Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Practice

Role hierarchies are fundamental in Salesforce for establishing data sharing rules because they define how data access is provided based on the organizational structure. In a role hierarchy, users at higher levels can have access to the same data as users below them in the hierarchy. This facilitates a streamlined approach to data sharing, ensuring that managers can access the information relevant to their teams, thereby promoting collaboration and oversight.

Establishing data access through role hierarchies is beneficial because it allows organizations to implement nuanced access controls without needing to configure individual sharing settings for each user. Instead, access rights can cascade down from higher roles, making the system more manageable and ensuring that only the necessary data is shared based on the user's position within the organization.

In contrast, user licenses relate to what features a user can access rather than how data is shared, approval processes are workflows for managing and tracking approvals for various tasks but do not inherently control data access, and custom applications permit building specific functions within Salesforce but are not specifically tied to the rules governing data sharing.