What is Salesforce Appexchange?

Salesforce, as we all know, is the leading Customer management (CMS) company that improves the interaction between consumers and the firm. It is a cloud computing company, and all data is stored on the cloud and can be accessed by anyone anytime.

Now, Salesforce has expanded its horizon and come up with its own platform for selling Apps developed using Salesforce technology known as Appexchange. Appexchange is a cloud computing platform where Salesforce developers and independent vendor sellers (IVS) sell their apps, which they created using Salesforce technology and tools.

The goal of this Appexchange is to provide the companies with a platform that is powerful and gives solution for everything including professional automation apps. Salesforce users can enjoy the benefits of the apps sold on Appexchange for free or on subscription based. It contributes to Salesforce development. 

Benefits of Appexchange:

1) Pre-installed and ready to use apps
The Appexchange store has many pre-installed apps that are ready to use anytime and anywhere. These apps are for every business imaginable like Sales, marketing, ERP and so on. They provide solutions for every business problems, and the owner just has to add the app from Salesforce environment to theirs, and their developers can use it as per their requirements and even customize it.

2) They are reliable
Customers can be assured of the quality of the apps listed on Appexchange because they have gone through a tight security check before being sold on this platform. This means that all the apps are reliable and trustworthy and can be customized using the Salesforce integration.

3) No maintenance costs
The apps that Salesforce list on Appexchange are for commercial purpose so that the businesses can use them to find solutions for their problems is upgraded and maintained by Salesforce developers. This means that business doesn't have to set any budget aside for maintaining or bug fixing for these apps.

Types of Salesforce Appexchange products:

There are three categories in which Apps are distributed that you can find in the Appexchange library:

• By type- apps, components and solutions for business
• By product- sales, marketing and so on,
• By Industry- government, education and so on

Types of packages:

You can find two types of packages on the Appexchange:

1) Unmanaged packages
They are the platform where open-source projects and apps are sold to the developers. They have the basic functionality as in they are ready to use, but more functionality can be added, and they can even be modified according to business needs. Once used by developers, it cannot be upgraded.

2) Managed packages
This platform is for Salesforce ISV partners where they sell the apps developed by them to the consumers. The consumer can't see or modify the apex code of the managed package, but they can be upgraded.

How Appexchange does make the app discovery process simple?

The main goal of Appexchange is to make the process of finding the right app solution for a business easy for the customer. This helps save a lot of time and money and this is done through:

1) Recommendations
The App exchange checks and tracks the location, platform used, browsing and search history to provide a personalized recommendation about the apps to its users.

2) Products are categorized and can be searched using filters
All the apps listed in Appexchange are organized into categories; these categories are product and industry collections, featured apps and most popular solutions. You can even search it using many filters like pricing models, edition, average customer rating, and language and many more. If you want to find the Salesforce native apps, its managed solution and ready components, use the specific filter solution type.

3) Ranking of the App
All the apps and components that are listed on Salesforce technology have been ranked. The ranking is given by reviewing a list of things like page views, number of installs and customer rating. The companies looking for a great app can also check out various reviews that usually many users leave.

4) Demo
You can also check out an app by seeing the demo that has read-only success for all the functionality it provides. This demo can help the business to check out the capabilities of the app before using it and making a plan on how to use it.

How to install Appexchange?

It is easy to install Appexchange and start using it services, just follow these steps:

• Go to Salesforce Appexchange by selecting its link from the Salesforce environment from the under the apps tab.
• Next, search the app you want to install for your business.
• Select the desired product and check its reviews, ratings, latest features and release date. Also, check whether it is free or subscription based so that you have no problem in the future.
• Now to install the app, just select the ‘Get it now’ tab and the app will be added in your Salesforce environment.

How many apps are listed in the Appexchange store?

• Salesforce Appexchange came into existence in the year 2006, and since then more 3,400 apps are listed here, while the number of installed apps are more than 5.6b billion.
• According to a survey done in 2018, 85% of companies listed in the list of Fortune 100 companies are using some or other app from Salesforce Appexchange.
• For IVS partners, this platform is great for turning an idea into a business and earns revenue. Just use the tools provided and build and sell the app on the Salesforce platform to your consumers.

In the end, I would like to point out that Salesforce Appexchange is a great tool for anyone. Users doesn't want to or have no time to build an app from scratch to overcome a problem can use Salesforce Appexchange. It not only provides you with an in-built solution, but you make your own app and sell it. Even the option to customize apps is available. The feature is great as it can be used to fit it according to the business need and type.