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July 2020

By Release Notes

S-Docs 4.274

Major Updates:

New Template Migrator 

  • This new tool does exactly what it sounds like: It makes migrating templates from one org to another fast and easy. With this update you can migrate batches of templates between Salesforce orgs with ease, saving you time and resources for any deployments down the road. Check out more details in this documentation article. 

Arithmetic Functions

  • Avoid handling arithmetic in formula fields or Apex with this new feature. You can now leverage standard math functions directly in your S-Docs templates, helping your documents be smart and dynamic, just like you need them to be. Here’s more information to help answer questions about the new arithmetic functionality. 

Component Feature Enhancements  

  • Enhancements to the S-Docs Component template capabilities increase flexibility with customizations, and  allow for more sophisticated formatting.  You can now dynamically generate component templates using a simple related list query, making use cases like an Account report easier than ever to build. Check out this documentation article for more detailed information on how to use these component features. If you’re new to component templates, find out more about them here.

Minor Updates:

General

  • Added warning messages on the S-Docs email page when an email address that has been previously marked by Salesforce as bounced is entered in the To, CC, or BCC fields
  • Support was added for using the REPLACE tag to replace given substrings in a main string with input values in the S-Docs template editor
    • Example:
      REPLACE('main_string', 'replace this wherever it occurs in main_string', 'replace with this')
      REPLACE('{{!Opportunity.Long_Text_Field__c}}','User\'s example string \(a parenthesis\)','{{!Opportunity.Owner.Name}}')
      Note: Parentheses and single quotes must be escaped with \
  • Support was added for Table of Contents in DOCX templates
  • Adjusts use of render merge field attribute to also remove parentheses from a field’s content
  • Support was added for the AdditionalFields parameter to have field values with commas in them
    Note: Commas must be replaced with the following non case-sensitive placeholder: |-|COMMA|-|
  • Support was added for using the ReturnOrder and WorkOrder objects with Mass Merge
  • Support was added for the noOutputIfEmpty attribute for <template> tags in DOCX templates
    • Usage: If noOutputIfEmpty=”true”, this will prevent DOCX components that have no real value from adding additional lines to the template

Apex Button Parameters

  • Support was added for the previewFirst parameter
    • Usage: If previewFirst=”true”, after clicking Next Step to generate documents, a “Generate and Save” button will appear instead of the “Email Selected Docs” button. The “Generate and Save” button will create the attachments/files for the documents and create the SDRelationship record
    • If the “Generate and Save” button is not clicked, no attachment/file will be created nor an SDRelationship record
      Note: this is not currently supported for documents using job splitters

Related List Column Attributes

  • Support was added for the Rownum + X feature
    • Example: <column startIndex="3">rownum</column> 
    • If the rownum is 4, this will output 7
    • startIndex can be a negative value
  • Support was added for the <splitEvery> tag in lineitems and lineitemsSOQL
    • This is intended for use when building a list of components
    • Example: <splitEvery>5</splitEvery>
    • This will add a dynamic job splitter every fifth row
    • Limitation: Currently not supported for DOCX, PPTX, and XLSX formats
  • Support was added for the <tableend> tag in DOCX lineitems/lineitemsSOQL
    • Example: <tableend>]*insert table*[</tableend>
    • Intended to append pre-set table rows to the end of generated tables
  • Support was added for the related list <column…> attribute checkbox 
    • Usage: If checkbox=”true” a checked checkbox will render for true cells and unchecked for false cells
    • Using reverse_checkbox=”true” produces the opposite results
  • Support was added for column replaceAll placeholders: #LT#, #GT#, and #LINE_BREAK#
    • Syntax (omitting parentheses): Greater Than: (>), Less Than: (<), Line Break: (\n)
      GT - >
      LT - <
      LINE_BREAK - \n (This would be a line break in a non rich text field)
  • Support was added for using <nullprefix>, <nullpostfix>, <allprefix>, and <allpostfix> tags in components.

Merge Field Attributes

  • Support was added for using the merge field attribute translate in components
  • Support was added for the merge field attribute encrypt
    • Example: {{!Opportunity.EncryptedField__c encrypt}}
      Note: This is not supported for Named Query merge fields

S-Sign 2.108

Major Updates:

PDF Upload

  • Working with prebuilt PDF documents just got easier with S-Sign. Simply upload your PDF document, drag & drop signer fields, and route for signature. Could it be any easier? For more detailed instructions, check out this documentation article. 

Save Progress & Edit Later

  • S-Sign will save your progress at every step of the signing journey - from creating the signature request, to pausing in the middle of signing the final paperwork, rest assured your progress will be saved if you need to step away.

S-Sign Picklist Feature

  • This feature enables picklist options for your signature requests. Signers can choose from a drop-down list, and the data can be optionally written back to a field in Salesforce. These lists can be populated using existing Salesforce picklists, or you can create your own within the Template Editor. 

Minor Updates:

General

  • Added the Input Field Group feature. Using this feature, users can group checkbox fields together and set requirements for the group as a whole.
  • The use of custom email notification templates now requires assigning an S-Docs License to the S-Sign Site Guest User.
    • There is now a panel on the S-Sign Configuration Page (/apex/SSIGN__SSConfig) that you can use to assign the S-Sign Site Guest User a license. 
  • Support was added for adaptive font sizing for Text-To-Signature
  • Support was added for choosing if you want to attach the audit document and/or signed document to the base record. By default, only the audit document will be attached
    • This is available as a picklist in the S-Sign Template Settings
  • Adds a “Print Document” button next to the “E-Sign Documents in Person” button
  • Support was added for the “Omit Signer if” Signer Profile setting
    • This setting uses S-Docs Render syntax, and removes the signer profile from the S-Sign envelope document if the statement given is true
    • Functions similarly to the “Email address is provided by previous signer if” option
  • Support was added for applying styling to text input fields
    • Example:
      Field value is 500px
      Text input HTML: <input type=’text’ style=’width:500px;’>
    • Inputs to this field must use CSS syntax
    • You can use the Letter-Spacing property, which is otherwise not supported by Salesforce
    • Example: color:blue; letter-spacing: 3px; font-size: 14px;
  • Support was added for redirecting the signer to a custom URL after submitting a document
    • The custom URL can be defined in the “Redirect Signer to Page” field in the S-Sign Template  Settings
  • Support was added for listing multiple document names in emails when using the [[DOCUMENT_NAME]] S-Sign merge field
  • Support was added for creating a custom list of parties to notify upon document void, expire, or decline
  • Support was added for limiting what signer receives a copy of the signed document attached to the confirmation email
    • This is available as a checkbox on the Signer Profile settings
  • Support was added for copying attachments/files/documents from the initial signature request email onto the signature request email to all subsequent signers
  • Support was added for S-Docs attachment params to carry through to the CreateEnvelope page
  • Adds field “Email Address To Notify Upon Bounce” to S-Sign Envelope Document records
    • If this field is blank, the creator of the S-Sign request will be notified if the request bounces. If this field is filled in, the email address in this field will be notified, and the creator of the S-Sign request will not be notified
    • Updates bounce management feature to send a separate email for each request that has bounced
  • Adds the “Clear Attachments Upon Completion” checkbox to the S-Sign Template Settings
    • This will delete all of the files that S-Sign attached to the S-Sign Envelope Document once the last signer signs, including the unsigned document, signature images, and copy of signed document that does not include the audit trail
    • This will not delete the copy of the signed document that includes the audit trail, or user-created files
Jul 21
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Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Eric Dreshfield

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Salesforce MVP Eric Dreshfield

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 Steve Molis about his incredible journey and success community expertise. Featured this week is Salesforce MVP Eric Dreshfield.

Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Eric Dreshfield

Eric Dreshfield is a multi-year MVP who takes the word “community” to a whole new level. Dubbed the “Kevin Bacon of the Salesforce Community,” Eric is deeply involved in the ecosystem and believes in the power of connecting with your fellow Trailblazers. When he’s not talking Salesforce with fellow enthusiasts, he’s enabling others to do just that: he founded the Evansville, IN Administrators Group in 2010 and Midwest Dreamin’ in 2011, as well as the Dreamforce Breakfast for Newbies. In 2020, he was inducted into the Salesforce MVP Hall of Fame, which is like earning a Lifetime Achievement award.

Eric got his start with Salesforce in 2009 when he was tasked with helping his company roll out Salesforce for their support team. Since then, he has spoken at Dreamforce nearly every year since 2013, as well as other Salesforce conferences around the world including Tahoe Dreamin’ in 2017 and Snowforce in 2018, and enabled hundreds of people to connect with each other and learn more about Salesforce through the groups that he’s founded.

He’s also a huge proponent of giving back to the community -- he’s raised over $30,000 to date for Project Night Night, an organization committed to helping homeless children.

Currently, Eric is the Vice President of Delivery for ITequality. We sat down with him to hear his incredible story, his tips for fellow Trailblazers, and the many inspiring ways in which he gives back to the community.

"If I can't go to Dreamforce, then let's bring Dreamforce to me!"

Tell us about your journey to MVP status.
Nobody really sets out to become an MVP in my opinion; it's just something that happens. My first job in the Salesforce ecosystem was a role that I just stumbled into in the right place at the right time. I spotted an ad in the newspaper from a technology company looking for a support rep. I thought, “I know computers pretty well!” so I went ahead and submitted an application. They called and asked me to come in at 7 o'clock the next morning for an interview and a skills test.

After I interviewed and took the test, the HR person took a look at my scores and said, "We've never had anybody score 100 on this test before!” They ended up making me an offer right then, and I started the job at 8 o'clock that morning.

The job was only supposed to last eight weeks, but after six months they had already trained me on every single software package that this company produced. Eventually their HR team came back to me with a permanent position they had available with benefits, more money, and all the perks of being a real employee. When they asked me if I was interested, I said “Of course!”

Three days later, I got on the phone for an interview with the VP. She said “We're really impressed with your work. I just have one question for you: Why are we wasting your time in a support role when there's so many other things you can do to help drive this company forward? I’m working on a job requisition for a business analyst position to help us roll out Salesforce to the call center, and I think you’re perfect for the job.”

I had no idea what Salesforce was, but she said "Don't worry about it. You have the skills I'm looking for; I know you can do it."

So that's how I got involved with Salesforce. I was in the right place at the right time, and somebody saw something in my background that she thought was valuable.

I was first named an MVP in 2013, and have been renewed every year since -- except for 2020, when they decided to put me in the Hall of Fame, which is essentially MVP for life.

"[Midwest Dreamin'] was about gathering people from the Midwest together in one spot, spending a whole day doing nothing but Salesforce."

When you were first learning Salesforce, did you receive any training, or did you have to learn it all by yourself?
My manager told me early on that we didn’t have the budget for training, so it was mostly Google, reading through the release notes, or just spinning up a Dev Org and experimenting. I didn't have all the resources that are available today. However, one of the biggest things that helped me was when my manager told me to find a user group.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a user group in my area; the closest one that I found was Chicago, and that's about a 12-hour drive round trip from my house. So, I spent the next eight months or so driving to Chicago and other cities in the Midwest, attending these meetings about once a month. It was overwhelming, to say the least, learning all this stuff and trying to remember who I talked to and what I talked about.

One day I thought, there's gotta be more than just me using Salesforce in my area, so why don’t we have a user group? I found somebody at Salesforce and asked them what it takes to start one. Her response to me was, “Congratulations! You just volunteered to lead a user group.”

So I started the Evansville, Indiana Administrators group, and I've been running that group ever since -- about ten years now!

How did you get Midwest Dreamin’ started?
When I started my first Salesforce role, my company didn't have the budget to send me to Dreamforce. I was the reporting analyst, and they were sending their management team and Salesforce admin. That’s when I decided: If I can't go to Dreamforce, then let's bring Dreamforce to me! That’s why Midwest Dreamin’ got started in 2011. I led the event for the very first time at a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, and had 100 people show up.

It was a fantastic experience. Additionally, I managed to bring in enough money from sponsors and attendees that I could actually pay for the event with a little bit of money left over, so I made a donation to the Benioff Children's Hospital.

After a while, the people who attended Midwest Dreamin’ started asking when it was going to happen again.

I tried to do it again in 2012 and 2013, but life just got in the way and it couldn't happen. But in 2014, I reached out to a whole bunch of community group leaders in the Midwest and said, “I wanna do this again. Who wants to help?” A bunch of hands went up. We brought Midwest Dreamin’ back to life in Chicago, and it’s been going on since then. We had almost 900 people registered in 2019.

Unfortunately, given the current circumstances, we had to cancel the event for 2020. However, it’s already on the books for June 16-18, 2021 in Minneapolis.

Lots of similar events use the “Dreamin” naming convention today. Were you the first one to coin it?
Midwest Dreamin’ has become the largest event of its kind in the US, so I guess “Dreamin’” just stuck for other events. You could say I came up with it. Something like 90% of other Salesforce Community-led events use it in some form.

Midwest Dreamin’ was one of the first events of its kind, but there were two other similar events that I’m aware of happening in the US prior to it. One of them was Snowforce in Salt Lake City, and they're still going strong. The other was an event that happened in Florida for about three years called Dreamforce To You Florida. I actually talked with the leaders of Dreamforce To You Florida about their event before launching Midwest Dreamin.’ They envisioned it as more of a “super user group” meeting, and that's kind of where Midwest Dreamin’ got started: it was about gathering people from the Midwest together in one spot, spending a whole day doing nothing but Salesforce.

"Who you know is more important than what you know, since who you know can lead you to the answers you seek."

You’re obviously incredibly active in the Salesforce community. How do you find time for everything?
I’m fortunate enough to now work for ITequality, a company that places a high value on involvement with the Salesforce Community, continuous learning, and good mental health. In addition to that, since I’m responsible for marketing and brand awareness, it’s literally part of my job to be active on social media. However, when workload requires a lot, I do rely on tools like Buffer to be able to schedule future social posts. So, while there are times I’m awake and live tweeting at 3am, 4pm or nearly any hour of the day -- sometimes my tweets were planned out days or weeks in advance. I have told people before who asked this same question that I give up sleep more than anything.

Giving back is a core focus for a lot of Salesforce MVPs. What’s your favorite way to give back?
Every year at Dreamforce, I host an event called the Dreamforce Breakfast for Newbies -- it’s a chance for people new to Dreamforce to get to know one another and see familiar faces around the campus. I donate all of the proceeds each year to Project Night Night, a nonprofit that helps support homeless children. They build bags called “night night packs” that include a stuffed animal, a blanket, and a book. Their whole purpose is to give these kids something that’s personal and special to them. Their mission hits really close to home for me, and so far the breakfast has been able to raise over $30,000.

I try to do as much fundraising for Project Night Night as I can; they’re a big deal for me. For Dreamforce 2017, I created a fundraiser for people who wanted to see me shave my beard off, which I’d had since I was 13 years old. I raised $2,300 for Project Night Night that year. I went to TrailheaDX last year and did a newbie breakfast fundraiser there as well.

In addition, I love the work that my company, ITequality, is doing. Their mode of operation is to give opportunities in the Salesforce ecosystem to underrepresented or less privileged individuals. Most of the consulting staff that we have on board started with no tech skills. We trained them on Salesforce and CPQ and helped them build up their consulting skills. The idea is to give people a chance in this ecosystem to better their lives.

ITequality doesn’t fit the bill of a standard tech firm. We employ 50% BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and 60% lesbian, gay, transgender, or gender non-conforming individuals. The diversity that we have is what keeps pushing the company forward. Even though I’m in the minority at this organization, I love what we do and I fit right in.

"Put yourself out there and do something. Whether that's writing a blog post or speaking at an event, just get out there and do something to share your knowledge."

What do you do to keep up to date on all things Salesforce? What resources are most helpful to you?
Trailhead is a big one. For a couple of my previous positions, I used Trailhead to make sure I knew what I was going to do before I did it.

There are a ton of blog posts and podcasts out there that all have different approaches in what they talk about and how they teach things. David Liu has a great series of blog posts and video learnings that are all about teaching people to code.

One of my favorite podcasts is the Salesforce Campfire Stories with Justice Sikakane and Stacey Cogswell, where they have a guest on every episode and talk about what they're doing, how they're doing it, and how the community impacts their life. There's another one that's called Two WIT with Melinda Smith and Kristi Campbell that’s always a fun one to listen to. The Salesforce Admin podcast, started by Mike Gerholdt and now hosted by Gillian Bruce, is a great one as well. I always try to follow anything that they are doing because they’re always sharing good stuff.

What are other Salesforce tips & best practices you’d like to share?
When I build things in Salesforce, I try to follow the examples set by the experts - those who know more than I do. People like those mentioned when talking about blog posts and podcasts, or Salesforce MVPs -- those individuals who hold multiple certifications, and those who give back to others by presenting on various topics at community group meetings, community conferences and Salesforce events like Dreamforce and TrailheaDX. Like I always say, for me, it’s all about the people and the connections you make. Because I feel that who you know is more important than what you know, since who you know can lead you to the answers you seek, or they can lead you to someone else with those answers.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for your fellow Trailblazers?
There’s a talk I’ve given over the last three or four years that’s all about building your personal brand and your career, using Salesforce to do it. Probably the hardest skill for some people would be to get outside your comfort zone. You have to get over your fear, just put yourself out there and do something. Whether that's writing a blog post or speaking at an event, just get out there and do something to share your knowledge.

I started writing blogs when I got into the ecosystem back in 2012. It was initially my way of taking notes for something I wanted to remember, but I wrote it down in such a way that it would become a story. I thought that the best place to store them where I’d be able to access them forever was the Internet. I spun up a blog using WordPress called The Dresh Online, and after a while I discovered that people were reading it. It was kind of wild to me that the notes I was jotting down became something that other people sought out and wanted to read.

In addition, making personal connections is everything. I was standing in line at Dreamforce talking to a friend of mine one year, and she said "You know, every time I need an answer to something and I can't find one, I go to you and you either know the answer, or you know somebody that knows the answer.” Then she said, "It's like you're Kevin Bacon.”

So I spent the next two and a half years meeting people through events and featuring them on my blog. One of the questions that I always asked was “What's more important: who you know or what you know?

That always got some interesting feedback. My whole philosophy is that it’s all about the people.

The Salesforce Community Advantage

As Eric Dreshfield’s story shows, the Trailblazer Community is a powerful group that’s full of inspiring individuals who are always willing to share their knowledge. After getting started with Salesforce in 2009, Eric quickly learned the ropes with the help of user groups across the Midwest before using his expertise to start his own community events. 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 Eric on Twitter and subscribe to the S-Docs blog, where we’ll be posting more Salesforce MVP spotlights throughout the summer, along with the latest and greatest in the Salesforce world.

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Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Steve Molis

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Salesforce is a fantastic platform to work with, but it wouldn’t be where it is today without the vibrant and diverse Trailblazer Community that surrounds it. That’s why S-Docs is introducing Salesforce MVP Spotlights, a blog series that highlights some of the most influential and inspiring individuals in the Salesforce community.

As a native Salesforce app, we’ve worked with hundreds of incredible admins, developers, architects, and other extraordinary people in the community, and we know that tapping into this group always results in new knowledge and opportunities for career growth. We leveraged our ties within the Salesforce ecosystem to gather advice from some of the top Salesforce experts and MVPs worldwide. Over the next few months, 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.

Dive into the stories of these Salesforce superstars to learn something new and be inspired to blaze your own trail. Kicking off the series is Salesforce MVP Steve Molis.

Salesforce MVP Spotlight: Steve Molis

Steve Molis is a 10x Salesforce MVP with a passion for formulas and helping others. It would be an understatement to say that Steve, also known as SteveMo, is an active member of the community -- he’s answered over 82,000 questions on the Trailblazer Community to date. To match Steve’s contributions, you’d have to answer 22 questions a day for the next 10 years!

Steve has been involved with Salesforce since 2003, when he was put in charge of implementing Salesforce for his company, Epsilon. Since then, he’s been inducted into the MVP Hall of Fame, spoken at Dreamforce numerous times, and established himself as an acclaimed member of the Salesforce community for his extensive formula knowledge and willingness to lend a helping hand.

We sat down with Steve to learn more about his story, Salesforce best practices, and advice for anyone in the community looking to improve their skills, further their career, or simply find a way to get more connected to their fellow trailblazers.

"Whenever I learn something new, whether it’s a formula or a process or something that’s just not in the owner’s manual, I can’t wait to share it with the community."

Tell us about your journey to MVP status.
I got into computers in my junior year of highschool when my mom got me a data entry job at the bank she worked at. After a few years, the lightbulb finally started to flicker on and I realized that computers aren’t that bad to work on, and I’m not that bad at it.

A few years later, I found myself at Epsilon, working as a Lotus Domino developer. During a team meeting one week, my boss said to me, “Sales is getting this thing called Salesforce, and it's gonna be about 25 users. You got some time - you take it,” and that was it.

Luckily, I hit the jackpot. I had written thousands of Lotus Domino formulas before, and moving from Domino formulas to Salesforce formulas is like moving from the US to Ireland. 99.9% of the words are the same - it’s just the slang that’s a little bit different. Domino gave me the background that made Salesforce make sense right out of the box.

When I first saw Salesforce, there was definitely a “wow” factor for me. It was like so many other individual things I’d worked on before, but it all came together with Salesforce. I could finally apply all those little nuggets that I’d learned over the years into one system.

I was also very fortunate to work for and with great people. I learned everything about writing Domino from my boss, who was brilliant and always willing to help.

As far as MVP status goes, I kind of just found myself there. In 2004 they spun up DeveloperForce -- old-school discussion boards and forums for people to post questions or chunks of code -- and then in 2009 they created the foundation of the community as we know it today with the IdeaExchange and the Answers Community. When Erica Kuhl created the MVP program, I was lucky enough to have been found by this community that they had built.

"I love the AppExchange because there's so many things out there that can help you ... I guarantee you're gonna find something out there that fits your needs."

Giving back is a core focus for a lot of Salesforce MVPs. What’s your favorite way to give back?
I like to joke that I will talk about Salesforce to anyone, anywhere, anytime...whether they want to hear me talk about Salesforce or not! It’s a community where you enjoy sharing what you come up with, and that’s what I love to do: share what I’ve learned.

I liken it to Disney people or Harley Davidson people. You get some people who just go to Disney one time and then they’re done, or they have a Harley, but it’s just a mode of transportation to them. Then you get those who really geek out about these things; they love to get together and talk about their passions, and for them, it’s also about sharing their passion with the community.

It’s the same thing with Salesforce. Whenever I learn something new, whether it’s a formula or a process or something that’s just not in the owner’s manual, I can’t wait to share it with the community. That’s how I love to give back. In the early days of Salesforce, there was no Trailhead, and learning was all self-taught or through collaborating online and looking at what other people were doing. I learned a lot doing that, so I like to return the favor.

Who in the community inspires you most?
There’s too many to count! If I could only mention one person, it would have to be Deepak Anand - he is the most brilliant person on the Answers Community that I have ever seen.

If I have a question about process automation or flow, I’ll ask Jennifer Lee, Mark Ross, or Brian Kwong, three of the most brilliant people in the entire world on process automation and flow technology. There’s countless others out there, but those three are like the Mount Rushmore of process automation. And they can reach out to me if they have a question about a formula -- It’s a two-way street.

There are also a ton of other brilliant people on there everyday. Eric Praud is doing some great things in the community, and it’s not just the stuff he comes up with, either. He goes into detail when he answers a question, explaining his thought process and why he did what he did, how he did it, and why it’s working. He basically gives you the owner’s manual for what he built.

Another great person is Sunil Kumar Sirangi. If my life depended on a datetime formula functioning properly, I would put my life in his hands, and have him write it.

Evan Ponter is another one. He does amazing things with reports.

I wish I could name everybody. Like I said, there’s so many great people in the community that I could go on and on; that’s just how the community is!

"Put yourself out there. The Success Community is a judgment-free part of the internet. If you have an idea or if you have a question, don't be afraid to ask. There is no stupid question."

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 listen to the Admin Podcast. There's also all these Salesforce-moderated groups like Release Readiness, in addition to these individual Chatter groups that people have spun up on their own. I have mine for who owes me a beer... but some of them are more serious than that! I like the Process Automation Hour with Jen Lee -- I go there for what people are talking about in process automation, what people are talking about in reports and dashboards, what new features are out there like field to field filtering and role-level formulas.

Christine Marshall, a new MVP from the UK, has got a great blog called the Everyday Admin. Celeste Keller has posted some great stuff on the Salesforce Saint blog. All you have to do is Google “Salesforce” and you're not going to be wanting for resources.

What are some of your favorite must-have apps?
I love the AppExchange because there's so many things out there that can help you if you can't do it through the regular setup and configuration of Salesforce -- I guarantee you're gonna find something out there that fits your needs. I had a requirement for document generation a couple of years ago, and I stumbled onto S-Docs, and sure enough it did exactly what I needed it to do.

There’s some great premium apps out there that give you a fully functioning version of their solution that you can install, play around with, and evaluate, which can be really great for people in areas like the Salesforce nonprofit community.

I’ve found some great apps by Salesforce Labs that I’ve installed in a sandbox or dev org, and then used as the foundation for my own creation, whether it be my own custom object or custom app.

"Don’t jump on the first answer or the first solution you find. Be open to other ideas or new ways of looking at things."

What are other Salesforce tips & best practices you’d like to share?
I have a little admin life hack that I came up with while working with formulas. If you create or edit a formula in the formula editor, that little “check syntax” button makes sure that you're not doing something illegal in your formula, like using an INCLUDES function on a checkbox field, or comparing datetime to just date. However, it doesn't check the logic of your formula. (A+B)/C will give you a completely different result than A+B/C, but they are both syntactically correct.

So, to test my validation rule logic, I create a custom formula checkbox field on every object called “validation test,” and before I activate my validation rule, I put my validation rule formula in my formula checkbox field. Then I create a report or a list view that has all of the fields that the validation formula is evaluating, along with my checkbox right there.

This way, I can see if a record returns a true checkbox -- meaning it would trigger and flunk my validation rule -- or if it's an unchecked checkbox -- meaning it would pass my validation rule. This way, I can see if I've got a loophole.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you have for your fellow Trailblazers?
Put yourself out there. The Success Community is a judgment-free part of the internet. The people are welcoming. If you have an idea or if you have a question, don't be afraid to ask. There is no stupid question.

Back in 2008-2009, Salesforce had these weekly conference calls for admins that I would join, since I was a self-taught admin. They were basically open forums for people to ask their questions, and they were moderated by Salesforce employees. If people threw out a technical question, the people from Salesforce would take a crack at answering it - but sometimes people were doing things that weren’t in the owner’s manual. That’s when I would chime in, say “I’ve done something like that in my org. This is how I did it, and this is what you need to look for.”

At a Boston user group meeting, I was recognized from those calls by Jennifer West. She said “You’re Boston Steve! I moderate those phone calls and when you check in, everybody is glad because you answer all the questions for everyone!”

So she asked me if I was going to Dreamforce that year, and I told her that I was thinking of taking the admin workshop instead since I really want to get my certification, and that I couldn’t ask my boss to pay for both. She looked at me and said “I’m doing a session at Dreamforce. If you’re one of my speakers, your registration is comped.”

And so I was a speaker in front of about 300 people at my first ever Dreamforce in 2009. Putting myself out there in the Salesforce community really helped me get out of my shell.

Another piece of advice I have is don’t jump on the first answer or the first solution you find. Be open to other ideas or new ways of looking at things.

The Salesforce Community Advantage

Steve Molis’s incredible journey shows just how amazing the Trailblazer community really is. After starting from scratch in 2003, Steve became an influential leader in the Salesforce community by always being willing to lend a helping hand. We hope that his expert advice and unique insights have inspired you to learn something new and share your knowledge with the community around you.

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

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10 More Essential Productivity Tips for Salesforce Admins [Part 2]

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What’s the main responsibility of a Salesforce admin? If you asked 100 different people, you’d probably get 100 different answers. On any given day, Salesforce admins might be busy with tasks ranging from resetting forgotten passwords to building custom objects that will help achieve new business goals.

Overall, admins enable their users to get the most out of Salesforce, but the route it takes to accomplish this might change by the day. Paired with the fact that Salesforce is an incredibly innovative platform that releases three major updates per year, it’s easy to see that Salesforce admins need to be creative thinkers and lifelong learners.

As a native Salesforce app, we at S-Docs know that admins are always looking for new resources to help improve their skills. In our last article, we outlined 10 essential tips aimed exclusively at Salesforce admins to help boost productivity and enable the learning mindset that they strive for. There was so much to say that we broke it up into a two-part blog series -- read the first part here!

So whether you’ve been a Salesforce administrator for one year or fifteen, check out these 10 more tried-and-true productivity tips gathered from seasoned admins in a multitude of industries. Use these tips to grow your efficiency and continue being the #AwesomeAdmin that you are.

1. Create a Formal Process to Track Requests

One of an admin’s main responsibilities is solving users’ problems and making their lives easier and more efficient in Salesforce. Because of this, admins get lots of user requests -- some of them might be quick fixes, but others may be large projects that take quite a while to complete. If the only way for your users to contact you about requests is through email, this will quickly become overwhelming and hard to manage.

To remedy this, do what you do best -- take advantage of Salesforce to solve the problem. The case object is already great when it comes to customer support, and can be easily customized to accommodate an internal request process. You could also create your own object for requests, or build something completely new. Doing this will streamline the request process and allow you to prioritize the most important requests first, and ultimately spend less time keeping track of everything.

2. Monitor User Adoption Closely

Let’s say you’ve put in long hours building a new app, creating a custom object, or adding new fields and record types to an existing object. A lot of time and effort went into these solutions, and your users should see that, right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Creating solutions that aren’t being used hurts your own productivity, because you could’ve been working on more valuable projects, and it hurts your users’ productivity, since they’re not receiving the tools they need.

For this reason, it’s important to monitor user adoption to see what your users are and aren’t using. If a solution has high adoption rates, great -- if not, you can gather information about why adoption is low by asking questions, then go back to the drawing board. Use tools like the native Adoption Dashboards by Salesforce Labs or Salesforce Shield’s Event Monitoring feature to track adoption.

3. Create Weekly Chatter Updates

It’s easier to stay productive when other people are in the know about what you’re doing. Creating weekly chatter posts that detail the projects you’re working on can be a great way to provide transparency to your team and hold yourself accountable. You’ll be motivated to get more done each week because it means that in your next update post, you can brag about what you’ve accomplished! It will also help your users prioritize the requests they make to you, since they’ll be able to view your workload for any given week, and you won’t get bogged down with too many tasks. In addition, it’s also an opportunity for your colleagues to identify areas of collaboration.

You Might Also Like: Salesforce Process Builder Best Practices

4. Back Up, Back Up, Back Up!

Nothing will hurt your productivity more than accidentally deleting something important or making a change that breaks something and can’t be reverted easily. To avoid these pitfalls, our advice is to back up, back up, back up. When dealing with data, always back up in multiple places. Whether it’s Dataloader, Excel, or a paid full service back-up solution, always make sure your data is backed up securely. Never delete data until you are certain you have a backup of what you want to delete.

Another tip is to grab a quick screenshot when you’re doing minor updates like modifying page layouts, fields, or related lists. This way you can easily refer back to how it was set up previously should anything happen.

The second most important thing to remember here is to ALWAYS make changes in a sandbox first before making changes to production orgs. If you follow these tips, you will have multiple ways to recover data should something go wrong.

5. Migrate to Lightning Experience

Like it or not, Salesforce Lightning Experience is the future of Salesforce. Lightning experience receives a majority of the updates each release cycle, and Salesforce Classic is no longer getting new features. If you’re still using classic, upgrading to Lightning Experience now will save you time down the line and give you and your users access to all of the latest innovations happening at Salesforce. It’s also a faster, more optimized experience for both you and your users. As an admin, you’ll have access to things like the Lightning App Builder, which make it easy to create your own solutions with no code required.

6. Keep Track Of Your Projects

As a Salesforce admin it’s crucial to track the multiple projects you’re working on - whether it’s a big internal overhaul or something more simple like adding a step in process builder, you’ll want to make sure you have autonomy over your to-do list. This will help ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Whether it’s a digital tracking tool like Trello (it’s one of our favorites and it’s free!), the Tasks object in Salesforce, or a whiteboard near your desk, find a path that works well for you. Tracking projects efficiently means being able to see immediate updates at a glance and manage what’s on your plate.

7. Use Internal Messaging Channels

Quick and easy communication platforms make Salesforce admins’ jobs run more smoothly, especially as remote work skyrockets in the current climate. External platforms like Slack or internal Salesforce collaboration solutions such as Chatter serve as excellent tools to pass information between users. Try setting up an @admins Chatter group so a user can easily mention the admins on a specific issue or request.

You Might Also Like: Digital Solutions For A Changing World

8. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts by definition are an accelerated way of doing something, which can save you time in the long run. Use keyboard shortcuts for your most used functions to maximize your efficiency as an admin. Here are the most used shortcuts that every admin should know:

  • Copy: Ctrl + C
  • Cut: Ctrl + X
  • Paste: Ctrl + V
  • Open link in new tab: Ctrl + Click Link
  • Quickly switch between open windows: Alt + Tab
  • Find/search any text: Ctrl + F
  • Accidentally close a tab? Re-open immediately with: Ctrl +Shift + T
  • Increase or decrease screen size: Ctrl + + or -

9. Block Off Breaks In Your Calendar

Paradoxically, staying productive is as much about getting things done as it is about taking breaks. Working for long hours over and over with nothing to break up the work will actually make you less productive than if you consistently step away for a bit.

We don’t mean that you should go take a 30 minute stroll every hour, but taking short, consistent breaks will help you avoid burnout and even think more creatively. If you let a project rest for a bit before picking it back up, you’ll likely come back to it with a new perspective. Taking breaks will also make you feel less stressed, which will also help you be more efficient and think more clearly.

However, it can be difficult to remember to take breaks, especially if you’re on your 2nd cup of coffee and working on a particularly interesting project. We suggest taking the time to block breaks off in your calendar each day so that you don’t miss them. You’ll be reminded to give the keyboard a rest and take a breather, and also keep a consistent schedule.

10. Look at The Small Picture and The Whole Landscape

Your technical background will always be the backbone of your career as a Salesforce admin. But it’s your aptitude to solve issues in a way that has the greatest impact on your organization that makes you successful in your role. As the Salesforce guru in your organization, it’s your job to understand how each object relates to one another and how something as simple as updating a field will impact the user, the workflow, and ultimately the organization. The ability to clearly see the ripple effect of each action at a granular, isolated level while maintaining the overarching operational view is what catapults you into that next level of being a trusted resource for your organization.

Summing it Up

#AwesomeAdmins are characterized by their creative problem solving and propensity for being lifelong learners. Use these tips and best practices to continue crushing it in your role and finding the best solutions out there, whether you're a seasoned expert or just getting started. There are always new opportunities to learn and grow in the Salesforce ecosystem; subscribe to the S-Docs blog for the latest updates on all things Salesforce, digitalization, document generation and e-signature.

Ready To Catapult Productivity To The Next Level?

Productivity is all about eliminating tedious tasks and focusing on the highest value work. That’s why S-Docs 100% native document generation and e-signature solutions are designed to cut out the process of manual document creation and wet ink signatures, two of the biggest time-draining activities in the modern business world. Since S-Docs is built on the Salesforce platform, it’s much faster than off-platform solutions and incredibly secure. It’s also easier to use since it mirrors the look and feel of Salesforce, meaning your team can spend less time implementing and more time doing.

It only takes a few minutes to get started. To see what S-Docs can do for your team, request a demo today or contact us at sales@sdocs.com.

Note: This article is part of a 2-part blog series on productivity tips for Salesforce admins. Read part 1 here.

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Using Arithmetic Functions

By Documentation, General Solutions, S-Docs Cookbook No Comments

Arithmetic Function Syntax

S-Docs templates support arithmetic functions for both static numbers and numeric fields. All functions should be written using standard Salesforce math operators. S-Docs will evaluate all functions using the standard mathematical order of operations.

To use arithmetic functions in your S-Docs templates, simply enclose the function within <MATH> tags.

The following example uses both static numbers and numeric fields.

[code lang="html"]<MATH>(2 + 1) / 3</MATH>

<MATH>( {{!Opportunity.Num1__c}} + {{!Opportunity.Num2__c}} ) / {{!Opportunity.Num3__c}}</MATH>[/code]

Note: You can use negative numbers in your functions. Keep in mind that subtraction functions should include a space on either side of the minus symbol to differentiate between negative numbers and subtraction functions. For example, to evaluate three minus two, use the following syntax:

[code lang="html"]<MATH>3 - 2</MATH>[/code]

Instead of something like this:

[code lang="html"]<MATH>3 -2</MATH>[/code]

Formatting Numbers

To format the result of your arithmetic function, use the format-number attribute within the <MATH> tag as shown below, but not within the merge fields.

[code lang="html"]<MATH format-number="#,###.##">{{!Opportunity.amount}} - {{!Opportunity.expectedrevenue}}</MATH>[/code]

Note: When you insert numeric fields using the Insert Field button, number formatting is added to the merge fields automatically. Ensure that you remove this formatting when using merge fields within arithmetic functions.

Arithmetic Functions with Date Fields

You can also use date fields or static dates within your arithmetic functions. The two main types of date math supported are:

  1. Adding/subtracting time from a date
  2. Evaluating days/months between dates

Both types of date math require the use of the type="date" attribute within your <MATH> tag.

Note: Static dates must be written in the yyyy-MM-dd format (for example, January 1, 2021 would look like 2021-01-01).

Adding/Subtracting Time

To add or subtract days, months, or years from any date field, use the following syntax (where X equals the number of days, months, or years you would like to add or subtract from the value of the date field):

[code lang="html"]<MATH type="date">{{!Opportunity.createdByDate}} + DAYS(X) - MONTHS(X) + YEARS(X)</math>[/code]

Evaluating Time Between Dates

To evaluate the time between two dates, use the following syntax:

[code lang="html"]<MATH type="date">DaysBetween({{!Opportunity.createdByDate}},{{!Opportunity.closedate}}</MATH>
<MATH type="date">MonthsBetween({{!Opportunity.createdByDate}},{{!Opportunity.closedate}}</MATH>
<MATH type="date">YearsBetween({{!Opportunity.createdByDate}},{{!Opportunity.closedate}}</MATH>[/code]

Formatting Dates

To format the result of your arithmetic date function, use the format-date attribute within the <MATH> tag as shown below, but not within the merge fields.

[code lang="html"]<MATH type="date" format-date="M/dd/yyyy">[/code]

Note: When you insert date fields using the Insert Field button, date formatting is added to the merge fields automatically. Ensure that you remove this formatting when using date fields within arithmetic functions.

DOCX Syntax

When using arithmetic functions in DOCX templates, use lowercase <math> tags and be sure to enclose the entire function within square brackets, as shown in the following example.

[code lang="html"][<math>(2 + 1) / 3</math>]
[<math>( {{!Opportunity.Num1__c}} + {{!Opportunity.Num2__c}} ) / {{!Opportunity.Num3__c}}</math>][/code]


Jun 17
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Integrating S-Docs with Box

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Setting Up S-Docs Box Integration

S-Docs integrates seamlessly with cloud storage solution Box, meaning that you can generate documents securely on the Salesforce platform and then store them with Box -- all without ever leaving Salesforce. This article will provide you with step-by-step instructions for configuring the S-Docs Box integration. For the purposes of this guide, we'll assume that you have already installed the Box for Salesforce application from the AppExchange. If not, you can download it here.

Create a New Apex Class

To begin, create a new Apex class. In the setup menu, type "Apex classes" into the Quick Find bar, then click Apex classes from the options that drop down, and click New.

Paste in the Apex class listed below, then click Save.

[code lang="html"]public class SDBoxUploadController {
public PageReference uploadToBox() {
String attachmentId = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('attId');
String sdocId = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('sdocId');
SDOC__SDoc__c sdoc = [SELECT SDOC__GD_Status_Text__c FROM SDOC__SDoc__c WHERE Id=:sdocId FOR UPDATE];
Attachment att = [SELECT Name, Body, ParentId FROM Attachment WHERE Id=:attachmentId FOR UPDATE];
Box.Toolkit boxToolkit = new Box.Toolkit();
boxToolkit.createFileFromAttachment(att, null, null, null);
boxToolkit.commitChanges();
String mostRecentError = boxToolkit.mostRecentError;
if (mostRecentError != null && mostRecentError != '') {
throw new SDException(mostRecentError + ' (some uploads fail because a file with this filename already exists on Box)');
}
sdoc.SDOC__GD_Status_Text__c = 'Linked to Box';
update sdoc;
return new PageReference('/' + ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('redirectId')); }

public class SDException extends Exception {}
}[/code]

Create A New Visualforce Page

Next, create a new Visualforce page. In the setup menu, type "Visualforce" into the Quick Find bar, click Visualforce Pages from the options that drop down, then click New.

Enter the following values for your Visualforce page, then click Save.

Label: SDBoxUpload
Name: SDBoxUpload
Visualforce Markup:

[code lang="html"]<apex:page controller="SDBoxUploadController" action="{!uploadToBox}">
</apex:page>[/code]

Add The "Box Enabled" Field To Your S-Docs Templates

In order to enable the Box storage option for your S-Docs templates, you need to add the Box Enabled field to the template record layout. Navigate to the Object Manager in the Setup menu and find the SDoc Template object.

Navigate to the Page Layouts tab and click Edit.

Navigate to the Fields tab in the top menu, then find the Box Enabled field. Drag it down onto the SDoc Template Detail layout, and click Save.

To enable Box storage for a template, check the Box Enabled box when creating the template, or edit the template record detail page to check the box for templates that you've already created.

You'll also need to enable the Create Salesforce Attachment and link to record feature. This checkbox is found under the Document Options tab of the template editor, and is enabled by default.

Configure Box Settings

Next, you'll need to configure your admin and user settings for the Box application for Salesforce. Navigate to the Box application and configure your settings under the Box Settings tab. Once your settings are configured, click Sync Now.

You'll also need to enable Box for the objects that you're using with S-Docs. Click here for detailed instructions on installing and configuring Box for Salesforce.

Uploading Documents To Box

Once you've configured S-Docs and Box, navigate to an object record that you've enabled for both apps. Click the S-Docs button and select a box-enabled template. Then, click Next Step to generate the document.

You'll now see an Upload Selected Documents to Box button. Click the button to upload your generated documents to Box. Once complete, you can then email, view, download, or print your documents like normal.

When you view the record that you generated this document from, your document will be viewable within the Box iframe:

And you'll now be able to view and access your documents from box.

Automatically Upload Documents To Box

Although the default S-Docs & Box integration allows you to choose whether or not a document should be uploaded to Box, you can also modify this configuration so that documents are automatically uploaded to Box whenever they are generated. To do so, simply modify your S-Docs button URL and add the autoBox='1' parameter to the end. For example, an S-Docs Opportunity button with the automatic Box upload feature would look like this:

[code lang="html"]{!URLFOR('/apex/SDOC__SDCreate1', null,[id=Opportunity.Id, Object='Opportunity', autoBox='1'])}[/code]

Box Error Handling

By default, errors that occur during document upload to Box will throw an exception and roll back any DML occurring in the Box package.

To prevent this behavior, you can opt to instead handle error messages at the UI layer, which will not roll back DML occurring in the Box package. This requires adding a parameter to your S-Docs button and creating a new Apex class.

1. Add New S-Docs Button Parameter

From the Setup menu, navigate to your object in the Object Manager. Then, navigate to the Buttons, Links, and Actions tab, find your S-Docs button, click the dropdown arrow, and click Edit.

Add the following parameter to your S-Docs button URL:

[code lang="html"]boxUploadClass='SDBoxUploadControllerNew'[/code]

Click Save.

2. Add New Apex Class

Navigate back to the Setup menu. Type "Apex" into the Quick Find bar, click Apex Classes in the dropdown menu, then click New.

Paste in the following Apex class.

Name: SDBoxUploadControllerNew

Class:

[code lang="html"]global class SDBoxUploadControllerNew implements Callable {

String uploadToBox(String attId, String sdocId) {
SDoc__c sdoc = [SELECT GD_Status_Text__c FROM SDoc__c WHERE Id=:sdocId FOR UPDATE];
Attachment att = [SELECT Name, Body, ParentId FROM Attachment WHERE Id=:attId FOR UPDATE];
Box.Toolkit boxToolkit = new Box.Toolkit();
boxToolkit.createFileFromAttachment(att, null, null, null);
boxToolkit.commitChanges();
String mostRecentError = boxToolkit.mostRecentError;
if (mostRecentError != null && mostRecentError != '') {
sdoc.GD_Status_Text__c = 'Error When Linking to Box';
return (mostRecentError + ' (some uploads fail because a file with this filename already exists on Box)');
}
sdoc.GD_Status_Text__c = 'Linked to Box';
update sdoc;
return '';
}

// Dispatch actual methods
public Object call(String action, Map<String, Object> args) {
switch on action {
when 'uploadToBox' {
return this.uploadToBox((String)args.get('attId'), (String)args.get('sdocId'));
}
when else {
throw new ExtensionMalformedCallException('Method "uploadToBox" not implemented');
}
}
}

public class ExtensionMalformedCallException extends Exception {}
}[/code]

Once you click Save, you're all set!

Additional Resources

If you want to update your Box integration folder configurations, you can update the createFileFromAttachment function in the controller SDBoxUploadController mentioned above. For more information, please consult Box's Salesforce Toolkit documentation.


Jun 16
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Salesforce Data Security Best Practices For Financial Services

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The financial services industry -- which represented 7.4% of the United States GDP in 2018 -- is one of the most influential sectors in the world economy. Financial service firms like banks, wealth management, and insurance companies are tasked with the hefty duty of managing the finances of the world -- however, such a substantial role also comes with substantial threats. Companies in the industry are 300 times more likely to be targeted by cyberattacks compared to other industries, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group.

Given the fact that financial service firms primarily manage and work with money, it comes as no surprise that security is a top concern in the industry. Not only do they have to invest in the protection of their clients’ assets, they also have to maintain the security of their clients’ personally identifiable information (PII), which goes hand in hand with financial information.

Despite the known need for optimal data security in the industry, costly breaches continue to rise. A report from Accenture pinpointed the average cost per cybercrime in the industry at a whopping $18.5 million. So why do data breaches keep occuring in such a security-conscious industry?

The Data Security Challenge For The Financial Service Industry

For one, data security is complex: as new best practices evolve, so do the methods used by outside attackers. Furthermore, one of the biggest problems is that external threats aren’t the only security challenges to consider. Two of the largest (and hardest to combat) security risks for financial service companies are insider threats and third-party risks.

For one, employees need access to sensitive data that, in the wrong hands, could have serious consequences for an organization. Similarly, most organizations use third-party solutions to help with daily operations, and these solutions need to process sensitive data. If these solutions aren’t secure, they create more surface area within an organization’s infrastructure for cyberattacks to target.

Data Security Best Practices For Financial Services

Insider threats and unsecured third-party services are big threats, and they exist alongside things like malicious code injections, denial-of-service attacks, phishing and social engineering. It’s clear that the financial services industry is up against a lot -- so how can you protect your organization’s sensitive information and ensure that you’re not letting anything slip through the cracks?

Salesforce is a great start -- if you’re currently using the world’s #1 CRM, you’re already ahead of the game when it comes to cybersecurity. A leader in cloud security, the Salesforce platform has stringent security measures in place out of the box -- and they’ve built their Financial Services Cloud with the unique requirements of finance and insurance companies in mind. However, getting ahead of the game is only the beginning. Use these data security best practices for financial service firms using Salesforce in order to kickstart (or continue) your journey to becoming an adaptive, security-conscious organization:

  1. Stack Your Salesforce with Security
  2. Follow a Cybersecurity Framework
  3. Monitor Threats & Vulnerabilities
  4. Create Incident Response Plans
  5. Focus on Training
  6. Create a Security Culture

Stack Your Salesforce With Security

Salesforce is trusted by leading industries around the world, including the strictly regulated government and healthcare industries, so there’s no question that it’s one of the most secure CRM solutions out there. As good as its out-of-box security may be, however, there’s always more you can do to further secure your org.

To get started, make sure to follow Salesforce security basics, like managing redirects to external URLs and setting responsible password policies. You should also be sure to take advantage of Salesforce's different options for controlling information access, such as:

These options will allow you to ensure that sensitive information is only accessible by the individuals who absolutely need it, helping to prevent data breaches from within, whether malicious or negligent.

It may not sound like much at first, but layering on these simple security steps can mean the difference between millions of dollars lost and a normal day -- it only takes a small slip-up for big consequences to occur.

Use Salesforce Shield

Salesforce Shield is a trio of security tools that can help you take your data security to the next level. Salesforce shield supercharges organizational security in three ways: platform encryption, event monitoring, and field audit trail.

Platform Encryption encrypts sensitive data such as PII, credit card, or bank account information at rest, meaning that even when data is not being transferred anywhere, it’s still protected. Considering the amount of sensitive information that financial service organizations need to manage and store, platform encryption is a must for complying with industry regulations and internal policies, as well as preventing both internal and external breaches.

Event Monitoring detects and prevents information misuse by internal players, making it a key asset in the fight against insider threats. This feature can show what users are accessing, when they’re accessing it, and from where, as well as other insights like suspicious login trends. In the financial services industry, it can be used for detecting activity like data being viewed or exported from high net-worth clients, or preventing investment data from being leaked to competitors. It’s also important for complying with industry regulations like FFIEC, SOX, and PCI.

Field Audit Trail preserves the history of Salesforce field data for up to 10 years, giving financial service firms a valuable record of how their data has changed over time. Industry regulations require institutions like banks to keep a record of changes to key business elements like name and address, meaning field audit trail can be important in maintaining compliance. It can also be used to track change to important fields that display information like account balances, fees, and commissions.

Mitigate Third-Party Risks With Native Apps

Financial service firms rely on third parties to get their work done every day. From vendors to suppliers to partners, companies across all sectors use and share information with an average of 583 third parties each -- and 59% have experienced a data breach as a result of a third party. Vetting which third party solutions to use should be one of the highest things on the list when it comes to data security for financial service institutions.

Applications from the Salesforce AppExchange, while extremely useful, need to be evaluated particularly carefully because of how closely they work with and process sensitive data inside of Salesforce. Many AppExchange apps need to communicate with external servers for data processing, which means sensitive information may be at risk, depending on the security protocols of each individual vendor.

Fortunately, there’s a solution to this problem: look to native apps first. Native Salesforce applications are solutions that are built entirely on the already-approved Salesforce platform, meaning that they process all of your data within Salesforce, and don’t need to communicate or make API calls to external servers. If you already trust Salesforce, you can be confident that your data is secure when you use native apps. You also won’t have to spend valuable time evaluating the external systems that your apps depend on, since native apps only depend on Salesforce. Native apps are also automatically compatible with your org’s security settings, and most work great with Salesforce Shield.

S-Docs, for example, is a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution that allows users to generate documents with their Salesforce data merged in, and then route those documents for e-signature. The entire process happens within the Salesforce cloud. Documents that require sensitive data will be generated on the Salesforce platform by users that you approve, and since the e-signature process happens within Salesforce too, you can count on the security of your document and esign workflows to increase dramatically.

To sum it up:

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Follow A Cybersecurity Framework

As we mentioned before, data security is complex, but the good news is that the burden doesn’t all have to fall on you. There are a number of cybersecurity frameworks that have been developed to guide organizations on how they should structure their data security practices and policies. Two important cybersecurity frameworks to consider are the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and the FFIEC Information Technology Examination Handbook. 

Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework focuses on five areas of cybersecurity: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.

The FFIEC Information Technology Examination Handbook, developed by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, is a comprehensive set of guidelines for optimal data security, covering everything from application security to security culture.

Both of these frameworks can provide valuable information on how to structure your own organization’s approach to improving or overhauling your data security policies, and help you maintain compliance with regulatory policies like SOX, PCI DSS, and GLBA.

Perform Continuous Threat Monitoring & Vulnerability Testing

Taking a proactive approach to data security is one of the best ways to avoid cyberattacks -- if you can detect them early, you have a better chance of containing them before real damage is done. The problem is, cyberattacks don’t usually give off obvious red flags; they’re designed to be as subtle as possible, and they’re only getting harder to detect as time goes on. Performing continuous threat monitoring with tools like Salesforce Shield and Salesforce Security Health Check is crucial to ensuring your organization doesn’t get caught unawares.

Similarly, it’s also a good idea to continuously assess your organization’s vulnerabilities. This can help you identify any areas that require security improvements, especially those that might be exploitable by insiders. The Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) developed a cybersecurity assessment tool that can help organizations recognize internal and external risks. Doing regular assessments will help you identify and prioritize the most critical weaknesses so you can mitigate the biggest vulnerabilities first.

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Create Effective Incident Response Plans

Being proactive is important, but the fact of the matter is that no cyberattack prevention method is 100% effective. Even at organizations with the highest levels of security, breaches still happen. That’s why it’s vital to have effective incident response plans on hand should something ever happen to your organization.

Consider the different ways in which your organization could be breached -- a report from Akamai identified four methods that comprise 94% of attacks within the financial services industry: SQL injection, Local File Inclusion, Cross-Site Scripting, and OGNL Java Injection, however there are numerous others that you should prepare for as well. You should also consider breaches that have happened to other companies in the industry.

From there, develop a plan that includes procedures for notifying the proper individuals, escalating incidents to appropriate management levels, response procedures, and business continuity after the incident is contained. Additionally consider government reporting requirements for certain types of incidents, as well as when and how you will inform your customers of the incident, if required.

It’s important to assign specific roles to employees for executing different parts of your incident response plan so that if an attack occurs, the response is seamless and effective. In addition, make sure to test and update your plans on a continual basis.

Employ Training and Awareness

A good data security program and comprehensive incident response plans are only effective if your team is armed with the knowledge on how to use them. Make training a priority for your organization on all levels to ensure that everyone performs their job duties with data security top of mind.

Create a training program that focuses on your data security policies and procedures, as well as your incident response plans, so that your employees are aware of how to spot suspicious activity and know who to report it to. Include real-life examples in your program that showcase how breaches have happened in the past at other companies, and how to recognize and respond to similar attacks in the future. Trailhead courses are a great resource to use for training that gamify the learning process and make the information easier to consume.

It’s also a good idea to continuously reevaluate your training programs to make sure that they’re up to date with the latest industry standards and data security best practices.

Create A Cybersecurity Culture

In the end, one of the most important things you can do when it comes to cybersecurity is to foster a culture that supports and promotes it. Doing so isn’t as clear-cut as the rest of the tips listed in this article, but one way to begin is to start at the top. Devote board and senior leadership attention towards creating and improving data security programs so that cybersecurity becomes a priority. Follow the suggestions in this article, especially implementing comprehensive training programs, to make it clear that cybersecurity is something that your organization takes seriously.

Finally, convey the notion that cybersecurity belongs to everyone in the organization, from the senior leadership team to the summer interns. Integrate security policies into your employee handbook and keep cybersecurity top of mind with continuous training.

Topping your data security policies off with the right buy-in from senior leadership and the culture to support them will help ensure that your organization is doing everything it can to protect both your clients’ and your own information, prevent expensive data breaches, and continue to grow your customer base as a trusted leader in the financial services industry.

S-Docs: A Trusted Partner For Financial Services

At S-Docs, your security is our priority. That’s why we’re the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available on the Salesforce AppExchange. With S-Docs, all of your data is securely processed directly within Salesforce -- it’s never stored or processed on any platform other than the one you’ve already approved. S-Docs is committed to transforming the document and e-signature workflows of top financial services organizations around the globe, helping to securely generate and esign documents like contracts, account summaries, regulatory and compliance communications, and much more. If you’re ready to see what S-Docs can do for your organizational efficiency and security, request a demo today or email sales@sdocs.com.

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10 Essential Productivity Tips for Salesforce Admins [Part 1]

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Salesforce admins are some of the most dedicated and hard-working people you can find. We should know -- as a native document generation and e-signature solution with over 10 years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem, we’ve met our fair share of admins, and we can say with confidence that the #AwesomeAdmin name didn’t come about by accident.

One of the qualities that makes Salesforce admins so awesome is their propensity for being lifelong learners. In fact, learning is half the fun of being an admin; in this career, challenges are always met with a spirited “bring it on!” Salesforce admins know that there is always room to improve and do an even better job.

That’s why we’ve gathered a list of tips and tricks aimed exclusively at Salesforce admins that will help improve productivity and enable the constant learning and growth that they strive for. There’s so much to say that we’ve broken these tips up into a two-part blog series - read part 2 here!

So whether you’ve been a Salesforce administrator for just a month or 15+ years, here are some of the best tried-and-true productivity tips that we’ve gathered over the years from seasoned admins in a multitude of industries. Use these tricks to grow your efficiency and continue being the awesome admin that you are.

1. Stay Current on Release Notes

As we said before, admins never stop learning and improving, and this is true for Salesforce too. Salesforce is constantly investing in the innovation of their product, which means that every year it gets better and better. If you’re an admin, you don’t want to miss out on new features that could help both you and your users improve efficiency and be more productive.

Lucky for you, Salesforce introduces a new set of release notes three times a year to coincide with their triannual updates. Keeping up to date with these (along with completing the most recent certification maintenance trailhead modules) will ensure that you never miss out on new features that could help you be more productive.

2. Consider Multiple Ways of Solving Problems

In Salesforce, there’s never just one way of doing things -- there’s several. Take automation for example: You could use workflows, process builder, flows, or apex triggers. That’s part of what’s so great about Salesforce: there’s so many different paths to the end goal. Be sure to learn multiple ways of doing things, because eventually you’ll rely on those options for efficiency. Some projects may be better suited for using one workflow, while others are better off with another workflow. It all depends on the project details and what you’re trying to accomplish. The key is to always default to the most efficient and maintainable way of getting things done.

3. Automate Wherever You Can

Adding automation tools to your workflow is the ultimate productivity hack because it saves time, reduces errors, and helps your users become more self-sufficient. Isn’t that every Salesforce admin’s goal? Consider using a document automation solution to take care of those tedious documents no one enjoys pulling together. S-Docs, for example, is a useful 100% native document automation and e-signature solution that enables users to create documents with the click of a button and electronically sign them in seconds.

When you use S-Docs, you can set up sophisticated templates that your users can generate and email with a single click -- or even no clicks at all. It’s easy to set up workflows that generate and email documents for e-signature when something as simple as a field change happens. By implementing a solution like S-Docs, you’ll not only save time and limit frustrations, but your users will be more self-sufficient and you’ll have more time to focus on bigger projects.

4. Embrace Change

Just as Salesforce is constantly changing and updating, your company is also in a continual state of change as you grow and innovate. Because of this, there will probably come a time where your Salesforce org configuration will need to fundamentally change to reflect your shifting business requirements. It’s important to recognize this early on and develop a mindset that is open to change and recognizes when it’s necessary, because Salesforce orgs that stay the same forever will ultimately hinder everyone’s productivity in the long run. If your org isn’t closely aligned with your business, it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do.

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5. Know Troubleshooting Best Practices

Noticing a slow Salesforce or glitches in your system? Don’t let it slow you down: know where to look to troubleshoot your issues. The first place you should go is trust.salesforce.com to check the status of your Salesforce instance or POD. A “POD” refers to a group of 10,000 customers together in what Salesforce calls a Point of Deployment. This is a self-contained unit and each user is allocated to one and only one POD.

Next, check to see if other users are having the same issue and see if you’re able to replicate the problem. A good troubleshooting step is to determine if the issue is isolated to a specific browser. Try replicating the issue on a different browser. If the issue does not occur then you can conclude the issue has to do with the browser. At the same time, if the issue persists, try one of these troubleshooting resources:

  • Google it - really!
  • Check Salesforce Help for articles related to your specific issue
  • Test, test, test in your sandbox
  • Inquire with your user group online

6. Tap Into Community Resources

One of the best things about Salesforce doesn’t have anything to do with the product at all: it’s the active and vibrant community that surrounds it. There are countless YouTube channels, blogs, and podcasts by Salesforce experts that can provide you with valuable knowledge about getting things done on your favorite platform. The community is so large that you can usually find blogs about very specific topics -- you just have to do a little googling first.

Another great thing you can do is follow Salesforce MVPs on twitter. MVPs are Salesforce experts that are extremely active in the community and passionate about helping others (and a lot of them have their own blogs or podcasts, too). You can stay up to date on all things Salesforce by keeping up with the MVPs, so we highly recommend it.

7. Use Bookmarks

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you need to solve a problem! If you come across a resource that solves a problem you frequently run into in a community group or elsewhere online, bookmark it. Flagging significant information to refer back to is a hack you’ll thank yourself for later. Common resources to bookmark:

  • Your most frequented tabs
  • Dashboards/reports that you check daily
  • Community forums/blogs you read
  • Different dev or sandbox orgs for easy access

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8. Approach Your Week With Mindfulness

At the beginning of every week, it’s important to take a look at all of your current projects and tasks and make yourself a set of goals and objectives. Ask yourself what you realistically want to accomplish for the week, as well as if those goals align with you and your company’s priorities. Then, create a to-do list and block off your calendar based on that list. Doing this simple process at the beginning of each week will help you not feel too overwhelmed by the amount of tasks in your inbox, ensure that you complete the most pressing and important things first, and ultimately allow you to be more productive because of it.

9. Remove Distractions

Sometimes, the tools that enable your productivity can also hinder it. If you’re finding yourself interrupted by Slack messages and emails every ten minutes, it’s okay to turn off notifications for a chunk of time, close out of any unnecessary tabs, and hunker down for some distraction-free deep work.

This also applies to physical distractions in your environment: if things are too loud where you’re working, try putting in headphones and turning on some relaxing music, or even white noise. You’ll probably also want to turn your phone off for a period of time.

10. Tap into Your Puzzle Solving Skills

Salesforce admins are puzzle solvers by nature and have a knack for getting to the root of issues quickly. You get requests or complaints from users all the time, some of which may not be accurately described. Be the puzzle solver you were born to be. Ask leading questions to get the root of the problem. Ask yourself why your users are requesting a particular feature before thinking about how you will implement it -- these questions will help you determine the best course of action, and will ultimately save your organization time and headaches.

Summing it Up

Whether you’ve been in your career for fifteen years or fifteen months, there’s always room to grow. Use these tips to equip yourself with the necessary hacks to crush it as a Salesforce admin (or continue to crush it, as we know you’re already doing). Learning opportunities within the Salesforce ecosystem are endless, so take advantage of all you can and never stop learning and growing in your position.

Ready To Catapult Productivity To The Next Level?

Productivity is all about eliminating tedious tasks and focusing on the highest value work. That’s why S-Docs 100% native document generation and e-signature solutions are designed to cut out the process of manual document creation and wet ink signatures, two of the biggest time-draining activities in the modern business world. Since S-Docs is built on the Salesforce platform, it’s much faster than off-platform solutions and incredibly secure. It’s also easier to use since it mirrors the look and feel of Salesforce, meaning your team can spend less time implementing and more time doing.

It only takes a few minutes to get started. To see what S-Docs can do for your team, request a demo today or contact us at sales@sdocs.com.

Note: This article is part of a 2-part blog series on productivity tips for Salesforce admins. Read part 2 here.

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[Datasheet] Native Salesforce App Architecture and Benefits

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As any admin, developer, architect, or even end-user knows, one of Salesforce’s greatest strengths is its ability to be customized. The Salesforce platform allows you to do some amazing things with just a few clicks -- things like complex process automation can be created by individuals with no development experience whatsoever.

If your requirements get a little more complicated, this isn’t a cue for you to drop everything and start learning Apex code -- the Salesforce AppExchange is filled with pre-built solutions that you can use to customize your org to fulfill almost any business need. However, with 3,400+ apps available today, not all of them are created equal. Salesforce apps exist for almost every industry or use-case imaginable, but they all fall into two main categories: native apps and non-native apps.

To put it simply, native Salesforce apps like S-Docs and S-Sign are solutions built entirely on the Salesforce platform, while non-native apps are built on external clouds like AWS or Azure, and interfaced to Salesforce through APIs.

So how do you choose between the two? What are the benefits of using one type of Salesforce application over the other?

The answer is simple: always look to native apps first. While they’re not a cure-all, native apps have significant advantages over externally based apps. Native apps are consistently:

  • Extremely fast - all processing is done within Salesforce
  • Incredibly secure - your data never leaves Salesforce
  • Easier to use - the user experience mirrors Salesforce
  • More reliable - server uptime is the same as Salesforce

All of these benefits stem from the fact that native apps are built on the Salesforce platform, meaning they are specifically designed to work with Salesforce, and only Salesforce.

Use the datasheet below to dive into the unique architecture and benefits of native Salesforce apps, and learn how native apps can help your business tighten security and skyrocket efficiency.

Download Datasheet

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Top 10 Things An E-Signature Solution For Salesforce Can Do For You

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In sales, extra steps get in the way. Anything that prolongs the sales cycle or causes the experience to be less than efficient is another opportunity for your prospect to reconsider. And when prospects reconsider, nobody wins.

Enter e-signature solutions for Salesforce like S-Sign by S-Docs, the best friend of quickly closed deals. E-signatures remove one of the most common bottlenecks that salespeople face: slow signature processes at the closing phase of a deal. Electronic signatures are easier for everyone involved and incredibly secure, and they ensure your momentum doesn’t stall. So if your current signature workflow looks something like this:

Read on for the top 10 ways e-signature solutions for Salesforce can help you close more deals faster, and dramatically cut down on the unnecessary steps between an unsigned contract and a won opportunity.

E-Signatures Are Fast...Really Fast

This may be one of the most obvious benefits of using e-signatures, but it has to go first because it’s also one of the biggest. E-signatures exponentially speed up the signing process.

Without e-signatures, you could be in for days of waiting for executed contracts as individuals print, sign, and scan them back into the computer. What’s worse, some may not even have access to a printer when they receive your documents, meaning they’ll be put out of mind until they’re able to sign them (which might not be for a few days!). And don’t even get us started on missing signatures...

Not only is this extremely slow, it’s a frustrating and negative experience for the people you’re trying to impress.

E-signature solutions remove all of this frustration. For one, e-signature requests can be sent to the appropriate people in seconds. The right solutions will merge any Salesforce data you need into your contract automatically, meaning that once your prospect is ready to sign, sending the contract is a simple button click away (and you can give your Ctrl+C keys a rest for once). Native solutions like S-Sign will run even faster, since they process everything directly inside of Salesforce.

Once the agreement is sent, stakeholders can sign it immediately -- no printing or scanning involved. An easier signature process means a higher conversion rate. There’s less of a chance of the email getting opened and forgotten -- your call to immediate action will invite them to sign right away.

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E-Signatures Are Great On Mobile

Let’s face it -- clocking 40 hours in the office each week is slowly becoming a thing of the past as more and more companies take advantage of remote work. Just look at this list of jobs that can be done entirely on your phone! With this comes the demand for solutions that enable business processes to work from quite literally anywhere.

The odds are pretty good that your prospect won’t be sitting in a fully-functioning office (with a printer or fax machine) and staring at their inbox when your contract comes through. This isn’t a problem if you’re using e-signatures.

It doesn’t matter if they’re in the grocery store, the airport, or climbing a mountain -- as soon as your prospect receives your signature request, they can review and sign it on their phone or tablet. And this doesn’t just go for your prospects -- e-signature solutions give you the flexibility of sending documents for signature from anywhere, too.

E-Signatures Optimize Your Workflow

You probably don’t exclusively speak to one person per company during the sales process. In fact, an average of 7-8 people are actively involved in the buying process, with 5-6 additional people participating occasionally. At the end of the sales cycle, there’ll be quite a bit to keep track of.

E-signatures optimize your workflow to take the stress out of closing deals. They can be set up to do things like automatically email a quote to all of an opportunity’s contacts when you update the stage to Proposal/Price Quote, ensuring no stakeholder is forgotten. In addition, they’re easier to use for everyone involved: no email attachments are being sent back and forth, meaning everybody can always be sure they’re working on the same version of a document. This also means that if there is a mistake after sending out your contract, it can be easily voided and re-sent in seconds after the error is corrected. Your deals will close faster and less time will be wasted on all sides.

E-Signatures Allow For Data-Driven Decisions

When you email a contract out through Salesforce, you’ll be able to see when the email was opened, but after that you’re pretty much in the dark. You’ll have no idea how long it took for your prospect to sign the document, or how much time it spent with individual stakeholders.

With e-signature solutions, you can see exactly when each person opened and signed your document, and how long it took to get passed on to others. S-Docs and S-Sign make it easy to access all of this information directly from the records you're working with. Once you’ve collected enough data, you can make it work for you by adjusting things like your call-to-action, verbiage, and the time of day or day of week that you send your documents. E-signature solutions allow you to stop leaving this valuable data on the table and start making it work for you.

Having access to this data also enables you to ensure your document has been signed by all relevant parties, and that no signature has been left out.

E-Signatures Create Urgency With Expiration Dates

Creating a sense of urgency is the goal of any salesperson waiting for a signature - the faster the deal is signed, the faster payment can be made, and the faster the client can get up and running. However, words can only get you so far -- in the end, an emailed PDF can sit with your prospect for as long as they like.

To avoid this sales “black hole,” you can use an e-signature solution to set a real expiration date for the signature request that’s easily viewed by anyone looking at the document. If your prospect knows that they only have a limited amount of time before the document is automatically voided, they’ll be much more likely to sign it or pass it on to the appropriate stakeholders as soon as they can. Expiration dates are a great way to speed up the already-quick process.

E-Signatures Keep You Top-of-Mind With Reminders

Reminder emails are another great way to ensure the reviewal and signature process is moving along at a steady pace. E-signature solutions let you automate how often reminder emails are sent based on different factors during the signing process. Great e-signature solutions like S-Docs and S-Sign also let you customize these emails in any way you’d like, including pulling data directly from Salesforce and conditionally rendering certain portions of the email. This helps ensure that your emails are relevant, well-designed, on-brand, and that they show up in your prospect’s inbox at exactly the right time.

E-Signatures Help With Design

Although it may seem like an afterthought, the importance of document design cannot be overstated. Bad design will make your company look unprofessional and sloppy, and won’t necessarily inspire confidence in the solutions you’re offering. Good design, on the other hand, will show your prospect that you’re serious about the deal, living in the modern world, and a business that can be trusted.

Good e-signature solutions don’t just let you place signature tags on a page and send it out -- they allow you to design your document in accordance with your company’s brand guidelines, keeping everything on-brand and professional. When you use S-Docs and S-Sign, you can built these sophisticated documents directly within Salesforce, or upload any pre-designed PDF to drag and drop signature tags. Once you have some templates built out, they’ll always be ready to go at a moment’s notice. These templates will also keep you from making any copy mistakes.

E-Signatures Increase Productivity

The fact of the matter is that e-signatures simplify just about every aspect of the signature process that would normally sap productivity and kill sales momentum. Valuable time spent hunting down prices, company information, names and job titles? E-signature solutions pull data from Salesforce and automate all of it. Jumping between programs to build a great-looking proposal? E-signature solutions can use sophisticated, pre-designed templates. Crafting the perfect reminder email over and over? E-signature solutions automatically do it for you.

Great e-signature solutions can even cut down on your data-entry time, since they will write your signers’ responses directly back to Salesforce fields.

Simply put, e-signatures allow you to focus on the highest value work. In the long run, you’ll spend more time selling, nurturing leads, and building relationships, and because of the efficiency that your e-signature solution provides, more time converting prospects into customers.

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E-Signatures Are Incredibly Secure

E-signatures have been a legal form of signature in the United States for a long time -- since the ESIGN Act was signed into law in 2000, in fact. Despite their relatively long history, however, it’s taken businesses quite a long time to start adopting and using them regularly, usually out of security-related concerns. Ironically, adopting an e-signature solution is one of the most security-conscious decisions a business can make.

While it’s true that wet-ink signatures are unique in the fact that everybody’s handwriting is different, their security stops there. After a physical document is signed, it’s impossible to tell any more information about it -- when and where it was signed, how long ago, and whether or not the document was edited after signing occurred.

Electronic signatures are secure because they track this process information, then attach it to an audit trail after a document is executed. You’ll be able to see when a document was accessed, how many times it was opened, who signed it and when, as well as IP addresses from where it was signed. If the document was edited, that information will be available too. It’s much easier to detect fraud or defend a contract’s legality when this information is available.

E-signatures also help you minimize risk by ensuring compliance with your business’s policies -- you control what parts of a document are allowed to be edited, and which documents are able to be sent out. You can also run your Salesforce validation rules on your contracts, guaranteeing that they’re filled out correctly.

If you’re using Salesforce native e-signature applications, like S-Docs with S-Sign, this security is taken to the next level. Native apps are built on the Salesforce platform, meaning they’re housed entirely within Salesforce, and comply with all of Salesforce’s stringent security requirements by default. If you’re already using Salesforce, native apps conform to your org’s individual security settings and sharing rules, and they don’t take your data outside of Salesforce for processing. You don’t have to vet different cloud services when you’re combining Salesforce with a native e-signature app, because contracts can be created, sent, tracked, and signed directly within Salesforce.

E-Signatures Are Good For Your Brand

E-signature solutions aren’t going anywhere, and they’re only going to get more common over time. If you’re not using them now, you’re falling behind your competitors.

In a nutshell, they’re the modern way of doing business, and other businesses will form a positive impression of you and your brand the moment they see that sleek signature pad and realize they don’t have to dust off their printer. That positive first impression will likely translate into more positive experiences down the road, and even a higher chance of getting referrals.

Additionally, e-signatures are great for the environment. Using e-signature solutions could mean saving thousands of trees worth of paper each year (and likely thousands of dollars as well). Eco-friendly solutions are always a plus for your image!

It Only Takes A Few Minutes To Get Started

The benefits of e-signature solutions for Salesforce go on and on -- there are countless ways they can strengthen security, increase conversion rates and skyrocket productivity. If you don’t use e-signatures yet, you’re probably missing out on a lot of these advantages, but the good news is it only takes a few minutes to get started. And if you’re using Salesforce, it may take even less.

S-Sign, built by S-Docs, is a 100% native e-signature solution that’s purpose-built for Salesforce customers. S-Sign is built to complement our industry-leading document generation solution, S-Docs, meaning creating your documents, sending them for signature, and tracking everything in Salesforce is a seamless process. Since they're built on the Salesforce platform, S-Sign and S-Docs require almost no integration or setup, and mirror the look and feel of Salesforce. This means that you can start streamlining your signature processes immediately.

It also means you can be completely confident in the security of your signatures -- since they're native to Salesforce, S-Sign and S-Docs allow you to build contracts, proposals, or other documents, send them for signature, and have them signed directly within Salesforce.

Now that you know the benefits, what are you waiting for? To learn more about S-Sign’s great features, including signing in person, automation, and validation rules, contact the S-Docs sales team today at sales@sdocs.com or request a demo today.

Happy signing (and closing)!

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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