Data Cloud: What? So What? Now What?
Data Cloud! You've probably heard of it if you have recently spent time in or around the Salesforce ecosystem. What is it, why should you care, and how do you get started? So glad you asked, you’ve come to the right place!
What?
Data Cloud, what is it exactly? Data Cloud is a customer data platform that can connect data from any system and turn it into meaningful information. It does this through pre-built connectors and is the only hyperscale data engine native to Salesforce.
Go into your own CRM and look at a contact record. You’ll likely see basic information like their name, email address, and the company they work for. However, there are gaps in the data keeping you from seeing a true 360-degree view of that customer. You won’t have all the data from external systems such as:
Browsing history
Website visits
Devices and applications used
Types of engagement with existing products
Any data related to a customer touchpoint that happens outside of your Salesforce CRM
That’s where Data Cloud can centralize your data in a meaningful way that allows you to take action on it.
Think of your customer’s data like cars driving along a highway all trying to get to the same concert. The cars crowd the exit ramp all trying to in. Everyone parks in different sections with lettered or numbered rows. Valets, security guards, and parking attendants let cars in and out forcing action in a specific and personalized manner.
Consider this scenario equivalent to the way a data lake, data warehouse, and Data Cloud can work together to store, organize, and take action on your data.
Data lakes collect and group your data like the highway exit ramp so you can view everything in one place.
Data warehouses organize your data like the numbered sections and rows of the parking lot.
Data Cloud protects and takes action on your data like the guards and attendants moving around cars and handing out venue maps.
Data Cloud puts all your customers’ data in one place, your CRM, and helps you better understand what they do and why they do it to give you insights into all of your, now connected, data.
So what?
Let’s go back to your CRM, but this time, pretend you have Data Cloud. You can now see your contact’s browsing history, what parts of your software they are using, in what capacity, and on which device. You know what training they have taken and when it took place. You can see references to their customer support tickets and their click data from marketing all in one location. Data Cloud has given you a bird’s eye view of your customer data. It has given you insights into that data that opens up the possibility of taking action on it in a way that matters to you and your customers.
Data Cloud can connect any data from anywhere, harmonize it, and activate it with AI agents. At scale! You could potentially have every interaction your customer makes across thousands of applications all in one spot. With this knowledge, you can then take action on your data to grow your revenue and your company.
Aggregate all your customer data and activate automated processes on that data.
Leverage the updated UI to allow your sales reps to know exactly who someone is and what they care about just by looking at their contact record.
Send personalized messaging at scale because you now know the difference between a person who attended your webinar and uses your software versus one who barely knows what you do.
Data Cloud allows you to deliver exceptional customer experiences by giving you access to the exact data you need safely and securely.
Eliminate data silos by creating a single platform to access and leverage all your enterprise data.
Seamlessly integrate structured and unstructured data into Salesforce.
Leverage low-code tools like Flow to automate and simplify your business processes based on this data.
Unlock the power of generative AI, grounded with your company's data, to deliver trusted, secure, and relevant outcomes for you and your customers.
Oh, and by the way, it does this all using zero-copy ETL (Extract, Transform, Load). That means you can get data from multiple sources instantly without making a duplicate copy. Data Cloud gives you access to all your data in the Salesforce metadata framework without moving it across multiple platforms.
Now what?
Ok great, we know what Data Cloud is and why we should care about it. What do we do now? If you have a lot of data in a lot of places or you need to get more value out of your customer data, then Data Cloud might be for you. Customers that do not have large, enterprise data silos and numerous external integrations may not fully see the value of a Data Cloud implementation, so be sure your data complexity issues are the right problem for Data Cloud to solve.
To start using Data Cloud, you can sign up for free following the instructions in this article, Free Data Cloud Account. Included are a set of complimentary credits but actual payment may vary since Data Cloud is charged based on usage in a consumption-based pricing model.
Data Cloud Access and Provisioning can be done through “Your Account” in Salesforce and you can always reach out to your Salesforce Account Executive for more information.
Before you get started:
Check out “Mastering Data Cloud: Optimal Implementation Strategies” from Dreamforce 2024. They discuss how to plan your Data Cloud implementation and what to expect from it. As they say in the video, measure 9 times…cut once. Plan, plan, and plan some more!
Brainstorm and prioritize your use cases. Data Cloud is great if you have a use for it. Don’t sign up for Data Cloud just because you can. Do it because it will add value to your customers and your organization.
Create and track your ROI (Return on Investment) metrics so you can prove implementing Data Cloud was worth the time, effort, and money.
Estimate the up-front and recurring costs of your implementation. Review articles like “Get Started with Data Cloud Credit Consumption” and “Demystifying Salesforce Data Cloud Pricing and Credit Consumption” to learn more. Don’t forget you can still be billed for usage in a Sandbox!
Document everything. Create a data flow diagram to design what should be built and then document what is built.
Data Cloud is a new and exciting technology, once you try it out, let us know! We love to share stories so we can learn and grow together.
