Implementing Customer Self-Care Portals for Cloud and Communications with Salesforce

Self-care portals play a crucial role in the digital transformation and within the Quote-to-Cash (QTC or Q2C) cycle.

These portals can effectively engage with various stakeholders, including clients, employees, partners, and other key target groups. For instance, cloud and communications providers may need to offer tailored digital experiences for different audiences, such as:

• Business vs. residential customers,
• Wholesale vs. retail customers,
• Direct customers vs. resellers.

For providers utilizing Salesforce and aiming to initiate or enhance their digital transformation efforts, several portal implementation options are available:

1. Use Salesforce Experience Cloud (f.k.a. Community Cloud or Communities), which enables building CRM-powered sites, portals, forums, apps, and more.
2. Develop a portal integrated with Salesforce via the API in any traditional programming language such as Python, node.js or Java (“traditional portal”).
3. Purchase and customize an off-the-shelf, pre-built portal using one of the options above.

Considerations

Which systems does most of the portal information come from?

When Salesforce is used for large portions of QTC such as CPQ, customer service, order processing and others, it may turn out that it will be the primary data source for the portal. In that case, it may make sense to implement it using the Experience Cloud and consolidate data from other systems there.

How many and what systems are integrated in the portal?

Traditional programming languages offer more flexibility in terms of systems integration. When portals source data from multiple systems with various APIs, most likely a traditional approach will give better results.

For cloud and communications providers, Salesforce may play a significant role within BSS (Business Support Systems); however, information from OSS (Operational Support Systems) such as network monitoring, virtualization or SD-WAN management may need to be integrated as well.

Speed of development / time-to-market

Salesforce development is configuration-driven to a large degree, and as such is usually faster than traditional programming languages. When time-to-market is essential, Experience Cloud is most likely the best solution. For example, a simple reseller portal showing services sold and associated commissions with the ability to open support cases will be easy to build with Experience Cloud in a few weeks’ time (provided that all required data is already in Salesforce).

A mixed approach can also be taken with basic functionality quickly delivered using Experience Cloud and then followed by a more robust portal in node.js.

Leveraging pre-built functionality

Experience Cloud offers a lot of pre-built components like user forums, knowledgebases, etc. which can be quickly leveraged.

User Interface (UI) flexibility

Even though highly customizable, Experience Cloud does not match traditional programing languages with modern front-end frameworks like Angular in terms of UI flexibility and agility.

Number of users

Finally, Experience Cloud requires recurring per-user licenses while traditional portals do not. For large amounts of users and relatively low ARPU per user, Experience Cloud may not be the best option cost-wise.

Traditional portal vs. Experience Cloud

The following matrix can be used to help make the choice:

Situation	Recommended Solution
Majority of portal data comes from Salesforce. There are few (e.g., one or two) additional systems that need to be integrated. It would be beneficial to see some data from these systems in Salesforce. Example: Salesforce is used for CRM, CPQ and order management, but Atlassian JIRA is used for customer support.	Experience Cloud
Many disparate systems such as SD-WAN directors, monitoring systems, etc. feed the portal. Example: Salesforce is used for service inventory (term, product, etc.) but service elements (routers, CPE devices) are in a separate asset inventory and are monitored by the NMS system.	Traditional Portal
Portal users access a lot of Salesforce data without any transformation.	Experience Cloud
Real-time updates are required.	Traditional Portal
Usual, standard portal functionality (knowledgebase, chat, forums, etc.), constitute about 80% of overall portal functionality.	Experience Cloud
Portal is using many custom, business-specific UI elements like charts, performance metrics, etc.	Traditional Portal
Salesforce is deemed as a platform/hub around which business functionalities will be built in the future.	Experience Cloud

Experience Cloud pros & cons

Pros: Less development effort/quick time to market (data integrated within a single platform). A lot of out-of-the-box functionality (e.g., chatter, knowledgebase, etc.). Ability to leverage Salesforce ecosystem (e.g., a marketing application, etc.). Ease of customization for various audiences (partners, customers, etc.).

Cons: Additional Salesforce user licenses required per each community user. This may become an issue for organizations that require a lot of named portal users, rather than guests (see information about Salesforce community licenses here), who log in very rarely. Let’s consider a communications service provider with 2000 customers; the list-price estimate would be: 2000 users * $5* per user/month * 12 months = $120,000 This is a considerable spend, given the fact that each user will typically log in a few times a year to check network status, open a ticket or place a small order. * Indicative value, please contact your Salesforce representative for up-to-date pricing Limited customization; implementation must follow a certain structure and while a lot can be tailored to specific needs, there are limitations. Integrating data living outside Salesforce (e.g., in billing or ERP).

Traditional portals pros & cons

Pros: Maximum flexibility. Easier integration with systems other than Salesforce. Deployment choices outside Salesforce (AWS, AZURE, self-hosted, etc.). Free choice of programming language (e.g. Node.js, Ruby, etc.) which may be important if a team is already available.

Cons: Investment and time-to-market: more development & testing hours required. Design considerations around API usage: the number of Salesforce API calls per 24 hours is limited (Setup → Company Information → API Requests, Last 24 hours) and if a high volume of calls is needed, additional licenses may be required. Salesforce offers additional API calls in 10K/day bundles (please contact your Salesforce representative for pricing).

Conclusions

The choice of portal and digital transformation technology for cloud and communications providers is influenced by multiple factors, and there is no universal solution that suits all needs.

For instance, a residential broadband provider requires a simpler portal compared to a B2B SD-WAN or MPLS provider, which demands more advanced features like network visualization and self-service capabilities.

Another key consideration, especially for low-margin broadband and residential services, is the relationship between ARPU and profit margin versus the monthly cost of portal ownership and user licenses.

Nextian offers Experience Cloud-based customer and reseller partner portals and also develops portals using a range of technologies, including Java, Node.js, Angular, and React, helping cloud and communications providers accelerate growth and enhance customer lifetime value.

Contact us today to find out how we can help you!