Salesforce Accelerators encompass specialized tools, applications, and services crafted to expedite the adoption and effectiveness of Salesforce within organizations. Tailored to address specific business needs, optimize processes, and fuel growth, these accelerators unlock the full potential of Salesforce, enabling businesses to achieve their goals more efficiently.
In the contemporary Salesforce landscape, the platform often operates as an integral component of a much broader Salesforce ecosystem, rather than functioning in isolation as a standalone customer relationship management system or a basic connected CRM. This interconnected environment comprises various Salesforce clouds, applications from the AppExchange, and third-party products. These external products establish communication with Salesforce through connectors, additional integration tools like Zapier, Workato, or Jitterbit, or via Salesforce’s CRM Analytics tool, offering code-free connectivity with data sources external to Salesforce. The orchestration of connections between Salesforce and other products is a responsibility managed by your Salesforce Administrator or a Salesforce Managed Services Provider. All these connections necessitate a method to communicate with your Salesforce org, typically facilitated through an API (application programming interface), enabling seamless interaction between two software components through defined protocols and definitions. Dedicated Salesforce Integration User Salesforce Dedicated Integration Accounts, employing a dedicated integration user and license, empower Salesforce administrators to establish secure, stable, and auditable connections between Salesforce and the myriad tools enriching the Salesforce ecosystem for your organization. This dedicated Salesforce integration user allows the assignment of a Salesforce license with a custom profile, specific permissions, and connections to all third-party integrations. Salesforce service accounts adeptly handle custom API work, efficiently managing substantial data volumes, potentially reaching thousands or tens of thousands of records daily. In today’s landscape, some third-party integrations now recommend or necessitate a Salesforce service account for effective management. The advantages of a dedicated Salesforce service account extend beyond Tectonic’s recommendation. Let’s explore how a Salesforce service account enhances security, stability, and reporting capabilities for your organization. Security: Using an administrator’s personal license for integrating a third-party product can pose security risks, granting these applications broad access within the Salesforce ecosystem. A dedicated integration user, ideally cloned from a standard user profile with restricted permissions, mitigates this risk by preventing actions such as creating or deleting users, deleting records, and other sensitive tasks. Additionally, the dedicated integration user avoids the need for frequent password updates that an administrator’s password change would necessitate for integrations. Stability: A dedicated integration user simplifies the management of third-party APIs, streamlining processes like user freezes and deactivations. This approach avoids potential issues arising from employee departures or password changes impacting both user access and integrations. It eliminates the need to migrate integrations to alternative licenses when deactivating a license. Reporting: A dedicated integration user enhances data integrity and simplifies reporting by allowing easy filtration of activities running across the integration user account. Filtering and analyzing records become more efficient, offering clarity on how and why a record was created in your Salesforce org. The service account enables effective bucketing of record creation and updates from third-party integrations, providing accurate reporting free from unnecessary complexities. While initially, it might seem tempting to forego setting up a Salesforce service account to save a license, the integration benefits become evident as more third-party applications are incorporated into your Salesforce org. Tectonic collaborates with clients during the configuration of new Salesforce instances or customization of existing ones, facilitating the setup of Salesforce service accounts for optimal utilization. As an additional resource, here are some recommended best practices from Salesforce for managing service accounts: For any uncertainties or inquiries regarding Salesforce service accounts, turn to Tectonic as your trusted Salesforce partner for advice on integrations, customizations, or managed service contracts. Like2 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more
What is HIPAA? Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Description The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996. The HIPAA act required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s knowledge or consent. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that required the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule to implement the requirements of HIPAA. The HIPAA Security Rule protects a subset of information covered by the Privacy Rule. HIPAA Privacy Rule The Privacy Rule standards address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information (known as protected health information or PHI) by entities subject to the Privacy Rule. These individuals and organizations are called “covered entities.” The Privacy Rule also contains standards for individuals’ rights to understand and control how their health information is used. A major goal of the Privacy Rule is to make sure that individuals’ health information is properly protected while allowing the flow of health information needed to provide and promote high-quality healthcare, and to protect the public’s health and well-being. The Privacy Rule permits important uses of information while protecting the privacy of people who seek care and healing. Covered Entities The following types of individuals and organizations are subject to the Privacy Rule and considered covered entities: Exception: A group health plan with fewer than 50 participants that is administered solely by the employer that established and maintains the plan is not a covered entity. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Alphabet Soup of Cloud Terminology As with any technology, the cloud brings its own alphabet soup of terms. This insight will hopefully help you navigate Read more
After doing their initial Sales Cloud implementation and SAP integration over 12 years ago, this company was only leveraging Salesforce in a basic capacity, being a predominantly SAP and Microsoft shop. Fast forward to about a year ago, with a change in leadership, Salesforce became the desired platform to build and expand on. With the need to support multiple lines of business, provide more accurate forecasting and quoting and close the gap between sales and supply chain there was a lot to tackle both immediately and long term.
Salesforce relies heavily on objects, which serve as a fundamental component by offering a framework for data storage and integration into the user interface. Thereby resembling the structure of a database table. Object fields, akin to database columns, and records, resembling database rows, play crucial roles in this system. Standard Objects Salesforce provides standard objects as a foundational CRM structure, encompassing entities like account, contact, opportunity, lead, and campaign. These standard objects act as tables containing records accessible through standard tabs such as Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads, Campaigns, and more. Industry specific Salesforce Clouds have additional standard objects Custom Objects In addition to standard objects, Salesforce permits the creation of custom objects tailored to specific organizational data needs that may not be accommodated by standard objects. For instance, creating a custom object to manage employee checking and saving account details for processing biweekly salary, ensuring privacy by restricting access to the system administrator and the employee who initiated the record. Reports and dashboards can be generated based on data stored in custom objects, typically identified by a __c suffix. Standard vs. Custom Objects The distinctions between standard and custom objects are highlighted in the following table: Standard Object Custom Object Cannot be deleted Can be deleted Grant Access Using Hierarchies sharing access cannot be changed Grant Access Using Hierarchies sharing access can be changed Truncating standard objects is not possible Truncating custom objects is possible Custom fields can be created on standard objects Custom objects include some standard fields like Name, Created by, Last modified by, etc. External Objects Similar to custom objects, external objects enable the mapping of data stored outside the Salesforce organization. These objects rely on an external data source definition, such as Salesforce Connect or OData, to establish connections with external system data. Each external object corresponds to a data table in the external system, with fields mapping to table columns. External objects are typically denoted by a __x suffix. Standard and Custom Fields Both standard and custom objects include standard fields like Name, CreateDate, LastModifiedDate, and Owner fields. Standard fields are predefined and integral to the Salesforce application, while custom fields are tailored to meet specific business needs, allowing addition, modification, and deletion. Custom fields are often identified by a __c suffix and can include custom help text for user guidance. Like2 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more
Salesforce provides programmatic access to your org’s information using simple, powerful, and secure application programming interfaces (APIs). Before reading more about SOAP API, you should have a basic familiarity with software development, web services, and the Salesforce user interface.
Recently, Chris shared an excellent post about the new World Series Champion Houston Astros. In short, it was a reminder of how data-driven thinking can have massive results. But what does it take for an organization to achieve this? The first is leadership committed to a long term goal. It took the Astros 6 years of hard work and commitment to a new way of thinking to achieve their goals. The book/movie “Moneyball” does a good job illustrating all of the previous thinking that had to be overcome. After all, people had made life-long careers on that thinking, so why change? If your leadership isn’t committed to this long term, it simply won’t happen. However, it just takes one leader of a part of the organization to lead the way. The second thing you need is data. The baseball world is full of passionate and focused score keepers. Pitch counts, speed, game time temperature, at bats vs lefties, etc. Google actually has a free baseball stats dataset: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/public-data/baseball. Unfortunately for most of us, there isn’t someone recording each and every movement we make at work (that may be a good thing for some of you). However, it does make it hard to be data driven if you don’t have data. So how do you convince a leader to become data driven and how do you decide what data to capture? Business leaders care about results, so aligning to those will get their support. Those results are driven by actions taken by the organization, so the data that describes those actions is what needs captured. When you take this approach you may find that some of the actions aren’t being recorded at all, many don’t have enough information about them and all of them are difficult to pull together and understand. Even when those hurdles have been overcome, you then face the issue of how to get information back into the hands of the masses who can use it to change the result. At Tectonic, we’ve combined world class salesforce implementation expertise with data science and analytics know how to drive innovative business results. We can help you navigate the above complexities so you can play better baseball. Original url: https://www.gettectonic.com/single-post/2017/11/10/why-your-company-isnt-like-a-baseball-team Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more
Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. This move allows on-demand service providers in various industries to leverage Salesforce’s powerful platform. The OEM edition extends the Salesforce.com platform to third-party SaaS providers, enabling them to tap into its core features, such as the operating system, customization tools, Web Service APIs, workflow, and business logic, according to Kendall Collins, Salesforce’s Vice President of Product Marketing. For example, a real estate management software vendor could utilize Salesforce’s dashboard, customizing it to track real estate data like foreclosures instead of sales opportunities. AppExchange OEM Edition will be available for per user per month, with users managing the pricing and availability of their specific solutions. This expansion highlights the growing adoption of the on-demand model in industries beyond CRM. ISV (Independent Software Vendor) companies commonly sell licenses for their apps via the Salesforce AppExchange, which is one of the most popular methods. For example, they might sell five licenses for a managed package app. With the new AppExchange checkout features powered by Stripe (previously Recurly), processing payments for these licenses is straightforward. Some companies choose to make revenue by selling CRM licenses in addition to their apps, often offering customers discounted CRM licenses. These ISV licenses are custom-built and contractually limited to specific objects and permissions. A significant level of trust is involved, as Salesforce can audit the end-customer at any time to ensure they are only using the objects specified in the agreement. When it comes to pricing, ISVs often charge in two parts: one fee for the app license and another for the CRM license. However, this is typically bundled as a single charge to the customer for simplicity. Customers can adopt these ISV apps as part of a broader Salesforce org, using several onboarding methods, including Trialforce, an AppExchange free trial, or an install with a trial period expiration date. These apps are often integrated into larger business processes, providing value beyond their standalone features. OEM Licensing: OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and Embedded licensing are essentially the same. OEM licenses are designed for internal apps. For portals, ISV Portal licenses are used, though these do not include Chatter and must interact via a Force.com site. These licenses function similarly to Authenticated Website or Customer Portal licenses. OEM licensing allows companies to use Salesforce as a controlled environment to present their app. For instance, a developer might opt for the OEM model to prevent end-users from making any customizations. The app would have one admin user who sees that it is running on Salesforce, while other users interact with it through a custom interface built on a Force.com site. A common concern for OEM app developers is pricing. While Chatter Plus licenses cost $15 per month (for CRM only), developers often seek clarification on the cost of OEM licenses from Salesforce, hoping for a rate lower than $15 per user per month. They must also factor in their own fees on top of the Salesforce OEM license price. Key Differences Between ISV and OEM Licensing: In an OEM setup, at least one full Salesforce System Administrator is required in the customer’s org. However, this admin does not have the ability to add more licenses to the org or alter the customizations visible to end-users, so their influence over the app’s functionality is limited. ISV app licenses offer more flexibility and are commonly available on the AppExchange, OEM apps represent a complete solution that uses Salesforce as a platform but often hides the underlying Salesforce infrastructure from end-users. Like Related Posts The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more Alphabet Soup of Cloud Terminology As with any technology, the cloud brings its own alphabet soup of terms. This insight will hopefully help you navigate Read more
