Author: Priscilla Sharon

Priscilla Sharon (https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscilla-sharon/) is Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue.

DemandBlue is in the business of helping its customers maximize their Salesforce investment through predictable outcomes. As we thrive in an era of cloud-based Infrastructure, Platform and Software services, DemandBlue has pioneered “Service-as-a-Service” through a value-based On Demand Service model that drives bottom-line results. They foster innovation through “Continuous Engagement and On Demand Execution” that offers their customers Speed, Value and Success to achieve their current and future business objectives.

Their On Demand Services for Salesforce include Advisory, Development & Customization, Integration, Administration & Support, Maintenance, and Lightning Migrations.

3 undeniable reasons to love Salesforce Blockchain

By Priscilla Sharon

On August 11, 2019

In Post

Let’s start talking abount Salesforce Blockchain, with our guest blogger Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue.

Demystifying Salesforce Blockchain

Salesforce is always a company that is looking ahead to the next big in technology, whether it is mobile, social, IoT or Artificial Intelligence. The world’s leading CRM Company recently took its wraps off Salesforce Blockchain, its new low-code platform enabling organizations to share verified and distributed data sets across a trusted network of partners and third parties. With the new launch announced at TrailheaDX, the fourth annual developer conference, Salesforce is bringing the combined capabilities of its World’s #1 CRM and low-code Blockchain platform to enable organizations to create Blockchain networks, workflows and apps that have the potential to deliver holistic customer experiences.

Leading global brands are already taking advantage of this new platform. Arizona State University uses Blockchain for Salesforce to design and create an educational network that allows universities to securely verify and share information. IQVIA, a global leader in advanced analytics, technology solutions and contract research services has partnered with Salesforce to explore an array of possible blockchain technology initiatives including regulatory information management and drug label processing. S&P Global Ratings, a key provider of ratings, benchmarks, analytics and data for the global capital and commodity markets is leveraging the platform to review and approve new business bank accounts with improved agility. And more leading brands are exploring the infinite possibilities of delivering seamless customer experiences using the Salesforce Blockchain platform.

Take a deeper dive into the intricacies and the nuances of the brand-new Salesforce Blockchain platform that packs unique and incredible features, and promises to be the first low-code Blockchain platform for the CRM.

Salesforce Blockchain – The Technology

Blockchain Technology for Salesforce is built on Hyperledger Sawtooth, an open source modular platform for designing, deploying, and running distributed ledgers, and it’s customized for Salesforce Lightning, Salesforce’s front-end framework for app development. It consists of three components:

Salesforce Blockchain Builder – a developer toolset for building blockchain applications
Blockchain Connect – integrates blockchain actions with Salesforce apps
Blockchain Engage – enables customers to invite parties to blockchain apps created within Salesforce

Businesses can take advantage of the platform to build and manage blockchain networks, apps and smart contracts using Salesforce’s powerful low-code capabilities. Customers can even create and share a blockchain object using the same process as they already do for any CRM data object in Salesforce without the need for writing code.

We help companies build for the future by making breakthrough technology accessible and easy to use — today we are doing just that with Salesforce Blockchain. Now, companies will be able to create new ecosystems and achieve new levels of interconnectivity through trusted partner networks
Bret Taylor, President and Chief Product Officer of Salesforce at TrailheaDX

3 undeniable Reasons to Love it

Salesforce Blockchain is deeply customized for Salesforce Lightning and is uniquely designed to lower the barrier for creating trusted partner networks. It enables companies to slickly bring together authenticated, distributed data and CRM processes. With Salesforce Blockchain integration you can:

Build Blockchain Networks with Clicks, not Code—Salesforce platform is well received by developers for its unique low-code capabilities. With the newly launched Salesforce Blockchain platform, you can slickly build and maintain blockchain networks, apps and smart contracts, using just clicks, not code
Create Actionable Blockchain Data—Make blockchain data actionable through native integration with Salesforce. Layer complex blockchain data along with existing sales, service and marketing workflows like search queries and process automation. Also, you can now run Einstein-powered artificial intelligence algorithms that integrate blockchain data into sales forecasts, predictions and much more
Lower Barrier to Entry for Partners—Engage partners, distributors and intermediaries easily to leverage Salesforce Blockchain. Even more, companies can now pull in APIs, pre-built apps and integrate any existing blockchains with Salesforce. With an intuitive engagement layer, organizations can also easily interact with and add third parties to their blockchain with a few clicks and simple authentication thereby creating trust networks

Salesforce Blockchain is currently available to select design partners and will be generally available in 2020.

Salesforce DX Setup – Everything You need to Know

By Priscilla Sharon

On April 30, 2019

In Post

Let’s talk about a great new addition of the Spring’19 platform release to the
Salesforce Dev world, the Lightning Web Components framework, with our guest blogger Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue.

Salesforce DX Setup – Since inception, one of Salesforce’s core philosophies and the Big Idea has been to make building easy. Software should not be complex to install, set up, or customize. In fact, you shouldn’t have to even install software – it should be available to you at the click of a button – This declarative approach of Salesforce brought an end to complex and traditional methods of software development that even non-tech executives including business analysts and managers could slickly build line-of-business applications in a few clicks. However, while Salesforce was democratizing application development through clicks-not-code approach and ushering in the era of citizen programmer, there were other players who were strengthening their appeal to the traditional developer. With nuanced business requirements, modeling complex domains require more flexibility than clicks-not-code affords. Traditional methods of development weren’t dead after all.

As a result, Salesforce’s marketing and development efforts wanted to cater to the traditional developer with the introduction of Salesforce DX, a revolutionary product in the Salesforce App Cloud that allows users to develop and manage Salesforce apps throughout the entire platform in a more direct and efficient way. Used primarily by developers, Salesforce DX setup enables users to have true version control that allows them to have a better control over collaboration, auditing, disaster control and more.

Take a deeper dive into the comprehensive blog that gives you in-depth insights on how you can enable Salesforce DX environment and truly maximize its unique benefits.

Your 12 Step Salesforce DX Setup Guide

1. Set up your project

Salesforce DX introduces a new project structure for your org’s metadata (code and configuration), your org templates, your sample data, and all your team’s tests. Store these items in a version control system (VCS) to bring consistency to your team’s development processes. Retrieve the contents of your team’s repository when you’re ready to develop a new feature.

2. Salesforce DX Setup – Authorize the Developer Hub org for the project

During Salesforce DX setup, the Dev Hub org enables you to create, delete, and manage your Salesforce scratch orgs. After you set up your project on your local machine, you authorize with the Dev Hub org before you create a scratch org.

For this, you need to login to Dev/Sandbox Org from CLI

Run the force:auth:web:login CLI command on a directory where code for deploy to sfdx will be available.

sfdx force:auth:web:login –d

sfdx force:auth:web:login --setdefaultdevhubusername --setalias {ALIAS HERE}

NOTE: Login must be a valid login to your Dev/Sandbox Org and with Admin permissions.

3. Configure your local project

The project configuration file sfdx-project.json indicates that the directory is a Salesforce DX setup project. The configuration file contains project information and facilitates the authentication of scratch orgs and the creation of second-generation packages. It also tells the Salesforce CLI where to put files when syncing between the project and scratch org.

4. Configure your local project

After you create the scratch org definition file, you can easily spin up a scratch org and open it directly from the command line.

a) Create the scratch org

Create a scratch org for development using a scratch org definition file. The scratch org definition defines the org edition, features, org preferences, and some other options.
Specify scratch org definition values on the command line using key=value pairs
Create a scratch org with an alias
Create a scratch org for user acceptance testing or to test installations of packages
Indicate that this scratch org is the default
Specify the scratch org’s duration, which indicates when the scratch org expires (in days)

b) Open the org

To open the scratch org: sfdx force:org:open -u <username/alias>

To open the scratch org in Lightning Experience or open a Visualforce page, use the –path parameter: sfdx force:org:open –path lightning

c) Set default user

Copy the username and enter the following command to set the defaultusername:

sfdx force:config:set defaultusername={SET THIS TO NEW SCRATCH ORG’S USERNAME FROM THE ABOVE  COMMAND}

d) Display All Orgs

Run the following command to confirm the default Dev Hub [marked with (D)] and Active Scratch Org [marked with (U)]:

sfdx force:org:list --all

5. Push the source from your project to the scratch org

To push changed source to your default scratch org:

sfdx force:source:push

To push changed source to a scratch org that’s not the default, you can indicate it by its username or alias:

sfdx force:source:push --targetusername [email protected]
sfdx force:source:push -u [email protected]
sfdx force:source:push -u MyGroovyScratchOrg

Selecting Files to Ignore During Push. It’s likely that you have some files that you don’t want to sync between the project and scratch org. You can have the push command ignore the files you indicate in .forceignore.

If Push Detects Warnings. If conflicts have been detected and you want to override them, here’s how you use the power of the force (overwrite) to push the source to a scratch org.

sfdx force:source:push –forceoverwrite

6. Salesforce DX Setup – Develop the app

a. Create Source Files from the CLI

To add source files from the Salesforce CLI, make sure that you are working in an appropriate directory.

Execute one of these commands.

apex:class:create
apex:trigger:create
lightning:app:create
lightning:component:create
lightning:event:create
lightning:interface:create
lightning:test:create
visualforce:component:create
visualforce:page:create

b. Edit Source Files

To edit a FlexiPage in your default browser—for example, to edit the Property_Record_Page source—execute this command.

sfdx force:source:open -f Property_Record_Page.flexipage-meta.xml

7. Pull the source to keep your project and scratch org in sync

After you do an initial push, Salesforce DX tracks the changes between your local file system and your scratch org. If you change your scratch org, you usually want to pull those changes to your local project to keep both in sync.

During development, you change files locally in your file system and change the scratch org using the builders and editors that Salesforce supplies. Usually, these changes don’t cause a conflict and involve unique files.

By default, only changed source is synced back to your project.

To pull changed source from the scratch org to the project:

sfdx force:source:pull

To pull source to the project if a conflict has been detected (read more):

sfdx force:source:pull –forceoverwrite

8. Salesforce DX Setup – Run tests

When you’re ready to test changes to your Salesforce app source code, you can run Apex tests from the Salesforce DX CLI. Apex tests are run in your scratch org.

You can also execute the CLI command for running Apex tests (force:apex:test:run) from within third-party continuous integration tools, such as Jenkins.

9. Export The Package.xml

Export package.xml file into the temporary directory. Type the commands below in the root folder of your Salesforce DX project:

sfdx force:mdapi:retrieve -r ./temp -u {TARGETUSERNAME} -k  {SFDC PROJECT SOURCE LOCATION}\src\package.xml

10. Convert Source code to Salesforce DX

Convert the source code to the Salesforce Developer Experience project structure by running the following command:

sfdx force:mdapi:convert --rootdir temp --outputdir force-app

11. Track Changes Between the Project and Scratch Org

To view the status of local or remote files:

sfdx force:source:status

12. Salesforce DX Setup – Sync up

Sync the local version with the version deployed to Scratch Org for every change and test the changes on the Scratch Org by repeating the above steps. Once the testing is completed, we need to convert the source from Salesforce DX format to the Metadata API format. This is done by running the following command:

sfdx force:source:convert --outputdir {OUTPUT DIRECTORY HERE}

Copy the modified metadata files from this output location to the actual source location where the metadata files are downloaded from Dev/Sandbox Org to deploy the files to the server.

[Salesforce / Lightning Web Components] Build Lightning fast Salesforce Apps

By Priscilla Sharon

On March 12, 2019

In Post

Salesforce launched Lightning Web Components as part of Spring ’19 pre-release to enable a quicker and easier way to program applications on the Salesforce Lightning platform. It engages modern Javascript innovations such as web components, custom elements, shadow DOM and more. Lightning Web Components is the Salesforce implementation of Lightweight frameworks built as per the web standards. It provides specialized salesforce services in addition to the core stack, such as Base Lightning Components, Lightning Data Service, User Interface API, etc.

Read on to discover how the Lightning Web Components fuses Web components programming model with Salesforce metadata and services to deliver unparalleled performance and productivity.

With Lightning Web Components, we are giving developers a standards-driven JavaScript model for building enterprise apps on Lightning. Every time we release a new platform capability we see an acceleration of innovation in our 150,000 customer base, and we are excited to see what our community of developers will do with Lightning Web Components.
Mike Rosenbaum, EVP of Product, Salesforce

Why Lightning Web Components

Lightning Web Components is like a newer version of Lightning Components with additional features.

Knowledge Domain – Developers who know Web Components are familiar with Salesforce Lightning Web Components out-of-the-box. Aura is proprietary, so the better you know the web standards, the better you’ll have of skills that can be used outside Salesforce.
Better Execution – Lightning Web Components leverages built-in browser security features from Web Components standards, which reduces the level of custom coding, which means they run faster and are more consistent in how they ensure security. Moreover, events have a limited scope, so there is lesser processing required handling events.
New Security Features – It gives better CSS isolation, DOM isolation, script isolation and limited event scope that facilitate a more consistent component design.
ES6+ – We have a better support for ES6 and ES7 that is not available in Aura. This enables you to do more with less coding. This also transpires code to work in IE 11 and other browsers which were not supported earlier.
More Consistent Data Binding – The not so user-friendly two-way data binding has been eliminated. This pushes developers to coordinate the way in which data moves between components. It also means that data binding will work as expected, without any unforeseen problems from Aura.
Mixins – You can even import accessible methods from other components and import specific Apex methods from multiple classes. Moreover, the Apex methods can be cached for improved performance.

What Lightning Web Components means for Developers and Customers

Cutting-Edge Advantages of Lightning Web Components

Boosted Performance – Developing Lightning Web Components does not involve complex abstractions to run on the browser, providing better performance to end users.

Ease of Use – Post development, the admins can deploy Lightning Web components with just clicks, not code to the applications.

Standardized – Salesforce Lightning Web Components is built on ES6+ that provides developers with modern and advanced JavaScript features.

How to create a Lightning Web Components framework?

LWC (Lightning Web Components) cannot be created directly from the developer console. You need to set up Salesforce DX to create a Lightning component. After the SFDX setup, you need to do a few more things:

Sign-up for development org
Get your Salesforce DX plugin updated with the latest release (Spring’19). Run the command below in your terminal or command prompt.
Command:

sfdx update

Once you finish this process, follow the trailhead link to set up the basic project and create a basic Lightning Web Component

Transition from Aura Components to Lightning Web Components

Developers using Aura framework to build lightning components can continue to work on it as the Aura components will continue to function like before. However, the new components can be created using Aura or the Lightning Web Component framework. For future developments, it is best if you use the Lightning Web Components.

Lightning Web Components Availability

Lightning Web Components are available for users since February 2019 in Enterprise, Unlimited, Performance and Developer editions.

For more information, check out the official Salesforce page on Lightning Web Components.

[Salesforce] Top 10 Spring ’19 Release Features

By Priscilla Sharon

On February 5, 2019

In Post

After the Winter ’19 Salesforce platform release post, our guest blogger Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue, will introduce us with her 10 top Spring ’19 features.

Their On Demand Services for Salesforce include Advisory, Development & Customization, Integration, Administration & Support, Maintenance, and Lightning Migrations.

The Salesforce Spring ’19 Release is here, and you’ll now be able to explore the exciting new features and upgrades of the newest release. Here is a quick overview of Salesforce Spring ‘19 release date, our most loved features in the Salesforce Spring ’19 Release, like the advanced Lightning Experience features, Deals Cadences, Flow Builder, Lightning Web components and much more.

For complete details on Salesforce Spring ‘19 Release date, click here.

Sell more with Sales Cadences

Sales Cadence is one of the most popular tools in the Salesforce Spring ’19 release for its high efficiency in offering some of the best practices to follow up with high-quality leads. This may include calling the lead, then to follow up with an email, then checking in with them five days later until they hit you up. The High-Velocity Sales feature enables you to create frictionless Cadences that allow sales reps to track what their next action ought to be.

Build Quicker, Simpler, and More Intuitive Flows with Flow Builder

Flow-building just got better with the all-new Flow Builder in Salesforce Spring ’19 release! The previous Cloud Flow Designer has now been replaced with the much faster and efficient Flow Builder. It is designed with four key design principles to enhance the Flow Building Experience – Clarity, Efficiency, Consistency and Beauty. Its simplified User Interface streamlines the process of Flow Building that enables you to slickly choose the right resource for your flow. For instance, the data elements are consolidated, so you don’t need to keep track of whether you need to use Fast Create / Record Create or the type of variable that you need.

Here’s what you need to do to migrate from Cloud Flow Designer to Flow Builder: nothing!

The flows will continue to run as they did before. All flows created in the Cloud Flow Designer will seamlessly open in the brand-new Flow Builder. Whenever you make modifications and save a flow in Flow Builder, it is saved as the new version of the flow. And the original version is not overwritten.

Create Personalized Appointments with Lightning Scheduler

Deliver better customer experiences by setting up appointments with the right person at the right time. Take advantage of the Lightning Scheduler capabilities in Salesforce Spring ’19 release to schedule appointments within the Salesforce workflows like leads and referrals, opportunities and accounts. With a 360-view of appointments, you can better assign resources and more efficiently address customer concerns.

Here are some of the most critical functions you can perform using Lightning Scheduler in Salesforce Spring ’19 release:

Make records that represent the employees and additionally include details regarding their skills, locations, and accessibility.
Define office locations and working hours
Create appointment topics, like opening an account or mortgage application
Search for employees with appropriate skills for an appointment that includes certifications, areas of expertise among others.
Schedule client appointments, and include details about required attendees

Turn on Lightning Experience

Salesforce will turn on the Lightning Experience starting Winter ’20 to enable users to move faster and be more efficient. Everybody is encouraged to migrate to Lightning so that your end users can maximize benefits from everything the new interface brings to the table. The future of Salesforce experience is Lightning as all innovations will be happening in the Lightning Experience, going forward. It is best if you could take advantage of the lead time before the Lightning Experience is turned on to learn how your organization’s features perform in the new Lightning instance and to train your end users through Change Management. The Lightning Experience is reported to have increased productivity by a staggering 41% and conversion rates by 44%. To ensure better user experience when Lightning Experience is turned on later, get started now.

Download our comprehensive report on Lightning Migration here.

Get the Most Important List View with Pinned Lists

Do you have a preferred view that you want to make as a default list? This is now possible with the Pinned Lists feature in Salesforce Spring ’19 release that allows you to make a customized list of your new default. Click the Pin icon to pin an unpinned list and select the list view to pin a different list.

Organize Email Templates with Folders

This Lightning Experience feature in Salesforce Spring ’19 release enables sales reps and admins to easily group email templates into folders beyond just Private and Public folders. Users can now create folders in hierarchies and give permissions at different levels so they can locate the specific template they are searching for quicker.

Add Custom Resources to the Redesigned Lightning Experience Help Menu

The redesigned Help Menu in Salesforce Spring ’19 ensures that you have more room for your own resources. Now you can guide users when they work in your org with links to your website URLs, PDF files and Trailhead mixes. The getting-started section enables users and admins to get on-boarded to the new and updated user experience. Users can now search for and see documentation results from within the redesigned Help Menu.

New Lightning Web Components

Salesforce Spring ’19 presents a new kind of Lightning Component called the Lightning Web Component. And what used to be known as the Lightning Component is now named as Aura Component. Both Aura Components and Lightning Web Components work together as part of the Lightning Component framework. The Lightning Web component is a completely editable form developed with six lines of JavaScript.

Click here to read the official LWC guide.

Suggest Recommendations and Offers through Einstein Next Best Action

The Einstein Next best action feature in Salesforce Spring ’19 allows you to direct your users to the best next step. This component available on Lightning record pages uses various strategies that apply your organization’s business rules to display context-sensitive content like an upgrade or any other service. You get to define the rules and conditions that determine which recommendations to be displayed to your users. This feature is available as part of Einstein Next Best Action.

Here’s how it works. When a user accepts a suggestion, a screen flow launches. And to run a flow, your end users need to have either the Run Flow permission or Flow User field enabled on the user detail page.

Reports: Update headers, resize sections, stacked outlines and Conditional Formatting

Quickly Focus on Relevant Data with Conditional Formatting

Whether you are looking for the right approach to enable sales reps to effortlessly identify the hottest leads that need immediate action or quickly identify the accounts and opportunities valued in the range of $1,00,000 and $5,00,000, the Reports in Salesforce Spring ’19 features give you an all-in-one solution. You can apply conditional formatting to the summary to add color to the reports and get actionable insights simultaneously.

Resize Column Widths to Fit Content

Say goodbye to truncated data and unused blank space! Salesforce Spring ’19 is updated with smart features that allow you to resize column widths in Lightning Experience in report builder and the run page.

Assemble Insights Faster with Stacked Summaries

You made complex but brilliant matrix reports so you could condense huge volumes of data and compare values across different fields. However, the condensed metrics that need to be compared aren’t always located alongside each other. You can enable the Stacked Summaries option to get a more viewer-friendly version that involves lesser scrolling.

What are your favorite Salesforce Spring ’19 Release features? Share with us in your comments section below. And to upgrade your Salesforce Org with latest features and updates, Talk to our team at DemandBlue, a one-of-a-kind Salesforce consulting partner delivering On Demand Services for Salesforce.Also, you can give us a call at 949-259-2381 or email us at [email protected]

[Salesforce] Read this before you perform your Salesforce Data Migration

By Priscilla Sharon

On December 27, 2018

In Post

Let’s talk about Data Migration in Salesforce with Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue.

DemandBlue is in the business of helping its customers maximise their Salesforce investment through predictable outcomes. As we thrive in an era of cloud-based Infrastructure, Platform and Software services, DemandBlue has pioneered “Service-as-a-Service” through a value-based On Demand Service model that drives bottom-line results. They foster innovation through “Continuous Engagement and On Demand Execution” that offers their customers Speed, Value and Success to achieve their current and future business objectives.

Their On Demand Services for Salesforce include Advisory, Development & Customization, Integration, Administration & Support, Maintenance, and Lightning Migrations.

Salesforce Data Migration – Imagine if you were traveling to an exotic new destination for the holidays. You want to make sure that everything is perfect and that nothing goes wrong. You might want to take all the precautionary measures – get travel insurance, have emergency info at hand and make sure that you pack all the necessary things without leaving anything behind. You know there could be nothing worse than reaching the airport only to realise that you forgot your passport – Sigh! But you also know that you don’t have to go through these hassles with careful planning and preparation, which can make it a safe and wholesome vacation for you.

Just like traveling from one place to another, migrating data from one place to another be it from Excel Spreadsheets or Legacy systems to cloud, needs utmost care and caution throughout the scope of migration in order to avoid any mishaps. And ensuring practical safety tips might just save you from the glitches in your Data Migration plans. So, here’s a quick 6-point checklist – your passport to a safe and successful Salesforce Data Migration journey.

6-point Checklist for Successful Salesforce Data Migration

Engage the Stakeholders: It is critical that you involve your stakeholders and inform them well in advance before migration to ensure that you gain maximum support for the project. Stakeholders from different teams and departments have profuse knowledge of the data and can give actionable insights pertaining to your Salesforce Data Migration plan.
Identify the Data to be Migrated: Stakeholders are aware of the most crucial data and clarify your uncertainties regarding the data structure, the place of storage, if it has any duplications and its effect on the Salesforce Data. It might require you to create new or appending current data fields, validations and field values in Salesforce.
Create a Backup – Most importantly, create a data backup to perform a rollback to recover from any possible errors. With a Data Backup, you can be double sure that you can go ahead with the migration process, so if at any stage there is an issue, you know you have the original data to fall back on.
Prepare Data for Error-free Data Migration: After deciding on the changes to be done in step 2, now you can make the necessary adjustments to ensure error-free Salesforce Data Migration process. You can add or modify objects, fields, workflows and validations.
Run a Test Migration: You don’t want to back out after importing all the data into the system. So, to avoid risking data in production, it is highly recommended that you run the test in a Sandbox environment to fix possible issues.
Migrate Data: The test Migration gives you the confidence to migrate data into the production environment. Inform your stakeholders about the changes and how it will affect them prior to migration. Post your Salesforce Data Migration process, it is crucial that you validate the data.

How to Prepare for Salesforce Data Migration?

Each and every Salesforce Data Migration project is unique. Therefore, different migration may need different tools and resources. Having said that, here are top considerations to incorporate in any Salesforce Data Migration strategy.

Identify the Team Members to be involved: Besides the stakeholders, you need to consider the admins and developers who need to be involved in the Salesforce Data Migration process. You will need to include the end-users who will work with the data.
Start Early to Start Early: A Salesforce Data Migration plan is typically a part of a larger project. So, an early start would mean the early start of the big project you have planned. You need to identify, prepare, clean, restructure and map data well ahead of time.
Build an adequate amount of time into the Schedule: Salesforce Data migration instances will have many exceptions, and you need to be prepared to meet them. Unexpected issues may surface when you practically work with the data. People may skip steps to meet the deadlines if your schedule is unrealistic. You need to remember that getting it right is as important as getting the work done on time.
Designate tasks to the right People: You need to avoid assigning too many of the members on a task or inviting too many people into a discussion. Ensure that you assign each person’s role after you identify the people to be involved.
Identify the Right Tools: Salesforce has quite a number of tools for Data Migration. In certain scenarios, an organization may require tweaks to be made to an existing tool or to develop a new one.

Enjoy this great infographic!

Have a safe journey with DemandBlue…

Salesforce data migration involves critical decisions since it is typically a small part of a bigger project. Though data migration may be a subset of a larger project, it’s no small task, and the end result can make or break the success of the bigger project. Hence, Salesforce offers cutting-edge data migration tools, such as Data Loader, Data Import Wizard along with Third-party apps that help automate Salesforce Data migration. However complex projects may require an experienced Salesforce Data Migration Consultant who has existing tools or can develop them based on an organization’s specific requirements. And we at DemandBlue have been a preferred Salesforce partner for our one-of-a-kind On Demand Solution for Salesforce. On Demand is a unique Service-as-a-Service model where businesses can deploy Salesforce projects without the hassles of costly contracts or complex SOWs; our clients are charged only for the number of hours spent on a project – be it 40 hours of effort spread over a week or two or a 100 hours of effort spread over a period of a month or two, the customer is billed only for what is consumed.

To find out how On Demand Service model for Salesforce can add Value to your next Salesforce project, Talk to DemandBlue team now!

[Salesforce] Single or Multi-Org – What is your Salesforce architecture?

By Priscilla Sharon

On November 20, 2018

In Post

Let’s talk about single vs multi org architecture with Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue.

Their On Demand Services for Salesforce include Advisory, Development & Customization, Integration, Administration & Support, Maintenance, and Lightning Migrations.

While setting up a Salesforce architecture or assessing the performance of an
existing org, the most perplexing question that haunts anyone is to decide between
single-org architecture and multi-org architecture. An organization in Salesforce is
meant to be an instance that lets users access, deploy or create applications with
various feature sets. An organization strategy should also include a plan to identify
the right Salesforce partner to customize your org architecture for your unique
business needs.

With new features added to Salesforce in the Salesforce Spring ’18 Release , you
obviously cannot make a decision based on your own whims and fancies or personal
experience, but rather need to weigh in the pros and cons of each instance carefully
before taking that final plunge. A safe way to navigate this challenge is to have
Salesforce partner with the experience and expertise to provide guidance.

The few elements that you need to keep in mind are the need for customization or
standardization, the complexity of integration (Learn Salesforce Integration Best
Practices from 7 Integrations to sync your CRM with all phases of the customerlifecycle), cross-business collaboration and costs. Keeping in mind all these factors,
you need to establish a strategy beforehand, which will save your business from
incurring an unnecessary loss.

In an effort to throw some light on this question, let us walk through the benefits and
risks inherent to each Salesforce architecture model, and which org will suit your
business the best.

Why Single-Org Salesforce Architecture?

Sing-org strategy works best if you are looking at either of the below 2 key essentials:

Standardize business processes
Merge/Acquire another company using Salesforce.com

Benefits of Single-Org

The major benefits you can derive from a single-org are listed below.

Greater Management Visibility – If you are looking to have a clear linear picture of the entire business process, it is facilitated by the availability of:

Roll-Up Reporting
Global drill-down into pipeline & activities

Standardized Processes – You can streamline all your processes with organized workflow pattern and this includes:

Lead Management
Opportunity Management

Collaboration – Create transparency in the business process by allowing for the below features:

Know what everyone else is doing
Realize synergy among business units
Avoid duplicate effort & conflicts within accounts

Global Standardization & Economies of Scale – Easy to setup and follow best practices and global standards:

User Training
Application Release Management
Application Integration
Data Management

Regionally Personalized Configuration – This is achieved through:

Granular security model, multiple profiles, records types, page layouts, sharing groups
Translation Workbench

Single-Org Risks

Org complexity could become a barrier to progress and this includes:

Potential to hit specific Org limits
Org-wide settings (e.g. security and sharing) could become difficult to govern and manage
Runtime processing could be impacted by volume of code deployed

Why Multi-Org Salesforce Architecture?

Go for multi-org if you have multiple processes and want to fundamentally separate business processes for similar BU’s. Also get legal/regulations on data privacy and sharing and support for different processes by BU/Region that cannot be standardized.

Benefits of Multi-Org

Record Sharing and Security model is simplified by non-complex sharing rules
Provides greater BU autonomy through individualized processes and customized functionality
Greatly reduces the risk of exceeding Org limits (Tabs, objects and code lines, Runtime governor and API limits)
Org-wide settings are easier to govern and manage
Lower data volumes within a single Org potentially improves performance
Improved time to market and the freedom to innovate
Fewer teams impacted by shared updates
Reduced complexity within a single Org

Multi-Org Risks

Harder to get a clear global definition of processes and data.
Less reuse of configuration and code.
Customization required to deliver unified reporting across Orgs.
Duplicated administration functions required.
Increased complexity for SSO.
Third-party license costs increase depending on the solution.
Salesforce Integration cost increases with process & data integration across Orgs.

As more Organizations are adopting the latest Salesforce features like Lightning to gain the competitive edge, it is crucial that you consider the above guidelines when you sit down to make that crucial decision on the type of Salesforce architecture that you need.

It doesn’t harm you to have a reliable Salesforce partner like DemandBlue to provide insight and support to accomplish this. Talk to us!

[Salesforce] Top Winter19 Platform Release features

By Priscilla Sharon

On October 29, 2018

In Post

While the Winter ’19 Salesforce platform release rolls out,I want to introduce to you all Priscilla Sharon, Salesforce Business Solution Executive for DemandBlue, who will share with us here top Winter 19 release features.

Their On Demand Services for Salesforce include Advisory, Development & Customization, Integration, Administration & Support, Maintenance, and Lightning Migrations.

It’s been a busy month for Salesforce. With the most awaited, world’s greatest tech conference, Dreamforce 2018 unveiling today and the launch of Winter ’19 Release, we are excited to bring you some of most amazing Salesforce Winter ’19 features that enable you to work faster and smarter with more Lightning features, Einstein Intelligence and a whole lore more.

Go on and take a sneak peek into our Top 12 most favorite Salesforce Winter ’19 Release features.

Also, check out the Salesforce Winter ’19 Release notes here.

Change Your View with Display Density Settings (Lightning)

This is one of most useful Salesforce Winter ’19 Features – Two new Lightning Experience display density settings give you more control of how you want to view data without changing the page layout. Select one of the settings as the default, but users can choose their own display density at any time from the user profile menu.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_lex_display_density.htm

Compact

Comfy

Say Goodbye to Copy and Paste and Hello to Quick Text (Lightning)

Copying and pasting content is time consuming and tedious. But now, you can say goodbye to Copy/paste with the newest Salesforce Winter ’19 features. Quick text is fast and easy—you can insert predefined messages into emails, tasks, events, chats, and more. To make quick text easier to use, we added more ways to insert quick text. Use a keyboard shortcut, a button in rich-text editor toolbars, like for email publishers, or a popup button next to supported text fields.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_general_quicktext_buttons.htm

Assign a New Owner to Multiple Leads, Cases, or Custom Objects at One Time (Lightning)

The Salesforce Winter ’19 Features enable you to use the Change Owner page-level button to assign a new owner for up to 200 selected leads, cases, or custom objects. You can access the button in the page-level action menu in a list view or related list in standard table mode, or in Related List Quick Links.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_lex_change_owner.htm

Recover Your Unsaved Text After Getting Timed Out (Lightning, App)

Sometimes your Lightning Experience session is interrupted, whether you’ve been inactive too long or you lost your connection. You used to see the same timeout message, regardless of how your session ended. Now, with the Salesforce Winter ’19 Features, the message that pops up is specific to your scenario and tells you how to recover unsaved text.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_lex_invalid_session_messages.htm

Find the Data You Need in a Jiffy with List View Search (Lightning)

Use the new search bar to search the field data in your list views and find the records you need in record time with the newest Salesforce Winter ’19 features.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_lex_search_lists.htm

Collaborate with Ease with List View Sharing (Lightning)

Have a list view with an amazing set of filters that you’d love to share with your team? Or maybe you have a list view that you only want a select few to access. The Salesforce Winter ’19 features allow you to take collaboration to the next level by sharing your list views with user groups in your org.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_lex_share_lists.htm

Add and Remove Meeting Participants from Any User Interface (Classic)

Attendees (in Lightning Experience) and invitees (in Salesforce Classic) are linked to the same data, so updating those fields should be simple. Now with the Salesforce Winter ’19 features, when you set up sales reps to work with attendees from Lightning Experience and the Salesforce app, they don’t lose access to edit invitees from Salesforce Classic.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_sales_productivity_edit_attendees_anywhere.htm

Send and Receive Images and File Attachments with SMS Text Messaging and Facebook Messenger (Lightning)

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The Salesforce Winter ’19 features allow Agents and customers to get straight to the point by sending images and files in an SMS message and Facebook Messenger.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_livemessage_send_and_receive_images.htm

Support Your Customers on YouTube (Lightning, Classic)

One of most amazing Salesforce Winter ’19 Release features is that you can now deliver service to your customers by turning their YouTube comments into cases in Salesforce. Connect your YouTube channel directly to Service Cloud, track cases, and respond directly to customers.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_scs_youtube.htm

Use Joined Reports as Source Reports for Dashboard Components (Lightning)

With a joined report as its source report, a dashboard component can contain data from multiple standard or custom report types. Or, you can provide multiple views of the same object using the Salesforce Winter ’19 features.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_rd_dashboards_source_joined_reports.htm

Give Supervisors a Sneak Peek into What Agents and Customers Are Typing in Chats (Lightning)

The Salesforce Winter ’19 features help supervisors stay on top of messages sent between agents and customers. Supervisors can see what an agent is typing before sending a message with the agent sneak peek feature. Customer sneak peek lets a supervisor see what customers are typing before they hit send.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_omnichannel_supervisor_sneak_peek.htm?edition=&impact=

Explore Data from Multiple Datasets in a Single Lens (Einstein Analytics – Lightning, Classic)

Sometimes the data you want to explore and visualize reside in different datasets. Don’t let that stop you from drilling into your data. With the Salesforce Winter ’19 features, you can now combine multiple datasets in a lens and discover insights about your business faster.

Ref.: https://releasenotes.docs.salesforce.com/en-us/winter19/release-notes/rn_bi_explorer_multiple_datasets.htm?edition=&impact=

To learn more about how you can take immediate advantage of the newest features and innovations, talk to our team!
What are your favorite Salesforce Winter ’19 Release features? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.