Tackling Homelessness with SalesForce and a Consumer App

With a platform as large as SalesForce, there are bound to be interesting use cases.  However, once of the more interesting ones I have heard is about HomelessLink.  They help people who are homeless, or at risk of being homeless, in the UK.

Where I think they are brilliant in their use of SalesForce is around using the Service Console to manage "cases" coming in of homeless.  This could be from someone calling their call centre, or using their Street Link website, or even their iPhone App.

From the above sources, they are able to go out and meet homeless people and potentially help them. Furthermore, because this is all in a CRM, they could easily make maps of where homeless areas are to ensure other government programs are applied to the area.  Or, they could even easily report on homeless they have helped for funding considerations.

While there are many ways to use SalesForce, this is one that helps those who are really less fortunate and may have never heard of SalesForce!  But, because of the SalesForce Foundation, they are being help!  You can see all the details from the case study.

DreamForce 2 You in London

So, for those of us living in Europe, a "quick trip" to San Francisco for DreamForce is actually quite the commitment.  It involves an 8+ hour plane trip, as well as some "wicked" jet lag!  So, it seems SalesForce has grown wise to this and has a new seminar/event called "DreamForce 2 You".

While they don't bring all the big artists (like Bruno Mars this year at DreamForce) or Marc Bennioff, at least not this year, they do bring many of the customer stories and high level demos of the topics discussed at DreamForce this year!

It was a great way to learn more about some of the big DreamForce announcements, including:

• SalesForce Lightning - The new way you can build mobile apps, on the fly, for SalesForce1
• SalesForce Wave - The new way to "visualize" data and make the reports, and the ability to drill into it (PS - Did you know that 90% of the world's data was created in the last 2 years!)
• How Coca-Cola is using SalesForce Lightning

While the event isn't a DreamForce in any way, it does provide the ability to network and meeting like minded professionals which is one of the big events of going to SalesForce.  If you want to see the "actual DreamForce announcements" you can just follow the SalesForce Youtube Channel!  So keep your eyes out for a DreamForce 2 You event in the future!  Even if you went to DreamForce, it lets you re-create that energy you had for those few days in San Francisco!