No good thing is truly free… or is it? Salesforce Foundations offers Salesforce customers access to different tools and functionalities in the form of a free upgrade, allowing them to get the most out of their existing licences without breaking the bank.
As Salesforce says, Foundations “isn’t a new product you have to budget for” and that customers can also benefit from certain artificial intelligence tools too. But what is actually included in the Foundations offering, and is it really free?
What Is Salesforce Foundations?
Salesforce Foundations is a free SKU that allows customers to get more out of their Salesforce investment without complicating their tech stack or being resource-intensive. At its core, it’s an upgrade package that can be added to existing licences, and includes:
- Sales: Lead and case management, Sales quoting tools, and Secure Pay Now payment links.
- Service: Case management and macros to automate repetitive service tasks, and multi-channel support tools.
- Marketing: A drag-and-drop email builder, up to 2,000 email sends per month, and built-in analytics to track campaign performance.
- Commerce: One direct-to-consumer (D2C) digital storefront (US only), managed checkout and merchandising tools, and Secure Pay Now payment links.
- Data: Unified customer profiles pulling data from across your systems, segmentation tools for up to five data streams, and 10,000 annual segmentation credits.
- Agentforce: 200,000 Agentforce Flex credits, Generative AI responses, Prompt Builder, and one AI agent skill.
Depending on the products you already have, you can turn on one or more of the above features. For example, if you’re already a Sales Cloud customer, you can enhance your customer support and agent experience with a free version of Service Cloud.
Which AI Features Can You Use?
As covered above, with Foundations, you can utilize a range of AI features. On a more granular level, the 200,000 available Agentforce Flex credits mean that you can begin building AI agents to handle tasks across sales, marketing, customer service, and more.
Not only that, but AgentExchange integrations are also included, giving you access to extended free trials from over 25 partner apps on the AgentExchange.
All Of This Is Really Free?
It’s always important to read the small print when it comes to any add-on or upgrade. Although Foundations is a free add-on, it is only available for existing Enterprise Edition customers or higher. Additionally, while there are no licensing fees to activate it, some usage-based features (like Pay Now transaction processing and Agentforce overages) may incur fees if you exceed the included limits.
It’s also important to note that once you’ve used up all of your Agentforce Flex Credits, you will need to purchase more to keep using Salesforce’s agentic features.
How to Get Started
To get started with Salesforce Foundations, it’s pretty simple. You start in the Setup menu, and from there, you can choose which features to enable and when, allowing your org and team to get used to one at a time if desired.
To activate Salesforce Foundations, follow these steps within your Salesforce account:
- Log in to your Salesforce account.
- Navigate to “Setup” and search for or select “Salesforce Foundations”.
- Click “Add to my Contract”.
- Add the Salesforce Foundations products to your cart.
- Complete the checkout process.
- Return to the “Setup” menu to begin enabling and configuring the new features.
Is Foundations Worth It?
To know if something is worth it, you’d need to know the outcome that you’re looking for. Salesforce offering a number of high-value AI features at no cost isn’t worth it for a business that doesn’t have the internal champions to help create business value out of it.
In other words, if you’re not actually going to put these features to use, then even a free offering isn’t worth it for you. If you’re not quite sure what the outcome is that you’re chasing, then adding AI tooling to your Salesforce org at no cost isn’t going to benefit you in the slightest.
However, if you’ve got the time to learn what these tools can actually do for your teams, and you’ve got the dedication to put them to use in your business, then Salesforce Foundations could be a valuable addition to your Salesforce org. It’s a great way to dip your toes into the world of AI without having to pay extra, and gives you a good taste of what Salesforce has to offer.
It’s encouraging to see that Salesforce is willing to offer these features at no cost, which makes them super accessible for businesses of all sizes and experience levels. While there are some early adopters of AI, not everyone fully understands just how it can be used in the workplace. Salesforce Foundations allows anyone who is already using Salesforce to get started with some of the AI features that are available simply and easily.
In and of themselves, the AI features in the Salesforce Foundations offering are super powerful. It all depends on what you’re planning to do with them, and how you’re planning to use them to add value to your teams.
Final Thoughts
Foundations is not going to be enough for every business, but for those eager to experiment with Salesforce’s AI tools and packaged capabilities, it is a solid starting point.
If you want to learn more about Foundations, we recommend this article here.
