Salesforce News: May 2023

Salesforce Scoop

What’s New with Salesforce?  

Salesforce Releases their Approach to Return-to-Work

We were really curious to see what Salesforce was going to say about return-to-work, and rather than paraphrase this, we decided to share it with you verbatim. We see a lot of our clients are back in the office, or have returned to the same office philosophy they had pre-Covid. What are your post-Covid goals? How are you navigating this shift?

“Salesforce has joined the AI revolution launching Einstein GPT, the world’s first generative AI for CRM. Einstein aims to make employees more productive and improve the customer journey by creating personalized experiences across every Salesforce cloud.

The workplace is continuously evolving — and never more so than in the past few years. Traditional ideas about work have been transformed — flexible schedules have replaced 9-to-5 workdays, and hybrid work has replaced five days in the office. But there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to work. In order to be successful, we must take into account the unique needs of each team and the jobs to be done.

At Salesforce, we’ve reignited our high performance culture to unlock new levels of productivity and drive greater customer success. One of the key ways we’re doing this is through our Return & Remote guidelines, which leverage the best of what we’ve learned about how work gets done and our incredible offices around the world to drive deeper collaboration, continuous coaching, peer mentoring, and employee enablement.

Our Return & Remote approach empowers leaders to make decisions for their teams about how and where they work, using the following guidelines:

• Office-flexible: Office-flexible teams are assigned to an office location, and work in-person three days per week – whether in the office, meeting with customers or partners, or attending events.
• Customer-facing: Customer-facing teams are in-person with each other or their customers four days per week.
• Technical: Product and engineering teams are in-person together 10 days per quarter for product releases, team-building, and collaboration.
• Remote: Remote employees are not assigned to an office and remote status is agreed upon with the employee’s manager.

We trust our leaders to know their business and their people — including which jobs need to be done in the office or remotely — and make decisions for their teams accordingly. Some teams, like our engineers, need to come together for longer periods each quarter for scrums and product launches. On the other hand, customer-facing teams like Sales benefit from being in-person with each other and with customers most days of the week. Since we first introduced these guidelines in February 2023, office attendance is up more than 40% globally.

We’ve also learned that not all jobs require an office. If that’s the case, employees can work with their leadership to switch to full-time remote work. Historically, about 18% of our employees have worked remotely, and today, that number has increased to 27% — and rising — as we continue to innovate around how and where we work.

The result is a win-win — employees can continue to lead with flexibility, and leaders can increase efficiency and productivity.

As we move forward, we will continue to listen, learn, and iterate together to ensure our employees — and ultimately our customers — are successful.”

There’s a lot of Salesforce news, and it’s hard to keep up!  As always, Cloud Adoption Solutions aims to bring the best and most important Salesforce news to you so you don’t have to do all of the work. Keep following along with us and make sure to subscribe to our blog posts for more!  – Sam

User Adoption Research: Details from my PhD Research

 Studying Salesforce Academically – and then Putting it into Practice

You all know how much I love the things that are possible with Salesforce. The day-to-day improvements that can be made by igniting what’s possible, evaluating the process in a value stream mapping approach, and then using declarative or custom motion in your instance can make your head spin – in the best way!

The first year I attended Dreamforce (2013?!?! YEESH), I was so overwhelmed by the “art of the possible” that I took an entire notebook’s worth of ideas in ONE DAY.  (Check out this vintage photo below!)

So…you can imagine how I felt on Monday, when we had a call with three Salesforce employees, two of them doctors, and we got to geek out on what the future of Salesforce looks like – and how that is going to come to life onstage at Life Sciences Dreamin’ in August.  SQUEEEEE! I cannot wait to share more with you all…watch this space!

If you want even more info on this critical CRM user adoption research, I have a journey built that you can follow if you click here. Or, shoot me a message to have us help you develop your adoption strategy.  – Shannon 

Tips on YouTube

Salesforce: CAS Come and See Videos

Salesforce Stage Tracking: CAS Come and See Video

If you’d like to know the time and the date that a record enters a specific stage, you can use Salesforce Flow to build a stage tracker or a status tracker.  Join Malik as he shows you the why and the how to use Salesforce Stage Tracking.  Join Malik as he shows you how!

Interested in seeing more? Cloud Adoption Solutions has committed to launching videos on Youtube at a much higher rate this year, so subscribe to our channel to stay in the know! Watch as the team shows new trends, shows instructional videos, and keeps you up to date on all things Salesforce.  Subscribe to never miss a thing: we show you something new every week. – Andrew

Advice from an Expert

Send your Qs to info@cloudadoption.solutions

Q:  How can I continue to find new integrations for Salesforce?

A: Like most things in the Salesforce world, we are lucky to say there is more than one way of doing things! When it comes to integrations that have a huge potential impact on your business, there are a few places to look that we recommend.

The AppExchange should always be first on your list; whether you want automation, sales enablement, or digital engagement, the Salesforce AppExchange has what you need! Just search in the search bar what exactly you are looking for, and take a look around! Many companies include demos of their product and are eager to meet with you. This is even how we have found some of our amazing partners!

Another way we suggest to find new integrations for your Salesforce org is through searching YouTube. Salesforce is HUGE on YouTube; there are thousands of accounts that create helpful videos and demo their own orgs. This is a great place to go when someone is looking to bolster their own integrations, and often will point them in the right direction.

Finally, ask your Salesforce Partner or Salesforce AE. They’re a wealth of knowledge and have access to a large community to ask these sorts of questions, to keep your search accurate for the best solution!

Integrations are a huge part of Salesforce, and each year amazing new apps and tools are made available. Getting the right integrations could mean the difference between yourself and a competitor, so in this current business climate, always be looking for ways to innovate before others do!

To find your next integration search here on the Appexchange!

If you have specific questions about Salesforce, let us know – we’re happy to lend a hand.  Hit “reply” to this email and we’ll jump on a Zoom! – Andrew

Content Corner

• STREAMING:  “Think Outside the Quota” is a show we’re really loving on Salesforce+. In the episode “How to Deliver Strategic Revenue Growth,” Enlightened COO Jen Haberman presents a six-step plan to drive revenue.
• APPS WE LOVE:  Soundboardforce from Salesforce Labs is hilarious. Send sounds to other Salesforce users. Increase laughter, and probably adoption as well!
• TRAILS WE LOVE: Healthy Eating with Salesforce’s Executive Chef is a fun trail for when you have a few minutes to read about food.
• WANT TO BE A GUEST COLUMNIST? We’d love to feature your hot take on Salesforce! Email us and let us know your idea!

• 5/18-19 Texas Dreamin‘, Austin, TX
• 5/18 Life Sciences Dreamin’ Lunch and Learn, Boston, MA is a can’t-miss event for Salesforce fans or Life Sciences pros; featuring a wonderful panel and a delicious lunch, you’ll love this event! (**only three spots left!**)
• 6/7-9 Buckeye Dreamin’, Columbus, OH – check out the talk by our own Shannon Gregg with Eric Dreshfield!
• 6/29-30 Southeast Dreamin’, Atlanta, GA
• 8/16-18 Midwest Dreamin‘, Minneapolis, MN
• 8/24-25 Life Sciences Dreamin‘, Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Call for Speakers is now live!) Keynote speakers being announced and registration will open NEXT WEEK! If you’d like to sponsor Life Sciences Dreamin’, there are packages for every budget. Please email today.