What can Salesforce.com do for me?

Salesforce.com is a very versatile CRM application. It can be a great tool to capture the following 'types' of information for you and your company:

• Accounts
• Activities
• Assets
• Campaigns
• Cases
• Contacts
• Contracts
• Dashboards
• Documents
• Forecasts
• Leads
• Opportunities
• Opportunity Products
• Pricebooks
• Products
• Reports
• Solutions
• Users

This is a world of information at your finger tips! It should be enough to get any company started in the big ol' cloud! But the great thing about Salesforce.com is that the sky is limitless and you can build objects above and beyond those standard objects available to you 'out of the box' (or out of the cloud).

The best practice is to define your company's overall approach to what they need to capture, report on, and use in Salesforce.com from the beginning. I really can't stress that enough because by gathering those business requirements up front you can potentially save yourself a lot of time and frustration. In terms of customizations, you need to ask yourself (and your key stake holders) the following questions:

1. What data do you need in Salesforce?
2. What fields will support that data in Salesforce.com?
3. And are those groups of fields and data sets already available in the standard objects listed above?

The good news is that if you find the requirements you have are not met within the objects above, you don't have to bail on Salesforce.com. Their intuitive application allows you to create custom objects to store data specific to your organization. Not only can you create the 'table' to store the data but you can create the tab, reports, and dashboards for that information without enlisting the help of a developer. It's all in the configurable settings of Salesforce.com!

So … how do you do it? I won't walk you through the whole process in writing. That is futile. You need to get IN the system and do it yourself. Get your hands dirty, if you will.

Here is how to start (after you wash your hands):

• For custom objects, click Your Name > Setup > Create > Objects
• For custom tabs for a custom object, click Your Name > Setup > Create > Tabs

Perhaps you haven't used Salesforce.com before. If that's the case then you may be thinking that you aren't even sure what you might use a custom object for. Let me help. Here are some good examples for you to understand what a custom object might bring to the table. But don't let this limit your vision, your creativity, and your end results. The best part about Salesforce.com is that the sky is the limit and you can truly make it your own!

    Custom Object Examples:

• Employees
• Recruiting Candidates
• Budgets
• Competitors
• Time Cards
• Expenses

Finally, here are some tips, hints, and resources to help you with your Custom Objects:

1. Establish your object relationships before adding your custom fields, page layouts, and related lists
2. Note that you cannot enable Enhanced Lookup and Auto-Completion on your Custom Objects
3. When creating your custom tab, it is best practice to select 'Append tab to users' existing personal customizations' to ensure users see your new object
4. Check out the following cheat sheet: Building Custom Objects, Tabs, and Related Lists (may require SFDC login)
5. Watch the quick tutorial on creating a custom object tab

Lions, Tigers, and Bears… Oh My!

When I first implemented Salesforce.com in 2009, my company really took it's time and defined the system requirements and business needs. We spent weeks building a data dictionary, defining our fields, our reports, and our dashboards. In fact, we spent so much time that when I was finally given the green light to GO! and set up our instance I ran (not walked… not jogged…) to the nearest PC and let my fingers start typing. I was confident about how our Account pages would look, what our custom objects would capture, and what fields would be pick lists versus text boxes. I was sure I would win awards for our design…

Enter the 'But.' You knew it was coming.

Although we considered security while defining our system, we did not understand how to align our users with the security. As a result, I immediately dove in and created 75 users. I used the standard profiles and skipped the Roles (even though it looked like a required field on the user setup). I never paused to think, "How will we make sure Joe Schmoe shows up on a report for Mr. T?"

Our Director of Sales was adamant; we wanted the Organization-Wide Defaults set to Private. Our sales reps worked independently and they were very concerned about people seeing their "stuff." So if one rep owned an account the intent was that only he or she would see it.

Enter the exceptions. This is where I started to lose it. Because after taking 2 hours to create 75 users I suddenly realized that Mr. T couldn't access the account Joe Schmoe owned. And the Director of Sales was shouting that he didn't have any accounts showing up in his reports. I should have set up roles... and public groups… and who knows what else…

So now my confidence was gone and I started to think like Dorothy from Wizard of Oz … I was looking for the Emerald City and all its glamour and instead I felt like I was suddenly facing a dark, wild thicket. And all I had was Sassy on my shoulder, creeping me out by playing the role of the Scarecrow… (enter dream state here)

Dorothy: "I don't like this forest! It's – it's dark and creepy!"
*My Translation: "Okay… I am getting frustrated with this cloud! It's not as white and fluffy as they portrayed it to be!"
Scarecrow: "Of course, I don't know, but I think it'll get darker before it gets lighter."
*Sassy's Translation: "You have to get into the thick of the cloud and get it set up right so your users will adopt it!"
Dorothy: "Do - do you suppose we'll meet any wild animals?"
*My Translation: "I have a deadline, Man! I will be eaten alive if this doesn't go right!"



I think at that point I started chanting "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" over and over. It helped, kind of like a mantra. And with each revision to my users I defeated the one of the animals:

Lions… CHECK! Users set up!

Tigers… CHECK! Roles set up!

And Bears… CHECK! Groups set up!

Now I was ready to start on some sharing rules to make sure Mr. T and the Director of Sales were happy. This is really what this post was supposed to be about - sharing Rules for all those Lions I created. So let's get into it, shall we?

What are sharing rules and where and how can you use them?

• Account and contact sharing rules are available in: Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
• Account territory, case, lead, opportunity, and custom object sharing rules are available in: Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
• Campaign sharing rules are available in Professional Edition for an additional cost, and Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
• Only custom object sharing rules are available in Database.com
  

With sharing rules, you can make automatic exceptions to your organization-wide sharing settings for defined sets of users. For example, use sharing rules to extend sharing access to users in public groups, roles, or territories. Sharing rules can never be stricter than your organization-wide default settings. They simply allow greater access for particular users. You can create the following types of sharing rules:

For more information, check out these publications:

• Sharing Rule Considerations
• How to Benefit from Criteria Based Sharing Rules

And, more importantly, what kinds of questions are asked about sharing rules on the certification exam?

Take these sample questions and see how you do. Answers are at the bottom but you'll have to stand on your head to read them.

A. Which of the following is not true about Sharing Rules?

1. Sharing Rules have three types of access levels (Read, Read/Write, and Controlled by Parent)
2. Can be granted to users who are either in public groups, roles, or are subordinates
3. Deleting a sharing rule automatically deletes the sharing access created by that rule
4. Sharing Rules give users wider access to data

B. How would you separate the process for international sales and national sales that have different stages in their opportunity?

1. Profiles
2. Record Types
3. Sharing Rules
4. Page Layouts

C. When Universal Containers shares accounts owned by Sales with the Customer Service department, what associated items can be affected? (Select 3)

1. Contacts
2. Opportunities
3. Cases
4. Campaigns

D. An Operations Manager needs access to all opportunities in order evaluate the sales pipeline but the organization's sharing settings are set to Private. What should be done to give the manager read only access to Opportunities?

1. Update the owner of all Opportunities to the Operations Manager
2. Use sharing rule to grant read-only access to campaigns
3. Use an Account Sharing Rule to grant access to opportunities
4. Update the Organization-Wide Default on Opportunities to Read-Only

Maybe next week we can focus on the Flying Monkeys…

Thinking about getting Certified?

Are you thinking about going after a Salesforce.com Certification? Good!! We need a few more good men and women!

 
But you're wondering what it will take to get certified? Well, let me start by asking YOU a few questions and then you can start making the judgment about whether or not you are ready. Ready for the prep work, the bittersweet smell of pressure, and the truly sensational thrill of defeat!

 

1. Have you used Salesforce.com for more than 30 days?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 2.
   2. If no, stop here and visit this site again once you can answer yes.
2. Were you or are you a system administrator for the Salesforce.com instance you have used?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 3.
   2. If no, stop here and go get set up as an admin. If it takes asking for a promotion, then so be it. You are long overdue anyway.
3. Have you set up a user?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 4.
   2. If no, stop here and go set me up as a user. And email me the password. Then go ask HR for a pink slip.
4. Have you created a custom field?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 5.
   2. If no, stop here and go add a date field to your opportunity page. Call it "Date the account officially started wasting my time."
5. Have you created a custom object?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 6.
   2. If no, stop here and go set up an innovative new object. Maybe something useful to butter up the people in charge of your paycheck.
6. Have you created a custom application?
   1. If yes, proceed to question 7.
   2. If no, stop here and set up an app. Maybe you won't ever use it but how cool is it to define your own group? Call it "My Party."
7. Have you not gotten bored with this site yet?
   1. If yes, proceed to follow this blog.
   2. If no, then you are lying. You shouldn't lie. Your parents, your teachers, your preachers, and your God have told you that.

Now go start studying. Start by reading this article: Understanding the basic building blocks of Salesforce CRM