The Summer Holidays are upon us, so we've decided to take a break of own and schedule our next meeting for the first week in September.  Dont forget to send me your agenda requests.  Once the meeting details are confirmed I'll be in touch.

James McGill, salesforce.com

I'm sure I speak for all the User Group, when expressing my sincere thanks to Lawrence for his leadership of the group over the past seven months.  The group has grown considerably in numbers during Lawrence’s' Chairmanship and the shape and content of our meetings has continually evolved to create a format which you have asked.  Thanks Lawrence, we wish you every future success.

James McGill, salesforce.com

As most of you have been aware I decided to take some time out of work earlier this year, however as I just started working with SFDC on developig the Uk user group, I wanted to ensure that there would be some momentum before departing. Following the high level of enthusiasm and conversation at the last meeting i am confident that the group will now continue to grow and set out what it always meant to do, "To help all users and organisations succeed with their implementations of SFDC!" good luck to you and i am sure I will be a SFDC user again in the future. best regards Lawrence

At the last meeting on Tuesday 26 June the following topics we're suggested as Agenda topics for the next meeting:

1.    S-controls – what have you done?  what could you do? Demo

2.    Marketing Campaigns & ROI

3.    Favorite AppExchange application

4.    Reporting:

a.    Multi-source

b.    Across object

c.    API

5.    Outlook Edition:  experiences, pitfalls

6.    Lead management & measurement

7.    Best practices around process mapping

8.    New Feature demonstration

9.    Quick Wins

We're still in the planning stage so if there is an agenda item you'd like to propose, please add your comment to this post

I'm looking for more feedback on tracks 2 and 3, so please feel free to post your comments

Track 1:  Managing stakeholder expectations of your salesforce.com Programme:

• Identify the key stakeholders
• Recognize their needs and tailor the approach accordingly
• Develop a process of receiving feedback and prioritize which modifications will make the strongest impact on the business
• Develop a benchmark to begin monitoring the effectiveness of your efforts to quantify the value being received.
• Communicate.  Identify common goals, especially with global rollouts, so the team stays on pace with the objectives.
• Relay back progress to stakeholders by documenting the projects and benefits being received by sfdc.
• Leverage the case functionality in salesforce.com to track end user requests.
• Develop and document the project plan and include the business benefit.
• Ideas for communicating change or obtaining feedback from your user community:
  • Leverage banners on the homepage
  • Provide incentives, like a working lunch, to present a new process or object in salesforce.com.

Track 2:  Finding & Selling to the Business the Right functionality to meet your business needs

• Start by function:  Sales, Marketing, Support
• Keep on refining the process
• Keep it simple – avoid over-engineering

Track 3:  Providing executives with the information they need to champion the programme.

• Visibility
  • Activity tracking
  • Business Intelligence – opportunity tracking, forecasting, marketing
• Metrics
  • Ensure goals are aligned to key performance indicators.