Add the date to your calendar for the next Twin Cities salesforce.com User Group meeting, Fri., Dec. 11th from 9am-1pm.

Location:

If you did not receive an invitation for this event, and would like to attend, please fill out the "Join Now" information in the left-hand navigation panel of this page.  We base our food and room capacity counts (and therefore our budget) on the RSVPs, so it is important that you register, receive an invitation and RSVP from the links in the invitation.  

Agenda :

• 8:45 - 9:00am - Breakfast (sponsored by salesforce.com and Seating
• 9:00 - 9:05am - Welcome
• 9:05 - 10:15am - Various Presentations from Users who attended Dreamforce - The Most Important Things I Learned at Dreamforce - The following users are scheduled to present:
  

  Ron Bohn - Cloud Ops Consulting LLC
  Thea Melillo - GovDelivery
  John Nesbitt - Second Harvest Heartland
  Ali Jarosch and Nancy Matchey  - Andersen Windows
• 10:15 - 10:30am - BREAK
• 10:30 - 11:15am - Dreamforce Presentations (continued) - The following users are scheduled to present:
  

  Aaron Hinnendael - H.B. Fuller
  Margarette Minor and Tom Mischka- Thrivent Financial
  Kathy Ecklund - Lawson Software
• 11:15 - Noon - Engagement Systems Presentation -Engagement Systems is a relatively new entrant (Last November) into the Marketing Automation space, delivering the following capabilities:

• • The only automated system with true multi-channel campaign execution including direct mail, email, Personalized URLs, landing pages/microsites, surveys and phone call reminders, from within your CRM interface and native within the application.  
  • Marketing and sales communications can be sent one at a time, with personalized content relevant to each recipient – no minimum orders or personalized mass communication. 
  • Solution can be leveraged across the entire customer lifecycle for maximum lifetime revenue and ROI
  • And much more...  Please join the meeting to find out more!
    
• Noon - 12:05pm - Next Meeting Planning - discuss upcoming presenters, ideas, etc.
• 12:05 - 1:00pm - BOFs/Lunch (sponsored by Engagement Systems) - we'll break out into Birds of a Feather by User Types (Advanced/Intermediate Admins, Beginner Admins, Marketing, Sales and Support) during lunch. 
  

If you would like to volunteer to lead a BOF, please email me at tc.sfdc@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there!

Many of you attended the Winter '10 Release Virtual Demo that Heather Ramsdell presented on October 16th.  There were some questions that came out of that demo that Heather was going to research and get back to us on.  Here are her findings:    

• Quotes pilot will be accepting new companies after Dreamforce.  Heather has responded back personally to all the folks who sent her info.  Moving forward, please work with your account team to get nominated.
• The SFDC Product mgmt team would be happy to do an outlook roadmap presentation to the group at one of our upcoming User Group meetings.  We are working with them to work out logistics. Stay tuned for meeting agendas to include this.
• If users access their email via webmail – are there any issues with our sync functionality related to webmail or do we need to be using the client outlook app to get all features?  You have to use the client app to sync.  You don't have to mark anything for sync or press any buttons as the next time you start Outlook sync will occur automatically.  While using Webmail, you can always BCC your Email to Salesforce address, as a workaround to adding Email.

Thanks Heather for your follow-through!

Leyna Hoffer
Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group Leader

Whether this is your first Dreamforce or you are an old pro, attending sessions and events with some of your local peers is always a benefit!  In an effort to foster networking and help you to get the most out of your Dreamforce experience, I am gathering information about those who will be attending from the Twin Cities User Group.

If you recevied an email from me concerning this information - please fill out the survey contained in the email if you are going.  If you are going and did not receive an email from me concerning this information, please send me an email  containing the following information by COB, Wed., 10/14:

1. Are you attending Dreamforce 2009?

2.  If you are going, would you like to have your name, cell phone and email address distributed to others from the Twin Cities User Group who will be attending?

3.  If you answered "Yes" in Q2, please provide your name, email address and cell phone number.

4.  If you are going, would you be able to attend a Happy Hour/Get Together on Tuesday evening (8:30 - 10:30) to network with other members of the Twin Cities User Group?  A SFDC partner has offered to sponsor and we will need an accurate count of who can attend by COB, Wed., 10/14.

Thanks!

Leyna Hoffer
Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group Leader

Join us for a review of the exciting new features in Winter '10 on Friday, Oct. 16th at 11am!

Heather Ramsdell has once again agreed to be our guide.  Thank you Heather!  Don't miss the opportunity to learn all about the new release features.

Please add this information to your calendars.  There is no need to RSVP.

When: Friday, October 16

11:00 AM-12:00 PM Central Time (US & Canada)
Please join the meeting at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/577456361

Conference Call: 1-888-813-9442- x6128198203#

Meeting ID: 577-456-361

Looking forward to "seeing" you there!

Leyna Hoffer
Twin Cities User Group Leader

Thank you to all who attended the User Group meeting on Friday, Sept. 25th.  No official numbers in yet, but I believe the attendance was right around 70 people!  We continue to have one of the most dedicated, engaged User Groups in the country, and it's due to the input and participation of all you regular attendees, as well as the support and sponsorship of our Partners and presenters.  Thank you all for your contributions!

We opened the meeting with a vendor presentation from Sundog, a full-service marketing and technology company and a Salesforce.com Registered Consulting Partner.  The slides from their presentation can be accessed here:

Download TCUG_SFDCMarketing_Presentation_Sundog

The last slide in the deck contains their contact information if you are interested in finding out more about their services.

Thank you to Sundog for their sponsorship of breakfast and for the doorprize of a Kindle!

The second vendor presentation was from Salesforce.com themselves giving us pointers on how to use the AppExchange now that it has had its makeover.  Sara Varni Bright did a great job of telling us all about the new features and sent some great giveaways as well.  Thanks for the water bottles, t-shirt and Kindle, Sara!  Here are the slides that Sara presented on navigating the AppExchange:

Download AppExchange_User Group_Q3

The upcoming Dreamforce conference was discussed and several attendees are either already registered or are hoping to get approval.  I gave a brief presentation on how to get the most out of your Dreamforce experience.  Here are some valuable links/information if you are planning to attend:

Download GetTheMostOutOfDreamforce_2009 - Slides from the meeting
Download DreamForceSessionNotes - Template for taking notes at the Dreamforce sessions
http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF09/site/register/roi.jsp - Dreamforce ROI Trip Justification Tools

If you are planning to attend Dreamforce and would like to be a part of a little get-together with other Twin Cities User Group members while you are there, please email me at tc.sfdc@gmail.com and let me know before November 1st.  Include your email address and cell phone number if you would like to exchange information with others from the Twin Cities that will be there.  I will distribute to all who have responded in the days before Dreamforce.

We ended the presentations with InsideView, a Sales 2.0 leader, bringing intelligence gained from social media and traditional editorial sources to the enterprise to increase sales productivity and velocity.  The slides from their presentation can be accessed here:

Download InsideView_UserGroup_Preso

For more information on their offering, please contact Steve Paskow at steve.paskow@insideview.com.  A big thanks to Steve and InsideView for sponsoring our lunch (Davanni's pizza - yum!), and for giving away not one, but two Flip Video recorders!

While we enjoyed our lunch, we broke out into Birds of a Feather groups and feedback was that as always, they were one of the most productive parts of the meeting.  Thanks to all who participated and a BIG thank you to those who volunteered to facilitate each session; Jeff Grosse, Brenda Cirricione, and Jan Seeger, and anyone else who helped out that I may have forgotten.

We continue to have many new faces at the meetings and many regulars who continue to bring value to the group by participating and offering suggestions, etc.  Thanks again to ALL of you for making this a great group! 

Other links that were discussed and/or you may find useful:

• LinkedIn Twin Cities SFDC User Group Page:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1275757&trk=anet_ug_hm
• Facebook Twin Cities SFDC User Group Page:  http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=698423901#/group.php?gid=10600691747&ref=ts
• Salesforce Channel - single-largest collection of videos on Salesforce.com anywhere - www.salesforcechannel.com.

The next meeting will be in late-November/early December at the Eden Prairie Community Center.  More details to follow in the coming month.  Stay tuned and keep coming back!

Leyna Hoffer
Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group Leader

Mission/Purpose:
To work as part of an Administration team responsible for the use and development of the Salesforce.com business application in order to speed up the ‘sales to delivery timeline’ and improve the overall user experience.  The primary focus of the Administration team is to ensure the continued success and development of Salesforce.com and its integration with other tools and business processes. 

The duties and responsibilities to successfully perform in this role are to:
-      Manage user access to the application as required by each functional area ensuring that team members have appropriate levels of access.
-      Communicate training needs to the Training Department to ensure that all team members using the tool are appropriately trained to do so.
-      Regularly review the way in which the application is being used in line with business requirements to ensure that the company is getting the most from the software in the simplest way possible.
-      Review the content of each new release and its impact on business practices and system functionality – manage all changes that result in software upgrades and ensure that newly available features are reviewed for use within the organization.
-      Customize areas of the application to meet business needs and manage all customizations on an ongoing basis.   Work with appropriate internal and external technical resources if needed and to the extent possible personally handle all configuration-based “customizations”
-      Monitor and audit the quality of data across the Salesforce.com application and take remedial action to correct one off or systematic errors in data entry or the way that data is being processed, utilized and regularly refreshed
-      Work with the Marketing team to ensure that the data and tools required to service their business activities are in place
-      Assist in the execution of Campaigns in the application and provide ‘list management’ and mass mailing support and services as required by the marketing team.
-      Work with the importing and exporting of data from external sources
-      Write reports and build dashboards to extrapolate date in order to draw specific conclusions on the business and the sales cycle.
-      Set up security settings (Sharing Model, roles and profiles, field level security, etc.)
 
Qualifications
-      1-2 years administrator level experience with Salesforce.com
-      Highly developed written and verbal communication skills.
-    Proven ability to deploy and maintain business applications in a business environment.
 
All interested parties should send their resume and salary requirements to resumes@merrillcorp.com.  Please send to the attention of Lindsey Hefty and include the name of the position:  Salesforce.com System Administrator.

Leyna Hoffer
Leader, Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group

Posting on behalf of Eileen Kelly:

They will be using Linvio portal (written in PHP) to create user accounts within SFDC.  They need assistance integrating custom fields in the portal and refacing the portal so that it will have the same look and feel as their new website. Their budget is not great but their desire to help their clients is!  If interested, contact Eileen directly at ekelly@padraigsplace.org

Add the date to your calendar for the next Twin Cities salesforce.com User Group meeting, Friday, September 25th from 9am-1pm.

We will once again be meeting at our "permanent location", the Eden Prairie Community Center at 16700 Valley View Road, Eden Prairie. 

If you are currently a member of the Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group, you should have received an email regarding this meeting.  Please click on the "Count me in" link in your email if you plan to attend.

If you are NOT currently a member, please sign up in the left-hand navigation panel on this page and you will be sent an invitation to this meeting.

Continental breakfast (sponsored by Sundog), and lunch (provided by InsideView) will be served.  I've also heard rumors of some great door prize raffles!

Agenda items so far:

• Salesforce.com AppExchange Presentation - Demo of several new and exciting AppExchange offerings that I think you will find of interest:
  

  ·         Service Listings on AppExchange- COMING SOON
  In mid-September several service listings will be launched on the AppExchange.  Just like the app listings you see there today, you will now be able to find listings for services like training, systems integration, business consulting and custom app development.

  ·         AppExchange All-Stars
  There is an exciting new program for AppExchange power users called the "AppExchange All-Stars".  In return for contributing best practice content, members will receive special AppExchange perks like giveaways, coverage on the site and an invitation to an exclusive All-Star only reception at Dreamforce.  For a preview, visit http://blogs.salesforce.com/the_appexchange_blog/.  To see my entry, check out http://blogs.salesforce.com/the_appexchange_blog/page/2/ 

  ·        The AppExchange Newsletter, Twitter & Facebook
  In an effort to keep everyone up to speed with the latest and greatest applications on the site a monthly newsletter, Twitter feed and Facebook page have been launched.   Learn how you can sign up for each of these.   

• Sundog Presentation - Sundog is a full-service marketing and technology company and a Salesforce.com Registered Consulting Partner.  They help companies demonstrate positive ROI through leveraging and optimizing Salesforce.com. Sundog has helped leading brands to reengineer and automate their sales and marketing processes including lead generation, lead capture, lead scoring, lead routing, lead nurturing and marketing campaign performance management. Sundog also specializes in applied analytics to help companies extract, consolidate, report on and visualize the right data in real-time KPI dashboards.
  
  
• InsideView Presentation - InsideView was voted Best Sales Intelligence App of 2008.  They find sales opportunities across both editorial and Web 2.0 sources like Hoover's, D&B, Reuters, Jigsaw, NetProspex, LinkedIn and Facebook.
  
  
• Dreamforce Presentation - Going to Dreamforce?  This brief demo will give you some pointers on what to expect, what to bring and how to maximize your time while there
  
  Want to win a VIP trip to Dreamforce?  Find out how at http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF09/site/learn/contest.jsp.  Submissions must be received by Sept. 25th, so don't wait for the meeting or it will be too late!
  
  
• Next Meeting Planning - discuss upcoming presenters, ideas, etc.
  
  
• BOFs/Lunch - we'll break out into Birds of a Feather by upcoming projects/initiatives during lunch.  If you would like to volunteer to lead a BOF, please email me at tc.sfdc@gmail.com of comment on this post.

Thanks!

Businesses today are using SaaS tools such as iLinc web conferencing and Salesforce.com to communicate more efficiently, measure sales and manage the customer lifecycle. However, without building these tools into your organization's everyday processes, it is difficult to truly increase productivity or drive revenue.

Check out this webinar if you are interested in doing more with SaaS technologies.

www.ilinc.com/webinars/frostandsullivan-sfug

Thank you to the 66 participants who attended the July Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group!  There were some great vendor presentations, a very informative demonstration of the Summer '09 features, some awesome prize give-aways by the vendors, tasty food, and lots of networking and knowledge exchange during the Birds of a Feather breakout groups.

The first vendor presentation was from Corda Technologies, the leading provider of enterprise solutions for creating dashboards and interactive data visualization solutions that enhance performance management and smart decision-making.  Having Rich Gottesman, the Salesforce.com Administrator at Monster.com show real-life examples of how he is using their CenterView solution was very beneficial.

Corda Technologies, Inc. is offering Twin Cities Salesforce User Group members an exciting offer to get to know CenterView!  Download a normally 30-day free trial from www.corda.com before August 15th and get 60 days to try out our software.  Just notify Judy MacLean at jmaclean@corda.com after you download CenterView from www.corda.com   Also, Corda will develop a free proof of concept with your data – just contact Judy MacLean for details at jmaclean@corda.com before August 15th!

Here is a copy of the Power Point presentation that Corda delivered: Download MN SFDC User Mtg Corda Presentation 7-09

The second vendor presentation was from iLinc, a recognized leader in web conferencing, desktop video conferencing software and collaboration solutions.  They demonstrated their Salesforce.com integration for Marketing, Sales and Support Service.  They also have put together a special offer for the Twin Cities Salesforce User Group Members, as well as some other valuable links:

• Link to Special offer page for Twin Cities Salesforce User Group:  http://www.ilinc.com/twincities
• Flash Demo about the iLinc for Salesforce  “Sales” Integration  http://www.ilinc.com/enterprise/salesforce-integration-demo.php?for=sales
• Flash Demo about the iLinc for Salesforce “Marketing” Integration http://www.ilinc.com/enterprise/salesforce-integration-demo.php?for=marketing  
• Link to Datasheet http://www.ilinc.com/pdf/data-sheets/ilinc-salesforce-integration.pdf

As always, the Birds of a Feather breakout sessions during lunch were productive and well-received.  Thanks to all who participated and a BIG thank you to those who volunteered to facilitate each session; Carrie, Carol, Andrew, Will and Teresa!

We had many new faces at the meeting, as well as many regulars who continue to bring value to the group with their knowledge and experience. 

Links you may find useful:

• Twin Cities SFDC User Group blog:  http://usergroups.salesforce.com/twincities/
• LinkedIn Twin Cities SFDC User Group Page:  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1275757&trk=anet_ug_hm
• Facebook Twin Cities SFDC User Group Page:  http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=698423901#/group.php?gid=10600691747&ref=ts
• Dreamforce 2009:  www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/
• Dreamforce 2009 Registration ROI:  http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF09/site/register/roi.jsp
• AppExchange Blog:  http://blogs.salesforce.com/the_appexchange_blog/

The next meeting will be in mid-September at the Eden Prairie Community Center.  More details to follow in the coming month.  Stay tuned and keep coming back!

Leyna Hoffer
Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group Leader