With digitalization, the business is reaching heights than ever. The online business has helped in reducing the lead time, and thus more customers are getting biased towards the digital world. However, the black side of the digital world is the data which is at high risks. Today, entrepreneurs understand the need for securing their organization’s reputation and thus emphasize on essential measures to keep its customer’s data safe. For this, most of them most company owners take help of Salesforce Consulting Companies to buy Salesforce Community Licenses for ISVs.
Internal Versus External Licenses
Internal License: As the name suggests, internal license such as salesforce CRM refers to the audience within the organization. The principal target here is your employees working in your organization. The biggest advantage of an internal license is that it allows your worker’s employees to switch to external communities paying no cost.
External License: Unlike internal licenses, this license principal focus is customers and partners outside the organization. In short, external licenses is for those potential seekers, who are not employed in your organization and looking for media project. As the prime focus is on purchasers, patients, partners, and dealers, the policies and terms of these licenses are strict.
This article aims to figure out the scope, competence, and potential design philosophy behind the community’s licenses. Plus, you will get to know the role of legacy portal licenses in communities, and how they are a huge booster for your business.
License Types Available
The primary motive of licensing is to allow users to access your community, most conveniently. In general, and according to their function and availability, there are different categories of licenses available. Let’s delve into details on what are they, and which one to choose for your next project.
- Basic Customer Community License: B2C business is the main user of this license. It helps in elevating their queries — a substantial help for those looking to access to salesforce knowledge.
- Customer Community Plus License: An upgraded version of Customer Community license with more powerful features. The main user of this license is any B2C business with a large number of active users seeking for advanced sharing options. The license also provides extra storage –two MB for the member-based license plus one MB for a login-based license.
- Lightning External Apps Starter Licence: It is useful in building sites and portals for customers to know their account details. Information such as earned loyalty points, and engage with your brand. However, this is not a recommendation for extensive projects because it strictly limits accessibility to Customer Relation Management.
- Lightening External Apps Plus Licence: Most of the multi-level marketing use this license for defining the governance and controlling them. Lightening External Apps Plus Licence allows extended CRM to potential customers and active partners. The build-up digital experience makes the audience targeting faster.
- Lightning Platform Plus Licence: With this licensing, the user gets an advantage of executing flows and overflows extensively. Lightning Platform Starter/Plus license offers a complete detail of contacts, account information, and other the same database with Salesforce Enterprise license users.
- Partner Community Licence: Partner Community Licence is basically for B2C communities that need to have an insight into the sales data and logistics, such as partner relationship management. For an excellent support system, most of the Salesforce development Companies in India choose Partner Community Licence for their projects.
The 3 C’s
With so many licensing options available, choosing the right one is intimidating. The choice will depend on the software you are using and the business need. As an ISV, there are other factors you must keep into considerations before you complete your deal. There are three C’s which are indispensable when choosing the right license.
#C1-Choice Of Program Type:
ISVForce: With the Salesforce ISV partnership, you can create your apps and sell them publicly. There are no restrictions here, and you are free to sell your custom software products that run on one or more computer hardware or any operating system platforms.
OEM: OEM or Original equipment manufacturer refers to product manufacturers. When referring to automotive parts, OEM replaces pre-existing designs by its own manufactured parts. OEM is free to sell Salesforce licenses to their customers, even they are not a part of Salesforce.
#C2-Choice of community members
Do you want your community members from within the organization or from outside? Internal members include the audience working in your organization, whereas external members refer to those not used in your organization.
If your project goal is to choose community members within your organization, Lightning Platform Starter or Lightning Platform Starter Plus is a yes-yes. Partner Community or Lightning External App Plus licenses, on the other hand, is perfect if you are choosing community members from the outside.
#3 Choose the access frequency
Unlike internal users, managing external users is a tough row to hoe. To make it simple, tracking the active members and the times they log in is an easy decision. You will get a grasp on the actual users, and the number of times they are logging.
Tips To Cut Down Salesforce License Pricing
While Salesforce may seem an amazing platform to build a robust Customer Relationship Management, licensing involves a lot of complexities. But that will not be a bother for you if you follow these tips shared by experts.
- Be an educated buyer
Specify your needs before choosing a salesforce license. Conduct thorough research on different options available, and then check which license meets your project requirements. All license has distinctive features and meant for an original purpose. It is always an excellent choice to go through the community user license, to get an insight into different licenses available along with pricing.
- Don’t buy with your eyes shut
Choosing a package blindly is a colossal mistake. Most companies end up paying unnecessary extra costs on getting access to advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features they don’t need. For instance, if you are taking a license for the first time and advanced data sharing is not a bother for you, the customer community plus license may not be a splendid choice. Instead, you must opt for the basic customer community license which is a perfect choice for general needs. Why pay big when you won’t use its functionality?
- Consider force.com subscription
Why subscribe for Salesforce Enterprise Edition when you can save a biggie on Force.com license subscription. For an individual license, Salesforce Enterprise Edition costs may charge you in lakhs per year. Force.com is five times less, i.e. their charges are in the range 20-25k per year. Think about how much you can save a year brisk choosing the right subscription.
- Salesforce Modular Builder is a cost saver
On subscription to Force.com, the user gets the advantage of saving extra with the use of a salesforce modular builder. Along with the basic license fee, there are extra costs for other functionalities, if you use them. Modular Builder allows the builder to pay for those amenities they need, and therefore helpful in cutting down unnecessary costs. It helps in selecting the users who need a particular amenity rather than subscribing to all features.
- Negotiate like a boss
This is self -explanatory. You will get amazing offers and tons of deals for new buyers. The subscription costs increase on the next renewal, mostly gets doubled. So bargaining, and negotiating makes is even essential. Also, read the terms and conditions mentioned in Section 11.2 so that you don’t get shocked on the price hike in the next renewal.
The bottom lines
Unfortunately, there is no definite manual on choosing the right manual, and it all depends on your specific needs. However, with the help of tips mentioned above, you can easily pick the one that fits the best. As buying a license comes with a big cost, checking the limitations of each license is also crucial. Here are a few limitations that need your special attention. For more details, talk to the salesforce developer, seek advice from experts and buy a Salesforce Community License right for your project.
