In today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, the tools of old age bottleneck the market demands and company potential. Ledgers of the sales and client records or the complex Excel sheets with the same data are now relics of the past. For reliable growth, the Manufacturing business demands the visualization of past data and forecasts on the cloud.
Salesforce has long offered these advanced features for companies primarily focused on sales and service. But in September of 2019, Salesforce launched its Manufacturing Cloud forever changing the manufacturing landscape. It can be an individual cloud or can work on top of Sales Cloud or Service Cloud or both.
What is Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud?
Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud is an end-to-end CRM solution for the manufacturing industry. It is designed specifically to give users a complete view of all customer activities and helps to drive predictable business growth with actionable insights and a proactive approach. It lets you bring your entire Book of Business and customer service journey to the cloud. Since it is built on the Salesforce platform, you can use Sales Cloud and Service Cloud functionality depending on your business needs.
What Industries use it?
As the name suggests, Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is tailor-made for the industries that are in the business of manufacturing parts of products or whole products. The Manufacturing Cloud by Salesforce offers a detailed view of potential and actual orders as the deal closes, along with top buyers so you can retain them further with special offers, and a live look into the inventory as the orders are made. Here is the list of industries that can make use of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud:
- Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
- Production suppliers
- Distribution or aftermarket manufacturers
- Process manufacturers
- Oil and gas producers
- Companies that manage run-rate, ongoing, or long-term business
- Companies that want to manage their end-to-end rebate incentive strategies
Why use a CRM?
ERP solutions have long been the go-to tool for the manufacturing industry. But in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption, and other global events, manufacturers have realized the importance of a superior customer base, and partner experience for the industry. Only the CRM software has the capacity to handle more interpersonal relations.
Beyond the “Who is the client?” and “What is the order?” CRM software can improve sales by using the magic of customer relations. CRM software can analyze historical data to generate useful insights like what clients are responsible for most of your sales. CRM can also help with streamlining the processes that result in improved profitability of your manufacturing business.
Features of Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud
Manufacturing Cloud is not a standalone cloud but rather extends the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud with industry-specific capabilities. You can implement a Manufacturing cloud for either or both of the clouds. You can also have a mix of Manufacturing Cloud users, standard Sales Cloud, or Service Cloud users.
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud can be integrated with the existing ERP System and OMS using APIs like the MuleSoft Accelerator for Manufacturing. With Manufacturing Cloud for Sales, you get all the functionality of Sales Cloud included. With Manufacturing Cloud for Service, you get all the functionality of Service Cloud included. Here we have a list of features or functionality that are available with Manufacturing Cloud.
| Feature | Manufacturing for Sales | Manufacturing for Service | Manufacturing for Sales & Service |
| Sales Cloud functionality (Lead and opportunity management, pipeline forecasting) |  |  | |
| Sales Agreements | | | |
| Advanced Account Forecasting (uses Data Pipelines and Data Processing Engine) | Used to forecast run-rate and new business | Used to forecast service revenue and spare parts demand | |
| Account Manager Targets | | | |
| Program Based Business | | | |
| Partner Visit Management (Visits and Action Plans) | | | |
| Flow for Manufacturing (OmniStudio, Decision Table, Document Generation, Business Rules Engine, and Data Processing Engine) | | | |
| Service Cloud functionality (Channel and case management) | | | |
| Warranty Lifecycle Management | | | |
| Service Console for Manufacturing | | | |
| Asset Service Console for Manufacturing | | | |
| Service console components (Action Launcher, Audit Trail, Identity Verification, Record Alerts, and Timeline) | | | |
| Voice of the Customer (Feedback Management) | | | |
| MuleSoft Accelerator for Manufacturing | (requires additional licenses) | N/A | (requires additional licenses) |
| CRM Analytics add-on | (requires additional licenses) | N/A | (requires additional licenses) |
| Experience Cloud Manufacturing partner portal template | (requires additional licenses) | N/A | (requires additional licenses) |
| Rebate Management add-on | (requires additional licenses) | (requires additional licenses) | (requires additional licenses) |
| Field Service | N/A | (requires additional licenses) | (requires additional licenses) |
What Licenses to buy for Manufacturing Cloud?
Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud is available only with the Enterprise and Unlimited editions. For learning purposes, Manufacturing Cloud is also available with Developer Editions. Manufacturing Cloud starts at $250 per user per month (billed annually) for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or both. Read here to learn more about Manufacturing Cloud pricing.
How can Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud help you better forecast your business?
Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud offers Account-Based and Collaborative Forecasting that allows you to create forecasts based on specific client accounts facilitating collaboration between sales and operation teams. It also provides a unified forecast of your run-rate business (managed by Sales Agreements) and your new business (managed by Opportunities).
How does the Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud differ from your existing planning solutions?
It acts as a system of engagement across your technology stack to bring forecasting and planning activities into the CRM and enhance the contribution of sales to the planning process. With Salesforce, you can make the entire Book of Business available on the cloud. Making it easier for your employees to access it from anywhere. Manufacturing Cloud uses the data from your existing ERP and OMS to improve collaboration and visibility across your business.
How to get Started with Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud?
You don’t need to be an expert to get started with Salesforce’s Manufacturing Cloud. You can head over to the official link and check out their plans. Note that the Manufacturing Cloud is an add-on to the Sales Cloud, Service Cloud & Sales and Service Cloud.
If you still have any questions and might need some help to set up the Manufacturing Cloud you can reach out to Salesforce or any of the Official Salesforce Partners, like Growbiz Solutions. With their years of expertise and up-to-date knowledge about Salesforce products, they can help you with every custom Salesforce solution.
