Tracy Kronzak, Author at Cloud for Good

Salesforce Implementation: Measure Twice, Cut Once

My parents liked to work with their hands – I learned to sew from my mother, and basic carpentry from my father. In both cases, the old adage of “measure twice, cut once” applied to what I was learning, and I often return to this principle when working with Salesforce. I’ve previously written about how organizations can support implementations for the long haul and considerations for best practice, but this blog is intended to be a reflection on how organizations can better “measure twice” during a Salesforce implementation and extend its functionality. Because in Salesforce, it’s easy to “cut once,” but cutting twice or more can sometimes mean substantial amounts of time and effort revising data, data architecture, and programming within the platform.

You Can Do Anything With Salesforce

Implementing Salesforce so that it can do “anything” requires leadership, capacity, and lots of expectations management. Learn why.

Why CRM Implementations Fail and How to Avoid It

Know that the clearer your vision, the more ready, supportive of, and willing for change, and the more you understand your own desired outcomes and metrics, the more successful a Salesforce implementation can be. The platform can’t produce these changes in your organization, but it can inspire them.

The Ethical Consultant

I got into a discussion with a client recently about ethical consulting. I’ve had this discussion with colleagues, co-workers, friends and mentors through the years, but I wanted to take a moment to outline what I believe to be some fundamental premises of the Ethical Consultant and ethical consulting in general within the realm of Salesforce for nonprofits.

Salesforce Administrators and Puppies

Too often, in my experience, I’ve had clients treat a Salesforce implementation as a discrete moment in time: “We wanted Salesforce, we got Salesforce, we have Salesforce – and now… we’re done!” One of the trickier discussions I have is what I call the “Puppy Talk.” It essentially asks these two questions: If you adopt a puppy, do you expect that it will housebreak, train, feed and care for itself as it grows up? So therefore, how are you going to care for and grow your Salesforce instance?

Best (of the Best) Practice with Salesforce

There’s a lot of talk about Best Practice in the nonprofit sector, and having consulted on projects large and small, I want to take moment to relate this concept to implementing Salesforce. So much of a Salesforce implementation happens outside of Salesforce, I find that organizations eager for change and growth can lose sight of this when in the midst of an implementation project.

Cloud for Good Goes to Washington for NTC14

It’s that time of year everyone – the Nonprofit Technology Network has opened up voting for proposed sessions at the 2014 Nonprofit Technology Conference. We at Cloud for Good would like to highlight some of our own proposed sessions for next year’s NTC and their links for community voting. Our team is proud to participate at the NTC every year, and together offer decades of experience in technology and change management, CRM implementation, and nonprofit best practice. We hope to see you there!