---
schema_version: "1"
id: 3bdb473318b9c2217030847c70500a2c3da1ff3ce258a33c5ba18b174d73b7c8
title: Prepare Your Org for Salesforce Customer Identity
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/xcloud/264-0-0/external_identity_prepare_your_org.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_prepare_your_org.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 623d876a8566643a9fb07ad26d439a572b72122080da976812d13639620f29c3
description: Before you get started with Salesforce Customer Identity, complete administrative tasks to integrate Salesforce Customer Identity features with customer and partner business processes.
products:
  - Security
  - Cross Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Prepare Your Org for Salesforce Customer Identity

Before you get started with Salesforce Customer Identity, complete administrative tasks to integrate Salesforce Customer Identity features with customer and partner business processes.

- **[Control Authorization with Custom Profiles and Roles](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_set_up_profiles.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    In identity and access management, it's important to control who is authorized to access resources. You can manage authorization by assigning your users profiles and roles. Profiles define how users access data and what they can do in Salesforce. Roles allow you to create a user hierarchy so that users can access data owned or shared by subordinates.
- **[Control User Access to Your Experience Cloud Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_create_community_profiles.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Set your Experience Cloud site’s profile to control customer and partner access. The external identity profile enables single sign-on access to your site.
- **[Create an Account for CRM Integration](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_create_account.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    One of the great things about Salesforce Customer Identity is that it’s already integrated with your customer success platform. By driving identity on the same platform that you use for managing your customers and partners, you simplify your integration requirements while providing your users a better experience.
- **[Enable Digital Experiences for Salesforce Customer Identity](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_enable_salesforce_communities.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    Before you create an Experience Cloud site for your customers and partners, enable Salesforce digital experiences for your org.
- **[Select an Experience Cloud Site Template](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_set_up_your_community.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    You can create your site for customers and partners using any site template that Salesforce provides. With each template, Salesforce creates a default set of pages to handle the login experience, which includes login, self-registration, password resets, and identity verification.
- **[Activate Your Experience Cloud Site](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=xcloud.external_identity_activate_your_community.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)**  
    To complete your site setup for customers and partners, you must activate it.