From time to time, I will be turning over control of this blog to some of our power users in the community.  We are very fortunate to have Leyna Hoffer as our first guest blogger for the AppExchange. Leyna has been a Salesforce Administrator for over 6 years and a vocal part of the Salesforce community. She received her certification last year and has also been the Leader of the Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group for the last 1 1/2 years.   In this post, she will discuss some of the apps that have dramatically changed the way she thinks about Salesforce CRM.

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Top 3 Apps I Can’t Live Without

I have had the good fortune to work at 4 different companies as their Salesforce.com System Administrator.  I have leveraged the AppExchange at each of those companies to enhance the existing Salesforce.com functionality, and there are 3 applications that I consider to be “must-haves”.

1. Demand Tools by CRM Fusion - Demand Tools is a super, user-friendly tool that integrates with Salesforce.com to mass-modify data quickly and is the single-most valuable app I’ve downloaded from the AppExchange.  Demand Tools has saved me so much time and has helped to insure greater data integrity –huge issues for any Salesforce.com Administrator.  It has allowed me to automate otherwise manual data tasks;  Deduping existing data, importing new data without creating new duplicates, modifying thousands of records within minutes, and more.  There is so much functionality included that I have yet to discover/use all the wonderful features – the more I use it, the more I love it! 

On top of all that, their customer service and support is awesome.  I have always found them to be extremely responsive and helpful.  They consistently go above and beyond.  This is definitely a “must have” application and well worth the investment!

2.  Info Center by ArrowPointe Corp.-   This free application allows me to publish messages, FAQs, and important hyperlinks to my users, all in one location within Salesforce.com.   This proves invaluable in improving internal communications, especially if you have remote users.  This web-based solution allows users all over the world to access answers anywhere, at any time.  It’s extremely quick and easy to administer too! 

3.  Clicktools- Clicktools is an extremely robust tool that allows me to build and deploy fully branded web-based surveys and forms.  It is very flexible and powerful, providing not only the ease of creating a simple survey, but also the functionality to create a more complex survey with multiple pages, conditions, and branching.  You can even use the survey results to auto-populate fields in Salesforce.com.   The entire company can have visibility into customer feedback, and who doesn’t love seeing a Salesforce record filled with data that they did not have to key in themselves?  

I have received very personalized service from the staff at Clicktools , always willing to spend the time to help me fully understand the capabilities of the tool.   I am extremely happy with the performance of this application and the support team behind it.

And finally, I find the AppExchange itself to be a “must-have”.   When my users come to me with a business challenge, the AppExchange is the first place I go.  The AppExchange expands the power of Salesforce.com well beyond CRM.  With just a few clicks, I can download and install a solution, making me look like a real hero to my organization.  AppExchange – I couldn’t do my job without you!