Data Cloud: 3 myths busted, 3 realities exposed

We’re not a huge company, with less than 250 users, but we leverage Salesforce Data Cloud alongside Sales and Service Cloud. Additionally, we rely on multiple systems that store core customer data: marketing, training academy, support, finance, and Elements.cloud usage.

We’ve implemented Data Cloud to create a unified customer profile and obtain a 360-degree view of customer interactions, allowing us to target customer engagement more effectively in both marketing and support outreach. This ensures consistent customer experiences and more relevant, tailored communications. Our initial use case was deliberately simple, as it needed to establish a comprehensive customer profile and single view of the customer.

3 myths of Data Cloud

First, let’s handle the 3 myths often discussed in the ecosystem:

1. Data Cloud is too expensive
2. Data Cloud is too complex
3. Data Cloud is only for big companies

Data Cloud is too expensive

Salesforce Data Cloud is priced based on consumption. The cost depends on the specific business requirements, data transfer, and manipulation needs. While there are cases where ROI might be challenging, a well-architected data strategy can deliver substantial cost savings and business growth. We were pleasantly surprised by the cost-effectiveness and how few credits we consumed in our initial use case.

Data Cloud is too complex

Salesforce Data Cloud is a sophisticated enterprise application that connects data from multiple external platforms and then manipulates it to produce valuable insights. The principles are straightforward, but it requires enterprise implementation skills for business analysis, data analysis, data modeling, architecture, and security to design the solution effectively.

Implementing that design follows the familiar low-code Salesforce platform paradigm, allowing for seamless integrations across the entire organization. This approach also provides key capabilities that can support business operations and yield data-driven insights. With the right mix of skills, implementing Data Cloud is easily achievable, offering opportunities for entry-level people to grow in business requirements and analytics tools.

Data Cloud is only for big companies

The consumption-based pricing model allows organizations of any size to benefit from Salesforce Data Cloud. What matters most is having the right mix of in-house skills or justifying investment in a systems integrator (SI). Even smaller organizations can leverage Data Cloud to enhance business operations, improve customer engagement, and build intelligent audiences for effective marketing strategies while deriving actionable insights.

Interestingly, larger companies may already use analytics tools with key capabilities that overlap with the valuable insights offered by Data Cloud, such as understanding customer behaviors and tracking key performance indicators.

3 realities of Data Cloud

Here are the 3 realities of Salesforce Data Cloud that are worth considering before starting an implementation:

Salesforce’s strategic future is Agentforce and Data Cloud, and it’s a huge bet

Salesforce understands that AI depends on good quality, consistent data. To ensure consistent customer experiences and a unified customer profile, it’s crucial to harmonize Salesforce data with customer information from other external sources.

Salesforce Data Cloud enables seamless integrations and delivers real-time data across the entire organization, making it an essential part of the enterprise IT landscape. By supporting data-driven decisions and keeping pace with market trends in AI and data management, Salesforce’s future business growth is closely tied to the success of Data Cloud and driving Agentforce.

Data Cloud projects are cross-functional projects

Salesforce Data Cloud projects often span multiple business units and applications. This cross-functional approach demands collaboration, sponsorship from senior leadership, and alignment with business objectives like customer engagement and customer satisfaction.

Establishing a Center of Excellence is often recommended to support the project’s planning and execution, ensuring alignment with key performance indicators and deriving valuable insights that drive data-driven decisions. Regular monitoring is crucial to ensure that Data Cloud continues to meet these objectives, providing deeper insights as business needs evolve and aligning with customer lifecycle and customer behaviors.

80% planning, 20% configuration

Without meticulous planning, Salesforce Data Cloud cannot deliver meaningful insights or support effective marketing strategies. Detailed planning helps unlock deeper insights into customer behaviors, enabling the creation of comprehensive customer profiles that inform everything from ideation to execution.

Skipping this step can lead to costly errors during configuration and undermine efforts to deliver actionable insights. The Salesforce Data Cloud Consultant certification emphasizes configuration, but it’s the planning phase that ultimately enables data-driven decisions and ensures business growth.

Elements.cloud featured at Dreamforce 2024

The Elements.cloud team presented their Salesforce Data Cloud implementation approach at Dreamforce 2024, highlighting how they turned their planning into actionable insights. They covered topics like selecting the use case, documenting business requirements, and creating user stories. They also explained how they managed their data-driven project using Elements.cloud to document Data Cloud metadata.

For a deep dive into how we achieved high-value segments and consistent customer experiences, watch the full presentation today; available to watch on Salesforce+.

Final word

Salesforce Data Cloud aggregates customer data from external platforms, creating a 360-degree view and unified customer profile that the industry has promised for decades. It offers deeper insights into the customer lifecycle and enables data-driven actions within the Salesforce ecosystem using clicks, not code. This approach allows agents and sales teams to harness real-time data for improved customer satisfaction and personalization, promoting consistent customer experiences.

While Data Cloud’s complexity requires a structured implementation, the investment pays off by supporting business growth, reducing operational costs, and driving insights-driven customer engagement. Regular monitoring helps maintain these benefits, adapting to changing market trends and ensuring ongoing alignment with strategic goals. Elements.cloud accelerates planning with consistency, making Data Cloud a foundational component for AI Agents (Agentforce) that enhance user experience and operational efficiency.