Be open to negotiation and always plan with internal Salesforce experts who can manage Salesforce for the organization in the long term. 

I rate Salesforce Service Cloud a nine out of ten.

I would recommend ensuring that you have access to demos or a practice system to verify that Salesforce Service Cloud is user-friendly and meets all your requirements. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I would recommend it to other users. 

Overall, I would rate it 7 out of 10. 

I will recommend the solution to others. It makes reporting easier. All the data is readily available in one place where we can pull it up whenever we feel like it. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

The product was fine, and it improved my company's customer service response time.

I don't remember using the AI capabilities of Salesforce Service Cloud, but I do know that such functionalities were used in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM.

The product's analytics features support our company's service improvement strategies greatly and fantastically.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it since it is easy to use and understand the tool. The product may not be that easy when you want to open a new opportunity, and you really need to opt for a straightforward approach when using the tool.

The impact of Salesforce Service Cloud on other systems that impacted our company's workflow efficiency varies since earlier, my company used to work with SAP, and the integration is fine as long as you use the connectors. Salesforce Service Cloud can be connected with Microsoft products, but it can be difficult to connect it with the SAP ERP.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. The advice I'd offer is applicable to any platform, not just Salesforce. Prospective users should conduct thorough research and have a clear understanding of their expectations and desired features before implementing the product. 

It's essential to be clear about what they want to achieve with the system. For instance, if they plan to handle customer requests, they should have a well-defined process in mind. The key is to make the most of Salesforce's features to maximize the benefits, rather than using it solely as a record-keeping system.

The complexity arises because Salesforce has grown significantly as a platform, and this complexity applies to all its offerings.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

I am using the latest version of Salesforce Service Cloud.

Overall, I rate Salesforce Service Cloud a six out of ten.

Overal, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I am using the latest version of Salesforce Service Cloud.

Salesforce Service Cloud is deployed on-cloud in our organization. I would recommend Salesforce Service Cloud to other users.

Overall, I rate Salesforce Service Cloud an eight out of ten.

The issues, as with every implementation, is the change in the nature of the beast. We have clients that have been on a legacy system for 10-15 years and they are not ready for change. They also think their system is the most efficient "machine" on the market. So the change in culture has to be the most substantial bottleneck. Then you are in the growing pains stage, where your client absorbs this system, but they decide to take automation to a whole new level, like automatically fax from a computer with WiFi. The asks are endless, which is understandable because at this point, they appreciate the system, but they don't understand the limits. 

Appoint a business process owner who will “own” the implementation. This person needs to be totally invested in the success of the application, not only in their own department, but across all departments that will be using, or be affected by, the system. This includes IT and finance. Involve the users of the system in the initial design. They are the ones that will have to use the tool, and they know best what is easy and what is hard to do. When you incorporate their design suggestions, give them public credit, “Ed, this is the feature you suggested”. That gives them pride of ownership and may turn detractors into advocates for the system. Become very friendly with your IT Director. As a team you will be able to figure out the best upgrade and expansion strategy, cost saving strategy, and bug fix/feature enhancement process. You will also have an ally with whom you can present your cost justifications and enhancement requests to management.

Anyone can sign up for a free “developer org” to play around with the product. Get hands on with it and get comfortable before making a purchasing decision. The Salesforce Trailhead program provides free online tutorials to learn about all the features of Service Cloud.

Also, consider attending the annual Dreamforce conference to learn how other companies are using Service Cloud and to get advice from them.

It is a centralised CRM solution and I would rate it 10 out of 10.

When looking at SDFC, take a look at the whole ecosystem.

Use standard fields/options when possible and keep it simple! Don’t overcomplicate things and make sure to ask support reps what their problem points are and what they need to be successful.

Hire experts. Look for an advanced certification if you can find one, if not make sure that they are experienced. Throw fundamental problems at them during the interview to see if they are able to respond appropriately. Salesforce is an IT platform, thus the experts should have a fundamental understanding of database and code structures. Remember that a part of a good implementation will involve process transformation. Do not look at the platform to as a new way to do old things. Take this as an opportunity to evaluate what you are doing well and not well, then use technology to improve those area's that are appropriate. Also, remember that technology should not be used as a nanny system. It is a tool and should be used as such. Utilize users that are power users of your existing systems. Let managers or executives drive overall objectives, and let the power users provide guidance on how the system will be utilized. In the plethora of implementations I have been involved in, this is a common occurrence and ends up creating a lot more work once development has been completed.

I love this product. I believe it is the best in the industry and is only getting better. Use an implementation partner for initial setup and get the foundation right before trying to venture out on your own. Assign an individual(s) as the system admins and use the implementation as a training ground for them. Make sure they understand the configuration put in place by the vendor so that they can maintain going forward and possibly manage tweaks on their own. Technical aptitude is a must when choosing those admins.

Always consult with a partner company around your area. Partners can provide different licensing constructions.

Try it and you will be awestruck.

It’s a great product, highly customizable and flexible. My advice is do it, but make sure there is someone either from Salesforce or one of your own IT guys, who can customize the system for you.

You should start with organization-wide default settings, then user set-up, then accounts, contacts and the cases and case-related items should be last.

We are still in the beginning of using some of the features provided through the Salesforce Service Cloud. But from what I can see and the ease and speed with which we have implemented the features that we are using at this time, I guess it loses a point because the demos we see on world tours have a lot of customization in them and are not at all out-of-the-box. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really nice product with lots of out-of-the-box functionality, but to create a console like you see in demos you have to customize lots of stuff too.

Before you begin to sit down with your users to see how they work today, determine which information they consult from other records because when developing the Console View this is where you can make a difference! Creating some custom components with just that information from other records that they would normally click through links to get is the information you’ll want to create a component for. They will have all that information on the same screen when opening a record and they will save time not having to click and navigate to get the info. Creating an optimal view for your users is where one of the powers of the Service Cloud lays!

Consider investing in a consulting firm to create some custom components to get this done if you don’t have the in-house expertise. It’s really worth it. When using Omni Channel, think about the different skills you would create and give your agents so you can distribute the workload correctly.

My advice would be to ensure that the business process owners fully understand and support the solution. Don’t let them skip design meetings, or they will question every decision that was made later in the process, causing rework of the configurations.

If you want to use Enterprise Edition or above and use a complex architecture, look for an experienced consultancy/in-house consultant to set up your organization initially.

I would recommend Salesforce only if you're a large business. For mid-level businesses it is quite hard.

Use a Salesforce partner and make sure their consultants are certified. Talk to three different firms, and don’t let price be the only driving factor. Rather, look at the firm that seems to best understand your requirements, has good answers on why particular parts of the implementation will cost what they’re proposing, and has a solid methodology that they can easily explain to you.

Simply choosing the least expensive option often costs more in the end with either delays, change requests or worst case, failure.

You should use a vendor for best practices and to stay in the spirit of Salesforce, as opposed to distorting the product.

Use the templates for community and use Community Cloud with Service Cloud as they work very well hand-in-hand. Use Case Deflection and the knowledge base articles.

Put a lot of thought into your business processes before implementing Salesforce. It is very easy to automate chaos if your business process is not well defined.

It is a quite a good product. If you are going to replace your existing on-premise CRM with a new cloud solution, don't hesitate to call them. But it has limitations as well. Work with a consulting partner, they will help you to boost your productivity.

Preparation and training is 90% of the work. Get to know the product before deploying widely. Have your admins get into Trailhead and invest in the training offered by Salesforce.