Thanks to all who attended our 2nd Eastern Iowa Salesforce.com User Group Meeting last Friday at ACT in Iowa City.  I think we had close to 30 people.  We are growing!!!

Mike Gerholdt, from ACT, presented on the processes and planning steps used by ACT to create a customized sales and reporting tool.  James Hemsley, also from ACT, gave a presentation on the creation of a customized project management tool that he is still in the process of developing for his team at ACT.

We then broke into small groups for just a few minutes at the end of the session. 

The next Eastern Iowa User Group Meeting is on Friday, December 11th, from 11-1pm at Skywalk Group in Cedar Rapids.  Please RSVP to mseiffert@skywalkgroup.com if you plan on attending.  I will send a reminder the week before as well.

We are seeking presenters for the next meeting so any volunteers or topic ideas would be appreciated.  Please post and we will see what we can come up with.  We would love to get updates from any salesforce people who are attending Dreamforce!

Mike also wanted me to share this information with everyone about Dreamforce. 

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/700f20a7?page=1#/700f20a7/1

Hope to see you all again!

For those who are new to salesforce.com and looking to reap full benefits, I would suggest sending someone from your organization to this event.  I will likely be attending as well and would be happy to car pool with anyone from this side of the state that wants to journey to Omaha..

If you register by October 30th, you can get a 10% discount.

1.) Link for registration:
https://salesforce.plateau.com/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DETAILS&scheduleID=4843
 
2.) Promo Code:
OHNE10 for a 10% discount
 

Thanks to everyone who attended today.  I hope you found it useful and please let me know if there is anything specific that you want to see going forward.  We want this to be helpful for everyone. 

Next meeting on 11.13.09 from 11-1 pm in Iowa City at ACT.

Action Items:

1. Mike/James-confirm meeting room location at ACT in Iowa for meeting on 11.13.09 from 11-1pm
2. All-RSVP for November 13th meeting by November 6
3. Mindy-prepare "user" presentation for breakout
4. James/Mike-prepare "admin" presentation for breakout
5. James/Mike-showcase project management tool that ACT is using or any other info that may be useful to the group for the large group session
6. All-come with list of questions or best practices to share

Discussion Items:

1. Attendees at today's meeting range from small (1-2 person) companies to large, not-for-profit companies.
2. Some attendees are just getting started and others have been using salesforce for years.
3. Decision made to continue meeting monthly as a big group and implement breakouts for "users" and "admin" for now.  Additional breakouts may be added at a later date that includes "marketing" and/or "developer".
4. Updates from Mark Epperson at salesforce.com:
5. • We are right in the middle of the Winter '10 release.  Some pods were updated last week and some will be updated this weekend.  If you can see the snowman in the upper left-hand corner, you have been updated.
   • There is a red link on the upper-right hand that says "Discover Winter '10".  This is a good thing to review to determine what updates your edition will have.  The dashboard microscope changes are for everyone.
   • There are some report customization that is also available including some new chart options and hovering capabilities.
   • If you want to follow Mark on Twitter, you can find him at meppe641.

I received an email from Salesforce regarding these upcoming webinars.  I thought I would pass along just in case anyone is interested in attending.

1. On Oct 8, we will be hosting a live webinar with our latest Admin Hero - Melissa Elliott from Schumacher Group.

See how they built unique Force.com com apps to manage relationships with physicians and administer contracts and proposals. Join us for another example of how to use your existing skills to build applications that extend beyond CRM. Learn how Schumacher Group harnessed the power of salesforce.com to do the following:

o    Get better reports with summary fields

o    Put an end to bad data with workflows, approvals, and validation rules

o    Create a fresh new look with Force.com pages functionality

Register here.

2. We will be hosting our THIRD demo series which focuses on building an application on Force.com.  Our first two demos on workflow and sites was well received by the community, with 85 community members attending!

We asked you what Force.com topics you were interested in learning more about…you answered "Building an app on Force.com". We listened and will continue our series with a Salesforce expert demoing how to build applications for your business.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to ask an expert your burning questions on Force.com!

When: October 15, 11 am - 11:30 am PST

Register here

Thank you to those who have already RSVP'd for the meeting next week. 

If you plan on attending next week, I would like to hear from you by the end of today if at all possible.  Please let me know if you will be attending and if you will be bringing additional staff from your organization.

Looking forward to meeting everyone next week!

Please join us for the Eastern Iowa User Group kick off on Friday, October 9, 2009 from 11am-1pm.  This meeting will be held at the Skywalk Group Training & Development Center located at 205 2nd Avenue SE in downtown Cedar Rapids.  Lunch will be provided. 

The goal of this first meeting is to network with local users and to discuss future plans.  We encourage admins and all users to attend. 

Please RSVP by Friday, October 2.

Thanks,
Mindy

We are  excited to announce the creation of a User Group for customers in the Eastern part of Iowa.  Mindy Seiffert of Skywalk Group has volunteered to lead and is planning a kick-off meeting.

Please sign up for this user group so that you can stay informed of  meetings and events. Just use the simple form on the left under Join Now! and select "Eastern Iowa" from the pull-down menu. 

We hope you will get involved!