salesforce consultants

In today’s business landscape, a successful enterprise must adopt a system that seamlessly integrates all departments and their respective business processes to enable them to interact and collaborate effortlessly. This is where Salesforce has established itself as the market leader in the CRM space.  Salesforce CRM sometimes popularly referred to as the Customer 360 platform, is a user-friendly solution with virtually limitless flexibility that connects teams across departments in an organization and drives growth. As a result, companies that use Salesforce see improvements in growth and efficiency. But to get the most out of what Salesforce CRM has to you need professional expertise. While most of the Salesforce products are centred around sales and customer service, Salesforce can be used for almost anything. And while the key Salesforce functions haven’t changed much – consultant, administrator, architect and developer, the specializations required based on the unique business needs of an organization have become quite apparent. One needs to have specialization on some of the key aspects of Salesforce to make the implementation count. Consultants don’t just bring in the necessary skills and experience for implementing the CRM platform. They also add significant value in being able to understand the customer. Not only in terms of business processes within the organization but also outside of that realm, such as the people who drive those processes. And they are an intrinsic part of the customer’s growth journey onwards of implementation. While businesses can provide the Salesforce implementation team with data and insight, certain things can only be understood by a specialist. This is where the Salesforce consultant role becomes important. They are trained with skills like attention to detail, analytical thinking and problem-solving along with hands on expertise on the platform. Why Is Salesforce so Popular? Salesforce upgrades its product offering three times a year. Which means every year they add new features and functionality to help existing and new business innovate rapidly. Salesforce is founded on a Customer-360 vision and promotes a collaborative work culture that brings people together and promotes productivity. The Salesforce online community provides help and support to the entire developer community to solve any business challenge The Salesforce platform has virtually limitless flexibility and businesses can create any number and kind of custom apps and integrations to support their business Salesforce allows you to automate routine business processes which frees up employee time to focus on core tasks. Salesforce is powered by an advanced AI engine which delivers qualified analytics on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your business. Here's where Salesforce Consultants add value across various phases As Part of an Implementation Team CRM implementation is a time-consuming effort and requires coordinated team effort. It would be a wise decision for a business to hire a specialist with extensive experience in Salesforce implementation since the Salesforce platform is complex and offers virtually limitless customization possibilities. Consequently, Salesforce consultants are in high demand across businesses that need the Salesforce CRM implementation. Here are the phases that require the services of a Salesforce Consultant: The Pre-Implementation Phase Before preparing a draft of the Salesforce implementation plan, a Salesforce consultant needs valuable insight from within the company. Information on the type and number of employees, the working structure of the company, regular business processes and workflows, are all important to understand how the organization works and what are its vital parts. The consultant needs to work closely with the business leaders within the organization to understand goals and expectations and current challenges and workflow bottlenecks During the Implementation Consultants play a vital role during the implementation phase as well. They are the link between the technical team – architects, administrators and developers who install and configure the platform and build and deploy custom apps, and the company. Their role is to maintain good communication between the two groups and ensure everything is well captured. After the Implementation The implementation is not over until the customer starts seeing results. After all, the technical implementation is just side of it. Once the technical tasks are completed, the implementation team also needs to train the users on the platform. Typically, this is another key responsibility area of a Salesforce consultant. It requires good communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills. Businesses are evolving continuously. And the software that they use needs to keep pace with it. Businesses need to add and upgrade their apps and workflows on an ongoing basis to stay ahead of the curve. If you are already using Salesforce in your organization, the presence of a Salesforce Consultant will help you to upgrade rapidly by building and deploying apps in an agile framework. And do to that you need a strong team of specialists. Moreover, just like every other complex platform, Salesforce also requires maintenance time to time. This is another key responsibility area of a consultant. As part of the organization Salesforce consultants also work in organizations that don’t do implementation for others. They just have enough in house needs. These are regular businesses that use the Salesforce platform and a small team of consultants to oversee the implementation, upgrades and maintenance activities. In this context, a Salesforce Consultant’s function is to make sure system performs perfectly and the users are able to use it easily. On top of that, they also discover methods to further enhance the customer experience through the use of the platform and make sure teams continue to communicate with each other. Shortage of Salesforce Professionals Currently, there just aren’t enough people trained in Salesforce to meet growing demands of this ecosystem. One of the key reasons is that Salesforce isn’t your run-of-the-mill software. It’s a specialised and complex product and unless you're a service provider or you are a part of an organization that uses Salesforce, it’s unlikely that you know much about it. Many of the Fortune 100 companies use Salesforce. IDC published an article in October 2017 saying that over 3 million jobs are expected to be there in the Salesforce ecosystem by end of 2022 through its network of partners. Salesforce has been growing at a brisk pace year on year, and so are their customers, consequently driving up the demand for Salesforce professionals to support that growth. And the skills one acquires as a Salesforce professional are highly transferable in case one wants to switch over to another industry. Developing Salesforce Skills Irrespective of your available budget, there are multiple options available to help one get familiar with Salesforce and develop skills in a certain are: Developer organisations— Sign up immediately for a free developer licence and start practising Trailhead, which is a Salesforce powered only community where one can get hands-on exposure to Salesforce and learn the technical and business skills one needs to succeed from anywhere for free. Girikon is a dedicated Gold Certified Salesforce Partner. Our relentless focus on understanding the unique needs of our customers combined with our rich expertise and experience on the Salesforce platform allows us to deliver value driven solutions to our clients. Contact us today to know more.

At the peak of COVID-19, merchants were making decisions in haste to provide the products and services that customers needed. Today, when the world is far more at ease, these makeshift solutions are now intensifying as shoppers have a plethora of options driving expectations to an all new high. Additionally, their patience is very limited now. In fact, research data across over 2000 retailers suggests that 80% of shoppers are very likely to abandon them after three bad experiences. Merchants need deeper the insights into customer behaviour to scale up their business. Here are top 4 trends that have been observed across the world on how the retail landscape is changing. Trend 1: Shopping journeys get more complex During the 2 years of COVID, three types of digital channels grew their transaction share by almost 40%: brand websites, retailer websites and apps, and online marketplaces. This of course includes transactions through their apps as well. In the process, associated channels like delivery apps, social media, and messaging platforms have also become prominent players in the digital commerce eco system, with a growth of over 20%. As the range of shopping channels continues to expand, shopping journeys have got more and more complex. The purchasing journey has become fragmented and complex. It is imperative for brands and merchants to develop a one-on-one relationship with customers across platforms namely social media, messaging platforms, and video to stay relevant. Social media, influencers, and messaging apps have become hugely popular today for product discovery. For making a purchase, social media, digital wallets and email are the leading digital destinations. And when buyers need customer support, they mostly turn to chatbots and social media. Trend 2: The store goes digital Although transactions through brick-and-mortar stores decreased significantly during the pandemic, the physical store still plays an important role in the shopping journey. In fact, reports indicate that over 80% of the global merchandise sales happened at physical stores in 2020. The primary reasons shoppers prefer to visit a physical store are firstly, to touch and feel the product, secondly one gets immediate delivery of the merchandise and finally to avoid logistics costs. However, shoppers today are blurring the lines between digital and physical channels while they are in the store. Many shoppers today research about a product on the retailer’s app while still being in the sore before making a purchase. To compliment this trend, brands and retailers are connecting the in-store experience with an increasing number of digital touchpoints. The role of the store associate is growing as well. At the peak of COVID, store associates evolved from the routine scanning and bagging to becoming customer service reps, product recommenders, and brand influencers. And these roles are more than likely to stay, which makes the role of the store associate in the customer journey far more intriguing. Trend 3: The loyalty game has gone a few notches up Loyalty programs are continuously evolving based on shopper expectations. Although a points-based loyalty program is still the most preferred method today, data indicates that younger generations are seeking a more experience-based journey that establishes a deeper connection with the brand. Millennials today value exclusive access to limited products and richer experiences far more than ever when it comes to loyalty programs. Shoppers are also seeking rewards for their transactions. They are willing to take a further step such as downloading an app or writing an online review and sharing personal information like their birthday or phone number for a more personalized experience and loyalty benefits. Trend 4: Brands and Retailers and brands fast track unified shopping experiences Most customers expect brands and retailers to recognise their unique needs and expectations, but only a portion of them have the capability to turn data into personalized offerings in real time across channels and touchpoints. To address this customer expectation, and to address the challenges associated with delivering that expectation, retailers and brands are adopting a threefold approach: HIRING MORE DATA SCIENTISTS Retailers are actively working to hire more data scientists. And this trend is expected to grow further into 2023. This trend that brands and retailers have the opportunity to overhaul their loyalty programs to meet the rising customer expectations and their openness to share personal data. ADOPTING A UNIFIED ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM Many retailers and brands today are already in the planning stage for such a platform, which allows them to access and monetise customer data by engaging with them at a deeper level. UPGRADING POINT-OF-SALE TECHNOLOGY Going forward, the pint of sale (POS) will become a critical part of a unified customer engagement platform. In fact, new retailers are already adopting this approach and are moving to a cloud solution. The in-store digital experience is key for engaging with customers and driving sales. Here are some tips on now to enhance customer experience. Empower associates with the tools that drive sales As we mentioned before, store associates are adopting extended functional roles such as customer service, ecommerce, and social media experts to engage with shoppers. To be able to wear multiple hats successfully, store associates need access to customer data along with user friendly digital tools. This is where a CRM platform like Salesforce comes into play. Associates can access complete customer profile with information on purchase history, buying preferences, demographic data, customer satisfaction score, and more. To get associates up to speed quickly, Salesforce provides digital learning platforms like myTrailhead that bring associates up to speed on how to handle every aspect of digital and physical transactions. Brands and retailers can reskill associates for routine store tasks such as picking, sorting, packing, and shipping to support the fulfilment journey. Store managers can learn to use digital tools to analyze data, access insights and act on them faster than ever. Maintain real time inventory levels The greatest enemy of customer satisfaction is out-of-stock inventory.  Most shoppers are interested in pre-ordering new or out-of-stock items. This is especially true for fast moving items. Stores can manage inventory levels with a flexible and robust order management system. The order management system connects data across your warehouses and stores to give associates the most accurate status of current inventory. That translates to happy customers. Offer multiple digital payment options Customers need more payment options, period. Having just a credit card machine won’t do. In the era of digital, stores need payment types that are minimally invasive and streamline checkout for customers. Level up store fulfilment During the peak of the pandemic, there was a scramble to buy online or pick up in store. In fact, some retailers even turned some of their stores to micro-fulfilment centers. Make sure to: Clearly communicate important details to customers, such as where to pick up their items from and when. Clearly communicate to customers what identification they need to provide to pick up their orders  Establish a seamless connect with customer service channels so that shoppers can easily chat with an agent to resolve any issues Offer personalized product recommendations to customers based on their purchase Augment customer service across channels with a personal touch Customers love the physical experience, personal touch and immediacy that is intrinsic to in-store shopping. It will be wise extend that experience to your customer service channels. And one of the best ways to achieve this is to train associates by having them help out customer service agents during peak season. Another important consideration is to encourage self-service for customers. Keep your help centre up to date for customers to find their way around. Integrate workflows that guide customers through tasks like how to initiate a return to a nearby store. Use AI-powered chatbots to scale support during sales or holiday seasons. Lastly, adopt asynchronous modes of communication like messaging apps. They keep the conversation going and provide a history of past interactions. Train associates and empower them to resolve customer issues over digital channels and incorporate customer feedback to evolve the experience. Develop a loyal customer base, especially in the era of vibrant social media. Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Consultant and can help you set up a strategy to connect with your customers like never before. Questions? We’ll guide you to the right path CONTACT AN EXPERT

Customer relationships are the cornerstone of an organisation's growth, and you need to nurture and manage them efficiently and smartly. Salesforce is the world’s No1 CRM platform for businesses of all sizes. Salesforce provides out-of-the-box solutions that let growing businesses implement cutting-edge technology with minimum effort and connect all of the systems that are important to them. And has been recognised by leading user review organisations and industry analysts and as the market leader in CRM technology, Before we go deeper into what CRM technology can do for you, let us answer the basic question – Does my business need a CRM solution? If any of these is true for you, then the right CRM solution could make your job a whole lot easier. 1.You don’t have a single source of customer information. Does your company have customer and order information in multiple locations? If yes, then that's one glaring reason why you need a CRM. A CRM brings together all of your customer data from sales, marketing, service and support into one place allowing you to access, track, analyse, and act on it straightaway, from anywhere. If you store customer data in spreadsheets, then not just your sales reps but anyone who interacts with your customers is at a disadvantage. When information is modified in one system, other systems do not update automatically. There is no holistic, unified view of all of your customer data such as contact information, purchase info, and communication logs. 2. You have very limited visibility of customer interactions. Do you have a complete, single view of all customer information? If not, then you don’t have insight into what your salespeople and customer support teams are doing. It’s hard to help your sales and service teams be successful and accountable if you’re not sure what they are doing. 3. Reports are tedious and painful. Does your team go through the arduous process of creating reports manually? If that is true, your performance-tracking capabilities are extremely limited. You should be generating reports automatically and view real time analytics of your sales team’s progress versus their targets. 4. You’re losing valuable customer data. IF you are not sure what you’re following up on, it is going to be very hard for you to schedule follow-up interactions with customers and prospects. If your interactions across touchpoints aren’t being tracked, important details get lost through the cracks, especially if a key staff member leaves your organization. 5. It’s challenging to stay in touch on the go. Can you sales reps quickly and easily find the information they need to close a deal when they are in the field? When they are meet prospects and come across valuable information, does the rest of your organization have access to it? Information captured in handwritten notes and on PCs is a potential gold mine.  6. Every customer is treated the same. Are your customers and prospects getting similar types of messages and offers from you? If that is true, you’re missing out on potential opportunities. You want the to be able to target prospects based on their industry, geography, and the value they can bring to your business to make the most of every interaction. 7. Can you scale fast? If you company grows rapidly, can your business processes scale just as quickly as the demand? You cannot afford to let your own processes be the impediment to your success. What can you do with Salesforce? Focus on customer success. Salesforce was founded on one simple principle: to help customers be more successful. This one philosophy has been the driving force behind a culture of constant innovation on the platform. Salesforce has built and fostered an entire ecosystem around customer success and packed it with a vast network of partners and independent software vendors, and a vibrant digital community. Augment your sales, service, and marketing initiatives with solutions tailored specifically for small businesses. Salesforce provides cutting edge tools that help small businesses find and attract new customers, earn their business, and keep them happy for life. Salesforce allows you to easily connect your existing systems so you can build more engaging relationships with your customers and grow your business faster than ever. By virtue of being cloud-based, Salesforce has no upfront costs as compared to on-premise software. It completely eliminates the need for expensive hardware or IT support, so you can get up and running on fast. Maintenance and upgrades happen automatically on the Salesforce platform, and issues are resolved in a matter of minutes, not days or weeks. This translates to far less downtime, and lower maintenance costs, and you can spend more time on what matters most which is growing the business. According to Salesforce, their CRM customers have seen 38% faster decision-making, a 25% jump in revenue, and a 35% increase in customer satisfaction. Adopt the platform that grows with you Small and medium-sized businesses need to be sure that the technology that drives their business will scale with the organisation’s growth. With Salesforce, the possibilities are endless, and you can add functionality with just a few clicks. Why would you not grow your business using a secure, and scalable platform that is surprisingly easy to customize and upgrade without any downtimes? Salesforce is the world’s only true Customer Success Platform. With Salesforce, you can connect every part of your business and get a single, unified, 360 customer view you need to deliver success to your customers, at every stage of your growth journey. Get access to cutting-edge technology and innovation Not only is Salesforce focused on delivering true customer success, but also to re-define the way business is conducted across industries. Salesforce’s superior and secure cloud technology allows it to automatically roll out new features, product upgrades, and path-breaking technology to all users simultaneously, three times every year without any additional costs. With Salesforce your business can grow faster than ever. Here's how CRM technology from Salesforce can empower you to be more connected with your customers, augment business performance, and fast track your company’s growth: 1. Find the right customers. You have spent resources and time on attracting and generating new leads, but now what? Are they getting passed on to your sales team, and if so, are your sales reps aware which are the hottest opportunities? Time is critical for small businesses who want to grow fast. You can make the most of your marketing tools such as email, social media and marketing automation software by connecting them to Salesforce with minimum effort. Give your sales and marketing teams a unified 360 view of leads and prospects, allowing them to create and target effective and engaging campaigns to convert prospects into real customers and facilitate faster decision making. 2. Foster sustainable relationships. Develop a deeper understanding of your customer’s business starting with a holistic view of their engagement history with your organization build a strong and lasting relationship based on trust and mutual success. Salesforce CRM can help you in the following ways: Explore customer challenges: Find out what matters to customers such as business goals, preferences and challenges with every interaction and ensure regular follow-up action. Record notes in Salesforce so that in your next interaction you can start from exactly where you left off after a quick review. Engage with relevancy: Once you understand a business challenges and goals of a customer, you can recommend appropriate products that are relevant to their business interests, at the right time. With Salesforce, you can keep a track of what products or services they have purchased and how they're using them, so you can push the most relevant content and information. Scale your 1-to-1 relationships: As a small business, your customers love you for the personalised experiences you deliver; but as you grow, it becomes more and more challenging to know the details of every activity of every customer. This makes following up with them all the more daunting, especially when to follow up with them when growth kicks in. Salesforce allows you to host a vast template library of email, set up reminders, and enable phone calls from within Salesforce to help you connect with customers easily and quickly. 3. Reduce the cost of sales New customers are a key constituent of continued growth, and they don’t come easily or cheaply. The good news is that with Salesforce CRM, you can offset customer acquisition costs through sales to your existing customer base. Salesforce comes loaded with tools and resources that provide greater visibility into the upsell, cross-sell, and renewal opportunities in your customer portfolio. With Salesforce CRM you will see an increase in repeatable sales because of the trust you’ve already established. Salesforce CRM can help you augment business performance by: Improving sales efficiency: Give precedence to leads and opportunities that are most likely to close based on customer interactions. Improving sales effectiveness: Get visibility on which customers are engaged with you and determine what is the right time to reach out with an optimal response. Increasing upsell and cross-sell opportunities: Get a 360 view of opportunities that are a good fit for deals already in progress. Uncovering referral business: Discover untapped opportunities in existing relationships Reducing time to close: With a 360-degree view of your customer, align your teams on the next steps to close a deal. 4. Increase employee productivity Adopting the right technology frees up your teams from process-heavy tasks and gives them more time to do what matters most – connecting with customers. Manual tasks like searching for contact information or entering data can be automated or even eliminated from customer-centric processes. Automation across sales, service, and marketing will enable your sales reps to spend more time interacting with prospective customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones. Give your teams the tools they need to maintain focus on selling. Salesforce CRM allows you to automate mundane repetitive tasks, so your sales team can sell smarter and faster. 5. Offer better customer service A product is only as good as the service that comes along with it. Don't flood your prospects inbox with multiple marketing promotions that will annoy or scare them away. If you flounder after a sale, you would have wasted the time and effort that went into acquiring a valuable customer. When your teams can get access to a customer’s complete history instantly, everyone can quickly deliver personalised messages and solutions, using the right resources. Smoother interactions help build trust and facilitate repeat business. 6. Improve customer retention 360-degree visibility of all your relationships allows teams to proactively address at-risk accounts and offer new opportunities at just the right time to a satisfied customer. When you have a clear view of customer history, case history, and campaigns, you can deliver more satisfying purchases and service experiences that compel them to keep coming back for more. If you invest your time wisely today, the resulting strong customer relationships will pay rich dividends for years to come. We at Girikon understand that great technology alone is not enough to ensure success. Our Salesforce Consultants will support you throughout your journey of digital transformation to ensure that you become a company that clients love to work with. Questions? Our reps have answers. CONTACT AN EXPERT

Salesforce – a cloud-based CRM has a record of being the most widely adopted CRM platform by businesses of different sizes and domains. With its wide array of features and functionalities, Salesforce has helped businesses achieve their business goals. Salesforce has helped businesses supercharge their selling process by augmenting collaboration, creating personalized experiences, and removing data silos. Like any other sector, Salesforce has revolutionized the healthcare sector by ensuring better collaboration among health care teams, augmenting patient-provider relationships, and eventually attaining enhanced health outcomes.    The Salesforce Health Cloud released in 2016 has exhibited several advantages for the healthcare sector. To know more about Salesforce and its benefits, it makes sense to partner with one of the best Salesforce consultants. Let's explore some of them: Get a Complete View of Patients: It is possible to get a clear picture of every individual's profile, including their data (non-clinical and clinical), communications, demographics, and other essential information from claims system, EHR, and more from a central location. Empower Patients: This cloud solution empowers patients and healthcare providers to track the progress of health goals. It is possible to connect in real-time to address patients' queries or family members' queries from a single device.   Provide Quicker Personalized Care: With this cloud solution, it is possible to monitor cases and prioritize tasks based on instant needs and degree of importance. Apart from this, it is possible to section inhabitants in terms of demographics, risk, and other parameters while collaborating across the entire network of care providers while setting reminders for patient follow-up. Enhance EHR: Since it is possible to access the right data at the right time, earning patients' trust becomes easy. Health Cloud enables users to unravel EHR systems and integrate apps securely and flexibly. Why Should Healthcare providers use Salesforce? Connect Disparate Data Sources: Removing data siloes is what Salesforce is known for. An average system uses multiple systems such as EHR, Insurance claims system, billing information, lab reports, etc. This wealth of data is scattered across several systems and therefore isn't very useful. By using APIs, all types of data can be integrated securely with Salesforce. Besides this, tools like Mulesoft Accelerator reduces the burden on IT teams. By efficiently bringing together disparate patient data in a single place, healthcare providers are empowered to make better decisions and spend more time on patient care.  Make Intelligent Use of Data: Salesforce can be leveraged to improve health outcomes by using its analytical capabilities on data. Tools like Tableau, formerly known as Einstein Analytics, provides healthcare providers with actionable insights so that patient need can be proactively fulfilled by anticipating their needs. It is also possible to identify high-risk patients via risk stratification to get enrolled in the right health care management program. In other words, Salesforce empowers healthcare providers to make data-driven decisions, ultimately leading to greater patient-provider satisfaction. Collaboration of Care Team: Salesforce empowers healthcare providers to create a team that would include members of the patient care community, including physicians, household caregivers, or any one part of the healthcare journey. This becomes possible as Salesforce Health cloud develops on the capabilities of the service cloud. Individuals can assign tasks, send messages from any device, or view care management plans based on their team position. In short, it is a win-win situation for patients and providers.  Personalized Experiences: Consumers today expect personalized experiences across their journey with a brand. With Salesforce, it is possible to personalize every step of a customer's healthcare journey. Contact center agents can offer precise and tailor-made answers to patient queries as it is easy to access relevant information from visual care timelines and patient data cards. By consolidating clinical and non-clinical data in a single place, personalized care plans can be created. Besides this, healthcare providers can also address specific requirements of patients even before patients bring them up.  Moreover, based on patient preference, patient communication can be handled through calls, messages, or an online Salesforce portal. The innumerable opportunities of personalization offered by Salesforce can deepen patient-provider relationships, build trust and lead to better health outcomes. Data Security: For healthcare organizations, data security is of utmost significance. Breach in data security will not just put patient safety at stake but can cost millions. Salesforce allows organizations to stay in control of their data by staying HIPAA and HITRUST compliant. Healthcare organizations can ensure that electronically protected health information (ePHI) is encrypted and can be accessed only by authorized users using Health cloud associated with Salesforce Shield. Irrespective of the restricting nature of the regulatory guidelines, Salesforce paves the way for advancement. Healthcare companies can pick from the vast array of the available native Apps present on the App Exchange platform to add functionality to improve processes without compromising on data security.  The Bottom Line: As we step into the New Year while enduring the pandemic, healthcare providers require operating as efficiently while offering first-rated care. Besides ensuring the aforesaid, Salesforce Health Cloud can provide a 360-degree view of a patient, which paves the way for intelligent data usage at every stage of the patient care journey. This empowers healthcare providers to offer services that best meet patient expectations. Healthcare providers should consider contacting certified and experienced Salesforce Implementation partners to implement Salesforce Health Cloud. By creating innovative healthcare solutions, implementation partners will empower organizations to meet the evolving needs of today’s healthcare industry. All the healthcare players such as hospitals, nursing homes, pharmaceuticals etc. can benefit from custom solutions offered by these service providers.

Today, Salesforce is the world's no 1 CRM platform, and for good reason too. Companies all around the globe are moving their business applications to the cloud and the world’s no1 CRM platform provides the power, flexibility, and intelligence that businesses need to drive productivity, efficiency, and growth. Salesforce not only eliminates the erstwhile need for maintaining expensive development and support teams but also the cost of outages due to failure at the hardware, software, or application level. And while there are thousands of organizations (whether for profit or not) who have benefited immensely from the deployment of Salesforce apps, the reality is that a high percentage of them are not getting the most out of the CRM platform. In fact, a substantial number of these projects fail. Having said that, there is one thing that all the successful ones did right. And that was choosing the right Salesforce Consulting Partner. And this is precisely what we are going to assist you with today. How do you get maximum value out of your investment into Salesforce? How do you choose the best Salesforce Consultant? And how good a fit is that choice of partner for your business? With hundreds of partners listed on AppExchange, how do you decide which one is perfect for you? These questions and many more are at top of the minds of all new adopters of the world’s no1 CRM platform. Our teams of experts have shortlisted top 8 qualifiers that will answer these questions for you and guide you on how to choose the right partner for your business. Identify needs and expectations – Let’s get one thing straight. Before looking for someone to solve your problem, you need to very clearly identify what that problem is. And once you have done that, you need to set your expectations. Identify very clearly the support goals you want to fulfill and what qualities you are seeking from your partner. Very clearly spell out the key variables – budget, results, scope, and timelines. Collaborate with your teams. There is no point in implementing a new solution if your teams are not inclined to use it and or they haven’t been involved in the whole decision-making process. Once you have your needs and expectations worked out, and your teams on-boarded, start looking. Experience – This is the most important criteria for shortlisting a prospective partner. After all, you are expecting them to re-invent your business, or at least a part of it. Find out if they have a great experience not only in the salesforce domain but have they worked with customers like you. From your industry. Solving problems and challenges like the ones you currently have. Are they Gold Partners? How long have they had a dedicated salesforce practice? How have they grown? What size are they today? Understand their journey as a Salesforce Consultant. Reviews and Feedback – A partner is doing great work if their customers are saying great things about them. There is no greater testament to success than genuine customer feedback. Salesforce AppExchange is a great place to find such reviews on prospective partners. Besides reviews, you will also get to know many other important aspects about the company like key people, experience, certifications, areas of expertise, awards, etc.  Implementation Methodology   Implementation Methodology – When you are looking to work with a Salesforce Consultant, it is important you understand the consultant’s implementation approach. Look up their website, go through white papers and case studies and understand how they approach the problem.  Choose a partner who adopts a collaborative approach with customers and is not afraid to get creative with them. Ask them specifics like what tools they use, their familiarity with the latest updates in the salesforce platform. What training approach do they adopt? And very important- What is their collaborative review and iterate methodology? Do they have a Customer-Centric Culture? Involve your key team members and request a demo of their experience and approach. Support – Like any other software, Salesforce implementation is not a one-time affair. Businesses evolve, and particularly in today's context, they are ever so dynamic. Software needs to keep up with these changing times. And your Salesforce Implementation Partner needs to stay on top of all updates. Before you sign on a Salesforce Consultant, discuss with them about how will they support your business post implementation? Your business needs a partner that can support you 24/7. Someone who treats your business like his/her own. Understand how they are providing post-implementation support to their existing customers. Ask them to share case studies. Make sure they don’t prioritize larger projects over yours. Work with someone who has a Salesforce Managed Support Program as part of their implementation methodology. Pricing Ensure that you have a clear understanding of their pricing structure. Ask them questions like What are the charges for understanding your needs and recommending a solution and designing an appropriate implementation strategy? Do your hourly rates include all charges or are there separate charges /extra fees on top of that? What are the itemized support fees? What is the fee structure for the different consultants deployed on the project? Or is it a blended tariff? Make sure the overall pricing fits into your budget and keep sufficient margins for spillovers. Passion This is a little hard to come by and perhaps even harder to quantify, but it’s important. You want your Salesforce Consultant to treat your business like their own. You want them to work in close collaboration with your teams to work towards achieving common goals. After all, once you sign up, you are all on the same side of the table. Make sure the partner is passionate about technology and believes strongly in its ability to drive performance, productivity, and growth. In short, they must see your success as their own. Location Borders are almost non-existent in the digital landscape today, especially so in today’s context where physical business meet-ups are the last resort. The world has moved to online collaboration across continents. However, providence may be in working with a Salesforce Consulting Partner that is geographically close to you. Not only will this eliminate the challenges of communicating across time zones, but it will give you the opportunity to work more closely with the consulting team. Once you have identified the right partner, work on developing a long-term engagement strategy. Collaborate actively involving your teams to exchange creative ideas and unique experiences you both have. Talk about what direction you want the business to take. Like in any other relationship, trust your partner to identify risks, establish possibilities, and envision potential. At Girikon, we strongly believe that technology is a very potent driver for growth. Using the tools and features available to us through the Salesforce platform, we can help your teams transform not only the way you manage your business but also the way you look at it.

The retail sector is figuring out new ways to stay at the top. Given the rise in online sales and digital buyers, retailers require introducing robust digital solutions that can help eCommerce businesses gain an edge over their competitors. One such solution that is tailored to meet the specific needs of online retailers is the Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Companies should consider leveraging Salesforce Integration services. What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?  Salesforce Commerce Cloud, earlier known as Demandware, is an eCommerce solution that was designed to help retailers provide a unique shopping experience to users irrespective of the channel they are using. The robust solution offers rich features to help retailers better engage with shoppers and ultimately convert them.  What are the Key Solutions Offered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud? Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers numerous solutions that are customizable as businesses can pick functionalities and services to suit their specific business needs:  B2C Commerce: This solution is designed to transform the digital shopping experience for customers across different channels. Its primary purpose is to engage the brand and the shoppers irrespective of which channel they purchase from. This functionality covers everything from handling order lifecycle, creating marketing campaigns and customer-oriented promotions. These solutions help organizations improve their customer support teams, augment the rate of customer satisfaction, personalize customer experience while providing them with relevant information before and after they have made the purchase. B2C commerce cloud utilizes AI technology to predict customer behavior and provide recommendations to help clients find the products they are looking for.   B2B Commerce: Capturing the attention of business buyers might be difficult. B2B commerce is a solution to meet the complex needs of customers while entering the market spread across various industries. B2B commerce helps businesses respond to the growing competition and constantly evolving requirements while introducing innovation in their business operations. The robust solution provides buyers with a self-serving buying experience while simplifying online shopping by automating invoicing, billing, and reordering operations. Order Management: The key to online sales success is proper order management. Organizations can leverage Salesforce Order Management solutions to automate multiple operations related to the management of inventory, fulfilment of orders, payments, etc. Besides this, the solution also covers challenges related to return and refund policies allowing customers to feel more comfortable while shopping online. Benefits Offered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud:  Predict Customer Behaviour: Salesforce CRM with AI integrated within it and known as Salesforce Einstein eliminates the need to analyze data gathered manually. It does away with the need for third-party integration. The AI-powered CRM also predicts customer behavior, recommends personalized product offers, and automates repetitive tasks to save time and money. Providing customers with special offers, loyalty programs, and discounts makes it possible to enhance their overall experience. Improved Marketing Management: When combined with the marketing cloud, the Salesforce commerce cloud solution allows marketers to create promotion and marketing campaigns to create more clients. The cloud solution can manage everything from social media campaigns, paid promotions, email marketing, and reporting. Apart from this, another benefit of using this tool is the ability to run A/B tests to optimize conversions. Mobile Experience: To sustain this competitive business landscape, retailers require a mobile-friendly website with an intuitive design. With Commerce Cloud, marketers can deliver the best possible shopping experience for mobile customers irrespective of the device they use. Commerce Cloud follows a mobile-first approach to allow its users to access features anywhere and anytime.  Scalability and Customization: For businesses looking to venture into new markets or have attained a certain level of growth when they need to scale up their resources, Commerce Cloud offers customizable and scalable solutions. Businesses can start with essential features and allow more functionality on the go. It means that companies will have to pay only for answers that they need without including any useless features. Final Words:  Solutions offered by Salesforce empower businesses of all sizes to expand and meet the constantly growing customer demand. So, if you wish to remain competitive in the retail industry, driving digital transformation across the entire organization is a must. Suppose you are looking to implement Salesforce commerce within your business ecosystem. In that case, you must seek professional support from one of the most experienced and reliable Salesforce consultants who can help your business grow and thrive.

BI has been around for many years and uses techniques such as data warehousing, data mining, and predictive analytics to provide users with the insights to make informed business decisions. Business Intelligence software bridges the gap between an extensive collection of unstructured data and meaningful insights. One such popular business intelligence software is the Salesforce Analytics Cloud that can be leveraged by medium and large-scale companies to explore, analyze and manage customer data gathered from different sources quickly and efficiently. It is essential to get in touch with one of the best Salesforce consultants to implement and make the most of this software. This robust cloud-based program is powered by Einstein Analytics and Tableau. Using the Salesforce Analytics Cloud, it is possible to explore data rapidly, the outcomes of which will be displayed through several layers of dynamic visualization over underlying data sets. With Salesforce Analytics Cloud, data representations can be viewed from all devices, including smartphones, PC and tablets. Besides revealing the current trends and decline in productivity, this comprehensive tool also shows why and why they took place. Designed and developed to bring the CRM data together, the platform allows managers to alleviate issues while augmenting overall business performance.  Features of Salesforce Analytics Cloud: Some of the prominent features of Salesforce analytics cloud include the following: Mobile-Friendly: Salesforce Analytics Cloud is highly mobile-friendly as it allows users to view, screen, arrange, measure, and share data from their mobile devices. It is easy to connect, modify, and deploy data anytime and from anywhere. This feature is helpful for the field workers, such as the customer service representatives who are commonly on the field. Dynamic Visualization Engine: Designed especially for business users and data builders, Salesforce analytics cloud provides a rapid visualization engine that showcases how charts affect each other. Besides providing users with interactive visuals and quick searches, the App provides users with critical business knowledge, which helps them make informed decisions.  Multiple Dashboards: A business will have various data sources depending on its business type. Data of all forms, i.e., structured or unstructured, and sources, i.e., ERP, website, CRM, social media, RFID sensors, etc., can be gathered and explored by Salesforce Analytics Cloud. Apart from this, for different datasets, different dashboards can be created.  Native Salesforce Integration: Since the App is built natively on Salesforce, there will be no synchronization issues as the complete data is placed on Salesforce. By using pre-existing tools, workflow rules, data fields etc., the data can be customized and tailored. Data gets stored securely in the Salesforce servers, and it’s simple to roll out updates. Benefits of Salesforce Analytics Cloud: Explore data Anywhere & Anytime: Salesforce Analytics cloud provides users to view and easily access data from multiple sources by utilizing the visualization capabilities of Tableau. Users can use the pre-built apps and in-built dashboards to explore the data.  AI-powered recommendations: Users can get AI-powered suggestions and explanations with the Einstein Analytics module of the Salesforce Analytics Cloud. The App will analyze millions of data combinations to provide data-driven insights, trends, and events, which will allow users to make informed decisions.  Access Integrated Solutions: Data exploration will be simplified for users if they leverage the Salesforce Analytics cloud-integrated natively with Salesforce sales and service cloud. Besides recognizing trends, they will be able to check KPIs. The availability of Tableau and Einstein Analytics at various levels for matching different industry verticals ensures that users find the right App to make the most CRM data.   Quick Wrap-up: Salesforce analytics cloud is an excellent tool for drawing insights from business data to help organizations make informed decisions. To meet the unique needs of their business, organizations should get in touch with a reliable Salesforce consultant who can empower them to make the most of their data by leveraging Salesforce analytics solutions.