Penalized for Moving our Email to the Cloud? – (Salesforce.com Integration)

Note: What I’m about to rant about is the inability to sync Contacts between Google Apps and Salesforce. This however, doesn’t diminish my love of either.

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You know what chaps my hide? (And yes, I just said that.)

The fact that work continues to be done on the Outlook Connector, which from what I’ve seen of recent versions is looking pretty awesome. But, for companies like us that have switched to Google Apps for the Enterprise (has it been two years already?), there’s… wait for it…

nothing.

No syncing. No tight integration.

I’ve searched the AppExchange and haven’t found anything remotely close to syncing Gmail contacts.

At Dreamforce last week, I saw a really neat demo of a product that Appirio will soon be offering (if they aren’t already) that integrates Gmail with Salesforce. I was impressed. But, it’s rather costly.

Why do the Outlook users get a free solution but the Google Apps users have to pay? Why are we penalized for moving our email to the cloud?

At the moment, I really wish I had the developer chops to build the integration myself. Because this is getting ridiculous.

Do you have a solution? I’d love to hear it. Leave a comment.

Does this bug you too? Vote up this idea on the IdeaExchange: Gmail to Salesforce – TRUE Integration

 

Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: all things Google, Remember the Milk, Salesforce.com, Inbox Zero, Etsy, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com
Twitter: @Rather_Geeky
Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

The New User (without) Experience – Jumping Into Salesforce - Admin Journal

Introducing a new feature: Admin Journal, where I share my thoughts and experiences as a Salesforce Administrator of an org with around 45 users. As always, the opinions that I express are my own, not that of my employer.

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As you might know, I’m the Administrator for a Salesforce org. And I just experienced something that knocked my socks off.

Last week, I was notified to add a new user for a recent hire. We attempted to set up a time for me to train him but hadn’t yet decided on a date.

He emailed me this morning to let me know that he had created his first opportunity.

I was nervous. He hadn’t received any training with Salesforce. All my explanations of lookups and naming conventions and related lists ran through my head.

Then I viewed the opportunity he created.

I paused.

I decided to write a blog post when I realized 140 characters wasn’t enough to express my thoughts.

It was one of the most beautiful records I’ve seen. Complete. Related information added. No glaring spelling errors.

<sigh>

Perhaps it’s the enthusiasm that comes along with starting a new job. I’m hoping it’s more… perhaps an inherent love of data quality. Ah, an admin’s dream: users that love data too.

This also speaks to the ease of use of the Salesforce platform. Even someone with no prior experience can get started using it right away.

So, thanks Salesforce for being awesome.

And thanks new user for totally making my day.

Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: all things Google, Remember the Milk, Salesforce.com, Inbox Zero, Etsy, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com
Twitter: @Rather_Geeky
Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips