Why Choose a Modular CRM? Ask Salesforce

Change is perhaps the one concept all businesses have in common. No matter their industry, size, or location, all organizations need to adapt to evolving customer needs, technologies, and market trends. However, despite this universal challenge, many businesses aren’t capable of adapting at the drop of a hat. This setback can lead to lost sales, the inability to carry out certain tasks, and a less personalized experience for customers and internal stakeholders alike. 

However, many of these growing pains can be sidestepped or resolved with the aid of a modular Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. In this blog post, you’ll learn what a modular CRM is, read about the benefits of Salesforce’s modular platform, and gain the insights necessary to decide if a modular CRM is right for your business.

What is a Modular CRM, and Why Is It Important?

Here’s an analogy: imagine you're building a tower out of building blocks. During the construction process, you would use blocks of all different sizes and shapes to achieve your desired appearance and functionality. One block standing alone won't look like a tower —but by stacking them together, you can architect a variety of structures.

With a modular CRM, your company's entire customer relationship management system is the tower, and the CRM provides the building blocks. Moreover, the modular nature of the system allows businesses to add specific programs and services to create a cohesive CRM platform that suits their specific operational needs. 

Customizability is essential in today's world because, as mentioned earlier, business needs — and customer expectations — are constantly evolving. Having a CRM that you can quickly and easily adjust is crucial, especially for organizations in disruptive or innovative sectors. With a modular solution at hand, a company can adjust its operational infrastructure as it grows, rather than attempting to “make do” with outdated or less-than-functional business solutions.

Salesforce’s Value as a Modular Solution

The Salesforce solution set is designed to facilitate an iterative and thoughtful approach to operational innovation, making it the perfect solution for leaders who want a CRM that can scale with their business. As Salesforce representatives describe on the company’s website, “digital transformation is a process, not something that can or should be accomplished all at once.”

All Salesforce customers have access to the company’s base platform, Customer 360. Customer 360 provides all departments across all levels of an organization with a single, shared view of its customers’ data — this, in turn, facilitates more effective collaboration and better customer service. That said, the platform isn’t limited to one-size-fits-all functionality; Salesforce provides a plethora of industry- and functionality-specific solutions (“Clouds”) that can be added or connected to an existing Salesforce CRM foundation.

Major Clouds Within Salesforce

Salesforce defines a Cloud as a “loose federation of features that help you accomplish certain types of activities, such as selling products or supporting your customers.” The company offers over a dozen different comprehensive solutions; however, there are six primary Clouds:

• Sales Cloud – Salesforce Sales Cloud is designed to help business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) organizations sell products smarter and faster by centralizing customer information, logging interactions, managing and tracking leads, and allowing collaboration between teams.
• Marketing Cloud – Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud enables organizations to engage with customers in real-time via omnichannel service. Organizations can create personalized, targeted email and social media campaigns, react to customer actions, and monetize customer data, all in one place.
• Service Cloud – Service Cloud is a customer service management platform that allows businesses to provide top-tier assistance to clients through tools like AI and customer interaction records.
• Commerce Cloud – Commerce Cloud helps eCommerce organizations enhance customer experiences and grow their client base with tools like customer journey mapping, live messaging, and omnichannel management.
• Experience Cloud – Experience Cloud connects customers, employees, and partners to online portals or websites that allow them to communicate and interact while ensuring their data is being stored securely.
• Analytics Cloud – Analytics Cloud uses AI technology to extract insights from collected data. The software can even create graphs and charts and detect trends from an organization's data.

That said, some companies may need niche functionalities that fall outside the realm of a given Cloud. A health insurer, for example, may have Health Cloud, but require a specific tool to manage preauthorizations. In that case, change leaders — or their consultant partners — might look to AppExchange for a specialized solution. 

‍AppExchange is Salesforce's cloud-based application marketplace; think of it like the App Store for niche Salesforce tools. Businesses can select apps for everything from attendance tracking for educators to dealership management for automotive organizations. AppExchange also offers guides to help businesses determine which apps best suit their needs.

Ready to Start Building Your Customized CRM? Contact us Today!

With over 940 Salesforce certifications and over 1,000 collective years of Salesforce experience among our staff, Gerent is a dedicated and reliable partner in helping your organization get the most out of its CRM services. Currently, we serve as a Salesforce implementation partner for businesses in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, financial services, insurance, travel, education, and healthcare and life sciences. Schedule a call with us today to learn more about how to build a CRM that’s right for your company’s goals.