In this presentation given at Dreamforce 2013 Mike Gerholdt, Garry Polmateer, and Jared Miller give Salesforce Admins advice on managing their Salesforce instance and common mistakes we have made over the years.

1. Common Mistakes Salesforce
Admins Make
Mike Gerholdt, Red Argyle, Dir. Client
Engagement
@MikeGerholdt
Garry Polmateer, Red Argyle, Partner
@DarthGarry
Jared Miller, Configero, Sr. Project
Manger
@JaredeMiller

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forward-looking statements.

3. Mike Gerholdt
Director of Client Engagement,
@MikeGerholdt

4. Garry Polmateer
Managing Partner, Red Argyle
@DarthGarry

5. All about Red Argyle
Red Argyle is a Salesforce consulting and ISV partner that
focuses on bringing Tailored Goodness to the Salesforce
Platform
 Custom Development – Enhance Salesforce or build products
 Consulting – New Salesforce implementations
 On Demand Administration – Small business scalable support
 Products – Several free and paid offerings on the AppExchange

6. Jared Miller
Senior Project Manager
@JaredeMiller

7. Configero At-A-Glance
Configero is a leading provider of Salesforce and cloud computing
solutions and services
Proven Experts
400+
250
7
CRM Projects
Custom Apps
Force.com Apps
Clients/Expertise

9. We were all in your shoes

10. Question
What is the worst Salesforce mistake you’ve
ever made?
Post your answer to Chatter with the hashtag
#WorstMistake

11. Hearing vs. Listening
Image from - Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics

12. How to Listen Effectively
• Ask, “Why?” And don’t be afraid to dig deeper
• Why are you asking me for this?
• Why is what we already have not working?
• Deliver mock-ups to the user
• Excel, LucidCharts, Balsamiq, Bar napkin – just do it!
• Help them understand what you are ‘hearing’
• More importantly – help them understand what they are asking for

13. Understanding Input and Output in a Solution

14. What do I mean by ‘Data Input’
• Clicks and Scrolls and Fields, oh my!
• Sometimes creating a solution will be more work than the manual
way
• Sometimes creating a solution delivers so much data that your
users are scrolling
• Sometimes creating a solution requires the creation of too many
fields
• Sometimes simple is the best answer!

15. How do we stay simple with our ‘Data Output’?
• Understand how the data will be used
• What is the expected result of the data input?
•
“I want to calculate the viability of a deal.”
•
“I would love to tell if I have a good customer or not.”
Sounds like a formula field to me!
A picture is worth a thousand words

16. How do we stay simple?
• What is the expected action of the
data input?
•
“I want to see the grade of everyone’s
accounts.”
•
“It would be great to see how much our
customer spends.”
Sounds like a report to me!
Or, embedded analytics!
(shout out to Winter ‘14)

17. Want more ‘Simple’ from Winter ’14?
• Publisher Actions
• Available in PE!
• Chatter Groups
• @mentions
• Publisher actions
• Historical Trending

18. Data Imports
• Don’t “Dump it in Salesforce”
• Have a Plan
• Why are you importing said data?
• Who can import data?
• What are your standards for importing data?

19. Data Import – SHUT OFF WORKFLOW, YO!

20. Data Import – Dupes Happen
• Define duplicate risk/mitigation
• Pre-clean data
• Post-clean data
• Don’t ignore the reality of duplicates
• Don’t “deal with it later”
• Test in a Sandbox! (EE +)

21. Field Level Security – No Cruise Control!

22. Field Level Security – Wizard Redux
• Thankfully this button exists:
• Which gives us this:

23. Field Level Security – Fields Required
• Required at Field Level
• Required via Validation Rule
• Required on Page Layout
Red = Tread Softly!

24. Field Level Security – Read Only
• Read Only Page Layout
• Read Only Profile Level
• Don’t forget to uncheck
• Read Only Validation Rule

25. Too Many Profiles!

26. Reduce Profile Sprawl
• Clearly define roles or “buckets” of users
• Utilize Permission Sets
• User B is like User A but can modify Accounts
• Grant granular CRED when needed
• Perfect for “Temporary” Assignments

28. Managing Change
• Symptoms
• Poor Communication
• Lack of planning
• Solutions
• Planned releases
• Constant communication
•
Emails
•
Newsletters
•
Chatter

29. Summary
• Don’t take user requests at face value. Dive deeper.
• Understand how your users will consume data.
• Determine how a request meets a business goal.
• Don’t always look for the shortcut.
• Find a common denominator.
• COMMUNICATE!

30. Mike Gerholdt
Garry Polmateer
Jared Miller
Red Argyle,
@MikeGerholdt
Red Argyle,
@DarthGarry
Configero,
@JaredeMiller