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Nov 30
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6 Key Business Documents You Should Be Automating [Part 1]

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Document automation may sound simple, but implementing it into your Salesforce can skyrocket organizational efficiency, eliminate inaccuracies, and a whole lot more. Document generators take a tedious but vital business function out of the hands of manual users, allowing them to focus on value-adding work instead.

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But which documents should you really be automating to get the most bang for your buck? Our team of experts put together this guide to highlight the most important docs to automate today to reduce errors and optimize productivity. As a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce, S-Docs has over 10 years of experience helping businesses securely automate and e-sign their documents.

Check out part 2 for even more documents that you could automate today!

Key Business Documents You Should Be Automating

While it would be nice to automate every document you’ll ever have to work with, that’s not always feasible or advisable. If you’re just getting started with document automation or looking for tips to improve your setup, start by identifying documents you would benefit most from automating. Great candidates for document automation:

  • Are created frequently on a regular schedule
  • Take lots of time to put together manually
  • Require little to medium amounts of customization
  • Use data housed in a single source of truth (like Salesforce)

Documents that meet all of these requirements provide the highest ROI when they’re automated because they’re usually mission-critical, easier to set up, and save the most time for your team in the long run. This article looks at 3 common business documents in this group that you should start automating today.

  1. Business Proposals
  2. Quotes
  3. Contracts

Be sure to check out part 2 as well, where we go over the final 3 mission-critical documents that you can start automating right away!

Business Proposals

When it comes to winning new business, proposals are essential documents for any sales team. Organized and well-designed proposals will leave your prospect with a clear sense of your product or service’s benefits, as well as what you bring to the table over the competition.

Here’s the problem: depending on the project, proposals can turn into lengthy documents that require a lot of customization. Even if you have a few templates built out already, copying and pasting information over from a spreadsheet or CRM like Salesforce can be error-prone and time-consuming. No prospect has ever been wowed by a lagging, error-filled proposal process.

So what’s the secret to avoiding or eliminating these problems? The answer: automate your business proposals. When you use a document automation solution like S-Docs, you can create elegant business proposal templates that dynamically pull in all of the necessary information directly from Salesforce. This slashes the time it takes to compile these lengthy, information-rich documents from hours down to seconds. The result is increased efficiency, reduced errors, and improved accuracy.

Document automation solutions also let you fine-tune the level of automation that works for your business requirements. Complex proposals can require a rep to review and make edits before being sent, while shorter and more straightforward ones can be configured to generate and send based on different events, like when an Opportunity enters the Proposal/Price Quote stage in Salesforce. However they’re automated, time is saved across the board and customers are happier -- according to a report by Qvidian, over 50% of organizations improved their win rate by automating proposals.

Document automation software can also help with great proposal design and brand consistency. By utilizing the elements of document design, you can create stunning proposals that persuade and close. In fact, we made a whole guide on creating game-changing proposals; check it out here!

Quotes

While business proposals provide an overarching view into a solution, quotes are their highly specific cousins. Quotes are usually one or two pages generated in response to interest in specific products or services. They can include details like estimated price, timeline, and general terms and conditions, and are integral to any sales team.

The problem with quotes is that they’re usually filled with information that’s already been entered into Salesforce, meaning that creating them manually requires a lot of repeated work. Fast-paced sales teams don’t always have time to manually compile quotes throughout the day, especially since quotes are needed so frequently. If they are being created in a hurry, incorrect info might be sent to prospects, hurting your chances of winning new business.

Automating your sales quote process has the potential to save hundreds of hours of productivity, bring down errors and significantly increase your win rate. Since quotes require highly specific information and are sent at clearly-defined business stages, setting up templates and implementing automation will be lightning fast. Document automation solutions make it easy to automatically merge customized lists of products into your quotes, such as Opportunity Line Items in Salesforce, and then email them based on your own business rules.

You Might Also Like: How to Design a Professional Quote in Salesforce

Quote automation is an essential step towards more productive sales teams and a cohesive digital strategy. Don’t just take our word for it: when multinational electronics company Panasonic realized that quote creation was draining valuable time from both their sales and technical teams, they turned to S-Docs to help optimize the process. With the help of S-Docs native Salesforce document automation, Panasonic was able to automate and significantly speed up their quote process, saving countless hours of productivity. Their sales team could focus more on selling, and their technical team could focus on strategic projects rather than updating templates. Panasonic now relies on S-Docs every day for quotes, correspondence letters, and invoices.

Automating sales quotes can save your team time and ensure that you’re prepared for anything coming your way, both during times of crisis and in the recovery that follows. Check out our template library for free quote templates that you can download and start using today.

Contracts

Contracts are ubiquitous in the business world. They lay out the terms of sales agreements, partner relationships, and a whole host of other things. They’re one of the most common documents around, and also one of the most valuable, since they protect the interests of both your company and your customers.

Although thousands of types of contracts exist, they’re all subject to one universal truth: nobody likes waiting for them. And yet, lagging contract processes seem to be the rule instead of the exception. The drafting and approval process can take months, leaving lots of time unnecessarily wasted. In addition, legacy contract workflows may impose security risks with widespread remote work. As vital as they are, contracts can be extremely inefficient and hard to manually control.

For this reason, we recommend automating your contract creation process to increase speed and improve security and compliance. Like the documents we mentioned previously, automated contracts allow you to avoid the copy-paste black hole that sucks time and creates errors, since all data will be automatically merged in from Salesforce. Standard contracts can be pre-approved and set to be automatically emailed to contacts when a field is updated, while others can prompt legal to review and make edits first.

If you have multiple contracts that contain identical sections (like a standard Terms and Conditions clause), document automation solutions like S-Docs can help keep things organized and up-to-date. It’s easy to maintain and update a library of individual clause templates that you can reference in your main contracts. When you edit a clause template, any contracts that contain that clause will be updated.

Finally, automating your contracts will significantly increase security and compliance, reducing the risk of lengthy revisions and even voided deals. For one, automated contracts leave less room for errors that might otherwise threaten a contract’s validity. They also make compliance much easier. For example, if your customers are located in multiple different countries, you can configure your contracts to automatically include or exclude certain clauses based on the country or state in which your customer resides, maintaining compliance with local laws.

You Might Also Like: 5 Security and Compliance Benefits of Salesforce Document Automation

Automated contracts boost internal security too, since you can control who has access to each document and what can be edited. Since automated contracts are generated using pre-approved templates and pull data from your source of truth, you can also be confident in their accuracy.

Salesforce native solutions like S-Docs take this security to a whole new level. Since they’re built on the Salesforce platform, native solutions never require your data to leave Salesforce for processing -- when you generate a document with S-Docs, your data remains on Salesforce servers and never changes hands. S-Docs is especially useful for documents like contracts that often include sensitive data that isn’t meant to be shared. While IT departments might be wary about routinely sending data to third-party servers for processing, they can be confident in using a document automation solution that’s integrated into the platform that they already trust.

Summing It Up

Setting up Salesforce document automation for some of your most common documents will save your team time, move the productivity needle through the roof, and even make your workflows more secure. These three documents are a great starting point, but the sky’s the limit when it comes to streamlining your business processes with automation. Check out part 2 next, where we go over 3 more documents that are perfect for automation.

Get Started with S-Docs Today

S-Docs is a document automation solution purpose-built for Salesforce users. Since it’s native to the Lightning Platform, it’s incredibly easy to download and start using right away. It mirrors the look and feel of Salesforce, acting as a seamless extension of your org. And with S-Docs, your data never leaves the platform, making it an incredibly secure solution to any document automation requirement.

Get started today with 2 free templates. For a customized demo that will illustrate how S-Docs can meet your unique business needs, request a demo today or contact our sales team at sales@sdocs.com. Happy automating!

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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Connecting S-Docs with Amazon S3

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Setting Up S-Docs Amazon S3 Connection

S-Docs connects seamlessly with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), meaning that you can generate documents securely on the Salesforce platform and then upload them to an S3 bucket -- all without ever leaving Salesforce. This article will provide you with step-by-step instructions for configuring the S-Docs Amazon S3 connection. For the purposes of this guide, we'll assume that you have already created an Amazon S3 account and an Amazon S3 bucket.

Note: This connection supports uploading documents to one S3 bucket at a time. To change buckets in the future, you will need to resubmit your Amazon S3 credentials.

Provide S-Docs with Your S3 Credentials

To allow S-Docs to upload documents to your S3 bucket, you first need to provide S-Docs with your Access and Secret keys, the name of the bucket you want to store documents in, and your bucket region.

Note: Your bucket must allow public access settings for this connection to function properly.

To do so, navigate to the Amazon S3 Integration page. If you are using S-Docs 4.381+, do so by clicking the App Launcher, typing in "S-Docs," and clicking S-Docs Setup.

From the S-Docs Setup page, scroll down to the Other Pages section and click Go To AWS S3 Integration Page.

If you are using a version of S-Docs below 4.381, navigate to this page by clicking one of the following links:

[Production]: https://login.salesforce.com/apex/SDOC__SDConfig?viewS3Settings=true
[Sandbox]: https://test.salesforce.com/apex/SDOC__SDConfig?viewS3Settings=true

You'll be presented with the S3 Configuration page. Enter your S3 credentials, then click Submit S3 Credentials.

You will receive a success message when your credentials are successfully submitted. You can exit the page at this time.

Create a Remote Site Setting

Next, you need to create a new remote site setting for your Amazon bucket's virtual-hosted-style URL.

From the setup menu, type "Remote Site Settings" into the Quick Find bar, click Remote Site Settings in the dropdown menu, then click New Remote Site.

Give your remote site a unique name; we recommend something similar to AmazonS3Connection.

Then, enter your bucket's virtual-hosted-style URL. These URLs follow the following format:

[code lang="html"]https://my-bucket.s3.region.amazonaws.com[/code]

Since our bucket is named accountsummaries and our region is us-east-2, our remote site setting looks like this:

Ensure that the Active checkbox is checked, then click Save.

Add the Amazon S3 Enabled Field to the Template Detail Page

To specify which templates can be uploaded to Amazon S3, you need to add the Amazon S3 Enabled checkbox field to your template record detail page. From the setup menu, navigate to the Object Manager and find the SDoc Template object.

Navigate to the Page Layouts tab and click Edit for the SDoc Template layout.

Find the Amazon S3 Enabled field in the Fields section of the layout editor. Drag it down into the SDoc Template Detail section. Then, click Save.

Upload Documents to S3

To enable a template for upload to Amazon S3, simply check the Amazon S3 Enabled checkbox on the template detail page.

When you generate this template, you'll now see an Upload Selected Documents to S3 button on the Generated Documents page.

You will receive a success message when your document is successfully uploaded.

Note: The document will be both uploaded to S3 and saved in the S-Docs related list on your base record. If you don't want your documents to be saved in Salesforce, you can configure a trigger that removes them when they are sent to S3.

Automatically Uploading Documents to S3

Although the default S-Docs & Amazon S3 connection allows you to choose whether or not a document should be uploaded to your S3 bucket, you can also modify this configuration so that documents are automatically uploaded to S3 whenever they are generated. To do so, simply modify your S-Docs button URL and add the autoS3='true' parameter to the end. For example, an S-Docs Account button with the automatic S3 upload feature would look like this:

[code lang="html"]{!URLFOR('/apex/SDOC__SDCreate1', null,[id=Account.Id, Object='Account', autoS3='true'])}[/code]

Note: Documents generated via automation (S-Docs Jobs) that have the S3 Enabled field checked will always be uploaded to Amazon S3 after generation. This includes documents generated with the S-Docs Mass Merge (batch) feature.


Nov 18
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5 Security and Compliance Benefits of Salesforce Document Automation

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When an organization first introduces document automation to their Salesforce stack, some immediate benefits are crystal clear. Efficiency and productivity skyrocket as your team is able to focus on high-value tasks that no longer vie for time against tedious document creation workflows.

A good document automation strategy won’t just move the needle on productivity, though. You’ll see a variety of organizational facets strengthened when you remove the manual component from your invoices, proposals, contracts, and other mission-critical documents. Key among these surprising benefits is increased security and compliance. Since 88% of IT professionals agree that having to meet compliance standards can hinder cloud adoption, these benefits are vital as more enterprises move to the cloud.

So how does Salesforce document automation make a positive impact on your organization’s data security? To find out, let’s take a look at what document automation really means.

What Is Document Automation?

Document automation is the process by which document templates are automatically formatted and populated with data based on predefined rules. Using document generation solutions like S-Docs, these rules can be based on any platform-triggering event in Salesforce, such as a record update. The data used to create documents can come from anywhere in Salesforce.

Document automation can encompass everything from complete automation, such as invoices being generated and emailed based on an Account’s renewal date, to partial automation, such as certain templates being preselected for a user based on their assigned permissions.

You may not realize it, but we’ve just described two of the most important security benefits provided by document automation: reproducibility and least-privilege isolation. Document automation allows for identical and repeatable results, and ensures users (or systems) can only generate and send the documents that they absolutely need to.

This article will examine these security benefits and more of implementing a Salesforce document automation solution.

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5 Security And Compliance Benefits of Document Automation

As more and more security-conscious industries move to the cloud, their documents move too. Companies in the healthcare, government, and financial services industries need to be sure that their sensitive information isn’t at risk when it comes to document creation. Luckily, document automation for Salesforce offers several key cybersecurity benefits.

1. Reproducibility

One of the most important benefits of document automation is that it is based on clearly defined rules. No matter what your criteria is, you’ll know exactly which conditions documents can be generated under, every time.

This is important for several reasons. For one, repeatable processes are easier to manage and secure. When you take other aspects of your org’s security into consideration, it’s much easier to factor in automated processes than spontaneous user input. Additionally, it’s easier to track issues when your processes are reproducible. Should something go wrong, IT will have a much easier time pinpointing the source and tweaking the process when that process is automated.

2. The Principle of Least Privilege

The principle of least privilege is a security concept stating that users should receive the minimum system access necessary to perform their job. This limits the surface area for data breaches should a user make a mistake or abuse their privileges. Document automation applies this concept to an organization’s documentation requirements.

Document automation allows you to set the specific conditions under which documents can be created, including conditions that dictate which users have access to generate and email which documents. Depending on your organization’s security policies, you can make these as open or restrictive as necessary. User compliance can become a nonissue when documents containing sensitive information are only created under clearly-defined circumstances.

3. Minimized Human Error

While your team is your most valuable resource, the fact of the matter is that humans make mistakes. According to a CybSafe analysis, human error was the cause of 90% of data breaches in 2019. For organizations that need to generate documents with confidential information, there’s simply no room for human error.

Luckily, automated processes are about as airtight as they come. Using the right business rules, document automation can save you from the following situations and more:

  • Sending sensitive information to the wrong contact
  • Accidentally emailing an internal document to an external contact
  • Providing an incorrect quote or invoice to a client
  • Including the wrong clause in a contract

Document automation solutions like S-Docs don’t just pull all of the relevant data directly from Salesforce -- they also include or exclude certain fields, lists, and even entire document pages based on the state of the record(s) that they’re grabbing data from. The risk of human-caused data leaks drops to near zero with Salesforce document automation.

4. Secure Document Storage

Document automation solutions allow for a seamless transition from database to storage solution. Once your document is automatically created, it can be automatically filed away in the storage repository of your choice without any user input required. This eliminates the need for an individual to download a document for transfer between different systems, which would create more surface area for document misplacement or leakage.

This also enables you to fine-tune which documents can be transferred between systems, and which must stay within Salesforce.

5. Standardized Sensitive Documents

Whether they contain sensitive information or need to be formatted according to organizational policies, certain documents aren’t open to being changed. From legal contracts to government forms, every organization must create certain documents that need to come out the same way, every time.

Since document automation solutions rely on pre-made document templates, there’s no need to worry about messed-up formatting or leaving out the non-compete clause. Your documents will be standardized from the get-go, and compliance with your document policies will hit 100% as all documents are automatically created in accordance with your guidelines.

The Native Advantage

These five security and compliance benefits of document automation are certain to boost your organization’s data security, increase document policy compliance, and put IT teams at ease when it comes to cloud adoption.

Now take it a step further by choosing 100% native document automation apps like S-Docs. Native Salesforce apps are built directly on the Salesforce platform, which means they’re executed and delivered 100% within the Salesforce cloud.

While non-native document automation solutions offer many of the security benefits listed above, the fact remains that they must transfer your data outside of Salesforce for processing before creating documents and sending them back to your org. When your data changes hands, it becomes much more vulnerable.

When you automate your document workflows with S-Docs, your data never leaves Salesforce. Everything is securely processed within your org with zero reliance on external servers. If you already trust Salesforce, you can be confident that your data is secure when you use native apps. To top it all off, native apps work faster since they don’t need to make API calls between clouds, and they’re easier to use since they mirror the look and feel of Salesforce.

You Might Also Like: How Native Salesforce Apps Drive Innovation

Get Started With S-Docs Today

Ready to start increasing your organization’s efficiency and security with native document automation? Our team of experts would love to hear from you! For a customized demo that will show you all S-Docs has to offer, request a demo or shoot us an email at sales@sdocs.com. 

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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Introducing The S-Docs Template Editor UI Refresh

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Here at S-Docs, we believe in continuous product innovation to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers. Throughout the course of 2020 our team has been hard at work researching, designing, and developing an all-new user interface (UI) for our in-browser template editor, which allows users to build sophisticated document templates directly within Salesforce.

After months of development based on customer feedback and input from UI/UX experts, we’re ready to show off our sleek new look that preserves the workflows you’re accustomed to while streamlining and refining your experience. Here’s a view into the new template editor user interface, including the reasoning behind the update and how it’ll help you be more efficient at building documents in Salesforce. Welcome to S-Docs’s UI refresh.

Our Main Goals

Robust feature functionality is imperative to our customers’ success -- you can check out our release notes for quarterly updates -- but great product design is just as important. When we set out to overhaul the S-Docs template editor experience, we had a few goals in mind:

  • Ease of Use: The template editor is intuitive and easy to navigate for all users, whether they’ve been using S-Docs for five years or five minutes
  • Efficiency: Users can easily find answers to their questions and get connected to new features to help them work smarter
  • Modernization: The power of S-Docs 100% native document generation and e-signature solutions is reflected in its modern look and feel

Let’s take a look at the new template editor UI in the context of these goals, and see how each one will contribute to the continued success of our customers today and in the future.

Ease of Use

S-Docs is a 100% native Salesforce application, meaning that it’s built directly on the Salesforce platform. Among the many advantages that come with being native to Salesforce, S-Docs is easier to use than off-platform counterparts since it uses the Salesforce styling and nomenclature that users are already familiar with. The UI refresh expands upon this existing ease of use and takes it to a whole new level.

Mirrors Salesforce Lightning

The template editor now more closely mirrors the look and feel of Salesforce Lightning, meaning the transition from working in apps like Sales Cloud to S-Docs is virtually seamless.

But don’t worry! If you’re still using Salesforce Classic, you’ll receive all of the same benefits from the UI refresh in a style that mirrors the look and feel of Classic.

Responsive Design

The template editor didn’t just get a new coat of paint -- it got smarter, too. Every aspect of the editor is now responsive, from buttons to checkboxes to unit of measurement settings. This helps give users a clear idea of what can and can’t be done when certain settings are enabled or certain tabs are selected.

Easy Navigation

We cleaned up and standardized the template editor from top to bottom, meaning that each tab is easy to navigate and provides the same user experience. This simple but powerful consistency means that new users will learn much faster, and current users will be much more efficient.

Our many ease-of-use upgrades make the S-Docs template editor much more accessible to users of all experience levels. This means that now anyone can start building templates faster and achieve a much quicker time to value than before.

Efficiency

On top of making the S-Docs template editor easier to use, our UI refresh helps users learn about its many different features and find new functionality to further enhance their Salesforce document workflows.

We added numerous helpful tooltips throughout the editor that explain functionality, provide example syntax, and give users tips on best practices that they can employ to fully optimize their use of the template editor.

In addition to tooltips, we also introduced new “Learn More” buttons at varying spots around the editor. These buttons route users to product documentation on our website that provides even more tips and tricks on leveraging the template editor to supercharge their Salesforce documents. They’re also a great way to learn about new features that can help you use S-Docs to be even more successful. Our goal is to make sure our customers are using the features best-suited for their unique business needs.

Modernization

S-Docs helps you create sophisticated, beautiful documents directly within Salesforce, so it only makes sense that the experience of building them should be beautiful, too. That’s why our UI refresh aimed to modernize the look and feel of the S-Docs template editor. The new sleek, clean look aligns with our users’ expectations and more accurately reflects the power of our solutions -- as a 100% native, FedRAMP-compliant Salesforce app, we thought that our superior security and speed deserved a smooth, elegant finish.

Keeping pace with the evolving standards of design is crucial to delivering a product experience that users can intuitively learn, but it also lays the foundation for strong updates in the future. The new refined, consistent look of the template editor provides the groundwork for continuous innovation by our product teams. New features will be added in a way that feels logical to our customers so that they can hit the ground running with every update released.

See For Yourself

Our new template editor user interface significantly streamlines your workflows while maintaining the same S-Docs experience that end-users and admins love. We believe that this update will be a valuable addition to your current processes and a significant component to your continued business success.

Look out for our December 2020 release notes for instructions on how to get access to the upgraded UI, as well as details on the many other new features and enhancements we’ve been developing to continue supercharging your digital document workflows.

If you’re still thinking about giving S-Docs a try for the first time, we’d love to hear from you! Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. 

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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June 12, 2024

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Oct 23
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How To Create A Stunning Statement Of Work In Salesforce

By Blog No Comments

Certain documents just make life easier. For salespeople, these include sales quotes and invoices. For marketers, strategic campaign blueprints assuredly make the list. And for project managers, the documents that reliably save the day are statements of work.

Put simply, a statement of work (or SOW) is a document agreed upon by a vendor and a client that ensures both parties understand what a successful project looks like. It states the scope of work to be performed by the vendor, how long it will take, how much it will cost, and who should sign off on everything.

SOWs keep projects organized and reduce conflict by aligning everyone’s expectations. Figuring out how to create a statement of work, however, can be a little tricky. Broken down into its simplest components, technically this would qualify:

Unfortunately, most companies will be looking for something a bit more formal than that. Luckily, you’re in good hands. As experts in all things document digitalization, we’re here to help you create stunning statement of work templates that will impress your clients and keep projects on track.

These tips are applied easiest when you use a Salesforce document generator like S-Docs, since your SOW data can be pulled in from Salesforce at the click of the button -- but you can still use this guide to refine your SOW templates without one. Let’s get started!

What Should A Statement of Work Include?

Statements of work vary by industry and organization, but we’ve pinpointed a few key components that most SOWs have in common.

  1. Introduction
  2. Objectives
  3. Scope of Work
  4. Deliverables & Timeline
  5. Payment Terms & Schedule
  6. Project Resources
  7. Project Risks
  8. Terms & Conditions/Special Requirements
  9. Authorization

One you’ve built out a few templates that follow this format, creating a statement of work will be a simple matter of filling in the details -- or clicking a button, if you’re using a document generation solution.

How to Create A Stunning Statement of Work in Salesforce

Now that we have a rough outline of the components our statement of work should contain, let’s dive into each section in detail.

SOW Introduction

Good statements of work (or any good business documents, really) start with an introduction. SOW introductions generally consist of information about the agency completing the work and the client receiving the results. In addition, they often contain a high-level overview of the work to be done. You can also include a cover page, if you’re feeling fancy.

To make our introduction easier to navigate, we broke it up into table and paragraph sections -- you don’t want your client getting overwhelmed (or too bored) by a wall of text.

We’ve also included merge fields in our SOW (those funny-looking tags surrounded by curly braces). S-Docs will replace these tags with data from fields on our custom Project object in Salesforce. We believe the less copy-pasting required, the better.

SOW Objectives

If you’re at the point of writing a statement of work, ideally your objectives are already clearly defined -- but if they’re not, no worries. Procrastination is human nature. Just make sure they’re SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

Generally, objectives should be high-level and not go too in-depth; notice how we fit our table onto the first page of our statement of work. Keep them specific and to the point.

SOW Scope of Work

The scope of work section of your SOW clearly defines not just what work will be done (what’s in scope), but also what work won’t be done (what’s out of scope). While a scope of work can sometimes be a separate document by itself, it’s often incorporated into the statement of work so that all project information can be accessed in one place.

Scope of work sections generally contain a high-level list of items that a project will and will not support -- but we’ve used the term “high level” so much that at this point, we’re starting to develop a fear of heights. Where’s the detail??

As you can see, we’ve included a separate task list that will go over the minutiae of the project. The unpopulated table above is configured to pull in each task from the Tasks related list on our Project object in Salesforce and sort them by due date. When we click the button to generate this document with S-Docs, this is what we’d see:

SOW Deliverables & Timeline

It’s time to tackle what everyone’s been waiting for: the outcome of the project. Deliverables are the products or services that the agency or vendor will supply to the client when the project is completed. In short, they’re the reason the project is happening in the first place. Clients may even skip to this section of your statement of work first, so make sure it looks nice and organized.

Deliverables should be tangible products or services that each have clear due dates. They’re best listed in a table, which we’ve done above. We also included a timeline so that the client can easily see when each task will be completed (but this isn’t required -- if you just want to list dates in the table, that’s ok too).

SOW Payment Terms & Schedule

Remember how we said that statements of work reliably save the day? That’s because they help make sure there are no surprises during the course of a project -- and this is especially clear when it comes to getting paid. Laying out a clear payment schedule upfront will eliminate frustration down the road for all stakeholders.

Depending on your business, you might want to structure your payment schedule in one of two ways:

  1. By deliverable (payment is due as work is completed)
  2. By date (payment is due on fixed dates)

Or, you could include a mix of the two. In our sample statement of work, we opted to structure the payments by date.

We also included a convenient summary of what we’re charging, along with some brief terms related to the payment schedule. It’s so clean and concise, the client might just want to pay early!

SOW Project Resources

The resources section of your statement of work is a place to let the client know who or what will be available to them during the course of the project. Introduce your team and note their responsibilities. This is also a good place to list stakeholders from the client’s team, too, as well as their responsibilities.

Luckily, we don’t have to worry about writing out the descriptions or responsibilities sections right now. S-Docs lets us create separate templates for standard document components like these, and simply reference them in our main template. When the document is generated, all of the information will populate. The best part is, if we ever need to make updates to one of these components, we only need to update them once for the changes to be reflected across all of our documents.

SOW Risks

No matter how tame a project may be, there are always risks to consider. A good statement of work will list out any known project risks so that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of factors that might jeopardize a project, and are able to make decisions accordingly.

It’s also a good idea to include the ways your team plans to mitigate the risks, both for your own planning purposes and your client’s peace of mind.

SOW Terms and Conditions

By now, you’ve built a stunning statement of work template. It’s on-brand, professional, and engaging. So what’s left?

Oh yeah -- those pesky terms and conditions. They may be boring, but every good statement of work needs to include a terms and conditions section. If you have any other special requirements, you should put those here too.

But don’t stress! If you use S-Docs, you can simply create a separate template for your organization’s standard T&Cs. After that, anytime you need to reference them in another document, it’s as simple as inserting a tag.

SOW Authorization

The terms and conditions section may be the final piece of content in most statements of work, but you still need to get it in writing. The authorization section is where the agency and the client sign off their acceptance of everything included in the document.

Whether the agreement is made after one iteration of the statement of work or twenty, collecting the final signature is easiest when you use an e-signature solution for Salesforce like S-Sign. Since we’ve already added some e-signature tags to this statement of work, it can be generated and sent for signature immediately.

Start Creating Stunning Statements of Work with S-Docs

This guide lays the groundwork for generating stunning statements of work no matter what industry you’re in. Now that you’re equipped with the tools you need to succeed, elevate your efficiency and security by using a document generation solution like S-Docs. You’ll be able to customize hundreds of business document templates that instantly pull in data from anywhere in Salesforce, and then automate your workflows and never worry about manual errors again.

And when you use S-Sign, you can send your documents for signature and track them in Salesforce without missing a beat. Since both solutions are 100% native to Salesforce, they work faster and are incredibly secure -- your data never leaves the Salesforce platform.

If you’re ready to start getting more value out of your time by using document automation and e-signature for Salesforce, we’d love to speak with you! Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. Good luck on those projects!

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Salesforce Influencer Spotlight: Melissa Hill Dees

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Welcome back to another S-Docs Salesforce Influencer Spotlight, where we highlight some of the most inspiring and influential individuals in the Salesforce community. As a native Salesforce app, we’ve had the advantage of working with hundreds of incredible admins, developers, architects, and other extraordinary people who make the community great. We’ll provide you with an exclusive look into their Salesforce journeys, featuring best practices, career advice, and favorite ways they give back to the community.

Last time, we spoke with Scott Luikart about his Salesforce expertise and advocacy efforts. Featured this week is Salesforce Influencer Melissa Hill Dees.

Salesforce Influencer Spotlight: Melissa Hill Dees

Melissa Hill Dees is a 4x certified Trailblazer who champions more than just Salesforce (although as a Lightning Champion, she’s an expert at helping organizations modernize their workflows with Lightning Experience, too).

Melissa has also been dubbed “The Trailblazer who Transforms Nonprofits” for her commitment to helping nonprofit organizations reach their goals with the power of Salesforce. She’s passionate about using her Salesforce expertise to create positive change in the world.

Though her day job revolves around supercharging nonprofits, Melissa also volunteers her own time to share her knowledge with others. She’s a volunteer teacher at PepUp Tech, a Life Reimagined Guide at AARP, and the leader of her own community nonprofit group. She’s also spoken at Dreamforce, Midwest Dreamin’, and Yeur Dreamin’.

Melissa is currently the Vice President and Founding Partner at HandsOn Connect Cloud Solutions. We sat down to hear about her Salesforce expertise, her nonprofit work, and her journey to becoming an influencer in the Salesforce community.

"Our doors are open to help leverage the power of Salesforce to make the world a better place for everybody."

Tell us about your journey with Salesforce and your nonprofit transformations.
I originally went to university to major in computer science, but soon realized that being a programmer or developer wasn’t my personality. I was much more of a people person, so I changed my major to marketing and wound up working sales jobs in corporate America -- for 20 years!

After I got married, I moved to Alabama and started working with nonprofits. I was an Executive Director at Habitat for Humanity, a Women’s Leadership Initiative Coordinator at United Way, and a Programs & Communication Coordinator at a volunteer center, which is where I first used Salesforce.

More and more, I saw that nonprofits were not embracing a business mindset. Their Boards of Directors were brilliant people who had been in business for years, but they would leave their business skills behind when they walked into the nonprofit board room.

When I started working at HandsOn Connect, I saw big potential to automate nonprofit workflows with Salesforce so they’d have time to do the things that couldn't be automated. I fell in love and did that for several years.

When the HandsOn Connect product was bought by our parent company, Aviato, they started a new organization. I've been a founding partner for the last four years, working with nonprofits, higher education, and anyone that’s looking to manage and engage volunteers. Our doors are open to help leverage the power of Salesforce to make the world a better place for everybody.

"If I have a gift at all, it’s my ability to encourage and cheer other people on."

Giving back is a core focus for a lot of Salesforce MVPs and Influencers. What’s your favorite way to give back?
There are so many different ways! The single best thing about the Trailblazer community is the people, and I love giving back by interacting with people in the community. Today, for example, I’m hosting a virtual social hour for a nonprofit group I run here in Alabama. We get on the phone, talk about what’s going on in each other's worlds, and provide support.

After that, I’m teaching a Nonprofit Success Pack class as a volunteer for Pepup Tech. They work with underserved and underrepresented communities to help folks get certified as Salesforce administrators. We’re working with our current class to produce more administrators that are specifically focused on nonprofit work.

Presenting at conferences is another way I love to give back, and one of the things that I'm missing most this year. People get a lot out of the conferences -- not just from the sessions, but the interaction and networking that comes with it.

Since conferences aren’t an option this year, I try to interact more on Twitter. If I see a woman getting a certification or super badge, I laud and encourage them even if I don’t know who they are. If I have a gift at all, it’s my ability to encourage and cheer other people on.

How do you find time to do it all?
My team thinks I don’t sleep! It can be a little bit overwhelming at times, but if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life -- I really feel that way. People talk about work-life balance, but I think it’s more of a work-life integration. Last year, my husband and my daughter went to Europe with me because I was speaking in Amsterdam at Yeur Dreamin,’ so we integrated family vacation with it. It all blends together. I like exposing my family to the smart, funny people that I know in the Trailblazer community, and vice versa.

"Hearing the voices of these young people along with those of us who have experience in the world can be so inspiring."

Who in the community inspires you most?
I hate to make a list because I know I’ll leave some people out!

Gemma Blezard is one person who has been an incredible inspiration to me.

Eric Dreshfield is one of my heroes. If I ever have a question or need something, I know I can text him.

Vanessa Viligomez is another one of my inspirations. I met her at WITness Success a few years ago, and she has done phenomenal things. People that I have taken under my wing often become the ones who inspire me.

Blanca Leon-carter is another young woman who inspires me. She is a Salesforce MVP and she led our first Platform Developer I study class for Ladies Be Architects. She's gone on to be such an inspiring part of the community to me.

Everyone on the RAD Women board inspires me; there’s so many great young women who just jump in and get started.

My presentation at Dreamforce in 2018, “Am I on Mute?”, was about diversity of thought, and how if you don't hear that diversity, you don't get the innovation that everybody needs. To me, that diversity of thought is not just gender or background, but also age. Hearing the voices of these young people along with those of us who have experience in the world can be so inspiring.

"The single best thing that I did was start attending community events, even if it’s just a local Trailblazer community in my town."

In addition to the people who inspire you, what else do you do to keep up to date on all things Salesforce? What resources are most helpful to you?
I very rarely have time to listen to podcasts, but I love the Wizard Cast. They always do a great job.

The Power Of Us Hub is another great resource. It’s like the Trailblazer community, but it’s focused specifically toward nonprofits and higher ed. There’s a wealth of information there.

Salesforce Ben is a great blog that I normally read. I also read Zarina Scott’s blog, as well as Jen Lee if you like Flow.

I also like the hands-on approach of Trailhead. I’m a very kinetic learner, so if I can do it once, then I can probably do it again.

Are there any must-have apps or Salesforce best practices that you recommend?
Don’t immediately start thinking about how to solve a problem with Salesforce. Instead, you really need to understand what it is that the customer or users need to accomplish. Instead of thinking “This process needs to happen after record deletion, so it’ll need to be an Apex trigger,” think about the reason behind wanting to do something after a record is deleted. Ask yourself what the goal is.

I also think using solutions from the AppExchange is critical to meet certain needs. Mogli SMS is a text messaging app on the AppExchange that integrates beautifully with HandsOn Connect. Elements Catalyst is another great app that helps document, explain, and keep track of the technical debt you are adding to your system, so that when you’ve got to go back and explain it later, you can show why you did what you did and how it’s supposed to work.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for your fellow Trailblazers?
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Not that you don’t have to know things and have the expertise — but the single best thing that I did was start attending community events, even if it’s just a local Trailblazer community in my town. I go up once a month to either the admin group or the developer group in Nashville, even though I’m not a developer. Knowing those people and having those relationships will go farther and do more good career-wise than any amount of expertise.

The Salesforce Community Advantage

As Melissa Hill Dee’s inspiring story shows, the Trailblazer community shines because of the many people within that are willing to dedicate their time to help others. After a career in corporate America, Melissa began leveraging Salesforce to transform nonprofits and help make the world a better place. We hope that her unique insights have inspired you to learn something new, share your knowledge, and get more connected with the Salesforce community.

To stay in the know on all things Salesforce and the community, follow Melissa on Twitter and subscribe to the S-Docs blog, where we’ll be posting more Salesforce Influencer & MVP spotlights, along with the latest and greatest in the Salesforce world.

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Sandbox Refresh Considerations

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Introduction

When you refresh a sandbox org that you are using with S-Docs, there are a few considerations to keep in mind to ensure you can continue using S-Docs like normal once the refresh is complete. This article will detail what actions to take when you refresh your sandbox from production.

You may also want to view Salesforce's Sandbox Considerations article for additional tips on what to do when refreshing your sandbox org.

Note: You do not need to reinstall S-Docs or S-Sign when you refresh your sandbox.

Record IDs

Although sandbox record data will be identical to production record data after a sandbox refresh, sandbox and production record IDs are always unique between different orgs. S-Docs can be affected by this in two main ways.

Template Preview IDs

If you're using the template editor Save & Preview feature, record IDs in the Preview ID field will point to production records after a sandbox refresh. You must replace these IDs with corresponding sandbox record IDs. Record IDs can be found in your browser's URL bar when you're viewing a record.

The Preview ID field can be found in the template editor under the Advanced Options tab.

S-Docs Template IDs 

If you've referenced S-Docs template IDs anywhere in your org, they will point to production template records after a sandbox refresh. You should replace these references with plain text template names. You can also replace them with sandbox template IDs, but we recommend using the template name since record names don't change between production and sandbox orgs. This way, you won't have to update these references after future sandbox refreshes, or when you migrate templates from sandbox to production orgs.

S-Docs template IDs are commonly referenced using the doclist parameter with document automation with S-Docs Jobs, mass merge, or one-click/zero-click S-Docs buttons.

URLs

Any references to login.salesforce.com must be changed to test.salesforce.com, and any references to your Salesforce production domain (e.g. na132.salesforce.com) must be changed to your Salesforce sandbox domain (e.g. cs5.salesforce.com). S-Docs can be affected by these URLs in the following places.

Custom Settings

From the setup menu, type "Custom Settings" into the Quick Find bar and click Custom Settings in the dropdown menu. Find the SDocsSettings entry and click Manage.

Click the Edit link next to SDocsSettings.

Then, ensure that any references to the Salesforce production login URL or your Salesforce production domain are updated. In the following example, #1 would need to be updated to test.salesforce.com, and #2 would need to be updated to a sandbox domain, such as cs5.salesforce.com.

You may also need to update the ConnectedAppUserName if you are using the Run As User feature. This username is used as the "run as" user if the provided username is not found or not valid. It must be a valid Salesforce username in your sandbox org, and the user must be active.

Remote Site Settings

If you have a remote site setting configured for the Salesforce production login URL or your Salesforce production domain, you'll need to add new remote sites for your Salesforce sandbox login URL and your Salesforce sandbox domain.

From the setup menu, type "Remote Site" into the Quick Find bar, click Remote Site Settings in the dropdown menu, and click New Remote Site to add your sandbox remote sites.

Run As User Connected App

If you're using the Run As User feature, you'll need to update your Connected App's Callback URL. From the Setup menu, type "Apps" into the Quick Find bar, then click App Manager in the dropdown menu. Find the SDocs Connected Apps entry, click the dropdown arrow, and click Edit.

Scroll down to the API (Enable OAuth Settings) section, and update the Callback URL to:

https://test.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/callback

Click Save.

S-Sign Considerations

After refreshing a sandbox from production, your S-Sign Site will be updated to your production site. The production site URL includes your Salesforce production domain, which will not function properly in your sandbox and cannot be edited.

Because of this, you must deactivate the production site and create a new site with your Sandbox domain. Click here to view instructions for creating a new site for S-Sign.

After recreating your S-Sign site, you'll need to provide S-Sign with your site's information and assign guest user permissions once more. Click here to view instructions.


Oct 06
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Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Scott Luikart

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Welcome back to another S-Docs Salesforce MVP Spotlight, where we highlight some of the most inspiring and influential individuals in the Salesforce community. As a native Salesforce app, we’ve had the advantage of working with hundreds of incredible admins, developers, architects, and other extraordinary people who make the community great. We’ll provide you with an exclusive look into their Salesforce journeys, featuring best practices, career advice, and favorite ways they give back to the community.

Last time, we spoke with Gemma Blezard about her award-winning Salesforce implementations and entrepreneurial spirit. Featured this week is Salesforce MVP Scott Luikart.

Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Scott Luikart

Scott Luikart is a 9x certified, 2x Salesforce MVP with over 10 years of experience using Salesforce to solve complex business challenges and give back to the community. He’s a Lightning Champion, a golden hoodie award recipient, and the owner of 400+ Trailhead badges -- and he also channels his expertise into community volunteering projects.

Scott created MGPdoesTrailhead in 2017, a program that uses Trailhead to teach Salesforce skills to LGBT homeless youth through the nonprofit Montrose Grace Place. His efforts support the organization’s mission to provide a safe, welcoming environment for vulnerable homeless youth of all sexualities and genders, and help build healthy relationships and hope for the future.

Scott is currently the Lead Technical Architect at Roycon. We sat down with him to hear about his Salesforce expertise, his advocacy efforts, and his journey to becoming a Salesforce MVP.

"Salesforce cares, and I don’t think that’s going away. The message that I hear loud and clear is that their business is a platform for change as much as it is a platform for their product."

Tell us about your journey to MVP status.
My first experience with Salesforce was from a business user perspective, when I was working as a technical support agent in 2011. Soon after, I was connected to a new job by someone from my volunteering network, where I was tasked with rolling out a call center platform. We chose Service Cloud after evaluating several solutions, and although I had zero Salesforce admin experience, I spent the next six months successfully implementing Service Cloud, Live Agent, Knowledge, and Communities.

I gained more admin experience throughout my next few roles, eventually taking on titles like Senior Salesforce Admin and Salesforce Architect. Throughout my career I’ve successfully developed and deployed 7 full-lifecycle products within the platform.

I firmly believe that I wouldn’t be where I am today without my volunteering work. For one, my first Salesforce admin job came through a volunteer connection. I’ve continued to volunteer weekly since then, and in 2017 I created a program called Montrose Grace Place Does Trailhead (#MGPDoesTrailhead) that uses Trailhead to teach Salesforce skills to LGBT homeless youth. I received the golden hoodie award that year, and in 2019 I was awarded Salesforce MVP status for the first time.

"I firmly believe that we are called to make the world a better place, and to leave it better than the way we came into it. To me, that’s being called to do things for other people."

Giving back is a core focus for a lot of Salesforce MVPs. Can you tell us more about your experience with Montrose Grace Place?
Montrose Grace Place is an organization that provides a safe environment to homeless youth of all sexualities and genders. The kids that Montrose Grace Place serves typically don’t attend school due to requirements that make it difficult for someone experiencing homelessness to enroll, such as identification or shot record requirements.

Because of this, I started a fundraiser to buy 10 computers for the nonprofit. The original goal was to teach the kids three months worth of Salesforce, and at the end they’d have computers that they could use as an avenue for continued learning.

When the three months were up, the nonprofit really liked what we were doing and asked us to stay. We are now on our third year of the program, and plan to continue it for as long as possible.

The kids that we work with are stellar. They have some of the hardest lives I’ve ever experienced in my life, but they care about what they’re doing. They want relationships, and we create that relationship by sitting next to them and helping them walk through a Trailhead badge.

We see lots of parents with babies come to the program, and we’re able to let them prioritize learning and take time for themselves in a safe environment. It’s incredible to see the impact that we make.

How do you find time to do it all?
I firmly believe that we are called to make the world a better place, and to leave it better than the way we came into it. To me, that’s being called to do things for other people. I am super happy to spend one less night going out with friends to create community with other people. That might look like spending an afternoon talking about queer history, or supporting my friends who advocate and educate about Black Lives Matter (BLM) while helping others who don’t understand BLM and the value of this movement. DeRay Mckesson profoundly explains BLM in his book On the Other Side of Freedom.

If that just means that I take a little bit less personal time, I don’t think it’s a sacrifice because it’s showing that there are people out there that care, and that’s the ultimate goal in life.

Who in the community inspires you most?
Toya Tate and Shonnah Hughes. They started the first (and only) Women in Tech Diversity virtual user group. These two women do great things for African-American, Latinx, and Asian culture visibility within the community. They’re very LGBT friendly, and welcome allies who want to learn how to engage and support. I used their group as a model for the LGBT community group.

In addition to the people who inspire you, what else do you do to keep up to date on all things Salesforce? What resources are most helpful to you?
I will always look for a SteveMo formula. I will scour the community just to see if he’s ever answered a question before, before I will try somebody else’s plan. His formulas are some of the best things that I’ve ever seen.

There’s a blog out there called Automation Champion by Rakesh Gupta. He does fantastic Flow and Process Builder kinds of things. Jen Lee has equally fantastic content about Flow and Lightning, so I absolutely love reading her stuff as well.

"Don’t wait to get that first certification. If you fail you can then retake it, and you will be better off. Fearing the unknown of how well you will do is always going to hold you back."

Are there any must-have apps or Salesforce best practices that you recommend?
I think that using macros is underrated and people don’t do them enough. Macros inside of Salesforce will allow you to automate emails to prospects, email customers on open cases, and complete records in very specific ways to keep your data quality high. I think that people shy away from them because they’re complex to set up, but the return value of them is high and they’re relevant for a long period of time.

What are you most excited about for the future of Salesforce and the community?
One of the reasons I love Salesforce is because Salesforce cares, and I don’t think that’s going away. Things like the Pledge1 philanthropy program and their inclusion of Ethics and Equality officers show that they will continue to be beacons for teaching us how to be as a community, and teaching other companies how to do good.

For example, they're open to concepts like having an LGBT user group when most companies can't even have an internal one. The fact that they will listen to the community and adapt is incredibly powerful.

The message that I hear loud and clear is that their business is a platform for change as much as it is a platform for their product.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for your fellow Trailblazers?
Don’t get too many certifications too quickly. If you come to a company with six certifications but no experience, they may not be able to pay you the same amount as if you came with one and earned five over the next five years, and then got a pay raise every year to compensate for that additional knowledge.

Also, don’t wait to get that first certification. I know a ton of people think that they have to study for six months. The goal is always to go in knowing 100% of the content and pass it. This is a good approach, but I have experienced people get nervous that they aren’t ready and put the exam off 3, 6, even 12 months from their original goal. If you commit to it and pass you are better off than you realized. If you fail you can then retake it, and you will be better off. Fearing the unknown of how well you will do is always going to hold you back.

The Salesforce Community Advantage

As Scott Luikart’s inspiring story shows, the Trailblazer community shines because of the many people within that are willing to dedicate their time to help others. After starting as a business user in 2011, Scott quickly became a Salesforce expert, and now dedicates his time to advocate for underrepresented groups and use Salesforce as a platform for change. We hope that his unique insights have inspired you to learn something new, share your knowledge, and get more connected with the Salesforce community.

To stay in the know on all things Salesforce and the community, follow Scott on Twitter and subscribe to the S-Docs blog, where we’ll be posting more Salesforce MVP spotlights, along with the latest and greatest in the Salesforce world.

See S-Docs In Action

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June 5, 2024

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Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Gemma Blezard

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Welcome back to another S-Docs Salesforce MVP Spotlight, where we highlight some of the most inspiring and influential individuals in the Salesforce community. As a native Salesforce app, we’ve had the advantage of working with hundreds of incredible admins, developers, architects, and other extraordinary people who make the community great. We’ll provide you with an exclusive look into their Salesforce journeys, featuring best practices, career advice, and favorite ways they give back to the community.

Last time, we spoke with Joy Shutters-Helbing about her passion helping small businesses optimize their Salesforce instances and being a mentor to others in the community. Featured this week is Salesforce MVP Gemma Blezard.

Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Gemma Blezard

Gemma Blezard is a 17x certified, 2x Salesforce MVP who embodies the definition of the word “Trailblazer.” She’s worked on award-winning Salesforce implementations throughout her career, spoken at Dreamforce and other large Salesforce events, and currently has over 500 Trailhead badges. She’s also a recipient of the coveted golden hoodie award, a breast cancer survivor, a mom, and an entrepreneur.

Gemma isn’t just a Salesforce expert herself -- she’s also well-versed in helping others skill up and get inspired about working with her favorite platform. In 2017, she founded Ladies Be Architects, a group focused on making the career path to Salesforce architect more accessible and empowering under-represented groups in the community.

Gemma is also the CEO of The Architech Club, a Salesforce consultancy that she founded in 2019. We sat down to hear about her entrepreneurship, how she became a Salesforce MVP, and her favorite ways to give back to the community.

"Ladies Be Architects was about creating a community that supported and gave a voice to people in under-represented groups who wanted to pursue the Technical Architect certification"

Tell us about your current role.
I’m currently CEO at The Architech Club, which is a Salesforce consultancy powered by experienced Salesforce architects. I founded the company last year with the idea of creating an independent, experienced, certified guide for customers who need to get ready to implement Salesforce properly and effectively.

Tell us about your journey to MVP status.
I started working with Salesforce in 2008. I found the platform really interesting and became certified after six months. Within a year, I started doing Salesforce consultancy work, and soon progressed from mid-market to enterprise level projects.

It was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, because I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 29. I had just signed the paperwork for a new job, handed in my notice at my previous job, and gotten married -- and I received the diagnosis right smack in the middle of everything.

Since I’m a highly driven person, I decided that I wasn’t going to let it stall me. I worked from my hospital bed while I was having chemo; it helped me retain a sense of normality.

After a year or so I bounced back and started working on some very career-defining projects that made me realize that I wasn’t just implementing Salesforce anymore, but looking at the bigger picture.

I joined a new company and had a really inspiring mentor who was a Certified Salesforce Technical Architect. He told me that I could probably get the certification myself, to which I replied “No, that’s something other people do!” He said “You’ve got 10 years of experience in Salesforce. I’m pretty sure you can do it!”

So, I decided to go for it. I logged into the Architect Trailblazer Success group, and saw highly technical people from all kinds of backgrounds having very huge discussions. It was intimidating, and I was struck by the minority of women that were speaking to each other in the group.

I decided to start an off-shoot group called Ladies Be Architects that would embrace active learning and empower women to set out on the path towards Certified Technical Architect. It was about creating a community that supported and gave a voice to people in under-represented groups who wanted to pursue the Technical Architect certification.

Salesforce saw that I’d done that and offered to help promote the group. We were able to encourage quite a few people to take on the architect path, and the numbers just shot up over the years. I've been recognized as a Salesforce MVP for that impact.

"The community is filled with people who give their time to help each other. There’s this unconditional care and regard for one another that extends beyond business relationships."

When you were going through the difficult experience of fighting breast cancer, did the Salesforce community help you in any way?
Absolutely. In 2018, I was diagnosed with a recurrence. Salesforce was so supportive and the people in the community were so kind. I came home from the hospital to flowers being delivered every day for about a week. I just couldn't believe it.

Charly Prinsloo, who runs Ladies Be Architects with me, put together a crowd-funder and raised a whole bunch of money for me, which I spent on hospital treatments. The community is filled with people who give their time to help each other. There’s this unconditional care and regard for one another that extends beyond business relationships. It’s magical to be a part of that.

Giving back is a core focus for a lot of Salesforce MVPs. What’s your favorite way to give back?
When the coronavirus first hit, everyone was using social media more and I was hovering around my local town’s Facebook page. I noticed there were lots of people suffering - people had lost their jobs, were furloughed, and new businesses couldn’t get help.

I was wondering how I could make things easier for people, so I thought, “Why don’t I just offer to teach everyone Salesforce? At the end of it, they can come out with the new set of skills and maybe a career change.”

I made a post in the group to see how many people would respond to it, and quite a few were interested. When I decided to post about it on Linkedin and Twitter, thousands of people signed up. I had to turn off the notifications because I couldn’t keep up! Eventually I kept it to a small group and posted the recorded sessions online for people to follow along at their own pace.

Every Monday and Wednesday night, we did two-hour sessions covering different topics. I really enjoyed it because the sessions reignited that old spark of interest in Salesforce.

The coronavirus crisis took everyone back to basics, and made us question how we could be kind and help each other. This was my way of giving back.

The recorded sessions will be available for free until 2021.

"Design against what is going to make your users really enjoy working with Salesforce and want to learn more."

How do you find time to do it all?
It’s not necessarily about devoting time or setting time aside to do these things, in my opinion. You do these things because you want to do them — not because you want to be an MVP or because you want some client recognition — it’s a genuine desire to be helpful and useful.

Who in the community inspires you most?
Melissa Hill Dees does a lot of work in the non-profit space. She inspires me because she's so accepting and giving to people of all personalities. She's also a lot of fun!

Blanca Leon Carter inspires me. She's a recent MVP who is learning Salesforce as a developer, completely from scratch, and she's brought so many people along with her for the ride.

Susannah St-Germain, Charly Prinsloo, Vickie Jeffery, Emily McCowan and Adrienne Cutcliffe, the Ladies Be Architects team, are also great inspirations to me. They are extremely kind and highly intelligent people. Charly has helped me through some really tough times over the last few years. Susannah works hard to reach out to not only other women architects, but people of color as well. She inspires me for her passion in that sense. And we couldn’t continue without our ambassadors in Australia, who work so hard to continue our study groups every month.

"Use empathy. Humanity affects what we do at work, so we have to recognize that in our technology and approach."

In addition to the people who inspire you, what else do you do to keep up to date on all things Salesforce? What resources are most helpful to you?
Number one: I go to Trailhead. But if I’m not able to find something on Trailhead, I tap into my network of architects that I work with because they are such smart people. I find that just running things past other people and getting a second pair of eyes on something that I’m stuck on is really helpful, using the experience that they have. It’s the impact of their help that inspired me to pay it forward as a service to Salesforce customers through The Architech Club.

Are there any must-have apps or Salesforce best practices that you recommend?
One of my best practices is to design against what is going to make your users really enjoy working with Salesforce and really want to learn more. Make it fun to use, whether that means having a scoring system or turning it into a game in some way. I’ve seen too often when customers have implemented Salesforce and it’s aimless because people are not engaged with it.

When you put requirements together, try to resist the urge to say “the ability to do this, the ability to do that.” Spend time with users, understand what their thoughts are, what their feelings are, what their wants and their needs are. Use empathy. Humanity affects what we do at work, so we have to recognize that in our technology and approach.

"Accept mistakes; everyone makes them. What matters is what you learned from them and what you take from them into the future."

What are you most excited about for the future of Salesforce and the community?
I would like Salesforce to continue to see the importance of the community and to celebrate its achievements.

I also want to see more competitor organizations popping up in my space, because that will help create a career path for Salesforce practitioners; historically this has not been well defined. If we can create a sector full of firms that employ experienced people, then that gives the 4 million new people entering the Salesforce economy something to aspire to for the future.

I’d also like to see the architect mindset and role be more clearly defined. I know that's coming, so I think we'll soon start to see what that vision looks like.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for your fellow Trailblazers?
First of all, be kind to yourself. Additionally, accept mistakes; everyone makes them. What matters is what you learned from them and what you take from them into the future.

The Salesforce Community Advantage

As Gemma Blezard’s inspiring story shows, the Trailblazer community shines because of the many people within that are willing to dedicate their time to help others. Throughout her career, Gemma has leveraged Salesforce to build award-winning solutions, start her own businesses, and empower others to follow in her footsteps. We hope that her unique insights have inspired you to learn something new, share your knowledge, and get more connected with the Salesforce community.

To stay in the know on all things Salesforce and the community, follow Gemma on Twitter and subscribe to the S-Docs blog, where we’ll be posting more Salesforce MVP spotlights, along with the latest and greatest in the Salesforce world.

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How To Use Salesforce For Project Management

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When you hear the word “Salesforce,” you probably think of the tool that helps you or your users manage customer relationships.

Managing projects, on the other hand, probably isn’t the first concept that springs to mind. While Salesforce’s flagship product focuses on customer relationship management, in reality it can do quite a lot more than that. Its out-of-box features can be used to satisfy several core project management requirements -- and with a little help from the AppExchange, Salesforce can function as a robust project management tool.

Why Use Salesforce for Project Management?

Managing projects requires excellent organization and communication. This makes Salesforce the perfect place to facilitate complex project management. Since many companies use Salesforce as a unified source of truth about their customers, managing customer projects within the same environment allows for better organization, higher data accuracy, easier communication, and more collaboration.

Lots of great external project management tools exist, but using multiple different systems can lead to errors and repeated work, even if you set up a sync with Salesforce. When you use one main platform, you can be sure that all aspects of a project align with other departmental and company goals, and that your processes work seamlessly with any other business solutions you may be using with Salesforce (like document generation or e-signature tools).

How To Use Salesforce For Project Management

Salesforce project management starts with its out-of-box capabilities. Let’s take a look at how you can use some basic features of Salesforce to get started with managing projects on the platform before diving into some third-party solutions that can supercharge your workflow.

Salesforce Tasks

The Salesforce Task object allows you to assign tasks to one or multiple individuals and set reminders to ensure work gets done on time. You can view tasks on individual records, or access list views in the Tasks tab in table, kanban, or split view styles.

A view of Salesforce tasks in kanban style

Salesforce tasks are great for letting your team know exactly what needs to be done, but they do come with limitations; namely, tasks don’t support dependencies. However, you can use Process Builder to set up custom workflows to satisfy this common project management use case.

Chatter

As any project manager knows, good communication is critical to project success. Salesforce’s built-in communication tool, Chatter, allows users to communicate directly on Salesforce records or within separate Chatter groups. Teams can stay current on the latest project updates in the same environment they’re working in.

A Salesforce Chatter feed

You can also customize Chatter to make it even more useful:

  • Enable Feed Tracking to get notified when records change
  • Create and assign tasks from a Chatter feed
  • Allow external stakeholders to communicate on a project with Chatter External licenses
  • Use Chatter Approvals to approve or reject record changes from a Chatter feed

Account Teams

A major project manager responsibility is ensuring that team members work together seamlessly. Salesforce can assist with smoother teamwork with the Account Teams feature.

Account Teams are groups of users who are given access to certain Account records and any related Contacts, Opportunities, and Cases. Account owners can define specific roles for each team member as well as the level of record access they receive. This keeps everyone informed about what their responsibilities are and ensures they have the right access to get work done. You can also reference Account Teams when building reports.

The Teams feature can also be used with Salesforce Opportunities, but not with other objects, which is its main limitation.

The Salesforce Account Teams creation wizard

Reports and Dashboards

Project managers need access to holistic project views to make sure things are staying on track. Salesforce provides a powerful drag-and-drop report and dashboard builder that enables them to easily organize the data they need to see.

Reports and dashboards can be customized to display an overview of any relevant project information, such as budget details, timelines, or overdue tasks. Reports can also be used to keep executives up to date on the status of different projects so that they can make intelligent business decisions.

A Salesforce Dashboard with a bar chart and table

Use The Salesforce AppExchange

Salesforce’s out-of-box features provide a good starting point for project management, and developers can take advantage of Apex code and other tools to extend its capabilities.

In-house work isn’t always viable, however, and it can be time consuming and costly. The easiest way to transform Salesforce into a true project management tool is to head over to the Salesforce AppExchange. There, you can find thousands of solutions custom-built for Salesforce that can truly upgrade your workflow.

Project Management Apps

The Salesforce AppExchange is home to dozens of project management applications; to find a list of them, check out the Project Management category under the Solutions by Type tab.

A view of project management apps on the Salesforce AppExchange

Though each solution varies, Salesforce project management apps are designed to manage entire project lifecycles directly within Salesforce and meet all fundamental project management requirements. Let’s take a look at a few common features of project management AppExchange apps.

1. Gantt Charts

Gantt charts provide the ultimate holistic project view. They make it easy to view the entire scope of a project at once -- including timelines, tasks, and dependencies -- so you can make data-driven decisions based on what’s behind or ahead of schedule. Updating tasks and dependencies takes virtually no time at all.

A Gantt Chart2. Resource Allocation 

The ability to see where a team’s resources are being used is critical. Most project management apps provide a resource allocation tool that shows exactly where your resources are being pulled. You can make sure tasks are spread out between team members effectively, and reallocate work when necessary.

3. Time Tracker

Keeping track of hours spent on tasks is important for both ensuring a project is moving along on schedule and planning out timelines for future projects. Time trackers provide this valuable insight. You can see how long different tasks typically take, compare time planned and actual time used, and make adjustments accordingly.

4. Project Templates

One of the most useful features of project management apps is the ability to save project templates and reuse them in the future. For repetitive projects that follow the same format, project templates can save hundreds of hours in the long run so that you can spend more time managing your team and delivering exceptional results.

To get started on your search for project management apps, check out these top solutions:

Document Generation and E-Signature For Project Management

While Salesforce project management apps are great, one thing they don’t usually account for is the countless documents that are necessary to keep projects moving forward. From project charter documents to RACI matrices to everyday contracts, invoices, and statements of work, complex projects require complex project documentation.

Streamlining your workflow using Gantt charts and project templates will only take you so far if your project documentation isn’t keeping up. However, if you implement a document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce, you can close the gaps left open by project management apps and truly transform how you get work done.

You can find document generation and e-signature solutions like S-Docs on the Salesforce AppExchange.

Tip: Look for native Salesforce apps like S-Docs and S-Sign. Since they’re built on the Salesforce platform, they will more easily integrate with other custom solutions that you are using with Salesforce.

Create Project Documents in A Few Clicks

Document generation solutions allow you to create project management document templates that will merge data directly from Salesforce in seconds. Whether you’re using standard objects or custom objects that are part of a project management solution, document generators allow you to compile all of the information you need into clean, data-driven documents.

A diagram showing how Salesforce data can be merged into a document

Save Time With Automation

When you use document generation tools, there’s no need to worry about how to prepare documents for a project: your project documentation can be compiled and emailed in the background, no clicks necessary. You’ll be able to set up custom workflows like auto-generating and emailing a contract for signature once a task is complete, or even auto-creating tasks when certain documents are generated.

Supercharge Your Reporting

Like we said before, Salesforce reports and dashboards can be great for providing holistic project overviews and keeping executives up to date. Out of the box, however, they are bound by relatively inflexible formatting. Salesforce document generators can take all of the information that would otherwise be included in a report (plus some) and create sophisticated reporting documents instantly. You can include Salesforce dashboard charts, lists of Account team members, and even sections of a project’s Chatter feed.

Streamline Approvals

From project planning documents to customer invoices, lots of documents require sign-off before becoming effective. Using e-signatures with your document generator can cut down approval times from days to hours, and eliminate bottlenecks to getting work done.

S-Docs For Project Management

Don’t let an otherwise seamless project workflow get bogged down with manual document creation. S-Docs and S-Sign are here to transform your document generation and e-signature workflows and set your projects up for success.

As the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce, S-Docs is built to work with your custom Salesforce processes, out of the box. Being native also means S-Docs is faster, much more secure, and incredibly easy to use.

Get started with S-Docs today by requesting a demo or reaching out to sales@sdocs.com. 

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