Salesforce.com Training Professionals are hosting an upcoming Admin to Hero Roadshow in Chicago on Tuesday, July 14h. 

There will be 2 sessions 9AM - Noon and 1-4PM held in their downtown training facility located at 230 W. Monroe St Suite 550- Chicago, IL 60606.

For more information and to Register:

https://www.salesforce.com/form/event/Admin-to-Hero_CHI.jsp?d=70130000000EncU

Please note, that space is limited, you must register to attend.  Contact your Salesforce Account Executive for details on individual corporate training resources.

Sincerely,

Denise Carbone

Computerworld posted an excellent article discussing "6 Areas To Watch After Rollout". According to the article, they are:

1. IT Team's Level of Engagement

2. Integration and Extension

3. Performance and Business Continuity

4. Access Control and Security

5. Data Quality

Read the full article here. 

Salesforce posted a new video on YouTube where they demo several improvements to the dashboard charts. I especially like the new doughnut and funnel charts.

The doughnut provides additional context by displaying the total sum in the middle of the graph and the percentage split on the chart perimeter.

The funnel chart shows the opportunity pipeline as a funnel.

See the full video demo here.

Salesforce already offers a native application for the BlackBerry and iPhone platforms. According to Salesforce CEO, a naive Palm Pre app will be available later this year. I'll post more info as it becomes available.

A new graphical approval process viewer is available for beta testing. According the developer blog, "You can use the process visualizer to display a flowchart of each saved approval process, document the decisions you reached when the approval process was designed, easily determine the specific actions to take when a record is approved, rejected, recalled, or first submitted for approval and more." Very cool!

Here's a snapshot of the process visualizer in action:

Click here to watch a demo video.

Did you know that Salesforce now provides the ability to setup generic email addresses that can be used by all of the users in an org when sending  mass emails?. This Summer 2009 functionality allows users to send emails from email aliases such as sales@acme.com or support@acme.com. In addition, these addresses can be linked to a user profile to control who has access to them and can use them.

Click here to watch a video demo on Youtube.

Model Metrics has created an amazing tool, the Cloud Converter, that will import an existing data source and generate an app for you.  The Cloud Converter supports several data source types, including spreadsheets, databases and Lotus Notes. Get all the details here.

The force.com blog has a great tutorial on how to call an apex class from a custom button or link. Click here to read the detailed tutorial.

Read the details on the Force.com blog.

The next Chicago Salesforce User Group meeting is scheduled to commence on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24th. 

This meeting is sponsored by Appirio, they will be presenting the "Enterprise of the Future". Running your business in the cloud.

Cars.com, a fellow Salesforce.com customer (their users are also members of our user group) will also be presenting, sharing with us their success story http://www.salesforce.com/customers/communications-media/cars.jsp

A Save the Date message will be sent this week; a formal invitation will follow shortly.  To be included in the mailing, you'llneed to be a Chicago Salesforce User Group Member.  To join the mailing list and become a member, complete the form found in this link:  http://usergroups.salesforce.com/chicago/

Regards!

Denise, Cecile, Caroline & Chris

Contact us directly at ChicagoSFDC@live.com