Technical Perspectives

Five Ways to Optimize Your Salesforce CRM

Written by William Dawsey

1. Salesforce Integration

Implementing data integrations into your Salesforce CRM is an effective way to build a unified view of your customer while improving employee experience. Connecting internal databases gives businesses a competitive advantage by leveraging data in new and powerful ways. This is because integrating with existing applications harnesses Salesforce's API functionality helping an organization to achieve higher levels of operational value, consistency, and efficiency.

There are endless options when it comes to Salesforce data integration. As a business owner you can connect disjointed systems – from data housed on external accounting, HR, and ERP systems – to social media platforms, e-commerce platforms, or on-premises software like Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP. This translates into seamless data management and enhanced business logic for you and your team. In addition to interoperability, you have security integration options that help integrate authentication tools to improve user experience and reduce user administration processes. With robust API integrations, your business can take advantage of data syncing with different vendors across various platforms.

It's important to explore the diverse integration options related to your Salesforce CRM platform, while also ensuring data accuracy and logical configuration. Consider hiring a team of experienced Salesforce developers who can help your business dramatically reduce integration time to unify and modernize back-office systems and more.

2. Salesforce Implementation

Salesforce is a robust CRM platform with unlimited possibilities. With all those possibilities comes a very rigorous implementation process aimed to make your organization's ideal CRM application. If you are implementing salesforce into your organization for the first time, you must consider what processes define your business model. This will allow Chetu to implement a Salesforce solution custom-tailored to your preexisting infrastructure.

CRM processes such as lead flow, campaign set-up, and customer acquisition planning require thoroughness, preparation, and planning. You must also consider data maintenance processes that ensure data integrity and cross-silo consistency. The best way to transition your legacy CRM to Salesforce is through a knowledgeable implementation partner. Chetu has implemented Salesforce in a diverse set of arenas, and we understand how those individual arenas react with Salesforce technology, giving us a competitive advantage among generalized Salesforce implementation. An optimized Salesforce platform begins with a unique implementation approach molded to your objectives.

3. Salesforce Lightning

Lightning-fast user experience and lead flow is essential to any business. That's why Salesforce created a newly transformed CRM interface designed to maximize sales rep productivity, integrated with analytics and business intelligence aimed to drive sales precision for your business. Salesforce allows you to switch between the two interfaces, Salesforce Classic and Salesforce Lightning. Considering the robust features offered through the Lightning platform, you will want to optimize your CRM processes through this latest upgrade.

Lightning experience features a visually upgraded homepage with a performance chart, an instant calendar module, organized lead flow visuals, and contact and account insights intended to help your sales team stay organized and digest data smoothly. In addition, there is a new Activity Timeline workspace where sales reps can now create tasks, events, log calls, send emails, and efficiently track activities in one place. Leveraging your lightning components and creating a strategy where you consider the markup and style of the interface to suit your business objectives is important. Make sure to have a system in place where your entire organization can optimize the offerings of Salesforce. Consider hiring experienced Salesforce developers who can help you build single-page, dynamic applications for various devices and/or write custom components for your team to use or market through Salesforce Lightning Experience.

4. Salesforce Visualforce

Salesforce offers prebuilt applications that help in improving CRM functionality. Salesforce Visualforce helps in doing just that. However, if you are not a developer, the application of Salesforce Visualforce can be an enormous undertaking, as it is composed of a tag-based markup language, similar to HTML that gives developers a way of building applications and customizing the CRM user interface. Some features available through Visualforce are custom flow control through its wizards, templates, and on-the-go deployment.

It also contains optional styling elements which provide a richer animated user interface when compared to applications designed using conventional elements. Page components can be optimized through Visualforce with the help of custom dashboards, tabs, menu items, action items, and personalized console components for specific organizational needs.

Being able to integrate with other web-based user interface technologies such as JavaScript, or Flash creates customizable user-driven functionality. When it comes to implementing Salesforce Visualforce into your organization make sure that you have an experienced team of developers who know how to harness your business objectives to best optimize CRM functionalities.

5. Salesforce AppExchange

AppExchange is a business app ecosystem for cloud-based business software. A variety of customized apps are available included with customer reviews and suitable for every department and industry. You can find components such as Lighting Data and Bolt Solutions, consulting partners, and developers to help you extend the power of Salesforce through AppExchange. It can play an important role in driving positive business results, such as increased accuracy, faster order placement times, and reduced costs.

The highest benefit of AppExchange is the vibrant partner community available to bring your ideas to life. Chetu Inc., an 18 year old software development company, takes your app ideas from discovery to design and from simple utilities to connectors to custom applications in a seamless stress-free creation. Our developers engineer conceptual, technical and functional designs for your project making sure you get the best value out of this dynamic feature of the Salesforce CRM platform. We will add the functionality you need, including custom calculations, triggered actions, workflows, and more.

Founded in 2000, Chetu is a global provider of app building services and support services. Chetu's specialized technology and industry experts serve startups, SMBs, and Fortune 500 companies with an unparalleled software delivery model suited to the needs of the client. Chetu's one-stop-shop model spans the entire software technology spectrum. Headquartered in Plantation, Florida, Chetu has fourteen locations throughout the U.S. and abroad.