I also use it for case tracking.
How has it helped my organization?
The product offers sales best practices. If I establish a funnel and I've got four salespeople, and the average conversion rate of new leads is 18% and one person's at 30%, I could ask them what they're doing and I could get them to show me their pitch. Then I could teach the other salespeople to imitate them. I could quickly look at that in the forecast year and go, okay, I don't know what that person's doing, however, they're converting to the stages at a higher rate so let's ask them what they're doing and then orient all the other salespeople to follow that best practice. That way, all numbers could go up as well.
What is most valuable?
The aspect I found most valuable was the conversion rates. As a new business, we figured out by filling out the funnel that we can convert 18% of stage one. Therefore, if you could use that math, you can say "if I want to make a million dollars in sales this year, and I make $20,000 a sale, I will need X number of people." You can work backward and project, for example, this is how many people you better have on the file. It's helpful sales forecasting.
What needs improvement?
While they've done a really good job of being a CRM tool and being, in my case, a sales forecasting tool, if they could integrate with other enterprises' IT aspects - like SAP and ERP - it would be great. A little bit of integration across the corporation would be helpful. If they could have convenient APIs into the other parts of the corporation that I wish to share data with, that would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for around ten years or so.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very, very good. There are no bugs or glitches. The performance is great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale massively. I've been quite impressed.
In my one organization, we went from ten to 40 people with no issues.
The solution is being extensively used. I haven't looked back at the competition and had to make a new purchase evaluation, however, my perception is Salesforce took over the space.
It's one of those solutions where you can just start using the product immediately. You don't really need to do any setup or any thinking. You just start using it. After using it for three months, you probably will never go back.
How are customer service and support?
I did use technical support in the past. They walked the talk on CRM. They're one of the companies that eats their own dog food. They're super knowledgeable with the support that was clearly ahead of the game. Whoever I called could quickly pull up my account and know who I was and what my company was. They were using a lot of their own business intelligence and things in the back end.
Overall, I was impressed with the level of support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I mostly use Excel, however, for clients, I tend to use Salesforce and ZenDesk as well.
The move to Salesforce was mostly due to the fact that it was super easy to use. The best sales guys also recommended it. They liked it as they were always selling and always making money and always on the road. The sales team hated the idea of coming back into the office and doing their stats. The fact that they could update it on the road, and I could just go in and look at it every week and talk to everybody from their phones and say, here's the story was ideal for their sales process. They hated pushing their money to this big enterprise product that seemed not to create any great insight and forced them to have a meeting on site. Everyone preferred Salesforce's ease of use and remote updates.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple and straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure of the exact pricing. My understanding is that it was super cheap on RAM - a lot like Jira. If you're at a really small startup and you have 10 people, the licenses are practically free. Their theory is, as you grow, you're going to scale and hit 50 pretty soon and then they'll start charging more.
What other advice do I have?
I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. It's mostly set up by the client.
I'm familiar with the cloud and on-premises deployment models. Most clients are on the cloud now.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. They have an excellent reputation and live up to it.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Presale Coordinator at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
A versatile platform that can track commercial opportunities
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are the ability to track portfolio opportunities and reporting capabilities. The notification process inside the platform is also very valuable, and extracting reports is extremely useful. However, we are currently using only a small part of its functionality."
- "As a presale team leader, I see a need to better understand the platform because our current knowledge is limited. This makes it difficult to explore possible extensions of its use. We also want more detailed information on commercial opportunities included in the tool. It needs to include better documentation on the functions it offers."
What is our primary use case?
I last used it to trace a commercial opportunity. I use it since I am notified about commercial opportunities. Our main use case is tracking.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are the ability to track portfolio opportunities and reporting capabilities. The notification process inside the platform is also very valuable, and extracting reports is extremely useful. However, we are currently using only a small part of its functionality.
What needs improvement?
At the moment, Salesforce Sales Cloud is mainly used by key account managers and the commercial team. We are also looking to extend its use and functionality to the presale team.
As a presale team leader, I see a need to better understand the platform because our current knowledge is limited. This makes it difficult to explore possible extensions of its use. We also want more detailed information on commercial opportunities included in the tool. It needs to include better documentation on the functions it offers.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool's stability is very good, and I rate it a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool's scalability a nine out of ten. We use it two to three times a month. My company has around 100 users, and my team has 12 members.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't contacted the technical support team for the solution yet.
What was our ROI?
Currently, there is no impact on the duration of our sales cycle. We are asking more in-depth questions about the platform because, so far, there is no clear benefit. We are still looking internally to understand how to use it more profitably. I'm not involved in the investment itself. I'm just the final user, so it's something that other sales teams in the company evaluate.
What other advice do I have?
We update all our software to the latest versions as an internal policy. Salesforce Sales Cloud is the standard tool in our company. It is integrated with other application platforms developed in the company, which are proprietary software. The integration was difficult, but I don't have direct experience with that process.
My advice to people looking to implement the tool is that they should understand the organization in which the solution will be applied, including the business processes. A certain degree of customization is needed when applying the platform to the real context. Good advice would be to analyse the needs deeply before implementation.
I rate the overall product a nine out of ten. I think it's a good platform. It's versatile and can be applied in many different contexts so that it can be recommended.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: May 14, 2024
Flag as inappropriateSalesforce Consultant at Amdrodd Technologies
Powerful tool for nurturing leads and opportunities
Pros and Cons
- "Salesforce is a very powerful tool which helps us to build that through tools like Process Builder or Flows, or even write code to achieve these scenarios."
- "If the infrastructure is not correct, then customers are having an issue and it's taking a lot of time to load."
What is our primary use case?
I am a Salesforce consultant for multiple clients, and we have different scenarios wherein the Salesforce Sales Cloud has been used. Use cases include different scenarios and different industries, so from banking to automobile industries, to NGOs, nonprofits too.
One use case is for a client in the automobile industry. There is a sales process, sales funnel, that has been built for the particular company, according to the region. When there is a lead that comes into Salesforce, according to the region, they will be assigned to a particular salesperson. If the lead is converted, then an opportunity has been created and the opportunity is nurtured through Salesforce. There are different tasks that will then be allotted to the particular salesperson in each opportunity stage.
How has it helped my organization?
Sales Cloud in particular is a very, very powerful tool, and we can build on top of the existing platform for the requirements each company has. So if there is a particular workflow that we need to build, particular validation, or there is a particular scenario that we need to capture which is not there in Salesforce, or not in the inbuilt system -- then Salesforce is a very powerful tool that helps us to build that through tools like Process Builder or Flows, or even write code to achieve these scenarios. It's a very dynamic system.
What is most valuable?
One valuable feature with Sales Cloud is the opportunity for nurturing leads, and there are different sales processes that we can establish in Salesforce to do this. Having different sales processes helps us to diversify the whole system for different regions or different products. The same processes will help a lot in managing or helping out the salespersons to nurture those opportunities.
What needs improvement?
I've been totally into Salesforce, and almost everything can be achieved through either the configuration part or doing customization. One area that needed improvement though was with the record views. The record views were not aligned, and they have no split views. So to see each record, we had to go back and then select another one from the list, but that has been fixed. One current issue is the system requirement for running Salesforce Lightning. For current computers, it works fine, but for people who are using old systems, there is a lag in loading the Lightning pages. Lightning is the new interface that Salesforce has for the records and seeing the whole data. So if there is an old system used, or if the infrastructure is not correct, then customers are having an issue and it's taking a lot of time to load.
An additional feature that could be added is the email templates. At the moment, it is actually still not a feature to set up email templates. There are two views in Salesforce, the Classic and the Lightning. To set email templates and have those processes, we have to go back to Classic and then do the whole process. It would be beneficial if everything was happening in Lightning itself so that people don't have to switch back and forth. But I think that's down the roadmap of Salesforce to have everything in Lightning.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Salesforce for the past five to six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With the cloud infrastructure, the stability of the solution is pretty good. There has not been much downtime, or I've never seen any downtime happening in my experience with Salesforce at all. They are evolving in performance, too. The transition from Classic to Lightning was a major shift they had, and that has increased a lot of performance. The solution has been more powerful since it was transitioned to Lightning. If you don't have the right infrastructure, then we see performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Salesforce is super easy to scale. If you want to add users, you just need the licenses. If you want to add additional features, scalability is not an issue with Salesforce.
The solution is suitable for every sized company. It makes things easier, even for small companies. The amount of manual work can be reduced if they have a proper automated system in place.
How are customer service and support?
We've been in contact with technical support multiple times. They're very responsive and it seems we get an immediate response back from the technical team. In the case where the issues has not been resolved from the lower level, they escalate it to the technical team. I would say they say the technical support process is quite good. But for that too, there is a package I think needs to be bought for high-end technical support. For regular users, there is a certain level of technical support that Salesforce offers, and then if you need more, we need to have an engagement for that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have some experience with Zoho CRM, but I wouldn't say it is as comparable as Salesforce. It has a different set of Salesforce setups in Zoho.
With adding multiple sales processes or more fields to the layouts, Salesforce is more flexible and bigger than Zoho.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Salesforce is pretty straightforward. The deployment process is quite easy. With that being said, I would say there are a lot of instances where this pretty straightforwardness has been misused. There need to be some guidelines or DevOps processes in place so that people don't just push things to production.
The solution does not require any onsite maintenance; since it's cloud, the maintenance is done automatically. Since the platform is evolving, there are cases where they add in a few security points or depreciate a few old processes. Then we might need some enhancements done to the work that we did.
What about the implementation team?
Just one developer can have test classes built in and then push it over to production. There have been cases where we see that even one admin team in companies just does the whole end-to-end, adding the component, then pushing to production. It is not an extensive, manpower-required process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing wise, I'm not sure how affordable the solution is, because for each market it's different. For small companies, I don't know how the pricing point works, but feature wise, I would say it is a very useful tool for all sized companies.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to any company implementing any product is to have their processes lined up, at least on paper first, rather than going to a system. I've seen this happen with a few clients. Their structure is not set, but they come into the CRM and then they build on the go, which creates a lot of best practice issues when they do that.
Before implementing any CRM, I would suggest that any company should have a proper sales process or their processes lined up, and have a clear idea of what they want to happen in the system so that that can be translated easily onto the system.
I would rate Sales Cloud a nine out of ten because I'm totally into Salesforce and I appreciate the product a lot.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Business Development Manager at Fraser Valley Office Systems
Fast, accurate, easy to use, and accessible from anywhere
Pros and Cons
- "I can see activity per customer. I can find out quickly and easily who was the last person I talked to, when it was, and what we were talking about."
- "Sometimes, it is difficult to integrate it with my emails. I've had trouble integrating it with my emails. There were a couple of things I did try as well, but I wasn't able to do so. I've had difficulty in other areas too with integration. It was related to syncing my calendars. I want the tasks that I put in to automatically sync to my calendars and update my calendars, but I couldn't figure out how to do it."
What is our primary use case?
I'm using it to track opportunities and keep track of customer relations.
How has it helped my organization?
It's fast. It's accurate. I can access it anywhere. I can log calls live, keeping the information fresh in my mind. It has really helped expand our customer base.
What is most valuable?
I can see activity per customer. I can find out quickly and easily who was the last person I talked to, when it was, and what we were talking about.
I like its reporting.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, it is difficult to integrate it with my emails. I've had trouble integrating it with my emails. There were a couple of things I did try as well, but I wasn't able to do so.
I've had difficulty in other areas too with integration. It was related to syncing my calendars. I want the tasks that I put in to automatically sync to my calendars and update my calendars, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had any issues so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm only using a small portion of it. You can do a lot more than I'm using it for, but I haven't gone into that yet.
There are 10 people in our organization who are using this solution. It is currently not being used extensively in the organization. It could be used more. Right now, we're just scratching the surface.
How are customer service and support?
They were good, and they helped me through my issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Sage CRM for a while, and it's not very much fun to use. I switched because every time I had to do something, I had to contact our company IT support. It was too cumbersome. They had to get involved every time I wanted to do something, and I needed to be able to do things quickly and without having to go through someone else.
How was the initial setup?
I had to set it up myself. There were some parts of it that took a little bit of learning, but I found the videos and other resources helpful.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others would be that they should talk to a consultant and tell them everything they want to do beforehand. They should make sure that they have a plan in place to get it set up the way they want to right away.
I would rate it at least a nine because it is really easy to use, and it has helped me a lot.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
ICT Manager at ZSCO
Good for creating and generating leads and opportunities
Pros and Cons
- "It is an open the platform with API integration with other systems. Salesforce, it is not a software. It is very famous and available. When you are creating leads, generating leads, opportunities, it is wonderful in the reports as well. Dashboards are amazing."
- "It does not include a professional accounting system, it is operations and it is CRM. It is not capable of accounting things."
What is our primary use case?
We have a partnership with Salesforce. In addition to that, we have fully implemented Salesforce for one of the biggest automotive companies in Baghdad, ZSCO. There are some other companies that give support to and implement Salesforce for them in Iraq.
We have implemented Sales Cloud to create leads, accounts, opportunities and workflows. We have API integration with our central and PBX, so it's fully integrated.
In addition to that, we are dependent on Salesforce Enterprise Edition. We have some users who use Platform and some of the users are using Lightning, but usually we are using the Enterprise Edition for Salesforce in our implementation. It is more flexible and more capable to cover many activities.
Salesforce is not used for financial things. It is not for inventory. It is not for financial activities or operation. It is for CRM, customer relation management.
What is most valuable?
It is an open platform with API integration with other systems. Salesforce is not a software. It is very famous and available. It is good for creating and generating leads and opportunities. It has wonderful reports as well. The dashboards are amazing.
It has a workflow inside of it. If you need to send an email or send an SMS to a customer you can do it very easily in Salesforce.
In addition to that, it is a brand. When we are talking to our clients about Salesforce, people are already aware of the brand. Any company, even big companies are saying that they use Salesforce, so this is wonderful.
This system is a reliable system. It is without bugs, without problems, you can develop it. You can have outsourced support easily, including videos, all training, partner training, and webinars. It is easy as it's a worldwide software.
So due to that, we usually go to this international solution to include our customers to help them with growth in their work.
Salesforce is wonderful.
What needs improvement?
The main issue is that is it is costly. Salesforce is not cheap, it's costly. Some of our customers say it is a costly solution. So, we have lost some sale opportunities regarding the high price. This is the main issue that we are facing. It is sales per user and the user price is about $150 per month, per user for the Enterprise Edition. The other edition is less than this, but it is costly. A company that has 70 or 80 users would pay more than $8,000 USD yearly because it is cloud based.
In addition to that, it does not include a professional accounting system, it is operations and it is a CRM. It is not capable of accounting things.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is most stable. We don't have any bad feedback on the technical side of Salesforce.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is wonderful.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is wonderful. When we open an issue, they call us and solve it well. We don't have any problems.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously we used IT Microsoft Dynamics CRM, it is a little bit like Salesforce, but Salesforce's capability is greater.
How was the initial setup?
As for the deployment, you should have a professional guide you in order to do it. Nobody can do the implementation by themselves you can just set up some of basic things. You should have a developer, you should have a partner, you should have a person who has the knowledge. Have training courses in order to do the implementation the right way.
Salesforce is user friendly in implementation and it is in using it, but you should have a specified person.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I recommend Salesforce to customers that have commercial or workflow needs and CRM needs.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Salesforce to customers that have commercial or workflow needs and CRM needs. I would rate it an 8 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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Updated: October 2024
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