Despite all the news about organizations forcing their employees to return to the office, remote working isn’t going away. As such, executives are starting to realize they need to support a hybrid or fully remote staff.
One of the key ways to do that is to build a strong work culture.… Read the rest
As a Salesforce consultant, you constantly need to make decisions.
Some are easy, such as whether you should rename standard objects (the answer is “no”). Some are more challenging, such as what will be the long-term impacts of adding a custom field to this object (the answer is “it depends”).… Read the rest
There’s a temptation that just because you can rename standard objects, you should. Common examples are
Here are several reasons why this is a bad idea.
1. Inconsistency
It’s generally bad design practice to have the label and API name be different.… Read the rest
There was more great feedback from another fellow reader. This time, it was related to selecting your Salesforce champion.
I’ll paraphrase, but the question was basically, “what about choosing your champion BEFORE the project starts?”
My reply was: the champion can be picked before the actual project implementation.… Read the rest
A fellow reader provided some feedback on the email How to display warning messages using the Salesforce Lightning Design System.
His main question was, why not use Salesforce’s Einstein Next Best Action (ENBA)? That’s a great question, and so I thought to share and expand my answer with you.… Read the rest
Did you know there are currently 58 countries that offer some kind of digital nomad visa?
The number keeps growing every year, and some visas are harder to obtain than others. So which ones are the easiest, cheapest and fastest to receive, in places you would actually want to go?… Read the rest
A client recently asked me for guidance on how to display warning messages on a contact record.
These warning messages need to be dynamic; sometimes none, one, or more messages will be displayed to the user. The requirement was also to have them as undismissable.… Read the rest
Salesforce offers a few options to merge records, whether they be accounts or contacts.
The merging process is straightforward for the user; you choose which record becomes the master, and merge individual fields into the master. All related objects of the merged records are reparented, and then merged records are deleted.… Read the rest
For a period of about five years, I worked with a medium-sized Salesforce agency. During that time, I was often the lead on the more challenging projects. They were usually the projects no one else could manage, or the really big ones that scared people away.… Read the rest
My coaching students often ask me what is usually the biggest concern about a Salesforce project. You know, the one that often keeps me up at night, worrying.
The answer usually surprises them, because it has nothing to do with technology.… Read the rest
According to a recent report by Future Forum, workers with a flexible schedule are 29% more productive and 53% more focused than those without. Flexible schedule means the ability to choose to work partly or completely remotely.
Yet executives are still stubbornly forcing employees to return to the office full-time.… Read the rest
Let’s imagine, as part of a new Salesforce implementation, you need to migrate data from a legacy system. The legacy system contains people and companies and sales opportunities. So, how much data should you migrate?
Most organizations will want all the accounts and contacts, regardless of when the last contact or activity was.… Read the rest
Following yesterday’s email on At least three rounds of data migration, there is a scenario in which you need a fourth round.
This scenario occurs when there is a delay between the “final extract” from the legacy system and the go-live of Salesforce.… Read the rest
Let’s imagine, as part of a new Salesforce implementation, you need to migrate data from a legacy system. Let’s also assume the data can be exported into a .csv file. So, how many rounds of data migration should you do?
Since the title gives away the answer, let’s discuss the rationale.… Read the rest
Picking up from the question, Should you only update the source of truth? my thoughts are as follows:
Forcing users to pause using the current system and have them “swivel chair” or open another browser tab to make a change in another system is a bad idea.… Read the rest
Here’s a story of a particularly close friend. Stefan is Canadian born, and holds both a Canadian and Polish passport. Anna is Polish born, and only has a Polish passport. I may have changed their names for this email.
A few years ago, when Stefan’s father grew ill while living in Canada, Stefan and Anna decided to uproot their lives in Poland and move their 4 children to Canada.… Read the rest
Let’s imagine a scenario in which Salesforce needs to integrate with a system of record for account information.
This system, which we’ll call AccountSOT, is the “source of truth” for some account-related fields. This includes the account name, addresses, phone numbers, and FAXs (don’t laugh, some companies still use them).… Read the rest
There are many ways to build trust with a new client. Here is one of the more unusual ones: swearing.
According to a 2017 study, “We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level and with higher integrity at the society level.”… Read the rest
Initially, tagging records seems like a good idea. And, in theory, it is. In practice however, not so much.
In Salesforce, tags are called topics. You can add the topic component to any lightning page, and then configure some basic settings such as the title, placeholder text, and number of topics shown.… Read the rest
On my podcast last week, I interviewed Ben Duncombe.
Ben is a Salesforce recruiter, helping people find their ideal jobs in the ecosystem. He also hosts a podcast and a TV show about Salesforce. He was born in London and moved to Australia several years ago.… Read the rest
An interesting article that crossed my path today was about remote job stacking.
As the story unfolds, a 48-year-old from Texas started working as a network engineer at company A. In this full-time position, he made $117,500 a year and worked on-site.… Read the rest
The first time I heard the word “hypercare”, I thought it was a nonsensical word. I quickly grouped it with other “hyper” words, like hyperforce, hyperspeed, and hyper-ridiculous.
After learning what it actually means and why it exists, I started offering it on all my Salesforce projects.… Read the rest
We’re all human. And humans make mistakes. Which means you make mistakes.
Talking about mistakes is even a popular Salesforce interview question. It’s usually phrased as, “tell me about a mistake you made and how you learned from it”.
Taking the time to understand and analyze your mistakes is an important step to learn from them.… Read the rest
When I first started my consulting business 20 years ago, I discovered you need to track income and expenses (isn’t that shocking!).
I evaluated all the cloud-based software available like FreshBooks and QuickBooks to see which was the best choice for me.… Read the rest
Salesforce projects, along with most other projects, work within three main constraints:
These are also known as the iron triangle, which you have to admit sounds a whole lot cooler than just saying, “three constraints”.… Read the rest
Remote working became significantly more popular over the last several years. As a result, the hospitality industry took notice and started to adapt. They are attempting to attract people who travel for both business and pleasure. This mix, labelled “bleisure”, is a fast-growing buzzword.… Read the rest
The last pillar of a Salesforce Center of Excellence is security. Here are three main considerations for security:
1. New/Old Users
With a small org, it’s common for new users to be manually added and maintained. When a user leaves the organization, they can be manually frozen or deactivated.… Read the rest
Knowing how you will manage metadata is the next pillar of the Salesforce Center of Excellence. Here are three many considerations.
1. Source Code Repository
When you have a small org, it’s OK to start building metadata in a single instance, say a Development (DEV) sandbox.… Read the rest
Nothing happens without leadership. It’s the staff at the helm of the ship that drives projects forward. Without them, everyone would randomly bump into each other, like bumper cars at the arcade.
Here are three important roles of leadership within a Center of Excellence.… Read the rest
The architecture pillar of the Salesforce Center of Excellence is a massive conversation. Setting up the architecture team and For now, let’s focus on three topics.
1. Data Modeling
One of my favorite expressions in construction is “measure twice and cut once”.… Read the rest