Is the Force with you? Are you a “young padawan” or a Master of the Force?

Those of us who have been using Force.com for any period of time have developed some very specialized skills. Until recently, many practicioners felt that there wasn’t a common ranking by which we could evaluate or compare our skill levels. That’s all changed now, with the advent of official certification programs through Salesforce.com.

Not Necessarily New

Salesforce has actually had a number of certification programs in place for some time now. These have been promoted through their annual user conference. For instance, at Dreamforce 2007, there was an Administrator training program, which included a certification exam at the end. Pass the exam and you were granted a snazzy “Salesforce ’07 Certified Administrator” logo to brandish on your email signature, and also bragging rights on your resume.

Salesforce.com Consultants and Partners have had access to their own certification programs, as well. You don’t need to be an actual consultant to sign up for the “referral partner” program, and some practitioners signed up just to get access to the certifications. There are different levels of certified consultant: Level 1 (basic), Level 2 (advanced), Level 3 (developer). Salesforce provides these partners with training program offerings, or an opportunity to skip right to the exam. Partners who pass the exam earn a custom logo for their email signature, and a chance to put “Salesforce.com Level II Certified Consultant” (or whatever level they passed) on their resume.

New Certification Programs Announced in July

The recent expansion of Salesforce.com’s existing program was influenced by our input, as expressed on Salesforce.com Idea Exchange. Hundreds of SFDC users promoted an expansion of the existing certification programs. I like sandpcheryl's comment on the idea: "SFDC should do for SFA's (SalesForce Admins) what Oracale did for DBA's basically create its own job class. I have been to the admin training and have a certificate, but would like to take a test and show my employer and others that I know my stuff!"

Nadim Hossain (Salesforce.com Product Marketing, Training & Certification) announced the new Certification Programs on July 15th. Currently, there are two levels of certification for administrators (basic and advanced). A Master-level certification is also planned. Classes and exams for Developer certification are still being developed, but it looks like they will follow the same 3-tier model (basic, advanced and master).

To earn the certification, you must pass an exam. If you are very practiced and confident of your skills, you can skip to the exam right away. Not sure if you’re ready? Salesforce.com has put together some great study guides, which include an outline of the exam content, sample questions and sample answers. Salesforce.com also offers training classes, specifically designed around content that will be covered in the exam.

Cost of the Exams

The cost of the Administrator exams (both basic and advanced) is $200 list price, as of this date. You need to take the exams in sequence, you can’t skip directly to the highest level certification. For example, Administrator certification is a pre-requisite for the Advanced Administrator exam. So you have to pay $200 to take the Administrator Exam, and then another $200 to take the Advanced Administrator exam. You can take the exam at any time, and there are literally hundreds of testing locations around the world offering the exams -- I found several facilities within a 60-mile radius of my house. Very cool!

Preparatory Training classes (for those who prefer that) is an additional cost (approximately $3000, with discounts available for volume purchases). These are 4+ day training classes, offered through Salesforce.com at numerous locations / major cities throughout the US.

Developer Certification … Still in Development!

Developer certification training classes are expected to be available in August, with exams offered shortly thereafter. You can sign up for the mailing to get notified as to when the exams and training programs will be offered here.

Rumors Debunked

The rumors that you need to grow your hair in a braid, and then have the braid cut off when you pass the certification exam, are completely untrue. Apparently, that was only done by the young padawans of the Old Republic, and was for their achievement in a completely different Force.

Learn how to get optimal results from Salesforce.com by attending an upcoming Administrator Workshop!

Sucessforce Training is bringing their acclaimed administrator training program local.  This class is designed for new admins and season admins who would like to:

• Maximize their utilization of the application
• Learn all the new features/functionality of the Summer'08 Release
• Brush up on Salesforce.com skills

Key topics covered:

• Customization
• Security and Access
• Workflow
• Reports / Dashboards
• Best Practices for Sales, Marketing and Services/Support

WHEN:  August 11-14, or September 29-October 2

WHERE: MicroTek - 25 Burlington Mall Rd, 2nd Floor - Burlington MA - 01803

To Register or Review Dates / Locations / Pricing, click here.

The Dreamforce 2008 announcements are starting to hit the streets -- will you be there?

Last year, I attended my first Dreamforce event, and it blew me away.  I chatted with dozens, maybe hundreds, of Salesforce.com employees, customers, developers, and partners.  I did a little bit of everything, and probably did too much: keynotes, best practices tracks, training classes (short ones -- I get fidgetty if they're too long!), laps around the show booths in the expo center, played some Wii golf in the developer lounge, wrote my first Visualforce page, talked, talked, talked -- hard to believe, me, talking, right?  Phew!

It was such an incredible experience!  Honestly, I was twitching on the plane ride home, becuase I wanted so badly to jump on an internet connection and start playing with all the new stuff I'd learned.

Dreamforce is like an enormous User Group meeting ON STEROIDS! If you can talk your boss into paying for the ride, -- you won't regret attending!  Register by September 5th, and you'll save $200 for Early Bird Registration.  I hope to have a promo code soon, for further discounts offered to User Group members, too.

For more info, click http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF08/

Save the date for our next meeting of the Salesforce.com New Hampshire Users Group.

• WHEN:   Wednesday, August 20, 2008
• TIME:  6:00pm - 7:30pm
• LOCATION:  Cedar Point Communications, Derry NH

More details to come, stay tuned!

As always, the meeting agenda is decided by YOU!  I'm looking for NHUG member input on what topics you'd like to see covered.  Please post comments, or send your ideas by email.

NOTE:  If you just can't wait until August 20th for the next User Group meeting, the Boston User Group will be meeting on Tuesday, August 5th.  Several of us NHUG members attend the Boston User Group meetings, as well.  It's great to see the contrast between the two user groups, and I enjoy attending both of them.  Hey, if it's Salesforce.com, and it's free ... I'm there.

Boston User Group Meeting Details:

• Tuesday, August 5th, 8:30am
• Home Suites Inn (Westin Room)
• 455 Totten Pond Road
• Waltham MA, 02451

Have a question?  Got a topic you want to add to the next User Group event?  Feel free to contact me anytime at 603-548-6021, or email me a jp.seabury@gmail.com.

Are you wondering if integrating your CRM with email can help increase your marketing ROI?   ExactTarget says yes – and wants to show you how.

ExactTarget wants to show how your CRM and email integration can drive highly-effective marketing return from day one.  ExactTarget, is launching a road show – Route 1 to 1: The New eMarketing Essentials . Come learn how to take your email marketing program to new heights.

Register for a the Waltham, Ma July 24^th Event!

(http://email.exacttarget.com/ETWeb/route1to1/default.aspx?src=sfdcsls)

Enter code R1T1SFDC for complimentary registration!

ExactTarget's one-day Route 1 to 1 seminar series teaches you how to leverage your CRM data and:

• Engage prospects
• Maximize marketing ROI
• Drive higher sales
• Increase “return-on customer”
• Build brand loyalty

In addition to presentations from ExactTarget’s email thought leaders, top industry experts and analysts will provide one-to-one marketing technology insight. ExactTarget clients will also be on-site to share real-life examples of their B2B and B2C email marketing success.

P.S. Registration is complimentary for Salesforce.com New Hampshire User Group members! Just enter the code R1T1SFDC while registering.

The following entry is one from my own personal blog over at http://forcemonkey.blogspot.com/.  While I usually try to not muddy the New Hampshire User Group blog too much with dribble from my own blog, I thought this entry might help a few User Group members, based on discussions we shared at the last user group meeting.

One of my clients contacted me this past week and asked a simple question – where do I learn to do what you do? “When I call you, we log in together to my Salesforce.com account, and then you talk me through the process of setting up some custom fields, custom objects, moving things around on page or whatever. These are all things I feel I should probably know after using Salesforce for over a year. Where do you learn to do all the things you do?” First, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s appropriate to share that my educational background is Computer Science, and my 20-year work experience has been in the fields of database architecture, software application development and customer support. My learning might have been at a slightly faster pace because of that background. However, I don’t think you need a software engineering degree to become proficient in Force.com. That’s the beauty of the Salesforce.com platform, and cloud-computing in general: anyone can come up to speed on it – very, very quickly. Here are my tips for mastering the Force. These are in no particular order, but the sequence is roughly how I came to know the platform, and I think it’s a pretty good path:

1. Dedicate Time for Training: Dedicate a couple hours per week to learning about the Force.com platform. Schedule it as your Monday morning or Friday afternoon ritual. If you have absolutely no time to budget for Force.com training during the work week, make some time after hours at home. Reserve these hours on your calendar, put a reminder on your Blackberry, do whatever it takes – but make sure it is quality, non-interrupted time.



2. Browse the Force.com Online Help: Start by just browsing the online help. Login to your instance of Force.com, and then click on the “Help & Training” link near the top-center area of your browser content window. Click on the “Help” tab, and you’ll find a ton of useful resources for all different types of users and administrators. You can select / print the “Printable User Guide”, or just walk through all the various help topics in the left side-bar. Be sure to check out the “Tips & Users Guides” link, too. You’re sure to find a lot of information here that will eat up those “training hours” that you scheduled for yourself in step 1.



3. Get a Developer Account: Did you know that you can get a Force.com developer account for free? A developer account has 2 user licenses, and limited data storage capacity, but it’s perfectly suited for testing your new Force.com skills. In your Developer account, you can try out changes before you implement them in your corporate environment. Before creating a developer account, be sure you have a personal email account (other than your work email account). If you don’t have one, they’re easy to create – just browse over to www.gmail.com and click on the Sign-up for Gmail link.
   
   Once you have a gmail account, use that email alias to create a developer account. Go to the Apex Developer Network at developer.salesforce.com and click the "Join Now" button.



4. Download the Book: Download a PDF version of “Creating On-Demand Applications: An Introduction to the Apex Platform”. This manual is the first of a two-book series that was handed out at Dreamforce 2007. It walks the reader through the process of creating a “Recruiting” application. During this process, you'll create custom objects, tabs, custom fields, custom formula fields, validation rules, page layouts, and more. All the skills that a Force.com administrator should know are covered in this book, step-by-step.



5. Browse the AppExchange: If you haven’t yet been to the AppExchange, now is the time to check it out. AppExchange is a library of applications built for Force.com. You can demo the applications, view screenshots of them, read user reviews, view online presentations / demos, etc. Some of the applications cost money, but many of them are free. Use the search engine to search on a few topics that might be of interest to you, or just browse through the categories until you find something that suits your fancy. Download an application to either your Developer account, or to your corporate account (if you have sufficient admin priviliges) -- don't worry, they're easy to remove, if you find that you don't like it. Or, you can use your budding talents to customize the application, so that it does work for your implementation of Salesforce.com.



6. Browse Successforce: Check out Successforce at success.salesforce.com. In particular, check out the Guides tab. I really wish I’d known about this resource when I started the roll-out of my first Salesforce.com implementation. There are tons of downloads available on this site, including process maps, implementation guides, and free training presentations.



7. Official Training from Salesforce.com: Consider attending a Salesforce.com “Administrator Essentials” training class. This 4-day training class is held periodically throughout the year, in major cities all around North America. It’s $3,000 for the course, and covers all the topics outlined in the “Creating On-Demand Applications” manual above. I confess that I didn’t take this route myself, because I’ve never favored these type of training events. I learn better from a book and online content than I do from classroom lecture – especially a lecture that lasts 6-8 hours for 4-5 consecutive days – ugh! But I know there are others who learn better in a classroom enviroment, so it's worth mentioning.



8. Join a Salesforce.com User Group: There are dozens of Salesforce.com User Groups around the globe. These user groups schedule meetings throughout the year, and discuss all things related to our favorite SAAS platform, Salesforce.com. You’re sure to pick up tips, tricks and best practices, as implemented by other professionals working with the Force. It’s a great way to network and collaborate with other administrators, developers and/or power users. To find the Salesforce.com User Group nearest you, check out http://usergroups.salesforce.com/ If you can't find a user group near you, consider starting your own!



9. Take it to the Next Level: By now, you should be fairly proficient as a Salesforce.com Administrator and/or Power User. If that was your goal, you can stop here. If you want to kick it up a notch, and get even more from your implementation of Salesforce.com, it’s time to cross over from Administrator to Developer. Your journey starts here: http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Getting_Started

Like all things in life, the more you practice it, the more proficient you will become. Follow these steps to get started with the Force. They'll start you on the path. How far you go, how adept you become, is up to you.

Of course, if you don't have time for all this -- then hire a Force Monkey to assist you!