Salesforce

Vanessa Hunt Consulting Ltd has been working with Salesforce for the last 7 years. Here's our quick guide to Salesforce. We hope it answers your immediate questions, but please contact us if there's anything else we can help you with.

How is Salesforce different from other CRM systems?

Salesforce is different because:

• It includes sales, marketing and service functionality in one CRM system
• It can be configured extensively to suit your needs
• It is fully mobile
• There are thousands of applications which can be used with Salesforce

For us, it's a sophisticated CRM system for medium-sized businesses upwards to manage their complete business. 

A little background about Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM system that was designed for the cloud right from the start. 

Salesforce says:

Welcome to the customer success platform.

Salesforce is not just a CRM system, it's a complete business platform. Salesforce.com's goal is to provide you with a software platform that grows with your business. And fast.

How easy is it to use Salesforce?

For End Users, Salesforce is straightforward to use. Ideally you should have at least one trained System Administrator to support your implementation, otherwise you're unlikely to reap the full reward of your investment. Salesforce has been designed so that business users can configure it using point-and-click programming, rather than code. However, if you have complex automation requirements that you'd like to build in, you may also need the skills of a Developer. Having said that, you can accomplish an awful lot by developing Salesforce with a mouse and by incorporating additional apps into Salesforce.

Can you use Salesforce on a mobile device?

Yes, anything you configure in Salesforce1 is also available via mobile. 

Can you use it offline?

Partially. The Salesforce1 downloadable apps cache users' most recently used records for access offline. Offline access is currently read-only.

What are its key features?

Salesforce is extremely robust. It includes everything you need to manage your sales, marketing and service processes effectively (note that some functionality depends on your Edition):

• Campaign and lead management
• Account and contact management
• Opportunity management
• Case management
• Collaboration through Chatter
• Workflow automation
• Dashboards, reports and analytics

What are its benefits and business outcomes?

So what do all those features give you?

• Improved customer communications, since all departments are up-to-speed
• Faster, more efficient process management
• Customer analytics to inform business decisions

What about security?

Salesforce is one of the most secure CRM systems you'll find. In short, you can restrict visibility of records and fields, so your team members aren't distracted by unnecessary information. 

How much does Salesforce cost?

Pricing is based on a monthly subscription per user, which varies by Edition. 

For details of the functionality included in each Edition, please refer to the Salesforce pricing page.

 _{*Costs quoted are per user per month. Billed annually.}  

Where can I find out more about Salesforce?

Take a look at Salesforce.com's website, where you can find many more details. But if you'd like a demonstration, please click Request a demo to contact us.