Choose Salesforce for your Users
January 28, 2015
Choose Salesforce for your Users
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Professional
Modules Used
- SalesCloud
- Force.com
- Chatter
- Data.com
- Partner Portal
- Content
- Knowledge
Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce.com
Salesforce is used to as a Sales- and Channel-facing tool that enables our reps to quote and store important client information. We use Salesforce to quote, book orders, store data, give customers and channel access to sales information, and for service contract management.
Salesforce allows us to merge live sales activity with business-end information kept in our back end database systems, giving sales a heads-up when customer limitations may restrict a deal. Salesforce supports us on all fronts of our business. Though it has some restrictions, we feel confident that we are able to achieve just about any business requirement if it is good long-tem solution.
Salesforce allows us to merge live sales activity with business-end information kept in our back end database systems, giving sales a heads-up when customer limitations may restrict a deal. Salesforce supports us on all fronts of our business. Though it has some restrictions, we feel confident that we are able to achieve just about any business requirement if it is good long-tem solution.
- User Friendly Interface.
- Salesforce interface is unlike other platform like it because of it's layout. I have looked at other CRMs and their design is not as intuitive. Salesforce is set up for the non-tech user. It is for the customer-facing user to seamlessly flow through to retrieve and store data.
- A tool called VisualForce allows companies to further customize the visual design of the platform and to add additional functionality for users.
- Plug-Ins.
- With Salesforce you get access to the AppExchange where businesses can pick from thousands of apps that can be plugged right into your system. Many are native apps (which are best because there is less risk of a tumultuous integration) and provide customizable solutions for businesses. From credit card processing to quoting tools, the AppExchange has it all.
- Online Knowledge Base & Large Customer Following Offers Great Support.
- There is a large public Salesforce knowledge base that is updated and maintained by Salesforce's millions of users. As a system administrator, if I have a question about a process or function, I can simply google my question or go directly to this knowledge base for answers. The knowledge base is well designed and easy to use. If I have a question that has not been answered yet, I can simply ask the question on the forum and within a few hours someone usually responds. The Salesforce community is quite remarkable. The social efficacy of this group truly distinguishes the community from other forums.
- Like any tool, there are limitations with certain features. Such as not being able to roll up formula fields, relationship restrictions, some standard functionality that i wish was customizable (such as when a lead get's converted and an opp is created to not set the book date to the last day of the current fiscal quarter). I which we could hide fields based on the values of other fields. I would like it if quotes/opps had Line Item discounts built in.
- These are things from an admin's perspective though.
- There should be an in-built dupe blocking system available for both standard and custom objects.
- Adding a more profound sku management feature would also be helpful. Perhaps there is an add-on for this but right now we have two separate systems that need to communicate back and forth to get sku information to Salesforce. There are many disconnects bw the two systems and I can't run reports on Salesforce to catch the delta. It has to be done with old fashioned v-lookups in excel. It would be nice if this could all be managed in SF.
- Automation definitely has increased employee work efficiency. automation has also allowed us to send out important alerts to management about certain deals that need attention (for approvals or revision, etc).
- Reporting gives numerous users/management accurate, detailed information on a myriad of departmental information. Case closer efficiency, sales forecasting, quoting timelines, etc. This lets management know where our team needs help.
- The portal has allowed us to be a better company to do business with. We are able to customize our portal for our customers and channel users, which has extended our business into more parts of the world and increased our revenue significantly.
I have researched Sugar CRM as a comparable solution. It is also a good CRM but it has it's limitations. I see it as a good solution for a small business. It is not as powerful but it does have good functionality.