Salesforce Seeks Customer Truth with New CRM Identity
At Salesforce's annual Dreamforce customer event on Nov. 19, the company made multiple announcements, though perhaps the most impactful for users is the new Customer 360 Truth effort.
Customer 360 Truth is about unifying identity and data so a user can get a full view, a single source of truth, about their customer relationships. Rather than having multiple identities across multiple systems, Customer 360 Truth is about creating a universal Salesforce ID for every customer.
“Having a complete view of the customer is not a new idea, but it has been difficult to achieve. Companies have siloed data; disconnected apps; a complex, patchwork of sometimes incompatible services; and no way to connect it all,” said Patrick Stokes, EVP, Platform Shared Services, Salesforce. “Customer 360 Truth overcomes those challenges, creating a single source of truth that is the foundation for delivering smart, personalized customer experiences across every touchpoint.”
Among the services that the Customer 360 Truth provides is a data manager for accessing and connecting data across system. The platform also provides an audience profile for users to help segment and organize different groups.
Privacy and data governance is a foundational element of Customer 360 Truth. The system enables organization to apply data classification label to help respect privacy and to aid with compliance efforts such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
“Connecting customer data and managing consent is more important than ever in light of changing customer expectations and increasing regulations,” stated Alan Webber, Program Vice President for Digital Strategy and Customer Experience, IDC. “As a result, companies are prioritizing data unification in ways that will lead to more loyal and valuable customer relationships. Salesforce Customer 360 Truth will help companies break down data silos and deliver the experiences customers expect.”
The Cloud Information Model
At the core of the Customer 360 Truth capability is an open source data model called the Cloud Information Model (CIM). CIM is a project hosted by the Linux Foundation's Joint Development Foundation (JDF) and is an effort that looks to help standardize data interoperability across cloud applications.
“Bringing the Cloud Information Model under JDF will offer a neutral home for the open-source community,” stated Jim Zemlin, Executive Director at The Linux Foundation. “This allows for anyone across the community to collaborate and provide contributions under a central governance model. It paves the way for full community-wide engagement in data interoperability efforts and standards development, while rapidly increasing adoption rate of the community.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at EnterpriseAppsToday and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Sean Michael is a writer who focuses on innovation and how science and technology intersect with industry, technology Wordpress, VMware Salesforce, And Application tech. TechCrunch Europas shortlisted her for the best tech journalist award. She enjoys finding stories that open people's eyes. She graduated from the University of California.
