You can use Salesforce Fomulas to link to other databases and websites, to bring in images from the likes of Yahoo Finance and Google Charts, or even to help you auto-fill objects by adding / overriding a New Object button.

The slide deck below references a tremendous wealth of further reading, videos, and documentation, including a Dreamforce video on using Google Charts with Salesforce Formulas. And, the last two pages of the slide deck contain formulas you can plug into your Salesforce org without creating any additional fields (other than, of course, the formula field).

Enjoy!

Salesforce.com Formulas – Tips and Tricks

We’re one of three organisations picked as UK partners – and quite frankly, we’re the coolest of the three.

Best of all, Common Ground will help us defeat Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge. What? Blackbaud buying Convio? Errr…long live our new Database Overlords.

If you’d like to learn more about Convio’s Common Ground, please join us for one of the following events:

Introduction to Common Ground: an online product tour
Take a free hour long guided tour through Convio Common Ground, the revolutionary cloud-based CRM system built on Salesforce without leaving the office. This platform lets you and your colleagues manage all your relationships in one place with social media built right in – sign up to see it in action!
Dates: Tuesday, 20 March, 12:00-13:00 and Monday, 30 April, 12:00-13:00
www.convio.co.uk/take-tour-common-ground

Live Common Ground demo
Because an hour is not long enough to show all the Common Ground has to offer, Convio would like to host you at our funky east London workshop space for a free extended in-person demo of the revolutionary cloud-based CRM system built on Salesforce. This platform lets you and your colleagues manage all your relationships in one place with social media built right in – so sign up to join us for some tea/coffee and snacks, an informal chat and insider look at Common Ground in action! Space is limited so sign up soon.
Date: Wednesday, 18 April, 9:30am – 12:30 pm
www.convio.co.uk/liveCGdemo

This means it’s also time to go back to Inkscape and add my certifications to my business card! We designed our business cards so people could stack up their certifications under their name. The funny thing is that last week I met, for the very first time ever, someone who actually asked me about my level of certification. I think it’s one of those things that consultants know about but the average small client doesn’t.

Anyway, for those looking for a few tips on passing the test, read on. I’ll discuss both of these together, as there was a bit of overlap, and because I can’t quite remember which question came from which test.

The standard advice aplies – know your stuff. The Salesforce-produced exam guides are the best place you can start, and the six prep questions are a great indication of what you’ll see.

You’ll find that you also have to know a bit of Apex stuff, which interestingly enough I wasn’t asked about on the Dev 401 exam. Clarity on where workflow functionality ends and where Apex triggers begin will be handy.

Salesforce also did something funny in their exam – they threw in features that you wish existed but were fairly sure didn’t. The question would go something like this:

The accounts object in your Salesforce org has too many blah blah blah. How do you fix it?
A) Clearly wrong answer
B) So-so answer, probably not the right choice
C) Clearly wrong answer
D) Mentions a checkbox in Customize > Accounts that would solve the issue, but you don’t ever remember seeing it.

And that was the problem – you’d stare at it, trying to decide if D) was just some made-up feature that they invented for the exam and you should chose B), or if you had a gap in your knowledge and D) did in fact exist and was the right answer.

I remember one question where I deliberated, and finally chose the B) option, confident in the fact that I couldn’t have lived and breathed Salesforce for two years and not heard about this feature. When I got home, I googled, and D) did in fact exist, but it was one of those things that you have to make a request with support to enable.

The point is, good test taking skills will help only so far. Particularly for the Americans raised on the fill-in-the-bubble SAT and Kaplan/Princeton Review, you will probably be able to intelligently cross off one or two choices. But there is no way you can get around the need to know the product and know it very well. Salesforce has written their exam in such a way that you can’t fake product knowledge.

But you can review it – one particularly useful place is ShellBlack. They have great walkthroughs of functionality that only take a minute to read, but give you enough knowledge that if you ever need to use that feature, you’ll be able to figure out your way through it.

Incidentally, I did the same thing other test takers suggested – I wrote down the numbers 1 through 60 and as I was going through the test, ranked my answer into one of three categories of how certain I was. In both I had about 30-32 answers I was certain about (or, rather, 98% certain). The rest were a mix of Maybe’s and WTF’s.

Best of luck to everyone about to take the test!

The last time a student asked me what the text and picklist on the bottom of a report meant, and I answered, “I have no idea!”

I now know both what it is and why I didn’t know before – it’s an undocumented feature that doesn’t appear in either Google or Salesforce Help search results.

If you look on the bottom of a report (Summary and Matrix, but not Tabular) you will see the text, “Check rows to filter, then drill down by:”

As far as I can tell, this replicates the “Summarize information by:” at the top of the report, only in completely different and obscure language. Basically, you can happily ignore it and stick to the functionality at the top of the report.

Enjoy!

[the first comment on this post expands the explanation even more]

The connector itself is free, and fairly straightforward. It can do one-way syncing from Eventbrite to Salesforce, so Salesforce will be able to grab all the info about your attendees, and report on it. The connector can even create a campaign and attach the imported contact/lead to the campaign, though you are better off creating the campaign first, so you can add member status like Attended and No-Show.

The import functionality is very intelligent. If a mixture of leads and contacts attended your event, as well as new records, the connector will update the existing contacts and leads, and import the new records as one of, Contacts, Leads, or Person Accounts. The connector matches the existing records based on email address, so while you might have some issues with people who have multiple email accounts, its otherwise pretty foolproof.

Also, while I usually import attendees just once, after the event, there is nothing stopping you from importing them several times before the event and then after, as additional people sign up. Neither duplicate contacts nor campaign member records will be created.

The connect can also bring in payment amount and discount code, which is wonderful, though cannot bring in any additional questions you might have asked. The payment is brought in at the Campaign Member record, so not perfect if you are trying to record all your income through Opportunities, but despite this mild issue I think their solution was the most elegant, rather than creating Opportunities.

And if a contact leaves the Company name blank, quite common for a B2C event, then the Contact record has a blank Account. You can always match them later, just put in Individual for the Account, or use something like Salesforce’s NfP Starter Pack.

The connector might need to go through a bit more revision – for instance, I had problems importing a single record due to (I’m guessing) the contact having an apostrophe in his email address: o’sullivan@… this led the whole import to fail, and I only figured it out by importing the contacts one by one until I had narrowed down the problematic record. Customer support is in a slightly obscure forum – if you are having problems with the connector the forum is here: http://getsatisfaction.com/efactory

All in all, five stars out of five for features, three stars for reliability and two stars for support. When it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t work, it’s up to you to find out why.

If you are new to Eventbrite, sign up for an account here: http://www.eventbrite.com/r/thirdsec.

Whether you will want to use one or the other depends almost exclusively on the cost of your event per person and the number of attendees per event, and to a lesser extent, the number of events per year. For high prices and high volumes, Acteva is affordable, and sometimes beats Eventbrite. For lower volumes typical with SME’s, Acteva’s price structure is prohibitive.

(While I live in the UK, Acteva charges in dollars, so to make the math easier, I’ve done everything in US Dollars)

I run fairly small events – training and workshops for people wanting to learn specific Salesforce skills, like Salesforce Reporting. The workshops have a dozen people each, with the price about $200 per attendee, but with half attending for no cost as they have an annual support contract with us. So, average $100 per person for 12 people.

I wanted to use Acteva as they had been specifically recommended by Salesforce, and have a high rating on the App Exchange, but running the numbers surprised me. Presuming 20 events a year, Acteva would cost 11.4% of gross revenue for the first year, during which time the Salesforce connector fees would be waived. Further years, with three admins (when I presume the fee waivers would cease), Acteva would charge an impressive 15.5%. Ouch. One sixth of my gross revenue from workshops lost.

Eventbrite lacks a few features compared to Acteva, but for the same setup, I’m looking at 6.1%. Perhaps Acteva is so amazing that I won’t mind the additional fees, but to get the percents mentioned I’d have to buy 20 events upfront – a $1300 commitment. Without any initial upfront cost, it’s a flat $100 per event, so 13.7% to Acteva the first year.

When would I use Acteva? If I was charging $3000, and not $100, per event. At that point, Acteva would be just under 4% for the first year, 4.1% for additional years, while Eventbrite now become the more expensive option, at 5.2%. Alternatively, if I had $100 tickets but 100 people came to each of my 20 events, the two providers would have cost parity, with Acteva at 7.4% and Eventbrite still 6.1%.

Perhaps Acteva is smart, not wasting their time on small fry like myself. But this is cloud computing – Salesforce and Google don’t shoot themselves in the foot with their pricing for small enterprises. I wonder why Acteva can’t cater to all customers as well.

All of the figures above include the default credit card charge from the companies. I’m too small to worry about that stuff, and am quite happy they handle it.

You are welcome to check my math – I’ve posted the spreadsheet below.

Regular, for profit businesses can purchase different editions of Salesforce, each with their own features and pricing, ranging from a basic contact manager to the super-duper Unlimited edition. If a non-profit receives donated licenses from the Salesforce foundation, it receives 10 Enterprise licenses, completely free, in perpetuity. Additional licenses are discounted some 75-80%.

Aside from the pricing, there is no difference what-so-ever between between the features, support, etc. you get as a non-profit with donated licenses and a for-profit paying full price. Enterprise edition Salesforce is the same for everyone alike, charity or business.

A number of charities, and even some non-charities, take advantage of something called the NonProfit Starter Pack. This Starter Pack pre-configures Salesforce so it is more suitable for certain types of non-profit organisation. This pack can be included at the time you first receive your donated licenses, or added later, or removed later, or added piecemeal at any time. In some ways, it’s just one of the hundreds of free add-ons that can be found for Salesforce, though it is unique in that it is authored and maintained by the Salesforce Foundation, and specifically designed with non-profits’ business processes in mind.

Hopefully the table will clarify anything I left out in my explanation.

You already use cloud computing…

First, most people currently use cloud computing but are often unaware of this, as it’s not labeled as Cloud Computing. You use cloud computing if:

• Your have online banking. HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, etc. all use web-based cloud computing.
• Your have voicemail, either for your mobile phone or BT landline, as that is a basic form of cloud computing.
• You use any number of online backup services like iDrive, Mozy, Dropbox, etc.
• You watch video on YouTube
• You use gmail, yahoo, hotmail, or any web-based email from a major provider
• You have an account with LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
• You store your photos with Flickr, Picasa, oPhoto, etc.

While not labeled as such, the above are all examples of Cloud Computing.

We don’t know what to be afraid of…

Our fear is often based on what makes the news and what we are told. Both of these things require a certain level of sensationalism for information to be passed on.

For a great explanation of how we perceive danger vs. actual danger, Dan Gilbert dips into human psyche. The relevant bit is from 4:30 (queued up already) to 6:01.

You will hear news stories of cloud computing scares, but you will never hear the most common security issue: laptop (or smartphone) lost or stolen. Cloud computing is sexy, and is also a bit scary because it’s new. Loosing a laptop is mundane. Which do you think is really the greater risk?

Security has two dimensions…

Security needs to do two things:

1. Keep secure information out of the hands of strangers / untrusted people
2. Keep secure information available and accessible to trusted people

Most people focus on the first one, but the second one is perhaps even more important.

Now let’s take a look at the most common security issue – a laptop computer (or smartphone) is stolen. What do the thieves have access to?

If this is my laptop, I’m seriously annoyed because I have a Macbook Pro, and they aren’t cheap. But as for my data?

• My email and calendar and documents are in Google Apps and I reach them via the web interface. As I tell Google to keep me logged in for two weeks, I would simply log in to Google Apps, change my password, and voila, zero access.
• All my client information is stored on Salesforce, not my laptop. I don’t even need to change my password because Salesforce logs me out after a period of activity, though I’d change it just to be sure.
• My internal financial information is stored in Xero and HSBC. Again, Xero’s period of inactivity is so short nothing would be at risk, but just in case I’d change my password. HSBC would require they also steal my key fob, so absolutely zero risk there.

What would the theives have acces to? A couple thousand photos from my vacations which I have backed up, and my collection of music (and I apparently have bad taste, so no real loss there either).

The same goes for all the laptops and desktops in my organisation. No matter what happened, we would retain access, and the thieves wouldn’t.

Where is your data now?

Most people concerned about security have their data on a server. It’s generally under the bosses desk, in a closet, or possibly even in an IT room. Remember, passwords are useless if there is physical access. Just remove the Hard Drive, access it from another computer, and you will have 100% access to everything.

So, who has physical access to your data? (I’m not saying these people would access it, but they easily could)

• Every single one of your employees
• Probably your old employees if they have an old set of keys
• The cleaner (who is usually there completely alone)
• Anyone else who has access to your office, such as landlord, contractors, security, etc.
• Anyone who is inclined to break in

And are you completely confident that if your server was taken, your backups would restore everything?

Ultimately, people need to make a rational decision about risk. The challenge is that risk is based on emotional perceptions, and we are all human. I completely understand when people are hesitant – anything new, unfamiliar and foreign deserves extra scrutiny before entrusting it with your organisation’s data. My recommendation is to conduct enough research to satisfy yourself one way or the other about Cloud Computing’s security. That’s all anyone can do.

Many organisations write up a list of their requirements for a CRM, invite consultants to respond, and select both a platform and a consultant simultaneously. The problem with this method is that matching your business needs to the right CRM is left to people outside your organisation who have limited knowledge of how you work.

These consultants are often short on time and simply do not have the resources to spend days determining exactly what you need. Even if they did, you probably don’t want to be interviewed by consultants for different organisations days on end.

Instead, consider unbiased consultants who specialise in this process of gathering requirements and selecting systems. I was talking to one, Lucy Jaffe of www.rockhillcommunications.co.uk, about her experiences helping one organisation determine the best platform. During discovery, she learned that a significant number of staff worked on their laptops while commuting on the train, some with and some without internet access. This was added to the requirements and heavily affected the final decision. A bit of effort up front saved the organisation countless hours of staff time later on.

Admittedly, separating the selection process takes more time and energy, but it is a decision well worth it.

While not that useful for existing Salesforce users, if you know of any non-profits who are still exploring what CRM they should select, please pass along the details for this showcase event.

London Circuit Riders / Lasa is putting together a free CRM Summit for non-profits & charities on three CRM tools: Salesforce, CiviCRM, and MS Dynamics. I’ll be presenting and demonstrating Salesforce at the event, and making a (hopefully) compelling argument why it’s the best option for most non-profits.

http://crmsummit.eventbrite.com/