Salesforce Upgrades Cloud CRM Experience

Looking to gain additional converts to its software-as-a-service (SaaS) application portfolio, Salesforce today updated the customer relationship management (CRM) software that the company was originally built around.

Now known as Salesforce Lightning, the latest version of the company’s CRM software sports everything from a new consumer-grade interface to templates that show partners how to design complementary applications that provide a similar user experience.

Will Moxley, senior vice president of product management for Sales Cloud at Salesforce, said the new interface is intended to make Salesforce Lightning features more easily accessible. The end goal, said Moxley, is to make more extensive use of the underlying object system that Salesforce developed for its cloud applications to more easily navigate various tasks.

At the same time, Salesforce today also unveiled Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, an implementation of Salesforce Lightning that is specifically optimized for the financial services sector. That offering represents that first time Salesforce has created an instance of its CRM software for a specific vertical industry.

From a Salesforce partner perspective the most compelling new editions may be Lightning Design System, which makes it possible to use Cascading Style Sheets to create new components that have the same look and feel as Salesforce Lightning , and integration with  recently unveiled Lightning App Builder and Lightning Components rapid application development (RAD) environment that is based on JavaScript. Both approaches provide a mechanism through which partners can use Salesforce Lightning as a foundation for building cloud applications that can invoke the same underlying customer records stored in the Salesforce CRM application.

All told, Salesforce has included 25 additional new features in Salesforce Lightning that were not previously available in its CRM application. For example, Account Insights highlights relevant news for top accounts and prospects, while Assistant recommends key actions to keep sales opportunities moving forward. In addition, email messages and files can be sent to contacts from within Salesforce directly, and Pipeline Board provides a visual representation of all active deals. Finally, Salesforce has included a new Activity Feed the enables salespeople to see everything happening in a deal along with the key next steps required to close a deal.

While Salesforce has yet to rack up huge profits the base of customers the company service continues to rapidly expand. Total Salesforce revenue for the most recent second quarter was $1.63 billion, an increase of 24 percent year-over-year. Subscription and support revenues were $1.52 billion, an increase of 23 percent year-over-year. Professional services and other revenues were $113 million, an increase of 32 percent year-over-year. Nevertheless, after 16 years of being business Salesforce itself is only marginally profitable at this point.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that Salesforce is building significant momentum in key areas that should continue to drive opportunities for its partners for years to come.