These days business moves fast. The whys are well known; swift proliferation of data, a consumer-driven demand for anytime, anywhere access, and unprecedented global competitiveness. Once, companies could make do with the bloated blend of inherited systems and current technologies that many possessed. These clumsy concoctions often included; dowdy intranet sites with a thread of social collaboration shoved in, separate lines of business applications front-ended by dull, complicated user interfaces, and awkward connections to files, documents and videos. Today, this outmoded style of operations is a sure-fire growth killer. Companies aiming to enlarge their customer base and grow sales, strengthen brand distinction, and enable innovation are quickly shifting to a new paradigm; the archetype of communities.

1. 6 Fundamentals
of a Successful Salesforce.com
Community Platform
© 2015 Rightpoint

2. These days business moves fast.
Breakneck fast.
The whys are well known; swift proliferation of data,
a consumer-driven demand for anytime, anywhere access,
and unprecedented global competitiveness.
© 2015 Rightpoint

3. Companies aiming to
enlarge their customer
base and grow sales,
strengthen brand
distinction, and enable
innovation are quickly
shifting to a new
paradigm; the archetype
of communities.
Once, companies could make do with the
bloated blend of inherited systems and
current technologies that many possessed.
These clumsy concoctions often included;
dowdy intranet sites with a thread of social
collaboration shoved in, separate lines of
business applications front-ended by dull,
complicated user interfaces, and awkward
connections to files, documents and videos.
Today, this outmoded
style of operations is a
sure-fire growth killer.
© 2015 Rightpoint

4. Community.
What’s it all about?
Salesforce.com, builder of the
Community Cloud, says it simply:
the Community Cloud is
an online collaboration
and business process
platform that connects
employees, customers
and other stakeholders;
such as partners, suppliers
and distributors.
© 2015 Rightpoint

5. These fully branded public or private
communities join members directly with
each other, as well as provide immediate
access to relevant content, data and
business processes. Combined with the
power of social and mobile, communities
propel the flow of business.
The bottom line is, the community concept
provokes a modern reimagining of how
work gets done — transforming processes
and speeding results. When executed well,
those results can be eye-popping.
Many organizations
have reported an
average Return on
Investment (ROI) of
325%within a few months.
© 2015 Rightpoint

6. Drive remarkable
efficiency and increase
engagement among
employees by
48%
Develop deeper
customer relationships
via real-time direct
interaction and improve
customer satisfaction by
45%
This innovative
platform can:
Enable smooth
collaboration with
partners to power
through challenging
processes and increase
partner sales by
43%
Sounds good, right?
Let’s observe how it works.
We’ll start with a couple of
examples to illustrate the point.
© 2015 Rightpoint

7. Here’s what most
of us are used to.
An employee arrives at work, excited to begin
a productive day. She’s an energetic sales
person (we’ll call her Sarah) about to construct
a complex proposal for a significant client.
There’s a lot to do. The first action item —
gather the technical details of the offering and
begin to build the elements of her proposition.
Sarah, recalling that a team member crafted
a similar solution for his biggest client last
month, jots an email asking for a copy.
Immediately, the ping of an out-of-office
notice flashes on her screen. Ugh!
© 2015 Rightpoint

8. Her next move? She forwards the email to his
manager. But waiting is not her thing, so she
switches her screen to the corporate Search
application. This outdated app looks like an
antiquated spreadsheet laced with instructions
on how to launch a successful quest. After an
hour at this frustrating exercise, she’s received
about eight hundred hits of mostly useless,
poorly formatted, misses. The results, no surprise,
are less than gratifying. While some of these hits
may actually have viable data in them, Sarah
would need a telescope to uncover the sparkle
in the dust. So the now slightly less enthusiastic
sales person, once hot to create a blockbuster
proposal for her client, is forced to turn her
attention to less crucial tasks. And wait it out.
Setting her most pressing needs, and those of
her client, aside. For now.
He’s on vacation
for two weeks.
© 2015 Rightpoint

9. What if?
Sarah was headed to the office, but missed her
train. Too much time sipping cappuccino and
pondering the structure of her winning proposal.
On the way back to her apartment, she pulls out
her smart phone. Her company implemented
Community Cloud a few months back and
the sales teams have already embarked on
full-scale adoption. She logs in to her favorite
community, the one designed specifically for the
division’s top rain makers, and jumps into the
non-stop action of the community thread. Sarah
tags her colleague and asks about the proposal
he won with last month.
“Hey, @BigWinner,
can I get a copy
of the Paragon
proposal? I heard
it’s your best ever.”
© 2015 Rightpoint

10. Instantly, another colleague responds.
“@BigWinner is in the Adirondacks for two weeks.
Tough life, right? But he flipped me a copy last
week. I used some of the ROI stats for a recent
deal. Had a few issues reformatting though.
Ended up cutting and pasting or retyping some
of the content. Good luck with it.”
He attached a copy of the proposal directly into the conversation thread.
© 2015 Rightpoint

11. Before Sarah reached her apartment, another colleague chimed in.
“@SarahCuda The formatting is locked, but I can help.
@BigWinner and I created the template together, I know
the in’s and out’s. I’ve got some time open this morning
when we can connect. What works for you?”
“In 15 minutes? Can we vid
conference and go through it?
I’ll be in my home office.”
Sarah jumps on the offer.
© 2015 Rightpoint

12. The differences
between these
illustrations
are stark.
When the video call ends, she goes back
to the community to publicly thank her
colleague for his contribution. She even
posts a badge of excellence and calls him
out as an expert on template revisions.
Next, Sarah needs an architectural
drawing which illustrates the migration
to the new system she’s hoping to sell.
Clicking on the Topics tab, she locates the
Migrations section, and has the drawing
she’s after in seconds. Within an hour of
missing her train, Sarah is well on her way
to creating the proposal she envisioned.
© 2015 Rightpoint

13. It’s clear that relying on historically rigid,
inert portals with no real collaboration
won’t get you the kind of agile, engaged
interaction that businesses today require.
And those legacy discussion forums!
You know the ones—each a screen full
of tables laden with sad, empty boxes
begging for users to enter questions or
comments. They’re mainly limited, limiting,
lifeless porticos. And whether employees,
customers, or partners; modern users
(who’s personal lives are overrun with tools
that not only draw them in, but offer real
information and genuine solutions) are
disenchanted when forced to settle for less.
So, what are
the makings
of a strong,
successful
community
platform?
© 2015 Rightpoint

14. Here are six fundamentals:
Data needs to be available from anywhere —
including third party systems. Members, internal
or external, want to create records, update
them, share documents, get answers and fully
participate in day-to-day processes. The idea is
to extend business processes and connect them
by integrating any record or object, embedding
custom or third party apps, and yielding
opportunities to move processes forward directly
from within the community.
Business
Integration
When it comes to actually
getting things done, users
require access to business
critical files.
01
© 2015 Rightpoint

15. These propel action by connecting participants
directly to data and to each other. Knowledge and
experts are readily available to provide insights,
answer questions or drive towards the next step.
Fast moving issues are addressed due to the
ability to participate in business actions right from
the feed. There’s no need to switch applications,
log in to another system and initiate tasks from
somewhere else. It’s all done right in the feed,
in the space of community.
Social Feeds
Another advantage is the creation of groups. Groups,
whether private or open, can be defined in ways that
best suit users. Typically, they are associated with
specific interest areas such as; events, teams, special
projects or accounts. These collections of like-minded
individuals bring structure to discussions and activities.
The creation framework allows for groups to be fully
open, or designated as private or invitation only.
There’s even an allocation that essentially renders
groups stealth. In these cases, not only is the group
locked, but other community users don’t even know
it’s there.
A dynamic and engaging
social feed is critical.
02
© 2015 Rightpoint

16. Employees and customers alike benefit when they are
welcomed by complimentary and consistent brand and
design elements. Accordingly, community templates
support simplicity when it comes to branding and
customization. These templates offer a straight-forward
approach and can be used out-of-the-box to easily
create stunning online environments. But the range of
requirements is often diverse, so community templates
also allow designers the flexibility to alter visual elements
in varied ways. There’s even the capability to create
sophisticated custom community layouts to meet nearly
any specific design or business need.
03 Branding & Customization
Without argument,
the best communities
are interactive extensions
of your brand.
© 2015 Rightpoint

17. Community platforms
are built on the premise
that anywhere, anytime
access on any device is
an absolute mainstay.
Mobile
Not only are the powerful collaboration elements
instantly available to mobile users, including
active feeds and touchpoint access to business
processes; but the rich branded experience
applies across the board. Whether the user
logs in on a laptop, smartphone or tablet, the
communities are immediately recognizable and
offer simple navigation options that look familiar.
In truth, this aspect of any application is crucial.
Mobile applications (in essentially all cases) must
be intuitive, uncomplicated and responsive.
04
© 2015 Rightpoint

18. When it comes to communities, they’re nothing if
they’re not thriving. The word itself comes from the
Old French comunete’, a broad term for fellowship
of individuals who…wait for it…define the
relationship as important. If users don’t routinely
participate and consider the platform vital, it’s useless.
Clearly, every aspect of communities mentioned above
comes into play here. And Social Intelligence soundly
ups the game. As users gain familiarity and become
more engaged, they reveal more of who they are and
what interests them. When the community knows
more, it can give more — delivering suggestions and
content that’s relevant to each individual.
Social Intelligence
The outcome invites deeper
participation and keeps
community members
coming back for more.
05
© 2015 Rightpoint

19. Trust
With all this instantaneous sharing of
sensitive processes and data, the need for
secure infrastructure essentials is apparent.
Community Cloud is anchored on a platform
that uses some of today’s most advanced
technology for internet security. This foundation
is not only secure, but scales easily to expand
as community needs evolve and grow.
Community members and
technologists alike can be
confident that the information
shared via communities,
and the interactions therein,
are protected.
06
© 2015 Rightpoint

20. What winning
looks like!
Consider how one of our innovative
clients went ‘all in’ on crafting
a robust community for more than
20,000 key
stakeholders.
© 2015 Rightpoint

21. One of the world’s leading providers of
advanced analytics and data solutions for risk,
safety and claims management had a problem.
The complexities of serving clients well was
beginning to surpass the company’s ability to
keep up. One overriding challenge stood out.
The company had long been
comprised of disparate groups;
with data, applications and
expertise dispersed among them.
This structure, more and more, was creating
significant drag when it came to efficiently
providing information, knowledge and
answers to clients.
To address this challenge, they wanted to
build a single, integrated risk, safety and
claims platform that could draw correlations
across the entire risk lifecycle. It was a tall
order. The client’s team, in partnership
with Rightpoint consultants, knew to begin
with a big picture focus.
© 2015 Rightpoint

22. A platform constructed with risk, safety
and claims workflows in mind. Members
could personalize their home pages and
pin the apps they use most frequently.
Plus, intuitive navigation was a design
imperative, allowing swift access to
active or recent apps. What’s more,
communication with key stakeholders
had to be accomplished with a single
click. In short, everything a user needed
could be located with effortless ease.
The lofty objectives included
three key scenarios:
Connecting the entire ecosystem,
including thousands of clients, brokers,
consultants and other stakeholders was
paramount to the effort. Collaboration tools,
both desktop and mobile, would make it
simple for all stakeholders to converge
in real-time, streamlining workflows and
advancing resolutions. Members could
quickly share knowledge and information
including dashboards, to keep everyone
up-to-speed.
© 2015 Rightpoint

23. Data value would need to be unlocked
through the use of advanced analytics,
integrated right into the processes.
Users would have access to powerful
interactive tools offering immediate
insight. This means members could
create ad-hoc reports, dashboards, and
what-if scenarios within the context of
normal workflow. And with the availability
of global database resources, they could
analyze risk exposures, benchmark
performances and predict claims
severity, all on the fly.
The intended outcome
was comprehensive and
ground-breaking. It would
be the first of its kind in
the industry. A wholly
original undertaking,
never before attempted.
© 2015 Rightpoint

24. But there were
a number of
specific challenges
that required
deft resolution,
including:
There was no platform that allowed collaboration between employees,
customers and other stakeholders. The effort had to start from scratch.
The current situation offered zero mobile accessibility. None.
The security protocols and tools required to allow sharing
of sensitive data were not available in the organization.
There wasn’t a framework that would support leveraging their
extensive collection of knowledge and data. (More than 125TB worth.)
© 2015 Rightpoint

25. So, how to get to that
bold vision?
© 2015 Rightpoint

26. Rightpoint’s practiced
approach (designed
to uncover, dissect
and topple any
challenge) is based
on five key elements:
Content Strategy/User Experience
Engaging Visual Design
Sustainable Technical Solution
Change Management
Ongoing Support and Maintenance
Let’s look at each element in more detail.
1
2
3
4
5
© 2015 Rightpoint

27. Content Strategy/
User Experience
Content Strategy guides content goals, style,
tagging strategy and content development. It also
considers the process of content migration. There
are five crucial aspects of content strategy that must
be deliberated and scored: Accurate, Necessary,
Authentic, Effective and Strategic. With regard
to User Experience, the process includes using
Journey Maps to identify and define user groups
and their key tasks. The intent is to bring vibrant
life to critical points in their journeys.
© 2015 Rightpoint

28. When it comes to creating a design that draws users
in, a wide range of factors come into play, including;
demographics of the user communities, tone of the
brand, company culture, ethnography of its customers,
and so on. Once those aspects are well-understood,
we create an interactive blueprint, test the blueprint
with end users and stakeholders, and then finalize
the design specifications. If this sounds like a simple
process, it’s not. In today’s business environment,
this is the piece de resistance. Build it and they may
actually come, but if they aren’t happy in that space,
they won’t be coming back. And if they’re forced to
return, they’ll be kicking and screaming.
Engaging
Visual Design
© 2015 Rightpoint

29. This is where our technologists dissect and
reconstruct the logical and physical architectures
required to sustain the technical foundation.
This includes security, data migration, content
structure and more. The objective is to specifically
define and articulate every single key structural
component of the overall solution.
Sustainable
Technical Solution
© 2015 Rightpoint

30. Our Change Management philosophy
comprises three critical elements.
They are; creating the climate for
change, engaging and enabling the
organization, and implementing and
sustaining change.
Change
Management
MAKE
IT STICK
BUILD ON
THE CHANGE
CREATE QUICK WINS
EMPOWER ACTION
COMMUNICATE THE VISION
CREATE A VISION FOR CHANGE
FORM A POWERFUL COALITION
CREATE URGENCY
Implementing and
Sustaining for Change
Engaging and Enabling
the Organization
Creating the
Climate for
Change
© 2015 Rightpoint

31. Maintaining the fluidity, availability, functionality
and vibrancy of a thriving community requires
a reasonable amount of care and feeding. We
offer our clients a full range of managed services
options to ensure the communities that members
have come to rely on don’t let them down. The
broad portfolio includes 24x7 ownership of client
applications, proactive monitoring and reactive
support, user adoption assistance, governance,
IT training, and much more.
Ongoing Support
and Maintenance
© 2015 Rightpoint

32. The View
from Here.
The payoff is a thoughtfully-crafted, truly
revolutionary dynamic risk management platform.
This cloud based solution gracefully integrates
data, apps, analytics and the individuals who
use them. It’s intuitive, personalized and simple
to use. Our experienced group of technologists
and user experience professionals built it —
so the myriad of users across the ecosystem
would come. And return. Again and again.
© 2015 Rightpoint

33. If your company is looking for ways to unify stakeholders, streamline access to
data, propel quality and banish fragmentation — to truly transform the way you
do business and capitalize on the proven value of communities, look no more.
We’re here for you. We specialize in creating digital workspaces that drive
engagement, and our average client satisfaction score is 9.19/10. So call or click.
Your Communities Await.
We’ll help you build it.
So they will come.
9.19
© 2015 Rightpoint

34. Rightpoint is a technology and design services company serving
Fortune 1,000 companies. The company makes experiences that
amplify brands and business through creative and technology services
including CRM, web, mobile, social, IoT, eCommerce and cloud.
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www.rightpoint.com | salesforce@rightpoint.com | 312.999.5453