Is Cloud Computing Secure?
One of the biggest obstacles to Cloud Computing is perceived security risks. Despite Cloud Computing’s maturity, many organisations are just beginning to consider it, and are either concerned or outright worried, as they are unfamiliar with it. I’d like to address three points: the perception that cloud computing is foreign, real vs perceived risks, and the dual nature of genuine security. You already use cloud computing… First, most people currently use cloud computing but are often unaware of this, as it’s not labeled...
read moreHow to Select a CRM System
My number one piece of advice is, don’t try to select a CRM system and a consultant all at the same time. It doesn’t give you a chance to properly evaluate either, and this is a decision that will have a major impact on your organisation for years. 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...
read moreFree event for non-profits evaluating CRM options
a CRM Summit showcasing Salesforce, CiviCRM and MS Dynamics Tuesday June 7th from 2:00 to 5:30 at CAN Mezzanine Old Street (Free) 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,...
read moreHow do I forward email to two different addresses using Google Apps?
Forwarding email in gmail / google apps to one address is easy: in the gmail inbox, you go to Settings > Forwarding, and Forward a Copy. Any user can do this to their own email. But what if you want to forward email to two (or more) addresses? This is possible, but you need to be an admin in Google Apps to do this. This works in all versions, both Premier and Standard (the free version). Go to the Control Panel of Google Apps – from your Inbox, click Manage this Domain on the upper right. If you don’t see this, you might not be...
read moreQuick and Dirty Google Apps – MS Exchange cheat sheet
If you want to trial Google Apps within a subset of your org, there’s an easy way to do it without changing any MX records or major settings. First, sign up for Google Apps (paid or free), and confirm your domain (can take up to a day or so depending on the method). At this point, Apps is willing to accept emails at yourdomain.com, and you can send emails from Google Apps. But as your MX records haven’t changed, email will continue to arrive at your MS Exchange server, not Google’s servers. However, you can send emails to...
read moreExpected Revenue field missing in Salesforce.com
Out of the box, Salesforce will hide fields that you might expect to be shown, such as the Expected Revenue field, which is a formula that multiplies the Amount by the Probability percentage for an Opportunity. If you can’t see this field on the page layout, you can edit the layout, but if you can’t see it on the Page Layout Edit screen, or find it in Reports, quite possibly it’s not visible for your profile. If you are an administrator, go to App Setup > Customise > Opportunities > Fields > (in this case…)...
read moreSalesforce methodology for implementation
Salesforce has created two documents to help people implement Salesforce, and we use them with a large percentage of our clients. They are best used together, one as a guide to read and the other as a workbook that you edit. While there are no hard and fast rules to using them, the more complete and the better documented, the more reliable and usable the finished documents are, and this usually results in a smoother implementation process. Here you can find the Getting Started guide (PDF), and the Getting Started workbook (Word...
read moreGoogle Apps and Domain Name Questions
A friend had a few questions about domain names, and I thought I’d answer it for all. Q: How do I use Google Apps with multiple domains? If you have Google Premier (the paid version), then you can add multiple domains. For smaller orgs, chances are you want to add the domain as an alias, which would mean that sue@xyz.com and sue@abc.co.uk would go to the same inbox. You can enable that in the Control Panel, under Domain Settings > Domain Names > Add a New Domain Name. More info here. You’ll have to point the MX records of the...
read moreWhy is it so hard to get glossy brochures from the Salesforce Foundation?
I’ve heard several people comment that getting information from the Salesforce Foundation is a real challenge, and I’d like to highlight the massive difference between the Salesforce Foundation and everything else out there. To give you an idea, one frustrated but well meaning gentleman wrote, explaining his challenges with the process: I have procured fundraising databases for charities on many occasions in the past and am familiar with many of the 35 available UK systems. In the last year alone I have been involved in three...
read moreGoogle Apps, EU / UK Data Privacy laws, and Charities
At the Civil Society IT Conference today, Anthony Misquitta and other partners from Farrer & Co, one of the UK’s oldest law firms, presented on the legal issues involved in outsourcing data to outside of the UK, and one of the issues they touched upon was the EU Directive on Data Protection. UK and EU organisations understandably try to keep their data in jurisdictions where they feel their data will be legally protected, both because this is the ethical thing to do and also it is required by law. As a result, one of the first...
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