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Are you struggling to fit your migrated data into your target Salesforce environment? Is there a need for creating multiple fields? Don’t want to lose the data but don’t have the fields to migrate it to? If the answers to most or all of your questions is ‘yes’, then this article can help you achieve all the above without creating any new fields and without suffering any data loss. Where can you use this technique? Lack of fields on the Target as compared to the Source environment Data model does not match between the two environments Do not want to create new fields in the Target environment Do not have a separate custom object to hold the data Figure 1 Salesforce data model not matching How to achieve this? We will extract all the data from the source environment and insert it into the Description field of the Target environment using TALEND.  Assumptions We have migrated the data of Productsobject (OpportunityLineItem) from Source org.into a Description field (Special_Instruction__c) of Opportunity object in Target org. We are using Excel to extract data from Source environment and a Salesforce connection to push the data on the Target environment. We can also create a Salesforce connection for both the environments (Recommended way). Process Step 1: Create a Salesforce connection. For this you need 3 parameters: Username Password Security Token Figure 2 Create a Salesforce connection You need to enter all the credentials for the Source environment. Note:If you are connecting to a UAT environment be sure to change the URL in the tSalesforceConnection component. Step 2:In this step we need to extract the data from both the source files. Figure 3 Job Design in TALEND To achieve the above process first you need two files: Source File:In this file you need all the Product data (Opportunity Line Item data) along with the OpportunityId Target File:In this file you need the Opportunity Id from the Target Step 3:In this step we need to: Insert the two files into the tMap Apply an inner join between the two files. Concatenate all the product data into a single variable and add a null check to all the fields before inserting them into variables. Insert the variable into the Opportunity field. Figure 4 tMap Design in TALEND  In this method we have added “|” to separate the data you can choose another symbol as per your convenience. Note: Select the same selections in the tMap as highlighted above. Step 4: After all the description is concatenated add a tDenormalize to concatenate the records with the same Opportunity Id based on the Description field. Step 5:In this step use a tSalesforceOutput component to update the description field for the respective opportunity. Finally attaching the complete job for reference. More ways to implement the above approach: Extracting data from Salesforce rather than Excel Using other objects like Account, Contact etc. Pushing data into Salesforce with Excel Merging Product Data with Billing data Conclusion In a nutshell, we can say that whether your migration is for small or large data, you need to process your data in an efficient way. In your data migration journey, Talend can be your partner for ensuring hassle-free migration. About Girikon Girikon – a global provider of quality IT services houses a team of skilled Salesforce professionals including Salesforce consultants, administrators and developers.

A new crisis Covid-19 has hit us suddenly and while it seems that the earth we are living in has stopped spinning and life around us is stuck, there is a ray of light that we are alive and not buckling down. Part of the reason I am saying so, is because you are reading this blog and we are still connected through the internet. We are ALIVE & will OVERCOME the challenges to get back  to normalcy like before. In this ever-evolving business landscape, the need of the hour is to be Agile in order to stay ahead of the competitors. If we fail to adapt ourselves as per the changing dynamics, we face the risk of being left out or await Lady luck to smile on us. Let’s cite the example of a product – the demad for which experiences a constant shift in different circumstances. So, how do businesses keep up with such changing demads?  The best way to deal with the challenge is to change the price of the product according to the demand. Seasonal fluctuation in demand also affect the business.To deal with this situation, we can offer seasonal pricing.Offering seasonal pricing means charging different pricing for the same product in different seasons. This is where Calendarize Pricing functionality comes into picture. What is Calendarize Pricing? Calendarize Pricing is the feature through which we can change the price of the product for a certain interval of time as per the business requirement. It is an automated process in which, once we set(either increase or decrease) the price of the product for a particular time period, it will automatically show the changed effective price for that time period.  Why do we need calendarize pricing? Today’s market is driven by customers and their requirements keep on changing. So, to deal with this changing environment,businesses should have access to solutions that can  scaled to fulfil the changing market requirements. It’s good to have a feature like ‘Calendarize Pricing’ especially for business that have global presence. People across different geographies have different requirement. For instance, a product finding wide acceptance and demand in a particular geographical region might not find equal demand or acceptance in other regions or geography. Calendarize pricing functionality is tailor developed in a way that allows users to set the pricing on different levels basis current market requirement.. Factors influencing the market There are many factors that influence the market and its demand. Listed below are few of the many factors that influence the market and the demand for a particular product: Inflation Recession Competition in the market More demand Different region Market always depends on the economic health of the country. Inflation and Recession are the two reflectors of this economic health.While moderate inflation is good for the economy, recession brings the economy to a standstill. Factors Influencing Pricing Decisions: As we can see in the picture, there are various internal factors like Cost, Company Objectives, Organisational Factors, Marketing Mix and Product Differentiation that influence the product pricing. For example if a company is expanding its business and entering into a new country, it would keep the price of the product low to capture the market. External Factors like Competition, Demand, Suppliers, Economical Conditions, Consumers, Government regulations etc. have a huge impact on deciding the price of a product. For instance, if we have tough competition in the market we will have to reduce the price of the product to gain the market and if the demand is high, we can sell the product at higher price and vice-e-versa. Advantages of Calendarize Pricing: Same product can have a different price for a different time period. Same product can have different price for the same event in different regions. Same price-book can be used for different regions As we don’t need to change the price-book, it saves effort and money. Easy management of price according to demand and supply. Applicable to any sales cycle but not restricted to any event vertical. Conclusion In today’s ever-evolving business landscape, change is the only constant. The only way to remain competitive is to keep evolving as per the changing market conditions. The same applies for a product, the demand of which is dependent on different market conditions. To sustain in a dynamic business environment, pricing of the product should be changed as per the existing market condition, geographical location and product demand.      The Calendarize Pricing functionality can be a handy solution for organizations looking to successfully deal with the current crisis, as well as the post epidemic situation.  About Girikon Girikon – a reputed name in the IT space offers businesses across different industries with wide array of end-to-end Salesforce implementation, Salesforce support and Salesforce consulting services.

 In today’s competitive business landscape maintaining positive customer relationships while ensuring business growth has become a challenge. To cater to the needs of your customers in the best possible way, it’s important to understand the behavior, preferences, and the pain points of your customers. This would help you drive ‘customer success’ and take it to the next level. What is customer success? When customers achieve desired results or value post interactions with your organization then customer success is achieved. It is contrary to customer support, where you or your customer support team manages to merely resolve the issues, which customers might have come up with. Rather customer success is all about a proactive approach of reaching out to customers, anticipating problems even before they happen, and providing with an appropriate solution by stepping into their shoes. A customer success manager forms a direct relationship with the customers provides them with value-added services. This helps customers to grow and achieve their goals while building a strong relationship with the business. Why do we Need a CSM (Customer Success Manager)? The role of a CSM within a business environment cannot be denied. They act as a bridge between the organization and the customers. Besides having in-depth knowledge of their customer’s business, a good customer success manager should have excellent communication skills, which allows them to comprehend and communicate common customer behaviors to the sales, marketing, and product teams. Another important quality, which a customer success manager should possess, is an in-depth understanding of your product. This would help them keep their customers updated about the product including their expiration dates, renewal dates, new product versions, and more. This is particularly important to retain your customers and earn their loyalty. Within a business environment, a customer success manager should have know-how about their offerings and provide a solution that will satisfy customers and provide them with the desired outcome. However, delivering an impactful solution to your customers requires gaining insights from data gathered from multiple touchpoints. How Salesforce can help? Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM which can be leveraged to seek support in the following areas: Subscription Management Gartner predicts that by 2020 over 80% of software vendors will change their business model from traditional license and maintenance to subscription-based services. Since Salesforce is cloud-based and 100% mobile compatible, you can access it anytime and from anywhere. With the help of dashboards, you can manage all of your subscriptions in real-time. Returning customers are always the most valuable assets for an organization and you as a customer success manager need to put forth your best foot to show them how much they mean to you. And since subscription-based business is the next big thing, Salesforce subscription management can turn out to be a deciding factor in Customer Success. Salesforce Communities Community Cloud is a Salesforce platform that can be used for connecting with customers, partners and employees. We can easily communicate with internal users and portal users, and external users.Using Salesforce Communities, you can: Drive more sales by connecting your employees with distributors and suppliers Deliver a great service by giving the customers one place to get answers   Automated Proposal Generation CPQ (Configure, Price, and Quote) software can help streamline the CPQ process so that sales reps can focus on other sales activities. They can automate the proposals and generate quotes so that they don’t have to do it manually all the time, which can save time and they can concentrate ontheir customers easily. CPQ produces accurate and highly configured sales quotes for customers, which allows them to not only sell more, but sell faster as it speeds up and automates the sales cycle. Contract Management & Renewals Opportunity object (with a customer “Renewal” record type) can be used to track renewals. With this, you can leverage Sales Cloud functionalities like pipeline, stages, reporting, etc. for your Customer Success team. This will allow you to build dashboards which will be useful in tracking renewal rate, churn rate, monthly recurring revenue etc.Sales Cloud can automate workflows for recurring actions, such as contract renewals and management approvals, which can further provide insights that help in maximizing productivity and profitability. Automation You can automate recurring and repetitive tasks using Salesforce. Workflow speeds up the work by automating email responses, field updates, and task assignments. You don’t want to contact your customers every time you need to renew their subscriptions, and neither the customers want the same. Also, remembering all the critical dates like Renewal date and Billing date is a headache. With Trigger and Workflows, you can create automation rules to automatically create and send out bills and email timely which makes things easy for you, as well as your customers. Support Management Salesforceresolves cases faster with visibility of all cases and a record of every customer interaction — all on a streamlined dashboard. It streamlines the pipeline for better customer service. Every interaction with customers via phone, voicemail, email or anything else about a case appears in the case history. Automated Data Load CSM’s can use Data Loader for the bulk import or export of data. They can use it to insert, update, delete, or export data into Salesforce so that your customers don’t have to do it manually. This eliminates the chances of errors or issues like data loss, data duplicity or any invalid data. Reports and Dashboards CSM’s can make informed decisions with real-time reports. Reports and Dashboards provide your team with deep insights of the customer and his business. The report is a list of data generated based on the pre-defined criteria. It has access to Salesforce data and can be used to display in terms of rows and columns whereas a dashboard is the graphical representation of the data generated by reports. CSM’s can create dashboards for each customer-facing and can view and analyze key data and trends across their customer base and get a better understanding of customer portfolio. Activities and Meetings  With Salesforce, you are able to get a 360-degree view of your customers along with each and every interaction you have had with them. It can capture all the activities so the entire team has visibility into the customer’s account. You can capture all the information via “Log a Call” or “Log a Meeting” feature in Salesforce which is very useful in tracking the Activities. You can even set an Activity Reminder as well to remind you about any activity scheduled. Quick Wrap-up: Customer Success Managers can use Salesforce to help customers achieve business value faster and work more effectively than ever before. By leveraging Salesforce, CSM’s can stay close to the customers and help them achieve the desired outcome and that too with a positive experience. In a nutshell, Salesforce plays an instrumental role in taking organizational success a notch higher by helping their customer achieve success in their endeavors.  About Girikon As providers of high-quality Salesforce consulting services, Girikon houses a team of experienced and certified Salesforce professionals including Salesforce consultants, and developers.  

Salesforce is the most trusted name in the world of CRM software. Salesforce has taken customizability to the next level by allowing its customers to choose between two different user interfaces: Salesforce Lightning, and Salesforce Classic. Salesforce Classic as the name suggests is the original and older version whereas Salesforce Lightning is the new version that carries several new features that aren’t available with ‘Classic’. What’s new in Salesforce Lightning? Salesforce Lightning is the latest version of the salesforce org’s interface. The intuitive and intelligent design will empower users to navigate the platform seamlessly and work with greater efficiency. This will influence better decisions and help teams to close more deals From Campaign, Leads, Contacts, and Accounts to Opportunity, Pricebook, and Products, etc everything has been re-organized to provide a modern visual appeal. The intent behind redesigning the interface was to make the tool,as well as the data more accessible to Sales Reps so that they can close more deals that too quickly. Let’s take a quick look at the Opportunity display screens images displayed below to draw a clear comparison between the two versions i.e. Salesforce classic and Salesforce Lightning: Salesforce Lightning Screen Salesforce Classic Screen Listed below are some features which have been introduced in SalesforceLightning: Customizable Home Page: Users can now customize their home page. Now they can show the information they need the most on the Homepage. Enhanced Reporting Lightning has the Lightning Report Builder which helps in creating improved reports. It also provides improved and efficient visual reporting which saves time involved in creating and reading reports. Columns on Dashboard In Lightning, Dashboards are not confined to 3 columns anymore. Activity Timeline With this Sales Reps can now easily keep a track of their planned and accomplished activities for a specific lead, account or opportunity. Lighting Experience Lightning Experience comes with no extra cost.   In the below image you can see list of new features introduced in Salesforce Lightning. Source of the above table – https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/lex_migration_introduction/lex_migration_introduction_rightforme   Key Benefits of Salesforce Lightning: Integration with Einstein AnalyticsEinstein Integration is available in both the Classic and Lightning Version of Salesforce for creating reports and dashboards, but the Lightning version has more integration with Einstein as compared to the Classic.Einstein is a game-changer in itself as it carries its own database that fetches the data from salesforce instance and updates reports and dashboards each hour automatically. It even comes with features like: Export Dashboard as a picture. Ability to edit widget on dashboard. Ability to do advance formula calculation. Improved Security Salesforce Lightning comes with enhanced security features like ‘Locker Service’. Locker Service helps in safeguarding the platform from malicious data by preventing Lightning components to interact with each other. Besides this ‘Locker’ uses the Content Security Policy to prevent cross-site scripting, which helps in avoiding code injecting attacks. Opportunities Kanban View It is a visualization tool for opportunities. In the Kanban view, Opportunities are displayed as cards. The lanes/columns in Kanban view represent the different stages of the Opportunity. Sales Reps can now change the Opportunity stage by simply dragging them from one column to another. Sales Reps can even customize, and personalize alerts on key deals.   New Design One of the major differences between the old and the new version of the salesforce is the User Interface. The Salesforce Lightning offers a better UI experience to its users as it includes features like news about key accounts and deals and performance charts, which were unavailable in the Classic version. No Extra Cost Salesforce Lightning doesn’t cost an extra penny more than theSalesforce Classic and remains pretty much the same. Long-time users of the Salesforce Classic can move to Salesforce Lightning without paying anything extra for a new license. Features Unavailable in Salesforce Lightning Listed below are some of the features that are unavailable in the new version: Custom JavaScript Buttons: Custom buttons that have JavaScript running in the backend in the Classic version will no longer be supported in Lightning. In the Lightning you will be able to replace JavaScript content by using tools like Process Builder, Visual Workflow, etc. Apps from AppExchange: Many apps that were working in theSalesforce Classic will not be supported in Salesforce Lightning unless they are made Lightning Ready. If any app is not supported in Salesforce Lightning, even then you can continue to use them in Salesforce Classic. Search: Salesforcehas completely revamped the way search used to work in Salesforce Lightning by removing the Sidebar Search and the Search All button. Which one should we Opt for? As the sayings goes “Old is Gold but New is Diamond”, in the same way Salesforce Classic was something huge in the early 2000’s but with revamped UI, enhanced analytics, better security, etc. Salesforce Lightning has become a preferred choice. Though the new version i.e Salesforce Lightning offers several new features over its classic counterpart, it’s important to measure the pros and cons of both the system before making a shift. About Girikon – As a Salesforce consulting partner, Girikon is an excellent Salesforce Implementation Partner as it helps businesses in the effective implementation of the Salesforce CRM.