Lessons from Early Dreamforce Experiences

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Naveen Gabrani, Founder and CEO of Astrea IT Services. Join us as we chat about why Salesforce Foundations is a game-changer for admins.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Naveen Gabrani.

Why Salesforce Foundations is a big deal

This year at Dreamforce, Naveen is giving a presentation about something that Enterprise users already have access to that’s criminally underrated. “Salesforce Foundations is one of those lesser-known features,” he says, “but it is extremely important.”

Announced last year, Salesforce Foundations brings the most useful basic features from Agentforce Sales, Agentforce Service, Agentforce Marketing, Agentforce Commerce, Data 360, and Agentforce to your org. It has a modern UI that consolidates the most important features you use every day into an updated homepage.

And the best part? It’s free—you simply have to enable it in Setup.

Take Agentforce for a test drive

Naveen gives some examples to highlight how important Salesforce Foundations truly is. If you have Agentforce Sales, you can borrow Agentforce Service features like Knowledge and macros to give your customers some technical support. Or you could build a customer journey with Agentforce Marketing’s flow-based interface that feeds into a Agentforce Commerce  storefront.

With so many businesses pushing to integrate AI features, Salesforce Foundations gives you the opportunity to try before you buy. You can configure Agentforce and Data 360 to get everything integrated with your org and then make the decision to expand functionality. It’s much easier to convince stakeholders when you have something concrete to show them.

Tips from a Dreamforce veteran

Naveen is a Dreamforce veteran, so I wanted to know what keeps bringing him back, year after year. “The biggest thing for me is to make sure that I get time to meet my customers, meet my friends in the ecosystem, meet my partners,” he says. “Those networking aspects of the conference have helped us a lot as a company in the long term.”

Each year, Naveen makes a point of writing a blog post to summarize his takeaways on what’s happening with the platform. Make sure to check it out, and make sure to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode.

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Learn more

• Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Can Salesforce Admins Leverage Foundations to Prepare for Agentforce?
• Dreamforce Session: Get More from You Org with Salesforce Foundations

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• Admin Trailblazers Community Group

Social

• Naveen on LinkedIn
• Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn
• Salesforce Admins on X
• Mike on Bluesky social
• Mike on Threads
• Mike on X

Full show transcript

Mike:
This week on the Salesforce Admins podcast, we’re joined by Naveen Gabrani, founder of Astrea IT Services and longtime Salesforce ecosystem veteran. Now Naveen sat down with us just a little bit before Dreamforce to share why Salesforce Foundations is a game changer for admins; offering multi-cloud access, a sleek, modern UI, and best of all, it’s free with Enterprise or higher licenses. Now if you’ve been curious about how to do more with what you already have, this episode’s for you. Now stay tuned and don’t miss Naveen’s tips, use cases and insights from 30 years in tech and what he does after Dreamforce. So with that, let’s get Naveen on the podcast.

So Naveen, welcome to the podcast.

Naveen Gabrani:
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Mike:
Yeah. Well, you are a string of presenters that we’ve had on the podcast over the last month, and today, when this episode comes out, it’s the Thursday of Dreamforce. So I bet a lot of people probably listening to this on the plane flying home. But let’s get started with a little bit about yourself, kind of how you got in Salesforce, how you got in the ecosystem, and then I want to talk to you more about what you’re presenting at Dreamforce.

Naveen Gabrani:
Great. So my name is Naveen Gabrani. I ran a Salesforce partner company called Astrea IT Services. We are based in a place called Noida in India. So I have been running this company Astrea for about 15 years, so it’s been a long time. It’s been a fun journey. Before this, I used to work as a program manager with a large MNC, and so my total experience is more than 30 years.

Mike:
Wow, that’s a long time. I was going to say your company is a teenager.

Naveen Gabrani:
Yeah.

Mike:
That’s been around for a while. Now at Dreamforce this year, which is today. Whee. Or it could have been a few days ago, depending on when you’re listening to this. You talked about Salesforce Foundation, get more from your org with Salesforce Foundations. Why was it so important for you to have admins understand how to get more from their org with Salesforce Foundations?

Naveen Gabrani:
So Salesforce Foundations is one of the features that is less known, but it is extremely important feature. This was announced in last year 2024 Dreamforce, and it’s about one year now, but still it is not so well known. So I wanted to work towards making it more popular in the ecosystem.

Mike:
Yeah. What have you done with Salesforce Foundations? What made you so passionate about it?

Naveen Gabrani:
Sure. So let me talk a little bit more about what is Salesforce Foundations, and why is it so important? So I would classify Salesforce Foundation has two different parts. One is a modern user interface, which is fun to use, and second is the access to multi-cloud. So let me talk about the user interface part first, then let me get into the multi-cloud functionality. But before that, let me just talk who has access to Salesforce Foundation. So any customer that is using Enterprise Cloud or higher of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud or Industry Cloud, has access to Salesforce Foundation out of the box. The great thing about this is that it is completely free. You just need to enable it in your setup and then you’re ready to go. Okay? So that is one of the wonderful things about Salesforce Foundation is that there is no cost involved in using it.

Coming back to the user interface part, there are a few different things that are provided in the Salesforce Foundation user interface. One is all the apps are accessible on the left nav bar in a very modern UI. And also for setup for admins, the most important features are available through a dropdown. So for example, managing users, you can just go to the top right and then access the most important features that you use every day. The third important feature of the new Salesforce Foundation user interface is access to a more modern homepage that will give you everything that you need the moment you’ll land on the homepage. So that is the UI aspects of the Salesforce Foundation.

The second part of Salesforce Foundation is the access to multi-cloud, which is more important actually. So let’s say you are using Sales Cloud and you enable Salesforce Foundation. What it will give you is it’ll give you access to Service Cloud’s essential features, it will also give you access to essential features of Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud, and Agentforce. The reason it is called Salesforce Foundations is because it gives you the platform on which you can start building your Agentforce applications without paying anything extra. Okay? So let me just elaborate this multi-cloud features.

Mike:
Yeah.

Naveen Gabrani:
So let’s just say that you are using Sales Cloud. Similar things are applicable for Service Cloud as well, but let’s assume you are a Sales Cloud or CRM kind of customer. So main features of Service Cloud that will be available to you, to the users, are you have access to Knowledge Base. So the commonly occurring features are available to your users to let’s say you can resolve the case using standard Salesforce Knowledge features, even though you are just having the Sales Cloud license. You also have access to features like macros, so you can perform multiple tasks together by just clicking them. Single click. Okay? So that is some of the Service Cloud aspects that are available out of the box to Sales Cloud license with Foundations. The additional clouds that are available are Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

So let me talk about Marketing Cloud next. So Marketing Cloud here is based on a flow like interface, so it’s based on top of flows. So you build journeys and you use flows to build your journeys. So let’s say you want to send a mail today and send another mail after two days to a market segment. Then you can create email contents using an Experience Cloud kind of interface, and then you build a journey and set up the campaigns, and this is all included within Salesforce Foundations. Okay? So you have Sales Cloud, you are getting essential version of Marketing Cloud for free, for no other charges. Okay?

Mike:
Yeah.

Naveen Gabrani:
So that is another big kind of bonus you get as part of Salesforce Foundation.

The next is Commerce Cloud. So as part of your Foundation license, we have access to one storefront. You already have products available as part of Sales Cloud, so we can use Experience Cloud interface, a drag-and-drop kind of functionality, to build a professional looking user interface. And it’s fairly easy to set up. So we can build an e-commerce site for our clients using Commerce Cloud and Salesforce Foundations. And this is you can pretty much go live in a day, it’s so easy to set up. There are some limitations on the number of transactions and the number of storefronts, etc. But that is… So the idea is if you are a very large company and you’re exceeding those limits, then you work with your account manager and purchase additional transactions.

Also included our Data Cloud and Agentforce. If you want to just learn Data Cloud or you want to check whether Agentforce is good for me or not, then the idea is you can set it up in your Sales Cloud or Service Cloud org, try it out, test it out, set it up, everything. And then when you are satisfied with it, only then you buy it. So basic advantage of Salesforce Foundations is that you try everything. When you’re satisfied, only then go ahead and make a purchase. So that in a nutshell is various aspects that come out of the box without any charges when you have just a Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise or higher license.

Mike:
Yeah, I know we did… I was just looking back, and I did a podcast with Eddie Cliff, who at the time was the product manager for Salesforce Foundations. And of course I think the benefit of everything we were talking about was it’s such a simplified area to go to so that you know you’re turning on all the right things and you’re not really having to hop around in set up.

Naveen Gabrani:
Definitely. That is the interface part of it. Everything is… Like the most easy to access aspects of the platform for end user or for admin are available at one place.

Mike:
Yeah. You’ve mentioned you’ve been in the tech ecosystem for 30 years, and at your company for 15. In terms of if you had to stack rank really cool features that Salesforce has come out with, where on your list would Foundations fall?

Naveen Gabrani:
Oh, that’s a tough one.

Mike:
Well, I did tell you there might be a few hard questions every now and then.

Naveen Gabrani:
Yeah, there’s so many different things and it’s difficult to compare. The big thing about Foundation is obviously the access to so many different things, and it’s free. I’m not aware of any great Salesforce product that is available free of cost. So that is one thing that I really like about Foundations. And obviously the things that are extremely popular are… Like because I’m from development background, I like Apex a lot. Pretty much we never have to say no to a client. We never say no for any requirements because we know that we have flows, we have Apex, and we can handle it. So those are a couple of other favorite things that I have.

Mike:
Do you find, when you’re working with clients, that you use Foundations more often to turn on Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud? Or do you use it to… Is it when they’re expanding from Sales Cloud to Service Cloud?

Naveen Gabrani:
For now the focus has been on Agentforce, because that is the buzz in the market. But I think Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud are going to be equally popular with time, but for now, Agentforce is on everybody’s mind. And sometimes clients are not convinced, so they want to give it a try and see a demo before they make a decision, and that’s where Salesforce Foundation comes in.

Mike:
Well, sure. You got to test drive the car before you buy it. Right?

Naveen Gabrani:
Exactly.

Mike:
What are you excited about for Dreamforce this year, besides your session on Salesforce Foundations?

Naveen Gabrani:
I’m kind of a veteran. I’ve been to Dreamforce I think seven or eight times, I’ve spoken a few times. And so I mean you make so many friends in the ecosystem over the years, so the biggest thing for me is just to make sure that I get time to meet my customers, meet my friends in the ecosystem, meet my partners. Those are kind of the networking aspects of the conference, that has long-term… That has helped us a lot as a company historically. So because we are virtual, living in a far-off place, and the clients are in the US are elsewhere in the western world, Dreamforce is a place… It’s like a get-together. So we get to meet them, build relationships, and then those relationships help us out for rest of the year.

Mike:
Yeah. No, I could totally understand that. So most people that are going to listen to this episode are probably listening to it after Dreamforce, because it comes out the Thursday of Dreamforce and everyone’s like, “Oh my gosh, I got to run to this session. And I got to go to this place and get this food because San Francisco has a lot of food.”

Naveen Gabrani:
Yes.

Mike:
I’d be remiss if I don’t talk about food on my podcast, even though it’s a non-food podcast. But my question to you, you’ve been to a lot of Dreamforces and you’ve been in the ecosystem for a long time, what is the most important thing that you do after Dreamforce?

Naveen Gabrani:
So my goal is that I try to summarize a couple of things. One is summarize the key announcements.

Mike:
Uh-huh.

Naveen Gabrani:
And whatever I have learned, like interesting things. So I meet a lot of vendors, I go to booths, I spend time in the expo. I listen to a few keynotes and get a feel of the new features that are coming in, I look at a few Salesforce demos, I also attend a few sessions. I try to mix and match and do many different things. So at the end of the show, I have a fair idea about what are the new things that the platform is announcing, and I try to publish a blog on that. That these are my learnings, so that the people who are not able to attend get to see that. That is one. Second is just like an acknowledgement mail to all the people that I have met kind of summarizing our discussions.

Mike:
Yeah.

Naveen Gabrani:
So those are the two things that I do while it’s fresh in my mind.

Mike:
And I think you have… Well, a lot of people have a long plane ride home. I’d love for you to remember back to your first Dreamforce. If you could do your first Dreamforce differently, what would you have done?

Naveen Gabrani:
The first one, I think what happened was that people… I booked a lot of sessions, and so I didn’t… It was just spent some time in the expo in looking at demos and all. I was trying to attend session from morning to evening, and your brain gets exhausted. So that was probably not a good idea. That’s what I learned. So I try to keep my schedule somewhat free now.

Mike:
Yeah, I appreciate that as somebody who manages a lot of sessions with a lot of great content for you to have gone to. I was thinking back to my first Dreamforce, and I remember one of the best things I did was if I got to a session early I just sat down and just chit-chatted with the people around me, because we were all there to learn the same thing.

Naveen Gabrani:
Sure.

Mike:
And you meet some really fun people. Of course, this was I feel like 100 years ago. I also remember that was one of the first Dreamforce I was walking around with an iPad, and people were like, “Whoa, you’re taking notes on iPad.” I felt like I was so in the future at that time.

Naveen Gabrani:
Yeah. How things have changed in the last 10, 15 years.

Mike:
Right? Exactly. Naveen, I appreciate you coming on the podcast and talking about Foundations. I know I’ve covered this topic before, but it’s really cool. The UI is super intuitive and helpful for admins. And I love that you’ve been in the ecosystem for a long time and are still coming to Dreamforce and still pointing out new things and inspiring people all the time.

Naveen Gabrani:
Thanks a lot. Thank you so much, Mike, for having me.

Mike:
Big thanks to Naveen for joining us and shedding light on Salesforce Foundations. Whether you are helping users with a streamlined interface or testing out Agentforce before you commit, Foundations gives us admins a powerful, no-cost way to do more with our org. Now don’t forget to check out Naveen’s post-Dreamforce blog wrap-ups, and keep an eye on what’s next in the ecosystem. He is out there presenting a lot of things. So until next time, we’ll see you in the cloud.

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