Are you looking for an effective way to qualify, manage and communicate with leads using Salesforce?  Then join us for this information-filled event focused on Effective Lead Management and learn some useful tools and tips from your fellow user group members and AppExchange partners.  In this meeting, we will cover:

* Effective Lead Qualification
* Lead Management & Email Communication
* Salesforce Best Practices for Lead Management

BI-MONTHLY USER GROUP MEETING
Effective Lead Management
Thursday, September 25th
6:00pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION
MCC Building
3925 W. Braker Lane (located on the southwest corner of Braker Lane and Mopac)
For directions, click here.

CONTACTS
Alice Jones: ajones@bulldogsolutions.com
David Franklin: david.franklin@rackspace.com

DOOR PRIZES
Door prizes will be provided by Vertical Response.

FOOD & DRINKS
Chicken Taquitos, Grilled Vegetable Quesadillas, Chips & Salsa
Brownies & Lemon Bars
Bottled Water, Iced Tea & Lemonade

SCHEDULE
Paul Fox, an active user group member from the very beginning and Salesforce expert, will share how Shadetree Technology uses and customizes Salesforce to collect the information we really need to know in order to improve the quality of our leads within Salesforce.  Shadetree Technology is launching its new product this month, so we'll all have an opportunity to view it first and through the eyes of an expert.

Alvaro Tijero, Salesforce Channel Manager for Vertical Response, will share how Vertical Response can help us better manage and communicate with leads using their application available through the Salesforce AppExchange.  We selected Vertical Response as a featured partner this month because of the positive feedback we received from our members.  According to our members, Vertical Response offers an affordable and powerful lead management tool for the small to midrange customer-base here in Austin.

Courtney Pena, Director of Sales for RackSpace, will share valuable Salesforce best practices around lead management.  Last year, RackSpace processed approximately 50,000 leads.

Networking opportunities. As always, user group members have the opportunity to network and share information both before and after the scheduled presentations.  For AppExchange partners, we encourage you to bring product collateral so our user group members can learn more about your products.

Want to know more about the Summer 2008 release and upcoming features?  Then join us for another information-packed meeting featuring Paul Underbrink.  Paul Underbrink is a local Salesforce rep and Principal Sales Engineer for enterprise accounts.  In this meeting, Paul will cover upcoming features and latest developments, including the Summer 2008 release.  Paul's Spring 2008 presentation back in February was a huge success.  I believe everyone who attended the February meeting will agree - you don't want to miss this!

Also don't forget to bring your most pressing Salesforce.com questions for the Q&A session.

We look forward to seeing you there!

BI-MONTHLY USER GROUP MEETING
Summer 2008 Release / New Features / Q&A
Thursday, July 24th
6:00pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION
UT Commons Conference Center
JJ Pickle Research Campus
Braker Lane (one block east of Mopac and across the street from The Domain entrance on Braker Lane).
For directions, click here.

CONTACTS
David Franklin: david.franklin@rackspace.com
Alice Jones: ajones@bulldogsolutions.com

DOOR PRIZES
The door prize theme this month is "Staycation".

FOOD & DRINKS
Chicken Taquitos, Quesadillas, Chips & Queso, Fresh Vegetables
Browines & Lemon Bars
Bottled Water, Iced Tea & Lemonade

SCHEDULE
Paul Underbrink covers Salesforce.com Summer 2008 release and new features.  Following his presentation, Paul will also answer any questions you have regarding Salesforce.com.

David Franklin, assisted by Kyle Freeman, introduces you to the "Birds of a Feather" group leaders.  Since the issues you face when using Salesforce.com are often specific to your role, the "Birds of a Feather" program is designed to align you with other users, administrators, developers, partners or managers.  If you didn't attend the last event, please be sure to stop by the registration desk to get your "Birds of a Feather" sign-up form so the appropriate group leader can contact you for any role-specific break out sessions or meetings.

Networking opportunities.  As always, user group members have the opportunity to network and share information both before and after the scheduled presentations.  For AppExchange partners, we encourage you to bring product collateral so our user group members can learn more about your products.

Salesforce.com Exclusive Event in San Antonio! 

Salesforce.com and Lucidera is hosting a breakfast to discuss SAAS (Software-As-A-Service) and the variety of applications used across any size company to help drive sales, track marketing, deliver high ROI, and streamline customer service. Also, Rackspace will present how salesforce.com became the foundation for rapid sales growth over the past year and how it is delivering continued success within the company.

You will have the unique opportunity to:

- Get an introduction to Salesforce.com applications, including SFA, Content, Marketing, and Service & Support

- Learn how to leverage Platform-as-a Service (PAAS) to focus on innovation, not infrastructure and solve business issues plaguing your company

- Meet the leaders of the Austin/San Antonio User Group

When:

Tuesday, June 24th

7:30 am – 9 am

Location:

Rackspace

5000 Walzem Road

(former Windsor Park Mall)

San Antonio, Texas

Space is limited and early registration is encouraged. To reserve a space, please contact Nina Allara directly at 650.653.4624 or nallara@salesforce.com. We look forward to seeing you at this exclusive breakfast!

You asked for it, so we're giving it to you!!! Quality content focused around best practices and processes, Salesforce.com capabilities, future enhancements and available add-ons from AppExchange partners. Come join us for this fun-filled instructional meeting, where you can connect with and learn from other Salesforce.com users, administrators, developers, managers, developers and employees who feel your pain. You won't want to miss it!

Users and vendors will have an opportunity to network and share information both before and after the presentations. We will be giving away door prizes, so be sure to come early so you get a chance to win. We look forward to seeing you there!

MONTHLY USER GROUP MEETING
Business Intelligence and Reporting
Thursday, May 29th
6:00pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION
UT Commons Conference Center
JJ Pickle Research Campus
Braker Lane (one block east of Mopac and across the street from The Domain entrance on Braker Lane).
For directions, click here.

CONTACTS
David Franklin: david.franklin@rackspace.com
Alice Jones: ajones@bulldogsolutions.com

FEATURED PARTNER
DreamFactory
For website, click here.
For AppExchange link, click here.

FOOD & DRINKS
Yummy finger foods, snacks and beverages will be provided.

SCHEDULE
Rita Jhaveri, a local Salesforce Customer Service Manager, will provide useful tips & tricks and answer your questions regarding Salesforce.com. Rita has been with Salesforce for 8 years and has also served as an Account Executive and Premier Support representative.

Alice Jones, a Systems Analyst for Bulldog Solutions (a small start-up company), is always looking for ways to do more with less. In this meeting, Alice will show us how she creates reports that can't be built within Salesforce. She will also describe how Bulldog Solutions uses Microsoft SQL reporting services to email these daily and weekly reports to Bulldog Sales Executives and other decision makers within the company.

Ken Neff, Director of Engineering Services, will show us all the recent upgrades to DreamFactory's Carousel Reporting & Dashboards, as well as, SnapShot. Ken will demonstrate how DreamFactory can help us understand and diagram the relationships between the various Salesforce.com objects, thus enabling us to better understand and create meaningful reports and dashboards.

Welcome to the newly extended Austin/San Antonio user group! Over the past several months the Austin group has hosted monthly user group meetings that has provided Administrators, Users, Developers, Managers/Executives and Partner/Vendors a vehicle to share experiences, knowledge transfers and best practices.  In doing so, our Austin group has grown to 100 members; thus, we’ve created a our own network to lean for questions, brainstorming and a venue to just to meet new exciting people in our community. The Austin group started in November ’07, lead by Alice Jones (ajones@bulldogsolutions.com) of Bulldog Solutions and David Franklin (david.franklin@rackspace.com) of Rackspace IT Hosting. 

Content is key to our success! Do you want to learn more about the tool, how others are maximizing their utilization and how vendors are adding value to an already dynamic application? Please register today and become a part of the “Keep Salesforce User Groups Weird” community.

We, in Austin, are excited to welcome the San Antonio users to the group and our on-line forum. We are planning a social event next month with Salesforce AE’s to welcome and invite new users to the group. During this informal session, we will provide additional details on how the group operates and access to the online community forum.

Welcome,

Alice and David

Come join the fun at our next Austin Salesforce User Group event being held at 300 Austin.  This fun-filled evening is being co-sponsored by Cast Iron Systems, an AppExchange partner providing an appliance-based solution specifically for integrating Salesforce with other applications.  But don't worry - there won't be any hard sells here!  Cast Iron Systems will be along for the fun to hand out information on their products, answer any questions you might have about their products and to get your feedback on how to make their product offerings better for Salesforce users.  And did I mention they are giving away an 8GB iPhone and other free stuff?

We look forward to seeing you there!

MONTHLY USER GROUP EVENT
Wednesday, March 26th
4:30pm to 8:00pm

LOCATION
300 Austin (this isn't your ordinary bowling alley)
9504 North I-H 35
Austin, TX 78753
Check them out at http://www.3hundred.com/

CONTACTS
David Franklin: david.franklin@rackspace.com
Alice Jones: ajones@bulldogsolutions.com

SPONSOR(S)
Cast Iron Systems
For website, click here
For AppExchange link, click here

FOOD & DRINKS
Happy Hour specials from 3pm to 7pm

SCHEDULE
Meet and greet in the bar area from 4:30pm to 5:15pm
Let the bowling commence from 5:15pm to 7:15pm
Feel free to hang around until 8pm to catch up and network with other user group members.

We will also be registering user group members for the upcoming Success Tour - Austin event on Tuesday, April 8th.  If you register for Success Tour - Austin at this event then you can pick up your official Austin Salesforce User Group t-shirt when you check in for Success Tour.  Check out the official Austin Salesforce User Group t-shirt design here .

Thanks to everyone who attended the recent user group meeting.  It was an enormous success!!!  We would especially like to thank Paul Underbrink for doing an excellent job of covering the latest Salesforce developments.  Thanks to Paul, you can view a copy of his Spring 2008 Release & Latest Developments presentation on the SFDCAustin Yahoo group website.  If you are not a registered member of the Yahoo group and would like to join in the local Salesforce conversation, please click here.

As a follow-up to our recent meeting, we would also like to recognize our awesome door prize winners:
Charles Smyth, airband
Greg Abraham, MessageOne
Vijay Mehra, think tech labs
Mary Margaret Spies, think tech labs

Thank you for your participation and for being such great sports.

Over the past four months, user group participation has risen from 6 attendees at our first meeting in November 2007 to 25 attendees this month.  So great job to everyone who has helped to spread the word.

Looking forward, we are currently planning our next meeting for Wednesday, March 26th.  The next meeting will most likely be social in nature, as it is closely followed by the all-day Success Tour event being held here in Austin on Tuesday, April 8th.  For more information about Success Tour - Austin and to register for the event, please click here.

Again, thanks to everyone who turned out for the February meeting.  We look forward to seeing you at our next event.

I am excited to announce the upcoming Austin User Group meeting.  We have had a great turn-out for the past three meetings and with your help we can continue to increase in numbers.  We hope to see you all there, especially Salesforce System Administrators.  This month, David Franklin will be covering how to effectively identify and implement applications available through the AppExchange.  As with all of our meetings, there are usually several AppExchange partners on hand to offer invaluable information regarding their companies and applications.

I am also excited to announce that a local Salesforce representative, Paul Underbrink, will be on hand to tell us about the latest developments, including new features in the Spring 2008 release.  Paul has been with Salesforce for three years and is a Principal Sales Engineer for enterprise accounts.

You will find meeting details below.  If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at ajones@communityforce.com.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,
Alice Jones
Systems Analyst (and Salesforce System Administrator)
Bulldog Solutions

-------------------

AUSTIN SALESFORCE USER GROUP

Monthly User Group Meeting
Thursday, February 21st
4:30pm to 6:30pm

LOCATION
Bulldog Solutions Conference Room
5608 Parkcrest Drive, 3rd Floor
Austin, TX 78731

CONTACTS
David Franklin: david.franklin@genband.com
Alice Jones: ajones@bulldogsolutions.com

FOOD & DRINKS
Beef & Chicken Fajitas
Chips, Salsa and Queso
Water, Soda and Beer

SCHEDULE
Users and vendors will have an opportunity to network and share information both before and after the presentations.  We will be giving away a few door prizes, so be sure to come early to find how to win.

As a Technical Operations Manager for GenBand , David Franklin has been intimately involved in implementing numerous Salesforce initiatives throughout his organization. In this meeting, we will draw upon David’s high-level experience as he shows us how to effectively identify and implement new applications available through the AppExchange.

Paul Underbrink, a local Salesforce rep and Principal Sales Engineer for enterprise accounts, will cover the latest developments, including new features in the Spring 2008 release.

I've attached a couple documents and url's for the upcoming Spring 08 release so you will have an easy place to locate all the information. 

Spring 08 Features and community ideas that will make the release IdeaExchange for Spring 08

Download salesforce_spring08_release_notes.pdf

Download Spring08AdminPreview.pdf

Here's an excerpt from an email sent out by salesforce.com on the upcoming release.

The salesforce.com Spring '08 release is just around the corner and soon you'll be able to take advantage of great new features such as Scheduled Dashboards, Forecast Category Customization, Opportunity Roll-ups on Accounts, Automatic Campaign Assignment, and Advanced Validation Rule Functions.

In preparation for the release, a Sandbox Upgrade Window is scheduled for 12:01am PST January 23rd through 4:00 PM PST February 16th, 2008.

When I receive a date for upgrades into production I will advise. Our next user group meeting will fall between the sandbox and production upgrades in mid-late Feb.

Take care and if you have any questions relative to Spring 08 please reply to this post.

David

ATX UG MEMBERS: We will use this blog post to help promote ideas submitted by our UG members. After submitting an idea on IdeaExhange, come back here and send us the link and then we can support your request by promoting it.

Here's a link to the ideas that I have wrote thus far.

David's Ideas

Thanks and if you have some yourself please replay to the blog and we will promote them.