Author: Atelier

Salesforce Spring ’18 GDPR Preview

As we mentioned in our last post, Salesforce Spring ’18 is soon to be released. As we are getting ever closer to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), coming into effect in Europe, there are some key features to help organisation become compliant:

Store Certain Data Privacy Preferences
Data privacy records, based on the Individual object, let you store certain data privacy preferences for your customers. These records can help you respect your customers’ wishes when they request only specific forms of contact from your company.

The standard object, Individual, includes fields for storing data privacy preferences in data privacy records. These records are associated with your company’s leads and contacts in Salesforce. If your company has special policies with which you comply, you can add your own custom fields to the Individual object.

In data privacy records, track and store customers’ preferences for:

  • Collecting, storing, and sharing their personal data
  • Packaging their personal data so they can take ownership of it
  • Deleting records and personal data related to them
  • Solicitation of products and services
  • Tracking their geolocation and web activity

Prevent Read Receipts to Enhance Privacy
Prevent users from getting read receipts for email messages they send. Read receipts include information such as when the recipient opens the message and from where. Laws and regulations can require you to honor and respect your customers’ wishes regarding the personal data you collect. (This feature applies only to Lightning Experience.)

Remove Data from data.com
To support your efforts to comply with the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), Salesforce have removed data for contacts in the UK and Ireland from the Data.com Connect contact database. Contacts that were previously matched using Data.com Clean or Data.com Prospector now have a Clean status of Not Found.

If you need support implementing any of these features or complying with the GDPR contact us on 08456 525 625 or simply fill in your details here.

Salesforce Spring ’18 Release Preview

The 55th Salesforce release, Spring ’18 is soon to be launched and a host of great new features across the Salesforce platform will soon be available for users. The release includes exciting enhancements to the Lightning Platform and innovative breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), among other features. Here are our favourites:

 

Show Your True Colours with Themes in Lightning Experience

Salesforce comes as a software that you can customise to your company, now there is even more that you can do with a Salesforce’s own build in brand images and colours, and you customise your own with few clocks within Salesforce. Companies have 7 built in themes available in Salesforce, or they can create up to 300 themes of their own.

LinkedIn integration

You could use LinkedIn previously, it would be helpful for Inside Sales, while prospecting for new opportunities and gain additional information on their targets and for Business Development, prior to going into a new prospect or gaining further current insights into customers/clients. Now Salesforce have added another level to LinkedIn, now they have automated the contacts that come into Salesforce by providing a LinkedIn Form for prospects to fill in and those details are added within Salesforce as Leads for Inside Sales team to target.

Forecasting using Einstein

Manually going through Salesforce and seeing which opportunities are likely to close can be very manual and take a while, Salesforce have introduced Einstein intelligent predictions for forecasting. Artificial Intelligence has evolved at Salesforce due to their partnership with IBM, this has led to an innovation in the way that companies can streamline forecasts, with more certainty and more accuracy.

Gather Feedback with Salesforce Surveys (Generally Available)

Survey Monkey, Google Forms, Simply Survey and loads more, these have been the tools for companies to gain insights into industry, employees, and experiences. Now Salesforce have integrated surveys into the Salesforce platform.

Sales Console: Pinned Regions, Quick Text, Macros, and More

For companies utilising the Console, for support cases and addressing certain customer needs. Salesforce have made some improvements such as pin page regions, quick text options, and extend the power of the macros.

Unknown Emails

Received an email from an unknown source or someone who has not been logged in Salesforce? Now with this latest update, you can add contacts directly from Outlook into Salesforce as a Lead or a Person Account (if person account has been set up). This is a great way to improve user adoption by enabling this functionality via Outlook

 

If you need support implementing any of these features contact us on 08456 525 625 or simply fill in your details here.

App of the Month – Cloud Coach

For January our consultants have nominated Cloud Coach as our app of the month.

Cloud Coach consists of 4 tiers of solutions to enable customers to run projects on Salesforce. These 4 tiers ensure that organisations have the correct tool for them, ranging from Cloud Coach Milestones which most suitable for small teams with simpler requirements to Cloud Coach Ultimate, the full package.

These tiers of project management tools deliver exactly what customers need to plan and execute projects successfully. Based on over ten years of customer-driven research, Cloud Coach includes the most important capabilities project managers depend on to get their job done fast and accurately.

Cloud Coach capabilities include:

  • Create Projects – From your favorite Salesforce records
  • Leverage Project Templates – Automate project creation & save time
  • See Your Projects – In the view that works for you (Gantt style timeline or a Kanban board)
  • Budget and Track – Your project financials
  • Visualise Progress – Across all your projects

Using Cloud Coach to run projects on Salesforce will improve teamwork and accuracy of projects ensuring all stakeholders are informed and upto date throughout the project.

To find out more about Appexchange apps and difference they can make to your business call our expert consultants on 08456 525 625 or fill in the form here and we will get in touch.

5 Benefits of Using a Project Management Tool

If you are not using project management tools for your projects you may be doing more work than necessary, and not fulfilling your potential. The right project management tools will leave you and your team free to get the real work done. Here are just a few of the benefits you will notice once you start using some sort of project management software.

Use Project Templates

Using project management tool software means your team don’t need to reinvent the wheel for every project. You can create best practice temples which will then enable you to launch new projects quickly and easily. This can significantly save time during set up and also by pre-assigning resources to your projects.

Tracking Budget Against the Project

You’re not just responsible for delivering your projects on time, your executives also want to see your project’s financial performance. Project Management software can give you a complete fiscal picture of your projects including internal costs of delivery. Actuals imported from your financial system in real time give you a complete up to date picture of your project finances.

Work Collaboratively

Most projects involve a number of colleagues and departments working together, which presents a number of challenges. Project management software can allow you to see another users upcoming tasks and see the queue of work which needs doing so you can fill in for someone who is out of office, or help out a fellow team member who is overloaded. You can also use security permissions to keep work private.

Reports 24-7 from anywhere

Never miss a moment or a milestone, and get visualisation into everything happening on your project, no matter the time of day. You can also enable automated delivery of reports straight to the email inbox of you and your team. Create, control, and switch between multiple dashboards tailored to your business so you can view your KPI’s and project metrics in real time.

Control Access Based on Profiles

Not everyone in your business has the same needs for their day to day job and you may wish to restrict certain pieces of information from different users. Project management software allows you to have full control over which type of users can do what. You may wish to restrict visibility by department, only delivering the most relevant information to your teams. For security reasons you may need to hide financial data from end users, make KPI data visible but not editable and control access based on user profiles…this is all possible with project management software.

To find out more about project management software and difference they can make to your business call our expert consultants on 08456 525 625 or fill in the form here and we will get in touch.

App of the Month – Survey Force

For November our consultants have nominated SURVEY FORCE as our app of the month.

Survey Force is a free app developed by the Salesforce LABs team to bring your survey responses directly into your CRM. The tool uses native Salesforce functionality to allow you to Survey both your CRM contacts and Internal Users.

Do you have a Quarterly survey to gather feedback directly from your employees? or Do you need to send Customers a survey when you close out support tickets? No Problem, Survey force gives you a free way to send those surveys and gather the data directly back to your CRM for reporting.

Survey Force means you can:

  • Easily Create and Order Questions via Drag and Drop
  • Distribute Surveys Via Email and Sites
  • Capture Results from Contacts and/or Cases, use Reports and Dashboards to Analyse
  • Automate surveys to customers and users with workflow based on actions within the platform (ie. Closed support ticket..Survey sends immediately without user interaction)
  • Users can take Anonymous surveys for more sensitive feedback collection

The survey designer is easy to use and understand but the really great aspect is that the survey page provides you with the backend wireframe to make sure your data goes to the right place without the need for heavy coding.

To customise the look and feel of the page itself you can very easily add standard HTML/CSS tags to make it look as you desire.

We like this app because it offers you the flexibility you need, the performance and functionality without the need to invest in a 3rd party. The application 100% native on the Force.com platform.

If you are looking for a way of creating surveys quickly and for free, this is the app for you!

To find out more about Appexchange apps and difference they can make to your business call our expert consultants on 08456 525 625 or fill in the form here and we will get in touch.

5 Reasons Every Business Needs Cloud Accounting

More business operations are moving to the cloud, from CRM to Marketing to Accounts. One of the main benefits of switching your account system over to a cloud based system is the ability to access your information anywhere, and at anytime. In addition to this there are many other benefits that B2B companies can realise from moving their accounting function to the cloud.

Our cloud accounting specialist, David Ryles, shares his reasons every business should move to cloud accounting.

1. Instant Reporting On Demand
Financial reporting can still be highly labour-intensive. Turnaround times have improved over the years, but are your teams still spending too much time compiling month-, quarter-, and year-end reports? The most agile businesses are moving away from reporting cycles—focusing instead on instant reports with real-time business metrics. Cloud accounting gives you complete control over your financial reports, with the ability to quickly view and customise, as well as create side-by-side multi-dimensional reports.

2. Improve Accuracy and Avoid Mistakes
Ensuring data is accurate is essential in financial management. Manual processes can lead to duplication, errors and a lot of wasted time. Cloud accounting can automate all of the manual processes within a business, eliminating the potential human and system errors. This can also be an added protection from fraud.

3. Future Proof your Investment
By investing in cloud accounting software you are ensuring your platform can grow with your business and that you have access to the latest technology. Cloud accounting is scalable, allowing your accounting system to grow as your business does. If your strategy is to expand into new markets or geographies you can with multi-company, multi-currency, multi-language capabilities. What’s more, the companies behind cloud accounting are investing in the future technology and passing these benefits on to their customers.

4. Full Integration with Other Systems
Most cloud accounting systems can integrate with other cloud based operations. This enables business to connect the front and back offices for collaboration across digital platforms in new and efficient ways. Cloud accounting enables sales, accounting, banking, invoicing, and payments to all be integrated into one platform. There are also thousands of add on apps that may suit your business and open the door to endless possibilities.

5. Improve in Efficiency and Productivity
Cloud-based accounting can be far more straightforward, giving everyone in the business access to centralised data as and when needed – regardless of where they happen to be located. Streamlined workflows and improved collaboration boost productivity so you have time to focus on what you do best.
At Xenogneix we work with our customers to implement cloud based solutions to benefit their businesses. Sage Live is the world’s first real-time accounting solution built on Salesforce.

By unifying your data in one hub with Sage Live, you no longer have to deal with the time-waste of departmental blockades (such as outdated technology, red tape, collating reports from disconnected sources, or digging for customer information that’s nestled away in other departments or applications), all of which obstructs the flow of critical information.

To find out more about Sage Live and the difference it can make to your business call our expert consultants on 08456 525 625 or fill in the form here and we will get in touch.

Salesforce Winter ’18 Release

The latest Salesforce release, Winter ‘18 has landed and a host of great new features across the Salesforce platform are now available to users. Among many changes to the user interface there are also other features our consultants are happy to see included in this latest release. Here are our favourites:

 

A New Look and Feel for Lightning Experience
This change means less time scrolling and scanning and more time focused on what matters most. More of the information you need is included in each screen by making use of the space better. Also:
• Improved legibility (using font size and colour) to draw attention to what’s most important.
• Better contrast between foreground and background, making it easier to scan and scroll while staying focused on what you need.

Related List Quick Links
Are your users tired of clicking View All to see all the columns in a related list? With the Related List Quick Links component, they can view multiple related lists in quick succession just by hovering over a link. And, they can complete actions right from within the hover pane.

Make Your Lightning Pages Dynamic
Now you can control when a component appears on a record page by adding filter conditions and logic to its properties. No need to add anything to your custom components. It’s all handled by the Lightning App Builder. For example, construct a filter that causes a rich text component on an opportunity page to display when the Amount is greater than £1 million.

Component visibility filters are supported for standard components, custom components, and components from AppExchange. If you don’t define a filter, the component displays on the Lightning record page as usual. When you define one or more filters and set the filter logic for a component, the component is hidden until the filter logic criteria are met.

These are among many features that will improve any Salesforce Org over the coming weeks.

If you need support implementing any of these features contact us on 08456 525 625 or simply fill in your details here.

8 Benefits of Cloud Accounting

Many businesses today are moving away from traditional accounting software and towards remotely hosted cloud accounting. In cloud accounting, users access the accounting software remotely through the Internet. Using cloud accounting software frees businesses from having to install and maintain software on individual desktop computers. It also allows employees in remote or branch offices to access the same data and the same version of the software.
So what are the main benefits of Cloud accounting and why should you consider it for your business?

1. Access your accounts in the cloud, anytime, anywhere
The office, home, at a meeting, the Golf course, you can access your accounts anywhere….all you need is an internet connection. Todays businesses and customers are always on the move and always connected. Access the real-time information you need from any location using any smart device. Are your sales or marketing teams on the road, meeting partners, vendors, or clients? Now, they can submit and approve invoices, communicate with you and more using Android and iOS apps.

2. Simple to use
A switch to cloud accounting can reduce manual data entry and other time-consuming admin – so you can get time back so to grow the business. Reducing the time you spend on paperwork means better efficiency.

3. Share information online easily
Cloud accounting means significantly increased accessibility to your businesses information. Share the information you need to share with your accountant, bookkeeper, bank, business partner – whoever, whenever.

4. Say goodbye to year-end historical data
With real-time dashboards, forecasting, automatic reports, and multi-dimensional capabilities, you can look at your business in new and insightful ways across team projects, business units, geographies, products, clients and more. With this increased access to up to the minute data your business will benefit from improved decision making.

5. Remove the need for manual and paper based systems
Get organised – free up space in your office. Ignite productivity by automating time-consuming admin and connecting your teams to the information they need in real time—no more costly delays correcting human error, waiting for information, or manually entering data.

6. Keep the tax man happy – worldwide!
100% HMRC compliant software and systems. Stay up-to-date with the latest tax regulations and legislation across multiple countries. Overcome international boundaries and stay competitive (and compliant) globally.

7. Stay safe and secure
Your files are backed up “in the cloud” = Peace of mind. The remote servers with your data on are hosted in an environment with the same security technology as a bank. Your data is protected by electronic security systems, like encrypted connections and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). This makes it very difficult for hackers and viruses to get to your information, and allows you to update and share your data safely online.

This is where Sage Live comes in: the world’s first real-time accounting solution built on Salesforce.
Sage Live is fully cloud-based, so you get all of these immediate benefits to your business. With Sage Live you and your team are always connected to what’s happening across your business.

By unifying your data in one hub with Sage Live, you no longer have to deal with the time-waste of departmental blockades (such as outdated technology, red tape, collating reports from disconnected sources, or digging for customer information that’s nestled away in other departments or applications), all of which obstructs the flow of critical information.

You also avoid the risks of disk crashes, document loss, computer theft, and cumbersome legacy stacks that hamper agility and productivity. Sage Live is about making new sense of accounting.

To find out more about Sage Live and the difference it can make to your business call our expert consultants on 08456 525 625 or fill in the form here and we will get in touch.

What is Marketing Automation?

According to Google’s search trend tools, search traffic for the term “Marketing Automation” has risen nearly 40% since October of last year. Interest in the technology seems to be growing, and if you’re not yet an automation user you may be asking yourself “why?” What is marketing automation all about?

Marketing automation is:
Technology that allows marketing and sales departments to create, deploy, and automate online marketing campaigns and sales activities that increase revenue and maximize efficiency.

In it’s most basic form, marketing automation is a set of tools designed to streamline and simplify some of the most time consuming responsibilities of the modern marketing and sales roles. From automating the lead qualification process to creating a hub for digital campaign creation, automation is all about simplifying a business world that is growing far too complex, much too quickly.

Marketing Automation and CRM
Your CRM tool is already a central part of your business and a key element in tracking, recording, and accessing customer data and performance metrics. Integrating marketing automation with your CRM system is like updating your favourite smartphone app to suddenly have all the features you’ve been dreaming of. It’s the same familiar platform, now with the ability to track prospect activity with your campaigns and on your site, real-time sales alerts when buyers are showing purchasing behaviour, ROI reporting, and much more.

Putting Sales and Marketing on the Same Page
It’s no secret that in most organisations, integration between sales and marketing is often a little rocky. But why? As technology continues to evolve and shape the buying cycle, marketing and sales are only growing closer together, making efficient collaboration between the two more important than ever.

The misalignment between the two departments isn’t necessarily the fault of one over another. That fault lies with outdated processes and structures. When marketing and sales are working with different tools toward separate goals, it’s only natural for tensions to result. Fortunately, marketing automation can help provide a solution by improving lead quality, increasing revenue, and automating traditionally manual processes like lead assignment and follow-up.

Better Data For Smarter Decisions
It seems like everyone these days is talking about “big data,” but few business have a grasp on how to collect and utilise it. Marketing automation allows you to effortlessly embrace big data, collecting valuable data at tremendous scale and putting it to work for you by helping you make smarter marketing and sales decisions.

By providing a single platform for collecting and storing data, closed-loop reporting, and dashboarding and analytics, marketing automation platforms are the most comprehensive solution for measuring marketing and predicting consumer behaviour on a small-business budget. Assemble a more complete profile of your prospects than ever before, A/B test your marketing assets to find the techniques that work best, and truly understand the contribution sales and marketing are making to the bottom line.

To find out more about marketing automation, speak to our experts today. Call 08456 525 625 or fill in our form.

What is GDPR?

The GDPR is coming.

You may have heard the term GDPR and wondered what it means. On May 25, 2018, a new landmark privacy law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect in the European Union (EU). The GDPR expands the privacy rights granted to EU individuals, and it places many new obligations on organisations that market to, track or handle EU personal data, no matter where an organisation is located. Xenogenix and Salesforce are here to help our customers in their efforts to comply with the GDPR through robust privacy and security protections.

What is the GDPR?
A new comprehensive data protection law in the EU that updates existing laws to strengthen the protection of personal data in light of rapid technological developments, increased globalization, and more complex international flows of personal data. It replaces the patchwork of national data protection laws currently in place with a single set of rules, directly enforceable in each EU member state.

What does the GDPR Regulate?
The GDPR regulates the “processing,” which includes the collection, storage, transfer or use, of personal data about EU individuals. Any organization that processes personal data of EU individuals, including tracking their online activities, is within the scope of the law, regardless of whether the organisation has a physical presence in the EU. Importantly, under the GDPR, the concept of “personal data” is very broad and covers any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual (also called a “data subject”)

What is Salesforce’s GDPR Commitment?
Salesforce are committed to compliance with the GDPR. Salesforce are also dedicated to helping customers comply with the GDPR, currently working to make enhancements to the full range of products, contracts and documentation to support compliance with the GDPR.

For more information you can visit the Salesforce GDPR website here,

Xenogenix will post updated information as it becomes available to ensure you are as up to date as possible with any changes regarding GDPR. For any questions regarding this subject matter call 08456 525 625 or fill in the form and we will get back to you.