Better Salesforce

The IT Leader's Guide to a Better Salesforce: An Introduction

Salesforce is fantastic.

Sure, it has quirks. Yes, some people complain about it…but when you consider its power…an out of the box fully functioning CRM for managing company sales, relationships, and customer service that can be extended in just about any direction, for practically any business application you can think of…and all you need is a browser.

That’s the stuff we were talking about Salesforce 20 years ago and it still holds true. Add to that how big the company has become, with not just Salesforce core CRM, but Marketing, Analytics, Health, Finance Clouds, Appexchange offerings, Tableau, Mulesoft, and Slack to name just a few, an organization can practically base their entire IT portfolio on Salesforce.

But when most people talk about “Salesforce” they are usually talking about Salesforce CRM - also known as Salesforce core. Its beauty is that, because no one-size-fits-all for a company’s CRM needs, it is customizable and extensible in almost any direction. This makes it incredibly powerful and is why so many thousands of companies have put Salesforce at the forefront of their IT portfolio.

But in the (paraphrased) words of many political and thought leaders - Great power carries with it great responsibility

dont miss out iconDon't forget to check out: Relationships in Salesforce Financial Services Cloud

I have worked as a technical and solution architect in the Salesforce world for nearly 20 years in both consultancy and managerial roles responsible for some of the largest Salesforce implementations in Fortune 500 companies.

I have been in your shoes.

I have seen great Salesforce! But I’ve also seen chaotic Salesforce! That is not because the product is inherently bad (but some people do think that unfortunately), but because it hasn’t been looked after.. grown and nurtured in a controlled manner...and has ended up as an unwieldy beast.

Over time, teams change, requirements change, businesses change, businesses acquire, businesses divest, and businesses merge. Salesforce remains a constant through all of that. Oftentimes, the pressure is on to move on to the next set of changes, the next project, completed at all costs as quickly as possible. Because of this natural tendency, control, process, and architectural long-term vision tend to take a back seat.

That’s all great for the project teams and consultants. Their job is done, they get paid, they get promoted, and move on.

But what about the folks that have to live with this day in, day out, whose leaders are worrying that the next project or even the next small change, will be the one that will grind operations to a halt? How can they rest easy at night knowing that a Salesforce project car crash will not be the number one item on the CIO’s next ops review?

In this weekly series of short blogs, I will be exploring with you some of the ways you can make your Salesforce better. Next week, we’ll be digging into how you can determine the current state of your org’s health and, if it’s not great, what should you do about it?

dont miss out iconCheck out an amazing Salesforce video tutorial here: 4 Benefits of Salesforce Data Services (ETL)

In the meantime, if any of these questions resonate with you, please feel free to get in touch.

  • Am I getting the maximum return on investment (ROI) from my Salesforce implementation?
  • Do I have a strategic direction for Salesforce as an innovation platform?
  • What else could I use Salesforce for, given my employees already have licenses?
  • I have multiple Salesforce orgs, should I consolidate?
  • Business requests are taking too long to deliver?

Responses

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