Introduction to Salesforce Blockchain for Admins

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This blog post was updated on May 12, 2021 to reflect the latest updates to the product.

Using blockchain, Salesforce Admins can access their own trusted apps, data, and networks using point-and-click tools in Salesforce. Connecting a blockchain to Salesforce will enable admins to share data from applications across partner networks, while still having the powerful Salesforce Platform to make the blockchain data valuable to their business users. This is an exciting, new way for admins to help their organizations build secure networks, automate on the platform, and engage with partners.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain is a new kind of database that tracks data in a way that’s secure, transparent, and traceable. With blockchain, data is shared with a network of partners, each with a copy of the database. The partners work together to transparently define the rules of the network — things like what constitutes an official change to the data and the role of each partner on the network.

Every change is saved onto a blockchain in a way that’s easily traceable and visible to anyone who needs to see or act on that data within the access control rules defined by the network. This provides a very powerful data tool that can be combined with your company’s current information, business process, and user experiences. This is why blockchain and Salesforce are such a natural solution.

What it means to use blockchain in Salesforce

The key value of blockchain is in data being shared/distributed across a network of companies working together. Each company may be part of different types of suppliers or customers, and each of these groups may have their own blockchain due to specialties or regions. This means that individual companies will need to access multiple blockchain in one centralized business system. For example, a drug manufacturing company may need to receive the sourcing information about raw materials from one blockchain while writing to a different drug registry blockchain.

Salesforce provides the ability to engage multiple blockchain utilizing Salesforce External Objects, MuleSoft, Lightning Web Components, APIs, and packages from our AppExchange Partners. Specifically, using the Salesforce External Objects approach will provide the most traditional user experience, allowing for related lists, navigation, view, edit, and searching to work as users see in their normal, daily experience. This seamless UI experience, with all the data in a single screen, is very much aligned with Customer 360 strategies. Representing blockchain data as External Objects with Lightning platform tools also enables collaboration, analytics, and automation.

Blockchain data transparently visible in a standard Salesforce UI.

What this means for admins

As you configure your Salesforce solution with blockchain data, you can decide how your users see the data. So, your users interact with all of your data in one familiar interface configured for your business needs, while keeping trust and security at the core of your design.

As an admin, you are constantly learning new tools and skills in order to plan and architect your implementations. Salesforce with blockchain is an opportunity for you to revisit disconnected, clunky, and outdated processes that do not center the customer, suppliers, and partners. With Salesforce linked to blockchain, admins have the power to build networks and apps using the latest technology standards. Here are just a few examples of potential use cases:

  • Buying a house: Blockchain can help simplify document transfers between the appraiser, inspector, real estate agents, title company, bank, county, buyer, and seller.
  • Transferring colleges: Blockchain can authenticate course and academic transcripts from high schools, community colleges, and 4-year universities, making the transfer process for both students and schools much easier.
  • Supply Chain ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data: Since a blockchain with ESG data can be verified and easily audited, it can be used to view the source of products, anything from metals to cocoa, from many countries to confirm ethical sourcing or the carbon footprint. This follows each part of the supply chain, from the miners/farmers, to processing, to the consumer product — even to recycling.

What to do now

Ready to connect blockchain to your Salesforce environment? Talk to your systems integrator or account executive to learn more.

Learn more about Salesforce Blockchain with the resources below:

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