As a Bluewolf consultant, one of the most common questions I get from Salesforce customers is the one that makes me light up the most: “We’re using Salesforce, but I don’t think we’re using all of its functionality. What else can it do? How can we get more out of it?”

To this, I always ask: “What processes are preventing you from doing your job better, and how can you provide the best employee experience possible?” Because the truth is, once you have identified this, there’s nothing stopping you from customizing Salesforce to break through those barriers. 

Salesforce is a powerful piece of software, but what people often overlook is Salesforce’s capability as a platform. Case in point: the Salesforce App Cloud. Here, Salesforce houses all its own marketable applications; open to all Salesforce users, it’s an easy way to build your own custom applications with point and click functionality. With the App Cloud, companies can start thinking outside of the box to develop custom applications and get more out of their investment in Salesforce.

The “Custom Apps” section (in the image above) sits on the same stack as Sales, Service and Communities.

There are hundreds of apps from which to choose. So where should you start?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are our business objectives?
• What processes have we employed to achieve our business objectives
• What is stopping us from a stronger performance against our business objectives?
• Is there a better way to deliver a better result?

The best way to use the App Cloud is to address issues with your business processes — they are often at the root of all of the questions above. All companies have internal processes that are necessary to deliver the products or services they sell. In most cases, these processes are managed through spreadsheets and out of inboxes, based on data stored in disparate legacy databases. We rely solely on our people to prioritise, manage and execute on tasks that are critical to the operation of the company. You might recognize some, or all, of the process outlined in the diagram below.

What surprises most people is that all of these processes can easily be built out in Salesforce by a savvy Salesforce administrator without the need for writing code.

The organizations that get the most out of Salesforce are the ones that have reviewed their own business processes with a focus on an outstanding employee experience. The App Cloud gives you the ability to experiment with new processes and the ability to fail fast or succeed without limit.

Here’s a great story on how Brown Forman used the App Cloud and the power of the Salesforce platform to revolutionize the way they work and deliver.

To keep up in any market today, you have to constantly innovate. To keep the best talent at your company, you have to focus on employee experience. The App Cloud is the perfect place to build your own applications that are customized to your business’s needs and use the same data that the rest of your organisation is built on.

If you’d like to attend our next Australia event on maximizing your Salesforce use, register here. Can’t make the event? Download our free report built from research on how 1,500 companies are making the most out of their Salesforce use: The State of Salesforce.