At Dreamforce ‘14, Coca-Cola Germany’s CEO said, “The most dangerous place to make a decision is in the office." Now, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the general idea holds true: the place to make decisions is out with your customers and partners, not inside a conference room. To do so, a business mustbe equipped with the tools that foster and encourage this constant connectivity.

That’s where Community Cloud comes in. By leveraging Community Cloud, your business opens up entirely new lines of communication and strengthens the relationships that your business is built on: between customers, partners and employees.

We created the e-book “Community Cloud 101: Five Fantastic Features We Love (and You Will Too!)” to give you a crash course in getting started with the Salesforce Community Cloud. You can download the full e-book here. Here are three notable highlights from the e-book:

1. Integrate with Sales, Customer Service and Marketing

A central feed is critical to staying connected and up-to-date on all of the business processes and collaboration that occur every single day. No matter the industry, job function or company size, easy access to information and mobility are crucial for tackling your projects head-on.

Your sales team can share leads and joint sell with partners easier than ever before, submitting leads, updating statuses and closing deals from the palm of their hand. For your customer service providers, Community Cloud stores all of your case data in one place, and allows customers to watch their case as it progresses. Marketing managers can collaborate with agencies to update campaigns, share files and track payments—no need to move across multiple programs for one campaign.

2. Personalized From Day One

Right from the start, Community Cloud fosters engagement, automatically suggesting which people you should follow, groups you should join, and content you should know about right when you sign up. As you start to use Community Cloud it learns from your behavior, continuing to suggest influencers, groups and content. Plus, a rich gamification system rewards active users with level badges, endorsements, and leaderboards.

After all, a community only works if you use it. Community Cloud makes getting started and staying active in the community easy.

3. Rethink How You Use Files

The days of digging through your hard drive for old spreadsheets and data reports are over. Not only are your files stored in the cloud—accessible from any device at any time—but Community Cloud has created a whole new way to collaborate within the files and integrate them into every aspect of your business. Custom privacy settings ensure that all of your employees, partners and customers can see everything they need to, and nothing that they don’t.

Salesforce Files Sync means that you’re always up to date when collaboration happens and changes are made. Just drag and drop your file into the Salesforce Files Sync folder and it will update across all of your devices—laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones—in real time. And, because it’s Salesforce, you know it’s secure.

Want to learn more about the unique features and advantages that Community Cloud can offer your business? Download the e-book, Community Cloud 101: Five Fantastic Features We Love (and You Will Too!), available now.