Students who are planning a distance learning education might have doubts about whether an online degree in business is worth the time, effort and money it takes to earn it.
In an online degree in a business program, learners explore the essential principles that drive business. It includes crafting strategic plans and managing people and resources. The students can also specialize in one of several areas such as international business, finance, accounting, and small business.
Whether a learner completes an associate degree or a master’s degree in this field, a degree in business is one of the most versatile majors available, and graduates are prepared for a range of exciting career opportunities in the future.
Why earn an online degree?
What makes online learning so popular? Today everyone is looking for convenience, flexibility and great value in their education. Many work full time or part-time and some have important family responsibilities. Some people can’t afford to focus entirely on choosing a diploma in business management by quitting their jobs or neglecting their family obligations.
Thankfully with online learning, students can get their education without having to make such sacrifices. They can go for their desired online degree in a business program that lets them log into the virtual classroom with ease. They can schedule and study and complete their courses whenever and wherever they want.
Benefits of Earning a Business Degree Online:
Accessibility
The students in an online business management degree get access to online lectures in a flexible time range. Some of the online business programs even provide a semester’s worth of materials instantly. It allows students to complete the work at their own convenience and as per their schedule.
Flexibility
As many business schools use the traditional model, the online business degree offers flexible learning so that students can begin their degree any time of the year from any part of the country.
School Options
Enrolling in the online course allows a student to find a program that fits its interests and skills, regardless of their locations. For example, a local college may not offer an MBA, and some of the best universities in the country offer the course which is accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
Diversity
Business relies on the ability to network and expand contacts. Online courses feature students from a range of diverse backgrounds. This network gives the online learner an additional edge over their on-campus counterparts.
Technology
With advancements in technology, online students can easily connect with faculty and classmates through live lectures, video conferences, and online discussion groups.
Online education is swiftly replacing traditional ways and is becoming a popular choice among students. They also open many possibilities of work as employers whole-heartedly embrace the digitized version of learning.
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As an entrepreneur, your customers are the biggest pillar of your business. No matter your industry of domain, area of specialization, or even your business focus, they are the single most valuable asset to your organization and you should treat them as so.
Through their valuable feedback, your business can gain a new sense of direction, develop new concepts, as well as bring in more revenue. With that said, as a business owner, simply appreciating your customers isn’t enough. You need to truly understand them to tailor your products and services to meet them at their point of need. And that’s where Salesforce application development comes in.
It entails creating integrated customer relationship management solutions that interface businesses with their customers. These CRM platforms also give all the departments in a particular organization a unified view of all the customers and how they interact with various aspects of the business.
In this article, we are going to look at what Salesforce is and its uses. While at it, we are also going to delve deeper to see the entire Salesforce application development lifecycle.
What Is Salesforce?
Simply put, it’s a cloud computing SaaS company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. Thanks to the company’s cloud technology, businesses are able to better connect with their existing clientele, partners, and potential customers.
Over the years, Salesforce software has grown to become the leading marketing and customer behavior tracking solution for both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. As it turns out, customer relationship management is one of the key driving factors for the increasing demand for application development in Salesforce.
Recent research from Vonage offered a compelling view of the effects and consequences of poor customer service. In the US alone, the research revealed that an estimated $62 billion is lost annually as a result of bad customer experience.
To underwrite this figure, a different report from Huffpost has indicated that 91% of customers won’t hesitate to switch brands once they experience bad customer service. These are mind-blowing figures, especially if a business has no solution to counter the consequences of poor customer experience.
However, with Salesforce in place, businesses are able to overcome the problems caused by poor customer service and other business process variables. According to statistics published on Salesforce’s website, companies that are currently using their software have continued to see average increases in multiple areas. For instance, 34% of users have seen an increase in customer satisfaction, with 27% and 32% users seeing an increase in sales revenues and lead conversion respectively.
In 2018, Salesforce emerged as the biggest CRM software commanding a total of 19.8% market share of the CRM software market. During the same period, the company was voted as the #1 CRM provider by the International Data Corporation. It shouldn't come as a surprise that companies are willing to pay the highest Salesforce consultant salary just to get wind of this technology.
The Benefits of Using Salesforce
Given the commendable portfolio of Salesforce, here are areas it can help your business find success. Below I am going to discuss the benefits of using Salesforce.
Helps Collect Customer Intel
In the prevailing competitive business environment, overlooking data collection can be a fatal and unforgiving mistake. As a business, collecting and collating customer intelligence should be an obsession or the very least treated as a full-time affair, because it can lead to loss of revenue. As such, if you are to improve customer satisfaction and continue remaining competitive, hiring qualified Salesforce developers to build a high-quality CRM tool is inevitable.
And with Salesforce, you get an upper hand over your competitors by enjoying tools that help you identify, understand, and solve customer problems.
Flexible And Scalable
As companies and business needs continue to evolve, the tools of trade must also adapt. For instance, if the structures of your business start to grow, the management software should be able to seamlessly accommodate the changes. Cognizant of this fact, Salesforce CRM comes with multiple functions that allow for scalability right from the initial stages to any future interactions.
Helps in Account Planning
Having a unified view of customer information allows your teams to independently make plans for various accounts. It also facilitates a more hands-on customer connection approach as well as allows various reps and departments in your organization to modify their plans for optimized results. Salesforce also comes with a to-do items feature, which helps your entire workforce stay organized throughout the day.
Along with that, Salesforce also works as an organizational tool. Your team can create calendar reminders specifying the future customer follow-ups or important duties reminders to the upper management, which helps prevent anything from falling through the cracks.
If you are in the service-based businesses, Salesforce also gives you insights into the amount of time a particular customer/s has stayed in a particular subscription package. Once this info is established, your team is able to customize marketing materials to match a particular customer niche.
Cloud Connectivity
Many companies are now gravitating towards software as a service (SaaS), which means software that is available online. Luckily, Salesforce doesn’t need to be installed on a computer as it is cloud-based. This means that you can easily access it everywhere, interface it with other digitized services, and enjoy unlimited storage capacity. And since no maintenance is required, you get to save on a Salesforce developer salary that would have otherwise been paid for this purpose.
Facilitates Team Collaboration
Poor team communication and collaboration can lead to reduced productivity. On top of a unified view of customer data, Salesforce’s “Chatter” feature allows your team members to easily and regularly communicate work-related information. Additionally, the feature also lets you highlight and prioritize urgent issues that require special attention by inviting different team members to look at them.
Salesforce Application Development Lifecycle
Software developers spend a lot of time designing, developing, securing, and delivering products that perform better than initially envisioned. As a result, different software development approaches like agile development, waterfall model, and many others have merged.
When it comes to cloud-based solutions, the incorporation and implementation of various software development methodologies make it even more complex. Moreover, the Salesforce Development Lifecycle also means that the software is developed, tested, and deployed in a cloud environment.
Below, we have laid down 6 steps that clearly illustrate the entire Salesforce Development Lifecycle:
Business Requirements Analysis
The first step towards a successful custom Salesforce application is to conduct an internal business needs analysis. It entails the development team eliciting the potential customer needs, elaborating them, validating all the assumptions, and devising efficient methodologies to meet these requirements.
Business requirements analysis is important as it helps avert potential mistakes as well as make the final product both efficient and compatible with the existing system and security standards.
UI/UX Design
Another important aspect of Salesforce application development is optimizing the app for user experience. A report by iMPACT indicates that 52% of customers are less likely to conduct business with a brand offering a poor mobile experience. On the other hand, Forbes conservative estimates indicate that intentional and strategic user experience can yield a conversion rate as high as 400%.
If these numbers are anything to go by, designing a user-friendly and highly responsive Salesforce application development is absolutely paramount. In order to optimize an app for effective and enjoyable use, developers need to map out the user journey and creatively choreograph user/platform interactions to benefit the end-user.
Development Phase
The next step in Salesforce application development entails creating developers creating isolated sandboxes. Generally, these distinct sandboxes hold the main production app copy and other supplementary Salesforce configuration information. They are also independent, implying that changes in a single sandbox don’t affect the main Salesforce production enterprise. Individual developers have to clone their branches.
To retrieve the metadata from the sandboxes to the IDE, the developers need to use Force.com IDE. Once they have the metadata, they continue coding their assigned app features, performing initial unit testing, and then submit the finished code to the Git repository.
If a subsequent developer wants to build on top of this freshly updated branch, they need to clone it to their sandbox and continue developing new features. Once done, they also have to submit their latest development to the repository.
With that said, the possibility of multiple developers working on the same branch cant be overlooked. To avoid conflicts, it is important for everyone in the development team to check for possible branch updates before committing.
Testing
The next step after building a Salesforce application is to ensure that it has an excellent and stable performance. This mainly entails developers carrying out QA activities including unit tests and code reviews. It is also at this stage that functional, performance, and integration testing is conducted within the development process.
Lastly, automation tests and debugging are conducted to augment the app’s speedy delivery.
Integration
During the integration phase, the custom CRM application is interfaced with third-party software like CMS. To facilitate a smooth transition, the development team also conduct hands-on training sessions as well as provides training materials to the client.
Launch
Once the app is launched for internal use, it is transferred to the client and subjected to their User Acceptance Testing environment (UAT). Once satisfied, the finished product is moved to the production environment and deployed to the end-users.
Salesforce Application Development Team Actors
During the app development process, different players are involved and handle different aspects of the app. In the Salesforce app development life cycle, the most common actors include:
Product Manager: Help finalize business requirements.
Release Manager: Help coordinate the app’s release schedule.
Software Developer: Handles the main coding and produces the requisite deliverables.
Quality Analyst: Tests and confirms the functionality of various app features.
Potential money from the Salesforce AppExchange development:
After researching the fact this has been seen that Potential money from the salesforce AppExchange development can depend on several other factors.
How To Build an App for Salesforce AppExchange?
To build your AppExchange app, you must go through the multi-step procedure, which includes compliance, release, ongoing support, and demand app development. Below, I will discuss how to create an App for Salesforce AppExchange.
1st Step: Become the Part of Salesforce Business Partner Community
The first and foremost step in becoming a Salesforce AppExchange trade Partner is to join the Salesforce Partner Community. In this case, you must submit the form using AppExchange. After all, the Salesforce Partner Community is the hub of existing AppExchange Partners.
2nd Step: Examine AppExchange Market
The next step in building the app is to examine the AppExchange market. AppExchange offers many products and solutions for several products and cloud services in Salesforce. In this case, for optimal outcomes, you must use the curated collections of AppExchange.
3rd Step: Make the First Sketches of Your Product
Once you are done researching the existing solutions on AppExchange, you must start defining the unique value proposition of your product. For the outline, you must follow the below-mentioned procedure such as:
Firstly, you must understand your target audience.
Secondly, ensure you have an idea of business targets.
Thirdly, you must follow the types of Salesforce editions you will support.
After that, ensure you have an idea of the package type.
Next, ensure you have the Salesforce Licenses that you want to use.
Lastly, it would help if you ensured the requirements for your AppExchange App security.
4th Step: Define the Type of ISV Partnership and the Type Of Your AppExchange Solution
Once you have joined the Salesforce Partner Community, then, you must analyze the existing products, and you can create a rough roadmap. In this case, ensure you have defined the type of ISV partnership, and consequently, you also have built the AppExchange solution.
There are seven types of ISV partners in AppExchange. It includes OEM, CDP Cloud Partner, Commerce Cloud Partner, All Other Clouds (paid), All Other Clouds (free), and Technology Partner/Tableau.
5th Step: Choose the Programming Type and Tools to Build Your Salesforce App
Recently, Salesforce provided two types of programming languages and two types of tools that you can use. Let’s know what programming tools are used in Salesforce App development. This includes Apex Cloud-based programming language. Next are Lightning components and Visualforce.
6th Step: Build Your Salesforce App
Once you can identify the exact type of solution, it must have the programming language, licensing, and packaging, and of course, you must continue with the building procedure.
Two ways to do this are using internal sources or outsourcing the dedicated team. If you want to build the SalesForce App using an in-house team, it could be one the most viable and remarkable options. If you don’t have enough resources, ensure you can control the entire product cycle of AppExchange.
7th Step: Test Your Salesforce App
If you want to ensure optimal performance, then it must conduct comprehensive end-to-end testing in technological domains. In this case, you must adhere to the development of best business practices, especially for testing.
8th Step: Prepare Your App for the Launch on AppExchange
Once you are done testing and finalizing the app, the next step is to prepare by submitting it to the SalesForce AppExchange. In this procedure, it includes creating the managed packages and providing screenshots.
9th Step: Submit Your App for Security Review and Market This
Ensure you have submitted your final app by undergoing the security review and then have met the necessary security requirements.
Final Thoughts
Salesforce CRM is a critical business tool. It helps streamline data analysis and reporting, provides invaluable customer feedback, and aid in formulating better customer service strategies. As a result, businesses are able to align their resources towards creating timely, customer-oriented solutions.
With that said, Salesforce application development isn’t a linear process. It entails working with different tools and multiple software development methodologies. And with cloud solutions continuing to capture the imaginations of business owners, the world is yet to see the full potential of CRM Salesforce and the cloud ecosystem as a whole.
Read also:
Top User Tips For Getting Started With Salesforce
CRM And ERP Combination For Business Solutions
5 Things To Take Into Account To Hire Custom Software Development Services
The lawn is one of the best assets that make a home look attractive outside. Lawns make a house look more lively and refreshing. Moreover, they can also serve as a place for different family activities. Maintaining one’s lawn at home may require some specific steps or processes as well as a set of equipment that will help one do the job with ease and efficiency. Lawn care may require a huge amount of effort, but every drop of sweat that you’ll be dropping on the ground from this will surely be worth it when you see the fruits of your labor. However, if you want to save yourself time and effort, you can easily choose to hire lawn care professionals like mosquito minus franchise, but nothing beats doing things you. This will not only allow you to learn new things about your lawn but will also give you a feel for how it is to grow grass.
To get that great-looking lawn that you want, it is essential that you care for your lawn properly. There are some ways in which you can care for your lawn, and some of the tips and tricks of the trade seem to work better than others. Lawn care these days is a serious game and has also turned into a serious business. You may be happy with your lawn's current state of affairs but then again perhaps you are just a bit jealous of your neighbor's lush green patch of Heaven. What is he doing differently than you?
Essential lawn care tips must be utilized to have the greatest-looking lawn possible. Here's how the tips break down:
• Watering
• Fertilizing
• Cutting
Some Handy Tips to Hire a Good Lawn Care Service
Hiring a lawn care service who can assure that your lawn will be lush throughout the year is a wonderful feeling. Nevertheless, this is a task that should be given some extra time and effort. Numerous people contact various lawn care service providing companies and choose the one who is low-priced, but I think in this way people won't get the excellent work.
Here Are Some Handy Tips That Will Assist You In Hiring A Good Lawn Care Service:
Ask Your Friends and Family Members
I think you should ask your friends and family members if they have used any lawn care service. If you like someone's lawn, then you should meet the owner of that lawn, and ask him which lawn care service he uses. Word of mouth is another best way to find out about a good lawn care service.
Check Their License
Before selecting any lawn care service, you should ensure that they are totally licensed. Certainly, you can save a few bucks by hiring the one who is not licensed, but what you will do if something goes wrong while the lawn care company is at your home.
View Portfolios
Every lawn care company will have a portfolio of their most excellent work for you to view. When you are talking with numerous lawn care companies, don't forget to view their portfolios. If someone says that they don't have a portfolio, then you should carry on your research because they might be new in the industry, or they are not good at what they do.
Obtain References
When you are talking to different lawn, care companies. You should always ask them to provide you with a list of references. If they are a professional lawn care service provider, they will provide you a list of references. If they say they are unable to provide you the list of references, then you should stop the conversation, and go to meet other lawn care service providers.
Inspect Other's Work
A helpful way to decide which lawn care service is best for you is to ask them for a list of their latest projects both small and large. This will be different from viewing their portfolios and reference lists, and this might not be prepared, but if you ask them they can provide you. When you have this list in your hand, go and visit those places, this will give you a good idea of how good they are at their work.
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In this modern age of ever-increasing use of electronic forms of communication, there is no wonder that many kinds of businesses are constantly looking for ways to keep up with their competition. Indeed, accountancy firms looking to improve the way they handle incoming calls to their offices will probably consider contacting a provider of virtual reception services.
Of course, busy owners of an accounting company who need to ensure all their calls are answered in a professional and courteous manner at all times would be wise to search for websites providing insight into the benefits of virtual phone answering solutions. By looking at websites that tell you the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant, overworked accountants who wish to find a solution to their current issue regarding office reception service should be able to find out more about why using a virtual office assistant service is a good idea.
Needless to say, accounting firms with aspirations of becoming a leader in their industry will need to make sure they are able to retain their clients by providing a phone call answering service with very high standards. Providers of professional virtual phone answering an email response services that are thinking of branching out into the accountancy sector will need to make sure they hire the right people for this kind of work.
Skill Set :
As there are suppliers of virtual office receptionists who have people from a variety of backgrounds in their employment, it should not be too difficult for an accounting firm to find a virtual office assistant with the right skill set for their organization. Indeed, by taking our time when looking for a telephone answering service for our accounting business, we should be able to avoid ending up with a virtual assistant that is not suitable for the tasks they are given. Of course, highly-qualified virtual office assistants with a background in bookkeeping or other accounting competencies will be able to deal with related enquires by existing or potential clients so much more competently than those with little or no experience in this field.
Some of the tasks undertaken by a receptionist working in the accounting industry include:
Managing all incoming invoices
Inputting Accounts Payable data into the accounts system
Making sure key bills are paid on time
Answering telephone calls from clients and colleagues
Managing email accounts for client communications
Multiple Offices :
Accountancy firms that have done exceptionally well since their inception may have got to the stage where they have offices in a number of places including different parts of the country where they are based. Australian accounting firms in Sydney who happen to have a number of offices in the CBD would be wise to get in touch with a provider of virtual assistant services in order to be able to provide a focal point for all their incoming calls.
Indeed, by reducing the number of different telephone numbers we have for our business, we should be able to increase the control we have over our company practices. Bosses of an accounting company that have managed to secure the services of a professional virtual office assistant provider are bound to discover the benefits of such a smart business move.
Moreover, busy accountants who do need to visit their various office locations throughout the city will appreciate having a virtual receptionist to handle all incoming calls whilst they navigate through congested traffic during peak hour times. Of course, accounting firms who are able to function much better by employing the services of a virtual secretary will be able to focus more on the other important aspects of their business.
Read Also :
4 Reasons Your Home Business Needs A Virtual Receptionist
An Introduction To Voice Over IP (VoIP)
