Session 5 – Salesforce.com New Zealand User Group

Summary

Our focus was on the topic of “Portals” within Salesforce.com.

Attached are the notes and presentations from the meeting (FYI):

1.     The Next User Group Meeting – Session 6

2.     Overview of what Options are available

3.     Telecom Wholesale use of Customer Portal

4.     Example of set-up of Self Service Portal

5.     Tips from the meeting

a.     Using Twitter in Salesforce.com

b.    What’s New in Winter Release

c.     YouTube Videos

d.    31 Day Calendar

e.     MOTD

The Next Salesforce.com User Group Meeting: Session 6

Will be held on Tuesday the 10^th of November 2009 (Venue and time to be confirmed)

Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm

Our Topic of Focus will be: “Customisation”

I will send a reminder closer to the date.

Special thank you to:

Telecom Wholesale – Frank Grear for providing the Venue

Craig Skinner for talking about the various options available

Aden Forrest and his team for coming along and giving their 10cents worth (much appreciated)

Everyone who took the time to come along

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions and I will communicate with the presenter as needed by emailing me: michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz or calling me on 021614870

Cheers

MT

Content from the Meeting Starts Here

Overview of Options: Craig Skinner – Salesforce.com Account Manager

Craig explained the different options and levels of Salesforce.com Portals:

Level 1 – Self Service Portal (Free)

Level 2 – Customer Portal (License Cost of $85AUD per named user, per annum)

Level 3 – Partner Portal (License Cost POA)

Level 4 – Custom Built Portal using Salesforce.com as a Database Only

Read this document to get some great background into building your own Self Service or Customer Portal by clicking here

Check if the version of Salesforce you use Supports Portals:

https://www.salesforce.com/au/crm/editions-pricing.jsp

Overview of Telecom Wholesale: Frank Grear – Telecom Wholesale

Frank explained that Telecom Wholesale was a division of Telecom, dealing directly with ISP’s and Providers who resell Telecom network resources (ie: Vodafone/iHug, Orconz, Horizon Pacific etc.).

Telecom uses Salesforce.com in other parts of Telecom, none of their databases are connected.  Franks team use it for “Case Management”. Cases are “job requests” from customers which are auctioned by his team.

Frank designed a Self-Service Portal, then a Customer Portal for his customers to use. His design inspiration came while mowing the lawns, he then worked with Salesforce.com and built the working solution in 4 days – on time and under budget (something unfamiliar he said in Telecom speak).

As a result, his customers log jobs, follow their progress and review information online as Frank’s team fix and resolve these issues. Because it is fully logged, he can now report on these within Salesforce.com itself and was able to commit to SLA’s (he couldn’t previously as they didn’t have any way of measuring their performance).

The result for his team has been dramatic, and it was very simple to design, build and implement.

He says it was a very big success, something other Telecom units are now interested in copying.

Their solution is a combination of “Self-service Portal, Customer Portal and Enterprise Access”.

How Set-up a Self Service Portal – Michael Toi – SFNZUG Leader

I used my own instance our Salesforce.com (First Mobile) as an Enterprise User to set-up the Self Service Portal for us (purely as a demonstration for this meeting). As I did so, I took snap-shots of the various screens and have put them together in this attached PDF file. Use this document along with the brief steps I have summarised below to help you get started with your own Self-Service Portal.

Pre-Requisites

I didn’t know what to expect when I did this set-up, but having done it, I now know what I should have done so am giving you this advice now – please read and follow it.

1.     Setting up Portals technically goes hand in hand with Cases (Cases is Salesforce.com’s own Job Logging system if you didn’t know that already) and Solutions (another free feature that allows you to write documents and store them in Salesforce for others to read and use). You are able to use Cases to log and track jobs (it is free for PE and Enterprise users). Solutions simply provide instructions to customers faults if previously resolved (like a FAQ or self help)

2.     You need to ensure you have “someone” willing to look after the cases when you start using the Self Service Portal you create as jobs will start to be logged and they need to be updated

3.     You probably need to think about “what you want the customers to actually see and what you want them to enter into the system” when logging a case. I suggest you work firstly with the “Cases” page layout in Cases (within Salesforce.com) until you are happy with what you want to see, then start on the Self Service portal itself

Getting Started

The quickest way to setting up your Self Service portal is to use the “Jump Start Option”.

1.     Login to Salesforce.com

2.     Press Set-up

3.     Customise

4.     Self-Service

5.     Self-Service Portal

6.     Jump Start

7.     Then just follow the steps until complete

8.     Once finished test it, then go back in and customise what you have until you are happy

Take a look at the attached document for my example to help you (Download Portal Demo Build)

Click Here to Look at the: Self Service Implementation Guide

Self Service Portal Video Demo: Click Here

Free Talk Tips

The following notes were gathered through the Free Talk session of our User Group Meeting.

Tips: Aden Forrest – Salesforce.com Country Manager

Twitter and Salesforce.com: It was discussed integrating Twitter with Salesforce.com into Cases so that discussions involving your company or brand could be dealt with before they get out of control or simply to take advantage of opportunities that may appear. Here Aden refers us to additional examples (take a look; they could be beneficial to you and your business):

Background: http://www.salesforce.com/au/company/news-press/press-releases/2009/03/090323.jsp
Applications: http://sites.force.com/appexchange/results?keywords=Twitter

What’s New in Winter Release (Our Summer) – Diana Wells – Salesforce.com NZ

My Admin top 10 for Winter 10

1.     Cloud Deployment – gives Admin the ability to deploy code within the app – no need for Admins to learn Eclipse

2.     Lookup Filter Fields – constrain your lookups e.g.  in the Account picklist for Optys only look up active Accounts. And rumour has it dependant lookups are on the way e.g. in the Account picklist for Optys only look up Accounts with in the Users State

3.     Profiles – now can bulk update Profile settings in the App via views – huge time saver!

4.     Brand new version of CRM for Outlook – allows you to have the admin control Outlook settings for your Org within the app

5.     Salesforce Quotes – ability to create a Quote off of an Opportunities and then generate a pdf

6.     Analytics – have a line and bar chart on the same chart  - 2 series graphs – also there is a groovy new thing called the Dashboard Microscope that lets you drill into only certain segments of charts and also hover!

7.     Validation Rules – you can now put in Comments into your validation rules to help manage your deployment. Also forget ISNULL, Len = 0 there is a new ISBLANK function

8.     Email Alerts – you can now override the From in all your Email Workflow Alters instead of the user that activate the rule it can come from a generic address

9.     Packaging/Deployment – validation rules and list views are now included in the API – no more copy and paste from sandbox to production

10.  Custom WebPages for Outages – replace the salesforce error pages with your own custom web pages tailored for your company e.g. for when bandwidth is exceeded, Salesforce is in maintenance, generic errors, Service not available – Salesforce Servers are down (not that that ever happens) etc.

For the full list of new features in the Salesforce.com Winter 09 Release, click here

Useful Tools:

YouTube Videos: If you didn’t already know this, there are alot of Salesforce.com videos now on YouTube for you to review. Many of these explain how to use advanced features and provide simple instructions for you to follow.

Example: Help on Customising Salesforce.com

31 Day Calendar: Something I created for our own company is a 31 day calendar. The idea being that as a sales organisation we are interested in the “Status” of Opportunities. As a result, every month the Sales team need to repeat what they did last month. For example, at the start of the month, it is all about updating everything from last month that needs updating, at the end of the month we are only interested in Opportunities over 50% (not something at 10%). This could be useful for your business too (click here for the calendar)

Download Salesforce com Timetable Wall Chart

MOTD: In all portals there is an option to customise the text that appears on the home page. I have used this feature to create a “Message of the Day” where we constantly update this message and display something of importance to our users prior to logging in. To change this in the Partner Portal:

1.     Login as your Administrator (most likely with an Enterprise Login)

2.     Click Set-up > Customise > Partner

3.     Click on Your Partner Portal

4.     Click “Edit” and Under “Look and Feel” change the “Login Message”

5.     I have linked it to a document called MOTD.txt in “Documents”

6.     Now all I have to do is update the MOTD.txt document, then replace it in Documents and the message will appear prior to logging in. The message appears above the “Username and Password” prior to login

For More Useful Tips – look at the “Success Force” Tips by clicking here

User Group Meeting 5 – Tuesday 8th September 2009

Topic of Focus: Portals with Salesforce.com

We are going to discuss Salesforce.com Portals.

Find out how to use and configure Salesforce.com Self Service Portal and the benefits/options available.

If you are interested in attending, please read on and RSVP as instructed below.

Remember to put the following date and time in your calendar.

If you have any questions or comments please feel to contact me directly.

My mobile number is: +6421614870
Email: michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz

URL to Salesforce.com Usergroup Blog:

http://usergroups.salesforce.com/new_zealand/

Also look for notes from the previous meetings posted there

Our Host: Telecom

Venue: 35 Airedale Street,  Auckland

Parking: Street or nearby parking facilities

Session 4 – Salesforce.com New Zealand User Group

Summary

Our focus was on the topic of “Marketing Automation” and the use of Salesforce.com Campaigns.

Attached are the presentations that were shown, along with the additional information and notes that were discussed during the meeting.

-          The decisions from the last User Group Meeting - Download Last Meeting

-          The Features Map we will use and update for User Group Meetings - Download Salesforce Map of Features

-          Overview of Options – Tom Risbrook – Sqware Peg

-          Telstra Clear’s use of Campaigns – Louise O’Sullivan and Michelle Wong

-          How I Use the Campaign Tool to Set-up User Group Meetings – Michael Toi – SFNZUG Leader

-          Campaign Tool Tips – Michael Toi – SFNZUG Leader

-          Useful Tools – Purl, Excel Connector and NZ Postcode Tool

-          Application Code for “Lost Reason Codes”

The Next Salesforce.com User Group Meeting: Session 5

Will be held on Tuesday the 8^th of September 2009 (Venue and time to be confirmed)

Our Topic of Focus will be: “Portals”

I will send a reminder closer to the date.

Special thank you to:

Telstra Clear – Louise and Michelle for providing the Venue

Tom Risbrook for his overview of the various options

Craig Skinner for demonstrating the Campaign process

Everyone who took the time to come along

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions and I will communicate with the presenter as needed by emailing me: michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz or calling me on 021614870

Cheers

MT

Content from the Meeting Starts Here

Overview of Options: Tom Risbrook – Sqware Peg

Tom explained the different options and levels of Salesforce.com Campaigns:

Level 1 – Inbuilt tools and options

Level 2 – Add-in tools from 3^rd parties

Level 3 – Purposely built campaign tools using or integrating with SF.com

Download Marketing in an On-Demand World

Overview of Telstra Clear: Louise O’Sullivan and Michelle Wong – Telstra Clear

Louise and Michelle provided an overview of what their company “Telstra Clear” did with Salesforce.com in the way of Campaigns

Download Telstra Clear Customer Overview

How I Use the Campaign Tool to Set-up User Group Meetings – Michael Toi – SFNZUG Leader

As mentioned, I have attached the instructions I put together that I use when I send out User Group Invites. They are treated like a Campaign and the basic principles of what you need to do yourself will apply. Please Note: I am only using what I believe is probably 40% of what I could do (I am not using sites or portals for campaign updates, or dashboards). However, it is a point in the right direction any you may learn from using these instructions – I hope – Good luck.

Download Salesforce User Group Process Example

Campaign Tips: Michael Toi – SFNZUG Leader

The following are tips learnt from using the Campaign Tool that may help you when you give it a go yourself. Please note these are not in any particular order and may require more knowledge to implement.

1.     Collect email addresses for all of your customers – are needed to enable Email campaigns

2.     Use Dates in Campaign Names to keep Campaigns in order and to make it easy to find them later (especially if you have multiple Campaigns) – ie: 2009-Jul-15 Marketing Campaign

3.     Use Filter Views to select the customers you want to communicate with as part of the campaign

4.     Refer to the Campaign Summary Report – it is a standard report for Campaigns

5.     If uploading a list from an external source, it is a good idea to put the date the list was created in the system (ie: create a new field called “List Date” and put the date in that field)

6.     Make sure you have the correct and appropriate “Source” information for each name used

7.     Analyse Ratios (use the Excel Connector) especially “Lost vs. Unqualified vs. Qualified” ratios

8.     Where possible use “Tick Box” or “Drop Down” selection fields in your page layouts where possible (especially if you have alot of customers information to update) - examples

a.     Active or Not Active leads (can filter in reports for this tickbox setting – true or false)

b.    Drop down list for “Lost” reasons (make the reason mandatory) – see Apex code below

9.     Use the Email Report Schedule to keep managers informed with the Campaign reports

Items to look-up from Salesforce.com Help:

1.     Campaigns

2.     Sales Queues

3.     Templates

4.     Customising Salesforce (Fields and Page Layouts)

5.     Optional: Use of Record Types

Useful Tools:

PURL - Chris Graham - Pre Media

This tool will allow you to create "personalised mini websites" (PURLs) and direct mail marketing campaigns.

Excel Connector - Jeff Challis - Salesforce

As mentioned, there is a useful tool called the “Excel Connector” that will provide bi-directional synching between Excel and Salesforce.com. Ron Hess has built an Excel Connector leveraging the Salesforce platform. The connector allows you to import records from Excel directly into Salesforce.com. It also allows you to perform mass updates which can be very handy for data cleansing projects.

Open Source tool which works with professional, enterprise, and unlimited edition.

-          This can be found at: http://www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-practices/administrators/data-management/data-tools/excel-connector.jsp

-          Please follow the install instructions at: http://sforce.sourceforge.net/excel/install.htm

-          There are a couple of gotcha’s, so please do read this document the whole way through before attempting anything

New Zealand Post Code Tool – Daniel Fowley – Trineo

Daniel is an independent Salesforce.com developer from Christchurch. A few weeks he released the first app on appexchange specifically for Salesforce.com's New Zealand customers - the app can update a Contact or Account's address data with the correct address format and postcode. The app has had a positive response and can be found at:

https://sites.secure.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000018mbLEAQ

Here is a short video about the application which you can view here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wexg7-_Qya0&fmt=22

Code for “Lost” Status: Michael Toi - SFNZUG Leader

The following code can be used to force the “Mandatory” selection of a valid “Reason” from a drop down list when the user selects the status “Lost” from Leads (or any other page where this is used).

You must create a custom field called “Lost Reason Codes” as a “Pick list” type under the area within Salesforce.com that you want this field to exist (ie: Leads, Opportunity, Accounts etc.).

Then create the reasons (I have simply used here as examples “Reason A, B, C and D” but it could be anything as long as they match what you have created in the picklist and in this code below)

Select the Table and use the option “Validation Rules” and create a new validation rule (ie: Lost Reason Required)

Create a new rule and complete the page appropriately (see image below)

Enter this application code:

AND(ISPICKVAL(Status , "Lost"), NOT(OR( ISPICKVAL( Lost_Reason_Codes__c , "Reason A"), ISPICKVAL( Lost_Reason_Codes__c , "Reason B"), ISPICKVAL( Lost_Reason_Codes__c , "Reason C"), ISPICKVAL( Lost_Reason_Codes__c , "Reason D"), ISPICKVAL( Lost_Reason_Codes__c , "Not Interested to Change"))))

The next Salesforce.com User Group meeting has been scheduled as follows:

Topic of Focus: Marketing Automation with Salesforce.com

With the economy on a rollercoaster ride, it is time to see how Salesforce.com can help you and I with pro active marketing.

Using the Campaign Tools, templates and customer lists you can see how to inject some “Economic Stimulisation” yourself using Salesforce.com.

This has to be something of major interest to any business and so very topical at this moment in time to help drive sales opportunities for you.

If you are interested in attending, please read on and RSVP as instructed below.

Remember to put the following date and time in your calendar.

If you have any questions or comments please feel to contact me directly.

My mobile number is: +6421614870
Email: michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz

URL to Salesforce.com Usergroup Blog:

http://usergroups.salesforce.com/new_zealand/

Our Host: Telstra Clear and Sqware Peg

Venue: TelstraClear Centre
Smales Farm Office Park
Cnr Northcote & Taharoto Roads
Takapuna

Phone no is 9124200

Parking: You must sign in to reception on arrival and someone will meet you in the reception. There is plenty of parking available

Date: 28 July 2009
Time: 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Please RSVP by emailing me (michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz)

Please Put "RSVP Salesforce" in the Subject

Meeting 4 Agenda:

Start at 5:30pm

Host 15 minutes:

Telstra Clear will talk about their use of Saleforce.com

More Detailed Discussion

Tom Risbrook from Sqware Peg will talk about the various options available within Salesforce.com and what add-on tools may be of interest to all of us

Craig Skinner/Stuart Jone will demonstrate the use of Salesforce.com Campaign Tool

Open discussion on this topic

Yes, there will be Pizza as usual

Finish 7:00pm

Look forward to seeing you there.

Hi everyone,

As mentioned in the last blog update from Craig Skinner, I have taken over as the new Salesforce.com User Group Leader. Being new to the role I am still trying to find my feet, who is involved in the group, what I have to do and how to use the Salesforce.com tools needed to send out message updates. In time I will get to know you as a member and what you are interested in, what you are doing with Salesforce.com and what you want from being part of this group.

Right now my first task is to simply organise the next User Group meeting as follows:

Please Note: As this is my first time as team leader, I volunteered to use my office (First Mobile) simply because I don't know anyone else to ask at this time.

When: Tuesday 12 May 2009 at 6:00pm (estimate 1.5 hours total running time)
Where: First Mobile Head Office - Shed 24 147 Quay St, Princes Wharf, Auckland

Please RSVP by emailing me (michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz)

Please Put RSVP in the Subject

Directions: Auckland CBD, Downtown, Princes wharf is the wharf with Wildfire at the front and the Hilton Hotel at the end. To find First Mobile, simply drive right to the end of the wharf and First Mobile is directly opposite the Hilton Hotel.

Parking:  First Mobile has a small number of free parking spots where it is signed accordingly as "First Mobile" - (first in best dressed) but if you miss out then there is pleanty of "Pay and Display" Wilson parking in this area or you can also try Downtown, the Viaduct car parks or local side streets (side streets will be alot cheaper than right outside the door) - your choice.

Session Topics:

I have been told that based on the feedback from the last meeting one of the topics that was of interest was "Best Practice Reporting". This will be presented by one of the Salesforce.com partners (TBC). There will always be a "Topic of Interest" presented by someone who knows what they are doing to help us all learn.

One of the ideas I would like to introduce is the concept of whomever hosts the user group meeting will have a 15 minute time slot to tell us about their use of Salesforce.com (be it as a user, or as a partner). I would call this session "A Real World Example". As a result, I will be giving you all a brief overview of how we, First Mobile use Salesforce.com this time around.

The last formal part will be "What's New" in Salesforce.com which will be presented by someone from Salesforce.com.

There will also be time for open discussion - "Free Talk" where you can ask questions, make comments and discuss topics of interest.

I believe the main concept of the above format is to give us all new ideas and knowledge/skills to take back to the office and try yourself, hopefully benefiting you and your organisation

Timetable:

6:00pm Arrive at First Mobile
6:10pm Welcome from Michael Toi as new User Group Leader
6:15pm Topic of Interest: Best Practice Reporting - by Salesforce.com
6:30pm Real World Customer: First Mobile
6:45pm Pizza Arrives
6:50pm What's New: New features in Salesforce.com - by Salesforce.com
7:15pm Free Talk: Q&A
7:25pm Next Session Plan
7:30pm End of Session

If anyone has any questions or comments about the above please feel to contact me directly.

My mobile number is: +6421614870
Email: michael.toi@firstmobile.co.nz

Hi everyone- Great news! Michael Toi, CEO of First Mobile Response has agreed to take over the running of the New Zealand User Group. The User Group has been a great way to share best practice, build networks and discuss ideas- it's fantastic to see that it will continue!

I've started my role as Corporate Account Executive, based here in Auckland so I will continue to be involved with the User Group and will be in regular contact with those of you who are now my customers!

I've worked quite closely with Michael Toi in the past so I was delighted when he volunteered to take responsibility for the User Group.

Here's a little bit of a background provided by Michael:

I currently work for First Mobile for the past 6.5 years and have the following roles within this organisation:

1.       I am CEO of FMR (this is a service part of First Mobile supporting our Sales Teams and customers with technical support of Vodafone products and services)

2.       GM IT&C (I look after the First Mobile New Zealand operational aspects of their Computer systems)

3.       Systems support and training (I also provide support on the key systems we use including Salesforce.com – I administer this system across 125 users)

4.       Special projects (I provide project management and investigation of new services, or opportunities for us in this and other industries)

Salesforce.com within FMNZ:

We have been using Salesforce.com for one year (we started the rollout project 15 Feb 2008).

We have 20 Enterprise and 105 PRM licenses.

I Administer and manage the system including some customisation and updates of the data .

Our system was originally customised by Salesforce Results (a local partner) to provide Vodafone specific formats.

As a result, I have a general knowledge of Salesforce – I would say medium to above average....

I haven’t been on any training so believe I will learn a lot from being involved in this user group.

My Background

I have been in the IT industry since 1985 in the area of Database Administration and System/End User Support.

In 1991 I joined BellSouth (as employee 34, their first IT person at the time) and have since remained in the Mobile Industry (with Vodafone when they took over BellSouth, ITouch UK and First Mobile).

I'm working with Michael now to set up the next User Group session- keep an eye out for the invitation!

Cheers,
Craig
021 422 685

Download Usergroup_mtg_180209
Thanks to those of you who braved the weather to come to last night's User Group session. Once again, we had a lot of content to get through which hopefully was useful to you. Thanks very much to Annamarie Jamieson of Fairfax Sundays for hosting the session and putting up with straglers getting stuck in stairwells etc!

Attached is the ppt presentation (5.7MB) which has a number of slides that were 'hidden' last night due to time constraints.

Please let us know how you found the session by posting a response.

Thanks
Craig

No, I'm not burnt out after just two sessions.....On Monday 23 Feb I join Salesforce.com as Corporate Sales Executive so we need a new User Group Leader!

I will of course stay involved in the NZ User Group, but we need someone to step in to co-ordinate the sessions and content. As discussed at last nights meeting, it's been great to see the degree of enthusiasm that people have for the User Group so we're very keen to keep it going.

I'm happy to spend some time with the new leader to share my ideas regarding what we could do to ensure the role of leader is not too much of a burden, how we could utilise the Salesforce.com Partners to host events and contribute content.

If you're interested in taking over, please either drop me a line, or email Jeff Challis jchallis@salesforce.com

Regards, Craig

Location:
Fairfax Sundays
3rd Floor Boardroom
155 New North Road
Eden Terrace
(just before the Dominion Road overpass)

Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Agenda:
1. Introductions
2. Survey results
3. Overview of the Pollzter application
4. Spring '09 release highlights
5. Best Practice: Contact and Activity Management
6. Overview of the Certification Programme

See you all then!