Lightning strikes again with revamped Sales cloud platform

In 2013, Salesforce launched a rich mobile experience with Salesforce1 Lightning, and in 2014, a robust app building platform with Lightning App Builder and Lightning Components. But this time, Salesforce comes in with the next generation of CRM with Lightning Experience and Lightning Design System.

What is Lightning Experience?

Lightning Experience is a revised CRM user interface that streamlines CRM tasks and maximizes sales reps productivity. It also offers a flexible experience to work across all screen sizes including desktop computers, tablets and smart phones. The revamped sales cloud allows salespeople to:

• Create apps for the core Sales Cloud
• Launch e-mails, chat sessions, and open files directly from the home page
• Offer summaries of a sales person’s pending and active deals

The new Lightning Experience is packed with multiple features to help users sell faster, work more productively, and make better decisions. All the features are added to the platform and users can toggle back to the classic view at any time.

Image credits: http://www.eweek.com

Features of the new Lightning Experience

The Sales Cloud has been redesigned to make salespeople as efficient as possible and drive their business forward faster. So to make these goals a reality Salesforce added various features in their interface:

• Home Screen: Users can now view closed deals, open deals, and their overall goal on a goal chart. Also, they can view the news items about the accounts and companies they are working with.
• Customizable Dashboards: Users can view open and closed sales amounts, as well as see their deals closed by date. They can also resize or move the components in the dashboard to customize the user experience.
• Opportunity Pipeline: Users can view all the relevant opportunities after clicking on “My Opportunities” tab under the Opportunities section and all the opportunities will then be listed in a grid format.
• Opportunity Workspace: Users can view individual potential clients in the opportunity workspace and get a detailed look at their work with each individual client.

This isn’t it, there are more than 55 re-imagined Sales Cloud pages and 25 complete new features which will be available in October with the Winter ’16 release. Moreover, a new CRM trail on Trailhead is available to know more about Lightning Experience features.

Salesforce also announced

Salesforce ‘Financial Services’ Cloud

A Salesforce’s first industry-specific product built on the Salesforce1 Platform that empowers advisors to build deeper, 1-to-1 customer relationships, be more productive, and engage more holistically with customers anywhere and on any device. It will be offered as a preview until February when it comes in full release.

Lightning Design System

A tool for customizing the Lightning-based services and building custom applications with a look & feel that is consistent with Salesforce core features. The Salesforce Lightning Design System is available for free starting today for everyone and can be accessed at- http://salesforce.com/designsystem

Salesforce will probably have a lot more to say about Lightning Experience at Dreamforce. So stay tuned.

Want to make the most of the Lightning updates?

Disclaimer: Salesforce, Salesforce1 Lightning, Salesforce Lightning, Salesforce Experience, Sales Cloud, Salesforce Lightning Design System, etc. are all trademarks of Salesforce.com Inc.