Salesforce Platform Reviews

It allows us to track the records of our transaction pipeline. It also helps us with the budgeting, giving us an insight into potential ROI.

What we like the most about it is the fact that it helps us track the record of our projects. It keeps everything on one interface, facilitating the operations and planning. 

I think the interface should be enhanced and more user-friendly. Right now, it requires a lot of steps to operate it.

We have been using it for the last eight months.

The stability is good. We did not have any problem with it.

It offers good scalability features and the possibility to use its services across different departments within the company.

Our experience with their customer support was very good. We had a few discussions in the beginning when we implemented the project, and they were very responsive. They helped us to put everything on track.

The initial setup was easily done by our IT department.

The deployment process was done in less than three weeks by a couple of our technician experts.

It is a fair price for what it's offering, in comparison with other solutions that are available on the market.

I would rate it nine out of ten.

The platform allows you to plug into all Salesforce capabilities.

The platform allows you to do so many things. It could be easy for people to customize it outside of business models. So, some patterns could be more generally available so that it guides the team to not customize the system on the outside itself.

Salesforce could add cognitive functionality. It's still a way to go. There are some particular cognitive functionalities that I've been set up in the market that Salesforce can do in implementing.

It could introduce more templates and industry-specific package solutions, particularly emphasizing energy implementation within those industries. This level of granularity within sub-industries would enhance Salesforce's ability to offer plug-and-play solutions rather than solely focusing on customization options.

I have been using Salesforce Platform as a partner for three years.

I have worked with SAP and Oracle with a lot of customization. Most specific customizations with platforms are less defined in Salesforce regarding the focus on CRM and its market. E-commerce platforms support Aruba SAP.

The initial setup is not complex. It allows you flexibility to reach the point where you can break the function. So there could be some controls around. A configuration manager helps you even though you want to customize to reduce the customization so you don't break the system.

Salesforce products take a long to realize their benefits. It's organizational-wise. So, from a technology perspective, it has not been processed immediately, but we are looking forward to reducing the multiple points of cost in the coming years. Maybe we will see Salesforce have a positive impact.

We encounter the challenge of exchange rate fluctuations. While the platform may not be inherently expensive, its pricing is based on US dollars, which can pose unpredictability for users in different regions. For instance, if you plan a project with a certain budget, a slight change in the dollar exchange rate can impact your budgetary constraints. 

Once you customize Salesforce to outside, it doesn't scale. When upgrades happen, they fail a lot because now you've taken a lot of customizations, and they're not necessarily within Salesforce.

I've been using predictive analysis capabilities and capabilities around consuming basic information like email.

I recommend the solution, but the price point is a crucial consideration. The challenge is that only large companies in my region, those with substantial budgets, could afford it. It's more suitable for established businesses; startups might struggle with the cost. Salesforce might not be attractive for small and medium enterprises due to its higher price than other solutions available.

The solution is technically a good platform but needs investment and commitment. The investment required to make it worth it.

With the introduction of NetFlow Logistics processes, one aspect of the Salesforce Platform that stands out is its industry-based insights. Consider, for instance, a smaller financial services brokerage. Within such organizations, a wealth of knowledge is dispersed across various departments. This knowledge can be harnessed by effectively implementing Salesforce alongside compatible tools to facilitate smoother transactions and enhance organizational efficiency. I'm eagerly anticipating further developments in this direction, particularly in terms of NLP learning and the integration of voice assistants. These advancements can potentially empower agents within companies to engage with customers more effectively, leveraging internal insights. Such innovations will likely be deployed through a shared-site model, offering a novel approach to customer interaction and service delivery.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We were trying to use Salesforce for an ecosystem to create a loan origination system. So, we are developing a product on the Salesforce platform.

Salesforce's out-of-the-box features are sufficient for most businesses. For instance, if I consider Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, they encompass almost every feature that businesses need for their sales and service processes. If customization is required, Salesforce offers good options, such as using their process automation tool called "Flow" or taking the programming route with Apex programming. They provide a wide range of capabilities under what they call "No code," "Low code," and "Pro code" options. Businesses can use these to tailor their processes on the Salesforce platform.

Salesforce introduces a lot of products and sometimes rebrands them, causing confusion. They acquire products like W and retain their names, creating confusion in the market. This confusion isn't related to the product's functionality but rather its positioning and rebranding. For instance, what was once known as Community Cloud is now referred to as Experience Cloud. This can be confusing for business leaders. Regarding the product's functionality, I find it quite competent. 

We did encounter some issues with Einstein, specifically Einstein Discovery, which is Salesforce's tool for building machine learning models. While it offers out-of-the-box features, we faced occasional problems with it not running properly and had to seek support from Salesforce. There were also some bugs affecting the results. The features didn't always seem stable. The support we received was often delayed, which was frustrating. So, in terms of Einstein Discovery, there were some issues with stability. Our support issues were primarily related to Einstein Discovery. We were getting really late support.

So, there is room for improvement in Einstein Discovery. 

We have been working with this platform for close to two years.

The solution is highly stable. They are among the best in this regard. They prioritize transparency and trust, promptly reporting any outages. Therefore, the solution consistently maintains its uptime without issues.

Our customers are in the enterprise category. They have a considerable number of licenses, more than 10,000.

Salesforce is indeed scalable. The key is to strictly follow to their design guidelines and recommendations when it comes to data storage. Since it's a cloud-based platform, they suggest using external objects for smaller data. By following their recommendations, there are no inherent limitations in scalability. They also offer options for data archival. However, the challenge arises when organizations deviate from these recommendations, which can lead to performance and scalability issues.

The current recommendations are quite satisfactory. Considering it's a cloud platform, the capabilities are impressive. The only challenge is that as the platform grows, it becomes more complex. There's now a greater degree of customization and additional features, which can be overwhelming for smaller clients who may not need all of them.

With Salesforce introducing numerous features annually, the product has become larger and more intricate. Before implementing these features, they undergo extensive due diligence. However, as the product has grown, it now contains a lot of features. Some of these features may not be relevant to a particular client. For instance, a smaller client that has purchased Salesforce might find these features overwhelming rather than beneficial. It would be helpful if they could also offer lightweight applications that cater to specific sets of features rather than providing everything to every client. However, this might not be feasible due to its cloud-based nature. Nevertheless, there are many features that do not add value to the client. To put it quantifiably, if an organization or client uses only 10% of 100 features, it implies that 90 features are superfluous. So, it has indeed become feature-rich. But how do we determine which features are actually being used? Is there uncertainty around that? The usage of features can be somewhat doubtful.

Einstein Discovery support was somewhat delayed. The response time could be faster. 

Salesforce is cloud-based, so there's no installation involved. You simply log in using the provided organization login. There's no need for installation.

There are two approaches, managed and unmanaged packages. For maintenance, a team is required because new features need to be developed regularly. Everything is managed within Salesforce itself, including DevOps. The team is needed not just for maintenance but also for feature enhancements.

The people required for the deployment process vary depending on the specific module or feature. For example, in a larger implementation like insurance, you might require a big implementation team of 15 to 1,000 people. However, even for a smaller 15-member team, ongoing maintenance and support by at least 10% of the team is necessary.

However, it's not fair to base this solely on team size. Suppose we're talking about a significant feature; we've delivered the entire thing in two to three months, but we still need at least two to 10% of the team to maintain it.

The licensing is on the expensive side, but most clients engage in negotiations to reach a more favorable agreement. For stand-alone or medium-sized clients, it can be relatively costly.

Currently, it operates mainly on a monthly basis, with options for yearly subscriptions. In practice, clients often opt for the annual subscription, which results in monthly billing.

Pricing is somewhat intricate in that regard. Salesforce offers various types of licenses, including unlimited, enterprise, and CFO licenses, along with different Sandboxes and channel support options. The licensing structure is not very straightforward. It's very cumbersome.

So customers have options within the license only where customers can get an option of different Sandboxes and channel supports.

When planning a Salesforce implementation, or any similar platform for that matter, it's essential to have a crystal-clear understanding of your needs. This advice extends beyond Salesforce to other platforms as well. 

Salesforce often provides recommendations on how objects and custom objects should be created. My suggestion would always be to aim for a solution that leans towards standardization. Avoid adding unnecessary complexity through extensive programming or excessive custom object creation.

I recommend leveraging no-code or low-code solutions rather than diving into pro-code development. Pro-code can introduce complexity, especially when dealing with new releases. With no-code and low-code approaches, you can ensure that your solutions remain robust and don't break with each update.

Therefore, it's advisable to rely on standard objects and processes as much as possible. If customization is required, prefer configuration or flow options. Only in the most complex scenarios should you consider pro-code, such as Apex programming. This approach ensures stability. Additionally, during the design phase, create plenty of instances to facilitate the entire process.

This advice is applicable across the board, but it's particularly crucial for Salesforce implementations. Properly planning data design and reference architecture before implementation is key. These principles can significantly impact the success of any implementation.

Overall, I would rate it as an eight out of ten. It's a very good solution, but it does come with complexity.

We primarily use the solution as a CRM for client tracking, renewals, and opportunities and as a database for prospects and other CRM tasks. 

From an organizational level, this solution is great for being able to manage your business efficiently day to day.

It is a stable product.

The solution scales extremely well.

Technical support has always been helpful and responsive.

I don't have any notes for improvement. It serves us well. 

I've used the solution for probably ten years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. I'd rate the stability nine out of ten. 

The solution is super scalable. It's easy to expand. 

Salesforce has excellent support. I have no complaints when it comes to their level of service. They do a great job of getting right back to you. 

Positive

I've never had to set up the solution. I really just get my username and password from the company, and then the company manages all of the data inside. 

I'm not sure of the exact pricing. However, they do charge licensing per seat. 

We're customers and end-users.

I'd rate the platform nine out of ten. It's the strongest CRM out there, and they've been around the longest. The support is great.

Salesforce Platform is our CRM used to manage the business and the sales opportunities.

I like the mobile app.

When compared to Siebel, the Salesforce Platform is easier to use. I really like Salesforce.

The user interface is user-friendly.

The customization is good, you can set it up and do whatever you wanted with it. You can easily customize it, and automate reports.

It's fully functional in my opinion.

It may be slow, but that is relative. When compared to Siebel CRM, which was large, clunky, and extremely slow, Salesforce seemed fast to me.

I used Salesforce Platform every day for six years and stopped using it one month ago.

I am working with the latest version.

I have no issues with the stability of the Salesforce Platform.

The scalability of the Salesforce Platform is very good, you can easily add people and grow the product.

With the Sprint acquisition, we have approximately 40,000 or 50,000 users.

I personally have not contacted technical support.

I have cursory knowledge in Microsoft Intune or VMware Workspace ONE. We used to resell. I worked for Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T, and we were a major reseller of Microsoft Office and Intune at the time of their launch.

I was not involved in the installation. It has been in place for years.

I don't have any information regarding the price of the Salesforce Platform.

In general, the price is an area where there is always room for improvement.

I am primarily in sales and work with a technical team and engineers.

I would highly recommend this solution to those who are considering using it.

I would rate Salesforce Platform a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for the CRM, the customer relationship management, but now we are expanding its usage to allow our customers use access an online customer portal based on salesforce community and using B2B commerce  

It was a great add-on to our digital landscape. It is an easy-to-use, easy to customize platform.

Salesforce is not a product, it is a platform, there is a huge difference between the two use cases. 

The platform allows us to receive and collect information easily.

There's a great ecosystem within Salesforce:

1) A huge network of implementation-certified  partners  who have great knowledge about the platform

2) A Market place where you  can download 3rd party apps on the platform

3) There is very good online documentation available and Salesforce offers good communication with its clients. It's very user-friendly and has a system that is easy to learn.

We've found the stability to be quite good.

The initial setup is easy.

The product can scale well.

The solution doesn't really have any weak areas. Overall, it's a very good product, but technical support could be a bit faster. For the standard support, their SLA is about 48 hours which is not that fast if you have a serious issue 

Based on the platform capabilities. I see that the Platform is very, very capable of handling a full ERP, and not only a CRM.

Maybe in the near future, SF will launch their own ERP system.

We've been using this solution for ten years at this point. It's been a decade. It's been a long time.

The stability of the product has been good overall. We don't experience any downtime. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. You do need access to a good internet connection, however. Without a strong internet connection, you may experience some problems. However, that's not the fault of the Salesforce backend in any way. 

The scalability is very good. If you need to expand it, you can do so relatively easily.

Technical support is okay. It's average. Their response times could be faster in terms of getting assistance to us. I'd rate it overall at a four out of five. Mostly we are happy with the level of support.

We did previously use another solution before Salesforce.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult. 

The time it takes to deploy depends on what your plans are for the solution. Without any specific customizations, it's a very quick process. Once you log on, you have access.

The solution is relatively expensive. It also comes with extra costs. For example, extra technical support is a bit more. It can add up.

We did evaluate a few other options before ultimately choosing Salesforce. Among these was Microsoft.

We're just Salesforce customers. We don't have a business relationship with them.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We're mostly quite satisfied with the product and its capabilities.

I'd recommend the solution to other users and companies. However, you need a strong team to manage it. You need to have suitable admins on hand to properly implement the rules. 

We mainly use the solution for Salesforce and for the sales team. They would use it to advise their clients as to other portfolio balances. Also, at any given point in time, we would also use it for referencing any outstanding documents that would ensure that we are KYC compliant.

We like that it can become a single source of truth that can be shared by providers who would need to interact with their clients on a daily basis. Therefore, rather than having to consult multiple systems to determine a client's portfolio balance, we can just look at one place.

We like that we have the ability to configure the solution to meet our needs.

It provides a 360-degree view of the client in one place. 

The solution can scale.

It is stable. 

The back end really isn't user-friendly at all. In terms of data import, migrating data from, for example, a core banking system into Salesforce, we find it very difficult to do the mapping.

They need a proprietary tool that would allow for ease of integration into the environment. That's not just for migration. It's mostly for one-time loads when we need to get the deltas in. We need some sort of tool to make this easier.

The initial setup is complex. 

technical support is not very responsive. 

I've been using the solution for seven to eight years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. I'd rate the stability and reliability nine out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches. 

The scalability is okay. I'd rate the ease of expansion a six out of ten. 

Technical support is not very responsive. 

Negative

In the past, I performed the migration to Salesforce in another organization.

The initial setup is very complex. 

We have witnessed an ROI while using this solution. 

Even though the solution is expensive, it does give companies a good value for the money they pay.

I'm not sure which version of the solution I'm using. 

I'd advise new users to first do a lot of training beforehand. You need a good base of knowledge before diving into any kind of project that will require development. 

I'd rate the solution six out of ten.

I use the Salesforce Platform for quoting, tracking, and updating customer information. We've also had a solution that we've created or built on top of Salesforce. We've recently deployed some native solutions, which I haven't used yet. Our entire project management team has been a recent adoption. There's is another third-party solution called Hot Docs, for reports.  I think you're going to be moving to another application that's even more functional.

The solution has plenty of features that are useful.

We have a lot of strategic accounts and large accounts that are tied with all the growth and acquisitions across North America, being able to tag parent-child accounts in an easier fashion would be better. This is the biggest pain point is associating parent to child and being able to align and manage it better. Overall a better parent-child relationship between accounts would be a benefit.

I have been using Salesforce Platform for approximately seven years.

The solution is stable and reliable.

We have multiple things that we built on top of the Salesforce Platform which our team utilizes. One's called Customer Planning Opportunities, which is about 16 globally. When through an opportunity, a salesperson on the service side can create requests for us for some of my teams, and then it sends out a mass email. 

There are multiple public and private pages that they've developed which we can log activities, such as sales, pre-sales, and pre-sale planning. We can upload documents that everybody can go and gather. If we upload a document in our Customer Planning Opportunity, which is built on top of Salesforce, it doesn't have to send attachments within the CRM. 

There are some places where there are some disconnects

The technical support is responsive. I don't personally call them, but they're very good about if you want to learn or receive additional training within the application. It's pretty good.

We have a technical team that does the implementation, and we hired third-party resources too for the deployment. I wasn't part of the deployment team.

Salesforce does a user capacity analysis on a regular basis. For example, if you're not using certain areas, you may lose access. If you don't go in and quote and edit quotes, all of a sudden you may lose your rights to quote.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Salesforce Platform an eight out of ten.