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Salesforce Data Cloud

Drive Sales and Service With Real Time Data

Sales and Service Personalization: drive sales with real time data Enhance customer and prospect interactions by integrating real-time engagement data directly into your sales and service consoles. Provide service teams with the ability to proactively address queries and deliver effective case resolutions by swiftly accessing a customer’s recent interactions across diverse business touchpoints. Empower your sales teams with deeper insights into an account or prospect’s purchase journey, enabling more relevant conversations and offers based on real-time knowledge of consumed content, viewed products, or time spent on your site. Know your buyers. Attain a comprehensive view of your buyers by combining 1st and 3rd party data with the robust capabilities of Salesforce’s industry-leading Customer Data Platform (CDP). Imagine closing prospects instantly. With real-time data, it’s possible! Real-time sales data enables you to identify recent changes, such as mergers, acquisitions, new job openings, or promotions. Equip your sales team with a competitive advantage, allowing them to promptly contact potential customers and initiate sales activities. So, what is real-time data, how does it work, and how can you implement it without a complex data infrastructure? This article explores all these aspects and highlights the benefits of utilizing accurate B2B data for real-time sales. What is real-time data? Real-time data refers to immediate and continuous access to information about sales activities, customer interactions, and market trends. For your sales and marketing teams, this means capturing, analyzing, and utilizing up-to-date data to make informed decisions, enhance sales processes, create personalized experiences, and strengthen customer relationships. Real-time data is crucial because it offers numerous benefits for B2B businesses. This insight will explore some tangible benefits that real-time data can provide for your company: Access up-to-the-minute information on customer behaviors, preferences, and buying patterns, allowing your B2B sales team to engage with prospects immediately. Real-time insights into events like funding, promotions, or team expansions can trigger timely sales activities, such as emails, LinkedIn messages, or call invitations. Immediate updates from real-time sales insights enable businesses to adjust pricing based on market fluctuations or competitive moves. Real-time data collection helps track competitor pricing, customer demand, and inventory levels, allowing for optimized pricing strategies and instant adjustments with minimal effort from your sales team. Incorporate robust key management for data security to safeguard sensitive information and avoid additional risks. When a prospect expresses interest or takes specific actions, such as visiting a website or filling out a form, you can immediately engage with them. Define sales triggers and actions, such as emailing to schedule a demo after a prospect visits your pricing page. Real-time data processing allows for automated nurturing of prospects, eliminating the need for manual tracking and outreach. Gain real-time actionable insights into sales performance, leading to accurate sales forecasting. Sales managers can monitor sales data in real time, track progress against targets, adjust strategies, and manage pipeline visibility for more precise financial projections aligned with future financial planning. Instant data offers the opportunity to personalize customer interactions more effectively. Access real-time data analytics on customer preferences, purchase history, and previous interactions to tailor relevant recommendations and provide a personalized customer experience. Real-time data analysis provides instant visibility into sales performance metrics. Sales representatives can monitor their performance, including call activity, conversion rates, and revenue generated, in real time. Immediate feedback enables reps to course-correct, improve sales techniques, and achieve better results. By monitoring real-time market trends, competitor activities, and customer feedback, sales managers can make data-driven decisions, adjust sales strategies, and seize emerging opportunities. Business intelligence tools offering real-time data services help sales teams promptly address customer issues or concerns. By tracking customer behavior, feedback, complaints, and inquiries in real time, sales reps can proactively contact customers and help resolve issues. How does real-time data work? Real-time data involves capturing specific actions on the go, such as customers’ activities on your website or offsite, like visiting sales pages, checking your company’s LinkedIn profile, or exploring similar sites. Events are collected before storing any information, allowing for instant management of sales data and predictive analytics. Marketing and Sales Use of Real-Time Data: Updating lead records in real time results in better sales performance and cost savings across the entire business. Real-time big data can be used in various ways for better business decisions, such as: Examples of Real-Time Data: Real-time intent data helps identify potential customers actively researching or showing interest in products like you are selling. This data can be gathered from various sources, including website tracking, social media monitoring, and content consumption patterns. Ultima used a real-time data solution to access intent data and direct dials, resulting in ROI in just 8 weeks. Real-time data is a valuable asset for B2B businesses, offering timely opportunities, dynamic pricing, immediate lead engagement, accurate forecasting, personalized customer interactions, instant sales performance insights, agile sales strategies, and prompt issue resolution. Understanding how real-time data works and leveraging it effectively can significantly enhance the performance and efficiency of your sales and marketing teams. How do you use data to drive sales? What is an example of a data-driven sales? A B2B company that manufactures and sells industrial equipment can use a data-driven approach that involves analyzing purchasing data from their CRM, tracking industry trends, and using customer feedback surveys to understand what customers truly value. To drive sales with real time data, you need a tool like Salesforce and Salesforce Data Cloud. A real-time data sales strategy is a strategy that focuses on delivering immediate responses from customers. The methodology of real time selling is a way for brands to interact with their customers using stuff that’s actually happening at that time. The real time sales are based on insights into a customer’s online actions. The insights are analyzed and utilized quickly with AI. Drive sales real time data. 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

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Salesforce Slack

What is Slack?

Chances are a co-worker has at least once offered to “Slack” you something—whether it’s a file, a work order, or a phone number. The first time I heard this phrase, I was concerned about potential physical harm, only to learn that “Slack” refers to a messaging application for businesses and much more.  This insight takes a deep dive into Salesforce’s collaborative tool. Slack is a messaging app for businesses that connects people to the information they need.  Many companies utilize Slack from Salesforce as a centralized hub for various purposes. From project collaboration to casual “water cooler” conversations. This is especially vital for remote teams spread across different locations and time zones. At Tectonic, we’ve integrated Slack channels for accounts and Salesforce tools. For projects, events, webinars, and training, fostering seamless communication. Slack is becoming increasingly popular for its compatibility with Salesforce and numerous applications, across diverse workplaces. As opposed to text messaging or emails, Slack is an efficient messaging app making it easier to communicate and organize conversations. To understand Slack, it’s helpful to distinguish between its two primary communication forms. Channels and direct messages (DMs). Slack channels are tailored by users to bring the right people together. By facilitating the sharing of information, files, thoughts, and project details. In contrast, direct messages are private, one-off conversations ideal for topics outside specific channels. Conversations within the channels are transparent and accessible to everyone, except for private channels, marked with a lock symbol. Direct messages, on the other hand, are suited for smaller, individual conversations. Starting a new conversation in the platform is as simple as clicking the compose button and drafting a message. It can be for a specific channel or individual. Mentioning a team member using @team-members-name ensures that they see your message and are notified when it is posted. Emojis Slack’s wide variety of emoji reactions add a fun element, with commonly used emojis like eyes or check marks indicating engagement or task completion. Custom emojis can be created for personalized use or to trigger automated workflows within your Salesforce project.  The eyes emoji, for example, typically means the message reader is taking at a look at whatever was referenced in the post.   Slack customization is a key aspect of its effectiveness. Updating your profile, integrating with your calendar for availability status, and setting relevant notifications. Utilizing shortcuts, apps, and integrations can enhance collaboration efficiency. Tectonic conducts a comprehensive discovery of your organization’s processes to recommend tailored ways this tool can boost your overall efficiency. Sharing files is easy, with seamless integration with popular file storage tools like Dropbox and Google Drive. Slack’s scheduling feature allows you to compose messages and schedule delivery at more appropriate times, making it a valuable organizational time management tool. Users can set their in and out of office times. Thus silencing notifications outside working hours. Slack also has a mobile app so users can stay connected from anywhere. Chat-based Collaboration Comparisons This chat-based collaboration tool that emphasizes communication. Whereas Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive collaboration suite that offers chat, video conference, and integrated document management.  Teams is a part of the Microsoft ecosystem, while Slack is a standalone tool from Salesforce with robust third party integrations. The primary difference between Google Chat and Slack includes search and customization options and the amount of storage offered. Slack offers more customization options, Google Chat offers unlimited storage in Business and Enterprise plans. Slack differs from Skype in that it takes communication to the level of collaboration by bringing together teams, tools, and workflows in a single platform. The sweet spot for Slack seems to be in companies with 20-50 employees. Many businesses are moving away from email and into channels, Away from legacy suites and onto customizable platforms that can connect more easily.  In 2019 the platform broke the 12 million user daily activity level and continues to grow by about 37% every year. Cross-channel Integrations Slack offers thousands of cross-channel integrations with other apps, not just email and Salesforce. This collaborative tool was developed by Slack Technologies, owned by Salesforce. It offers freemium and paid subscription services, and offers text messaging, file and media sharing, voice and video calls, and group chat for team collaboration. Slack has the capacity to support an unlimited number of users per organization, channels per workspace, and over 100,000 users on a channel. All content in the channels is searchable. Thereby making it an easy repository for conversations which ultimately contain a lot of information users want to reference back to.  Slack also offers bookmarking of content, pinning of content and other assorted features for information organization. Default Slack settings encrypt data at rest and data in transit. Data is further protected with tools like Slack Enterprise Key Management, audit logs, and integrations with top data loss prevention providers. Slack received its official name in 2012 from Stewart Butterfield. He replaced the product codename of linefeed with the communication tool which he said was derived from Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge. If you’re curious about how Slack can enhance your Salesforce experience, reach out to Tectonic for a free quote or demo today. 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 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

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First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies

First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies

First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies: Key Differences and Implications First-party and third-party cookies play distinct roles in the online experience, particularly in marketing and user engagement. While they share some similarities, their creation, functionality, and reputation differ significantly. What Are Cookies? Cookies are small data files stored on a user’s device to track activity and save information from a website visit. They enhance browsing by personalizing experiences—for example, saving login credentials, remembering preferences, or enabling targeted advertisements. When a user inputs their ZIP code to check the weather or adds items to a shopping cart, cookies store this information for future convenience. Cookies fall into two main categories: first-party and third-party. First-Party Cookies: The User-Friendly Helper First-party cookies are created by the website a user is actively visiting. They enhance the experience by tracking activities such as: These cookies are widely regarded as user-friendly because they focus on improving usability and personalization for the specific site being visited. Third-Party Cookies: The Advertising Workhorse Third-party cookies are set by domains other than the one a user is browsing. Often introduced via scripts or tags, these cookies are typically used for purposes such as: Unlike first-party cookies, third-party cookies have a reputation for being invasive. These persistent cookies remain on a device until deleted and can track users across multiple websites, enabling advertisers to deliver highly targeted campaigns. Do Second-Party Cookies Exist? Second-party cookies involve data-sharing partnerships between companies. For instance, an airline might share first-party data with a car rental service to promote offers to shared customers. While this collaboration facilitates personalized marketing, second-party cookies are more accurately described as shared first-party data rather than a distinct type of cookie. Key Differences Between First-Party and Third-Party Cookies Aspect First-Party Cookies Third-Party Cookies Created By The website a user is visiting External domains added via scripts or tags Purpose Improve user experience (e.g., preferences, login) Primarily used for advertising and tracking Reputation Positive due to usability benefits Often viewed negatively for privacy concerns The Future of Cookies: What’s Next? Growing privacy concerns and stricter regulations are driving changes in cookie usage. Many browsers, including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, now block third-party cookies by default. Google Chrome has also committed to phasing out third-party cookies, with its Privacy Sandbox APIs offering more user control over tracking. As the reliance on third-party cookies wanes, advertisers and publishers are shifting toward alternative strategies, such as: Last Updated: July 2024 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 Top Ten Reasons Why Tectonic Loves the Cloud The Cloud is Good for Everyone – Why Tectonic loves the cloud You don’t need to worry about tracking licenses. Read more

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Salesforce Integration

Salesforce Integrations Explained

Introducing Salesforce Integration – Fundamental Concepts Before diving deep into more the complex aspects, let’s explore the basics of Salesforce Integrations, encompassing three key areas: integration types, integration capabilities, and integration patterns. When we talk about integration, it means to create a connection between a specific Salesforce instance and another database, third party product, or system. The connection can be inbound, outbound, or bi-directional, and you may be connecting to another database, another Salesforce instance, or another cloud-based data source. What is Integration? Salesforce Integration involves bringing together two or more systems to streamline distinct processes, enabling the efficient management of information across various business processes that span multiple systems.  Salesforce Integration is a process of connecting two or more applications. This provides both a sharing of data between systems and end user improved efficiency. Enterprise systems use many applications, many or most of which are not designed to work with one another out of the box. How many integrations does Salesforce have? Salesforce has over 3,000 integrations available on its AppExchange marketplace alone. Apart from those, you can use: low-code and no-code integrations like Coupler.io or Zapier for data automation. Why is Integration Important with Salesforce? In our digital era, enhancing efficiency and customer experience is crucial for competitiveness and user adoption. Integration ensures that systems work seamlessly together by fostering a scalable and faster collaborative environment. How do you make Salesforce even better? Integrate it with the apps you already use. From productivity to marketing to collaboration and beyond, now you can connect your Salesforce to the other tools you need to run your business. MuleSoft is Salesforce’s integration and automation technology and offers connectivity solutions for all of your apps. What is an API? API, or Application Programming Interface, facilitates communication between two applications. It enables the smooth exchange of data, ensuring processes occur without interruptions. Different API types will be covered in the ‘Salesforce Integration Capabilities’ section. Types of Salesforce Integration Architectures Three integration architectures come with both their benefits and drawbacks: Salesforce Integration Capabilities Consider the following aspects for efficient Salesforce integration: Understanding integration involves recognizing its fundamental concepts, including types, architectures, and capabilities.  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 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

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Configuring Revenue Management

Configuring Revenue Management

Configuring Revenue Management for Automated Population of Recognition Templates and GLAs Revenue Management can be set up to automatically populate the recognition template and GLAs on your source records based on their revenue recognition treatment. How It Works Revenue Management assigns the correct recognition template to a source record by following these steps: Setting Up the Flow To use this functionality, you must build a Salesforce flow that triggers an Apex action. Follow these steps to create a flow for each source object: Below is an outline for creating a flow for the Order Product (OrderItem) source object: Creating the Flow for Order Product (OrderItem) The flow will trigger when you save or update an order product that meets the conditions for inclusion in recognition processes. Repeat for Other Source Objects Repeat the above procedure to create flows for each of the remaining source objects: Invoice Line, Credit Note Line, and Usage Summary (if used). Ready? By following these steps, you can efficiently configure Revenue Management to automate the population of recognition templates and GLAs, streamlining your revenue recognition processes. 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

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Salesforce Advanced Reporting

Salesforce Advanced Reporting

Data Is EverywhereIt’s no exaggeration to say that data is omnipresent. With 2.5 quintillion bytes of digital data generated every day, it’s clear that the modern world runs on information. For businesses, this data surge presents immense opportunities. By capturing, organizing, analyzing, and interpreting it effectively, organizations have enhanced their processes and targeted their marketing efforts with precision. Tools That Communicate InsightsHowever, finding data is only the first step. Even actionable insights must be presented clearly to decision-makers, or they risk being overlooked. A staggering 48% of employees report struggling with data that is not optimized for their needs. This issue spans industries, highlighting the critical role that reporting tools play in business success. Effective tools rely on data visualization to make complex information easy to comprehend. Visual displays allow for faster digestion of data, turning raw information into actionable insights. Modern dashboards and visualization software combine reporting and clarity, ensuring accessibility for all users, regardless of technical expertise. Ease of Use Is CriticalThe best data reporting tools aren’t just powerful—they’re user-friendly. Tools that are overly complex risk becoming ongoing IT projects, diminishing their value to leaders and decision-makers. An intuitive interface, coupled with automation and compatibility across all devices, minimizes reliance on IT support. Real-time reporting is one of the most valuable features advanced tools offer. In today’s fast-paced world, outdated information—even by a few days—can lead to costly mistakes. Real-time data ensures decisions are based on the most current insights, while intuitive tools empower users to access these insights independently. One Tool, Unlimited CompatibilityThe rise of mobile work environments means employees increasingly rely on their personal devices for business tasks. High-performing teams are 3.5 times more likely to use mobile reporting tools to analyze data on the go. Cloud-based, platform-agnostic reporting tools ensure no user is ever limited by their location or device. Additionally, customizable and scalable tools provide businesses the flexibility to adapt as they grow, delivering a seamless reporting experience tailored to their unique needs. By researching available tools, leveraging online reviews, and utilizing free trials, businesses can find reporting solutions that align with their goals. Turning Data Into ActionData is only as valuable as its application. The right reporting tools provide organizations with reliable insights, empowering informed decision-making. As businesses increasingly recognize the power of data, investing in the right tools can drive efficiency, productivity, and smarter strategies. Advanced Reporting in Salesforce Salesforce reporting is one of its most powerful features, enabling users to gain insights into their data while allowing admins to demonstrate Salesforce’s impact on productivity. With the Lightning Report Builder, a drag-and-drop interface, admins can quickly create reports that meet complex requirements. Here’s a closer look at Salesforce’s advanced reporting capabilities: 1. Custom Report Types Salesforce provides out-of-the-box report types for standard objects and relationships (e.g., Contacts & Accounts). Custom Report Types go beyond these by allowing reports on: Admins can define up to four objects and specify relationships to tailor reports to their needs. A bonus? New fields can now be auto-added to Custom Report Types. 2. Cross Filters (Exception Reports) Cross Filters identify records with or without related records, perfect for “exception reports.” For example: Admins can add sub-filters for even more precision. 3. Summary Formulas Summary Formulas handle complex calculations across grouping levels, providing deeper insights. Example: Calculate each account’s contribution to pipeline by opportunity type. 4. Row-Level Formulas These formulas apply to individual records and are displayed on the row itself. For example, compare two fields on the same record to check for matching values. 5. Reporting Snapshots Snapshots “freeze” Salesforce data at specific moments for future reference, such as tracking Opportunity Pipeline changes over time. 6. Historical Trend Reporting Trend reports track historical field values for specific dates, such as Opportunities’ pipeline values for a given week. 7. Field-to-Field Filters These filters compare values across fields in a report. For instance, display only Contacts whose donations this year exceed last year’s. 8. Stacked Summaries Stacked Summaries condense large datasets into digestible visualizations, ideal for quick comparisons. 9. Joined Reports Combine multiple report types into a single view for holistic insights. Each “block” has its own filters, offering flexibility in data presentation. 10. Report URL Hacks URL hacks allow dynamic filtering of reports based on record data. For example, launch a filtered Opportunities report directly from an Account record. SummarySalesforce’s advanced reporting features empower admins to create scalable, efficient reports, even with challenging data models. By leveraging these tools, businesses can maximize the value of their Salesforce investment and transform raw data into actionable insights. 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 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

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Salesforce Digital Transformation

Track Your Digital Transformation Progress With These Important KPIs

Effective digital transformation progress has the potential to enhance the competitiveness and agility of enterprises in today’s and the future dynamic market. Most CIOs acknowledge that implementing digital transformation is a challenging endeavor and not a task achievable within a day or a week. It demands a significant commitment from business leaders, comprehensive training, financial investment, adept change management, a well-articulated strategy, and diligent monitoring of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). A concerning statistic reveals that over 70 percent of digital initiatives fail, primarily due to unclear goals and the inability to monitor progress. Surprisingly, 50 percent of businesses do not define metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of their digital transformation progress. This lack of measurement makes substantial investments counterproductive. Assessing the right metrics is essential, as it allows businesses to determine whether they are implementing best practices and deriving the intended value from the process. Considering the broad scope of potential transformations within a business, creating KPIs for digital transformation progress to measure success can be challenging. However, identifying and monitoring specific digital transformation KPIs is crucial for gauging progress towards digitization goals. The following are key digital transformation KPIs that can contribute to tracking the journey and drawing closer to achieving digitization objectives: Keeping a vigilant eye on these important digital transformation process KPIs will enable businesses to navigate their digital journey effectively and strive towards achieving successful digitization. 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 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

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Headless Commerce is the Future of E-Commerce

Headless Commerce is the Future of E-Commerce

Why Headless Commerce is the Future of E-Commerce You’ve likely heard it said time and again: the future of e-commerce is headless. But why is this prediction so widespread? Why are 35% of businesses expected to adopt a headless architecture by 2025? high-code headless solutions and commerce-oriented analytics platforms come into play. Headless commerce is the future of e-commerce. Headless commerce refers to a system where the frontend of your website—encompassing the storefront and user experience—is decoupled from the backend, which handles data, functionality, and business logic. Recent statistics reveal that businesses adopting headless commerce have reduced time to market by 50%, increased site performance by 30%, and decreased the time spent on upgrades and bug fixes by 34%. Headless Commerce – Future of E-Commerce There are four key ways in which headless commerce enhances performance: 1. Personalization at Scale Headless architecture centralizes customer data and separates content creation from delivery, enabling businesses to personalize content and experiences more effectively across multiple touchpoints. 2. Greater Control Over Experiences Decoupling the frontend from the backend gives businesses full control over website functionality, performance, SEO, design, and layout. Changes can be made to the frontend without impacting backend systems, allowing for greater flexibility and responsiveness. 3. Enhanced Performance and Flexibility With smaller, more focused frontends, data loading becomes more efficient, resulting in faster site performance and optimized media. Headless architecture also allows for seamless integration with third-party systems, enabling businesses to adapt and evolve as needed. 4. Fostering a Culture of Experimentation The flexibility and control offered by headless commerce equip teams with the tools to experiment regularly and rigorously. This fosters a culture of experimentation, which can drive continuous improvement and innovation. While the first three benefits of headless commerce are valuable on their own, it’s the ability to support a culture of experimentation that truly sets headless apart. When these advantages come together, businesses can achieve a cumulative impact that significantly enhances their performance. Let’s explore how an experimental mindset can unlock the full potential of headless commerce. Nurturing a Culture of Experimentation with Headless Commerce The agility and efficiency of a headless approach empower e-commerce brands to build a culture centered on testing and optimizing customer experiences. However, experimentation inherently involves risk. Any new experience introduced to your website will affect its performance and user experience—ideally for the better, but there are no guarantees. The challenge, then, is how to mitigate those risks effectively. The good news is that a culture of experimentation and calculated risk-taking provides brands with continuous data-gathering opportunities, leading to better decision-making and improved outcomes. The key is ensuring that your business has complete data visibility. To minimize risks during testing and address potential issues quickly, you need full visibility into how every change impacts your site and customer experience. This allows your team to identify what’s working, troubleshoot what isn’t, and make informed decisions based on real-time insights. Rapid deployment of new experiences can then become a true competitive advantage, enabling you to leverage data-backed insights to enhance your digital offerings. Experimenting Safely with Headless Commerce To illustrate this, imagine a scenario where you’re A/B testing on your headless site. Suppose you discover that your checkout abandonment rate is higher than the industry average, and you hypothesize that a lengthy checkout process is to blame. You decide to run an A/B test comparing two versions of the checkout flow to see if a shorter process yields better results. However, deploying this test introduces an unexpected error in one variation, skewing your results. Without visibility into site errors, you might not even realize the issue, leading to confusing or inconclusive test outcomes. This is where high-code headless solutions and commerce-oriented analytics platforms come into play. They provide the necessary visibility and monitoring to support a culture of experimentation while minimizing risks. A platform like Noibu, a performance and error monitoring solution designed specifically for e-commerce, can help you navigate these challenges with agility. By continuously monitoring your site, Noibu detects any issues that arise during changes, alerts your team, and provides detailed technical insights to address the root cause quickly. This ensures that your experiments remain unaffected, allowing you to test freely without fearing conversion drops or revenue loss. This type of software acts as a safety net, promoting extensive experimentation by monitoring your site for potential errors and encouraging calculated risk-taking. Case Study: Ribble Cycles and the Benefits of Headless Commerce Ribble Cycles transitioned to a headless architecture and experienced greater freedom and control. Matthew Lawson, Chief Digital Officer, shares, “Choosing a headless/composable architecture for Ribble Cycles has given us unparalleled flexibility and control… [allowing] us to decouple the front end from backend services, enabling rapid iteration and unique, customer-centric features.” To mitigate the risks associated with site changes, Ribble Cycles turned to Noibu, an error-detection platform that allowed them to experiment and test solutions with reduced risk. “While headless brings risks, such as unforeseen impacts from changes, we mitigate these with advanced analytics and monitoring tools like Noibu,” Lawson notes. “These tools help us detect and resolve issues in real time, reinforcing a positive risk-taking culture and driving better results for our brand and customers.” With complete visibility into the impact of their experiments, Lawson’s team is now in control and reaping the rewards of their headless commerce strategy. “Best decision we have made,” adds Lawson. “We have a roadmap to take it even further.” 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 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

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Salesforce Stakeholders

Who Are Your Salesforce Stakeholders?

Understanding the intricacies of Salesforce and using it effectively to support business processes is crucial for admins and developers. However, the significance of communication skills is often overlooked in technical training. Beyond technical expertise, vital non-technical skills, such as active listening and extracting relevant information from business stakeholders, play a pivotal role in addressing Salesforce users’ true needs. Here is an approach that enables working more efficiently in a proactive mode rather than reactive. Once you identify your key salesforce stakeholders, here are some great ways to keep the doorways of communication open. Start by putting yourself in your stakeholders’ shoes, be it business users, customers, or consulting clients. Transitioning into Salesforce there is a need to gather information, empathize, and build a compelling case for change. Following are insights and strategies for effectively collaborating with stakeholders to understand business requirements, pain points, and objectives. If you’re keen on enhancing these skills, read on! Importance of Stakeholders As a Salesforce Administrator, collecting information from diverse stakeholders with varying knowledge levels is inevitable. It’s essential to recognize that the required information may not be thoroughly documented or held by a single individual. Engaging with individuals beyond primary users, such as those in supply chain and training, broadens the understanding of business processes. Maximizing the value of every interaction is crucial, considering the time constraints of both yourself and stakeholders. Determining Stakeholder Numbers The number of stakeholders to engage with depends on the project’s scope. Successful benchmarks have demonstrated varying needs: Identifying Stakeholder Groups Consider speaking with stakeholders in four directions: upwards, downwards, inside, and outside. Each group includes: The 3 Types of Stakeholders to Involve Locating Stakeholders Establishing a network within the organization is beneficial. For newcomers or consultants, navigating the terrain may be challenging. Start with the project sponsor for direction and inquire about additional contacts after each conversation. Preparation and Respecting Stakeholders’ Time Request meetings based on stakeholders’ availability, typically ranging from 15 to 45 minutes. Allocate an hour in your calendar to accommodate potential extensions. Prepare thoroughly, understanding whom you’re speaking to and having insights into the discussed system or process. Leaving the Door Open: Saying Thank You Upon closing a meeting, express gratitude and leave the door open for future conversations. Encourage stakeholders to contact you if they have further thoughts, and reciprocate by offering to send a quick note if additional insights emerge. Send a follow-up email expressing thanks and summarizing key takeaways. Incorporating these practices ensures effective communication with stakeholders, facilitating a more successful and collaborative Salesforce implementation. 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 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

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Integration

Migrate to Salesforce

How is data migrated to Salesforce? You can migrate data by importing or inserting records from another Salesforce legacy source, organization, or other external source into a new target organization. It’s important to import object data in a particular order to maintain record relationships. Salesforce Data Migration Tools. The tools that perform data migration are of the ETL type (extract, transform and load) and there are a wide variety available. Some are suitable for beginners or non-programmers, while others may be preferred by developers. How long does Salesforce migration take? Based on our previous experiences, the typical timeframe for a Salesforce data migration process ranges from 20 days to approximately 2.5 months. Automated data migration tools are available to import and export data between different Salesforce orgs. How difficult is Salesforce data migration? In the grand scheme of things migration is a more challenging project and will vary greatly depending on the format, accuracy, and size of the data source or sources. What are the phases of Salesforce data migration? The three general phases of the migration project are preparation, migration, and user acceptance testing. Preparation is the most critical step. First off you have to develop a data migration plan complete with timelines, dependencies, and milestones. Preparation of the data and cleansing and mapping to Salesforce are topics for an entire additional article. Then the migration itself begins and everyone involved must be aware of any downtime this could create. Finally once the data has been migrated to Salesforce you have to ensure it is transferred correctly and check it for accuracy. You can migrate data by importing or inserting records from another Salesforce legacy source organization or other external source into a new org as well. If this primer has you concerned about your Salesforce data migration project, contact Tectonic today. 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 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

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Merging Duplicate Sales Cloud Leads in Lightning Experience

Considerations when merging duplicate leads in Sales Cloud: Campaigns When merging duplicate leads in Sales Cloud associated with different campaigns, Salesforce preserves the campaign Member Status Updated date for each campaign to which the merged lead belongs. Related Items, Chatter Feeds, and Attachments In the case of merging duplicate Sales Cloud, leads, records linked to items like campaigns or activities, Salesforce establishes connections with the merged record, with certain exceptions. Chatter feeds are maintained solely from the master record. Salesforce Files attached in the Chatter feed or listed under Files are preserved in the merged record. Hidden and Read-Only Fields Salesforce retains data in hidden or read-only fields, including sharing settings, from the master record. These hidden fields remain concealed during the merging process. The merged record preserves the Created By user and Created Date from the oldest merged record, regardless of which record serves as the master. The Last Modified By date reflects the merge date. Non-Master Leads Non-master leads are relocated to the Recycle Bin after the merge process. One tool for duplicate management is Cloudingo. Improve and better manage Salesforce data with Cloudingo. From deduping to importing and even migrating data, Cloudingo makes it easier to manage your Salesforce org. Find duplicates within your existing records and easily merge them. The Salesforce AppExchange offers multiple tools for duplicate record management. 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 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

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What is BI in Salesforce?

Salesforce BI helps to create fast, digestible reports to help you make informed decisions at the right time. Salesforce Einstein is a leading business intelligence software solution that will help streamline your operations. Read on in this insight to learn how Salesforce BI capabilities including Tableau rank in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Make the right decision every time using analytics that go beyond business intelligence software. See why Gartner named Salesforce (Tableau) a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms for the 11th consecutive year. Data and analytics leaders must use analytics and BI platforms to support the needs of IT, analysts, consumers and data scientists. While integration with cloud ecosystems and business applications is a key selection requirement, buyers also need platforms to support openness and interoperability. Analytics and business intelligence (ABI) platforms enable less technical users, including business people, to model, analyze, explore, share and manage data, and collaborate and share findings, enabled by IT and augmented by artificial intelligence (AI). For several years, the Magic Quadrant for Analytic and Business Intelligence Platforms has emphasized visual self-service for end users augmented by AI to deliver automated insights. While this remains a significant use case, the ABI platform market will increasingly need to focus on the needs of the analytic content consumer and business decision makers. To achieve this, automated insights must be relevant in context of a user’s goals, actions and workflow. Many platforms are adding capabilities for users to easily compose low-code or no-code automation workflows and applications. This blend of capabilities is helping to expand the vision for analytics beyond simply delivering datasets and presenting dashboards. Today’s ABI platforms can deliver enriched contextualized insights, refocus attention on decision-making processes and ultimately take actions that will deliver business value. In addition to the increasing consumer design focus trend, we see other key market trends, including the need for improved governance of analytic content creation and dissemination, and the demand for a headless, open architecture. For example, a headless ABI platform would decouple the metrics store from the front-end presentation layer, enabling more interoperability with competitive products. ABI platform functionality includes the following 12 critical capabilities, which have been updated to reflect areas of market change, differentiation and customer demand: Gartner added three new critical capabilities as part of our metrics store evaluation criteria this year:  ABI platforms have always been about measurement. For decades, the slicing and dicing of measures by their dimensional attributes was synonymous with the act of performing business intelligence. However, over the last decade, the focus on metrics and measurement was overshadowed by data visualization. As data visualization became the most conspicuous capability, some business executives began to conflate ABI platforms with data visualization — as if ABI platforms are glorified chart wizards. This misconception minimizes much of the work performed and the business value delivered by ABI platforms. Establishing metrics stores as a critical capability to execute makes it clear that defining and communicating performance measures throughout an organization is one of the key purposes of an ABI platform. Analytics collaboration is a combination of many features (such as Slack/Teams integration, action frameworks) that collectively improve an organization’s ability to make decisions with consensus. Data science integration reflects the increasing likelihood that a business analyst may want to use data science to test certain hypotheses, and that data scientists will need to leverage features such as data prep and data visualization. In addition, Gartner is changing “catalogs” to “analytic catalogs” to emphasize a set of requirements that are not being met by ABI platform vendors today. Most large enterprises have thousands of reports built across multiple ABI platforms, but consumers in these organizations have no easy way to access these reports. The name change to analytic catalogs reflects the need for ABI platform vendors to deliver analytic content with the consumer in mind. Three critical capabilities were removed from our evaluation criteria: security, natural language generation (NLG; rolled into data storytelling) and cloud analytics (which will no longer be considered a platform capability, but instead a go-to-market strategy covered in the Magic Quadrant). And one of the security sub-criteria, about the granularity of authorization (e.g., row-based security) has been moved to the enterprise reporting capability. Salesforce (Tableau) Tableau, a Salesforce company, is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its products are mainly focused on visual-based exploration that enables business users to access, prepare, analyze and present findings in their data. CRM Analytics, formerly Tableau CRM, provides augmented analytics capabilities for analysts and citizen data scientists. Tableau has global operations and serves clients of all sizes. In 2022, Tableau reinforced its augmented consumer vision to provide contextualized insights with deeper integration with Salesforce Data Cloud. IT also improved decision intelligence by bringing domain-aware insights into action with Revenue Intelligence and other Salesforce-native apps. The extensible design and x-platform integrations (Salesforce Flow, MuleSoft, UiPath and Looker) further enable composable analytics to bring insights into workflow with agility. Strengths Cautions 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 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

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