What is Salesforce?

If you’re new to Salesforce, this guide will help you understand what it is and why SF-Bench focuses on Salesforce development.

🎯 Quick Answer

Salesforce is the world’s #1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. It’s a cloud-based platform used by businesses to manage customer relationships, sales, marketing, and customer service.

Think of it as: A customizable business application platform where companies build their customer-facing systems.

🏢 What Does Salesforce Do?

Salesforce provides:

1. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
   • Track customers, leads, opportunities
   • Manage sales pipelines
   • Customer service ticketing
2. Platform for Custom Applications
   • Companies build custom apps on Salesforce
   • Like building apps on iOS/Android, but for business
3. Cloud-Based Infrastructure
   • Everything runs in Salesforce’s cloud
   • No servers to manage
   • Automatic updates and scaling

💻 Salesforce Development

Why Develop on Salesforce?

Companies customize Salesforce to fit their needs:

• Custom Objects: Create new data types (e.g., “Product”, “Order”)
• Automation: Build workflows and processes
• Custom UI: Create custom user interfaces
• Integrations: Connect with other systems

Salesforce Development Technologies

🎓 Why Salesforce Matters for AI

1. Enterprise Scale

• Used by 150,000+ companies
• Millions of developers
• Billions of transactions daily

2. Complex Development

• Multi-modal (code + visual tools)
• Platform-specific constraints
• Real-world business logic

3. Unique Challenges

• Governor Limits: Platform enforces resource limits
• Multi-tenancy: Shared infrastructure
• Declarative Tools: Visual builders + code

4. Real-World Impact

• Business-critical applications
• High-stakes development
• Production-ready code required

🔍 Salesforce vs. Generic Programming

📚 Learning Salesforce

For Developers New to Salesforce

1. Start Here: Trailhead (Free Salesforce learning platform)
   • “Salesforce Basics” trail
   • “Apex Basics & Database” trail
   • “Lightning Web Components” trail
2. Developer Edition: Free Salesforce org for learning
   • Sign up at: https://developer.salesforce.com/signup
3. Documentation:
   • Salesforce Developer Guide
   • Apex Developer Guide

Key Concepts to Understand

• Org: A Salesforce instance (like a database)
• Object: A data type (Account, Contact, etc.)
• Field: A property of an object
• Record: An instance of an object
• Trigger: Code that runs on data changes
• Flow: Visual automation tool
• LWC: Lightning Web Component (UI framework)

🤔 Why SF-Bench Focuses on Salesforce

1. Real-World Relevance

• Millions of developers work with Salesforce
• Billions of lines of Salesforce code
• Critical business applications

2. Unique Challenges

• Platform-specific constraints
• Multi-modal development
• Enterprise patterns

3. Gap in Benchmarks

• Generic benchmarks miss Salesforce-specific challenges
• No existing Salesforce AI benchmark
• Need for domain-specific evaluation

4. Impact Potential

• Improve AI tools for Salesforce developers
• Accelerate Salesforce development
• Enable better AI-assisted coding

🎯 For SF-Bench Users

You don’t need to be a Salesforce expert to use SF-Bench!

• SF-Bench provides task descriptions that explain what needs to be done
• Tasks include context about Salesforce concepts
• Documentation explains Salesforce-specific terms
• You can learn Salesforce while benchmarking AI models

📖 Next Steps

1. Understand SF-Bench: What is SF-Bench?
2. Try Salesforce: Sign up for Developer Edition
3. Learn Basics: Complete Trailhead basics
4. Run SF-Bench: Follow our Quick Start Guide

🔗 Resources

• Salesforce Trailhead: https://trailhead.salesforce.com
• Salesforce Developer: https://developer.salesforce.com
• Salesforce Documentation: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs
• Salesforce Community: https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com

Still confused? Check out our FAQ or open an issue!