Background Information
Alibaba Cloud has introduced Customer 360 to China in partnership with Salesforce. Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud consists of the following parts:
● Salesforce Connected Experiences Gateway (CXG), a localized extension component designed specifically for China
● Salesforce’s global core products including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Salesforce Platform.
The China Architecture Guide is designed to help our customers who want to build their Salesforce Customer 360 for China on Alibaba Cloud by providing guidance and advice on:
● Product strategy and capabilities at general availability
● Integration architecture and patterns
● The operation models, including the governance model of local regulations and cross border data transfer(CBDT), deployment model of release management, and Platform capabilities for your Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud instance
● China practices, which include Salesforce org strategy and operation model, Center of Excellence (CoE) consideration, the ecosystem in China, and user experience in China to optimize the adoption and usage.
To access the full 30-page ‘China Architecture Guide’, please reach out to your sales representative.
Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud Overview
Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce are taking a two-pronged approach to China based on customer demands and market needs and trends. Salesforce’s China product strategy consists of CXG, our localized extension component designed specifically for the China market, and Salesforce’s global core products including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Salesforce Platform.
Core CRM on Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud
Sales Cloud
Service Cloud
Platform Cloud
Salesforce Connected Experiences Gateway（CXG）
Localized extension component designed specifically for China
Architecture
Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce are taking the localized approach to bringing the Salesforce Customer 360 to China, with the goal of delivering the same unified customer experience as the global Customer 360, while also meeting the unique needs of businesses operating in China.
Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud Future Roadmap
At a high level, Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud has three integration patterns: UI level, data level and process level; the same as the Salesforce platform globally. This diagram showcases how the integration capabilities work.
Note:
Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud should support API version V31+.
Check the updated API compatibility information with Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce teams.
Operation Architecture
Governance Models
China legal compliance and Cross Border Data Transfer (CBDT)
As general advice, our customers must manage legal compliance in China carefully, same as in the rest of the world. Currently, the key local regulations and laws are:
● Cybersecurity Law (first released in 2017): Limits transfer of personal and ‘important’ data outside PRC
● Data Security Law (first released in 2021): Framework for processing PRC collected and generated data, inside and outside of China
● Personal Information Protection Law (first released in 2021): Personal information processed in or outside of cyberspace, Data localisation required; extraterritorial effect
Community and Site management
If your Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud org has enabled the community, please be aware that you will be responsible for the content published, even if it is by your external customers or visitors. Please make sure that you deploy the appropriate actions below to mitigate the potential risk of site blocking.
Salesforce Platform Integration Architecture (continued)
Deployment Architecture
After you migrate your Salesforce org to Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud, you will need to define your Salesforce org deployment strategy. This diagram showcases how the federate management model works.
China Practices
This chapter describes the best practices to help your organization build your Salesforce org strategy, setup your CoE, understand the ecosystem, and leverage local Chinese tools and business processes to optimize your Salesforce adoption and usage.
Salesforce Org architecture strategy
Enterprise architecture patterns
To access the full 30-page China Architecture Guide, reach out to your sales representative.
CoE
Do you have Salesforce CoE in your global organization? Do you plan to set up a Salesforce CoE team?
Considering China’s complex compliance requirements, fast go-to-market capabilities, and need for localized expertise, we recommend setting up a regional CoE within China and delegating the responsibilities from the global headquarters CoE to the regional CoE team. The regional CoE team will also need to play an important role facilitating communication between global and China teams.
China Pactices (continued)
Ecosystem
Alibaba Cloud and Salesforce are in the process of training and onboarding partners who have joined the Alibaba Cloud Partner Program. Companies wanting to work with a Salesforce Partner in China should ensure that the partner has been certified in Salesforce's China practices(dev orgs, packaging tools, etc.) and is contracted with Alibaba Cloud to be part of the Alibaba Cloud marketplace.
Contact your Alibaba Cloud sales representative for the latest list of certified partners.
User Experience (with local apps)
User Experience (UX) will be the same as your Salesforce global instance in Lightning, with some optimizations for the local market.
Note: Salesforce mobile app will NOT be available upon initial general availability (GA) of Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud, but it is already in the future product planning. In addition, Salesforce Authenticator will NOT be available either. Customers need to use their own single sign-on (SSO) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution.
Salesforce is building an integrated user experience with local social platforms. This is exclusively available for Salesforce organizations hosted on Alibaba Cloud, including:
Official account and mini program messaging for Service Cloud
Integration with local social platforms for Service Cloud and Sales Cloud
Thank you for your support of Alibaba Cloud, Salesforce, and Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud.