Lightning Bolt Strikes Down from Salesforce’s Community Cloud

Apple made lightning a hot topic this week when it removed the headphone jack from its iPhone lineup, forcing consumers to connect headphones via its Lightning port (or use an adapter).

Salesforce’s announcement this week is not quite as shocking but is sure to draw thunderous applause from its customers. The company has launched Lightning Bolt, a new framework in the Salesforce Platform that can accelerate a company’s ability to deploy personalized customer experiences, accessible from any device. With Lightning Bolt, companies can jumpstart the creation of a new community, next-generation portal, or customer-facing website that seamlessly integrates with Salesforce CRM in a fraction of the time and with far less investment than was required before.

“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 electric new tool follows last year’s introduction of Lightning Templates for Community Cloud.

Now any developer and partner in the Salesforce ecosystem can build industry-specific Salesforce Bolt solutions, such as B2B e-commerce, partner relationship management and patient care portals. More than 10 partners have created Salesforce Bolt solutions for some of the most popular use cases across multiple industries, including Accenture, CloudCraze, and Deloitte.

The Beauty Within Salesforce Fanaticism

Salesforce Community Cloud enables companies to integrate business data and processes with their communities, creating a seamless customer, partner, and employee experience. Built on the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, Community Cloud is part of Salesforce CRM.

The Lightning Bolt framework will be generally available in October as part of the Community Cloud license.