The AppExchange Blog
The AppExchange Blog
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App of the Week: Thunderbird Mail Connector
Nov 9, 2009This week's app of the week is the Thunderbird Mail Connector. This solution was developed by a customer and allows you to add selected inbound or outbound Thunderbird emails to a contact's activities in Salesforce CRM. Additionally, you can associate an email with the appropriate account, opportunity, asset, campaign or case.
While there hasn't been a lot of customer feedback on the solution yet as it is brand new, this was one of the most highly requested apps on IdeaExchange:
Check out the listing and see what you think! Also, you can get more detailed information on the developer's website.
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App of the Week: Visual Relationship Mapping 2.0
Nov 2, 2009This week's app of the week is Visual Relationship Mapping 2.0 from Business Endurance Solutions.
Visual Relationship Mapping allows you to easily create a visual representation of how your contacts and accounts are related to each other within Salesforce CRM:
You can show many to many relationships between leads, contacts, and accounts. You can also rate the strength of these relationships and show multiple degrees of separation.Additionally, the solution allows your users or employees to identify any connection they have with these records. On the top of any Lead, Contact, or Account appears a button that says "I Know You". Users can click on this and specify how they know the person or account (eg. If they were an ex-employee of an account).
VRM delivers a great tool for salespeople to gather more context before they connect with prospects and customers. Additionally, it allows users to leverage internal knowledge from fellow employees.
Check out this brief demo to get the full story.
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Customers' Choice Awards: Help Pick the Best Apps of '09!
Oct 30, 2009With 2009 coming to a close, it's time to start tallying review scores for our 2nd annual Customers' Choice Awards. Last year was a tight race and we ended up with a great group of solutions that spanned 15 categories.
Like the Best of '08 awards, this year's awards are category-based and will be given to the apps that receive the highest combination of:
1. # of User Reviews Posted in 2009
2. Average Star Rating for User Reviews Posted in 2009
In other words: the more good reviews, the better! Help us pick the Best Apps of '09 by posting your reviews today. Your feedback will not only help us narrow down the winners, it will also enable other AppExchange users to find the killer apps that can transform their business.
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View Demos, Learn About New Apps and More at Dreamforce '09
Oct 26, 2009Dreamforce is right around the corner and the AppExchange team couldn't be more excited.
Want to learn more about the site and get ideas for new apps and services you can bring back to the office? Make sure to check out all of these elements and events at the conference!
1. Meet the AppExchange Team in the Campground
Visit the salesforce.com campground in the middle of the expo hall to meet the AppExchange Product Management team. Learn how to use our amazing new site features (like Service Listings) and talk to us about what you'd like to see more of on the site. Additionally, we'll have Customer Success Managers at the ready to help you navigate listings and provide advice on key apps for your business.
2. Choose from over 25 AppExchange Sessions
This year we have over 20 AppExchange partners delivering breakout presentations. Watch live demos from their product teams and hear real-world feedback from customers during these informative sessions. Below is the list of partner presenters broken out by category. Click on the links to learn more about their apps or sign up for their sessions here.
Accounting: CODA
Collaboration Tools: iLinc
Compensation Management: Callidus, Xactly
Contract Management: Apttus, DocuSign
Customer Service & Support: inContact, LiveOps
Email Marketing: Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop
Forecasting: Right90
Integration: Cast Iron, CRM Fusion, Informatica
Sales Intelligence: InsideView
Service Providers: Appirio, BlueWolf, EDL, FujitsuAdditionally, the AppExchange Product Team will be hosting a sales panel session on Friday morning, 11/20, at 9:00 AM entitled "There's an App for That: How Sales Execs Boost Sales with The AppExchange." Here, you'll gain valuable feedback from experienced sales execs about how they have used AppExchange apps to make their reps more successful. We'll also be raffling off some great prizes (including an Amazon Kindle) so sign up today!
3. Hear from AppExchange Power Users in the Customer Hero Theater
We are very excited to have two amazing customers speak about their use of the AppExchange in the customer hero theater. Make sure to catch their sessions:Session: Can't-Miss Free Apps from the AppExchange
Presenter: Mark Lappin, Worldwide Applications Manager, Bakbone Software
When: Wednesday, November 18th, 1:30 PMSession: Increasing Speed to Value with the AppExchange
Presenter: Jeff Grosse, Senior Project Manager, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota
When: Wednesday, November 18th, 6:00 PM
4. Watch Demos and Learn about other Solutions from 170+ Partners in the Cloud Expo
In addition to the AppExchange partners who will be delivering breakout sessions, there are over 170 additional partners in the Cloud Expo. Make the rounds and find new apps that can help extend your use of Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform!For the full list of expo partners, click here.
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Voice of the Customer: Jeff Grosse, Blue Cross Blue Shield
Oct 26, 2009This month's Voice of the Customer post comes from Jeff Grosse. Jeff is a Senior Business Consultant and salesforce.com administrator at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, a non-profit health insurance provider. He not only manages salesforce.com applications but he specializes in improving application usability and user adoption. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota currently uses salesforce.com Unlimited Edition primarily for sales and marketing.
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While I'm very new to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, I've been working with salesforce.com for the past four years as a system administrator and in that time, I've developed a complete passion for cloud computing. The primary reason I gravitate towards the cloud is speed to value. I've seen more value derived from salesforce.com applications, faster than any packaged or custom application I've even seen; hands down. Trained and skilled people in business units can customized and maintain their complex business processes in Salesforce with little or no IT involvement; freeing up resources in IT to accomplish other important company goals and projects.The way that I see these skilled business unit people customizing and making Salesforce their own is through some great apps available on the AppExchange. Users don't have to be experts in development to improve the usability of Salesforce. Here are a few examples:
1. Salesforce International Mapping Using Google Maps
Though I've only dabbled in Visualforce so far, that doesn't stop me from providing huge value to my users. This app is extremely easy to use, highly accurate, and helps people not only see where Accounts and Contacts are physically, it also helps them them get directions, right out of Google Maps, right in line with Salesforce using Visualforce components. This is a high value, free application that users can really use, every day and in total, requires no more that 30 minutes to install, configure, and roll out.2. Sales Clarity
There's information hidden in your Salesforce Opportunities. Do you know where it is, what it is, how to aggregate it and how to help Sales Managers have the best, most productive pipeline review meetings they've ever had? Sales Clarity knows. If you haven't tried out Sales Clarity, you should look it over and see what you're missing. One of the best features of Sales Clarity is the trial experience. A sales manager can try it out, seeing his own team's data, safely and securely without any modifications to Salesforce or even an installation from the AppExchange. Sales Clarity won the AppExchange "Best Apps of 2008" award in the category of "Best Sales Forecasting App."3. Conga Merge
If you want to easily output Salesforce CRM data from a whole lot of objects into a custom template with a single click, you need to see what Conga Merge is all about. I may still rank as the creator of the most elaborate Conga Merge template to date. Using Conga Merge, I made it possible for account executives, in one click, to generate a sales review report PDF, log this as an activity on the opportunity, add it as a file attachment to the opportunity, and email it to their manager if they chose to do so. Behind that single click, Conga Merge gathered the data of 27 different Salesforce reports (including 2000+ fields and their representative values), merged the data into a standardized template with a consistent corporate look and feel, and delivered it to the user with essentially no need for training. The users got the data they needed consistently, and every sales manager was working off the same standardized, albeit complex report. I call Conga Merge my "Easy button". Conga Merge won the AppExchange "Best Apps of 2008" award in the category of "Best Document Management App".Each of the apps above offers fantastic functionality to business users that just "plugs into" Salesforce and flat-out works. No complex projects, servers, milestones or even a request for IT resources are needed to put them in place and begin delivering value. Sure, if I had the time, resources, and motivation to build those apps myself I could do it, but I'd have ask myself, why? They've done the work for me so I can look like a rock star.
Jeff blogs about salesforce.com at http://crmfyi.com and created a Salesforce video portal called "The Salesforce Channel" at http://www.salesforcechannel.com/ . You can also follow Jeff on Twitter at http://twitter.com/crmfyi.
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App of the Week: WorkIt! Case Time Tracking
Oct 26, 2009This week's app of the week is WorkIt! Case Time Tracking from the Forecemeister. WorkIt! is a native solution that allows you to track case handling time on the session, user and case level.
The app displays a timer within salesforce.com case records so that a rep can see exactly how long the case is taking to address. You can customize a "Session Type" dropdown menu within the timer box so that the rep can also identify exactly what he or she is doing with the customer or prospect.
As a call center manager, WorkIt! allows you to easily identify which of your reps are performing the most efficiently. Additionally, you can identify problem customers and determine which activities are taking your team the longest to complete.
The app also incorporates some cool features like the ability to warn a rep when they are approaching an unacceptable time limit for closing a case. Similarly, managers can set up workflow to alert them when the handling time for a case has exceeded the acceptable parameters.
Watch this brief demo to see WorkIt in action!
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App of the Week: iLinc for Salesforce
Oct 19, 2009This week's app of the week is iLinc for Salesforce. iLinc allows you to launch and manage web meetings right from within Salesforce CRM. I sat in on the Silicon Valley User Group meeting last week via iLinc and the technology was very easy to use. Also, it's great for collaboration. Within seconds, the user group leader was able to survey the audience and determine which topics we should cover next.
Combined with Salesforce CRM data, this tool is sure to be even more powerful. By integrating your webinar attendee info, you can ensure that you are capitalizing on your hottest leads and addressing your most crucial customer issues. Using the solution from the AppExchange you can do things like:
- Store new webinar registrations automatically as leads
- Set up workflow triggers based on certain attendee actions
- Launch support sessions directly from cases or contacts
.....and much more!
Here is a great 5 minute demo that gives a full overview of the solution. Enjoy!
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App of the Week: Spam Check from Arrowpointe
Oct 5, 2009This week's app of the week is Spam Check from Arrowpointe.
Spam Check allows you to keep spam out of Salesforce CRM by checking incoming web-to-lead and web-to-case data. Additionally, you can build in spam checks for the web forms you build using Force.com Sites. The solution makes use of Askimet, an intelligent spam evaluation solution used on thousands of websites and blogs.This solution is not a first for Arrowpointe. This partner has developed several popular admin tools on the AppExchange over the last few years including Auto vCard and Arrowpointe Maps. Given the early review below, it sounds like this app will follow suit!
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Voice of the Customer: Tim Minahan, CMO, Ariba, Inc.
Sep 28, 2009This month's Voice of the Customer post comes from Tim Minahan. Tim is the Chief Marketing Officer for Ariba, Inc., the leading provider of on-demand spend management solutions. Tim talks about the challenges many CMOs face today and how he uses several solutions from the AppExchange to address them.
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In today's economy, agility rules. Businesses are operating leaner than ever before. And with uncertainty over when (or if) the rebound will come, most are gun shy about reinvesting in infrastructure or hiring back resources. To be agile enough to get stuff done in the face of rapidly changing market conditions and customer needs, more businesses are balancing internal capabilities with external solutions that fill gaps and enhance the internal infrastructure. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud-based service delivery models offer the agility and variable service models companies require.
As the leading provider in On Demand Spend Management solutions, Ariba practices what we preach. So when it came to developing an agile marketing model, we looked for Salesforce solutions and capabilities that could be assembled into an end-to-end best-practice process in the cloud.
Our Volume and Velocity ("V2") marketing method is designed for full visibility and measurability across the marketing and sales funnel - from initial customer discovery through lead conversion and sales cycles. While we use a wide variety of marketing approaches and channels (volume), all are funneled through our corporate website, ariba.com. This allows us to easily track and measure each prospect through a methodical lead vetting and nurturing program to speed opportunities through the sales cycle (velocity).
The entire V2 process is supported by a Cloud-based digital marketing nervous system. Salesforce.com is the backbone of this system, managing critical customer information and providing visibility into key tasks and metrics across the marketing and sales funnels.
Branching off from this backbone are a series of other SaaS-based solutions and information services that function as the nerves and muscles of our marketing system. For example:
- We use Google AdWords and Analytics to attract prospects to our site and offers.
- Omniture helps us analyze visitor behavior and measure site performance to understand the prospect attributes and monitor the effectiveness of our site.
- When a visitor accepts an "offer", such as downloading a whitepaper or viewing an online demo, our web to lead integration triggers a task in Salesforce prompting our demand management team to call the prospect within two hours.
- Integration with Ringlead helps keep our data clean with preventative, automatic, real-time de-duping of web forms, lists and manual entries.
- Ongoing prospect and customer interactions, including distribution of audience-specific newsletters, are managed through ExactTarget, our email marketing tool which is integrated with Salesforce.com.
- Finally, to ensure we can reach the total addressable market, we leverage tools like Jigsaw, Hoovers, and InsideView. Hoovers keeps our core global prospect database up-to-date and serves as the record-of-truth for account information. Jigsaw helps build and maintain accurate contact data by providing missing information such as title, phone, address, and email address. And InsideView provides additional insight into companies and contacts, including current news, key decision makers and tweet tracking. All this information is integrated and accessible through Salesforce.com.
This SaaS-based digital marketing nervous system has allowed us to quickly sense and respond to the changing market dynamics and adjust our marketing approaches and investments accordingly. This is the type of marketing agility we will need to remain competitive in the new economy.
Interested in creating a post like Tim's? Please email appexchangeallstars@salesforce.com and tell us about your experience using solutions from the AppExchange! -
3 Reasons to Use a Force.com Labs App Today
Sep 28, 2009New to the AppExchange and looking for a place to start?
Check out our Force.com Labs apps. Built by Salesforce.com employees, these apps are great for addressing simple tasks out of the box. Additionally, they can give you ideas for custom apps you might want to build yourself in-house.
Not convinced? Here are three more reasons you should install one today:
1. All labs apps are FREE!
We have almost 200 labs apps that span all types of functions from user adoption dashboards to a PTO tracking app. There is no cost to install any of these!
2. Set up is a breeze
You don't need a CS degree to use a Force.com Labs app. In less than 10 minutes, you can install any of these solutions into your instance of Salesforce CRM and be up and running.
3. You can customize them to fit your needs
Want to tweak an app so it thinks the way your business does? No problem. Labs apps are easy to customize and can provide a great starting point for you to build your own custom apps.
To find all of these solutions, simply type "Force.com Labs" into the search bar:
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