We use the Salesforce Platform for all the CRM activities in the organization.
Site Head - IOT NW Products & Solutions at Itron, Inc.
Reliable and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of the Salesforce Platform is good."
- "Salesforce Platform could improve by having better integration with Microsoft Azure. For development, we use Microsoft Azure and there was proper integration between the two solutions. We had issues with the customer and they were logged into the Salesforce Platform. We did not have any good way of integrating those issues into the R&D. The R&D mainly uses Microsoft Azure."
What is our primary use case?
What needs improvement?
Salesforce Platform could improve by having better integration with Microsoft Azure. For development, we use Microsoft Azure and there was proper integration between the two solutions. We had issues with the customer and they were logged into the Salesforce Platform. We did not have any good way of integrating those issues into the R&D. The R&D mainly uses Microsoft Azure.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the Salesforce Platform for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Salesforce Platform is stable.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the Salesforce Platform is good.
We have 2,000 to 5,000 users using this solution. The product management uses it extensively.
How are customer service and support?
We have used the support and I have not heard anyone complaining about the level of support.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Salesforce Platform a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager Product Strategy at a security firm with 501-1,000 employees
Straightforward to set up, very stable, and offers good pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable aspect of the solution is the unit coordination between sales and marketing when it comes to lead management."
- "Sometimes what will happen is we work on it and then we move to a different tab and work on something else. After five minutes, when we come back, it automatically signs out."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for Account Management and Lead Management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable aspect of the solution is the unit coordination between sales and marketing when it comes to lead management.. We needed one CRM where we can have all the relevant lead lists, customize lead information fields over there, upload important information, update information and pass the information from sales to amrketing and vice versa and ensure a seamless coordination - that was the best part of it because it improved the productivity and no longer we rely on email threads or manual excel sheets -we had a robust mechanism.
Another interesting feature is integration with other marketing automation platforms like ZoomInfo, Outreach etc. This significantly reduces our workload or maintaining or integration of data across tools and seamlessly helps us execute our activities.
The initial setup was straightforward.. It didnot take any time to learn and set it up.
The product has proven to be stable. We have not faced any productivity or workability issues.
The pricing is good.
We've found the technical support to be very helpful and responsive.
What needs improvement?
Basically, Salesforce has two different views. One is the plastic view and one is the lightening view. If I log in the view is not returned for me specifically. For example, if I'm working with view number one, and I toggle to view number two and then log out when I log out, I come back and I'm still back in view number one. I'd like to stay in whichever view I need.
Sometimes what will happen is we work on it and then we move to a different tab and work on something else. After five minutes, when we come back, it automatically signs out. The thing is, every time we need to re-login. I would like to propose a session extension pop-up. This means that there will be some kind of reminder that your session is going to expire in the next two minutes and to please sign in if you want to continue.
For how long have I used the solution?
We haven't been using the solution for a short amount of time. We've used it for about two to four months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is quite stable. There are no bugs or glitches. We haven't found that it crashes or freeze. Its performance is reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have yet to attempt to scale the solution generally.
We did not add any users, however, we have added more and more workflows. We've been able to customize to our needs. In that sense, it can scale.
We have five users on the solution currently.
I'm not sure if we have plans to expand the product at this time.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've been in touch with technical support and would give them a rating of nine out of ten. They are quite responsive. We've been very satisfied with their level of assistance.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex or overly difficult. It's very straightforward, very easy. A company shouldn't have any issues with the process.
I cannot recall the exact amount of time that the deployment took.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't have too much insight on the licensing, however, the pricing is quite reasonable. It's not overly expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did evaluate one solution, however, Salesforce is the best when it comes to marketing.
What other advice do I have?
We are just a customer and an end-user.
It is my understanding that we are using the latest version of the solution at this time.
Salesforce is great. Without any doubt, I would say one should definitely go for Salesforce. It does a lot of sales and marketing in the CRM that would help you if you work on productivity. If someone wants to have a single place where they need to be productive and that will deliver to the sales and marketing list, then yes Salesforce is the place.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been very happy with its capabilities overall.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Chief Technical Lead at Human Code
CRM suitable for medium to large enterprises that allows fast delivery of applications to the end user
Pros and Cons
- "It is a platform that allows you to get applications quickly to the end user in a secure way."
- "The integration of Salesforce with other solutions could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
I custom develop this solution for different clients. It is a platform that allows you to get applications quickly to the end user in a secure way. It is a fast and easy solution but it is not cheap.
What needs improvement?
The integration of Salesforce with other solutions could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have 11 years experience working with Salesforce.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service team at Salesforce get the job done but they are not fast. The technical support could be improved.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of this solution depends on negotiations. It is somewhere between expensive and reasonable. There is always additional costs for consulting services. It's the kind of solution that requires consulting, but it is not a licensing cost. It is a consulting cost. It is CAPEX versus OPEX.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution for medium to large enterprises.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
Account Executive at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Enables us to log meetings, sales information and metrics but more end-user functionality would be useful
Pros and Cons
- "Salesforce is the best one out there."
- "Salesforce is incredibly slow. It was difficult to run live sales calls and leveraging Salesforce at the same time."
- "Salesforce also did not integrate well with some of the other systems that we had."
What is our primary use case?
I am an end-user, I was never a power user or an architect, and I never developed any reports.
I use Salesforce for logging meetings, sales information, and metrics. I also use it for updating opportunities and looking at my own sales performance reports.
The company's sales team was at least 5,000 people.
What needs improvement?
I was hoping that with the integration of Tableau that they would have better end-user analytics to play around with. Coming from a MicroStrategy background, I was kind of disappointed.
MicroStrategy is actually easier to use than Tableau. It was a function of the license that I was given.
Salesforce is incredibly slow. It was difficult to run live sales calls and leverage Salesforce at the same time. You can't ask a customer to hold for 45 seconds while you are looking for information about the account.
Salesforce also did not integrate well with some of the other systems that we had.
More end-user functionality would be useful. They should have some pre-canned reports that other analysts or salespeople would find valuable.
I tried Salesforce Einstein, but that never really worked for me. The PowerSeller tool was just as helpful.
We would gather news reports about specific customers and identify if there were any buzzwords attached to it. I was able to create customized daily intelligence reports that would go out directly to my customers. TechnoMile integrated these reports directly into Salesforce allowing every salesperson that had the Archintel module to subscribe to specific reports giving them a compelling reason to reach out to the customer. Salesforce has a news feed function, but it is pretty ugly and very clunky to use. If they leveraged some sort of tool like this one, it would be amazing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I use Salesforce every day.
How are customer service and support?
I personally did not use the tech support at Salesforce. We had our own IT team.
What other advice do I have?
The slowness of Salesforce could have been due to the fact that it is on the cloud. I had used Salesforce at other companies and it was not as slow.
Salesforce is the best one out there. I know that SugarCRM claims to be better but I haven't had a chance to use it to compare.
I would rate Salesforce a 6 out of 10. It wasn't great and wasn't terrible.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Customer Success Director at CloudChomp
Easy to use, good integration with different applications, and customizable to our business needs
Pros and Cons
- "Better flexibility in editing emails created from templates would be great, and being able to add hyperlinks in emails for scheduling meetings would allow us to automate more."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is as a CRM. The goal is to create an easy and organized way of collecting and reporting on data. There are many pros and cons but overall, this is the best CRM that I have used.
I have utilized at least five different CRMs over the last five years and although HubSpot was the easiest to use, it was not as robust as Salesforce. Salesforce inches above the rest as my favorite. I feel like some things are complicated just to be complicated and that takes away from the overall productivity it is creating for my team.
How has it helped my organization?
Salesforce has created an easy way to track customer interactions and has simple reporting functions. I feel like some things are overly complicated for no reason, as there are much simpler ways to achieve the same goal.
The ability to customize things is great, as we can create an environment that is more conducive to how we do business. This allows us to be more efficient as a team and allows me to monitor their productivity without micro-managing them.
I can also set tasks for them when things get missed, as a friendly reminder.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is being able to track the activity of my team and report results.
It is easy to add accounts, contacts, and opportunities.
The integration with different applications makes quick work of tracking activity.
The ability to customize things is great, as we can create an environment that is more conducive to how we do business. This allows us to be more efficient as a team and provide quick and easy reporting for our management team and customers.
I also like the automated alerts, to catch things people miss so that things stay updated correctly.
What needs improvement?
Easier bulk updating would be appreciated.
We need more flexibility with building processes and workflow automation.
Better flexibility in editing emails created from templates would be great, and being able to add hyperlinks in emails for scheduling meetings would allow us to automate more.
I would also like more flexibility in being able to designate both default and override values, as I feel like every time we have a new process, we have to add more fields to accommodate exceptions to the norm.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the Salesforce Platform for five years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Salesforce is easily scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have only used the online resources and found them to outdated sometimes. Our Salesforce admin takes care of all this now.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used several different CRMs and my least favorite was Microsoft Dynamics. It was bulky, not user-friendly, and reporting was not ideal.
How was the initial setup?
In terms of whether the initial setup was complex, I would say Yes and No. You definitely want to pay for assistance and support for set-up if you don't have an internal Salesforce admin. There is a learning curve that can be time-consuming.
What about the implementation team?
We had a vendor to start with, and now we have an in-house team.
What was our ROI?
Using this solution makes our company more agile and efficient, and prevents information silos.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My advice is that if you are going to use a CRM then use it correctly, get licenses for everyone, and demand compliance. Having only one department use it and not others will devalue the tool and its ability to provide effective solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Not at this company but in previous companies yes. One declined Salesforce because it was not easy to get out of should they need to change their mind, and they were penny pinchers to a fault, so it was best they did that as I had issues with data loss in past when leaving Salesforce and going to a new CRM.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
A great CRM that's stable and perfect for following sales conversations
Pros and Cons
- "Salesforce is a phenomenal application. It's very diverse."
- "It does need very specific resources to help deploy it and buy in from the users. It's one of those items it's pretty disruptive and if it's not deployed properly and if it doesn't get utilized efficiently, it won't be effective."
What is our primary use case?
Our team is using it for tracking sales and following sales conversations.
What is most valuable?
I'm pretty indifferent towards the solution. I don't use it for anything personally, although the company itself makes use of it for sales. My background is Microsoft and even then I don't really use Dynamics for anything.
It's a core component of any CRM, and just having the ability to journal the conversations happening is great from a sales perspective.
I like that I can subscribe to the chatter surrounding an opportunity, as my sales team doesn't actually call anybody or follow up with anybody. Yet, if they paste bogus numbers on the pipeline, I can follow it to see that they didn't do the job. It's nice to have that transparency.
Salesforce is a phenomenal application. It's very diverse.
What needs improvement?
It does need very specific resources to help deploy it and buy in from the users. It's one of those items it's pretty disruptive and if it's not deployed properly and if it doesn't get utilized efficiently, it won't be effective.
Salesforce doesn't seem to be a really great document repository like SharePoint and SharePoint is backed in behind Dynamic CRM. Therefore, in most cases, generally speaking, it seems like it makes more sense to go the Dynamics route, assuming that the customer understands that if they're already using Exchange, Teams, and Azure Active Directory, they're using role-based access and controls for security and compliance. They have SharePoint as the underlying solution for document collaboration.
Salesforce at that point doesn't make a whole lot of sense for many Microsoft users. For example, with a customer I work with, they have this kind of disparate entity, and they select Salesforce as they say it's the one that pops up on Google when you search and that's likely why they went with it. You can't go wrong with picking Salesforce, however, you also need to have an on-site sales resource such as a Salesforce admin to manage it as nobody can figure it out. It's pretty complex. On top of that, the connection to Teams and SharePoint is so far away.
We would like it if it were possible to record a meeting on an MP4 and be able to upload that into Salesforce as something the sales team can track. There might be third-party plugins that allow for that type of usability, however, I'm not too familiar with them.
For how long have I used the solution?
While my company has likely had the solution for years, prior to my involvement, they have recently made a mandate to sign into the product daily. That has been as of March.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is pretty rock solid. There doesn't seem to be issues with bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While I can't say exactly how many people at my company use it, I know it's a large amount and we have 500 staff members.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Teams for our video conferencing and meetings, and I've been using Team's folders to save assets, notes from OneNote, video recordings, and stream recordings from the Teams sessions. I saved them all into the Teams file, however, the larger population of the Salesforce team doesn't even know how to use Teams and doesn't know how to log into Teams even if it's for meetings.
How was the initial setup?
I didn't handle any aspect of the deployment process. We have a guy on site that kind of manages it and he seems kind of stressed about it. He supports it for the entire organization.
What other advice do I have?
I am not sure which version of the solution I am on at this time.
There's a Google disruption going on here in terms of how to share content and paste it back into Salesforce. I've just tried to put the link in there. Now I'm kind of on the journal conversations. If I've added an activity or event, or I just paste the notes or link to whatever else inside the journal conversation, there seems to be payback if other users pay attention to it.
I'm kind of a Microsoft guy. However, if someone's having a look at it, I would advise that they really look at what they're trying to accomplish and what the rest of the tech stack looks like. Maybe it is the best for what they're trying to do, however, from a Microsoft perspective, most folks have exchanged Teams and everything else, and it goes hand in hand, with your Active directory and the rest of those identity services.
When you start with a disparate CRM, it's kind of against the grain and it's not quite as cohesive. On top of that, when you have meetings and everything else, you have content and collateral that's created so you need to know where are you going to store those assets.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. It's a good solution, however, it's not something I would personally pick.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Cybersecurity Technical Leader AWS - Google at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Stable with an easy initial setup and excellent scalability
Pros and Cons
- "The stability has been great."
- "There's a learning curve. It was a bit hard to understand the logical way of working with it, just at the beginning."
What is most valuable?
The initial setup is straightforward.
The solution scales extremely well.
The stability has been great.
What needs improvement?
There's a learning curve. It was a bit hard to understand the logical way of working with it, just at the beginning.
In Salesforce, you cannot adjust the level of information to what you want to exploit or to use yourself and not share. In a big environment, it's hard to hide information you need, so you have to get local writing for avoiding sharing information you don't want to share with other sales guys or management. It's useful for your business, for your objective, however, it's not useful if you share it on too large a scale, as name dropping is something our consultants and our other sales guys try to avoid in order to be discreet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for one year at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been great. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or free. We find it to be completely reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability has been excellent. We haven't had any issues and don't see any limitations at all. if a company needs to expand, it's not a problem to do so.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never had to contact technical support. Therefore, I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. We have our own internal team that we would turn to if we ran into any problems.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used Microsoft Dynamics. I come from Microsoft Dynamics and it was more integrated with our email solution. It was for the agenda, the calendar, and all the tools you use to just work on a daily basis.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is really easy. It's not overly complex or difficult. However, that said, figuring out how to us is a bit difficult to start with.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a pretty limitless license. However, I don't know the exact costs involved. I'm just a user and do not handle any of the payments or contracts between Salesforce and our company.
We are a partner from Salesforce. There is a special agreement with them.
What other advice do I have?
We are Salesforce partners.
I'm in sales. I'm working on Salesforce. My consultants work with different tools, and they are certified on it. 98% of our consultants are certified on solutions.
Overall, it's been a good solution and we've been happy with it.
For those considering using the solution, I would advise that the company or team follow the different enrollment videos to be ready to jump into the Salesforce mechanisms.
I'd recommend using the solution.
I'd rate the product at a nine out of ten. However, I find Microsoft Dynamics better.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Coordinator of Billing Process at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Stable with good queue management and good scalability
Pros and Cons
- "The queue management of the solution is its most valuable aspect."
- "The initial setup is rather complex."
What is our primary use case?
As a project manager, I deal with many use cases, however, for privacy reasons, I can't really discuss them in detail.
What is most valuable?
The queue management of the solution is its most valuable aspect.
The solution is quite stable.
The product offers good scalability.
What needs improvement?
We need to do a lot of configurations on the solution in order for it to be set up as we need it. It would be ideal if it didn't require so much effort to tweak everything.
The initial setup is rather complex.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've only very recently started using the solution. It's only been about two months or so at this point. It's quite new to us.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. It's reliable. We haven't had issues with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is highly scalable. A company can easily scale if they need to. It effectively expands to meet your needs. We'll likely expand the usage a bit more in the future. Right now, it's still pretty new to us.
We have about 100 users on the solution currently.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't used technical support just yet. I wouldn't be able to speak to their level of service at all.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did use a different solution. It was quite dated, which was why we needed to switch. We also needed something that would work for a global project.
How was the initial setup?
We found the implementation to be pretty complex. It's not straightforward.
We had to transition from an old CMR in the backend systems we use which made the integration really, really difficult for us.
It's my understanding that the deployment took about two months, however, I wasn't completely involved in the process from beginning to end.
I'm not sure how much maintenance is required or how many staff would be needed for that task.
What about the implementation team?
We ended up using a consultant for the integration, however, we handled the deployment by ourselves. We had a good experience with the consultant. They were very good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm unsure as to what the actual licensing costs are. It's not an aspect of the solution I handle.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't the project manager at the time the solution was chosen, and therefore I don't know if there were other options that were considered before ultimately choosing this product.
What other advice do I have?
I'm not sure of which version of the solution we're using. We're using both Google and Amazon clouds, however, I'm not sure where this version actually sits and if it's on one of those.
I'm just a user. I'm not an integrator or reseller.
I'd advise those considering the solution to ensure that the integrations are strong. We probably would have had an easier time if our older solution integrated better into this one.
Overall, I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten. I'd rate it higher, however, we did have some challenges at the outset with the setup.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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