Salesforce implementation for a Paper products Manufacturing Company — Part 1
Basic setup configurations, data import and work regulations
Salesforce is arguably the most popular CRM system in the world. It was one of the companies at the forefront of SAAS, making it possible for Small and Medium Businesses without a dedicated IT team and servers to have access to the same quality of Business software as bigger companies.
Another reason SF is so popular is that it is feature-packed and customizable. There’s a solution for every company size, in every industry.
Recently, we implemented Salesforce for a client. We configured the system for sales agents, and integrated the system with the company’s ERP systems for data exchange.
This article is a review of the project and what we achieved.
Another reason SF is so popular is that it is feature-packed and customizable. There’s a solution for every company size, in every industry.
Recently, we implemented Salesforce for a client. We configured the system for sales agents, and integrated the system with the company’s ERP systems for data exchange.
This article is a review of the project and what we achieved.
A little background on our client: A multinational production company with a presence in almost every country in the world. There are millions of clients worldwide, thousands of distributors and employees. The company receives tons of new clients daily. The purpose of the implementation is to make the work of the sales team easier and more efficient. Salesforce Product used: Sales Cloud. |
Our tasks included setup and configuration, data import, business process automations and workflows, and integrations.
- Setting up the right access permissions to records according to the quite complex organizational structure of the company
- Importing the customer and distributor base
- Setting up work regulations (this includes time and stage based notifications, and other criteria)
- Setting up business process automations
- Integrations with ERP, Active Directory, email, etc.
- Setting up cross-checking and approval processes in the sales workflow.
Some of our results are described in this article.
Org structure:
1. Setting up the organizational structure
We received a drawing of the organizational structure and roles, which we transferred into Salesforce.
In Salesforce:
The next step was to set up organization-wide access to objects, setting up profiles, and what kind of access each one should have.
Since the company is a multinational, it implies that security is very essential. Employees must have access only to objects and records they need for their work.
For example, Sales agents should only have access to read and edit records (leads or opportunities) they own, But shouldn’t be allowed to import, or export any record, including theirs.
Whereas, Managers have read and edit access to their own records, as well as records of everyone in their department.
Sales agents are also prohibited from deleting, transferring their record to another agent and changing the record type, so we removed these buttons from their menu and other fields they don’t need, for a cleaner interface.
Since the company is a multinational, it implies that security is very essential. Employees must have access only to objects and records they need for their work.
For example, Sales agents should only have access to read and edit records (leads or opportunities) they own, But shouldn’t be allowed to import, or export any record, including theirs.
Whereas, Managers have read and edit access to their own records, as well as records of everyone in their department.
Sales agents are also prohibited from deleting, transferring their record to another agent and changing the record type, so we removed these buttons from their menu and other fields they don’t need, for a cleaner interface.
Sales’ agents view of an opportunity record
A Manager’s view of an opportunity record
2. Preparing for data import
To prepare for import, we created custom fields, record types, lead and opportunity paths which will be needed during mapping. The most important are Field dependencies - Countries, states/ regions.
We received a file with 187 countries and the regions in them where our client has operations. We created a map of all the countries and the cities, so that with each chosen country, only the cities in them are available to be selected.
We received a file with 187 countries and the regions in them where our client has operations. We created a map of all the countries and the cities, so that with each chosen country, only the cities in them are available to be selected.
What we received:
The result:
We also can set up and customize complex Sales Territory Management as we did in our previous project, but in this case we were not required to.
3. Configuring the workflow and set the most crucial checkpoints
The sales path/process of an opportunity, the fields available on the opportunity card, and close reasons depend on the type of deal record.
For Example, if an opportunity is from a distributor,
For Example, if an opportunity is from a distributor,
The opportunity path is:
new deal ⇒ needs analysis ⇒ meeting with decision makers ⇒ preparation of commercial offer ⇒ … ⇒ closed
new deal ⇒ needs analysis ⇒ meeting with decision makers ⇒ preparation of commercial offer ⇒ … ⇒ closed
To close an opportunity as “lost”, The opportunity owner must select one of 10 possible reasons. This is necessary for creating insightful reports later and steering the company to make positive changes.
If the opportunity type is “orders & support”,
the opportunity path is:
Order received/processing ⇒ waiting for support ⇒ to be executed/in reserve ⇒ ready for shipment ⇒ shipped ⇒ closed
Order received/processing ⇒ waiting for support ⇒ to be executed/in reserve ⇒ ready for shipment ⇒ shipped ⇒ closed
To close the opportunity, the opportunity owner must select a close stage:
The maximum discount which can be approved for each product on a quote depends on the authority of employees in the company, the type of client and the direction of the opportunity. We give more details on this in the article “Setting up discount management”.
4. Importing data - contacts, companies, products.
We received the company’s contacts and the “person in charge”, or contact owner is Salesforce terms, for each contact in an excel file, which we mapped and imported into Salesforce using the inbuilt data import wizard.
The “person in charge” on the excel sheet must match the users which we imported by integrating Salesforce with Active Directory. When users log in to Salesforce, they must have access to all their records.
Often, the integration of Salesforce with Active Directory is not as complicated as it is time-consuming: you have to consider the client's Active Directory logic, manually write filters and additional scripts.
And still, sometimes errors happen: data could be transmitted incorrectly, or not transmitted at all, and at other times, duplicates are created.
To avoid this, our developers created a small subset of users (5 in all) in AD for a test data transfer. When the data transfer process started and errors arose, they were a lot easier to track and fix.
The “person in charge” on the excel sheet must match the users which we imported by integrating Salesforce with Active Directory. When users log in to Salesforce, they must have access to all their records.
Often, the integration of Salesforce with Active Directory is not as complicated as it is time-consuming: you have to consider the client's Active Directory logic, manually write filters and additional scripts.
And still, sometimes errors happen: data could be transmitted incorrectly, or not transmitted at all, and at other times, duplicates are created.
To avoid this, our developers created a small subset of users (5 in all) in AD for a test data transfer. When the data transfer process started and errors arose, they were a lot easier to track and fix.
What we received:
The result in Salesforce:
Next, we imported products and pricebooks into Salesforce using Data loader. What we received:
Result in Salesforce:
5. Setting up work regulations
To ensure data security and help employees work more efficiently, we created separate object layouts for each employee, based on their roles.
For example, Sales agents are allowed to view limited information on the account records of their opportunities, but can’t edit them.
Regional Managers can view and edit more sensitive information like the financial position of the company, trade share, yearly turnover, etc.
For example, Sales agents are allowed to view limited information on the account records of their opportunities, but can’t edit them.
Regional Managers can view and edit more sensitive information like the financial position of the company, trade share, yearly turnover, etc.
Regional managers account view:
Sales agents account view:
Next, we had to determine
- Who should be assigned to what records? For this we set up
- lead sharing queues based on the source of the lead.
- opportunity assignment rules and queues based on factors such as the company type (B2B or distributor)
- notifications to move leads and opportunities forward
- escalation rules when a lead or an opportunity has not been attended to within the stipulated time frame
Summary
If you need Salesforce CRM implementation or migration to Salesforce, contact us. Our experts will help you to implement it quickly and efficiently.
We will conduct a thorough analysis and develop a Salesforce implementation plan, write a statement of work, configure all the necessary settings, give useful recommendations, develop regulations for salespeople, automate internal business processes and develop a lot of useful and necessary improvements.
If you need Salesforce CRM implementation or migration to Salesforce, contact us. Our experts will help you to implement it quickly and efficiently.
We will conduct a thorough analysis and develop a Salesforce implementation plan, write a statement of work, configure all the necessary settings, give useful recommendations, develop regulations for salespeople, automate internal business processes and develop a lot of useful and necessary improvements.
Salesforce implementation for a Paper products Manufacturing Company — Part 2
Read the second part of the case about our experience in implementing a discount management system in Salesforce for a Paper Manufacturer.
