Monday AM Admin: 4 Easy and Overlooked Tips to Bring your Org to the Next Level

23 Jan

Our first Guest Post of 2012 comes to us from Jared Miller, Senior Project Manager at Configero. I met Jared at Dreamforce 2009 and was immediately blown away by his knowledge of Salesforce. Jared has been working with Salesforce for over 5 years. He is a Salesforce.com Certified Advanced Administrator, Developer, Sales Cloud Consultant, and Service Cloud Consultant and  the founder and co-leader of the Tampa Salesforce User Group. 

There are so many “Wow” things that we can do as admins. As you have learned from this blog, many of them are easy and fun to do and many of them are from some awesome admins who have “repurposed” features and functionality from other areas. All of the tips and tricks have come from admins who are constantly tasked with thinking outside the box and doing more with less. With that being said, I wanted to use this post to talk about 4 things that typically get overlooked.

  1. Customize the Hovers (Mini-Page Layout)
  2. Customize the Search Layouts
  3. Taking advantage of the “Drill Down to” field on Dashboards
  4. Dashboard Filters (one of my favorite Winter 12 features)

Now, let’s talk about the details!

1. Customizing the Hover Screen

Many of us are tasked with putting every single piece of information onto a detail page. We have created formula fields, different sections, maybe even tried your hand at Visualforce to accomplish this. When I am working with my users, I ask 1 simple question to guide me through my setup – “What are you going to use this information for?” Not that this gives you a simple answer from your users, but the keyword we should listen to is, See – “So I can see the account number,” or “To see how much we sold them last year.”

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We need to determine if the goal is just to see information quickly. The information may change the action of the user, but there is no action performed on the information. If my users want to see something, I put it on the hover (mini-page layout). Then I can get them excited by showing them a “pop-up” (how many times do we get asked for that?), and I know I am saving a click or a scroll.

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How do I customize the hover? Go to Your Name | Setup | Customize | Object | Page Layouts | Edit your Page Layout> Click on the Mini Page Layout Link on the top right of the Field Panel

2. Customize the Search Layouts

This concept is very similar to the Hover Screen. We need to provide users insight into information to make the right choice, or to quickly give the user insight into a record. There are many search layouts to choose from so let’s talk about 2.

Lookup Dialogs – Instead of putting information on the page layout that is only used to make the correct selection (think identifying Parent Account), customize the Lookup Dialog to provide that answer! Add a field for Parent Account, Add a field for Account Number – give the users all the information they need to choose the right record! This will become even more effective with Lookup Filters!

Object Home Tab – Again, this is something that gets overlooked quite often. Most of us see the Object home tab as just pulling a list of recent records so it shouldn’t be hard to figure out where to go. Well, for us anyway! The truth is, customizing this page is just as important as the record detail page. Give users the quick Opportunity Story or Account Story on this page. It will be like we are reading their minds! You can even use you custom visual alerts here too!

How do I customize the Search Layouts? Go to Your Name | Setup | Customize | Object | Search Layouts> Edit the Lookup Dialogs, Edit the Object Tab

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3. Dashboard Hierarchy

Dashboards may be one of the hardest things for admins to manage. We are constantly at the mercy of the executives to make changes and add more components until the dashboard becomes un-usable. In my opinion dashboards should have no more than 6 components and be easy enough to digest the information in 2 minutes. Try think about your dashboards the same way you think about custom buttons – We know what the users want to see and we can assume certain pieces of information.

I use a Dashboard Hierarchy for my executives and users. An example of this is a Company Picture.

I will create 1 Dashboard  and name it, “Company Overview.” This Dashboard will have 3 components only! Sales YTD, Current Open Forecast by Stage, Closed Activities by User. Each component is a very high level view of a major topic/metric. We have Sales, Forecast, Activities. Now that I have set the stage, it is time to start with the hierarchy.

How do I create a Dashboard Hierarchy? Edit your dashboard>Click on the wrench of a component>Click on the Component Data tab> Select “Other URL” in the Drill Down to field>Enter the URL of another Dashboard.

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Instead of drilling down to a report for greater Sales insight, create a Sales Detail Dashboard that will give the user a more detailed look into Closed Sales YTD. Do the same thing for the Forecast component and the Activity component. Remember when I said, “Make your dashboards small and easy to digest?”  You got it! I create a series of dashboards that provide a fairly detailed picture or insight into metrics. In a few clicks and a few pictures your users will be able to plan their day, week, month, year, or whatever action you want to drive them too.

4. Dashboard Filters

This is new for Winter 12 and proved to be one of my favorite items. This has also changed the way I think about dashboards and dashboard security. Dashboard filters give you the opportunity to create one dashboard with common components and change the data based on a filter which you choose. Let’s say you have a dashboard of opportunities and you want to see the same view for all New Business and all Up-Sell Business (assuming you are using the Opportunity Type). You already have 1 dashboard that would be perfect for this, let’s get to work!

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Caveat – you can NOT use this on a dynamic dashboard! However, by using a dashboard hierarchy and dashboard filters, you may save our dynamic dashboard for another day!

How do I add a Dashboard Filter? Edit your Dashboard> Click on the Add Filter link at the top left of the body area>Select the field you want to filter>Select how you want to field to display>Select the value of the field.

In our example, you would select the Opportunity Type field, display this as Opportunity Type (or Type of Business if you want), and select the values as New Business, and Up-Sell Business. Now your dashboard will have filter that will change the data based on the user’s selection.

Tip – This also brings up a great use for Michael Farrington’s Owner Copy trigger!

There are so many ways that we can improve or org and our users experience. These 4 ways are some easy things that get overlooked often but can provide a valuable tool. We can use these to save clicks and guide or users to the right information. I can’t wait to hear some of your examples of how you were able to use these options. Happy Clicking!

Be sure to join ButtonClickAdmin.com next week for a new installment in the “Voice behind the App” series- I promise you won’t have to search for it!

 

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Monday AM Admin: Spring Training

16 Jan

Photo Credit: English106 via Flickr

I was thumbing through the first edition of the Spring ’12 release notes a few days ago prepping for both the release and to see what is coming out. As usual I was taking some notes and prepping for a post on release features as I have done in the past. Then it dawned on me- “how do Admins get ready for a release? What are some best practices to help us all get on the same page?” So I turned to some of my Button-Click Admins for tips on what they do to prep for a release and wanted to put those into 5 easy steps to help you prep for the Spring ’12 or any other upcoming Salesforce release.

1. Get your hands on the Release Notes and read them!

No brainer right? So first off let’s bookmark this page- http://www.salesforce.com/customer-resources/releases/ - this is your go-to spot for  Release information. Knowing where to go is part of the battle. Now that you have the site, let’s look at the notes. The first part we need to notice is the “Release Change Notes”. This part was added due to the confusion that surrounded some of the versions of the Winter ’12 release and the notes. I’m going to credit Andy Ognenoff for leading the charge and really bringing this to Salesforce’s attention and credit goes to Salesforce for responding on the next release. Speaking of Andy, I asked him what he does to prep for an upcoming release he had this to say-

“I read the release notes front to back at least 3 times, usually once right away so I can go into the pre-release org and start understanding what the notes really mean from a functionality perspective [...] like in Spring ’12 the ability to deploy sharing rules, public groups, etc. is huge. As I’m reading the notes, I will mark up a printed copy of the release notes with 3 colors of highlighter which I consider my working copy.  1 color for critical, need to regression test type features that will automatically be enabled. 1 for possibly useful features that we might be able to take advantage of in the short term.  And 1 for features, usually developer related, that are good to know, but may not have a short term impact on my program.  Anything not highlighted at the end is something I don’t need to bother with because it’s probably something that’s either a pilot, a paid add-on I won’t be able to use or part of the platform that we’re not doing anything with.”

2. Get a Pre-Release Org for testing or Sandbox.

The whole purpose of a pre-release org is to test features before they become available without risking your real data. But, you will need to sign up for one. No worries I have what you need- https://www.salesforce.com/form/signup/prerelease-spring12.jsp .Ok, I know what you are thinking “Well, that’s great Mike but what about Summer 12, or Winter 13? Easy peasy- just change the link after the hyphen to the release edition. So Summer 12 will be https://www.salesforce.com/form/signup/prerelease-summer12.jsp (but that’s not ready yet).

Another way to test out the release features is to do (or not do) a Sandbox refresh. This gives you a chance to try out the new features with your data (or a sample of it). Salesforce has a great post to give you more information on when or when not to refresh your Sandbox depending on your instance. For as much as I would love to go into great detail I will let Salesforce give you the details in this post- http://blogs.salesforce.com/product/2011/12/spring-12-sandbox-preview-window-instructions.html 

3. Watch SuccessTV & Check your inbox

I know when a new release is coming because I will start to receive emails from Salesforce with links to sign up for a webinar about the upcoming release. These are valuable webinars to attend for both your team and yourself as you prepare for the release ahead. One webinar I attended on Jan. 12 is the “6 steps for making the most of a new release” (Link leads to recording of webinar). If you don’t get on this webinar Salesforce also does an awesome job of tweeting and posting to Facebook about new webinars.
That being said you can always tune in and watch SuccessTV for real demoes about some of the most exciting features. When you are done reading this post click on this link to subscribe and stay up-to-date on the newest videos – Subscribe to SuccessTV here.

4. Communicate with your team & your User Group.

You will see this topic come up a lot in my posts because it’s critical that you as an Admin communicate both with your users and your developers- if you have some on staff -about the upcoming release. This is also a good time to figure out what features will automatically be on when the new release comes out and what features you as an Admin have control over. Work with your team to figure out how you want to roll out these new features and when to turn them on (if that’s an option.) One thing you cannot overlook is the WIIFM Factor. The WIIFM Factor is the “What’s in it for me” and it’s how your users will look at ever feature and every change in an upcoming release. When planning your communication it’s easy to talk about a new feature and how cool it is. But put it into brass-tacks for them- “here is why this will be helpful for you” should be the center of your communication strategy.

Now is also a good time to get your butt to a Salesforce User Group meeting. I promise you the topic will come up about new release features- if it hasn’t already. Salesforce User Groups are a great way to talk through and getting a deeper understanding of the release features and for me- find things that I may have overlooked.
Don’t forget the Youtube! I use and post Salesforce Youtube videos about the next release to my company Chatter feed and feature them as part of my team communication. Why reinvent the wheel when Salesforce has a shiny wheel ready to go.

5. Start Planning

Visit trust.salesforce.com to see when your instance will receive the release. Click on the “System Status” tab to see the Scheduled Maintenance Notification area and look up when your instance will be upgraded. Number 5 and number 4 are really close friends, generally with team communication you should already know your rollout date- but you may have a large number of users to communicate with so my theory on communication is start early and often.
Let’s talk about the day of the release. You should have a plan and be prepared to execute. First, make plans with your friends- maybe catch a game, go to a club, or grab your family and catch a movie. I bet you didn’t expect me to say that – or maybe you did. It is the cloud afterall and Salesforce has some really good gnomes that will take care of the release for you.

So are there only 5 things you need to do to get ready for a release? No, there are more but you need to make the subsequent steps tailored for you and your situation. That is what being an Admin Hero is all about- looking for best practices, learning from others, and executing. So when prepping for an upcoming release what steps do you take in addition to the ones listed above that you want to share with other Button-Click Admins? Share them with in the comments below.

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Monday AM Admin: Adoption Revolution

9 Jan

Photo Credit: Molly Lewis via Flickr

I struggle- as I bet many of you do- with some Executives and users who are just plain stuck-in-their-ways. They use email excessively and see “the Salesforces” as a-nother thing to do. Alright Button-Click Admins, push that bottle of scotch off to the side, we are going to  target them and drive adoption!
(And then maybe have a nip later, like after this post.)

For some users email is the communication method of choice. Especially among the suits. Email in, email out. And none of it gets to the contact record- which the sales rep relies on. From here you get the picture- rep is doing their job, executive or “fuddy duddy stick-in-the-mud” user isn’t. The result is only half of the history of communication is on the contact record. And half just doesn’t cut it anymore. So, like a good Button-Click Admin you walk into the execs office for the billionth time and show them how to send emails and they promise to start doing it. But a few days laters we are back to square one. Getting some users to switch to sending emails from their current email client to Salesforce can be tough. They may have a template that they like, or email threads that keep them warm at night. Alright then, I’ll budge a little. And I’ll add to your warm comfy email blanket one great feature for user adoption- “Email to Salesforce” [Insert confetti falling from the sky].

Here is my simple pitch- you use your email client to send your email to the customer as normal but bcc Salesforce and let the secret cloud gnomes take care of the rest. I bet their response will be “Really?!?”. Really. So let’s slowly ween them from their current method while getting the information everyone needs into Salesforce.

Email to Salesforce Setup

This about as easy as pie to set up. So here goes.
Click path:
Your Name | Setup | Email Administration| Email to Salesforce
Then check the “Active” checkbox. Now, optionally you can send an email notification to your users. But I prefer to skip that step so that I can teach them how to use it and answer any questions. However, you know your users best so do what you think works best for you. And if you have a lot of users, you will probably just want to send a email with instructions.

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Your unique email address

“After enabling Email to Salesforce, Salesforce creates a unique Email to Salesforce address for each user.” This is probably one of the most important sentences from the help section on Email to Salesforce because you need to make sure that each user knows they need get their email address. As opposed to one user getting theirs and emailing it to all other users. Not that that happened to me or anything, or is kind of a nightmare. [eh hem.] So let’s get that for the user.
Click path:
Your Name | Setup | Email | My Email to Salesforce

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The email address will be in the yellow box. Below that yellow box are some very useful settings that each user can customize. So let’s go through those.

  • My Acceptable Email Addresses: In this box put all the email addresses this user will be sending from that they want associated with Leads, Contacts, or Opportunities. Only the email addresses you put in that box will have emails associated to records.
  • Email Associations: This is where we give the secret cloud gnomes their instructions on what to do with our emails when we send them to Salesforce.
    • One Option is to Always send them to My Unresolved Items. Meh. This kinda defeats the point and it gives our cloud gnome the day off.
    • Another option is- my preferred- is to set some direction on how to automatically assign them. Below is the setting I use.

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Uses & Best Practices

After the user has retrieved their unique email address I have them create a contact in their address book to make the bcc’ing go faster. Email to Salesforce works great when replying or sending an email to a contact in Saleforce and can really help the suits or fuddy duddy stick-in-the-mud users get more information in, rather than having it decay in an inbox somewhere. So a few tips here:

  • When setting up the Contact I have them name it “Email to Salesforce” depending on your system I use ”Email to Salesforce” as the last name or “Email to” as the first name and “Salesforce” as the last name.
  • When sending emails make sure to remind them to put it in the bcc field, it both make email to Salesforce work nicer and prevents an awkward conversation with a customer about who this “Salesforce” person was that was just copied on the email.
  • Bookmark this page: https://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewHelpDoc?id=email_my_email_2_sfdc.htm&language=en it contains invaluable tips and notes- more than I can type here.

Unresolved Items

Every now and then the Cloud gnomes get confused- maybe the contact’s email address isn’t in Salesforce or maybe there are duplicates and they just couldn’t associate it with a record. No problem, that is where our email association settings kick in. If you chose to just have it send all emails to “My Unresolved Items” then you have some work ahead of you. However, if you chose to put the gnomes to work then you really only need to worry when they fail. On your homepage I would suggest putting the Unresolved Items shortcut (if it’s not there already). This gives your users a quick link to associate the emails that got the gnome confused.

Alright, so will adoption numbers skyrocket with Email to Salesforce? Probably not right away. But revolutions are about changing the perspective and challenging the current mode of thinking. If we Button-Click Admins can change the way that our fuddy duddy stick-in-the-mud users view Salesforce we have taken the first step forward. From there, I bet they start logging in to check their Unresolved Items and maybe check Chatter. Before you know it, we have them hooked and all it took was a checkbox, a funny looking email address, and a cloud gnome.

And here to play us out…

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Monday AM Admin: 12 Most Successful Habits of a Salesforce.com Administrator

2 Jan

We kicked off 2011 with a post about Communicationand really 2011 was all about communication- whether it be in person, in a user group, or with the Social Enterprise. 2012 will be different. This is the year we make sure we are executing. We don’t have anymore excuses. I started this list midway through 2011 and wanted to expand to the 12 most successful habits of an Administrator for the 2012 year. My goal for this year is to devote at least 1 post a month on each topic (pretty clever eh, 12 topics- 12 months). So for January I will have at least 1 post on the topic of education. February will have at least 1 post on certification, and well… you get the point. This will keep every Button-click Admin on track to be the most successful Administrator they can be!

12

Photo Credit: Marcin Wichary via Flickr

1. Get Educated
The first step in any great direction is learning. Whether you have years in the IT field or just a beginner the best place to start your education with Salesforce is through a training class. Salesforce has wonder Admin201 and Admin301 classes not to mention their Developer classes. The key to learning and managing starts with understanding the product thoroughly.

2. Get Certified
Certifications create a common language that allow you to more quickly interact with other Administrators, Developers, and Consultants. Proudly displaying your Admin or Developer certification shows your commitment to your users that will provide them with the knowledgeable insight. But Certification goes beyond that, it demonstrates your commitment to providing the best experience possible.

3. Attend your local Salesforce User Group Meeting
User groups are a great way to interact with other Admins and developers in your area who may be facing the same challenges you are. Not only does it get you out of the office for an hour or two but it also exposes you to some great best practices that other Admins are doing to help you perform better.

4. Create a Sandbox
Now that you are educated, certified, and met with local users it’s time to go into action by creating a Sandbox to try out changes. Sandboxes are essential to testing  new changes before pushing them to your production org. It’s also a great way to demo a new application to a department while still seeing how it will function in your production environment. And speaking of apps…

5. Visit the AppExchange Regularly
Getting started with a new Human Resource or Finance application doesn’t have to begin with a phone call to a Developer, it can begin with a quick visit to the Salesforce AppExchange. Make it a point to block off time on your calendar to visit the AppExchange to see what is new from Developers. Often you will find many free apps that you can test out in your sandbox and give you a great starting point to solving your problems. While you are there don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter- a nice way to stay up-to-date on the newest applications.

6. Be Social
You don’t have to wait for your next Salesforce User Group meeting to share a best practice, ask for help, or seek advice- many Salesforce Admins are on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. In the 5 years I have been a Salesforce Admin I would venture to say that over 70% of my questions have been solved by connecting with other Salesforce Admins on Twitter. But the big three social channels aren’t your only course of action, Salesforce also has an incredibly active Community with hundreds of thousands of questions be asked and answered daily.

7. Become familiar with your data tools
Now that you are deploying applications and managing data it’s important to keep it clean and tidy- that way your users get the most out of it. So familiarizing yourself with the Salesforce.com DataLoader, the Excel Connector, and third-party tools like DemandTools and RingLead Declone are essential to keeping that data useful.

8. Build Trust by maintaining a source of truth
Too often Salesforce is just ‘provided’ to users with little guidance. Make sure that your data records have a process to ensure responsibility for their maintenance and process for updating and keeping them in sync with real-life data. For example- make sure that the person responsible for updating contracts in real-life can update the data for a contract in Salesforce. And make sure that the sales person- for example- who cannot update contracts also cannot perform that action in Salesforce. This ensures a source of truth in the organization and creates trust in the user that the data is correct.

9. Build Good Analytics
Great data going into any CRM can be valuable as long as you report it back out. Working with Executive  leadership is an ongoing process to great good analytics on user adoption as well important analytics on use. Good reports should reward users for providing good data. Make sure that meetings utilize Salesforce Dashboards and reports are another great way to ensure that teams and individuals will stay on the same page.

10. Read the Release Notes
Every year Salesforce releases three upgrades to their core product. With each release comes a set of release notes. If you are a certified Salesforce Admin these are essential to read for two reasons. First, it helps you maintain your certification by helping you pass the certification maintenance release exam. Second, it gives you an overview of the upcoming changes so you know what changes or features will be coming in the next release and helps you plan for any changes that may need to be made. Speaking of changes…

11. Regularly communicate with your team
With an agile CRM platform like Salesforce it’s essential to keep your users up-to-date on the newest features, changes, or releases coming out. Regularly holding monthly webinars is a great way to communicate those changes. But it doesn’t have to stop there- communication can be an ongoing dialogue by posting Salesforce youtube videos to Chatter or by creating a monthly newsletter. The key is to avoid the “Man behind the curtain” scenario where your users are disconnected from you and don’t feel they have a stake in the game.

12. Attend Dreamforce.
Dreamforce is the annual Salesforce Conference, but calling it a ‘conference’ is really an understatement- it’s the cloud computing event of the year. Beyond the more than 350 breakout sessions- which are reason enough to attend- this is the one event where you can connect with other Salesforce Admins and developers from all over the world. If I had to sum up Dreamforce in a word it would be – connections – I’ve made so many valuable connections that have taught me valuable lessons and solved problems the conference has more than paid for itself. Be sure to bring your Executive team- this will help energize them and give them an opportunity to see a Marc Benioff keynote- guaranteed to get you charged about the direction of cloud computing.

I look forward to everything we can accomplish in 2012. I hope this post has inspired you to come up with some ideas and would challenge you to start thinking about posts and concepts you would like to share with other Button-Click Admins. Last year I had 14 guest posts- let’s take that up a notch this year. Click here to send me your idea for a post and be featured on ButtonClickAdmin.com

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Monday AM Admin: 2011- A look back

26 Dec

This was one of two posts that I started writing when I left Dreamforce ’10. Yeah, that was a little over a year ago. So in the spirit of my previous year end post I wanted to take a look back at 2011 and everything the Button-Click Admin community has accomplished. I think it’s important to see what you have done for the year to help keep you in check and motivate you for the new year.

  1. Button-Click Admins shared over 365 comments this year. Hello collaboration!
  2. I had the pleasure to speak at 2 capacity sessions at Dreamforce about the 7 Habits of a Highly Successful Admin
  3. I opened a ButtonClickAdmin Store on Zazzle! Remember 100% of the commissions go to charity.
  4. Holding true to last years promise- We had over 14 guest posts!  A 500% increase from 2010.
  5. The Button-Click Admin Facebook page has grown to 130 friends and the Dreamforce Chatter Group is over 180!

In the spirit of reflection- a look back at the top 10 posts for 2011.

  1. Monday AM Admin: So what now? A post-Dreamforce wrap up
  2. Monday AM Admin: Take Dynamically Filtered Reports up a notch
  3. Monday AM Admin: A little help from my friends
  4. Monday AM Admin: Be and Admin Hero!
  5. Monday AM Admin: Guest Post- Content and Chatter and Files, Oh my!
  6. Monday AM Admin: Confetti, Balloons, and Unicorns
  7. Monday AM Admin: Merging Salesforce Orgs – 5 Tips to Ensure Success
  8. Monday AM Admin: Bending Salesforce.com Quotes to your will
  9. Monday AM Admin: How to make a Lifecycle Formula
  10. Monday AM Admin: The Goose and the Gander

In closing I would like to sincerely thank you for embracing Button-Click Admin and choosing to read the posts every Monday. Below is a short video I shot to share my gratitude and I look forward to what we can get done declaratively in 2012!

Here is the link to the shelter I rescued TJ from - http://www.basenjirescue.us/ – they also accept clean towels and blankets if you don’t want to donate money (they are non-profit and can issue a receipt for tax purposes). If you choose to purchase any item from the Button-click Admin Zazzle store 100% of the commissions go to help the shelter keep dogs like TJ warm and safe throughout the year.

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