Salesforce Implementation

Every customer is unique. And they are demanding too! In general, customers like to know if the experience they are going to have is personalized for them or not. In fact, in a survey conducted by Salesforce across customers, it was found that 86% of them admitted that personalization played a role in their purchasing decisions. But customers aren’t the only ones who prefer customization. Businesses around the world are equally uninterested in consuming products and services that are designed for mass consumption.  They want something that fits seamlessly with their unique processes and is flexible, intuitive, and effective. Salesforce does all this and more. The World’s No1 CRM Platform was designed specifically for configuration and customization. It comes with a plethora of unique features, tools, and resources enabling businesses to create custom apps that are aligned with their business goals and objectives. However, unlocking its true power requires a deep understanding of its customizable nature across different industries. And this is exactly where a competent Salesforce Implementation Partner comes in. With the right Salesforce Consultant and a methodically executed implementation plan, you can send the productivity of your teams into overdrive and unlock the real value of your business. If you can’t trust a CRM platform to meet your unique business needs, then it’s likely you won’t get much use out of it. Salesforce features a totally open eco-system, which means you can extend Salesforce to accomplish any task, with apps for every business need. CRM + UX: The ultimate customer experience Customers aren’t just demanding vanilla products and services anymore; they are seeking an enriching experience. They are demanding convenience and deeper engagement throughout the business lifecycle. With exponential growth in technology-related products, tools, and services, coupled with today’s dynamic and unpredictable context, it is imperative for businesses to live up to these demands and offer their customers the ultimate experience. How your business delivers products and services to your customers is as important as what you deliver.  Salesforce provides you with that elusive combination of power, flexibility, and tools at your fingertips to effortlessly execute code-less customization to suit your needs. So how does one go about customizing Salesforce to align with your business goals? Identify opportunities and bridge gaps An important step before the Salesforce implementation begins is to conduct a thorough assessment of current business processes and identify inadequacies and redundancies. Focus on processes that are a drain on your resources. Identifying gaps and shortcomings early is critical to a successful implementation. This is where the role of a Salesforce Consultant becomes so important. Discuss with your Salesforce Implementation Partner and answer some key questions like -How do you customize Salesforce to enhance adoption? How do you maximize your ROI? How do you reduce the learning curve? Discuss with your Salesforce Implementation Partner to understand which features are most helpful to address these gaps. Add additional functionality into your implementation by using custom codes or extended features, that is more end-user-focused and aligned with your overall goals and objectives. Look beyond standard Salesforce functionality. Customize! It’s a certain way to drive adoption. Businesses must understand that a successful Salesforce implementation is a result of team effort as well as collaboration across departments and stakeholders. The implementation plan needs to be communicated to all concerned teams and all stakeholders need to buy into this new process of doing business. Focus on usability Salesforce has countless features and options, and this can be a deterrent to early adopters. Work with your Salesforce Consultant to configure the software in a way so as to present relevant data and components to optimize your business workflows. Salesforce Lightning (discussed later) can be used for enhancing productivity and drive adoption rates. Automate Automate repetitive tasks. By customizing templates, standardizing workflows, and automating repetitive tasks, you can significantly improve adoption rates. Businesses can now automate faster using something called Flows. You can download configurable prebuilt processes with flow templates and use the flow builder to integrate stand-alone building blocks. Leverage AppExchange Salesforce AppExchange is a great place to find relevant tools and plugins to get you off the blocks quickly. AppExchange is a unified ecosystem that is used for creating and running all of the personalized applications that an organization might need. Whether you are a new user or an existing one, you can discover free, customizable, customer-recommended solutions built by Salesforce developers to help you address common business issues.  Whether it is tracking employee progress, oversight of projects, streamlining repetitive tasks, fast-tracking automation, or kick-starting app building, chances are that you will find a solution to your problem on AppExchange. You can effortlessly customize these tools with an intuitive drag and drop interface and get going. Although it is possible for businesses to build and run their own apps without the Salesforce platform, AppExchange has certain inherent advantages over other potential options: Intuitive interface. You may have a clear understanding of what you want apps to deliver for you. However, on most occasions, knowledge transfer of your goals and vision can create gaps in understanding between your developers and you. Leading to ineffective creation of apps. AppExchange features an intuitive and easy-to-master interface, so that your teams can build and deploy precise apps. This means more effective systems, and as a result, more productivity Short development times. AppExchange provides users with effortless, drag-and-drop elements empowering users to quickly create custom, business-centric apps, potentially in a matter of hours. Multiple development tools. Organizations are no more restricted to a limited choice of development tools. Salesforce brings together three powerful development tools — Force.com, Heroku Enterprise, and Lightning — empowering app developers with the flexibility to choose what they want in order to get the job done. Prebuilt apps. Why re-invent the wheel? It’s likely that what you are seeking to deploy is already there on the AppExchange. You can discover thousands of existing third-party apps in the world’s largest enterprise app marketplace. Customize as you want and deploy in an agile framework. Limitless possibilities. AppExchange is the solution across departmental needs – Marketing, HR, IT, finance, operations, and more. Businesses can build and deploy apps that can scale across a limitless number of devices and users. Scalable Meta Data Driven Platform As your business grows, your CRM needs to adapt right along with it. By using a single code base, Salesforce makes it possible for customers to customize and scale their CRM solutions with tools that work on the meta data layer. Whatever the need, Salesforce provides customizable, configurable solutions, and does so effectively, quickly, and with minimum effort. Conclusion Salesforce is committed to providing businesses of all sizes with the tools they need to empower themselves. Of the many advantages offered by the World’s No 1 CRM platform, perhaps the most valuable are comprehensive solutions, high security standards, customizability, innovation-centric design, and specifically designed apps that allow usability with limitless possibilities. With an ROI on par with the best in the industry, there’s no reason not to give it a try. Looking for Pricing? Contact our reps to discuss your needs today. CONTACT AN EXPERT

It is essential to create a seamless customer experience across multiple channels and platforms to ensure customer satisfaction. This not just leads to better collaboration between different teams but also aids in business growth. All this requires having in place a robust solution, and Salesforce Customer 360 offers proper Salesforce support. What is Salesforce Customer 360? Salesforce customer 360 is a platform designed to help organizations better connect with their customers by promoting consistent internal operations. The platform supports internal collaboration by bringing sales, marketing, analytics, commerce, service, and IT. By leveraging this data, the platform creates unique customer IDs that can be used across all Salesforce and other applications. With this, a seamless customer experience can be created as all the teams in an organization will have access to this data. Listed below are some reasons why Salesforce customer 360 can prove to be a game-changer for forward-looking organizations:  Personalized Customer Experience: Small businesses that manage their data on spreadsheets or sticky notes fail to deliver personalized experiences to their customers as it is difficult to understand customer contexts. Businesses should provide their customers with personalized experiences to maintain lasting customer relationships to remain competitive. Salesforce customer 360 enables teams to craft reliable data on genuine customers and their needs. This enables organizations to augment their customer service and solve customer issues. Better Customer Experience: Figuring out genuine business customers and where they are isn’t easy. Customers, too, are apprehensive of sharing their data again and again. Salesforce customer 360 simplifies the customer satisfaction index when they connect with a business entity. Businesses leveraging such a system can benefit their entire workforce from marketing, sales, and service as they can store data that’s accessible to all. With this, customers start trusting the business and their efforts towards customer success. Business Forecasting: Businesses can achieve sustainable growth when they meet or exceed the expectations of customers. However, this is a big challenge for small businesses. Businesses must consider leveraging Salesforce 360 to help them adapt to various apps related to sales, marketing, support, and service while fulfilling customer expectations and business growth. In fact, this platform is designed to manage a small team size of 1-20 people that can avail both sales and service functions in a single app.  Better Business Decisions: For making intelligent decisions, it’s vital to have access to well-researched facts, figures, and data points. By having a rich customer database demand forecast, sales forecast expected revenue, and customer market projection, better decision making becomes possible as, in the presence of factual data, better planning can be done. With well-articulated figures in place, both long-term decisions and planning for short-term ventures can be ensured. By having in place a robust solution like Salesforce 360, a foundation for consistent and trustworthy and business intelligence can be laid as it offers features such as Salesforce scripting, reporting, content management system, and more.  Final words: In a nutshell, it can be inferred that the power of a robust solution like Salesforce 360 can be leveraged to improve the internal operations of a company and significantly improve customer experiences. However, investing in a powerful solution like Salesforce 360 requires time, thought, and advice from a certified and experienced Salesforce consultant. 

As a business entity, your priority lies in improving the bottom line of your business by generating greater ROI. To ensure consistent growth of your business, you need to chart out an appropriate customer satisfaction strategy as customers tend to be the life and blood of every business undertaking. The most important aspect of this strategy should be to have in place a robust system that can provide a single view of all the customer-related data. Salesforce with its rich features, functionalities and ever-evolving ecosystem has become an obvious choice for business owners looking to streamline their otherwise scattered business processes to ensure increased efficiency and productivity. While this cloud-based platform is pretty flexible, easy to use and above all widely accepted across the globe, the real challenge lies in implementing it. This is because the process of Salesforce implementation requires 100 percent focus, dedication, and technical know-how, which practically wouldn’t be possible for you to dedicate while handling other essential business activities. To make the most of your Salesforce investment, you must have by your side a reliable Salesforce Implementation Partner who can help you with successful implementation, conformation, and deployment. Why Should You Hire the Services of a Salesforce Partner? Rather than taking the less expensive route of doing the Salesforce implementation on your own, or hiring a less qualified Salesforce partner, it’s in your best interest to engage the services of a knowledgeable and experienced Salesforce partner. Doing so will help you realize the following benefits: Ensures Business Process Efficiency: To enjoy a better return on your Salesforce investment, proper knowledge of accurately relating Salesforce’s features to your business processes is important. A knowledgeable partner with experience of working in your industry and knowledge of best practices will be able to dive into your processes and connect technology to your business goals. Provide the Right fit: It is to be noted that when it comes to Salesforce implementation one-size-fits-all approach, doesn’t seem to work. A reliable Salesforce partner will ensure you get the most out of your Salesforce investment. Rather than using the common implementation technique, an experienced Salesforce Consulting partner will make the necessary adjustments to provide your organization with the right implementation. Provide Training and Support to Your Team: Getting your team to use a new system can be challenging. However, with a knowledgeable and skilled implementation partner by your side, your team will have an easy go-to resource if and when they have queries while handling the new system. Your Salesforce partner will provide your team with the necessary training for operating the new CRM solution in the best possible way. Help You Capitalize on Opportunities: Reviewing your business systems and developing them regularly will ensure that they align with your business objectives. A skilled Salesforce partner can help you frame up your objectives and the way they connect with your CRM. This will help you develop a roadmap for the future while helping you realize a better return on your investment for the times to come.  Help You Save Money: If you take into account the internal overhead necessary to manage a project, you will realize that a reliable Salesforce partner will not just outperform an internal team but will also be more cost-effective. Quick Wrap-up: Whether you are thinking about implementing a new Salesforce CRM or already have one that requires a bit of customization and configuration, it makes sense to have a skilled Salesforce implementation partner by your side. By leveraging their expertise and experience, you will not just be relieved of the stress involved in doing it yourself but will also reap in the benefits of better process efficiency and ROI.

Let us start this blog by defining the meaning of a Salesforce Trailblazer. A trailblazer is a person who is not afraid of learning new things, does innovative work and most importantly, a person who builds a better world for others.

Humans are a bit resistant towards the changes and we don’t adjust towards change easily. When one is in their comfort zone, then it is hard to get them out and put in a different & new zone. Taking my friend’s example, she worked on excel sheets for over 4 years and one day her organization switched to a new solution and asked all employees to manage their work on that new solution only. That new solution was Salesforce. I know about Salesforce and its benefits so if I was in her place, then I would jump out of happiness. But she was not aware of it so she was finding it hard to adjust to the Salesforce Solution. Well, we know that using Salesforce with the business process, not only improves the efficiency but also create a transparency among the department heads so that they can administer and take action when required. It doesn’t matter how awesome your new Salesforce Solution is if your employees don’t use in their day to day activity. So, it is important to follow End-User Adoption techniques so that your employees can make the most of the Salesforce Solution. You can improve End-User Salesforce Adoption by the following methods: Proper Training / Guidance to the End users: It is important to provide full-fledged training, especially to the immediate end users before switching to a new Salesforce solution. Video, tutorial, live demo on UAT or Developer Mode proves to be quite beneficial and helps a lot in adapting. One can also provide customized training for different users depending upon their permission, groups. When the employees attend the training, they share their doubts, feedback about the solution which in turn helps in making the solution even better for the employees. Proper User Documentation: It is a common phenomenon that most of the said things in any meeting, training evaporate from the human mind in a given period of time. We tend to remember few things while other parts are lost. Suppose you gave training to your employees about the new Salesforce Solution but there will be a chance that few of your employees get stuck in some functionality and they don’t have anyone to ask for help. Well, in that case, their productivity is hampered and time. So, it is always better to provide User Documentation of newly developed Salesforce Consultant or Salesforce Solution so that they can refer the document whenever they get stuck. Implementation of new solution with ongoing work process: While designing a new Salesforce solution for your organization, try to blend the existing business process flow and new solution together so that the employees can get used to the new system while performing their day to day activities. Make your users understand the importance of new solution: When there is demand, then there is a supply and the same applies here. When you sense need for implementing new solution equipped with new technology then you go for the new solution and implement it with the existing business process to ease the ongoing flow. It is also important to explain the need for introducing a new Salesforce solution and what benefit can one achieve from the new solution. That’s all for this article, in case you need Salesforce Consultant or Salesforce Implementation Partner, then please feel free to reach out to us at sales@girikon.com

With Shield, Salesforce looks to strengthen its promise of taking its Trust Services to the next level. Now, even industries with regulatory and compliance requirements such as Financial Services, Healthcare, and Public Sector can leverage the speed and innovation of cloud computing with the assurance of highest level of data protection, availability, and performance. The needs of specific industries can vary depending on the criticality of the data that they manage and use. While some may need to track sensitive customer being exported others might need to encrypt them or maintain an audit trail of data to safeguard data integrity. The understandably high pressure of balancing the shift to cloud platforms with meeting compliance needs has deterred several organizations from making the shift thereby being bereft from the benefits that it promises to bring along! Salesforce Shield is a premium set of integrated services built natively in the Salesforce1 Platform. With it, comes the capability to track the way in which one’s sensitive data is being used & handled. It certainly is a strong empowering tool for customers with complex governance and compliance needs to be able to track data going back up to ten years along with sensitive data encryption if they so desire. Salesforce Shield includes the following core services: Event Monitoring: This feature gives customers the transparent visibility into which users are accessing what kind of data along which the actions that they are taking on it. Field Audit Trial: Salesforce customers now have the ability to go back & check their data state up to 10 years. It provides Audit trial data for up to 60 fields per object. Platform Encryption: All sensitive data can now be easily encrypted at rest (at the metadata layer) without hampering any business functionality. Transaction Security: Users can add various processes to Event Monitoring using the transaction security feature. Specific events can be configured with Salesforce to trigger actions as required. For example: When any User tries to access the Salesforce from any unsupported browser it will not provide access. The Shield Platform works through the combination of the tenant key (available with the customer) and a master secret controlled by Salesforce to generate the org-specific data encryption key. This key is used to encrypt sensitive data stored in standard and custom fields, files, and attachments. The derived keys are never persisted to disc, ensuring maximum security for encryption keys. Setup Salesforce Shield Setup -> Security Controls -> Platform Encryption Create Tenant Secret Enable encryption for files, fields, and attachments Assign permission to generate, rotate, and archive your org’s keys If user has the permission to “View Encrypted data”, then the data gets decrypted before presenting it for user Fields with the following field types: Text, Long Text Area, Phone, Email and URL in standard or custom objects can be encrypted

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