Salesforce, the massive Customer Relationship Management software company, is adding spark and style to its signature Sales Cloud software. The new skin is called The Lightning Experience — and it’s not just an interface but the underlying platform that changes. With The Lightning Experience, Salesforce further frees up data for interaction. The upgrade is welcome news for 150,000 Sales Cloud customers who will see the rollout this fall. Or maybe not so welcome — Salesforce is mindful that organizational change can be painful and is giving companies wide latitude in choosing when to phase-in The Lightning Experience.
Salesforce knows firsthand that change can be hard. The company has very reasonably been taking the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach with its core products. The Lightning Experience will no doubt be a boon for all the third-party consultancies specializing in customizing the Salesforce software, an already flourishing business. Lightning promises greater flexibility in customization and better mobile integration, along with more third party options. Alec Baldwin and David Mamet would be proud. You can never say the “leads are weak” again.
