Salesforce Foundations: A Game-Changing Update Your Business Needs
It has been found that over three-fourths of customers want consistent interactions across departments. However, 55% feel like they are interacting with separate departments and not a single company. If you are one among them and you are a Sales Cloud or Service Cloud user, we have some amazing news for you. Salesforce has recently announced Foundations, which is a no-cost enhancement to your existing CRM. It offers you a unified view of your customer and helps build AI-powered experiences across multiple touchpoints. In this article, we will understand more about this update and how it impacts you and your end customers. What is Salesforce Foundations? In simple words, Salesforce Foundations brings your different departments, viz., sales, marketing, service, and commerce data, under one umbrella. It does this by offering enhanced functionalities to existing Sales Cloud and Service Cloud platforms. Through Foundations, a Sales Cloud user will get access to Service Cloud features and vice versa. Plus, you will gain access to marketing, commerce, data cloud, and Agentforce features. This means your brand can effortlessly create connected customer experiences without added upfront costs or complex data integrations. Now, do not confuse Salesforce Foundations with Salesforce Foundation. The latter is Salesforce’s charitable arm. Secondly, do not think that Foundations is a completely new product. It is simply an expansion pack of your existing Salesforce ecosystem with additional features and an updated UI that gives you a richer 360-degree view of your customers. Salesforce Foundations is available at no extra cost to the customers who are on the following editions: Enterprise Unlimited Einstein 1 Features of Salesforce Foundations Here are the core features of Salesforce Foundations categorised under different buckets: Department Features Sales Lead and opportunity management, account and contact management, Sales Console, pipeline management, quoting and pricing capabilities. Service Service Console, omni-channel routing, Knowledge Management, macros, and case management for proactive, personalised customer support. Agentforce AI-powered conversational assistant for support with autonomous apps using large language models (LLMs) to assist agents and customers. Marketing Data integration from multiple sources, customer segmentation, campaign management through Salesforce Flows, and automated marketing journey customisation. Commerce Direct-to-customer (D2C) storefront setup, Pay Now links for fast transactions, checkout experiences, and customer experience customisation (search, cart, etc.). General UI/UX Updated left-hand navigation and customisable homepage cards for quick access to top priorities (e.g., cases, opportunities, tasks). Extended Apps Access to AppExchange trial apps, including Webex, DocuSign, and RingCentral, for document management, collaboration, surveys, telephony, and video conferencing. What are the benefits you can enjoy after adopting Foundations? By adopting Salesforce Foundations, you will straightaway experience enhanced productivity, better customer insights, and stronger collaboration between teams as you are essentially consolidating several key tools. It also simplifies day-to-day operations thanks to centralised data, seamless AI readiness, and features like payment processing and case management. This helps your teams work faster and more effectively. Additionally, by bundling powerful functionalities at no extra cost, Salesforce Foundations helps you cut down on third-party expenses, driving growth and innovation without added complexity. To understand the benefits of Salesforce Foundations more thoroughly, let us go through three different business cases where Foundations can make a mark – Business Case 1: With integrated insights into service cases, your marketing department can now seamlessly add relevant customers(say, someone looking for an upgrade) to marketing nurture campaigns. This previously required separate service and marketing platforms. Business Case 2: When a customer is ready to buy, your sales team can convert closed deals into payments quickly. They can seamlessly generate secure payment links directly from a quote or opportunity record. This eliminates the need for an external payment system. Business Case 3: Your service team can enhance onboarding by adding customers to personalised marketing journeys. When the time is ripe, they can upsell them with access to sales quotes and secure payment links. They do not need access to separate sales or marketing platforms. What does this mean for you? For starters, it prepares your business for the future by establishing a reliable data foundation essential for AI and machine learning. The platform’s Data Cloud ensures that customer information, engagement histories, and service records are stored and accessible in a unified, structured format, enabling accurate, real-time data analytics. This architecture supports AI applications like Agentforce’s conversational AI and intelligent automation. This, in turn, allows you to gradually adopt AI while using current data insights to refine and scale AI-driven processes effectively. Secondly, it redefines your technology investments by bundling critical capabilities within its core package at no extra cost. You can access features typically provided by third-party vendors—such as document generation, collaboration, and payment processing—directly within Salesforce, minimising additional expenditures. This bundled approach not only reduces operational costs but also encourages you to leverage Salesforce’s built-in tools. This maximises value and facilitates scalable growth without the complexity of multiple subscriptions or integrations. Such a streamlined investment structure allows you to focus resources on strategic growth rather than maintaining disparate systems. But… Salesforce Foundations is a massive shift for most users. While such changes can transform how your teams operate, keeping up with these substantial changes is challenging, especially without dedicated support. That’s where Brysa comes in. Recognised as one of the UK’s leading Salesforce consultants, Brysa offers expert guidance to help you navigate and maximise these updates effectively. With Brysa’s support, you can ensure smooth implementation, optimise your Salesforce experience, and focus on driving real business value without missing critical advancement
