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Businesses today are generating mountains of data and forward-looking business leaders recognize that there are critical insights hidden inside their data. With AI, businesses can unlock these insights to identify trends, opportunities, and challenges. Building a strong enterprise-wide data culture along with robust and trusted AI holds the key to unlocking these hidden insights. While business leaders recognize the value of data for decision-making, a recent global survey conducted by Salesforce amongst 10,000 of them reveals some interesting facts. 67% of them are not using data for making critical decisions like product or service pricing Less than 33% use data to drive strategies for new markets 79% don’t leverage data for diversity and inclusion While the above numbers revealed something unexpected, here is what the survey summarized. Companies that make data-driven decisions are more likely to beat sales targets than those that don't Companies that combine AI with their data showed an average increase of 30% in revenue Companies that embrace this approach are able to reassign human and financial capital quickly and can create personalized customer experiences much faster What can you do now? Here are some suggestions for creating a strong data culture. We will take these items up later in this article. Put together the right team Provide them with the right tools and training Test your theories on a pilot scale and iterate Prioritize the human aspect of your data culture Identify areas where AI can derive more value from your data Data-driven V/s data-informed In a data-driven company, most of the organization’s employees can access and analyze data, draw inferences about what it means, create a dashboard, visualize data, and use all of these to determine the next steps. Employees in a data-driven organization don't depend on data analysts to do this. Being data-informed enables organizations to make decisions based on a mix of data, research, experience, and insights. Data-informed organizations may or may not have the skills that data-driven organizations have. Why is it critical to build a strong data culture Business leaders have to deal with countless challenges before embarking on building a data culture. Avoid over-analysis by starting with a single use case that validates the value of your new data culture approach. McKinsey research has shown that data-driven organizations achieve their goals faster and their data culture initiatives contribute at least 20% to earnings. Here’s why this works: Data analysis identifies actionable trends Data analysis identifies patterns that unlock value and enable organizations to utilize opportunities faster. Adding AI to the mix can accelerate the process by doing a deeper dive into data analysis at scale and serving up recommendations. Combining data and AI drives growth, promotes innovation, fosters collaboration, and creates uniqueness. AI and machine learning increase success by 30% Organizations that still rely on legacy knowledge and instinct to guide decision-making are missing out on opportunities. With AI and machine learning, organizations can make quick and accurate decisions. According to Salesforce research, adding AI to organizational data and business functions eliminates the guesswork from the decision-making process and increases success by an average of 30% across important metrics like operational efficiency, employee productivity, and topline growth. Strategic work keeps employees engaged When decision-making is guided by data analysis, employees spend less time on mundane tasks that add little or no value and can focus on strategic or creative tasks. This keeps them engaged and improves their productivity. Salesforce research shows that 84% of organizations that have adopted a data culture observed higher employee retention. Empower the right team The best way to create a team of data champions is by showing not telling. Illustrate with real numbers how data-driven decision-making increases revenue and customer satisfaction and streamlines operations. Instead of choosing any random use case to illustrate your point, capture their attention by selecting a project that scores a financial win and one that you can scale for greater impact. Here’s how you can start: Step 1: Put together the right team Create a working group of employees from across the organization with diverse backgrounds and functions. These team members should have a collaborative mindset, unique skills and abilities, and individual organizational perspectives. Ensure that you include employees across the corporate strata such as senior executives, managers, engineers, consultants, and machine learning scientists. Step 2: Provide them with the right tools and training Salesforce research stats on data literacy don’t paint a pretty picture.  Only 35% of the surveyed workforce has received training on data visualization tools and 29% on statistical tools. 27% percent workers say they can interpret data outputs relevant to their job function, and only 26% say they can use that data to make decisions. With proper access to training on technology-driven data analytics, organizations can empower their entire workforce to unlock the power of data to drive decision-making. Step 3: Test your theories on a small scale and iterate Start small, analyze results, refine your theories and iterate. Eventually, a winner will reveal itself when your employees can measure the impact of your project on their bottom line. Step 4: Prioritize the human aspect of your data culture Encourage involvement of all team members in the entire process from setup, testing, fine tuning, to data analytics and its application for decision making. This will ensure that you avoid bias and guesswork which can have a negative long-term impact. Take data at face value to avoid bias by proxy. Let’s consider ZIP codes as an example. At face value, they are just a location indicator. But sometimes ZIP codes can be a proxy for an area’s racial makeup and financial services companies consider ZIP codes in loan applications. Decisions based on this data point must be free of bias. Step 5: Identify areas where AI can derive more value from your data You can start your AI journey at many places, in any department, for any function, or extend it further if you’ve already started. Start small, demonstrate results, and bring everyone on board. Establish guidelines and standards for consistency, security, accountability, and ethics from day one. Ensure completeness and accuracy of your data to make the best use of AI. Incorporating an AI-driven data culture can be a daunting task.  It takes time and effort to bring people on board, retain their interest, and demonstrate results. For most business leaders, this transformation may be a whole new experience. This is where working with a Salesforce Consulting Partner could prove to be very useful. At Girikon, our certified consultants can guide you on this transformational journey of embracing AI with a strong data culture. Contact us today.  Take the next step to build your AI-powered data culture.

In today’s increasingly connected world, data is the point on which the entire business world pivots. We are generating unimaginable amounts of data every day. And locked within these humongous stores of data are the insights that businesses can use to better understand themselves and more importantly their customers. To remain competitive, businesses need to do more than just collect data. They need to be able to capture and analyse that data and convert it into actionable insights in real time to succeed. Enter Salesforce Einstein Analytics Here are 40 reasons why Einstein Analytics is the no. 1 choice when it comes to data analytics for your business. Hit the Ground Running. Work with a someone you can trust: Enjoy peace of mind knowing that you are working with the world’s no 1 CRM platform. Cust Costs: Reduce operating costs by using a pay as you use cloud-based analytics platform. Say goodbye to expensive installation or maintenance costs, and onsite hardware. Get going quickly: Leverage powerful analytics within minutes, thanks to out of the box solutions. Cut out the fluff: Pay only for the features you use. Salesforce Einstein Analytics comes with flexible usage models, so you always have the tools you need, at a price that suits your budget. Customise your solution: Salesforce Einstein Analytics is fully customisable and can be easily tailored for your business. With Einstein Analytics, you can set up the solution that works best for you. Built-in support: Salesforce Einstein Analytics comes with comprehensive guides, tutorials, videos, and multiple support options across channels. Integrate your data: No need to depend on your IT teams to upgrade your software for data analysis. Einstein Analytics seamlessly integrates analytics tools with every application and system, giving you a coherent, integrated, easy-to-use solution that gives you faster results. Connect Across Departments. Integrate seamlessly with the entire Salesforce platform: Salesforce Einstein Analytics integrates perfectly with all Salesforce products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud etc giving every user easy access to unified customer data. Collaborate: Collaborate across sales, service, marketing, and other teams with cloud-based data analytics that can be accessed from anywhere across any device. Unify your goals: Give your teams a unified vision and objectives they can strive for, with data that is insightful, reliable, and actionable. Generate stunning visuals: Use built-in tools to convert data into stunning insightful reports and dashboards for presentations. Get conversational: Leverage social media technology to enhance team communication, with Chatter for Einstein Analytics. Put it in context: Get consistent views across departments with embedded reports and dashboards. Be available always: Work on your data over any device, from anywhere on the planet. Analyse Your Business. Monitor team performance: Leverage real-time reports to view team performance and identify trouble areas early and optimize. Access KPIs: Discover key performance indicators across your organisation to ensure you do not deviate from the path of success. Track call-center efficiency: See customer support trends across channels right on your dashboard and make informed decisions to enhance the customer service experience. Empower teams to self analyse: Give your teams the power to measure their own performance and set new performance benchmarks. Find the Key to Sales Success. See the big picture: Explore all data in a unified dashboard. Get a 360 degree snapshot of the health of your business. Eliminate borders: Get a unified view of your business across geographies, products, customer segments and time periods, for a true picture of how your business is performing. Predict the future: View historical trends to intelligently forecast which strategies are most likely to work and which leads are the most promising. Reduce customer churn: Get detailed insights into each and every customer, deliver personalised customer experiences and ensure customer loyalty and retention. Prioritise leads: Analyse your leads to assess the likelihood of their conversion and focus on the most promising ones. Evaluate your lead sources: Discover which sources are the most productive, so you can focus your efforts where it pays off the most. Enhance the customer experience: Resolve issues and monitor customer satisfaction directly from within Salesforce, and optimise. Market Smarter. Dive deeper: Go deep into your marketing data and get a detailed analysis of funnels, campaigns, conversion rates and more across channels. Present the right message: Create messaging to attract your target audience, and get valuable insight into that audience. Be your own data analyst: Marketing data analysis is too precious to hand over to someone else. With easy-to-use tools and visually compelling reports, become your own marketing analyst. Take instant action: Act in real time with up-to-the-minute marketing data from unified dashboards. Specialize in B2B marketing: Leverage the power of unique and effective B2B marketing tools in Salesforce to stay ahead of the competition. Understand the brand experience: Analyze data to see what your customers see, and optimize the customer experience. Optimise Service. Set your priorities: Prioritise open cases with service manager, and give your teams a clear view of customers that need their attention. Evaluate your accounts: Identify accounts with the highest number of cases and highest opportunity. Connect with your agents: Get a complete view of agents and their cases, and assign notifications based on configurable conditions. Review your service backlog: Compare data and identify service trends over time to assess how service levels compare across years. Revolutionise Analytics for Your Organization. Integrate with third-party apps: Leverage advanced integration options for any third-party application and extend your analytics beyond Salesforce. Optimise your pipelines: Leverage data-driven strategies to manage your pipelines. Automate analysis: Salesforce Einstein AI is designed to automatically analyse millions of data combinations for informed actions. Data security: Share data across devices securely using the cloud platform security services trusted by over 150,000 businesses worldwide. Push the limits: Extend your analytics abilities with custom-made apps or find the right ready-made app for your specific analytics needs on the Salesforce AppExchange. Everyday, we are producing mind-bogglingly huge amounts of data. Businesses need to use that data as a foundation for data analytics, to understand themselves and their customer better, to drive enhanced customer experiences. Girikon is a Salesforce Consulting Company and has helped businesses across the globe achieve success on the Customer 360 platform. To know more about how you can turn your data into intelligent actionable insights with Salesforce Einstein Analytics, contact us today.

Powered by an extensive Salesforce Consulting Partner network, Salesforce provides access to expertise and solutions tailored for the automotive industry with their latest offering – Automotive Cloud. Automotive Cloud is a product created specifically for automotive manufacturers, supply chain partners, dealers, automotive finance companies, and their customers. Automotive Cloud empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer service experiences across every interaction with Driver 360, boosts top lines with better lead conversion and improved collaboration, and leverages industry best practices based automation and real-time analytics for greater productivity and RoI. The automotive industry is going through a huge transformation as it gears up to meet the demands of today’s digital first world. Salesforce research indicates that only 1% of automotive customers had a delightful car buying experience, and only 25% auto manufacturers and dealers believe their business has adapted well to online commerce. To create new revenue channels and fix the fragmented customer experience, the automotive industry must recognize new opportunities with new selling and service models, connected and intelligent vehicles, subscriptions models, partnerships, and the heaps of data these new offerings generate.  With the rise in direct to consumer models and the surge in the adoption of electric vehicles, the automotive industry is in the midst of a new digital imperative. Automakers today recognize that with disruption comes opportunity, and businesses embracing the digital-first future with a technology platform like Automotive Cloud can have a competitive edge going into the future. According to Salesforce, over 90% of automotive industry leaders recognize that first-party data can help significantly improve the customer experience across every interaction – like vehicle browsing, purchasing, financing, or service. Automotive Cloud, powered by Driver 360, and built on automated, intelligent and real-time technology, delivers a unified view of the customer and vehicle lifecycle for auto manufacturers, supply chain partners, dealers, and finance agencies. Just like Education 360 for learning and Patient 360 for healthcare, Driver 360 is built on the powerful Customer 360 platform and delivers a single source of truth for the entire automotive industry. Whether consumers are surfing for a new car, completing a purchase, looking for vehicle financing, or want to get their vehicle serviced, Automotive Cloud is poised to drive the automotive industry through this phase of unprecedented transformation by enabling real-time intelligent personalization across the entire journey of the vehicle. With Automotive Cloud, marketers can configure ranking parameters to qualify leads to share the leads most likely to convert with the customer’s local dealer. Dealer managers can track the performance of their inventory to discover how dealers are performing to improve how they manage their inventory and vehicle allocation. Service teams can configure alerts to notify them when a service is due. And IT teams can build custom workflows with just a few clicks to automatically alert customers in case of a vehicle recall of a particular model. Driver 360 empowers you to deliver best-in-class customer experiences Driver 360 comes pre-built with industry specific best practices based on out-of-the-box solutions built on verified data models for the auto industry to fast track time to value. With Driver Console, service teams can get a comprehensive view of all customer interactions and alerts across every touchpoint throughout the customer and vehicle journey, including car browsing, purchasing to vehicle servicing. With the Household Management feature, automotive businesses can aggregate their data to build a 360 degree picture of a household’s vehicle ownership and past interactions, which the dealers and other partners can use to offer personalize support and offers. With Vehicle Console, staff across automakers, dealers and finance agencies can get easy access to holistic vehicle information like odometer readings, current market value of the vehicle and real-time service and repair information.  Automotive Data Foundation, which has been built on industry standards, is the cornerstone of Automotive Cloud. It creates a trusted data foundation that allows for interoperability, compliances, data protection and data sharing. Drive revenue through better lead conversion and communication Today’s customers prefer digital first engagement. Which means automotive businesses, dealers and partners need to collaborate seamlessly to drive sales, manage inventory, and deliver enhanced customer experiences.  Automotive Lead Management encourages collaboration right across the value chain that includes automotive manufacturers and dealers. It enriches leads by providing comprehensive  customer and vehicle history, enabling users to direct the high priority leads directly to the customer’s preferred dealer coupled with comprehensive information about their preferences, needs, and interaction history. Dealership performance can be easily analysed by region and lead pipelines can be monitored better with Dealer Performance Management. This enables auto businesses to focus their efforts and facilitate better coordination across sales agreements, customer visits, partner affiliations, forecasts, incentives, and much more. Powerful AI and analytics for increased productivity and cost savings with industry-specific automation, With rising prices of raw material and parts, supply chain limitations, and huge investments in EVs, automotive businesses need smart automation, AI, intelligent analytics based on seamlessly connected data to lower costs, identify new streams of revenue and empower users to make better informed decisions. Flow for Automotive Cloud allows users to build and deploy intelligent workflow automation with just a few clicks. Flow’s integration and configuration capability makes it easy to create and deploy branded automation experiences like order status updates or delay notifications to enable users to accomplish more tasks with lesser resources, improve efficiency, and deliver enhanced customer experiences at scale. With Analytics for Automotive Cloud, automakers can get deep insights to track and improve business performance. Analytics comes with purpose-built dashboards and views that give business users a detailed snapshot of business performance, customer and vehicle lifecycle, and trends, to yield faster and better business outcomes. With Salesforce Genie, automotive businesses can unify complete customer and vehicle data across multiple channels across all interactions by aggregating vehicle, service and interaction data into a unified, real-time, customer profile. With Automotive Cloud you can deliver unified purchase and service experiences. It empowers you to automate processes, get intelligent insights. Now you can transform customer insights into real time, rich, seamless experiences. Get an enriched view of your customers, households, vehicles, and assets to enable real-time, purposeful engagements. Automate business processes easily with just a few clicks. Simplify integrations across automakers, partners and collaborators and deliver branded experiences with just a few clicks with Flow for Automotive Cloud. Get intelligent insights and make better informed decisions. Customer facing teams can use the power of AI to engage smartly with customers across every touchpoint. Drive real-time, engaging experiences. Drive sales and service. Delight customers throughout the entire sales and service journey with a solution purpose built for the automotive industry. Here’s what you get with Automotive Cloud to power customer engagement. Driver Console Get a 360-degree view of all customer interactions and easily configure custom alerts for your teams. Vehicle Console Access important information such as vehicle details, warranties, or service reports. Household Management View complete history of a household’s owners and vehicles to deliver personalised support and offers. Automotive Lead Management Forward high-priority leads directly to the customer’s preferred dealer. Partner Performance Management Easily track performance of partners and seamlessly collaborate on site visits, incentives, and more. Automotive Data Foundation Ensure data protection, compliances, and data sharing. As a  Salesforce Consultant, Girikon recognizes that Automotive Cloud comes with limitless possibilities to enable automotive companies make their business future proof. To know more about how you can leverage AI, Automation and Analytics to significantly improve decision making, drive efficiency and boost revenues for your automotive business, contact one of our experts today.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing in stature in the marketing realm.  Marketers today rank AI as their #1 priority for investment, according to a recent State of Marketing Report published by Salesforce. The adoption of AI is staggering with about 84% of marketers reporting that they use AI in their customer acquisition and retention engines, that’s almost 300% growth in 2 years. What exactly are marketers doing with AI? The usage of AI is crossing all barriers, from improved segmentation and personalisation, deeper insight, forecasting and process automation. With the growth in advertising technology, riding on big-data driven AI, advertising companies reimagined the process of delivering digital ads. According to eMarketer,  online ad sales rose from $60 billion in 2019 to an estimated $97 billion in 2022. What do sales teams feel about the impact of AI on what they do? They would tell you-cautiously optimistic. According to latest research from Salesforce, 86% of sales reps view AI as having a positive impact on their future roles. However, 68% of the same reps had concerns as well. And as you would imagine, mostly concerning the very relevance of their existing jobs. 31% percent said technology might eventually negatively impact the art of selling, as AI driven optimisation of sales interactions replaces human-to-human relationships. Five reasons to be happy about AI in advertising While it is only natural to fear the unknown, there is reason to believe that AI will make the existing jobs of sales reps better. AI augments the sales process and leaves people to do what they do best which is to be human. AI has the potential to level the playing field for both advertisers and publishers. It empowers sales teams, who don’t have the budgets that large corporations or media companies may have, with the tools they would like. AI-driven ad technology can help sales teams boost both the effectiveness of their messaging and their efficiency. 1. Improved data unity and synchronization With the impending censure of third-party cookies in Apple and Chrome’s privacy policies, marketing professionals are increasingly seeking first-party data to power their marketing initiatives. Merkle’s 2021 Customer Engagement Report stated that first-party data was a strategic priority for a staggering 88% of the marketers. For publishers, first-party data is vital to building advertiser centric audiences; and for advertisers, first-party data is increasingly vital for targeted advertising. And that’s where the challenge is. First-party data is not only complex, more often than not, it is fragmented and ill organised. According to Salesforce research, 64% of customers start their purchase process on one device and finish on another. With the proliferation of smartphones and devices, marketers have to deal with an average of 12 primary sources of customer data, an increase of 20% from 2020. And as one would expect, most of the data residing in these sources has inconsistent identity information, expired or outdated information, and unconventional taxonomy. AI can be a great asset to a common Customer Data Platform to significantly improve identity matching. Algorithms can execute “fuzzy logic” on IDs and resolve or isolate discrepancies. AI can also ensure data consistency by mapping data from siloed systems to a common data model. 2. Better audience segmentation and discovery Customers today prefer digital first, and they want relevant experiences. They want the messaging to be useful and timely in their digital lives. Delivering a personalised experience mandates the need for organised data as well as smart algorithms to discover customer segments and reveal their needs that may be impossible to do manually in real-time. AI stands out at intelligent segmentation, discovering groups of customers and prospects with common attributes at a scale that is impossible for a human analyst to achieve. AI algos can sift through billions of records of customer data to identify meaningful patterns and segment audiences intelligently for more effective and targeted marketing programs. 3. Natural language shakes hands with technology Natural-language processing (NLP) and image recognition are 2 areas which are extremely promising when it comes to AI. Chatbots have taken customer service to the next level with conversational customer service. Voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa are already changing the user experience whether we want to book a ticket or are in the mood to have Chinese. As voice recognition technology approaches 95%+ accuracy, voice navigation will become an intrinsic part of customer engagement. Voice navigation is already built into call centre systems and used in analytics as well to some extent. However, AI based marketing technology is at the cusp of something never seen before. Imagine an ad sales rep never having to use a keypad again to make the right selection. With less and less human clicks efficiency will improve significantly, and so will the efficacy of the whole process. And this will lead to ad reps spending less time in searching and updating and have more time to do what they do best – selling. 4. Back-end processes efficiency We’ve already talked about how AI can help unify and harmonize data. It can also help sales teams become more efficient by prioritising their efforts, and allowing them to focus their time on key tasks while automating the mundane ones. Lead Scoring was one of the first areas to benefit from AI technology. While there was resistance from sales teams initially in adopting the technology, and rightly so, with the uncertainty of the what the unknown will do to their current jobs. Questions such as – How can a software qualify a good lead better than me, were commonplace. But with technology integration into existing systems, many sales reps now use algorithms regularly to augment their priority their prospects. The same is true for determining next best actions based on interaction history and scheduling meetings. AI can help ad sales teams match available inventory with “most likely to close” sales opportunities thereby significantly trimming the time spent on low-probability leads. 5. Improved measurement and optimisation In the post pandemic period, digital ad spend has seen a meteoric rise. Brands now spend more than half of their advertising budgets on digital platforms. AI can help aggregate and analyse all that data seamlessly to help advertisers establish the impact of campaigns viz a viz desired outcomes, such as sales. Simply put, AI can help ad sales teams separate the noise and identify what works. To measure the efficacy of multi-channel campaigns, one needs to harvest information from dozens of sources. And that’s not all. They also need to apply complex models to determine which aspects of the campaign, channels, devices, and tactics made an impact. AI-driven tools can help ad sales teams with automated recommendations to optimize campaigns based on the historical performance of ads. AI excels at automating tedious tasks, and is also fantastic at sifting through huge amounts of data at unimaginable speed. Something humans can’t do. By allowing AI technology to do what it does best, we make the entire process of ad sales less artificial and more intelligent. Girikon is a Gold Salesforce Consultant delivering value to customers across the globe for over a decade. Contact one of our experts to know how AI can help unlock the true value of your advertising sales.

Salesforce for NonProfits: Products Overview Salesforce offers two solutions for nonprofits: Nonprofit Cloud is a set of tools and technologies that connect nonprofit organizations with their donors and allows them to manage campaigns, monitor volunteers, and all tasks they need to do. Nonprofit Success Pack or NPSP is the foundation of Nonprofit Cloud. NPSP is an app stack that gives nonprofits access to pre-built donor management components in Salesforce and enables them to operate faster and more efficiently in Salesforce. NPSP is founded on a robust, industry standard-data model that allows nonprofits to manage income streams, grants, and programs in a single place. There is also Salesforce.org which is a nonprofit social organization that resells Salesforce licenses to nonprofits at a significantly discounted price. With Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud you can: Significantly boost impact, revenue, and reach. Automate volunteers and staff to launch powerful campaigns at scale. Leverage data intelligence and insights and grow revenue. Expand your community with real-time data. Salesforce Nonprofit Сloud and NPSP allow nonprofits to access various Salesforce apps to seamlessly execute tasks such as obtaining digital signatures, creating web forms, manage projects etc. Other use cases include: Nonprofit Cloud Fundraising. Salesforce comes with tailor made features unique to the fundraising operations. It allows you to launch targeted fundraising campaigns, collaborate with staff and volunteers, and save critical data. Program Management. With NPSP, organizations can manage and monitor their programs easily. With smart tools available within the Salesforce console,  nonprofits can establish which programs are the most successful. Teams can quickly modify the non-performing programs. Engagement. Nonprofits rely on support from all segments of their community such as donors, members and volunteers. They need to communicate their mission to each donor effectively to encourage them to make regular donations. With Nonprofit Cloud, organizations augment awareness, find new donors, and foster long-term relationships. Grant Management. Salesforce is widely used as a grant management solution. Nonprofit Cloud can automate the entire process of giving with pre-built solutions for grants management, donor engagement, and more. However, to get the most out of Salesforce for nonprofits, it may be a wise decision to hire a specialist who could help with the implementation. This is where a Salesforce nonprofit cloud consultant comes in. Why Do You Need a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant? Salesforce CRM can become a powerful tool for managing all constituents of your operations and fundraising activities if you know how to maximize its potential. Without a planned implementation followed by thorough training of users, Salesforce for Nonprofits could take a heavy toll on your resources, become an impediment to seamless operations, and thereby create a resistance amongst users for proper adoption. Working with a specialist will save you time, money and effort in the long run. Nonprofits have specific needs. That makes it all the more important to know how to use Salesforce correctly to stay on top of your initiatives. A Salesforce nonprofit consultant will help you with that! When you hire a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant, you’ll get: A dedicated professional who will work diligently to drive adoption. A Salesforce certified partner who will put in the hours to understand the world of nonprofits 360 degree services for Salesforce implementation to drive revenue and engagement A technology implementation and training plan in collaboration with your team at every step; An expert who will train your users to configure the system customised to your needs. Considering the above benefits, it would be a prudent decision to hire a Salesforce consultant. Top 5 Salesforce nonprofit consultant hiring strategies Are you assessing Salesforce to manage your fundraising and outreach initiatives? There is always a temptation to do it yourself thinking once you do it, everything else will fall into place. But without knowing and understanding how to use Salesforce strategically for your nonprofit efforts, you will not be able to drive adoption and significantly limit the utilization of the platform’s capability. Bringing in a Salesforce consultant has several benefits. A Salesforce consultant will guide you on how well you can align Salesforce with your NGO’s overall mission and scale up with your operations. Here are 5 things you should keep in mind when you are looking to hire a nonprofit Salesforce consultant. Create a realistic budget You need to have a clear idea of how much you are willing to spend on a nonprofit Salesforce consultant before you actually set out looking for one. Salesforce consultants are expensive. Many of them have several years of experience in the relevant field and are very good at what they do. While establishing the budget, make sure you have taken into account the following: Salesforce NPSP deployment costs Consultation fees Third party software integration costs Establishing a realistic budget will go a long way in ensuring an effective Salesforce implementation. Establish a clear understanding of How a Salesforce consultant brings value You don’t hire a Salesforce consultant only to implement Salesforce for nonprofit in your NGO. A Salesforce consultant brings value to your organization in many ways outside of your Salesforce project. It is important to understand the potential value in this partnership and what skills, knowledge and experience you are looking for before hiring a consultant. Here are some pointers to establish that understanding. Current technology needs: Is your existing technology framework delivering the desired results? If not, what is the gap and how do you intend to fill that gap with Salesforce? How will this impact the existing systems that you are currently using? Which of those systems don’t bring any value to your efforts and need to be cast aside immediately? Salesforce Goals: What are your goals while implementing Salesforce in your organization? Which aspects if your operations do you wish to manage with Salesforce such as fundraising activities, events, marketing and promotional activities, team collaboration etc? Look for a Salesforce consultant with relevant experience. You must keep relevant experience in mind once you start looking for a Salesforce consultant. Most consultants will have details of their work experience on their website, along with case studies and portfolios. That should get you started to identify the relevant ones. Ensure that you have answers to the following: What are their areas of expertise with respect to technology? What nonprofit projects have they worked on, what was the engagement like and for how long, what were the outcomes? What is their project experience on Salesforce apart from nonprofits? Know More About Their Processes Once you have shortlisted potential Salesforce consultants, meet with them in person and understand who they are how they work. Understanding their solution implementation methodology will help you assess whether or not it aligns with your processes and objectives. Ensure that you have clarity on the following points: How do they intend to capture your nonprofit’s current processes and Salesforce requirements? How will they plan the Salesforce implementation? What would be the dependencies and constraints of the implementation? How soon can they start with the implementation after getting done with the planning? How would they define the success metrics? What is their methodology to prevent delays, if any? What would be their training methodology? Make sure they are willing for a long-term relationship It’s very important for you to establish how long is this partnership going to last? Once you have detailed discussions about the project and your expectations, ask them for a project timeline and assess the potential of a long-term relationship with you as your organization grows. Make sure you get answers to these questions: Will they be providing support if there are any additional projects? Will they provide long term support? What is their preferred mode of communication? – phones, emails, text chat or in person meetings? Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Implementation partner with over a decade of Salesforce experience. Our team of experts can help nonprofit organizations implement the right solution that benefits all constituents. We have extensive experience in Salesforce consulting, customization and deployment. Our rich experience across multiple industries allows us to get a deep understanding of your unique project requirements. Our global delivery capability will ensure you get value for the money you spend. We can also assist you with: Grounds up Salesforce implementation Migration from any existing system to Salesforce Re-implementation or optimization of Salesforce Migration to Salesforce Lightning from Salesforce Classic Contact us today.

Customer Relationship Management Software, widely referred to as CRM software, is playing a vital role today across enterprises of various sizes. By aggregating and managing customer data, Salesforce CRM enables enterprises to manage a wide range of key business functions such as lead generation and conversion, sales and marketing, tracking customer engagement and automating workflows. As enterprises are able to streamline their business processes with CRM software, each of these individually separate functions and activities are now better streamlines and integrated, resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction. Implementing a Salesforce CRM within your organization can be a bit of a challenge. Although Salesforce CRM is the world’s most advanced and innovative CRM platform, there are always implementation and migrations challenges associated with working with a new system, as your team migrates key information to the new platform and adapts to work with it. This transition however, can be simplified significantly if you have a dedicated Salesforce Consultant to help your teams adapt to this new system. What is a Salesforce consultant? A Salesforce Consultant can help you overcome limitations, unlock the Salesforce CRM platform’s full potential, and augment Salesforce’s out-of-the-box functionality. A Salesforce consultant is an experienced professional with significant expertise implementing the Salesforce CRM platform. And because this is their area of expertise, they would be more than likely to stay up-to-date with the latest product updates and tools, to enable them to deliver agile implementation and drive productivity. Salesforce Consulting goes beyond the basic implementation of the Salesforce CRM platform. Third party integrations, creating custom apps, and leveraging the platform’s full capabilities and driving adoption of your users are also some of their key responsibilities. Almost any business in any industry can take advantage of these customizations, from nonprofits to manufacturing, financial services to healthcare, and more. Why should you hire a Salesforce consultant? Hiring a Salesforce consultant can help you maximise the potential of the CRM platform. You would be able to connect with and understand your customers better, and deliver personalized experiences for your clients and prospects. As an organization, you’ll also be better prepared to provide agile support to your customers. And you will be able to track the entire customer experience and improve further. Before we go into what are the roles of a Salesforce Consultant, let us understand some of the constraints they have to work with. Salesforce CRM implementation is a resource-dependent process. Therefore, the consultant must address the resource needs associated with is before going ahead with implementing a solution. 1. Workforce Constraints The Salesforce consultant needs to be aware of the workforce constraints that exist in the organization. The organization and the consultant must arrive at a common understanding or how much of the organizational workforce can be used to implement the solution. Conversely, the solution has to be designed keeping the workforce size in mind. The consultant needs to understand the work responsibilities of each staff member so that an optimum solution can be developed. Workforce availability constraints must also be considered during the implementation, training, and go-live processes. 2. Time Constraint Every technology solution is designed for under a specified timeline and for a specific purpose that must be fulfilled at the earliest. The CRM solution has to be designed based on the established timeline with all checks and balances in place to address any schedule deviations at key milestones. One of the key challenges for the consultant is to stick to the timelines so that the implementation is relevant and useful. The implementation should not add delays to the existing schedules. In fact, it should optimize the existing schedules to augment efficiency. 3. Skill Constraints The Salesforce Consultant needs to have a good understanding of the gap between the desired skill set and the existing skill set of the workforce. Not only should the CRM solution be usable by the workforce, but it should also trim the gaps in sills for better productivity. Th user experience should be such that it is easy and effective. Roles of a Salesforce Consultant The Salesforce CRM platform is a suite of complex tools and features and tools if properly implemented can maximum profits. It comes with a high degree of flexibility to ensure alignment with almost any business requirement. It is the prerogative of a Salesforce Consultant to be aware of the scope of customization so that the implementation is smooth and effective. Having said that, the organization needs to first identify which of its business processes it wants to customise and/or optimize in Salesforce. Here are some of the key roles and responsibilities of a Salesforce Consultant for an effective CRM implementation. 1. Relationship Management The Salesforce Consultant has a key role to play in the client company equation. The Salesforce consultant brings a certain value to the organization that can potentially be extended to their clients. Salesforce Consulting can help evolve the sales process and affect the clients for the better. Clients are the key touchpoints for an organization since they generate revenues. The relationship between the organization and its clients is a make-or-break deal. It is vital to create and maintain a relationship of mutual trust and business ethics for long term growth. A Salesforce Consultant can utilise specific features of the Salesforce CRM platform to generate more sales opportunities. One of the key responsibilities of the Salesforce consultant is to develop a deep understanding of the client-company relationships and advise the company on how to augment that relationship further. With the powerful Salesforce CRM platform, the Salesforce consultant creates more efficient business process to drive productivity. It allows the client to feel that he is an equal partner in the process of change. In fact, in several cases, the Salesforce consultant is the first point of contact for customers. 2. Organize meetings and keeping the teams updated The Salesforce consulting partner is a key contact point for clients and client companies. Even though organizations prefer automation and intelligent, innovative, feature-rich systems, they want to meet and discuss with someone who has a good understanding of what all the CRM platform can do and how those features can be extended to its users. The Salesforce Consultant should organize meetings with clients and share status updates of how the implementation and adoption is going. While it is easy to provide status updates on multiple projects in a single dashboard, a consultant ensures accurate, consistent and periodic sharing of updates with the users. 3. Building and deploying Salesforce The primary role of a Salesforce consultant is to build and deploy a Salesforce CRM solution that is customized for the company and its clients.  The Salesforce Consultant has to ensure that all business processes that have been discussed and agreed upon by the company have been implemented. 4. Providing training and support Like any other enterprise platform, Salesforce updates its platform thrice a year to make it more available to its users. However, most businesses find it a daunting task to keep up with these upgrades, or they don’t know which upgrades will have deliver the greatest benefits to them. A Salesforce Consultant will help you with that. They will help you in understanding which updates will benefit your organization the most and boost productivity based on your unique needs. This assistance also needs to extend to your staff. Not only do you need a user friendly and efficient system, but you also want your staff to know how to access the information they need to fulfil their work responsibilities. They should feel fully capable to navigate and use the CRM platform. Your consultant will provide the necessary training to boost user adoption and productivity on the platform, empowering them to close deals faster and also acquire more customers. A thorough Salesforce implementation, training and adoption program across your organization is the foundation of a customer-centric business. Finally, you will discover that greater the support you get from your consultant, the lesser the number of queries you have about the platform. The consultant can provide you with the necessary help and support, which means having to submit lesser help tickets. You have your own in-house expert who can all answer your questions related to the CRM platform and provide the necessary training as and when problems arise. Hiring a qualified Salesforce consultant creates a more seamless experience for everyone in your organization. If your business could do with more customers, working with a Certified Salesforce consultant might be the key to tapping into that potential market. Turn to Girikon to implement a solution that can help you drive growth for you. With a large pool of certified professionals, and a global delivery model, Girikon makes it easy for you to focus on what you want to do – deliver customer delight.

In today’s business landscape, a successful enterprise must adopt a system that seamlessly integrates all departments and their respective business processes to enable them to interact and collaborate effortlessly. This is where Salesforce has established itself as the market leader in the CRM space.  Salesforce CRM sometimes popularly referred to as the Customer 360 platform, is a user-friendly solution with virtually limitless flexibility that connects teams across departments in an organization and drives growth. As a result, companies that use Salesforce see improvements in growth and efficiency. But to get the most out of what Salesforce CRM has to you need professional expertise. While most of the Salesforce products are centred around sales and customer service, Salesforce can be used for almost anything. And while the key Salesforce functions haven’t changed much – consultant, administrator, architect and developer, the specializations required based on the unique business needs of an organization have become quite apparent. One needs to have specialization on some of the key aspects of Salesforce to make the implementation count. Consultants don’t just bring in the necessary skills and experience for implementing the CRM platform. They also add significant value in being able to understand the customer. Not only in terms of business processes within the organization but also outside of that realm, such as the people who drive those processes. And they are an intrinsic part of the customer’s growth journey onwards of implementation. While businesses can provide the Salesforce implementation team with data and insight, certain things can only be understood by a specialist. This is where the Salesforce consultant role becomes important. They are trained with skills like attention to detail, analytical thinking and problem-solving along with hands on expertise on the platform. Why Is Salesforce so Popular? Salesforce upgrades its product offering three times a year. Which means every year they add new features and functionality to help existing and new business innovate rapidly. Salesforce is founded on a Customer-360 vision and promotes a collaborative work culture that brings people together and promotes productivity. The Salesforce online community provides help and support to the entire developer community to solve any business challenge The Salesforce platform has virtually limitless flexibility and businesses can create any number and kind of custom apps and integrations to support their business Salesforce allows you to automate routine business processes which frees up employee time to focus on core tasks. Salesforce is powered by an advanced AI engine which delivers qualified analytics on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your business. Here's where Salesforce Consultants add value across various phases As Part of an Implementation Team CRM implementation is a time-consuming effort and requires coordinated team effort. It would be a wise decision for a business to hire a specialist with extensive experience in Salesforce implementation since the Salesforce platform is complex and offers virtually limitless customization possibilities. Consequently, Salesforce consultants are in high demand across businesses that need the Salesforce CRM implementation. Here are the phases that require the services of a Salesforce Consultant: The Pre-Implementation Phase Before preparing a draft of the Salesforce implementation plan, a Salesforce consultant needs valuable insight from within the company. Information on the type and number of employees, the working structure of the company, regular business processes and workflows, are all important to understand how the organization works and what are its vital parts. The consultant needs to work closely with the business leaders within the organization to understand goals and expectations and current challenges and workflow bottlenecks During the Implementation Consultants play a vital role during the implementation phase as well. They are the link between the technical team – architects, administrators and developers who install and configure the platform and build and deploy custom apps, and the company. Their role is to maintain good communication between the two groups and ensure everything is well captured. After the Implementation The implementation is not over until the customer starts seeing results. After all, the technical implementation is just side of it. Once the technical tasks are completed, the implementation team also needs to train the users on the platform. Typically, this is another key responsibility area of a Salesforce consultant. It requires good communication skills, teamwork and leadership skills. Businesses are evolving continuously. And the software that they use needs to keep pace with it. Businesses need to add and upgrade their apps and workflows on an ongoing basis to stay ahead of the curve. If you are already using Salesforce in your organization, the presence of a Salesforce Consultant will help you to upgrade rapidly by building and deploying apps in an agile framework. And do to that you need a strong team of specialists. Moreover, just like every other complex platform, Salesforce also requires maintenance time to time. This is another key responsibility area of a consultant. As part of the organization Salesforce consultants also work in organizations that don’t do implementation for others. They just have enough in house needs. These are regular businesses that use the Salesforce platform and a small team of consultants to oversee the implementation, upgrades and maintenance activities. In this context, a Salesforce Consultant’s function is to make sure system performs perfectly and the users are able to use it easily. On top of that, they also discover methods to further enhance the customer experience through the use of the platform and make sure teams continue to communicate with each other. Shortage of Salesforce Professionals Currently, there just aren’t enough people trained in Salesforce to meet growing demands of this ecosystem. One of the key reasons is that Salesforce isn’t your run-of-the-mill software. It’s a specialised and complex product and unless you're a service provider or you are a part of an organization that uses Salesforce, it’s unlikely that you know much about it. Many of the Fortune 100 companies use Salesforce. IDC published an article in October 2017 saying that over 3 million jobs are expected to be there in the Salesforce ecosystem by end of 2022 through its network of partners. Salesforce has been growing at a brisk pace year on year, and so are their customers, consequently driving up the demand for Salesforce professionals to support that growth. And the skills one acquires as a Salesforce professional are highly transferable in case one wants to switch over to another industry. Developing Salesforce Skills Irrespective of your available budget, there are multiple options available to help one get familiar with Salesforce and develop skills in a certain are: Developer organisations— Sign up immediately for a free developer licence and start practising Trailhead, which is a Salesforce powered only community where one can get hands-on exposure to Salesforce and learn the technical and business skills one needs to succeed from anywhere for free. Girikon is a dedicated Gold Certified Salesforce Partner. Our relentless focus on understanding the unique needs of our customers combined with our rich expertise and experience on the Salesforce platform allows us to deliver value driven solutions to our clients. Contact us today to know more.