Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce1 Community Cloud

Salesforce.com today launched the Salesforce1 Community Cloud, allowing companies to create trusted destinations for customers, partners, and employees that are personalized and mobile and seamlessly connect to their businesses.

Salesforce.com's ecosystem has also embraced the Community Cloud. With 4,000 consultants dedicated to the digital experience, Deloitte Digital is unveiling a new practice to help companies build thriving digital communities. Leading global organizations, including British Sky Broadcasting, Cornell University, GE Capital, Honeywell, Key Bank, Pearson, Pono Music, State of Colorado, Tata Communications and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, are using Community Cloud to connect with customers.

"More than 2,000 active communities have gone live since we first offered a communities product just over a year ago," said Nasi Jazayeri, executive vice president of Salesforce1 Community Cloud, in a statement. "Based on the unprecedented success we have seen with customers, tremendous market opportunity, and support from our ecosystem, salesforce.com is doubling down on communties with our new Community Cloud."

According to IDC, spending on collaboration tools is forecasted to grow to $3.5 billion from 2013-2018, framing the massive market for communities. 

By combining the power of the Community Cloud with the business data and processes of Salesforce.com's CRM platform, companies can create trusted destinations to engage with customers, partners, and employees in a whole new way. Now every company can build communities that are:

• Personalized to each member's unique needs: Community members can follow topics and people and stay up to date about the issues that are most important to them. Each member's profile page is updated with content and suggested groups that match his specific interests. Through profiles, endorsements, and reputation ratings, members can find the most knowledgeable and trusted experts on any topic.
• Connected: Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, the new Community Cloud is connected directly to Salesforce CRM and essential business processes. Now resellers can update leads, employees can create and escalate service cases, and customers can review and rate products, all from within the community. And with new search engine optimization and unauthenticated access, companies can now attract potential new members through their Internet search engine queries.
• Mobile: With Community Cloud, companies can create communities with a device-responsive design to ensure every member has the same experience, whether he is on a tablet, smartphone, or laptop. And admins and community managers can track trending topics, monitor content, and update files all from the Salesforce1 Mobile App.
• Fast: Companies can now create communities using a community template that provides a proven engagement framework with a modern design. In addition, with community designer, non-technical community managers can customize their deployments to accommodate company requirements and match corporate branding.

"The Community Cloud represents an important moment in the industry, ushering in new lattice-like business models for how people work, how they engage their customers, and how they connect." said Cathy Benko, vice chairman and managing principal at Deloitte Consulting, in a statement.

"Any company can benefit from creating an engaged community," said Vanessa Thompson, research director of enterprise collaboration and social solutions at IDC, in a statement. "Salesforce.com raises awareness of the immense value of community solutions with Salesforce1 Community Cloud by putting business processes at the center of engagement."

"When you take on a challenge like transforming government, you need a partner to help you connect directly with the community. That's why we work with Salesforce and use Community Cloud," said Rich Negrin, deputy mayor and managing director of PhillyRising for the City of Philadelphia, in a statement. "Our community members say it all, helping us to empower citizens like Pastor Cookie and Marsha Walls to run a mobile citizen community and helping the people of Hartranft and Kensington decrease car burglary by 70 percent."

Salesforce1 Community Cloud starts at $500 per month. The new advances are expected to be generally available in October.

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