Chapter 21

Extending beyond Service Cloud

In This Chapter

arrow Understanding the AppExchange platform

arrow Deploying AppExchange apps for your organization

If you’ve read all the chapters leading up to this one, you probably can’t imagine how Salesforce could possibly offer more than everything Service Cloud already provides. We’re happy to tell you that you’re wrong! (Not in a mean way, of course.) On top of everything that comes out of the box, Salesforce extends its power and reach beyond Service Cloud with offerings in its business app store, called the AppExchange.

Before we talk about the AppExchange and what it is, it’s important to get a little background on the Force.com platform at a high level. Force.com is the platform that makes Salesforce what it is today: an easy-to-use cloud-based business database that allows administrators to create and customize apps with clicks, not code.

It’s easy to overlook the power and significance of this. Where once it took IT teams months or even years to build applications, the Force.com platform enables nontechnical users to develop Salesforce-compatible apps within hours or days, through pointing and clicking. You can now customize existing apps on Force.com or build entirely new cloud apps for your business in a fraction of the time and at ...

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