Probably inevitable, but do your homework to make it pay off
Updated April 08, 2015
Probably inevitable, but do your homework to make it pay off
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Professional
Modules Used
- Chatter
- Partner Portal
- Content
- Clicktools
Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce.com
SalesForce is used across the organization not only for the sales team, but also as a work ticket tracking system and a knowledge repository. It addresses the usual challenges for sales (tracking sales process stages, contacts, etc.), but is also the definitive source for current information on a current client and what we're doing with them. It also provides a Client Portal - essentially a roped-off area for clients to be able to access the knowledge base, submit work tickets, and track progress.
It solves for providing a detailed picture of what we are working with our clients on - from sales to problem-solving and relationship management. Think of it as a giant data repository fed constantly by staff and management that can be structured with any number of fields, pages, reports, etc. to extract the data, together with rule sets that govern how data is collected and what data appears where when.
It solves for providing a detailed picture of what we are working with our clients on - from sales to problem-solving and relationship management. Think of it as a giant data repository fed constantly by staff and management that can be structured with any number of fields, pages, reports, etc. to extract the data, together with rule sets that govern how data is collected and what data appears where when.
- Great for gathering and reporting on virtually any type of data. Has a pretty strong search function.
- Flexible in terms of its ability to modify pre-packaged form objects, create new fields, import and export data to other systems, and build conditional rules for gathering and display of data.
- Chatter (if you get everyone to use it - no easy task) does a good job of keeping a running narrative on most any topic - progress on a work ticket, changes to a product, discussions on a sales order, etc.
- Excels at what it was designed for - the sales process. But other functions such as work ticket creation and tracking, product management, etc. are rather forced and clunky. It works, but only with a lot of care and feeding. It can let you do a lot with most any kind of data, but can get weighed down and confusing quickly if your organization has chosen a sub-optimal process and structure for it.
- Needs much more user-friendly and flexible ways of gathering info. It has highly limited functionality/modules for surveys, for instance. Providing easy, attractive, and highly distributed tools for information gathering are essential, but there's a big gap here.
- The ability to alter forms and fields and make rules is necessarily limited - ill-informed users could make a big mess in minutes - but a more user-friendly platform for allowing such changes with an approval/vetting workflow would prevent bottlenecks. If you want to do anything meaningful or the least bit innovative with SalesForce, you need in-house experts, often a team of them.
- Creates efficiency with the ability to hunt down info fast. If you feel the need to measure that sort of thing, knock yourself out. Kind of like asking what the ROI if a phone is.
- It can become something of a trap when trying to innovate a process - of you can't fit your new idea into the SF structure you've created, it will be harder to get it implemented.
- It can be a kind of Swiss army knife for housing a new process - sales support, customer service, etc., but is sometimes not the optimal tool for the job.