Salesforce Implementation Guide: From Planning to User Adoption

1.????Preliminaries

Salesforce is a powerful Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM tool, enabling companies to connect with their clients through cloud-based software. With Salesforce CRM, organizations can have a complete overview of their business performance in operations, finance, sales, marketing, and more. Salesforce has various products that are specially designed to deliver specific goal: Sales Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Pardot, and so much more. With the proper implementation of this CRM, organizations shall increase sales efficiency, close more deals, and increase the accuracy of forecasts. Salesforce provides various software solutions and a platform for users and developers to develop and distribute custom software. Salesforce.com is based on multi-tenant architecture. This means that multiple customers share common technology and all run on the latest release.

The cloud services that are offered by Salesforce are:

·??????Sales Cloud - Sales Cloud is a CRM platform that enables the organization to manage sales, marketing and customer support facets. If the organization is engaged in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C), then sales cloud fulfils sales team needs.

·??????Marketing Cloud - Marketing cloud provides the organization with one of the world’s most powerful digital marketing platforms. The marketers in organisation can use it to manage customer journey, email, mobile, social media, web personalization, content creation, content management and data analytics.

·??????Service Cloud - Service Cloud is a service platform for organization’s customer service and support team. It provides features like case tracking and social networking plug-in for conversation and analytics. This not only helps your agents to solve customer problems faster, but also gives your customers access to answers. Using these answers your customers can solve problems on their own.

·??????Community Cloud - If the organization needs a social platform to connect and facilitate communication among employees, partners and customers then Salesforce Community Cloud is the service the organization needs to exchange data and images in real time.

·??????Commerce Cloud - Commerce Cloud enables the organization to provide seamless customer service and experience irrespective of customer’s location (online or in-store). It also provides for customer data integration so that consumers can have a better experience. If the goal is to provide customer with a positive, engaging customer experience, Commerce Cloud is the service the organization needs.

·??????Analytics Cloud - Analytics Cloud provides a business intelligence platform for organization to work with large data files, create graphs, charts and other pictorial representations of data. It is optimized for mobile access and data visualization and can be integrated with other Salesforce clouds.

·??????App Cloud - To develop custom apps that will run on the Salesforce platform, the organization can use Salesforce App Cloud. It provides the organization with a collection of development tools that can be utilized to create custom applications. Some of the tools in App Cloud include:

-??????Force.com, allows admins and developers to create websites and applications into the main Salesforce.com application.

-??????AppExchange is an online application marketplace for third-party applications that run on the Force.com platform.

-??????Heroku Enterprise gives developers the flexibility to create apps using their preferred languages and tools.

-??????Salesforce Thunder is big data and rules processing engine designed to analyse events and take personalized actions.

-??????Salesforce Sandbox allows developers to test ideas in a safe and isolated development environment.

·??????IoT Cloud - When the organization needs to store and process Internet of Things (IoT) data, the services of Salesforce IoT cloud can be utilized. The platform is built to take in massive volumes of data generated by devices, sensors, websites, applications, customers and partners. On receiving this data, the platform initiates actions to give real time responses.

·??????Health Cloud - If a Health IT organization requires a CRM system that incorporates doctor-patient relationship and record management, then Health Cloud is the need. Through the patient profile the organization can support one-to-one relationship by integrating information from multiple data sources.

Other Services That Are Offered By Salesforce Are:

·??????Chatter - Chatter is an enterprise collaboration platform from Salesforce that enables employees to collaborate. Chatter can help the organization drive productivity by connecting employees wherever they are. It also helps in knowledge sharing between departments in an organization or different organizations.

·??????Salesforce1 - Salesforce1 is the platform which enables organization to develop application and exchange data via Application Programming Interface (APIs). APIs refer to prebuilt programming code components.

2.????Salesforce Implementation Methodology

Salesforce Implementation Lifecycle has following phases:

·??????Launch: Confirm scope, objectives, establish project approach and develop the project plan.

·??????Discover: Identify solution (functional & technical), analyse and define the requirements.

·??????Design: Conduct detailed design workshop, prepare design document and sign-off.

·??????Build: Translate design specifications into a configured and customized Salesforce solution.

·??????Validate: Execute test plan to validate the solution is constructed to meet the requirements.

·??????Deploy: Transition solution to live production, Admin & End User training, post go-live Support.

·??????Closure - executes the final step in closing out the project

2.1???????Launch

?2.1.1?????Objective

Implementation Partner shall conduct Kick off meeting, Confirm scope, objectives, establish project approach and develop the project plan.?

?2.1.2?????Key Activities

·??????Project goals and objectives by the project’s executive sponsor

·??????Implementation Partner and Client Team members roles & responsibilities

·??????Review project implementation plan and methodology

·??????Schedule dates for the business process review (BPR) sessions

?Both the parties shall identify and involve the right people for Salesforce implementation in the process. At the minimum, try and include following participants:

·??????Project sponsor: Executive-or management-level person who drives and supports the project from start to finish

·??????System administrator: to manage Salesforce CRM activities and maintenance from day to day

·??????Project manager: to lead the implementation initiative and keep it on track as per plan

·??????Power users: People who can help ensure that the project will meet the needs of end-users (including management)

·??????Trainers: People who can find relevant training material from salesforce.com or develop custom materials from scratch

Communicating with your end-users right from the beginning is a good idea to get buy-in and ensure that implementation and adoption are as smooth as possible. Ideally, all major communication should come from the project sponsor.

?2.1.3?????Deliverables

Kick-off Presentation, Project Charter, Project Schedule

2.2???????Discover

2.2.1?????Objectives

During Discover session, Implementation Partner shall capture the business requirements and develop a common understanding with the primary stakeholders.?

2.2.2?????Key Activities

·??????To provide a common understanding of standard Salesforce functionality

·??????To review captured requirements and assign prioritization to each

·??????To review working models (if applicable) to ensure common understanding on potential solutions for identified requirements

·??????To schedule design sessions

?2.2.3?????Deliverables

Business Requirement Specification

2.3???????Design

2.3.1?????Objectives

Solution(ing)?will encompass (i) configuration and development (ii) Data Quality Review and Conversion and (iii) System Integration.?At all times, security, ease of maintenance for the System Administrator and usability & adoption for the End Users should be a consideration.

2.3.2?????Key Activities

·??????To architect a solution that encompasses all processes and uses automation without over-engineering

·??????To take current processes and create a conceptual outline of the solution which includes all aspects of the technology being delivered

·??????To schedule configuration tasks and transition development accordingly

?2.3.3?????Deliverables

Technical Solution Document

2.4???????Build

2.4.1?????Objectives

Configure?includes core Salesforce configuration, development, and integration; it consists of updating configurable data model, building custom fields & forms as needed, and modifying the application as identified during the Discover phase.?This phase will also include all integration development, as needed.?

2.4.2?????Key Activities

·??????To walk through the screens of the application to ensure the proper set-up, validate drop-down values, and to agree on field placement. The main objective is to gain agreement by key stakeholders regarding the look and feel of the page layouts. Implementation Partner shall implement Salesforce functionalities specific to their business requirements and customize the application for ease of use, easy search capabilities and key data points, such as:

·Application Management

-??????Configure object page layouts, page sections, and custom field

-??????Customize home page, custom views, and page layouts

-??????Set up Sales app, tabs, related list views, and mini-view hover details

Customer and Contact Management

-??????Configure account and contact process and custom fields

-??????Configure validation rules and field dependency

Pipeline and Activity Management

-??????Configure sales and activity processes, including stages

-??????Configure validation rules and field dependency

Security Settings

-??????Configure enterprise-wide roles and hierarchy

-??????Customize organization-wide sharing settings

Reports and Dashboard Management

-??????Configure sales pipeline and sales effectiveness reports and dashboards

·??????To walk through a series of Day-in-the-Life scenarios and conduct configuration workshops. The primary purpose is for the stakeholders to understand and validate how the screens flow together to satisfy common business tasks.?This session is focused on the feel of the application and all functionality should be available.?The objective is to secure agreement of the application function from all stakeholders.

·??????Provide data quality analysis report with detailed activities and ongoing plan to support data quality and accuracy

-??????Comprehensive review of existing data integrity issues (i) Inaccurate, inconsistent or duplicate records in Salesforce (ii) Individual records needing correction (e.g. de-duplication, data cleansing)

-??????Data Integrity Analysis (i) Data quality issues by object

-??????Data Clean-up Recommendations

-??????Data required to be imported or converted

-??????Data Quality Testing included in User Acceptance Testing

-??????Customized recommendations based on org volume, complexity and data specifications

-??????Data Quality Action Plan (i) Steps to execute tools (ii) Steps to Implement data quality control (iii) Schedule for next steps decision

2.4.3?????Deliverables

Configured System

2.5???????Validate

2.5.1?????Objectives

Validate?phase consists of an iterative series of tests aligned to ensure that the application and integrations operates in accordance with the requirements

2.5.2?????Key Objectives

Develop test plan and facilitate client sign-off and approval for Salesforce and Data Hub integration:

·??????Setup and establish testing process to log and address application defects and changes

·??????Create comprehensive test plan and perform application unit testing and integration testing if applicable

·??????Guide user acceptance testing and facilitate UAT meetings to address defects

·??????Prioritize open issues and/or changes requested

?2.5.3?????Deliverables

System & Integration Test Plan and Result, User Acceptance Test Plan and Result, System Signoff

2.6???????Deploy

2.6.1?????Objectives

Deploy?phase consists of training, knowledge transfer, and application deployment to production.?

2.6.2?????Key Objectives

·??????Deploy Application

·??????Create deployment checklist and manage execution

·??????Create unit tests to support APEX code for test coverage

·??????Deploy all VISUALFORCE, APEX code, and configuration to production

·??????Provide system access based on deployment plan to end-users

·??????Develop training and user adoption documentation

·??????Conduct Application Training

·??????Conduct SFDC system administrator training sessions

·??????Conduct Super User training sessions

?2.6.3?????Deliverables

Configuration & Training Manual, Live System on Production Server

2.7???????Closure

2.7.1?????Objectives

Implementation Partner thoughtfully executes the final step in closing out the project by auditing a check list of completed tasks and conducting a final meeting to ensure the application is deployed satisfactory.

2.7.2?????Key Objectives

·??????Conduct final team status meeting

·??????Provide recommendations for future phases and roadmap

?2.7.3?????Deliverables

Final Status MoM, Project Closure Signoff

3.????User Adoption

At this time, Salesforce solution is properly configured, convenient UI is created, and routine sales and customer service tasks are automated. If employees have been trained to use these features and automated processes, half of the user adoption job is done. User adoption can be further facilitated by user training delivered by implementation provider’s training specialist or in-house Salesforce admin. The list of measures that will help employees to use Salesforce effectively includes:

?3.1???????Salesforce Expert’s Help

It’s good to have a Salesforce admin or an employee with the deep knowledge of Salesforce to help users fill the gap in working with Salesforce quickly and painlessly. If there’s such a person providing support in a timely and efficient way, the adoption rate will grow pretty soon. If hiring a Salesforce admin is not your top priority, the organization may resort to managed services, delivered by a reliable Salesforce services provider.

?3.2???????Best Adopters Rewards

To motivate more users to work with the Salesforce solution, the organization may identify the best Salesforce adopters by measuring user login rates, the number of reports created, contacts added or other criteria of productive Salesforce usage. Recognizing Salesforce enthusiasts and rewarding them publically with prizes and certificates or by placing them in the Salesforce leaderboard may motivate others to do their best with Salesforce too.

4.????Pre- Implementation Checklist

A good Salesforce implementation partner shall support the way companies markets, sells and supports its customers. Below is a sample list of questions to be asked by Implementation Partner during a Salesforce implementation.

4.1???????Project Planning

·??????Have they appointed an Internal Project Manager at the client?

·??????Have they identified an Internal Salesforce Admin(s) at the start of the project? Is the Salesforce Admin going to be equipped with adequate training?

·??????Is there enthused Salesforce Champions appointed per department/team?

·??????Is their buy-in to the Train the Trainer approach with champions?

·??????Do they have resource appointed to manage data cleansing?

·??????What is the level of Salesforce experience amongst client stakeholders?

·??????What is the capacity of staff to evaluate their processes and business needs?

·??????Is the organisation ready for change and are employees bought in? Is there any evidence of concern or negative resistance to a new CRM?

·??????Is there a lack of clarity or alignment with Agile Project Management?

·??????Is there lack of clarity on tangible business goals and benefits of the CRM implementation?

·??????Is there lack of clarity on the roles and responsibilities of an Executive Sponsor?

·??????Could decision making take longer than usual due to remote planning and team working? Is there a risk that project tasks that be delayed that could impact timelines?

·??????How complex is the technical solution and are there related risks?

·??????Is there adequate resource/budget to manage the CRM post implementation?

·??????Has this risk register been completed and understood by the client?

4.2???????Business Processes

·??????How do you market to your customers today?

·??????How do you measure marketing ROI?

·??????How do you track the level of interest of a prospect?

·??????How do you sell or move a deal forward?

·??????What are your main sales activities?

·??????How do you track a salesperson’s effectiveness?

·??????How do you prioritize sales activities (who does a salesperson call first, second, etc.)?

·??????What does your sales pipeline look like today and what are your stages?

·??????When is a lead or prospect “qualified”?

·??????Do you sell directly or through partners?

·??????Does your sales process differ for existing versus new customers?

·??????How do you recognize revenue and compensate your salespeople?

·??????Do you set targets, quotas, or goals for salespeople on revenue, what they sell, or both?

·??????How do you “onboard” a new customer?

·??????Do you track contracts or service levels today?

·??????What ongoing support or care do you provide your existing customers?

·??????How would your customers like to interact with you today (or do you even know)?

·??????How do you measure service levels for existing accounts?

·??????Do you track issues with your customers or products today?

·??????Do you need to extend pieces of your Salesforce.com configuration to an external constituency – such as your customers or sales partners?

4.3???????Data

·??????What are the data relationships for your records that will be housed in Salesforce.com (e.g. – What are all the one-to-one and one-to-many relationships)?

·??????Where does the data reside today?

·??????Who owns the source data?

·??????If some of the data will remain in an external system, how will Salesforce.com be updated (does in need to “sync” or integrate with a data warehouse or legacy system)?

4.4???????Security

·??????Can everyone see every record or does some data need to be hidden from certain Users?

·??????Are there any restrictions on who can create, edit or delete a record?

·??????Will any type of hierarchy need to exist (such as a Sales team or a territory structure)?

·??????Any restrictions on User’s logging into Salesforce (hours, IP addresses, etc)?

5.????Risk Management

5.1???????Risks

·??????Agility & Stability - Agile platforms loses stability with increasing number or speed of changes. While it can be argued that every requirement should be met in the platform, it can lead to skewed priorities and bad platform design. Overcoming and balancing the Agility-Stability Paradox is possible with people, process and technology.

·??????Deployment Rollback- Release deployments are difficult to roll-back, if not impossible. In some cases, there is even a data loss risk.

·??????Data Quality - Bad data quality in case of brownfield implementations.

·??????Development across Distributed Team – The risk occurs especially when there are multiple teams & developers focusing on development in their areas without visibility to what others are doing. The risk compounds when lines of businesses have siloed requirements and siloed development.

5.2???????Mitigation

·??????Configuration vs Customization - Determine best fit and ascertain whether to use vanilla (out of the box) or customize. There has to be a balance between configuration and customization. Architect platform wisely for organization’s vision as keeping a watch on Salesforce platform’s future direction. Don’t build something you might get out of the box in future. It is possible that instances become complex in short period of time due to uncontrolled development. Hence, governance to manage changes is very important.

·??????Short term vs Long term - Single authority (i.e. Product Manager) should be established that has visibility of business needs of all lines of businesses and organizational short team and long term vision and in turn, requirements.

·??????Standardization vs Differentiation - Devise and design common data model, common services, and common processes. There has to be fine balance between standardization and differentiation. Both are equally important. One platform (data and application building block) for enterprise means diverse teams have to be aligned.

·??????Quality assurance & Testing – Agile does not mean cutting corners on quality assurance or lesser emphasis on basics of software development. Sufficient time and effort should be given for QA/ Regression testing. Many online tools are available over the web and also in AppExchange. Administrators can create their in-house tools for quality review to weed out manual errors, employ automation tools for deployment and testing. DevOps can be considered for mature organizations.

·??????Full sandboxes – Typically organizations do not invest in more than 1 full QA sandbox. When data migration load timelines and performance testing require multiple loads, single QA environment is not practical as it hinders other ongoing feature changes.

·??????Data quality - It is easy for bad data to find its way into the Salesforce org. Once it is in the org, it gets more expansive to correct it due to nature of the cloud application, especially for large volumes of data. There are many tools that can help clean data upfront and save adoption risks and challenges afterwards.

·??????As in any other program, there should be a balance between employing outside experts versus in-house experts. It is better to have core leadership skills in-house for long term vision and direction.

Reference

1.??????Project Management Methodology, https://www.configero.com/about/our-project-management-methodology/

2.??????Salesforce Implementation Pre-flight Checklist, June 2010, https://www.shellblack.com/consulting/implementation-checklist/

3.??????Heather Black, 20 Risks to avoid on a Salesforce Project, August 2021, https://supermums.org/risks-to-avoid-on-a-salesforce-projects/

Denis Zhinko, Salesforce Implementation: from Planning to User Adoption, https://www.scnsoft.com/blog/salesforce-implementation-guide