Steps For Salesforce Application Development

Published on: 27 January 2020 Last Updated on: 19 March 2024

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.

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Tips For Protecting Your Overseas Shipments

The retail business is truly a global pursuit and if you run an eCommerce company, you probably obtain at least some of your products from other countries. But when you ship items overseas, there are additional risks that exist that don’t exist with domestic shipments. For this reason, you have to take extra precautions with your international shipments, from getting maritime insurance to choosing the right freight partner. Here are other tips to ensure your products get safely from point A to point B. Packaging Despite your best efforts, the people who handle your shipments at the docks may not handle them with care. This is why you need to ensure your products are packaged properly when they’re loaded on the ship. Since you can’t be there to package them yourself, it’s a good idea to partner with a logistics provider that offers specialty packaging services. These providers take care to put the right amount of cushioning in the package, the proper security seals on the outside, and an appropriate exterior to prevent damage during transit. Partnering with a logistics provider takes a lot of the guesswork out of shipping overseas. You don’t have to worry about the packaging from the manufacturer not holding up to the rigors of the sea because your logistics provider will take care of this for you. This is particularly important if you are importing fragile items like electronics, artwork, and glassware. Tracking and Monitoring In the not-too-distant past, when you shipped products from overseas, you wouldn’t know if something happened to them until the ship arrived (or didn’t arrive) at its destination. Now, through innovative technology, you can track and monitor your shipments from origin to destination, even while they’re on the ship. Often, you’ll need a logistics partner to enable shipment tracking and monitoring for you, but the transparency you’ll have in the entire supply chain will be invaluable to both you and your customers. Onboard Courier Services Some shipments are so valuable that you might not want to leave them alone for the duration of the voyage. For these highly-sensitive packages, you can hire an onboard courier to maintain the chain of custody from the product’s point of origin to its final destination. Essentially, an onboard courier is a dedicated passenger who watches over your shipment for the entire trip overseas. When a package isn’t ever out of view of a courier, you can be sure it is protected and secure at all times. While this can be expensive, it’s often worth it for valuable shipments that simply can’t be lost, damaged, or stolen. Insurance No matter what you do to protect your shipments, unplanned events happen. For example, you can’t predict the sinking of a cargo ship or a squall that knocks your container overboard. It happens more often than you’d think. This is why you should always, always insure your shipments that are coming from overseas. Conclusion It can be nerve-wracking to put your shipments in the hands of other people when shipping them overseas. Fortunately, by using these tips, you can protect your cargo as much as possible and if the worst happens, you’ll at least be reimbursed for your loss. Additional: Medical Delivery Service: What To Know Execute the Perfect Expo with This Trade Show Checklist Complex Supply Chains Network and Business Complexity 3 Characteristics of The Best Wine Clubs You Can Join as An Avid Wine Drinker!

How To Plan A Promotional Event For Your Business? – Steps & Key To Success

A promotional event plays an important role in the success of your business. Planning this type of event may be challenging but if you know how to do it right, you and your organization can achieve huge benefits in the end. To learn more about how to plan a promotional event for your business, please scroll down to find out the answer. What Is a Promotional Event & Its Importance? A promotional event is a popular occasion created for organizations looking to promote their particular products, advertise new products, or promote their whole company. By launching this event, you can draw customers' attraction about your business and reach your target audience. More than just attracting people, a well-promoted event's chief purpose is to increase public awareness of the business. In addition, it also informs customers about your organization, products, prices, services and persuades them to buy the products of your company. Planning Promotional Event With 5 Steps Step 1 First and foremost, you need to define your goal and identify the target audience of your event. This is the most important factor because your promotional event tactics will depend mainly on your customers and the goals that you want to achieve. The chief target might be increasing total revenue for your e-commerce marketplace or generating media coverage on your newly launched products which are about to be unveiled. However, having a defined goal enables you to build a strong, effective promotional event schedule and bring the right audience to your business. Step 2 Choosing the proper type of promotional event is the next significant step in your process. There are several ideas of promotional events for your intention to gather new customers, raise people's awareness of your brand, express the brand's gratitude to current clients, etc. This post will show you the three most typical types of promotional events that you may find helpful to your organization. The first one is fundraising events, created to support an organization's mission, especially nonprofit companies. These companies will raise funds via selling products or services activities. Your organization can hold this type of event by hosting a gala, online or offline auctions, or musical performance. Next, you can also opt for those promotional events like giving the public free food and custom bottled water. Who doesn't love free stuff? No one. The crucial aims of these events are to spread people's awareness about a particular product, service or advertise the image, trademark of your brand to your target audience. Giving the crowd a free trial is a great way to give them a good impression of your brand. The final type which we want to mention today goes to the award ceremony. The prize might be given to "the most loyal customer" or the one who has a winning ticket. This type of promotional event shows your brand's gratitude to loyal customers. And that will help you gain more target audience and make them want to stay longer with your brand. Step 3 To keep track of all activities of your promotional event, a schedule with strict deadlines needs to be included. Because the bigger the event is, the more things your team needs to put on the calendar. Having deadlines in your team's plan would make your job less sophisticated and give you appropriate time to change the plan if something occurs unexpectedly. Step 4 Since organizing a promotional event is not easy, you can share the load to distribute the promotional efforts to other stakeholders. Here are some tips for you. Reach out to sponsors might be the best way to bring a helping hand to your business. Sponsors could easily help your brand access your target audience and re-enhance your promotional event's key message on social media websites. They can also expand your company's budget if your brand allows them to also display their products in your event. You can consider another common way which is influencer marketing. If you can connect with influencers whose audiences are similar to your target customers, don't hesitate to discuss this partnership marketing opportunity with them. Leveraging their influence in the industry is also a great way for your event to get closer to success. Step 5 After having done all things above, following up with your event attendees is the last important step to decide the success of your event. You might want your attendees to remember your brand's message and come back to buy your products in the future. Thus, send them emails, give them some small gifts, marketing flyers, or whatever you can to make sure that they will remember your brand after the promotional events. If they come back and choose your brand as a reputable solution, you can tell that your promotional event is successful. Tips For Promoting Your Event Effectively On Social Media Using social media platforms wisely and suitable for your products/services. Paid for advertisements on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, etc. Host a giveaway to pump up your brand awareness and help convert your followers to attendees. Using your promotional event's hashtag everywhere and every time you have the chance. Conclusion Promotional events are amazing in helping you gain more customers and spreading your brand's key message to the community. We hope that our topic of "How to plan a promotional event for your business" today could give you the answer that you're looking for. Good luck and see you next time! 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Heavy Duty Polythene Sheets For Construction: Applications & Benefits

As a contractor or builder, you know how important it is to control moisture, dust, and debris at a construction site. Heavy-duty polyethylene sheets offer versatile, cost-effective solutions that provide protection and containment on the job site. These durable polyethylene sheets can be a construction crew's best friend! Heavy-duty polythene sheets are typically made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) or linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE). These materials create sheets that are exceptionally tough, flexible, and water-resistant. Polythene sheets are available in a wide range of thickness gauges, with heavier grades like 500-gauge or 750-gauge used for demanding construction conditions. The multilayer, cross-laminated structure of heavy-duty polythene sheets provides exceptional tear and puncture resistance. They won't rot, mildew, or degrade when exposed to weather and ultraviolet light. You can count on these rugged polyethylene sheets to deliver outstanding performance across a broad range of applications on the building site. In this article, we'll explore the many ways heavy-duty polythene sheeting can make your construction projects cleaner, safer, and more efficient. These sheets offer proven protection for moisture management, dust/debris control, concrete curing, and temporary structures. Let's take a look at the benefits heavy-duty polythene sheets can provide on your job sites! Moisture Barriers Controlling moisture is critical in any construction project. Fortunately, heavy-duty polythene sheets can provide an effective barrier against water and dampness. The waterproof polyethylene material blocks liquid moisture and vapor transmission. Below Grade Installing polyethylene sheeting under concrete slabs is an excellent way to prevent moisture from migrating up through the concrete over time. The impermeable polythene layer acts as a barrier that blocks ground moisture from passing through the slab foundation. This helps prevent moisture-related issues like mildew, cracks, and buckling. Be sure to overlap seams and seal with waterproof tape. Wall Wraps Wrapping walls in polythene sheeting protects the structure from bulk water intrusion during construction. The water-resistant polyethylene film acts as an air and moisture barrier. This keeps wall assemblies dry until the final weather-resistant barrier can be installed. Properly taped seams prevent moisture ingress and air infiltration for better energy efficiency. Curing Blankets Proper curing is essential for concrete to achieve its full strength and durability. Heavy-duty polythene sheets can provide an ideal curing environment. Fresh Concrete Covering fresh concrete with polythene sheeting helps retain moisture and prevents the slab from drying out too quickly. This allows the concrete to hydrate thoroughly so that it can be set properly. The polythene curing blanket minimizes evaporation, which can cause shrinkage cracking. It also protects the slab from weather elements like rain, wind, and sun. Pre-cast Elements Heavy-duty polythene sheets are also ideal for curing pre-cast concrete elements like columns, beams, walls, and stairs. Covering the precast molds with polythene sheeting retains the moisture to allow the concrete to fully cure. This accelerates strength gain, allowing the molds to be stripped for re-use more quickly. The impermeable sheets also prevent surface drying defects. Containment and Dust Control Heavy-duty polythene sheets are invaluable for containing hazardous dust and debris on the construction site. The durable polyethene barriers keep workers safe and the site clean. Asbestos Abatement Installing polythene containment walls and ceilings seals off the work area during asbestos removal. This prevents fibers from contaminating other areas of the building. Polyethylene flooring also contains fallen debris. The poly barriers ensure proper disposal while protecting the health of workers and occupants. Lead Paint Removal Lead paint removal requires similar containment. Heavy-duty polyethylene containment keeps leading paint chips localized so they can be safely collected and disposed of. The containment area also prevents workers from being exposed to hazardous lead dust. Silica Dust Cutting and grinding concrete or masonry materials creates extremely fine silica dust. This dangerous respirable dust requires containment. Heavy-duty polyethene sheeting creates an enclosed area with reduced air circulation to contain the silica dust. This improves air quality and prevents workers from breathing in the dangerous particles. Temporary Structures Polythene sheets offer a quick, cost-effective way to create temporary structures for protection from the elements. Equipment/Material Covers Heavy-duty polyethylene sheets make great covers to shield equipment and building materials from rain, dirt, and debris. Simply build a basic frame from lumber or PVC pipe and stretch the polythene sheet tight over the top. This creates an inexpensive structure to keep valuable items safe from weather and theft. The transparent material even allows light through for better visibility. Temporary Roofing Large polythene sheets can also serve as temporary roofing during construction. Attach the polyethene sheeting to roof trusses to provide immediate cover until permanent roofing is installed. This allows interior work to progress while keeping the structure watertight. Polythene roofing protects the building from rain and humidity damage. Final word Heavy-duty polythene sheets truly are a construction site's best friend. As you have seen, they are a solution for many construction cases. As you tackle your next building project, be sure to keep heavy-duty polythene sheets on hand. Major manufacturers like Polystar Plastics offer a wide selection of polyethylene sheeting in various grades and sizes. Their experienced team can recommend the ideal polythene products for your specific applications. With the proper heavy-duty polythene sheets, you can increase efficiency and minimize hassles on the worksite. Protect your projects and your crew with these high-performance polyethene barriers. Let polythene sheeting make your next construction job smooth, clean, and successful! Read Also: What Industries Use Polythene Bags 3 Things You Should Know About Personalized Shopping Bags How Can Greenhouse Design Change Architecture?