Does a Checkbox Give You Accurate Data? [Tech Tips]

Posted by Susan Wright on Jun 14, 2013 in Blog , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 2 comments

To checkbox or not to checkbox, that is the question. Checkboxes have many advantages, especially for system administrators. They are generally the fastest and easiest fields to create, and they are preferred when creating field dependencies, formulas, and workflows. They also facilitate quick data entry and make reporting easy. But do they really give you accurate data?
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Scaling Salesforce as You Grow, Part 3 [Tech Tips]

Posted by Tracy Kronzak on Jun 12, 2013 in Blog , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 1 comment

In my most recent post in this series , I covered considerations when setting up Multi-Select Picklists in Salesforce.com to ensure your organization can scale Salesforce.com in the future. What’s next?

Picklist Value Collisions: the “Both/And” Problem

Consider the following Contact Type picklist that might appear on a record: (more…)

Scaling Salesforce as You Grow, Part 2 [Tech Tips]

Posted by Tracy Kronzak on Jun 5, 2013 in Blog , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 0 comments

In the first post of this series , I covered considerations for approaches to the Owner field in Salesforce.com to ensure your organization can scale its use of Salesforce.com in the future. Today, let’s talk about another topic.

Multi-Select Picklists

Multi-Select Picklists are intended to allow Salesforce.com users to quickly grab multiple values of record categorization and apply them simultaneously to the same person or thing. They look pretty, and can quickly replace massive checkbox grids or a series of single-select picklists.  (more…)

Scaling Salesforce as You Grow, Part 1 [Tech Tips]

Posted by Tracy Kronzak on May 24, 2013 in Blog , CRM , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 2 comments

I often find myself in conversations with co-workers and clients about the things that we see as common “gotchas” when scaling Salesforce as an organization grows – especially in a manner that supports data longevity, accounts for changes in people and processes over time, and can be easily accessed and understood from the Salesforce.com Reports Tab.  Perhaps this series of blog posts is a more granular follow-on to an earlier blog post of mine, “Using the Right Tools for the Right Jobs with Salesforce.com .”
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Top Tips and Resources for Salesforce Techies at Nonprofits [Tech Tips]

Posted by Amy An on Mar 27, 2013 in Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 2 comments

As the leading Cloud-based CRM solution, Salesforce.com is a powerful, flexible system for handling your nonprofit’s data and processes. It’s so powerful and flexible, in fact, that the possibilities for its use can seem endless; it can be helpful to have a few places to turn to for advice and answers to your questions.

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A Few of My Favorite Things About Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack [Tech Tips]

Posted by Mary Pustejovsky on Mar 6, 2013 in Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 2 comments

I love Salesforce. I love the variety of Apps available to nonprofits , and there are great features about many of the fundraising apps available. (For more information and in-depth reviews of top fundraising applications built on the Salesforce.com platform, download our report, The New World of Donor Management Apps for Nonprofits .)

Previously, I wrote about my favorite features of Luminate CRM .  Today, I want to touch upon my favorite things about the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP).

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Nonprofit Use Cases for Chatter [Tech Tips]

Posted by Mary Pustejovsky on Feb 27, 2013 in Blog , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 6 comments

Salesforce.com’s Chatter product was released back in 2010 to much fanfare. Among nonprofits, its use has been mixed. Some were quick to embrace it, while others haven’t seen the value to their organization. For very small nonprofits with fewer than 10 staff members, for example, it might be hard to come up with reasons that you need to have another collaboration tool. You may already use Google Chat, feel like email works fine for you, or all work in the same office and can holler across the room. (more…)

Use Salesforce.com to Support Your Nonprofit’s Metrics Needs [Tech Tips]

Posted by Ashley Goldmintz on Feb 15, 2013 in Blog , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips | 3 comments

As competition for donors’ attention becomes stiffer, savvy nonprofits are realizing the value of clearly defined metrics to help track and develop both operational and programmatic success. Metrics are extremely useful — if not entirely necessary — for every department at your organization, but are only worthwhile if they are accurate, actionable, delivered to the right people, and quickly understood. Following are a few tips on how to prioritize and place your data in Salesforce.com, a common database platform for nonprofits, to effectively support your organization’s metrics.

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A Few of My Favorite Things about Luminate CRM [Tech Tips]

Posted by Mary Pustejovsky on Feb 13, 2013 in Blackbaud , Blog , CRM , Tech Tips | 3 comments

Luminate CRM from Blackbaud

Nonprofits today have an exciting world of donor and constituent relationship management solutions to choose from. One such solution, Luminate CRM from Blackbaud, is an incredibly sophisticated system that contains advanced functionality. Built on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform, Luminate CRM allows for all the standard types of gift processing needed by nonprofits.

Easy Duplicate Management

My favorite feature is the duplicate management functionality, which merges duplicates in the offline and online system at the same time so that users do not need to clean up records in two locations.

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Implementing Salesforce for Outlook [Tech Tips]

Posted by Anita Sakhuja on Jan 17, 2013 in Blog , Business , Salesforce.com , Tech Tips , Technology | 0 comments

Salesforce for Outlook is an application that integrates Microsoft Outlook with Salesforce.com and automatically syncs contacts, tasks and events between them. It replaces Connect for Outlook (now a legacy application). Salesforce for Outlook seems to run more smoothly and efficiently than Connect for Outlook, and it includes a number of new features, the coolest of which is the new Salesforce Side Panel.

Following are some highlights and things to consider when implementing Salesforce for Outlook:

Capabilities and Considerations

When setting up the Salesforce-Outlook sync, it is important for system administrators to understand the options and implications. Before activating the syncing functionality, especially for contacts, administrators should develop a plan for how their organization wants to sync data from their users’ local Outlook applications to Salesforce.com.

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