Hope you're all doing well!

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday July 22nd. 

Topic:
Dashboards!  Please come prepared with dashboards you would like to share with the group; our projector is working this time so we'll be able to utilize the screen to show off everyone's favorite dashboards.  If you have one or two you'd like to show off, please let me know when you RSVP so I can keep track and be sure that we'll have plenty to show. 

Time:
9:00 - 11:00 AM PST

Location:
LaCrosse Footwear
17634 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97230

We have plenty of parking in our lot, though it'll be a little busy in the morning; you may want to park on the Airport Way side of the building as there should be enough spaces there.  Please either use our main entrance or there is an entry off the side of the conference room we were in last time - we'll have that door propped open as well.  

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July and I'll see you in a few weeks! 

Melynda 

A big thank you to everyone who showed up for the meeting today; what an excellent turn-out!  I'm glad to see that there were several excited folks passionate enough to help keep the group on it's feet.  A whole two hours of discussion, and it seemed like we could have kept going! 

To recap the discussion:

• The next 4 meetings have been scheduled as follows -
  
  • July 22^nd
  • September 23^rd
  • Dreamforce - those in attendance, we'll get something put together at the event for a brief meeting
  • January 20^th, 2010
• We will work to schedule informal meetings on the off months during an after work Happy Hour to allow more time for networking - dates TBA
• Best Practices, Q&A
  • Data Integrity; how to keep data clean, search first, Demand Tools
  • API's (this might have been over the heads of several of us, but it was an interesting discussion!)
  • Email integration; Exact Target & Vertical Response comparison
  • Content
• Removal of previously created Google group; replace with Linked In group for networking - questions/best practices should still be submitted through standard Salesforce.com forms.

If you missed the meeting, you can see we covered quite a bit! 

The topic of the next meeting will be reports and dashboards, so be sure to come prepared with your favorite dashboard to show the group!

Thanks again to everyone who participated; I'm looking forward to July already! 

Melynda

Thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey regarding preferred meeting information; your thoughts and comments have been duly noted and taken into consideration to make this meeting as informative and functional as possible! 

Our first meeting with Cameron and I as group leaders will be Wednesday May 20th @ 9AM PST.

Location:
LaCrosse Footwear
17634 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97230

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Best,
Melynda

Hello All!

First off, you may notice this is coming from someone new - that's right, there are new leaders for the Portland group!  Please allow me to take a few moments to introduce myself and my cohort: 

I'm Melynda Snowden, Sales Coordinator for LaCrosse Footwear, Inc., and the lead Salesforce.com Admin for our company.  We've been using Salesforce.com since November, 2005 and I've been with the project since day one!  Cameron Kinder is the Product Development Systems Manager here at LaCrosse and is my right hand Admin in crime. 

We're excited to have an opportunity to breathe some new life into the group and look forward to some successful and educational meetings ahead.  If you're currently a group memeber and received the survey via email, please take some time to complete this for us.  We'd like to make the meetings as informative as possible and value the input of all group members so we look forward to seeing what you have to say!

Thanks Everyone - we'll be in touch soon with a meeting date and location. FYI, we're currently targeting the week of May18th for a meeting so pencil that in on your calendars and we'll post the actual date, time and location once we have it nailed down.

Best,
Melynda

We had a very informative and productive meeting last Friday with lots of great ideas discussed by our members, including Jerome Lee from Mimosa Systems, who was kind enough to share a custom app he built - Project Status Management. Thanks, Jerome!

Our Portland Salesforce.com Google Group is up and running! If you haven't already, please click the link http://groups.google.com/group/salesforcecom---portland-oregon-user-group and click "Sign in and apply for membership". Then follow the steps to set up your User Account to join the group. I think this forum has great potential, and we will use it to ask questions and exchange ideas between members.

Below is a link I found with information on Summer '08 release coming soon. http://blogs.salesforce.com/blogs/2008/05/how-can-i-prepa.html

Salesforce.com has set up a special Dreamforce Ideas site where you can submit ideas for sessions to either deliver or see at this years Dreamforce conference, to be held November 2-5 in San Francisco. Below is a link to that site if you are interested. http://dreamforce.ideas.salesforce.com/

See you all at our next meeting in July!

Thanks again to James Carter at Marquis Inc for his presentation on marketing automation. Below are links to his slide presentation and to future Marquis webinars:

Power Point Slides:

http://www.marqui.com/files/PDF/Marqui_AppExchange_2008_UserGroup_Deck.pdf

Marqui Marketing Automation Webinars:

http://www.marqui.com/resources/Marketing-Automation-Webinars.aspx

Also thanks to Bryan Yeung at Salesforce for his overview of new features. Below are answers to questions that came up during his presentation:

Can a salesforce content document be attached to an object?

Yes

Is dashboard report scheduled per user or per organization? 

The particular dashboard refresh is scheduled for the organization.  If one users schedules a dashboard for a 6pm refresh, another user who attempts to schedule it, will see that it's been scheduled for 6pm and can make modifications on top of that, rather than create a brand new refresh job.  That’s at least what I confirm from my testing right now.

Can platform users use salesforce ideas?

Yes, http://blogs.salesforce.com/ideas/2007/12/different-views.html

On picklist values, we need to use a case statement, but we want to evaluate as a variable.  Can we do this?

The closest method is the ISPICKVAL() function which would allow you to compare a picklist to a value you specify.  The best way to get direct comparisons such as "IF(field1 = "value", "result if true", "result if false") noticed by the larger community is to post it up to the Ideas Exchange. 

Can a Salesforce content object page have custom fields?

Yes.  You can have fields such as product line, drop downs etc.

Denise Askelsen at OHSU has a job posting to share:

Description

Responsible for managing all aspects of Salesforce.com (CRM) system administration, including maintenance, configuration, dashboard/report creation, user training/adoption/support, and data integration/quality/analysis/reporting related to relationship development and other strategic planning initiatives; works with multiple departments to understand and support business processes and strategies.

Qualifications

***Applications will only be accepted from current OHSU Employees for the first 7 days of this posting*** Bachelor-s degree in a business field and one year of experience that included analytical, database, spreadsheet and/or financial experience, technical writing, quantitative analysis or use of statistical principles; OR Associate-s degree in a business field plus three years of experience that included analytical, database, spreadsheet and/or financial experience, technical writing, quantitative analysis or use of statistical principles; OR Five years of experience that included analytical, database, spreadsheet and/or financial experience, technical writing, quantitative analysis or use of statistical principles; OR An equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience. Strongly prefer 2+ years experience with CRM platforms including configuration, customization, data integration and reporting; experience working with sales, marketing or PR professionals; advanced spreadsheet skills; ability to translate customer requirements into system specifications.

Schedule and Salary Range

Salary Range: $20.01-27.14/hour; Location: Marquam Hill Campus.

Apply online at http://www.ohsu.edu/hr/.  If this is your first time applying for a position at OHSU you will need to first create an account and complete your profile under -My Application- before applying for this position. For a list of public locations where you can apply online go to: http://www.ohsu.edu/hr/other_places_to_apply.html

Questions

Portland Salesforce.com User Group members can contact Denise Askelson at askelson@ohsu.edu

Here's a reminder for our upcoming User Group meeting this Friday, March 7, from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM at the Liberty Centre - 650 NE Holladay. 

We're right on the MAX line and parking is available also. Our featured speaker is James Carter from Marquis Inc. They have just introduced their marketing automation tool to the Appexchange, and James will give us an overview of that. Also, Bryan Yeung from Salesforce will give us a remote presentation via the Web on Salesforce.com Spring 08 new features and speak to any other questions or issues you might have.

Look forward to seeing everyone this Friday, and hopefully we can all gain some valuable insight.

Don

Liz Dooley from Centerstance has a job opening for someone with SFDC experience. Below are the details:

Centerstance is seeking a SFDC Technical Business Analyst for our client in Beaverton, Oregon. This is a direct-hire role.

Summary:  The SFDC Technical Business Analyst works primarily with sales and marketing operations teams to establish global vision and direction for the SFDC solution and App Exchange landscape. The position is responsible for hands on activities as well as project management, leadership, guidance and direction of offshore staff as well as SFDC platinum support admin for application support, administration, configuration and maintenance. This includes requirements gathering, analysis, design, prototyping, development, testing, implementation and post-implementation of solutions. Other responsibilities include availability, interoperability, functionality and uptime of applications supported. The role interacts and acts as the liaison between the business community and IT team to analyze/clarify business processes to define functional requirements and technical specifications.

Duties & Responsibilities

•       The primary advisor of SFDC and its capabilities and functionality for the Sales, Support and PRM modules

•       Partnering with sales and marketing business units to understand the business processes for lead management, opportunities, forecasting, maintenance renewal, data mining, etc.

•       Assist sales and marketing operation with developing world wide best practices for simple and effective business processes

•       Responsible for all management and administration of Users, Accounts, Opportunities, Territories, Roles, Forecast, etc.

•       Assist with data mining and complex reports

•       Lead and recommend cleansing methodologies and training guidelines to users to ensure data integrity

•       Create and maintain documentation and or online supporting documentation for IT and users

•       Reviews current status of system applications and prepares recommendations for system improvements

•       Lead and make recommendations on other tools, integrations, product upgrades and overall roadmap of SFDC implementation

•       Other related job duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education:  Bachelor’s degree in business management, information systems or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience essential.

Skills & Experience:  Must have minimum 2 years prior hands-on experience supporting sales and marketing organizations in a production instance of SFDC. Experience with configuration, customization and integration of SFDC required. Additional 2-5 years experience supporting sales and marketing in other CRM solutions a must. Prior experience either participating and or led CRM implementations are desired. Candidate must have ability to understand business processes as well as systems requirement to implement such processes in the SFA tool. Ideal candidate has business experience and or background in sales and or marketing operations along with demonstrated good technical aptitude.

It is required that the person possess any or all of the following development skills in .NET, Java or C#. Experienced report writer using tools such as Crystal. Familiar with back end database development with RDBMS, ADO, JDBC, stored procedures, SQL jobs, packages. Demonstrated experience in web application support, development and or integration with enterprise systems is desired.

General Requirements:

•       Excellent organizational and time management skills.

•       Highly developed project management skills.

•          High degree of personal integrity and professionalism.

•       Strong listening, written, verbal and telephone communication skills and professional presentation skills; able to communicate effectively and credibly with all levels, including senior management and very senior technical staff.

•       Highly self-motivated; works effectively with minimal supervision; takes direction well.

•       Excellent interpersonal and conflict management skills; able to work collaboratively in a team environment.

•       Persistent and dependable, especially with attendance and meeting deadlines; able to manage multiple competing priorities.

•       Able to adapt to a constantly changing environment; flexibility to work extended hours and weekends if needed.  Occasional travel required.

___________________________________________________________

Liz Dooley

centerstance
10200 SW Greenburg Rd, Suite 340

Portland,Oregon 97223

(Cell: 503-680-9826
+ e-mail: ldooley@centerstance.com
Fax: 503-802-4001

Hello Portland Salesforce.com user group members.  We had a really good and informative August user group meeting.  Our core topic was on "cases".  We had Sherri Opiel discuss how her firm used cases.  Also, we had Michael Brent, Account Executive for Service and Support from Salesforce.com provide a demonstration on cases.  Lots of questions were asked of both and we all found it very helpful.  Please feel free to let other members of your staff know about our user group - refer them to the following website and ask them to click Portland from the drop-down box:  http://www.dreamforce.blogs.com/join/

I did announce during the meeting that I needed to withdraw from my duties as user group leader.  Although I still work at Liberty Northwest, I've taken on a new role related to insurance products training for Liberty Northwest employees and our agent's employees and will unfortunately not be a user of salesforce.com.  However, the good news is that Lisa Lawrence, Sales Resources Manager, Liberty Northwest has agreed to be the user group leader.  Stay tuned for her introductory bio to be posted in the next couple of weeks.

Our next user group meeting is slotted to occur on Tuesday, November 14th from 11:30 to 1:00 at Liberty Northwest.  We are going to have two subjects for discussion: Liberty Northwest administrators will provide a quick demo on using dashboards and Michael Leach will discuss Portals.  Two great topics and we're sure there will be a lot of interest.  This meeting will be right after the Dreamforce conference, so there should be a lot of high energy in the room. 

Anyway, we hope to see many of you there!  A mailing will be coming out shortly to all user group members providing more details about the upcoming user group meeting.  Until then, if you have any questions, please contact either Lisa Lawrence @ lisa.lawrence@libertynorthwest.com or Nadine Trask @ nadine.trask@libertynorthwest.com

Sincerely, your Past User Group Leader

Cathy Lamothe (I'll miss all of you)

Time is short.  Sign-up now to register for the upcoming Portland Salesforce.com User Group Meeting.   The meeting is on Tuesday, August 15th from 11:30 to 1:00 at Liberty Northwest, 650 NE Holladay, Portland, Oregon.

Primary Meeting Topic for August Meeting: Cases (how do we use cases, what methods do you use, tips & tricks for setting up cases) The meeting agenda is as follows:

* Introductions
* We'll have a 15 minute demonstration from a Salesforce.com rep on the subject of cases.

** Spotlights  - Sherri Opiel will be doing a spotlight for us on how to use cases

* Bright ideas - Group forum for sharing quick tips & tricks on cases
* Flashlights - Collective problem-solving (related to cases)
* Headlights - ideas & planning for future User Group events
* Wrap up

Hope to see you there!

Cathy, Portland Salesforce.com User Group Leader

(503) 734-7965

cathy.lamothe@libertynorthwest.com

Hello everyone, there were 23 participants at our most recent user group meeting held today, June 20th at Liberty Northwest.  We now have 44 members and to have over 1/2 show up for the meeting is awesome. 

We had Skip ONeill from Exact Target provide a demo on how his product partners with Salesforce.com to e-mail contacts and track how many times opened and what links were clicked on.  Also, Melynda Snowden, from LaCrosse Footwear, talked to us about the training tools her company uses.  It was very informative.  We agreed that we'd like an informal e-mail group and Mark Bruso took people's cards and will help set that up.  Also, remember we can use Connect On Demand as a tool to reach others with like interests.

Next meeting will be on Tuesday, August 15th.  The subject will be on use the cases feature in Salesforce.com.  We plan to have a representative from Salesforce.com talk to us and Sherri Opiel, from WebTrends, will share with us how they use cases.

Hope to see many of you there.  Also, please talk to your fellow users about joining our user group.  The more input the better we get.

Lastly, I found out the other day at a user group leader meeting, that any member of a user group is eligible for a $100 discount on a Dreamforce conference registration.  I'll post the code as soon as I know it. 

Stay in touch and call me or send me an e-mail with any questions.

Cathy Lamothe, (503) 736-7337