Do you store highly-sensitive information in Salesforce.com?  The kind of information which, if it was some how leaked, would be highly damaging or embarassing to your company?  Or get you fired?

As some of you know, I have a personal user blog over at http://forcemonkey.blogspot.com/

My most recent blog is about the Encrypted Custom Field available in Salesforce.com.  I just turned it on this past week, and I've been using it to tie down a couple of fields that we track in our instance of Salesforce.com.

I tried to copy my blog entry over to here, but there were two many images, and the conversion from blogger (which I adore) to TypePad (which I loathe) didn't work so well ... so to read the article, click here.

June'08 Meeting Notes

We had a good turn-out at our June 2008 meeting.   This months meeting was held at Concord Litho, in Concord NH (thanks for the use of your facilities, Ali Westcott!).

We had 12 user group members attending from 7 different area companies from Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  Some members have been using Salesforce.com for over 5 years, some were not yet Salesforce.com customers (but were currently evaluating it for their business).  We had administers from all different license package types (unlimited, enterprise, and professional), from small businesses (12 user licenses) to large bussinesses (1500 user licenses)!  The diversity of our user group is a testament to the power of the Salesforce.com SAAS platform.  I'm hopeful that these User Group Meetings are able to provide something for everyone who attends.

Member Spotlight
We opened the meeting with Member Spotlight.  Suzy Webb (JSI Store Fixtures, Inc.) walked us through some of the customizations they've made to Salesforce.com.  JSI Store Fixtures designs merchandise display showcases for stores and show rooms.  I checked out their website (www.jsistorefixtures.com) and immediately recognized some of their work from my last visit to the produce / bakery sections of my local grocery store.

Suzy demonstrated some of the custom fields they've implmented to the standard Case object.  She also showed a custom "Proposals" object they created wtih help from their Salesforce.com Account Executive, Luke St. James (Luke got top-billing as being particularly helpful to a lot of NHUG members).  The JSI Store Fixtures Sales Team uses the custom "Proposals" object to communicate size, color, materials and other information for custom showcase designs.  JSI drafting and engineering teams use these proposal objects to communicate on the request, which eventually turns into an opportunity and moves through their normal sales cycle.   

Suzy also showed us some custom reports they created to track all these objects (cases, proposals, and opportunities).  She reports that Salesforce has given them much better visibility into their entire design and sales process.  Her next challenge is to do more with Dashboards, to give heightened visibility to users and managers.  Thanks for the virtual tour, Suzy!

Summer '08 Release
We talked briefly about the some of the new features in the Summer'08 Release, including Drag-and-Drop List Views / In-Line Editing, Analytic Snapshots, VisualForce, Generate PDF, Enhancements to the Ideas applicatin, Public Tagging, Cross-Object Formulas, Many-to-Many Relationships, and Opportunity History Tracking.  Here are links that you may find helpful, if you mised them first time around:

Link: Release Preview
Link: Detailed Release Notes
Link: Summer'08 Webinar

Best Practices: Preparing for SFDC Releases
We discussed how NHUG Members learn about and prepare (both themselves and their users) for SFDC releases each quarter.  Some of us have been running on the Salesforce.com Platform for over a year, and weren't aware that Salesforce has quarterly upgrades and roll-out of new features.

To get plugged in to these, make sure you are subscribed to the Admin newsletter (which administrators can configure in their personal User settings: Setup > Manage Users > Users).  You can also get a "heads up" on these releases by monitoring the Successforce Community Website.

For the most part, User Group members indicated they did not put a significant amount of preparation in front of a new release -- nor had they been adversely impacted in the wake of any past release. 


Membership News

We're getting bigger!  The New Hampshire Users Group added 12 new members since our last gathering in April, bringing us to 37 members in total.  I teased my fellow User Group leads at our last team conference call because the NHUG is the fastest growing user group in North America.  Welcome aboard, new members, and we hope to see you at an upcoming NHUG Meeting soon.

Upcoming Meetings

I'd like to gauge user group member preference for meeting frequency and meeting times.  To date, our meetings have been held every other month, on a Wednesday evening, starting at 6:00pm and lasting approximately 2 hours. 

I casually poll the user group membership at the end of these meetings, to see if this schedule works well for them -- and the general concensus is "yes".  But it occurs to me that there is a whole group of user members who have yet to attend a meeting, who might be clamouring "Heck no -- my after work schedule is far too busy!  How about a morning or early afternoon meeting instead?"

I'll send out a survey later this week with a poll for our general user group membership on preferred meeting times, locations and frequency.  Your feedback is important!

How you can help

User Group members have indicated they are most interested in seeing how other companies implement Salesforce.com, because it gives them ideas for their own implementations.  I need volunteers to showcase a feature, report, or idea for our "Member Spotlight" segment each meeting.  Give me a shout if you're interested. 

Speak Up: Let me know your ideas for future meeting topics, content, or format.  Let me know what aspects of the User Group meetings you like (so I know to continue them), and what elements you think should be changed.

If you are interested in providing meeting space for an upcoming NHUG meeting, please let me know.  There is little work involved, I just need volunteers to provide meeting space (currently for 10-15 people).  The more members I have offering meeting space, the wider "geographic coverage" I'll have, which may make it easier for NHUG members to attend meetings local to them.  Please email me if you are interested.

The Salesforce.com Summer'08 Release is almost here, and it is pack full of some very useful new features.  Join us June 11th, 2008 for our 3rd NH User Group meeting, hosted by Concord Litho in Concord NH.  See what's coming in the June release, and see how other local companies are preparing for it.

• Where:  Concord Litho (92 Old Turnpike Road, Concord NH, 03301)
• When:  Wednesday, June 11th 2008
• Time:   6:00pm – 7:30pm
• Directions:  http://www.concordlitho.com/contactus/directions.htm

* Finger sandwiches, chips and drinks will be provided *

*IMPORTANT*- Last time, we ordered WAY TOO MUCH pizza.  If you are planning to attend, or even just *thinking* about MAYBE attending, *please* visit the NH User Group Blog and post a reply to this blog entry -- that will help us get a headcount for the food! 

Topics:

• Member Spotlight: JSI Store Fixtures, Inc.
• Best Practices Discussion - How Do You Prepare for SFDC Releases?
• Closer Look at Summer'08 Release
• Tips and Tricks

Member Spotlight: JSI Store Fixtures, Inc.

A popular interest at these User Group meetings is seeing how other members have implemented and are using Salesforce.com.  Suzy Webb has volunteered to show off some of the Opportunity and Case customizations that she has implemented for her company, JSI Store Fixtures, Inc.  Come check it out!

Best Practices Discussion - Preparing for SFDC Releases

Salesforce.com has approximately 4 new releases each year, and names them after the seasons. In June, each of our Salesforce.com instances will be upgraded to the Summer'08 release.  Do you know what's planned for this release?  What evaluation / testing have you done in preparation for Summer'08?  Join us for a Best Practices discussion to find out how other SFDC users and administrators learn about the features in upcoming releases, and plan for them before release deployment.

Closer Look at Summer'08 Release

There are more than 65 enhancements and new features in the Summer'08 Release, including the General Availability of VisualForce, Analytic Snapshots, enhancements to the Customer Portal, and support for Cross-Object formulas.  We'll take a closer look at these and other interesting features.  Every attendee will take away a copy of the detailed Summer'08 Release Notes, so they can understand all of the upcoming changes in more detail.

Tips and Tricks

Have a problem that you need solved?  Bring one problem or dilema that you're experiencing, and see if our team of user group members can help provide the answer or solution you've been searching for!

RSVP Requested:
Please reply *THIS POSTING* if you will be attending.

Who should attend?
These meetings are generally targeted towards the Salesforce "champions" within an organization.  This includes administrators, implementers, trainers, team leads, and power users.

It's true -- two heads are better than one!  Please invite a work colleague to join you.  You'll both get different ideas from the discussion topics, and will be able to collaborate on them back at the office in the days and weeks that follow.  If you do pass the invitation on to others, please have them register for the New Hampshire User Group here:
http://usergroups.salesforce.com/new_hampshire/

If you have any questions / comments / suggestions regarding topics or locations for future meetings, please contact your NH User Group Leaders! 

• jseabury@cedarpointcom.com
• Mark.Goodearl@efi.com

See you soon!

JP Seabury
NH SFDC Users Group