Happy Holidays from all of us here at Salesforce.com and the Salesforce.com Foundation,

My post today isn't holiday oriented though. I just want to remind everyone that Salesforce.com offers a FREE weekly backup service (included for all Enteprise and Unlimited Edition accounts, nonprofits have Enterprise) for your data. One of my Customers first did a data upload and accidently wiped out all the first names of all their contacts. That prompted this blog entry, because had they backed up their data recently it would have been a much less painless process for them to restore the data. It's also a good idea to do this regularly as part of your own CRM Change Control procedures.

To request a data export, follow the steps listed below.

1. Click on:

Setup | Administration Setup | Data Management | Data Export.

2. Select the "Include attachments" check box (if desired).

3. Select any data that you would like to include by checking the box next to the name of the object. Selecting the "Include all data" box will include data from all tables.

4. Click the "Data Export" button.

A confirmation email will be sent when the export has completed, with a link to the export files, as mentioned above.

If your holiday plans include any major data updates, give yourself the gift of backing up first.

Chris Atwood

Nonprofit Account Manager

Salesforce.com