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Salesforce

Salesforce Spring 15 Platform Highlights

With Christmas a distant memory (well almost) it’s time to turn our attention to the next big event on the calendar, and no not New Year, I mean the Spring ’15 release of course. The key dates for the Spring ’15 release are outlined here, the detailed rollout schedule can be found in the usual […]

Salesforce Activity Sharing

This brief post serves to clarify the sharing model related to Activities, i.e. Task and Event. For most implementations a public sharing model for Activity is highly appropriate and a necessary element of the CRM process. In some cases however a private model is required, perhaps where strict visibility rules must be applied in respect […]

Salesforce Topics

One of the more interesting (but low-key) functional enhancements to arrive on the Salesforce platform over recent releases is Topics. A Topic can be viewed as a consolidation of the collective enterprise intelligence around a specific term or theme, across both the collaboration dialogue and the business processes managed within Salesforce. In practical terms this […]

Salesforce Environment Hub

Environment Hub was announced back in August 2012 and was initially made available as a Pilot feature of the Winter ’13 release. This post follows up (some 2 years later) on my initial interest in understanding the utility Environment Hub delivers in the context of environment/user management. Environment Hub – What is it? In simple […]

Conceptual Data Modelling

The biggest area of risk on any Salesforce implementation project is the data model. In my view this assertion is beyond question. The object data structures and relationships underpin everything. Design mistakes made in the declarative configuration or indeed technical components such as errant Apex Triggers, poorly executed Visualforce pages etc. are typically isolated and […]

Salesforce Release Methodology – Change Control

This post presents a basic model for the control of change within a Salesforce development process. Best practice suggests that all non-trivial projects should implement some degree of governance around environment change, i.e. Change Control. This is perhaps obvious, what isn’t necessarily obvious is how to achieve effective change control without introducing friction to the […]

Salesforce Winter 15 Platform Highlights

Once again it’s official the summer is over and winter is approaching – Winter ’15 that is. Sporting a nice Eskimo logo, the new release rolls out across the sandbox instances imminently, with the main production pod upgrades occurring in mid October. The detailed rollout schedule can be found here and the all important Winter […]

Salesforce Live Agent

Live Agent – What is it? Live Agent enables real-time, online chat between an organisation and its customers, prospects etc. The chat sessions can be initiated via clicking a button or link on a web page, or via automated invitation based on page access metrics etc. For the end user, it can be very convenient […]

Salesforce Application Types

In a typical development process requirements are captured and the information synthesised to form a solution design. The constituent components of the solution design are ultimately translated into physical concepts such as a class, page or sub-page view. This analysis, design, build cycle could be iterative in nature or fixed and may have different degrees […]

Salesforce Release Methodology – Simple Case

A very common challenge addressed by architects working with Salesforce is the definition of an appropriate release methodology. By this I mean the identification of the Salesforce orgs required to support the project delivery whether serial or concurrent in nature, the role and purpose of each org and critically, the means by which change is […]