Portal User Visibility in Salesforce

6 min read

Marinda K.

Masterful Salesforce Scribe with an eye for detail

Updated: Apr 26th, 2024

What is a partner portal in Salesforce?

A partner portal is a separate website where organizations can share Salesforce information and collaborate with external partners, for instance, resellers, distributors, suppliers, and other non-employee stakeholders. Non-partners do not have access to this website, and Salesforce portal users cannot own partner accounts

Partner portals are a secure space used to improve communication between your organization and its partners. You can enable single sign-on so that your partners can access Salesforce with one set of credentials. Partners can easily send messages and updates to each other, which can help to keep everyone informed and on the same page. Because partners have access to Salesforce data, they are empowered to collaborate on projects and cases that will lead to improved productivity and efficiency. Salesforce Partner portals can also help to increase transparency between your organization and its partners. Partners can see what data is available to them and how it is being used, which can help to build trust and confidence.

Partner portals are customizable to meet the specific needs of your organization and its partners. You can control the level of access that partners have to Salesforce data, and data can be encrypted to protect it from unauthorized access. You can also customize the look and feel of the portal according to your branding to give your partners a sense of continuity.

Partner portals can be used to:

Share Salesforce data with partners, such as account information, contact records, and opportunities.

Give partners access to Salesforce reports and dashboards.

Allow partners to collaborate on projects and cases.

Track partner performance and productivity.

Provide partners with training and support.

You can use Salesforce Experience Cloud to create and manage partner portals. In fact, Experience Cloud is a more modern and versatile platform that has replaced the older Partner Portal feature in Salesforce (read our Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation guide for more info). It allows you to create and customize partner communities to collaborate effectively with external partners, such as resellers, distributors, suppliers, and other non-employee stakeholders.

Use Salesforce Experience Cloud to build partner communities

Here is how Salesforce Experience Cloud can be used for partner communities:

Salesforce Partner Community License

Salesforce offers a specific Partner Community license specifically designed for partner users. You can assign this license to your external partners to grant them access to the partner community. Communities are versatile and can be used for various external as well as internal collaboration scenarios, including partner collaboration, customer communities, employee communities, and so on.

Other license types include Customer Community and Employee Community, which can be tailored to specific use cases and user types.

Community Builder

Experience Cloud includes a powerful tool called Community Builder, which allows you to create, design, and customize the partner community’s user interface and functionality using a point-and-click interface. You can build a branded and tailored partner portal with templates, themes, and components. To get access to the Salesforce Partner Community, make sure that your company is enrolled in the Salesforce Partner Program

Modern User Interface

Communities provide a modern, responsive user interface that can be accessed on various devices, including desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

Data Integration

Experience Cloud seamlessly integrates with Salesforce and other systems, enabling real-time access to data such as leads, opportunities, cases, and custom objects. You can control data visibility as well as Salesforce product visibility, and access using Community Sharing Sets, ensuring that partners see the information relevant to their role.

Authentication

Experience Cloud can be configured to support single sign-on (SSO), making it easier for partners to access the community with their existing credentials and reducing login complexity.

Collaboration Tools

You can leverage collaboration features within the partner community, such as Chatter and Salesforce Files, to facilitate communication and document sharing among partners and your internal team.

Security and Access Control

Experience Cloud provides robust security and access control capabilities, allowing you to define who can access the community and what data they can see and edit.

Reporting and Analytics

You can use the reporting and analytics features within Experience Cloud to track partner performance, monitor deal progress, and gain insights into community engagement.

Custom Development

While Experience Cloud allows for extensive point-and-click customization, you can also use custom code (Lightning components, Apex, etc.) for more advanced customizations and unique functionality.

What is portal or community user visibility in Salesforce

You can decide who has access to what by controlling and managing user access and data visibility of the site.

Community User visibility is managed through Salesforce’s security model, but it provides robust customization options. You can define data access rules using sharing sets, sharing groups, and custom permissions to control what users can see and do. In Salesforce Community Portals, user visibility refers to the ability to control and manage access to specific features, data, and functionalities within the community environment.

Salesforce visibility rules

In Salesforce, “visibility rules” refer to the configurations that determine which users or groups can access specific data and records within the Salesforce platform. These rules are essential for maintaining data security and ensuring that users can only see and interact with information relevant to their roles and responsibilities. Here are some common types of visibility rules in Salesforce:

1. Organization-Wide Defaults (OWD) settings are fundamental visibility rules that define the default level of access to records for all users in your Salesforce organization. The OWD settings include Private, Public Read-Only, and Public Read/Write. You can configure OWD settings for standard and custom objects. OWD settings set the baseline visibility for records, and other rules can further restrict or extend access.

2. Role Hierarchy refers to a hierarchical structure representing the reporting relationships within your organization. Users at higher levels in the hierarchy typically have access to records owned by users reporting to them. This can be particularly useful for granting managers access to their team’s records.

3. Sharing Rules are used to extend record access beyond the OWD settings. They allow you to specify criteria and share specific records with a group of users or roles. For example, you can create sharing rules to give sales representatives access to leads owned by other sales reps.

4. Manual Sharing allows record owners and users with the “Modify All” permission to manually share individual records with other users or groups. This is typically used for ad-hoc sharing scenarios.

5. Apex Sharing (Programmatic Sharing) rules are defined through custom Apex code and can be used to implement more complex sharing logic. You can use triggers and classes to programmatically share records based on specific criteria.

6. Team Sharing is often used in conjunction with the role hierarchy to control access to records owned by team members. It allows users to access records owned by others on their team.

7. If your organization uses Salesforce’s Territory Management feature, you can use it to define territories and grant users access to records based on their territory assignments.

8. While not precisely a visibility rule, field-level security allows you to control which fields within an object are visible to specific profiles or permission sets. This helps ensure that sensitive data is not exposed to users who shouldn’t see it.

9. When you configure Object-Level Permissions, profiles and permission sets control the overall visibility and access to objects, including whether users can create, read, edit, and delete records of a particular object.

10. You can use record types and page layouts to control the visibility and editability of fields based on the record type on record detail pages. This is often used to present different layouts for different types of records within the same object.

Build your partner portals with Titan!

Titan Web, a Salesforce-integrated platform, offers seamless integration with the Experience Cloud and serves as a super versatile alternative. With Titan Web, you can create websites, customer portals, and partner portals all on one platform, streamlining your business processes like never before and enhancing site user visibility!

Our drag-and-drop interface lets you easily create stunning portals for your customers and partners. At the same time, our real-time Salesforce integration provides a personalized experience for each user who logs in. Whether you’re using Education Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, or any other Salesforce cloud or product, Titan Web is fully compatible and ready to help you achieve your business goals.

But that’s not all – our platform also offers full branding capabilities so that your portals and websites match the look and feel of your organization. You can design professional interfaces for desktop, mobile, and tablet, arranging columns and pictures exactly the way you want. And with next-generation conditional logic, you’re not limited to the layout of Salesforce – you can house login pages, e-commerce resources, forms, and any process inside your portal.

Experience the power of Titan Web and take control of your online presence today!

Titan Website

Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.