When moving from a service and support focused system like RightNow – our clients often have questions about what functionality will be different in Service Cloud.
I’ve blogged in the past about general migration best practices but today I’ll be focusing in on a key difference between the two systems: Platform vs Product.
Having worked directly with implementations of RightNow, we understand the powerful functionality it offers within the narrow scope of customer service and support. The reason many of our clients have moved from RightNow to Service Cloud is not a lack of functionality – it’s the lack of scope.
Service Cloud: Platform, Not Product
Here are some of the key benefits our clients gain by moving from a product like RightNow to the Service Cloud platform.
- More visibility
- Moving to Service Cloud means Support is fully connected with sales, operations, marketing, and the rest of the company
- That means easier access to key customer data like contracts, open sales deals, implementations, and everything else (without any costly or messy integrations)
- More engagement
- The customer support experience is no longer just cases and knowledge
- With peer-to-peer support from Chatter Answers, product roadmap discussion in Ideas, and customer/partner collaboration with Chatter, just to name a few – Service Cloud allows you to provide a richer, more valuable customer experience
- More flexibility
- Force.com provides a wealth of customizations options, both clicks and code
- Our clients can build applications on the platform to support their unique business processes – something a narrowly focused product can’t support
Hopefully I’ve established a pretty clear difference between product and platform with these three points. If you’re interested in more, look for a blog on more specific RightNow and Service Cloud feature differences in the near future.
