Salesforce Support Analyst

Start date: 06/04/2012

Salesforce Administrator / Business Analyst

Start date: 5/29/2012

Click the links above to view the job responsibilities, requirements, and benefits, and to apply for the position(s).

Contact us via Twitter for more information.

When you enter Help Text into any field in Salesforce, the user is able to view it by hovering their mouse cursor over the field’s icon in a standard view page. But how can you access that help text in a Visualforce page?

The Solution

The easiest solution is to use the helpText attribute in the < apex:PageBlockSectionItem > tag, but in order to do this, you need to include a < apex:PageBlockSection > nested in a < apex:PageBlock > tag as well. We wanted to avoid using Page Blocks for our page, so this left us scrambling for some kind of alternative to the helpText attribute.

Here comes CSS to the rescue!

By using the “helpOrb” class supplied by the standard SFDC stylesheets, and adding our own CSS on top of that, we were able to replicate the look and feel of the hover text seen in other pages.

In this example, we took the Help Text entered in the Contact’s “Account Name” field, but you can substitue it with your own text where you see fit.

<apex:page >
    <style>
        .vfHelpText a            {position:relative;}
        .vfHelpText a span       {display: none;}
        .vfHelpText a:hover span {display: block;
                                  position:absolute;
                                  top:1.25em;
                                  padding:2px 5px;
                                  left:-15em; width:15em;
                                  z-index:100;
                                  border:1px solid orange;
                                  background-color:#FEFDB9;
                                  color:black;
                                 }
    </style>
    <span class="vfHelpText">
        <apex:outputLink value="javascript:return false;">
            <img src="/s.gif" alt="" class="helpOrb" />
            <span>{!$ObjectType.Contact.fields.AccountId.inlineHelpText}</span>
        </apex:outputLink>
    </span>

</apex:page>

The Fine Print

As always, please be careful about using this code, as calling on the “helpOrb” class is not officially supported by Salesforce. They can very easily break it in a future release and have no obligation to support it at all.

Contact us by adding a comment below, or @ reply us on Twitter if you have any questions. We’re on Facebook too!

Exactly how “secure” is Salesforce.com’s CRM platform, do you ask?

Well, it’s trusted enough to guide the business of federal, state and local government into the social era.

As appropriately discussed at Cloudforce Washington on April 25, 2012, Salesforce.com has unveiled a new product suite called Government Cloud. Simply stated, it is a version of the Salesforce cloud infrastructure intended to work with all levels of government to help agencies adapt to social and mobile technologies.

The U.S. Government goes Social

Salesforce’s press release on this topic mentions their intention to help government adapt to the social revolution that is taking place in the public sector. Nudging them in this direction will hopefully close the gap between U.S. citizens and their communication with government professionals. And yes, this is all being done in compliance with FISMA requirements.

You might be curious about the level of acceptance needed to support this new Government Cloud. How did Salesforce pull this one off? Government agencies must have tested and approved the platform to support the creation of a “Cloud” dedicated specifically to government and their social transformation.

According to Salesforce.com, two-thirds of US federal Cabinet-level agencies and governments in more than 80 percent of U.S. states trust Salesforce to power their social enterprises. That’s quite a user acceptance rate.

AppExchange for Government

In addition to the Government Cloud, Salesforce has released AppExchange for Government, where agencies can browse, test and deploy cloud apps specific to their needs. They’ve also instituted the Government Partner Accelerator Program to train a team of 1,000 integrators to deploy Salesforce.com cloud solutions.

Wow… Talk about the ultimate implementation project.

If you’ve got more info about Salesforce for Government, or questions regarding the topic, feel free to comment below. We want to hear from you.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for news, updates, and announcements regarding Salesforce, Cloud Computing, Social Media, and everything in between!

Just when you thought you had more than enough time to finish those Spring ’12 Release exams… think again. Salesforce’s Summer ’12 Release is on the horizon, and we’re getting prepared for some sweet new features.

What to look forward to in Summer ’12

First off, here’s a link to the Release Notes, for you savvy readers out there. 186 pages of fun. Enjoy that.

Get excited for these General Enhancements:

• Browser Support Changes
• Minor HTML and CSS Changes
• Email Services Enhancements

You’ll also see some new features and customizations in the following areas:

• Chatter
• Sales
• Service
• Analytics
• Mobile
• Data.com

We’ve got the scoop on some slick new Developer Features as well:

• Schema Builder General Availability: With the addition of field-level security, printing and additional field types, the Schema Builder becomes generally available (GA) in Summer ’12
• Developer Console Enhancements: The Developer Console continues its evolution with workspaces for staying organized and easier navigation through your code
• Visual Workflow Updates: Factor out common behavior into subflows, and customize the look and feel of your user interface
• Apex Code Enhancements: More flexible JSON parsing enables easier integration with external web services
• Package Install/Upgrade/Uninstall Scripts: Specify Apex scripts to run automatically after a subscriber installs, upgrades or uninstalls a managed package

Prepare for the upgrade

If you are a Force.com Sandbox customer, you’ll get early access to Summer ’12 to test new customizations and features before your production org is upgraded. Visit this Salesforce.com blog post for more details.

Want to join a Developer’s webinar to learn more about the new Developer features above? Fill out this form to get involved. The Webinar airs May 16.

Want more info?

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay in-the-know about Summer ’12 and the new features. Once our Sandbox is upgraded, we will test out the enhancements and share some of our favorites!

What are you most looking forward to in Summer ’12? We want to hear from you!

Importance of a PM

Overseeing a Salesforce implementation from start to finish can be a daunting task. Many factors contribute to the level of difficulty that a PM could anticipate: time allotted for the project, complexity of the project requirements, number of resources needed to achieve project milestones, etc.

Of course, years of experience will help contribute to a smoother project lifecycle and completion. However, not all of us have 10+ years of project management under our belts. Additionally, as an agile environment, Salesforce sees consistent changes. Throughout the evolution and progress of the platform, one thing remains the same for implementations: the role of Project Manager is imperative, and the knowledge and tools that overseer equips are vital to a healthy and successful project.

While I’d love to call myself a Salesforce implementation PM expert, that’s quite a few years down the road. In the meantime, I am happy to share my researching, social media communication and web-crawling talents to offer you the most helpful and insightful best practices from professionals in the network.

Share the Wealth!

I’ve spent hours reviewing different sources of information and digesting tips and tricks to compile some of the most helpful PM advice below.

Feel free to comment on these suggestions or offer others not listed. Be sure to explain why you are making the suggestion, and best practices for Project Managers and Salesforce professionals alike!

Suggestions from LinkedIn groups

Note that clicking on the image will take you to that suggested tool or website.

Suggestions from around the web

A snapshot of “Salesforce.com Project Management Apps Quick Reviews” by ifPeople

News about Salesforce.com’s acquisition of Do.com

More News about Do.com here

Project Management Essentials and Suggestions from the AppExchange

We want to hear from you

Attention Project Managers, Consultants and Salesforce Administrators: we invite you to share your tips, tricks, solutions and best practices! Not sure where to begin? Try answering the following questions:

1. How do you avoid “scope creep”?
2. What’s your best method of tracking your resources?
3. How in-depth is your scoping process?
4. How often do you check in on the implementation progress?
5. Can one tool really do it all?

The main question that comes to mind when a Social Networking channel opens its doors to the business world is, “How will this benefit our company?”

Google+ has been eliciting the same response ever since they announced their Pages for Businesses in 2011– especially from companies with less than 50 employees. Small businesses are slowly coming around to the idea of Social Media as a key player in their marketing efforts, but have adopted more comfortably to popular channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

If your company considers Social Media a top priority, odds are you have signed up for a Google+ page for your business. Maybe you’ve filled out the profile with your company details and even added a few photos. But what’s next? Do you have anyone in your Circles? Have you posted any content? Do you feel as if sharing information on this social channel is a waste of time?

Before turning your back on Google+, lets go over how it compares to other social networks. We’ll provide insight on why this social channel could be useful if a unique approach is taken.

The Other Guys

Let’s start by briefly discussing the other social networks and why they have proven to be useful tools for companies of all sizes.

Twitter is a valuable social channel to connect with other companies and individuals in your industry and beyond. It’s easy to use, offers a simple keyword search and organization of topics by hashtags, and is virtually universal across all industries. Key phrase: “Everyone’s doing it.”

Facebook, while probably more profitable for B2C environments, is a useful channel as well. Customers can “Like” their favorite brand, check in to a company’s location, share posts from the business with their friends, and keep up with news and contests regularly. It is the most popular and widely-used social channel, which is why it is a “must” for many businesses when building their Social Media marketing plan.

LinkedIn is thought of as the “smart choice” for most companies – especially B2B environments. Connecting with other businesses and growing your professional network are the two key benefits of using this channel.

Bringing it All Together 

Many 3rd party apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck are growing in popularity because of their ability to arrange your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds on one screen. Tools like this make the job of the Social Media manager much easier.

While several makers of these applications have yet to  bring in Google+ as an integrated channel, others are only permitting it for their “Enterprise” or top-paying users. For example: HootSuite will allow you to connect your Google+ page to your list of streams to monitor, post, and run reports, but only if you are signed up as an Enterprise User, likely paying upwards of $1500 a month. Small businesses might balk at that cost, and then start to wonder if Google+ is a channel better suited for the “big guys” …

Why Companies Need to Get on Board

The final thought is this: Google+ is beneficial for businesses of all sizes.

• Using Google+ can help customers find your business faster and easier. It’s indexed by Google… you know, the search engine you use every day.
• There are a variety of sharing options built right in (no opening videos or images in separate windows). In addition, you are able to organize your followers into Circles to only share certain information with specific groups.
• Tech companies are seeing very large growth and adoption, so if you’re in the business of Cloud Computing or IT like us, you’d better get involved.

The trick is to use this Social Networking channel in a unique way. That is, sharing information on Google+ that you do not have posted on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else. Let your followers know that by adding your business to their circles, they will be exposed to prime content that cannot be found elsewhere. Once you’ve made this promise- stick to it!

Below is an infographic from Chris Brogan, an online Social Media expert and blogger who believes Google+ can help take your businesses goals to the next level.

Do you have questions about Google+ or anything related to Social Media? Still a skeptic about what this social channel can offer to your business? We want to hear from you!

Leave a comment below, or connect with us via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn!

We’ve built a new application that will make it much easier to add Products to a Quote or Opportunity.

The app has built-in functionality allowing you to drag and drop Product rows, specify the quantity and discount, and add other fields using Field Sets for total flexibility. 

Watch this video to see it in action

Looks pretty neat, right? Well there’s just one problem… we don’t have a name for it yet!

Help us Name our App!

Before we launch this new app on the AppExchange, we want YOU to help us give it a name.

Fill out this online form, and if your suggestion is selected, we will award you a $100 Amazon gift card!

The offer ends March 26, so you don’t have much time! If you’ve got an idea for a name (or if you just feel like winning $100) submit your form now.

The information you submit using this form will be used by Internet Creations to communicate with you about this contest and other promotions.

Contest Terms: Submissions accepted from 3/12/2012 to 3/26/2012. Must be an active Salesforce user to participate. The winner will be determined by Internet Creations management. You agree that Internet Creations owns copyright of the submitted name if we choose to use it. Winner will be contacted by email on 3/30/2012 and will be rewarded a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card Code.

Amazon.com is a registered trademark of Amazon.com, Inc.

• Email to Case Premium ranked#23 in popularity on the AppExchange for the month of February.

• We have a total of 77 five-star reviews on the AppExchange for our purpose-built apps for Salesforce.

We believe that our growth and success is a result of our customers’ success.

Throughout the past year, we have updated and released new versions of our applications to increase their efficiency, built time-saving components such as triggers and workflow customizations for Salesforce, and have completed several successful Salesforce implementations.

We appreciate our customers, and look forward to working with organizations in different industries to expand our growing community.

If you’d like to join our list of happy customers, please contact us at +1 609.570.7200 or send an email to info@ic-2000.com

We host weekly webinars to demo our Apps for Salesforce, and  we’re happy to answer your troubling questions. Sign up here!

Here at Internet Creations, we strive on offering the most helpful and enlightening support to not just our customers, but anyone interested in learning more about our purpose-built products for Salesforce. After all… what good is an application if you don’t understand it?

We are happy to provide one-on-one demos to explain the purpose and functions of our three Apps, but we decided it would be best to offer a conversational environment for your questions, ideas and input.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Our webinars are hosted by an Internet Creations App specialist, and he is happy to answer all of your questions. Participation is encouraged!

Here’s what each session will cover:

• Email to Case Premium: Our most popular app, and the #1 rated App for Agent Productivity on the AppExchage. E2CP extends the basic functionality of the standard email-to-case with a more efficient and streamlined solution.
• Case Flags:  Allows you to monitor your organization’s response times with cases, at a glance, via color coded flags. With Case Flags, you can quickly view cases requiring responses to customers.
• Case Merge Premium: This awesome App allows authorized users to find duplicate Cases and merge them together.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

We plan to host these webinars every Tuesday from 4pm-5pm EST.

Questions? Comments? Leave us a message below.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates and helpful information.

In addition to being so useful, Salesforce provides an entire customer community for asking questions, sharing ideas, and learning from experts in the industry all within a tab in your browser.

For some time, I had considered using this tool to submit my comments and suggestions concerning the Salesforce CRM Content user interface, as well as Libraries, Files, and Documents. However, before sharing any ideas, I’d like to ask for input to help shape a more constructive and robust solution to a common frustration. My confusion surrounding Salesforce Content has only increased since I hopped on the sfdc bandwagon in 2009. Let’s use this opportunity to discuss what is (sort of) working, what could be done better, and what just plain drives us crazy.

Salesforce CRM Content: Why is this so confusing?

According to Salesforce’s Help & Training guidelines, Content can include all file types: anything from traditional business documents like Microsoft Word or Excel, audio files, video files, web pages, Google docs and more. Anything uploaded to your org can be viewed from within the Content, Libraries, or Subscriptions Tabs.

Okay… this is simple enough to understand, but then what are Libraries and Files and Documents? Are they they same?

Another Help & Training guide (shown below) answers this question. It is a table that displays the purpose, common uses, supported file types, and maximum file sizes for Salesforce CRM Content, Files, Salesforce Knowledge, Documents, and Attachments. This is very supportive and useful information, but why should we need to ask for this? Shouldn’t there be one streamlined and easy-to-use location to hold all Content added to Salesforce?

Content overview

Before I go any further, let’s take a moment to describe the purpose, functions, and aspects of Salesforce CRM Content.

The content management system is set up with a look and feel similar to other modules in Salesforce. There is a filter pane on the left to specify the parameters of your search results, a search bar at the top that allows you to select which Library you’d like to browse through, and a Search Results section in the middle of the page.

Salesforce CRM Content makes it easy for Users to organize, search, subscribe to, contribute to, and share files within their org.

The image below depicts the Content home page, or what is viewed when clicking the Content tab in Salesforce. When I refer to the Content user interface, this is primarily what I am referencing. Granted, my screenshot contains zero content, pretend with me that this page is full of documents and files, etc.

So what’s the issue?

Perhaps you’re a fan of the user interface of this content management system. If you’ve been accessing it and are accustomed to its layout and functionality, that is understandable.

But if you’re like me, you might be wondering why this module seems a bit archaic compared to other sections of Salesforce. Yes, I do understand the functions and uses of Content. I just have a few lingering questions and concerns.

• Why do I need to make so many clicks to browse through my company’s stuff? It feels like too much work.
• Why does Salesforce elect to keep Libraries and Content separate? How come I can perform functions in the Library tab that aren’t possible in the Content tab?
• How come I cannot sync my data offline? Other options for downloading these files to my desktop are way too time-consuming.
• Can we keep Files and Documents within the same tab? Aren’t they similar enough to be grouped in one location along with the Content and Library tabs?
• As for the buttons within the Libraries tab: Contribute? Create New? Add? … I see why these are three different actions, but isn’t there an easier way?

What others are saying

If you search the word “Content” in the IdeaExchange on success.salesforce.com, 313+ results appear. Some customers are requesting a more streamlined user interface, while others want to simplify Content Delivery steps. A quick browse of Salesforce.com Answers turns up very similar results. Because of the complexity of all the modules within Salesforce that support adding files and attachments, you’d think there would be one simple master tab to view, create, and organize everything uploaded to your org.

I am sure there is a good reason we are not yet seeing this on the platform. But does anyone know why? Can anyone give a bit of insight? Are there other points within this topic that I’ve missed?

Please give your feedback! All input is appreciated.