Considering Certinia or looking to improve your existing setup? Find answers to common questions about its relationship with Salesforce, implementation, integrations, upgrades and ongoing support.
What is Certinia?
Certinia provides business applications built on Salesforce. Its products include Professional Services Cloud for managing service delivery and Financial Management Cloud for accounting and financial processes.
Depending on the products you use, Certinia can help connect resource planning, project delivery, billing and finance with customer information held in Salesforce.
What is the difference between Salesforce and Certinia?
Salesforce provides the underlying platform and applications for areas such as sales and customer service. Certinia adds specialist applications for managing services businesses and financial operations.
For example, a sales team might manage an opportunity in Salesforce, while delivery and finance teams use Certinia to manage the resulting project, resource requirements and billing.
Is Certinia built on Salesforce?
Yes. Certinia applications run on the Salesforce platform, using its underlying infrastructure, security controls and reporting capabilities.
This allows Salesforce and Certinia processes to work together within the same environment. Your configuration, permissions and reporting still need to be designed around how your teams share information and carry out their work.
Who is Certinia designed for?
Certinia is particularly relevant to organisations managing service delivery, people, projects and financial performance. Examples include consultancies, IT services businesses and software companies with professional services teams.
The right fit depends on your requirements. Some organisations need professional services automation, others need financial management, and some need both.
What are the benefits of implementing Certinia?
Certinia can give teams a clearer view of how work moves from a customer commitment through delivery and finance.
Depending on your implementation, that could mean better visibility of resource availability, project performance, billing and financial results. The benefits depend on the processes you configure, the quality of your data and how consistently people use the system.
How long does a Certinia implementation take?
The timeline depends on the products involved, the processes you need to support and the work required to prepare your data and integrations.
Discovery should also establish who will make decisions, test the configuration and prepare users. These responsibilities affect the schedule as much as the technical build. We’ll use that information to recommend an implementation approach and realistic delivery plan.
Can Certinia integrate with our existing systems?
Yes. Certinia can connect with other applications, although the integration method depends on the systems and information involved.
Start by agreeing which system owns each record, what needs to move between applications and when updates should happen. We can then assess suitable connectors, middleware or custom integration, including how errors will be identified and resolved.
Do I need to be using Salesforce before implementing Certinia?
Not necessarily. Certinia runs on the Salesforce platform, but that is different from needing an existing Salesforce CRM implementation.
The platform access and licences required depend on your Certinia products and what each user needs to do. Confirm these requirements during scoping, particularly if your teams also need Salesforce sales or service functionality.
How often should Certinia be upgraded?
Certinia generally releases major updates three times a year, with service packs between releases. Some packages follow a different schedule.
Check your installed versions, support requirements and scheduled upgrade dates. Before a major production upgrade, test your important processes, integrations and customisations in a sandbox. Assign someone to coordinate testing, review changes and communicate anything users need to know.
What support is available after implementation?
er go-live, your team may need help investigating issues, answering user questions, updating reports or preparing for upgrades.
Xenogenix provides Certinia support and managed services to help maintain and improve your setup. We’ll discuss the products you use, the expertise available internally and the activities you need help with, then agree the appropriate support arrangements.
Why choose Xenogenix for Certinia implementation and support?
We bring Salesforce and Certinia expertise together, helping you consider the whole process across sales, delivery and finance.
Our work starts with understanding your requirements and the people responsible for them. From implementation and integration to upgrades and ongoing support, we help you make practical decisions and keep your system aligned with how your business operates.
Have a question about Certinia?
Tell us what you need help with, whether you’re considering Certinia or already using it. Complete the form below and our team will be in touch.
Samantha Mathie is a Senior Digital Marketing Executive at Xenogenix and has been part of the business for four years. Before joining Xenogenix, she spent more than eight years working independently as a marketing consultant.
With a background in IT, telecommunications and video conferencing, Samantha specialises in B2B technology marketing, digital campaigns, content and connected customer journeys. She is particularly skilled at turning complex subjects into clear, engaging communications.
As an author for Xenogenix, Samantha shares practical guidance on digital marketing, campaign planning, content and communicating technology effectively.