If you’re wondering what Salesforce Industries is all about, think of it as the “fast forward” button for specific business sectors. I remember when we used to call this Vlocity, but since Salesforce bought them, it’s been folded directly into the platform as a way to stop us from reinventing the wheel every time we start a new project.
Why I prefer Salesforce Industries over custom builds
Look, we’ve all been there. You start a project for an insurance company or a telco, and you spend the first three months just building out the basic data model. You’re creating custom objects for policies, claims, or service plans that look exactly like what every other company in that sector uses. Salesforce Industries solves this by giving you those objects out of the box.
But it’s more than just a few extra tables. It’s a layer of logic that understands how those industries actually work. In my experience, using these pre-built models saves a massive amount of discovery time. You aren’t asking “how do we model a quote?” because the answer is already sitting there in the schema. This lets you focus on the weird, specific things that actually make your client’s business unique.
One thing that trips people up is trying to outsmart the standard industry data model. My advice? If the package provides an object for a business process, use it. Trying to build your own custom workaround for something like “Insurance Policy” while the industry object sits there empty is a one-way ticket to technical debt.
The core pieces of Salesforce Industries
So what does this actually mean for your day-to-day work? It’s really about the toolkit. You aren’t just getting new objects; you’re getting a whole new way to build interfaces and logic without writing a ton of Apex.
The OmniStudio Toolkit
This is the heart of the system. If you haven’t used it yet, you’ll be spending a lot of time with OmniScripts and FlexCards. OmniScripts are basically guided flows on steroids that let you build complex, multi-step processes for things like customer onboarding or claims filing. Since things can get messy fast, I always recommend following strict OmniScript naming conventions to keep your dev environment sane.
Then you’ve got FlexCards, which are great for showing data from multiple sources in a clean, UI-friendly block. Again, don’t just wing it – use FlexCard naming conventions so the rest of your team knows what they’re looking at. To move data around, you use DataRaptors and Integration Procedures, which act like the “plumbing” between your UI and the database.
Pre-built Industry Data Models
Each “Cloud” – like Health Cloud or Financial Services Cloud – comes with a schema designed by people who actually know those industries. This includes things like:
- Communications: Product catalogs and complex order management.
- Insurance: Policy administration and claims workflows.
- Health: Patient records and care coordination plans.
- Public Sector: Grant management and license processing.
Where Salesforce Industries fits in your stack
Is it different from regular Salesforce? Yes and no. It’s built on top of the same platform you already know. You still have your Sales and Service Cloud features, but Salesforce Industries adds a specialized layer on top. Think of it like buying a house that’s already furnished versus buying a plot of land and a pile of wood. Both get you a home eventually, but one lets you move in next week.
And here’s the thing: you don’t have to give up your favorite tools. You can still use standard Flows or Apex when it makes sense. But for complex, industry-specific UI, OmniStudio is usually the better bet. It’s designed to handle the heavy lifting of data mapping and branching logic that would normally require hundreds of lines of code.
Key Takeaways
- Salesforce Industries is the old Vlocity, now fully integrated into the Salesforce ecosystem.
- It provides pre-built data models so you don’t have to build industry-standard objects from scratch.
- OmniStudio is the primary tool for building the UI and logic layers within these clouds.
- It’s best for complex industries like Telecom, Insurance, and Energy where standard CRM objects aren’t enough.
- Using it correctly reduces long-term maintenance and speeds up your go-live dates.
If you’re looking to get started, I’d suggest picking a specific vertical and sticking with it. The learning curve for OmniStudio can be a bit steep at first, but once you get the hang of DataRaptors and Integration Procedures, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. Just remember to keep your naming clean and stay as close to the standard data model as you possibly can. Your future self will thank you when it’s time for the next release update.