We are excited to announce the next Grand Rapids user group meeting.  Based on the success and positive feedback from the last meeting we have decided to keep the format the same as last time.  The format of the meeting is now designed to:

1. Engage more key people from throughout your organization who may have an interest in learning more about Salesforce.com
2. Provide a better forum for exchanging ideas with peers across the region
3. Elevate our education/knowledge sharing component by bringing in experts in and around the SFDC ecosystem for your benefit!

Here is the best part.  Thanks to the generous support of the Anuitas Group, a local company and member of the Grand Rapids user group, we're able to offer this totally new experience, at no cost to you.  That's right, you will have the opportunity to learn best practices from an expert in the industry... for FREE!

MEETING DETAILS
When:  Tuesday May 19th, 2009
Where:  Irwin Seating, Co
Time:  11:00 - 2:00 Est
Cost:  FREE (lunch will be provided)

AGENDA: 

* 11:00  Check-in and grab lunch buffet style (lunch provided free of charge)

* 11:15  Opening Comments

* 11:30  Break out into Birds-of-a-Feather style small groups based on your primary area of interest (ie New Admin., Adv. Admin, Sales, Services/Support, Marketing, Data Quality, etc.) Identify what you would like help or information about, exchange ideas within the groups, etc.

* 12:15  Return to the larger group and review activities from the break-out groups with general discussion that may include expanded discussion

* 1:00  Feature training presentation:

 Developing Effective Processes – A Case Study in Lead Management

Jay will show how The Annuitas Group helped a client

·         Define an effective process

·         Develop qualification rules

·         Develop a lead score model

·         Develop lead routing protocols and SLA’s

·         Develop feedback for sales to “throw back” leads that weren’t qualified

·         Measure the effectiveness of all the above.

* 1:45  Q & A, and plan for next meeting

RSVP Required: 

Irwin Seating has agreed to provide the meeting spaces for our group. Due to constraints on space and lunch arrangements all attendees MUST pre-register in order to assure themselves space and lunch. Click here to register.

Please also register everyone with the Grand Rapids/Western Michigan SFDC Users Group here at this link:  http://usergroups.salesforce.com/western_michigan/

PLEASE RSVP!!! by clicking here

Before the meeting I'll send out a reminder e-mail with the address and driving directions to those that RSVP.

Feel free to register co-workers for this free educational event. You'll get the most out of having other users at the break-out sessions.

To your success!

The Grand Rapids Leadership Team

-       Kevin Edelmann

-       Tom Fox

-       Coke Irwin

-       Todd Smithee

After evaluating what is driving the fastest growing SFDC User Groups in the country and with your input, we are excited to announce that we have expanded the Grand Rapids Salesforce User Group meeting format to:

1. Engage more key people from throughout your organization who may have an interest in learning more about Salesforce.com
2. Provide a better forum for exchanging ideas with peers across the region
3. Elevate our education/knowledge sharing component by bringing in experts in and around the SFDC ecosystem for your benefit!

Here is the best part.  Thanks to the generous support of Astadia, a Premier consulting and implementation partner for Salesforce, we're able to offer this totally new experience, at no cost to you.  That's right, you will have the opportunity to learn best practices from an expert in the industry... for FREE!

MEETING DETAILS
When:  February 11th, 2009 (note: this is a Wednesday, not Tuesday that I had in the email)
Where:  Irwin Seating, Co
Time:  11:00 - 2:00 Est
Cost:  FREE (lunch will be provided)

AGENDA: 

* 11:00  Check-in and grab lunch buffet style (lunch provided free of charge)

* 11:15  Opening Comments

* 11:30  Break out into Birds-of-a-Feather style small groups based on your primary area of interest (ie New Admin., Adv. Admin, Sales, Services/Support, Marketing, Data Quality, etc.) Identify what you would like help or information about, exchange ideas within the groups, etc.

* 12:15  Return to the larger group and review activities from the break-out groups with general discussion that may include expanded discussion including hot topics from Spring '09 release items

* 1:00  Feature training presentation

* 1:45  Q & A, and plan for next meeting

RSVP Required: 

Irwin Seating has agreed to provide the meeting spaces for our group. Due to constraints on space and lunch arrangements all attendees MUST pre-register in order to assure themselves space and lunch.

PLEASE RSVP!!!  (just fill out the form above)

Before the meeting I'll send out a reminder e-mail with the address and driving directions to those that RSVP.

Feel free to register co-workers for this free educational event. You'll get the most out of having other users at the break-out sessions.

To your success!

Kevin Edelmann
kedelmann@deltadentalmi.com

About Astadia:
Astadia (www.astadia.com) is a global business consulting and SaaS solutions company.  They help clients of all sizes improve results by transforming business processes and technologies.

We would like to thank Sally Atsalis and Jason Hanley of Model Metrics and the folks from Salesforce.com for making the trek from Detroit or Chicago, depending, and putting on a very informative and effective presentation. The "walk-aways" from this event were incredible! Members will be receiving an email with links to the handouts provided by Model Metrics.

The Winter '09 Release features were discussed by Kevin Smith of Salesforce.com. He, Tom Roth, and other Salesforce.com experts will be attending our meetings on a consistent basis in the future, and having that kind of inside perspective is really helpful. Kevin Edelmann reflected on the Dreamforce experience, which, based on his description is the only way to describe it.

A few notes:

Steering Committee - We have had some volunteers step forward that will do a great job of assisting in making sure these events continue to develop more and more as an invaluable resource for area Salesforce users. If anyone else is interested, please let me know. Here they are:

* Kevin Edelmann of Delta Dental
* Todd Smithee of Conrin
* Coke Irwin of Irwin Seating Co
* Tom Fox of GFT
* Chad Griffeth of Actium

Remember to Use Help and Training - Kevin Smith of Salesforce made a great point that when trying to figure out how to approach a problem, do not forget to use this constantly updated feature.

LinkedIn Group for Members - The new features of LinkedIn Groups such as Discussions (asking questions to the group members), posting articles, has really turned this rapidly evolving web 2.0 platform into an everyday resource. You can now post links to articles, reach out to group members with ideas and questions...check it out if you haven't joined yet! If you have yet to join LinkedIn, you can do so by clicking here.

Sincerely,

Chad Griffeth
Actium LLC

Sign up and take a Salesforce.com Administrator Class in December and get a $100 American Express Gift Card just in time for the holidays!
Promotion applies to the following classes:

ADM 201 Classes
Dec 8-11 Detroit
Dec 15-18 Chicago
Dec 15-18 Minneapolis
Jan 5-8 Indianapolis

ADM 301 Classes
Dec 8-12 Detroit

ADM 201 for Enterprise Edition and Unlimited Edition-4 Days
$3,000** The Certification Exam is included in the price of the course
Who Should Take this Course?
Administration Essentials is designed for new system administrators responsible for the setup, configuration, and maintenance of their organizations' Salesforce applications. Other groups that benefit from this course include power users, sales operations, and IT managers. Administrators of Unlimited or Enterprise Edition should take ADM 201; administrators of Professional Edition should take ADM 202. Register here . Remember to include the promo code: MMAGC1209

ADM 301 for Enterprise Edition and Unlimited Edition-5 Days
$4,000** The Certification Exam is included in the price of the course
Who Should Take this Course?
This hands-on course is designed for advanced administrators who have used Salesforce for at least 3 months and/or have completed the ADM 201 Administration Essentials course. Although the course covers advanced Salesforce components that require coding at a high level, no coding experience is necessary for the hands-on exercises. Register here . Remember to include the promo code: MMAGC1209

Need more info? Call 312-587-3037 or visit www.SFDCtraining.com .

** promos cannot be combined with any other offers.

We are all set for the Nov. 18th meeting and I am excited to learn from the presenters that will be there.

Date/Time:
Tuesday, November 18th from 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM - Refreshments and snacks provided by Model Metrics

Agenda Topics:

DETAILS:

Location:
Irwin Seating Co.
3251 Fruit Ridge Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49544

Click here for map 

Due to how many people are coming, there will not be enough room for parking in Irwin Seating Co.'s normal parking lot in front of their building. For those that find it to be full, please follow the directions following to park in the appropriate lot behind the building.

Heading North on Fruit Ridge Ave from US 96 Irwin Seating’s front entrance will be on your left but to proceed to the back lot simply continue about 100 yards and the main parking entrance will be on your left. The double door entrance will be unlocked and we will provide signs to direct everyone to the Auditorium from the back entrance. If anyone has issues that morning please have them call our main phone # (616) 574-7400 and have Coke Irwin paged.

Click here to RSVP!

See you on the 18th!

Chad Griffeth
Actium LLC

Ping - The W Hotel - Sunday

PingIdentity is hosting an after party on Sunday Nov 2nd at the famous W hotel. Click here to get a copy of the invite.

Cloud Club Crawl - Temple - Monday

After the Journey concert on Monday head to the Temple for the Cloud Club Crawl. To get in you'll have to have your passport stamped by the sponsors first.

Astadia - Thirsty Bear - Tuesday

Brian of Astadia has invited us to join him at the Thirsty Bear on Tuesday night where Astadia hosting has rented out the whole club. Visit http://www.astadia.com/dreamforcemainevent/ to RSVP.

Still want more information? I found this site that claims to have the 'scoop' on the exciting Dreamforce conference agenda items. http://crmfyi.com/?tag=dreamforce-08

Brian Connell of Astadia, who presented in June, informed me they are hosting a huge party with a number of their partners. If you are planning on going, here is the link to attend the event:

Astadia Party

Also, on Sunday night, there is a party with Ping, with the invitation attached.
Download ping_identity_party_invitation.pdf

For those of you that were unable to attend, you missed out on a great meeting. Here are some of the highlights:

• Kevin Edelmann, Delta Dental - Kevin walked through workflow and process examples as well as web integrated links that were fantastic to learn about during the meeting, so I have attached his presentation for good measure.
  
• Randy Rodriguez, Bluewolf - Randy provided some examples of integrating data from outside sources with Force.com in order to establish new workflow processes and dramatically increase efficiency.
• GR User Group Steering Committee - In an effort to add more value to the group and its members, I am creating a steering committee to help lead the group going forward. If you are interested in participating, please let me know.
• LinkedIn Group Discussions - In the June meeting, it was recommended that there be an online forum for members to reach out to one another to ask questions and gain from one another's experiences and expertise. After looking at a couple of different options, LinkedIn's Group Discussions was selected due to the ability to control membership to only those in the group. If you are not registered on LinkedIn, click here. Then go to Groups and search Grand Rapids Salesforce.com User Group and join. You will be notified via email once I authorize your membership.
  
• NEXT MEETING: November 18th from 8:30am - 11:30am. Agenda, location and presenters will be confirmed soon.
  

If there is anything else you need, do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Chad Griffeth
Actium LLC
616.871.0751 x102
cgriffeth@myactium.com