Blog
July 28, 2014
If you are a Salesforce user, you have no doubt heard of the new Salesforce1 mobile app, and most likely you have installed it and love it. It is a major improvement in usability compared to previous Salesforce mobile solutions such as Salesforce Classic. It is purpose-built for the touch paradigm and integrates well with your device’s calendar, phone, and email capabilities.
However, when it comes down to it, you probably think of the Salesforce1 mobile app as a way to view and update records from the field – and you have been able to do that with Salesforce mobile solutions for over 5 years. So what’s really new here?
MOBILE BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS: THE GAME CHANGER
Allowing every organization to conduct business transactions in the field is going to totally change the way many nonprofits and higher education institutions work. Do you remember the first time the UPS guy showed up at your door with a device that allowed him to scan your package as delivered and have you sign electronically? I bet you said “wow, that’s really cool”!
Do you also remember what the process was before that magic device? The delivery guy had you sign on a big paper roster of packages – with a sticker stuck next to the signature line. Definitely not cool – and a really inefficient way to capture accurate and timely business transaction information.
How many of the field business transactions at your nonprofit or higher education institution are still done on paper – or even worse, solely in people’s memory such that they never get captured in your business systems? I expect the answer is “too many”!
The Salesforce1 mobile app can help you transform your field business transactions into constituent interactions that are efficient, accurate, and automatically captured in Salesforce.
PUBLISHER ACTIONS = MOBILE EFFICIENCY
The key feature that makes the Salesforce1 mobile app a game changer for mobile business transactions is Publisher Actions. A Publisher Action is a shortcut to quickly capture a bit of data and update an existing record or create a new one. If you are already using Salesforce1 you will find a few Publisher Actions within the big “+” button in the lower right of your mobile screen when you are viewing a record. A simple example is using the standard Log a Call action to capture an interaction with a constituent, such as a Major Gift Officer logging notes after a prospect meeting.
One benefit of Publisher Actions is that you can configure them to only capture the data that is critical to the transaction being performed – and pre-fill default field values appropriate to that transaction. For example, you may have 200 fields on the contact record, but you really only need to update 3 fields in this situation in the field. This dramatically enhances user satisfaction with working remotely and improves data quality.
You can configure Publisher Actions unique to your organization’s mission, most often with clicks not code. Let’s say you are a human services organization that distributes blankets to homeless citizens in the winter. You could configure an action that allows staff to capture with each blanket distributed a quick record of the location and a few characteristics of the recipient. Imagine how the resulting data could help focus your service delivery and measure outcomes.
THINK PROCESS INNOVATION
Automating existing field processes has a lot of benefit. However, the real leap forward is when you start to invent entirely new business processes only possible with an efficient mobile Salesforce platform. If you sent your nonprofit’s staff out to visit your constituents in the field with connected devices, what metrics could they capture to help you target your investment or measure your outcomes? If you mobilized your university’s alumni association volunteers at the next big football game, what new ways of engaging with alumni and donors could you dream up?
Once you begin pairing the innovations of Salesforce1 with innovations in your own organization or institution, that’s when things really start to get interesting.
