According to the San Francisco-based company, Lightning Bolt can help companies jumpstart the creation of a new community, next-generation portal or customer-facing website that can integrate with Salesforce CRM quickly without heavy investments than was required before.
A new way to accelerate the creation of customer experiences
Last year, Salesforce introduced Lightning Templates for Community Cloud, enabling companies to quickly create customized communities for their customers, partners and employees. Since then, the company claims that its clients have used these templates to create nearly 1,000 Lightning Communities to connect and collaborate in new ways.
With the new Lightning Bolt framework, Salesforce aims to take the template concept to the next level. Now, any of its developers and partners can build industry-specific the Bolt solutions, such as B2B e-commerce, partner relationship management and patient care portals.
In addition, a new Lightning Bolt category on the AppExchange will allow the thousands of partners in the Salesforce ecosystem to not only develop, but market and sell Bolt solutions.
“The new Lightning Bolt framework enables the experts in our partner ecosystem to create tailored Salesforce Bolt solutions to meet the specific needs of virtually every industry,” said Mike Micucci, GM and SVP, Salesforce Community Cloud.
“Now, companies will be able to leverage Salesforce Bolt solutions to deploy robust, next-generation communities, portals and more with just a few clicks, making it easier than ever to connect with customers in new ways.”
The new Salesforce Bolt solutions being introduced today include:
Community for Insurance Agents by Accenture: Insurance companies can now supercharge agent and advisor productivity and deepen channel engagement by equipping agents with new self-service capabilities, data-rich dashboard features like Agent360 and sales productivity tools in a modern, easy-to-use, and mobile-friendly portal.
Store Operations by Accenture: This platform provides associates at all levels and roles the one place to go for current information about their customers, store, department, merchandise, promotions, inventory, and operational details in a mobile first solution.
Retail Store Collaboration by Appirio: Retailers can now collaborate better with their stores, getting real-time information about consumers, improving worker engagement and accelerating the feedback process necessary to scale their business.
Lightning B2B Commerce by CloudCraze: Sales reps, service employees and customers in the field that are leveraging CloudCraze’s native commerce application can now rapidly configure and deploy multiple purchasing scenarios that provide all users a streamlined customer experience, such as ordering spare parts or collaborating on a complex set of services in just a few clicks on their mobile devices.
Banking Collaboration Accelerator by Cognizant: Borrowers now have a dramatically shortened loan application process with Cognizant’s reinvented borrowers’ experience that allows them to apply for a loan on their mobile device. This community also accelerates the back-office collaboration between bank and non-bank parties involved in the transaction.
FastLean for Manufacturing by Deloitte: Manufacturing companies can now enable sales and service efficiency and effectiveness including CPQ, field workforce management, customer and partner communities and analytics with Deloitte’s FastLean for Manufacturing that supports digital transformation based on best practice marketing, sales, service and field service capabilities.
Patient Community by Huron and Cancer Treatment Centers of America: Patients of healthcare facilities can now connect through a community platform that empowers them to seek support from, and offer support to, those who have gone through similar experiences while gaining access to educational resources, group collaboration, local support group events, and tools to document their journey.
Retail Audience Engagement by Magnet 360: Retailers can now connect with customers, partners, and employees at scale with a rules-based chatbot, creating a more personalized and efficient experience.
Schedule.Me Health by Silverline: Clinical organizations, whether hospitals, practices, clinics or specialty services like MYnd Analytics, are now able to offer their patients real-time scheduling, so patients can easily get in to see their doctor when they need to.
Retail Clienteling from Traction on Demand: Retail store managers and associates are able to quickly access customer information, preferences and purchase history from all channels that the brand and customers interact through. This community will help retailers provide a seamless customer experience both online and in-store.
Retail Store Operations by Cadalys: Store employees, field leadership and headquarters personnel can now work together more efficiently and effectively with capabilities such as communications management, task management, holds and recalls, space and fixture management, “Leader on Duty” performance, petty cash management, real estate operations and expense reporting.
PartnerFirst by 7Summits: Technology companies are now able to connect and engage with their partners in a whole new way. With this community, channel managers and partners can engage more effectively and in real-time with deal room collaboration, personalized dashboards that surface actionable insights, streamlined on-boarding, and deal registration—all from a single consolidated solution.
Availability
The Lightning Bolt framework will be generally available in October 2016 as part of the Community Cloud license. Customers will be able to begin deploying the solutions starting in October 2016.
Also, Salesforce has declared that developers in its ecosystem can immediately start creating Bolt solutions, and will be able to distribute them via the AppExchange in early 2017.
