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Category Archives: Salesforce

Salesforce tools for improved data and meta data analysis

Your 2024 Tableau Salesforce Integration Guide

Posted on 2023-10-15 - 5:58 pm by
Tableau Salesforce

In this guide, we will walk you through the process of setting up Tableau Salesforce Cloud using the latest and greatest native integrations. Tableau Cloud natively integrates with Salesforce for enhanced security and access as the two clouds have become tightly knit together. In addition to the nuts and bolts, we will focus on key use cases how Tableau can provide valuable insights beyond standard Salesforce reports and dashboards. Tableau’s capabilities for deeper analysis, data manipulation, end-user ad-hoc analysis, and access to diverse data sources make it a powerful complement to Salesforce’s offerings.

Tableau Salesforce

Tableau Cloud Setup

Setting up Tableau cloud is as simple as signing up and provisioning an account through the online setup form. Once provisioned you can immediately start connecting and building.

Salesforce SSO for Tableau: Security and Access

Salesforce cloud natively supports Salesforce for user access and authentication. This allows you to extend your user management and access into Tableau so you are not needing to duplicate work.

Simply check “Salesforce” so when you invite users they will need to utilize their Salesforce username and password. If you use Multi-Factor Authentication MFA with the Salesforce authenticator app, you do not need to perform any additional configuration for it to work.

Embedding Tableau inside of Salesforce

For Salesforce organizations, Tableau should be a seamless experience that resides side by side with standard Salesforce.com dashboards. To accomplish this goal, we typically utilize the Tableau lightning component. With Tableau cloud, you can utilize the “Default Authentication type for Embedded Views”, ensuring a secure and seamless experience for end users.

The best user experience is one that reduces friction. We typically embed dashboards inside of Lightning pages and also make use of tabs to isolate Salesforce dashboards and Tableau dashboards side by side based on topic.

To allow embedding of Tableau inside of Salesforce as of Winter 24, simply go to Setup and enable Tableau embedding.

Tableau for Salesforce Use Cases

Before embarking on a Tableau Salesforce its important to understand key uses cases where implementing Tableau makes sense above and beyond standard Salesforce reports and Dashboards.

Deeper analysis

When we refer to “depth of analysis” we mean taking a single subject and exploring history, relationships, and paterns that impact the subject.

For example, if you see that yur lead to opportunity conversion rate is lower than expected, you may ask questions related to sales rep activity including speed to lead, number of calls, number of reps to leads and other ratios. When building Tableau dashboards and supporting reports, you can drill and explore these relationships over time with greater ease and relate them together.

More flexibility to slice and dice data

Slicing and dicing data in many cases requires analysts or in the world of Salesforce reports saving data to Excel. Tableau was born and designed for visual exploration of data where you can filter, drill and modify the subject of your analysis with.

End User Ad-hoc analysis

Salesforce provides an amazing ad-hoc reporting capability, granting business professionals with the power to produce powerful reports. While the report developer has a full fledge reporting solution, end consumers of the report are limited to basic filtering. Tableau on the other hand provides end user ad-hoc analysis for changing dimensions, drilling, and constraining information.

Access to more data sources for analysis

Salesforce reports and dashboards are limited to the data available inside of Salesforce. Tableau on the other hand opens the door to connect more data sources with Salesforce.

Connecting Tableau to Salesforce Data

Tableau provides a native Salesforce data connector, allowing direct access to Salesforce data objects. This is quite useful for real-time access to Salesforce data, or static extracts that harness the full power of Tableau data.

Native Salesforce Connector

Unfortunately, the Tableau integration with Salesforce data is imperfect. Using the standard Tableau connector for Salesforce prevents Salesforce formulas in the results. This limitation has long existed as an enhancement but is not obvious.

Working with Data Time Fields

Small variances in metrics can occur when using DateTime fields as a result of data extractions rendering in UTC instead of your local time zone.

Connecting Tableau to Salesforce Data Cloud

With the recent release of Salesforce Data Cloud, Tableau has a new modern approach to data access that bypasses some of the traditional limitations. We will cover this topic in detail with an upcoming post!

Plan your Salesforce Tableau Initiative

Need help planning and validating Tableau is the right fit for your Salesforce based analytics or simply need an “Analytics First” perspective on your Salesforce org? Setup a free consultation with our team and ask about our rapid adoption blueprint.

Essential Salesforce Metrics & KPIs Guide

Posted on 2023-09-25 - 12:32 am by
Futuristic Salesforce Metrics and KPIs Dashboard

Salesforce metrics and KPIs are important tools to define how you will manage and monitor your Sales and Marketing efforts. Metrics and KPIs playing a crucial role in aligning strategies with business goals. In this article, we dive into vital Salesforce Lead and Opportunity Pipeline Metrics, emphasizing the importance of consistency and clear definitions. Whether a stakeholder, Salesforce admin, or a member of a data analytics team, here, you’ll gain insights, answers to common questions and examples.

5 Salesforce Lead Metrics you Should be Tracking

While different organizations and industries have varying definitions for leads, prospects, and customers, the following metrics are designed for organizations where lead generation and handoff occurs inside of Salesforce.

  1. Qualified Leads Generated – How many qualified leads are delivered to sales? The qualification definition will vary per organization, as some use MQL (marketing qualified leads) and others use SQL (sales qualified leads). Having the qualification definition also helps identify un-workable leads which creates a feedback loop to improve lead generation channels.
  2. Lead Generation to Response Time – How fast are you making contact with leads after a prospect is delivered to your sales organization? Turn time for some businesses are measured in hours but for some they are measured in minutes.
  3. Lead Conversion Rate – How many leads need to be worked to generate a deal with revenue potential? Many organizations convert leads and create opportunities different stages of the Sales cycle. We recommend measuring from a key, well defined the point in your Sales funnel that is unlikely to change over a long period of time.
  4. Lead to Close Win Ratio – How many leads do you need to generate to close deals?
  5. Cost per Lead and Closed Won – What are your marketing campaign costs relative to lead generation and deal closure? For organizations that track their marketing campaigns and spend inside of Salesforce, this metric can be tracked using Salesforce campaigns. Not all organizations track marketing spend inside of Salesforce unfortunately.

5 Salesforce Opportunity Pipeline Metrics you Should be Tracking

It goes without saying the count of won opportunities, revenue and margin are important and common sales metrics. Here are 5 additional metrics that you can look to for inspiration.

  1. Deal Win Rate – How many fully qualified Sales opportunities are closed? This metric is used to measure the effectiveness of your sales team.
  2. Outbound Activities to Close – Measuring how many phone calls, emails, and SMS are required to close deals is effective at aggregate to measure top and bottom performers and understand globally what it will take to move customers through each stage to a win.
  3. Average Deal Size – Understanding your average and potential median deal size are important to understand market shifts, targeting, sales effectiveness and is typically a driver for forecasting and predicting future deals.
  4. Lifetime Value $ – For every customer, what is the total average value over time?
  5. Churn Rate – For customers that are won, how many of them churn at the end of their service period or no longer make second purchases within a specified timeframe?

3 Salesforce Metric Tips for Success

  1. Consistency of your metrics and KPIs are measured over time is most important. If the definitions change often, your ability to effectively use the metrics diminishes. Ensure you use clear definitions for points in your sales process.
  2. Clear and concise metric definitions will ensure your business stakeholders, Salesforce admins, and your data and analytics team are aligned.
  3. Ownership of every metric helps ensure accountability not only for monitoring. This also helps ensure changes in definitions and assumptions have a point person for approval.

Common Salesforce Metric and KPI Questions

What is a Salesforce Metric

A Salesforce metric measures performance over time where Salesforce is typically the system of record where the business process and transaction occurs. Salesforce metrics like sales revenue or lead conversion rate are created, calculated and measured with reporting inside of Salesforce or using 3rd party reporting and dashboard tools directly integrated with Salesforce.

What is a Salesforce Metric vs KPI?

A Salesforce metric tracks measurements over time while a KPI or Key Performance Indicator typically has not only a definitive target, but also a timeline and linkage to business goals and objectives.

A KPI should indicate the current and historical performance (Sales revenue is a common KPI for sales), while metric could help identify the leading indicators that influences sales (outbound calls, talk time).

How do I manage Salesforce metrics?

Many organizations simply manage Salesforce in Excel or word, which is fast and easy but requires a tremendous effort and cross functional ownership. There are a number of free solutions that help automate and streamline collecting, organizing and sharing metrics and tracking changes over time.

How do I ensure consistent Salesforce metrics?

Consistency in naming and consistency in measurement are two very common challenges within Salesforce. Tracking and managing aliases or synonyms for metrics over time is important but the measurements and application of metrics in reports needs to be consistent.

How do I design Salesforce KPIs?

The best advice is to ask your business leadership first what is the objective or goal that is most important? From there what are the top 3 things we should do to reach that goal? That is the framework for your KPIs. Setting a target and timeline to achieve the target in many sales organizations are monthly or quarterly. The most important thing is not to get hung up on terminology. If you are setting and agreeing to measurable goals and outcomes, that is most important. Consistency in terminology and approach is most important.

What is DataTools for Salesforce Metrics?

We built DataTools Pro to help inventory, manage, and track implementation of metrics and reporting inside of Salesforce. Bringing the same techniques we use for large scale enterprise Business Intelligence solutions, we have paired it down to make it very simple for Salesforce users.

  • Inventory metrics
  • Track aliases / synonyms for metrics
  • Align dashboards and reports to metrics
  • Detailed definitions and ownership
  • Align metrics to topics and lines of business

How do I create Salesforce Metric and KPI Dashboards?

Salesforce provides powerful and flexibility reporting and dashboard tools that ship standard with Salesforce. As the sophistication of your reporting and tracking requirements grow or complexity of calculations increase you may need a solution like Tableau (owned by Salesforce) or one of the many powerful point solutions.

Exciting New Native Salesforce Snowflake Integration

Posted on 2023-09-11 - 8:38 pm by
Salesforce and Snowflake Integration

When it comes to optimizing your business processes and data analytics, Salesforce and Snowflake stand as two potent platforms, each with its own ecosystem of developers, stakeholders, and users. The Salesforce Snowflake Integration is an essential conduit that amplifies the bond between these two cloud platforms.

Salesforce and Snowflake Integration

Native Salesforce Snowflake Integration: A Milestone in Native Data Sharing

Earlier this week, Salesforce and Snowflake made a groundbreaking announcement: the general availability of native Salesforce data sharing for Snowflake,  via what is colloquially referred to as “BYOL” (Bring Your Own License). This is a significant advancement, especially for Snowflake users familiar with the benefits of zero-copy sharing, a core Snowflake feature. With this integration, gone are the days when you needed layers of additional software, services, and complex processes to bridge the two platforms. This is where the Salesforce Snowflake Connector comes into play, simplifying data access and queries between Salesforce and Snowflake.

Skill Enhancement through Certification Paths

Salesforce Data Cloud serves as a data hub orchestrating a wide range of business activities—be it CRM, marketing, or or any web/mobile activities. To encourage this, Salesforce recently launched its Certified-Data-Cloud-Consultant learning path. This will help Salesforce organizations readily find skilled professionals adept in Salesforce Snowflake Integration.

Salesforce Runs on Snowflake: Following the Leader

In a revelation that should add credibility and assurance to the Salesforce Snowflake Integration, Salesforce’s internal data and analytics have migrated to run on Snowflake. This shows Salesforce is not just advocating for the technology but using it themselves, setting the stage for rapid advancements in Salesforce and Snowflake connectivity.

Transforming AI/ML Workloads

The Salesforce and Snowflake partnership holds tremendous promise for accelerating the time-to-value from your Salesforce data assets. From curating data to deploying ML models, the integration, facilitated by the Salesforce Snowflake Connector, will enable enterprises to leverage their data in novel ways, including the utilization of advanced AI features. There are many first and third party powered solutions to weave your model deployment efforts.

Need Help Navigating these Waters?

We have been in front of Salesforce and Snowflake integrating analytics apps for years. We recreantly wrote the  Salesforce data synchronization to Snowflake Guide and can’t wait to extend this into DataCloud. We have an incredible partner network that can help you implement any Salesforce or Snowflake Cloud components (CDP, MarketingCloud, Tableau).

Schedule a meeting to learn more

Salesforce Document Management And Attachment Export Made Easy

Posted on 2023-09-05 - 6:57 pm by
Document Madness

As Salesforce has expanded its reach beyond CRM over the past 15 years, its document management capabilities have kept pace. Many businesses use Salesforce to attach various types of documents to specific records, right out of the box. With built-in support and compatibility with third-party tools like Docusign, Salesforce simplifies the process of uploading and streaming documents for end users.

But what if your document library grows and suddenly you find yourself needing to batch-process, transfer, or migrate these files? You might end up down a technical rabbit hole, exploring Salesforce’s data models, APIs, and a plethora of third-party tools, all without finding a straightforward way to extract your documents from Salesforce.com.

We had 4 key requirements that led us to create our own solution:

  1. We needed to select and tag a finite number of salesforce records for which documents existed
  2. We needed to select specific file types
  3. We required only the latest version of documents
  4. We needed to rename and prefix the files with data from the salesforce record and organize the files into sub folders.

How do we make Exporting Salesforce Documents Easy?

In my mind, simplicity is the level of effort and friction to get my desired outcome. In my case, I chose Azure DataFactory due to my experience and success building data pipelines. Configuring document migration in Azure Data Factory is still a few hours of work, but the level of effort to execute the migration is a single click. This article explores the complexities you need to understand before embarking on a Salesforce document migration.

Understanding Salesforce Attachment vs ContentDocument

When you’re in the trenches of Salesforce’s data architecture, trying to extract documents, you’ll encounter two main objects: Attachment and ContentDocument. These objects function differently when it comes to extraction, and understanding their nuances is crucial for a smooth operation.

Attachments are straightforward but limited. If your documents are stored as Attachments, you’ll likely need to perform a record-by-record extraction via Salesforce’s API. This is because each Attachment is directly tied to a single Salesforce record. It’s a one-to-one relationship, which makes extraction easier.

In contrast, ContentDocument is part of Salesforce’s more modern and robust Files architecture. It allows for file versioning and can be associated with multiple records via the ContentDocumentLink junction object. However, it’s not all smooth sailing here either; Salesforce restricts your ability to perform bulk queries and downloads of ContentDocument objects. You may have to employ more sophisticated methods including code or third party tools.

Overcoming Key Limitations for Managing Salesforce Document Metadata

Query All Files in Salesforce

Salesforce by default, limits your ability to query and extract metadata for all of your documents. To query all files, your salesforce admin needs to add a permission set. This article explains step by step how to Query All FIles to obtain a complete list of your documents.

With this data, you technically have all of the medata you need to start downloading files. The problem is that unless you have configured the ParentId to associate your documents with another object, you lose context to what that document is related to. In other words, you could download your vendor invoice but have no data to know what customer or deal that invoice belongs to.

ContentDocumentLink is the Missing Link

To connect your Salesforce documents to the parent record, Salesforce has a junction object called ContentDocumentLink. The problem is salesforce does not allow you to query and download all of the records in bulk.

To solve this problem, I employed Azure data factory to obtain all of my documents, select only the document records I care about, then one by one query and fill a database table with all of the ContentDocumentLink records. At this point, to make my life simple, I appended the additional data points I would use to ultimately rename my files and sub folders from the parent Opportunity record.

Bulk Download Salesforce Documents

With a database table containing all of my DocumentAttacmentLinks + ContentDocument records, built an Azure DataFactory flow that used the Salesforce REST API to GET each file 1 by 1 and loaded it into Azure Blob Storage. I could have loaded it into another storage solution like Google Drive but opted to keep it in Azure.

Are you Bulk Exporting Documents and Attachments?

We are always looking for better and faster ways to get data in and out of Salesforce. If you have another third party tool or process makes this faster and easier we would love to work with you!

If you need help offloading the effort to get your documents and attachments out of Salesforce, feel free to book a meeting with us.

Ultimate Salesforce and Snowflake Guide on Salesforce Ben

Posted on 2023-06-27 - 11:07 pm by
Salesforce Ben

This week Ryan released a guide for Salesforce and Snowflake on Salesforce Ben. Salesforce Ben is the leading independent Salesforce.com community and authority on all things Salesforce.com.

Snowflake and Salesforce is a perfect marriage of cloud business applications and cloud data platform to turn data into information. Salesforce has built a powerful first-class integration within Salesforce Data Cloud that is the most advanced of any third party connectivity

View the Article

If you are currently using Salesforce Data Cloud or Salesforce Tableau CRM this article is for you. Additionally, while at SnowflakeSummit2023, we saw some incredible Salesforce Data Cloud enhancements for Snowflake that will be game changing for enterprise cusetomers.

We can’t wait to write about upcoming zero copy feature from Salesforce to Snowflake. Included in our article is step by step tutorials how to integrate Salesforce with Snowflake to day. Should you have any questions how these capabilities apply to your enterprise or how Snowflake can advance your Salesforce analytics, we are here to help!

Salesforce.com Migration Research Q&A with ChatGPT

Posted on 2023-01-15 - 11:10 pm by

ChatGPT from OpenAI is a very powerful generative AI system for research that has quickly captivated millions of users.

I decided to put ChatGPT to the test to do a focused Q&A session about moving to Salesforce.com and how to plan for your data migration. The results were absolutely amazing!

Check out this article on Medium to get the most common questions answered by ChatGPT about moving to Salesforce.com and what to expect for migrating your data into Salesforce:

Read More on Medium

3 Common Salesforce.com Data Migration Issues to Avoid

Posted on 2022-12-25 - 7:07 am by
Salesforce data migration pitfalls

Data migration can be a complex process, especially when moving to a new system like Salesforce.com. In this article, we’ll explore 3 common Salesforce.com Data Migration Issues that you should avoid at all costs. Whether it’s poor project planning, communication gaps, or lack of engagement from business stakeholders, these challenges can all contribute to a less-than-successful migration. But with the right approach, Salesforce.com Data Migration can be a smooth and efficient process.

Issue 1: Poor project planning and expectations

One of the biggest challenges of Salesforce.com Data Migration is poor project planning and expectations. Without clear communication and process gaps between the Salesforce development, business, and data migration teams, a successful migration becomes less likely. In order to avoid this pitfall, it’s important to establish crystal clear expectations between all parties involved.

  1. Salesforce team and data migration specialists need to communicate changes to the Salesforce.com data model in the final weeks leading up to go-live. This sets best practices for managing Salesforce and prevents un-intended, time consuming issues.
  2. Data migration specialists and business stakeholders need to agree what data is migrated from the old business app into Salesforce.com. In some cases this mapping exercise will surface missing fields or functionality.
  3. Delivery team and business stakeholders should work together to ensure training occurs with real data if you are moving your entire process from an old system into Salesforce.com.

Issue 2: Attempt to fix too many data quality while moving data

When migrating data from one business application to another, such as Salesforce.com, it is important to address any data quality issues that may have been previously ignored. This is because automations and validation rules in the new system may highlight these issues. To ensure that the data migration process is as smooth as possible, it is best to perform extensive data quality adjustments in the source system or after the data has been migrated.

Additionally, Salesforce.com offers a vast ecosystem of solutions and apps, one of which is Cloudingo, which can be a valuable tool for data cleanup during migration. By cleaning the data at the source or after migration, you can ensure that the data is accurate and consistent in your new system.

Issue 3: Manual, human initiated data movement

If your Salesforce.com developers or consultant suggests using DataLoader and Excel for your data migration, it is important to keep in mind that this approach is definitely not be suitable for complex migrations. It is crucial to thoroughly test the migration process in a sandbox environment, running end-to-end migration many times before migrating to production. With that said, you also shouldn’t need to spend a lot of money on technology to migrate your data. Here are some free data tools for Salesforce.com that you can share with your tech team.

Have a Salesforce Data Migration Blueprint for Success

There are lots of resources on the web including the ones we provide for free. Here are key components that you should build into your own successful data migration plan.

  • Project timeline + milestones
    Having clear milestone and working backwards from “go-live” no less than 6 weeks will help you avoid under-scoping your data migration into Salesforce.com.
  • Data migration object inventory
    Scorecard to track and report progress and issues through the entire migration lifecycle
  • Data mapping docs
    Excel / Google Sheets with data mapping and definitions is how a lot of data mapping gets complete. Now we are working on Data Tools Pro free utility to help with the work.
  • End to end migration checklist
    Complete, documented data migration checklist of all steps that need to occur for migration.
  • Business continuity plan
    Not typically a part of data migration but something that helps align expectations for what happens on day 1. There are no-redos on migration once users start updating data in Salesforce.com.

Need Help Planning ?

Our Salesforce.com migration Blueprint and Services are designed with these common issues in mind.

We have a free assessment and checklist to guide you down the path to success!

Get Started
Salesforce Data Migration Plan to Success

More Salesforce Data Migration Resources