The AppExchange Blog

• App of the Week: iLinc for Salesforce

  Sara Varni Oct 19, 2009

  This 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

  Sara Varni Oct 5, 2009

  This 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.

  Sara Varni Sep 28, 2009

  This 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!

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• 3 Reasons to Use a Force.com Labs App Today

  Sara Varni Sep 28, 2009

  New 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:

  

  Alternatively, check out these 5 popular labs apps:
  

  Adoption Dashboards

  Project & Issue Management

  Strategic Account Planning

  Recruiting

  CMS Force

  
  

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• App of the Week: Search First Before Create

  Sara Varni Sep 28, 2009

  This week's app of the week is Search First Before Create from Force.com Labs. 

  Strong user adoption hinges on having accurate and clean data.  Search First Before Create allows you to prevent duplicate records from being created by first searching for leads, contacts or accounts that match existing customer or prospect information.  You can simply enter a piece of this data into the search box and see all of the results for that field before you create a new entry:

  

  This is a great free tool for admins or sales managers who are looking for ways to enforce data integrity.

  If you decide to install, please read this important note from the publisher:
  

  The package uses Custom Labels for immediate international language support, however only German and English labels are actually provided.  You have to contact Salesforce support to get the translation workbench enabled in your org to change labels or add other languages. You also have to activate the languages you want to use in the translation workbench - e.g. enable and switch "English" to active in order to see the component in English when the user language is English. 
  

  Need something a little more heavy-handed?  Check out DupeBlocker from CRMfusion. 

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• App of the Week: Accorto Cloud Time & Expense

  Sara Varni Sep 21, 2009

  This week's App of the Week is Cloud Time & Expense from Accorto.  Like Expensify, an app I featured a few weeks back, this solution is a finalist in the Force.com Cloud Computing Challenge.

  Cloud Time & Expense enables you to automate the process of recording receipts and logging hours spent at client accounts.   Perfect for professional services companies, this app is highly flexible and allows you to import your data either manually, from your mobile device or from your credit card statements directly. 

  Also, this solution is easy to customize allowing you to add functionality like:

  - Workflow & Approvals

  - Validation Rules based on your expense policies

  - Reporting & Dashboards

  Accorto provides many different ways to evaluate their solution.  If you are completely new to the world of T&E, I think this flow diagram provides a great lay of the land:

  

  Also, check out this brief demo to see Cloud Time & Expense in action. 
  

    

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• Share Best Practices with Your Peers: Become an AppExchange All-Star!

  Sara Varni Sep 15, 2009

  Are you a power user of the AppExchange and have a lot to say?  Become a part of the AppExchange All-Star program and make your voice heard to the community.

  

  

  In return for creating best practice content and participating in various AppExchange events throughout the year, you'll receive amazing benefits including:

  - An all-star branded fleece vest

  - Entry into an exclusive all-star only reception at Dreamforce '09

  - Unlimited bragging rights!

  Click on the links below to view posts from existing All-Stars:

  Leyna Hoffer, Twin Cities User Group leader

  Brian Makas, ThomasNet

  Marc Baizman, RootCause

  If you are a customer who is actively using at least one app and are interested in participating, please contact us at appexchangeallstars@salesforce.com for more information.

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• App of the Week: Salesforce for Twitter

  Sara Varni Sep 13, 2009

  This week's App of the Week is the new Salesforce for Twitter app.  This free app went live on the AppExchange last week and was announced as part of the Service Cloud 2 event here in San Francisco.

   

  As the name suggests, the app delivers several pieces of functionality that allow you to integrate Twitter with Salesforce CRM including:
• Tweet Monitoring- Search through the millions of tweets happening every minute to find relevant customer service conversations.  Then capture and monitor those conversations within Salesforce CRM. 
• Case Creation- Enable your customers to tweet their customer service issues and instantly create a case within Salesforce.  Once created, you can leverage internal business processes to route the case to the most effective service representative.
• Knowledge Sharing- Easily share common case solutions with the Twitter community from your knowledgebase within Salesforce.  



Now you can get in front of customer service conversations that are happening in real-time and be much more responsive to your customers.   Check out this two minute demo to learn more!