Best Practices Archives

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.

How To Remove Complexity From Your Implementation Process

When using Salesforce to run your organization, there comes a point where the complexity of your implemented solution process may cause your users to complain, or sometimes even stop using your system. Over the last fifteen years I have heard so many complaints about business applications that point back to an issue of complexity. You can avoid it, learn how.

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.