Powered by Salesforce Lightning and open source blockchain technology from Hyperledger, Salesforce Blockchain promises to enable enterprises to create blockchain networks, workflows and apps.

“We help companies build for the future by making breakthrough technology accessible and easy to use—today we are doing just that with Salesforce Blockchain,” said Bret Taylor, president and chief product officer, Salesforce. “Now, companies will be able to create new ecosystems and achieve new levels of interconnectivity through trusted partner networks.”

Salesforce Blockchain is currently available to select design partners and expected to become generally available in 2020.

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Solving the ‘trust gap’

With greater connectivity, businesses are harnessing and sharing more data with an ever-increasing network of partners, this has opened a host of issues around security and trust. According to a spokesperson from Salesforce, its new blockchain platform solves this problem, they said: “Salesforce Blockchain enables companies to easily bring together authenticated, distributed data and CRM processes.”

With Salesforce Blockchain enterprises can:

• Build Networks with Clicks—Easily build and maintain blockchain networks, apps and smart contracts—unique to every business—using Salesforce’s powerful low-code capabilities. Customers can now create and share a blockchain object in the same process as any CRM data object—with clicks, not code.
• Automate Data with Lightning Platform—Make blockchain data actionable through native integration with Salesforce. Layer complex blockchain data on top of existing sales, service or marketing workflows like search queries and process automation. Even more, companies can now run Einstein-powered artificial intelligence algorithms that integrate blockchain data into sales forecasts, predictions and more.
• Engage Partners Easily—Lower the barrier to entry for partners, distributors and intermediaries to leverage Salesforce Blockchain. Companies can now pull in APIs, pre-built apps and integrate any existing blockchains with Salesforce. With an intuitive engagement layer, companies can also easily interact with and add third parties to their blockchain with a few clicks and a simple authentication—creating trust networks.

Case studies

Salesforce Blockchain is already being utilised by the public research institute, Arizona State University to design and create an educational network that enables universities to verify and securely share information.

This network will enable universities and colleges to serve learners at greater scale, for example, by saving student transcripts and accomplishments into a Learner Trust Record on a unified ledger, a tool that will create a record of the entirety of a learner’s accomplishments. With Salesforce Blockchain, Arizona State University seeks to give ownership and control of learner records to the learners themselves, while significantly reducing friction between institutions and allowing them to provide faster and more intelligent services to students.

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“With Salesforce Blockchain, we expect that this educational trust network will allow us to better serve our diverse set of undergraduate and graduate student learners,” said Kent Hopkins, Vice President of Enrollment Services at Arizona State University. “This network has the potential to be a game-changer for integrated, seamless learning—increasing transparency of student achievements and ultimately making the exchange process of academic records easier for both learners and institutions.”

The financial services firm, S&P Global Ratings is also leveraging Salesforce Blockchain with the aim of reducing the time it takes to review and approve new business bank accounts. By operating on a shared ledger of know-your-customer (KYC) data, the firm is able to bring multiple reviews together in one trusted hub, this is providing a more transparent and auditable review process, for employees, partners and customers—ensuring that we engage only with verified organisations.