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Mar 02
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Install & Renew Your S-Docs License Key

By Documentation, S-Docs Install Config and Upgrade No Comments

Introduction

If you've just purchased S-Docs or initiated a trial period, you will be provided with a unique S-Docs license key that will allow you to begin taking advantage of S-Docs's robust feature functionality. This article demonstrates how to install your license key, assign S-Docs licenses to your users, and update or renew your license key.

License keys are required for any version of S-Docs above the free version. You can watch the following tutorial video or refer to the written instructions below the video. Timestamps from the video are provided in the written instructions.

Note: Click Here for instructions on installing & configuring S-Docs itself.

Tutorial Video

Written Instructions

Step 1: Install Your S-Docs License Key [0:34]

Step 1 is to install your S-Docs license key into your Salesforce org.

Note: This step differs depending on which version of S-Docs you're using. If you're using version 4.381 and above, follow instructions in Step 1A. If you're using version 4.380 or below, follow instructions in Step 1B.

Step 1A

Navigate to the S-Docs Setup page by clicking the App Launcher in the upper left corner, then clicking View All.

Scroll down to the All Items section, then click S-Docs Setup.

From the S-Docs Setup page, find the S-Docs License Key section and click Go To S-Docs License Key Page.

From there, you can enter your license key into the provided field. You can also navigate back to this page to update your license key in the future.

Step 1B

In S-Docs version 4.380 and below, installing your license key is a simple matter of creating a new template and pasting your key into it.

Navigate to the S-Docs homepage by clicking on the App Launcher in the upper left corner, typing S-Docs into the search bar, and clicking S-Docs.

Click over to the S-Docs Templates tab, then click New to create a new template.

Fill in the following information for your template:

Template Name: License Key
Description: [Leave this blank]
Document Category: None
Related To Type: Opportunity
Template Format: PDF
Document Version: [Paste License Key Here]

Available For Use: [Unchecked]
Initially Visible: [Unchecked]
Allow Edit: [Unchecked]

Once you click Save, the Description field of your template will be updated to say "DO NOT REMOVE OR EDIT THIS RECORD," and the Document Version field will be updated to "***KEY ACCEPTED***." You've successfully installed your S-Docs license key!

Step 2: Assign S-Docs Licenses To Your Users [1:43]

Note: If you are installing your S-Docs license key in a sandbox environment, you can skip this step. License seats do not need to be assigned in sandboxes.

Now that you've created your S-Docs license key, you need to grant yourself and your users access to S-Docs by assigning S-Docs licenses to the appropriate users.

Navigate to the Setup menu by clicking the cog in the upper right corner. Then, type Installed Packages into the Quick Find bar, and click Installed Packages in the drop-down menu.

A list of your installed packages will appear on the right. Find the S-Docs package and click manage licenses.

This will open up the package manager for S-Docs. On this page, you can view [1] the number of licenses that you've purchased, [2] the number of licenses that you've assigned, and [3] each user who has been assigned a license. Click Add Users [4] to start assigning licenses.

Use the checkboxes to assign licenses to yourself and your users. Once you're done, click Add at the bottom of the screen.

As you can see, the users that were selected have been added to the Licensed Users list, and the Used Licenses field has been updated to reflect this.

You can now begin generating unlimited templates and taking advantage of all S-Docs has to offer.

Note: You don't have to assign all of your available licenses at this time. You can come back to add or remove users at any time.

Renewing / Updating Your S-Docs License Key [2:23]

If you're renewing your S-Docs account or upgrading from a trial version, you'll need to update your license key.

Note: For S-Docs version 4.381 and above, you can simply navigate back to the S-Docs License Key page described in Step 1A to update your license key.

For S-Docs version 4.380 and below, you will need to update your license key template. Do not create a new license key template; to upgrade, all you need to do is edit your original template and replace your old key with your new one. Use the search bar on the S-Docs templates page to quickly find your original license key template.

Click Edit, then delete the text in the Document Version field and replace it with your new license key.

Once you click Save, the Document Version field will once again display the text "***KEY ACCEPTED***." Your license key is now updated; that's all there is to it!


Feb 25
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How To Build A Game-Changing Proposal In Salesforce

By Blog No Comments

Ah, the business proposal -- one of the staples of the professional world. Whether they’re formally requested or unofficially solicited, business proposals are how you communicate why your company’s services are the best fit to solve your potential clients’ problems. As a company with over ten years of experience in the world of document generation, we’ve seen our fair share of good and bad proposals. The worst ones -- well, let’s just say they required a lot of guidance to get to where they needed to be. But the best ones? Their combination of great content and beautiful design almost convinced us to buy, and we weren’t even the target client!

After saving up these tips over the years, we’ve compiled this guide to building game-changing proposals in Salesforce. Before diving in, let’s take a look at the essence of any business proposal.

Why Good Proposals Matter

Business proposals exist because business needs are complex. Companies need to know that you clearly understand the complexities of their issues and can succinctly describe how you can solve those issues, without wasting their time with lengthy, text-heavy explanations.

Proposals are the elegant translators of this complex information. They give an easily digestible overview of the problem and the solution. In simple terms, they show your potential client that you have a thorough understanding of their needs, and that you can supply the best services to solve them.

The keyword here is simple. Business proposals should be as simple as possible without omitting any necessary information, because that’s the essence of their job.

How To Build Game-Changing Business Proposals In Salesforce

Building great business proposals in Salesforce starts with creating great templates that you can reuse for future projects with minimal adjustments. This is easiest with a document generation application, but these proposal-building tips will still be relevant to you even if you’re not using one. A Salesforce document generator allows you to create your proposals directly within Salesforce and pull relevant data into them automatically. Since you’re already using Salesforce, chances are that a lot of the information you need to create your proposals is housed there. It’s simply easier if your proposals are able to grab the information they need automatically.

However, whether you’re using a document generator or not, you can count on the fact that most business proposals will follow a similar structure. Sure, variations exist based on industry, company size, and other factors, but let’s remember their core purpose: communicate that you understand your potential client’s needs and that you are the best option to satisfy them. 

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Components Of A Great Business Proposal

No matter the industry or project, we’ve nailed down a few key components that every business proposal should include:

  1. Cover letter
  2. Title page
  3. Table of contents
  4. Executive summary
  5. Problem statement
  6. Proposed solution
  7. Pricing
  8. About us/Qualifications
  9. Terms & conditions
  10. Acceptance

Though it may seem like a lot, once you’ve built your first template, creating new proposals will be a process that takes just minutes. You’ll be able to spend your time working on creating the best solutions for your customers, knowing that this key task is already 95% done.

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Business Proposal Component 1: Cover Letter

Alright, so maybe this isn’t technically part of the business proposal itself -- but including a cover letter with your business proposal could be the difference between it being read or tossed aside. A good proposal cover letter should be written as a hook to draw your reader in; at the very least, it should intrigue them enough to crack open your actual proposal for a look at the executive summary.

We recommend that you include a brief problem statement that explains your potential client’s issues/paint points in one or two sentences, as well as a high-level overview of why you’ll be able to solve those issues, emphasizing what makes you different from your competitors. Wrap it up with a call to action that guides the reader towards opening your proposal.

The cover letter will likely be your potential client’s first impression of your proposal and your company, so make sure to incorporate some aspect of design into it -- in other words, don’t just make it all text. Include your company logo and your specific branding in the heading. Here’s an example of an eye-catching proposal cover letter built with S-Docs. As you can see, the header draws your attention with different colors that reflect the brand, meaning this cover letter will at least be read, and the brand will be remembered.

Since this template was built with a Salesforce document generator, it automatically pulls in your Salesforce data each time it’s generated.

Business Proposal Component 2: Title Page

The purpose of the proposal title page isn’t much different from the purpose of the cover letter -- it’s meant to engage the reader and draw them in. The main differentiator is that the title page relies on visuals more than the cover letter (although they both do to some degree). This one is crucial to get right: the cover letter is optional. The title page is not.

Some basic information that you should be sure to include in your business proposal title page is the project title, your company name and logo, your contact information, your potential client’s name, and the date.

The number one thing to remember here? You guessed it: keep it simple. Use white space generously and don’t include too much text. If you did include a cover letter, carry its design over into this page as well (and the rest of the document -- be creative, but be consistent). Here’s an example of a simple title page that we built right in Salesforce that adheres to the design choices we made in our cover letter:

This title page uses a project-related image as the focal point, creating an immediate impression in the reader’s mind. The necessary information is presented in a non-intrusive way, and the color scheme from the cover letter has been carried through.

Business Proposal Component 3: Table of Contents

The table of contents is an important aspect of any business proposal because it shows the reader that you care about their experience -- you want them to be able to navigate this document with ease. Typically, potential clients will want to skip to the pricing section of your proposal before investing time into the whole thing; a table of contents makes it easy for them to get to the relevant parts.

A sloppy or hard-to-navigate proposal will only make your company look unprofessional -- if they can’t provide a good user experience while pitching the project, a client might think, then why should I believe they’ll provide a good experience during the project?

Business Proposal Component 4: Executive Summary

The executive summary of a business proposal is another component that’s vital to the user experience. After glancing at your table of contents, it’s likely that your potential client will end up right here. Your cover letter sparked their interest enough to get them to open your proposal -- now’s your chance to really convince them you’re worth spending the time on.

Use this space to introduce your company, explain why you’re sending the proposal (show that you understand their pain points!), and give a brief overview of your proposed solution. This is also a good opportunity to list a few customers you’ve worked with in the past in order to show that you’re a trusted company. Remember, this isn’t functioning as a perfect summary of your proposal, but rather a way to show your potential client that you mean business.

Break it up into small sections to make it easier to read. And keep it brief -- no more than a few sentences for each part.

Now that we’re getting into the nitty gritty parts of the proposal, this is where using a document generator can really come in handy. Notice the merge field tags that we included in several areas of the executive summary (they look like {{!Opportunity.name}}); S-Docs will replace these with data from Salesforce. Instead of writing out unique information every time you create a proposal, document generators allow you to simply place these tags where you want the information to appear, then just click a button and generate the proposal in seconds going forward.

Business Proposal Component 5: Problem Statement

Now that you’ve successfully drawn your reader in, it’s time to gain their trust by showing them that you understand their business problems and pain points. Give a brief overview of the problems facing them, taking care to show that you really understand the intricacies of their issues. This page is one of the most important pieces of content in your business proposal -- no matter how great your solution is, companies won’t want to work with someone who doesn’t understand their business.

The overall page structure should mimic the executive summary, now that we’ve gotten into the meat of the proposal -- you’ll generally want to keep the same overall page design from here on out.

Consistency is important because it makes your brand more recognizable and simply looks more professional. You’ll notice that we’ve included the same fonts, color scheme, and header and footer bars in each content page of this proposal; it wasn’t by accident.

Since we used a document generation solution, maintaining this consistency throughout all of our future proposals isn’t something we have to worry about -- it’s done for us in the background.

Business Proposals Component 6: Proposed Solution

Now comes the moment you’ve been waiting for -- you’ve drawn your reader in, impressed them with your executive summary, convinced them that you understand their business -- now it’s time to tell them you have the answer to all of their problems. Okay, maybe not all of their problems, but you know what we mean. It’s time to talk about your proposed solution.

This is arguably the most important section of the proposal, because it’s where you get to explain why your product is the best solution for your prospect’s needs. Whether they’re trying to fix something broken, improve, enhance, or build something new, this is the section that you need to nail.

Differentiate your product and explain how it benefits the prospect. No one likes to be sold to -- they want to feel confident that their needs will be met in a seamless, cost-effective and timely manner, with a vendor who truly cares about their business. So speak to the benefits of what you’re offering, what makes you unique, and why your prospect should trust you over any alternative option. It’s important that you personalize this page, letting your potential client know that it was written for them specifically.

Business Proposal Component 7: Pricing

The pricing page of your proposal should be a simple and straightforward overview of the estimated total cost of your products or services. You can also include an estimated timeline of the overall project as well. Typically, it’s best to organize this information into tables. In this case, we’ve used some formatting that our document generator will read and convert into the correct information when we click the button to generate our proposal.

A document generator can be a lifesaver when you get to this point. Rather than hunt through pricebooks and try to copy over all of the correct pricing and product information every time you create a proposal, use a document generator to automatically populate your pricing tables with the correct information every time. No work is needed on your part other than keeping your Salesforce records up to date!

Business Proposal Component 8: About Us / Qualifications

If you’re in sales, you’re probably familiar with the sales funnel -- you know, the one that goes something like Engagement > Consideration > Validation, etc.? This business proposal sort of follows that funnel. Your potential client engaged with you when they read your cover letter and decided to take a look at your executive summary. After flipping through your problem statement and solution, they entered the consideration stage.

Now it’s time for validation. This is where you showcase how experienced and trustworthy your company is, highlight key differentiators, and reiterate  why you’re the best one for the job. This might also be a good time to mention customers you’ve worked with in the past again; it gives you that much more credibility.

You might also want to introduce some members of your team on this page; this is another way to show how qualified you are, and gives your potential client faces to remember.

Business Proposal Components 9 & 10: Terms and Conditions + Acceptance

You’re nearing the end of your proposal template! All that’s really left to do is add in your terms and conditions and leave a space for your potential (future!) client to sign. You probably already have pre-written terms and conditions that you’ll want to use for this proposal, and that’s fine -- but what if you need to make changes to them in the future? You’ll have to update both the master template, as well as any document that uses it, including this one. This leaves unnecessary room for errors.

Luckily, document generators allow you to create one master template that houses your terms and conditions, and then reference the template as a tag in multiple other templates. The content from the master template will be inserted wherever that tag is placed, and any edits you make to the master template will be updated for all of your templates -- you only have to make changes once. This is what we’ve done for our terms and conditions page.

We’ve also included a space for our client to e-sign the proposal.

Start Generating Great Proposals With S-Docs

After reading this guide, you have the formula for creating game-changing proposals no matter what software you use -- now take it to the next level by using a document generation solution like S-Docs. After building out a great template, you’ll be able to generate limitless proposals (and almost any other business document you can think of) at the click of a button. Proposals built with S-Docs can pull data from any Salesforce object, including custom objects and related lists. You can even amplify them further by introducing conditional rendering and automation -- the robust functionality and easy-to-use interface of S-Docs supports it all.

And with our e-signature solution S-Sign, you can send out the generated proposal for signature and track everything in Salesforce. The best part is, both of these solutions are 100% native to Salesforce, meaning that our solutions work faster and are incredibly secure. If you already use Salesforce everyday, it only makes sense to use applications that are purpose-built for the platform.

If you’re ready to start building sophisticated documents and sending them for e-signature in Salesforce, reach out and let us know! Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. Happy proposing! 

See S-Docs In Action

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E-Signature For Salesforce: 3 Reasons Native Apps Are Better

By Blog No Comments

If you search “e-signature” on the Salesforce AppExchange, about 40 different apps will pop up on your screen. You’ll likely see some names that you recognize, and quite a few that you don’t -- so how do you go about choosing the right solution? Sure, you could just go with a company you already know of, but if they don’t end up working out, all that time and effort you put into evaluating them will be wasted -- and you’ll be back at square one.

Luckily, if you’re using Salesforce, there is something you can do to vet e-signature solutions before you begin diving into the buying process: figure out if they’re native to Salesforce. This one key feature -- which means an application is built entirely on the Salesforce platform -- comes with a host of benefits that non-native applications simply can’t match. And since native applications are purpose-built exclusively for Salesforce, they seamlessly blend into business processes that are already implemented.

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The Benefits of Native E-Signature Solutions for Salesforce

When you think about the benefits of native e-signature solutions for Salesforce, don’t overlook the benefits of e-signature solutions in general. Electronic signature applications provide numerous advantages over traditional paper signature processes, including faster turnarounds,  better security, and a more intuitive workflow. Adding the Salesforce native aspect to these benefits is like introducing a secret sauce to an already-great recipe: it boosts it to a higher level of deliciousness. In this case, choosing an e-signature solution that’s native to Salesforce boosts your workflow to a much higher level of security and efficiency.

Native E-Signature Solutions Speed Things Up

One of the biggest advantages of using e-signature solutions is speed. Traditional signature processes involve printing out contracts, signing them by hand, scanning them back into a computer, and emailing them to the appropriate parties -- or worse, sending them through the mail. This entire process may have to be done several times before everything is finalized. E-signature solutions eliminate these manual tasks and save the valuable time it would normally take to complete them, significantly reducing the contract lifecycle and keeping your customers happy.

Native e-signature solutions take this speed to the next level. Because they’re built on the Salesforce platform, they don’t need to transfer data between external clouds or make API calls that might slow things down. Everything is processed directly within Salesforce, which means the signing process can happen much more quickly. This is a key benefit for almost any industry, but it’s especially useful for those that need to capture signatures in the field -- contracts can be signed, stored, and tracked in Salesforce in a matter of seconds, no waiting around necessary. And after everything is finalized, there’s no need to worry about whether or not the executed document was uploaded to the correct Salesforce object -- it’s stored there automatically.

Native E-Signature Solutions Are More Secure

Another huge advantage of using e-signature solutions is the increased security that they bring to the table. Traditional paper processes are easily tampered with, and have no airtight methods of ensuring that documents don’t get modified after they’ve been signed. By contrast, most e-signature solutions are able to track exactly when and where a document is signed, as well as any changes that are made to it. This information is usually easily accessible in the form of an audit trail.

Native e-signature solutions are more secure than their alternatives because every interaction with them happens inside of Salesforce, which has been perfecting its security measures for more than two decades. Contracts can be configured for e-signature, sent, signed, and tracked from within your org; none of your data ever leaves Salesforce. Non-native e-signature applications need to transfer data between different clouds, which exposes security risks that native solutions don’t have to worry about.

If you’re already looking to e-signature applications as a way to increase security, it makes sense to choose those that are already compliant with all of the strict security measures that Salesforce is compliant with. For industries with special data security requirements, such as healthcare or government, choosing native e-signature applications can significantly reduce the time it takes to authorize the right solution, since they run on the already-approved Salesforce platform.

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Native E-Signature Solutions Are Easier to Use

Yet another big benefit of e-signature solutions is their ease of use, both for a business’s employees and its customers. For one, choosing intuitive applications is the first step to driving employee adoption. Nobody wants to spend weeks learning how to do something, even if it is promised to save them time. E-signature solutions are easy to work with because pointing and clicking is usually the extent of the technical knowledge necessary to utilize them. This creates efficient employees and satisfied customers.

Since they’re built directly on the platform, native e-signature solutions have the advantage of mirroring the look and feel of Salesforce, so if you know Salesforce, you’ll know how to use your native e-signature app right away. Choosing native solutions can reduce your team’s learning period from weeks to just days. Their intuitive nature will make your employees happier, more efficient, and able to close deals faster.

Introducing S-Sign: 100% Native E-Signature For Salesforce

Now that you understand some of the advantages of using native e-signature applications for Salesforce, you’re ready to start choosing the most secure and intuitive solutions available on the AppExchange. S-Sign is a 100% native e-signature solution that checks all of these boxes and more -- it’s fast, easy to use, incredibly secure, and functionally robust, supporting signing in person, automation, validation rules, and much more. To top it all off, it’s built to complement our industry-leading document generation solution, S-Docs (which is also 100% native to Salesforce).

Start simplifying your workflow today by contacting us to request a customized demo, or reach out directly to sales@sdocs.com.

See S-Docs In Action

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How 2009 Changed The Salesforce AppExchange Forever

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With over 5,000 solutions available and more than 7.5 million downloads (and counting!), the Salesforce AppExchange has come a long way since its launch in 2005. Recent findings have shown that the Salesforce partner ecosystem now earns $5.80 for every dollar that Salesforce makes, meaning that the AppExchange has created a thriving community in the last 15 years that is on track to generate $1.2 trillion in new business revenue and 4.2 million new jobs by 2024.

Let’s take a look at the origins of the world’s largest business application marketplace, how far it's come, and what that means for Salesforce users and admins trying to navigate this diverse market and get the most out of their AppExchange experience.

The Birth of the AppExchange

As many people within the Salesforce ecosystem know, Salesforce was co-founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, Parker Harris, Frank Dominguez, and Dave Moellenhoff inside a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco. The revolutionary cloud-based CRM got off the ground immediately; the team outgrew their first office by November 2000, and held the first Dreamforce conference in 2003.

Although Salesforce’s initial success was due to the dedication of its founding team, the AppExchange’s inception came from someone who wasn’t involved with Salesforce at all: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Marc Benioff approached Jobs in the early 2000s after getting stuck while working on Salesforce, and he received three pieces of advice: ensure that Salesforce grows tenfold in the next two years, sign on a massive client, and build an application economy.

During Dreamforce 2005, the Salesforce team made Jobs’s advice into a reality when they introduced the AppExchange, a place where Salesforce partners could list their own business applications to extend or enhance the functionality of Salesforce for the first time, as well as allow it to interoperate with other systems. Since then, the AppExchange has grown to feature additional services like lightning components, bolt solutions, and consulting partners, and has evolved into the world’s leading enterprise cloud solution marketplace.

As a thank-you to Steve Jobs for the piece of advice that changed Salesforce forever, Marc Benioff gifted the trademark for “App Store” (which he had been considering using for the AppExchange) and the appstore.com domain to Apple when they launched the App Store in 2008.

How the AppExchange Works

The Salesforce AppExchange has grown considerably since it was introduced, now housing a wide array of business solutions to improve the Salesforce experience that includes much more than just applications. While this means that businesses can now use the AppExchange to solve just about any problem that they encounter, it also means that finding the perfect match is becoming more complex as new apps and other solutions are added every day. Here’s a breakdown of exactly what the AppExchange offers.
Apps, obviously enough, comprise the core structure of the AppExchange. These are solutions that are built to solve business problems in conjunction with Salesforce, made by partners and Salesforce employees (known as Salesforce Labs). Apps can be native or non-native to Salesforce, meaning that they can be built on the Salesforce platform or hosted on other platforms and require integrations.
Components are like ingredients that can be combined together to create your own apps and pages in Salesforce Lightning App Builder. They contain pre-written code, meaning you can build your own solutions by dragging and dropping components rather than writing code yourself.
Bolt Solutions are templates for Salesforce Communities that allow you to deploy your community faster and more efficiently.
Lightning Data are integrated data solutions that use advanced matching algorithms and machine learning to simplify the process of delivering data insights from secure third-party sources.
Flow Solutions are like the building blocks of automation with Salesforce Process Builder and Flow, allowing you to automate business processes faster without starting from scratch. According to the AppExchange, flow solutions are essentially pre-built business processes.
Consultants are also available on the AppExchange. All consultants listed are authorized by Salesforce to deliver strategic guidance and technical expertise to help you customize your Salesforce experience and obtain as much value as you can. Salesforce ranks each consultant that it approves by expertise, ranging from “registered” to “global strategic.”
Though there are lots of different options to choose from, the AppExchange lets you apply a range of filter criteria to help pinpoint the perfect solution; you can filter by solution type, price, compatible Salesforce edition, customer ratings, and languages. You can also view product collections, which lets you see apps made for specific Salesforce products, or industry-specific collections, which lets you see apps developed for 12 specific industries.

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2009: The Year That Changed Everything

For a few years after the AppExchange’s introduction, independent software vendors (ISVs) populated it with a variety of helpful, first-generation solutions for Salesforce customers. These early solutions all had one thing in common: they were built and hosted on external clouds and servers, and interfaced to Salesforce through APIs. As time went on, these applications continued to develop and lay the foundation for their future on other clouds, while in the background, Salesforce was working on something groundbreaking: the Force.com platform as a service (PaaS), which is now known as the Lightning Platform.

When this platform became available in 2009, a large number of developers began jumping at the opportunity to create custom applications entirely within the Salesforce cloud, because this meant faster development and deployment at a reduced cost. By contrast, most solutions that were released before the introduction of Force.com continued developing on external clouds, since their applications had already been established there.

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Why Native Salesforce Apps are Game-changers

As new developers started entering the playing field and creating applications using the lightning platform, it quickly became evident that these new applications, which are now known as native Salesforce applications, came with numerous advantages that non-native applications simply couldn’t bring to the table. A few advantages of being 100% native to Salesforce include:

  1. Enhanced Security -- Since native apps don’t require third-party integrations, all of your data remains within the already-trusted Salesforce platform. Native application vendors never see your data, either: you have total control over all of your sensitive information.
  2. Faster Implementation -- Native Salesforce apps are designed to work specifically with Salesforce and only Salesforce, meaning that they are much faster and easier to set up. And because they are already compliant with the data security regulations that Salesforce meets, IT departments can approve them much faster than non-native applications, whose third-party integrations must be carefully reviewed.
  3. Easier to Use -- Like we said before, native apps are purpose-built for Salesforce, and no other platforms. This means that they mirror the look and feel of Salesforce, which your team is already comfortable with. This significantly reduces the time it takes for your users to learn how to use a native app, as well as increases adoption.
  4. More Reliable -- Native applications are hosted entirely on the Salesforce platform, meaning that they don’t depend on other clouds or servers for uptime and maintenance. If Salesforce is up and running, your native app will be up and running, too.

These are just a few of the benefits of using native Salesforce applications, but the list goes on. If you’re using Salesforce, choosing apps that are purpose-built for the platform is a no-brainer. Being native is such a big selling point that many solutions that aren’t actually 100% native will market themselves as such, which causes confusion when trying to evaluate which applications are actually built entirely on the Salesforce platform. Here’s the solution: look for apps with the “Native App” icon on their AppExchange listing. Salesforce will only list this icon for apps that are built 100% on the platform.

Start Choosing Secure Salesforce Solutions

Now that you know the breakdown of different solutions offered on the AppExchange and the benefits of native applications, you’re ready to start choosing the best apps available for your business needs.

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available on the AppExchange today, meaning it’s the only solution that allows you to build sophisticated templates with business logic, merge in your Salesforce data, and route the completed documents for e-signature without ever leaving Salesforce.

If your business process involves creating and signing any type of document or email with Salesforce, S-Docs is the way to go. It’s one of the most secure solutions available, and because it’s native, it works with almost any Salesforce product -- Government Cloud, Health Cloud, Communities -- you name it. It also mirrors the look and feel of Salesforce (in both classic and lightning) so that learning how to use it is a breeze.

To learn more about the many different ways S-Docs can help your business, contact sales@sdocs.com. You can also request a demo on our website, or try it free today. We’ll be happy to hear from you!

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Safeguarding Your Salesforce Data: Best Practices for Government Entities

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Data security, cybersecurity, information security -- whichever term you use, you probably know that safeguarding your organization’s data is much more important than these buzzwords make it sound. Data breaches can cost millions of dollars, disrupt operations, and damage a business’s reputation for years to come.

Though data security is crucial for private organizations, it becomes exponentially more important when it comes to the public sector. Government entities and contractors store a vast amount of highly confidential information, meaning they hold the substantial responsibility of protecting this sensitive data at all costs.

Luckily, government organizations that use Salesforce are already ahead of the cybersecurity game. Salesforce has been a leader in secure customer relationship management for over 20 years, meaning that your data is protected by trustworthy, stringent security measures just by using the platform. However, as a company with over ten years of experience within the Salesforce ecosystem, we know that there are always extra steps that you can take to further protect your confidential information. If you’re part of a government organization, read on for data security best practices for government entities using Salesforce.

If you’re in the US, Use Salesforce Government Cloud

Salesforce Government Cloud was released in 2012 for United States government organizations and government contractors, so if you’re a government entity in the US, this one is a no-brainer. Government cloud maintains a higher standard of security out of the box, limiting the amount of extra data security measures that US government organizations need to take and allowing them peace of mind while protecting their citizens’ data.

The benefits of Salesforce Government Cloud are inumerable. In May 2014, it achieved a FedRAMP Agency Authority to Operate at the moderate impact level, and continuously monitors its security controls and potential areas of technical vulnerability to maintain this certification. It is also compliant with the Department of Defense Impact Level 4, which consists of even stricter information protection requirements. Data is also encrypted both in-transit and at-rest with FIPS 140-2 validated encryption.

In addition, Salesforce Government Cloud uses data centers located exclusively within the continental United States and operated only by screened U.S. citizens. And with three updates a year, you can rest assured that your data is always well-protected by the latest innovative security measures.

You Might Also Like: What Tech Is Trending In Government?

Salesforce Data Security Basics

If you’re a government entity outside of the United States, Salesforce is still an incredibly secure solution. When combined with a few best practices to heighten your data security even more, your organization can count on consistently secured information and focus on what matters --  serving your constituents and innovating for the future.

Password Protection

Data security starts well before any technology comes into play. Creating and maintaining responsible password policies is the first step to improving any organization’s security. It’s usually best to enforce a minimum password length between 8 and 10 characters, as well as a mixture of letters, numbers, and special characters. You should also mandate that passwords be changed frequently -- at least once every 90 days is a good benchmark to start with.

Additionally, enabling Two-factor authentication on top of secure passwords is a way to step up your security considerably while expending minimal extra effort.

Phishing and Malware

Phishing and malware are two common tactics that involve tricking users into providing sensitive information to unknown sources or downloading malicious software. As Salesforce continues to grow, it becomes an increasingly lucrative target for these schemes. These strategies are dangerous for most businesses, but they can be catastrophic for government agencies.

Although they can be tricky to spot, if you receive a suspicious email that claims to be from Salesforce, you should first report it to security@salesforce.com. You can also check trust.salesforce.com for alerts on recent phishing and malware scams, and trust.salesforce.com/en/security/security-advisories for current security advisories. As always, you should educate your users on how to recognize phishing attempts so that they can be dealt with before they become a problem.

Like we mentioned before, two-factor authentication can be an incredibly important tool for security, and it’s a great way to protect your organization from phishing and malware. If malicious parties do succeed in obtaining login credentials from your Salesforce users, two-factor authentication can still prevent them from logging in since it requires more than a username and password.

Another way to safeguard against phishing is to manage external URL redirects from within your org so that users are alerted when clicking links that take them outside of Salesforce.

Use Health Check & Perform Regular Audits

Most editions of Salesforce allow you to use the Health Check feature to ensure that your org is as protected as much as it possibly can be and to identify areas of potential security enhancements.

Performing regular audits is also a great way to continuously assess the strength of your org’s security. Auditing things like field modifications and login history can ensure that no suspicious activity has been taking place within your Salesforce instance.

Use Salesforce Shield

Salesforce Shield is a trio of security solutions valued by industries with high security requirements, so it’s a great option for government organizations looking to improve their data security. The three components of Salesforce Shield are platform encryption, event monitoring, and field audit trail.

Platform encryption encrypts sensitive data at rest, but still allows critical Salesforce functionality to continue. Salesforce administrators can choose what information to encrypt and control encryption keys, including how often they are updated and changed.

Event monitoring tracks every user interaction within Salesforce and makes them available to administrators through APIs. This feature lets you view what your users are doing in Salesforce, what information they are accessing, and when and where they’re accessing it. The transparency that this feature provides can be invaluable for government organizations.

Field audit trail archives field data changes for up to ten years, which can be great for the strict regulatory compliance policies of the public sector. Field audit trail also helps with internal governance.

Always Choose Native Salesforce Apps

Like we mentioned before, government entities that use Salesforce are already ahead of the data security game. This is because Salesforce’s security infrastructure uses some of the most advanced cloud security technology available today. This means that applications that are  built on the Salesforce platform share many of these security benefits out of the box.

When evaluating applications for your Salesforce org, look for ones with the native icon, because these apps are built entirely within the Salesforce platform. Non-native applications are hosted on platforms other than Salesforce, meaning that they must transport your data outside of Salesforce for processing, which creates a risk that isn’t present in native applications. This is why native applications are the way to go to ensure the highest level of security.

Take S-Docs, for example. Our document generation and e-signature solution is 100% native to Salesforce. S-Docs allows you to generate, automate, and e-sign mission-critical documents without ever leaving your Salesforce org. The data used to generate these documents doesn’t leave either: everything is processed entirely within the Salesforce cloud. If you already trust Salesforce, you can trust S-Docs.

S-Docs also works seamlessly with Salesforce Government Cloud and is well-equipped to satisfy a multitude of different business requirements that government organizations and contractors have. Over ten years in the Salesforce ecosystem and experience working with some of the biggest government agencies around the globe has enabled us to become a leader in secure document generation and e-signature for Salesforce.

Start Securing Your Data Today

If you’re ready to begin securely simplifying your document creation & e-sign workflow, contact sales@sdocs.com today for a customized demo that will go through the speed and security benefits of using our native solution. But don’t just take our word for it! Visit our government page to see why we’re the trusted partner for some of the world’s biggest government organizations and view the diverse array of use cases that S-Docs can satisfy. 

See S-Docs In Action

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June 12, 2024

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How Accounting and Legal Departments Can Simplify Contract Creation in Salesforce

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It’s a well-known fact that Salesforce has the potential to be a lifesaver for any organization. With its ability to remove data silos between departments, provide a bird’s eye view of the sales pipeline, pull customized reports, and deliver a personalized view of a business’s customers, Salesforce can drastically improve efficiency and reduce errors.

When it comes to finance & legal departments, Salesforce is valuable because it reduces many of their traditional pain points like inefficient communication and lack of oversight. However, Salesforce does fall short in one area crucial to finance and legal divisions: contract generation.

Salesforce Contract Object Limitations

Although most editions of Salesforce come prepackaged with a standard contract object, its out-of-box functionality is limited. The contract object is great for keeping track of details such as a contract’s account, status, term, and billing information, but when it comes to creating the thing all these details are tied to -- the physical contract itself -- finance and legal are pretty much left on their own.

This limited functionality leaves lots of room for error if firms opt to create contracts outside of Salesforce by hand. Among other things, this manual workflow can result in:

  • Outdated or inaccurate data being used
  • Lost time due to inefficient revision processes
  • Reduced security and compliance to company policies
  • Inconsistent branding and verbiage

With all of this room for error on the line, it’s quite clear that any finance or legal department using Salesforce shouldn’t continue to risk slowing down the contract life cycle and losing deals by creating their contracts manually.

Luckily, there are solutions available on the Salesforce AppExchange that can considerably simplify the contract creation process in Salesforce by reducing and even eliminating these pain points and errors. These are called document generation solutions.

Simplifying Contract Creation in Salesforce With Document Generation Solutions

Document generation solutions simplify the contract creation process in Salesforce by accomplishing the tedious, error-prone work automatically. They can dynamically pull vital information straight from Salesforce into your contracts, eliminating the risk of human error where it matters most.

There are four main ways that document generation solutions simplify the contract creation process in Salesforce:

  1. Data is pulled straight from Salesforce, reducing errors
  2. Pre-made templates save indispensable time
  3. Conditional business rules maintain security and compliance
  4. Branding, verbiage, and other design elements remain consistent

Let’s dive into these four points and explore how document generation solutions can help you streamline your contract generation process in Salesforce.

You Might Also Like: 6 Benefits of a Financial Services Document Generation App

Pulling Data Dynamically Reduces Errors

One of the biggest (and often easiest) missteps that organizations make during the contract authoring lifecycle is incorporating outdated or inaccurate data. Depending on what kind of contract is being created, individuals might have to search through hundreds of excel sheets to find correct pricing, product, or service information, as well as ensure that they are using consistent terminology throughout the document. If any of this information is changed after it is input into the contract, valuable time can be lost making sure the contract is updated accordingly. If this is not done correctly, the contract will contain misinformation and may even be voided.

A Salesforce document generation solution can simplify this aspect of contract creation by dynamically pulling all relevant information straight from any Salesforce object, meaning that if the information is updated in Salesforce, it will be updated in the contract, too. Typically, this is all done with the click of a button. Finance and accounting can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that all contracts being generated are financially accurate.

S-Docs allows you to take this a step further. You can set up contracts that prompt users to answer questions when they generate a contract -- say, the US state where a client is located -- and then automatically merge their answers into the document as it’s generated. S-Docs will also conditionally render sections of the contract based upon those answers -- but we’ll touch more on that in a bit.

Pre-Made Templates Save Time

Building out a contract is no small feat, especially when you’re trying to think of every possible situation that could arise and making sure you’re not leaving room for ambiguity. Sure, you could try copying and pasting from a word doc, but even this simple act leaves room for human error. And what about when a single clause that’s included in multiple contracts needs to be updated?

Having a library of easily-accessible contract templates can be a lifesaver for organizations who constantly need to generate similar contracts. Document generation solutions allow users to click a button on a Salesforce record and select from a variety of contract templates, then rest easy knowing that all of the necessary provisions are included. If you need to make edits to a clause that is included in multiple templates, you’d only have to do this once, and the change would be reflected in all of your contracts.

With S-Docs, you can apply advanced filters that dictate which contract templates users can choose from based on a diverse array of criteria, saving users time, making sure no irrelevant contracts are able to be selected, and always ensuring that the accurate template is chosen. It’s also possible to pre-select templates for your users based on a variety of different factors, reducing or even eliminating the possibility of human error.

Finally, S-Docs allows you to insert templates into other templates. If you have a single terms and conditions clause that needs to be updated, it would be a simple process of editing the master template. Everywhere that master template is included would be updated immediately.

Our template library contains an array of pre-built finance and legal templates like standard master service agreements, property listing agreements, business checks, and more. Enjoy 2 free templates today!

Conditional Logic Ensures Security & Compliance

Not all contracts are created equal. If your organization is doing business in multiple different countries, you already know that your contracts need to comply with the various different laws governing legal agreements in those countries. In this case, static templates can only get you so far.

Fortunately, a document generator can simplify this aspect of contract creation by applying conditional logic to your documents and including or excluding certain provisions based on criteria that you define. If you have a different set of terms and conditions for each US state, your document generator could automatically include the correct one based on the billing address specified in the contract record -- no user edits needed. These business rules can be set to make sure company policies are being followed, and prevent any fiscally irresponsible contracts from being generated.

The S-Docs Runtime Prompts feature allows you to dig even deeper into conditional logic. As users generate a document and are prompted with questions, the answers to these questions can trigger certain sections of the contract to be included or excluded. Since this feature uses decision tree logic, it can be easily stacked. For example, if a user selects California as the location of the client, they might be prompted to choose from three different California-specific clauses to include. Once they choose one of these clauses, they could then be prompted with three different terms & condition options based on that one clause.

Branding Remains Consistent

There are lots of different ways to convey the same thing. While this is good for creativity, it’s not the best for maintaining consistency across all of your contracts. Document generation solutions allow you to carry your company’s branding through all of your contracts and documents. They also ensure that the correct verbiage is being used every time, making certain that two of the same contract won’t be interpreted differently.

For tips and tricks on good document design, visit our guide to designing beautiful documents.

Get Started Today!

The points we described here are just the beginning when it comes to simplifying your contract creation workflow in Salesforce with a document generation solution. In just a few minutes on the AppExchange, you could start saving time and boosting productivity by implementing document generation for your Salesforce org.

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation solution available on the AppExchange, meaning it’s one of the most secure tools on the market since your data never leaves Salesforce. Paired with our 100% native e-signature solution, S-Sign, S-Docs can help you generate the perfect document and close the deal faster. Take the step towards generating secure contracts today by request a demo or contact sales@sdocs.com.

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How to Design a Beautiful Document

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We’ve all been there before -- you receive an email from a sales representative, download an eBook, or maybe open up a business proposal -- and you’re met with a document that just looks bad. Maybe it uses comic sans for every word, or employs an absurd amount of bold and italics -- but the design on your screen is so laughable that you start to wonder if the company that produced this haphazard mess is actually serious. I mean, who signed off on that?

The Importance of Document Design

While the written content of a document is crucial to get right, the way that content is presented is arguably more important because it’s the first thing a user will notice when they open your document, and more times than not, it’s the deciding factor as to whether they continue reading or click the X in the corner and move on to a better-designed piece of content.

It doesn’t matter that the information in your document is correct if a reader needs to spend their valuable time hunting through it to figure out what you’re trying to tell them. Depending on what you’re creating, bad document design can cause user confusion, critical delays, and even lost deals.

Fortunately, by learning a few basic principles of document design, you can create content that persuades and closes, and never find yourself as the one sending the comic sans invoice.

What Makes a Good Document?

To understand how to design a beautiful document, you need to keep in mind two important concepts:

  1. The principles of document design (which deal with the overall layout of your content on the page)
  2. The elements of document design (which deal with the individual pieces of content within your document)

Once you understand how the principles and elements work together, you’ll be ready to start improving the layout of the documents you’re generating and setting yourself apart from the competition.

Our template library contains pre-built documents that can be downloaded and customized to meet any business requirement. Enjoy two free templates today!

The Principles of Document Design

The principles of designing visually-appealing documents have to do with how your content is physically laid out and are based on how our eyes travel across a page. The four main principles of good document design are alignment, contrast, proximity, and repetition.

When thinking about any of these principles, you should keep in mind the two main ways human eyes tend to travel across a page: the “Z-Pattern” and the “F-Pattern.” The Z-Pattern is usually used for documents that aren’t as text-heavy, while the F-Pattern is used for documents with a large amount of text and multiple headings and subheadings.

Keep these two rules of thumb in mind to guide you during the document creation process, but remember that they don’t always need to be followed strictly. Deviations can and should be made every once in a while.

Alignment

Alignment is an important principle of document design because it ensures that all of your elements have a pleasing connection with each other. Keeping alignment consistent throughout your documents is critical to preserving professionalism and a good user experience. Documents with left-aligned text usually look the most professional.

Alignment doesn’t just have to do with text, though. It’s important to make sure that every element in your document maintains alignment with related content, including images, charts, and tables. You shouldn’t place anything on the page arbitrarily.

Contrast

Contrast refers to the way elements differ from one another on the page. It can be used to differentiate between or highlight the importance of certain elements. For example, darker or larger elements will draw the reader’s attention by contrasting with lighter or smaller elements. As a general rule of thumb, if one or more of your elements are not the same, you should employ contrast between them so that the reader can easily see that they are different.

Contrast is commonly used to emphasize the most important element of a document. For example, this thumbnail from the Salesforce Ben blog uses size and color to contrast the article title -- the most important element of the image -- with the background and other elements.

Proximity

Proximity refers to the spacial relationship between different elements of a document. Similar elements should be grouped near each other, just like they should be aligned together; this is another way to create a visual relationship between them. Proximity is important because it allows the reader to spend less time searching for content that is relevant to them.

For example, the following document was improved in the S-Docs template editor by grouping related products/services together into categories that the reader can easily identify, as well as adding a summary of all pricing information at the top.

Repetition

Repetition is important because it allows you to maintain consistency throughout your document. Repeating certain stylistic choices gives the impression of organization and professionalism, and it also helps with branding. When you consistently use the same or similar design choices throughout your documents, your brand becomes instantly recognizable, no matter what the function of the document is.

Notice how this invoice from the last example uses the same gray bars to represent product/service categories, and black bars to represent overall pricing information. This makes it much easier for the reader to find the information they’re looking for.

The Elements of Document Design

Now that you have the basic principles of good document design in mind, it’s time to dive into the individual pieces of a document: the elements of document design. Laying out the elements according to the principles of document design is the first step in the right direction, but if the elements themselves aren’t visually pleasing, the whole effect can fail. The five main elements of document design are text/typefaces, visuals, graphics, color, and white space.

Text & Typeface

Correctly formatting your text is important when it comes to the overall look and feel of your document, but also when it comes to readability. You should begin by deciding whether to use a serif or sans serif font. A serif font has letters that have “feet” on the ends (example: Times New Roman). A sans serif font has letters without these feet (example: Arial). In general, serif fonts are best for printed documents, while sans serif fonts are best for documents that are going to be read on a screen.

Other factors to consider about text and typeface are the number of fonts used, capitalization, size, and effects. It is usually best to use no more than two fonts in a document; any more and the document can look busy and confusing. In addition, you should refrain from using too many all-caps phrases, as these give the effect of shouting.

You can be a little more creative with size, as headings, subheadings, body text, captions, and other types of different text elements have varying importance -- but as always, be sure to keep it as simple as possible, and employ the principle of repetition (that is, all headings should be the same size, as should all subheadings, etc.). Finally, take it easy on the bolding, italicizing, and underlining. Overdoing these is one of the most common mistakes, and the effect is usually not pretty.

Visuals

Visual elements are used to grab the reader’s attention and support the text. One or two can enhance the meaning of your document, but too many will make it look cluttered. There are a few different visual elements to keep in mind.

Photos: These provide realism, but can be overly detailed and distract from the rest of the document.

Drawings: These usually give a clean and simple effect (depending on the style of drawing), and allow you more control over the visual weight that they carry.

Graphs & Charts: These are great for presenting data in a clean, uncluttered manner. You shouldn’t use too many colors, or insert too many data points -- remember to keep it simple.

With any visual element, you should employ the principle of proximity and make sure it is placed near where it is mentioned in the text so that the reader doesn't have to work to find it.

Color

Color is an important tool because it can be used to make the reader feel a certain way about something, and also to give greater visual weight to certain elements in your document.

Red: This color is seen as dramatic or stimulating. It is commonly used in the entertainment, food, and sporting industries. Popular shades of red are scarlet (#FF2400), crimson (#B80F0A), and maroon (#800000).

Yellow: This color has associations with optimism, health, and energy. It is commonly used in the food, sporting, and transportation/travel industries. Popular shades of yellow are bumblebee (#FCE205), mustard (#FEDC56), and lemon (#EFFD5F).

Green: This color has connotations of nature and regeneration. It is commonly used in the environment, nonprofit, banking, and real estate industries. Popular shades of green are forest (#0B6623), sea (#2E8B57), and mint (#98FB98).

Blue: This color gives off the impression of orderliness and stability. It is commonly used in the security, finance, accounting, technology, and healthcare industries. Popular shades of blue are yale (#0E4C92), steel (#4682B4), and denim (#131E3A).

White: This color is associated with simplicity and freshness. It is commonly used in all industries, usually with other colors. Popular shades of white are plain white (#FFFFFF), vista white (#FDFCFA), and snow white (#FFFAFA).

Black: This color is associated with sophistication, power, and finality. It is commonly used in all industries, usually with other colors. Popular shades of black are charcoal (#222021), shadow (#363636), and iron (#48494B).

White Space

Speaking of colors, white space (also called negative space) is any area of your document that is not taken up by other elements. White space is important for a number of reasons, namely giving your eyes a place to rest. Too much clutter and not enough white space will distract from the content on the page, having the opposite effect of what document creators usually desire when loading up lots of information onto a page.

White space has also been shown to improve readability and comprehension. If a reader has an easier time taking in your content, they will be more likely to continue reading.

White space can additionally be used to emphasize certain elements by contrasting with colors and helping lead the eyes toward what’s most important on your page.

Finally, white space implies sophistication. Luxury brands commonly employ generous amounts of white space, meaning that the simple act of using white space in your document can add that connotation to your brand.

Graphics -- Lines, Borders, Boxes

Graphics are used to draw attention to or separate certain areas of your document. If used sparingly, they can create a more orderly, professional-looking document. However, don’t place borders around every element on the page -- once again, you may run into a situation where your document looks too cluttered.

The Bottom Line

By using the principles and elements of document design, you can start creating beautiful documents that produce your intended effect every time, no matter what you’re creating.

When in doubt, always remember to keep it simple. Today's world is filled with clutter both online and off, meaning that standing out often means toning down the noise and using white space to do more with less.

When it comes to quickly and easily generating documents in Salesforce, S-Docs has you covered. With an easy-to-use template editor and an online library filled with customizable templates, S-Docs makes designing beautiful documents a breeze. And since S-Docs merges your Salesforce data into your documents automatically, you only have to worry about designing them once -- S-Docs does all the rest.

Request your own customized demo today. Happy designing!

See S-Docs In Action

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June 12, 2024

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S-Docs Concludes Record Year in 2019

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Friday, January 17, 2020

With 2019 in our rearview mirror, S-Docs has hit the ground running in 2020 and commenced another exciting and innovative year. 2019 isn’t too far behind us, though, and one thing we like to do here is take a look back, reflect on our achievements, and search for areas of improvement. The year was jam-packed with exciting product innovations and record-breaking growth, so let’s view some of the leading highlights from 2019 (and get a sneak peek into where we’re going next) as the new decade begins.

Because of the speed, ease of use, and security of our native Salesforce solutions, S-Docs has continued to gain market share for document generation and e-signature on the Salesforce platform, growing at a rate that nearly doubles each year since its introduction ten years ago. Last year was no exception; over the past twelve months, we’ve helped thousands of companies save time and money by digitizing, automating, and e-signing their documents in Salesforce - and seen record-breaking growth as a result.

Our annual growth in 2019 was accelerated compared to previous years, meaning that S-Docs closed out the year ahead of our yearly trajectory goals. Expectations for 2020 are high, but the team is already prepared to soar beyond our goals this year once again by continuing to provide 5-star service and superior products to our customers.

“S-Docs is the trusted partner to solve the business problems of our customers,” said S-Docs CEO Dan Pejanovic. “Because it’s built entirely on the force.com platform, S-Docs has significantly faster load times, an intuitive look and feel that mirrors Salesforce, and unmatched security, since data used to generate documents with S-Docs never leaves Salesforce.”

Our success in 2019 would not have been possible without our incredible customers, both new and existing. Among the hundreds of new clients that adopted S-Docs in 2019 are the American Red Cross, Intel, Omya, Sciex, Dalkia (a French energy company) and Albert Heijn, the largest Dutch supermarket chain. 

As a testament to their trust in the security and reliability of S-Docs, several existing customers made large expansions as they saw the potential for document automation to make a big difference across multiple departments in their organizations. Expansions were made at the Department of Veteran Affairs, Philips, Dexcom, and Estee Lauder, among other major developments with some of Salesforce’s most important customers in the U.S. federal government sector.

As our customer base continues to grow, so does the S-Docs team. In 2019, we expanded nearly every department across the globe, hiring top talent that embodies our values of trust, transparency, and security, so that we can keep innovating faster and providing the best possible experience to our clients. As 2020 unfolds, we’ll be rolling out some exciting new product developments, such as drag-and-drop functionality and sleek new UI updates. You can stay up to date with product updates by reading the release notes.

Get in Contact in 2020!

We’re always out and about in the Salesforce community, whether it be large events like Dreamforce or smaller ones like NorCal Dreamin’ -- but if you didn’t get a chance to chat with us in 2019, 2020 is the perfect time to do so! We’d love to discuss how document automation and e-signature can propel your business to new heights in the new decade. You can always leave us a message or contact sales@sdocs.com. For product updates, news, and leading developments in the document automation and e-signature worlds, you can also follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Jan 17
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S-Docs 2019 Year in Review

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Although it feels like 2019 began only yesterday, we’ve already rounded out another successful year helping companies save time and money by digitizing, automating, and e-signing their documents in Salesforce. The last twelve months were jam-packed with exciting product innovations and record-breaking growth for S-Docs. Let’s take a look back at some of the leading highlights from 2019 and get a sneak peek into where we’re going next as we hit the ground running in the new year and the new decade.

A Record-Breaking Year

The year started off with a bang as team members from around the globe gathered at the S-Docs Innovation Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the first quarterly town hall of 2019. Department executives laid out the values-driven plan for the year and detailed how our emphasis on trust, transparency, and security would exceed the expectations of our existing customers and help us bring our native Salesforce solution to new ones around the world.

Quarter one closed out a record-breaking 108% over our goal, setting the tone for the year and creating high expectations for the next three quarters--and they didn’t disappoint, meaning that 2019 was our most successful year to date.

Our accomplishments in 2019 were made possible by constant product innovation and a customer-first mindset - but they were also a direct result of our unwavering commitment to our values of trust, transparency, and security. Our customers trust our solution to be lightning-fast, easy to use, and secure. As a 100% native Salesforce solution, S-Docs is able to deliver on these expectations every time.

Welcoming New Customers

Our successful year would not have been possible without our incredible customers. In 2019, we were able to introduce hundreds of new clients from around the globe to the speed, flexibility, and reliability of S-Docs. Some of our new customers this year include the American Red Cross, Intel, Sciex, and French energy company Dalkia. We’ve also had the opportunity to work with several large healthcare and government organizations in a multitude of different countries.

In addition to the new arrivals, 2019 saw large expansions of several existing customers who saw the potential for document automation to make a big difference across multiple departments in their organizations. As a testament to their trust in the security and reliability of S-Docs, expansions were made at the Department of Veteran Affairs, United Healthcare, Philips, Dexcom, and Estee Lauder. 2019 also saw more and more companies adopting our 100% native e-signature solution, S-Sign.

Product Updates

Whether it was perfecting existing functionality or adding support for exciting new features, our product team was hard at work all year making S-Docs and S-Sign faster, more intuitive, and more powerful. Some notable updates include:

  • S-Docs Runtime Prompts, which ask users questions and merge that data into the document at runtime, feature new decision tree logic. This is perfect for when you want to insert data based off a specific response (say, users who say they’re located in CA and NY receive different clause options to insert into their contracts).
  • Though S-Docs is already quicker than our competitors due to being built on the force.com platform, we’ve gone a step further by optimizing to allow for up to 10x faster generation of particularly complex documents.
  • Both S-Docs and S-Sign now support multi-language functionality so users can experience building templates, generating documents, and e-signing in their native languages.

We never stop innovating, so keep a lookout in 2020 for new exciting features coming soon, like the ability to upload an existing PDF and drag & drop merge fields into it. You can view the most recent product updates by reading the release notes.

Growing & Getting Involved in the Community

The S-Docs team grew tremendously in 2019 as every department across the globe added new talent that embodies trust, transparency, and security. This means that the customer experience will only keep improving throughout 2020.

We also got involved in our local communities throughout the year. Starting in May, S-Docs welcomed a fleet of interns from the local University of Michigan, allowing them to gain valuable real-world experience in marketing, sales, and product development.

We organized several volunteering events in the Ann Arbor area as part of our commitment to Pledge 1%, most notably at the Delonis Center, whose mission is to end homelessness in Washtenaw County.

Finally, we were out and about in the Salesforce community throughout the year. If you’re a Salesforce enthusiast, you probably saw S-Docs at one of Salesforce’s many events in 2019. Whether it was the World Tour in London, NorCal Dreamin’, Midwest Dreamin’, Dreamforce, or a host of other user groups and basecamp events, we were connecting with new and existing customers and spreading the word about the power of document automation, e-signature, and our five-star service.

Get in Contact in 2020!

With 2019 in our rearview mirror, 2020 is looking to be even better. Don’t want to miss out? Reach out to us! You can leave us a message or contact us at sales@sdocs.com. For product updates, news, and leading developments in the document automation and e-signature worlds, you can also follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Although it feels like 2019 began only yesterday, we’ve already rounded out another successful year helping companies save time and money by digitizing, automating, and e-signing their documents in Salesforce. The last twelve months were jam-packed with exciting product innovations and record-breaking growth for S-Docs. Let’s take a look back at some of the leading highlights from 2019 and get a sneak peek into where we’re going next as we hit the ground running in the new year and the new decade.

A Record-Breaking Year

The year started off with a bang as team members from around the globe gathered at the S-Docs Innovation Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the first quarterly town hall of 2019. Department executives laid out the values-driven plan for the year and detailed how our emphasis on trust, transparency, and security would exceed the expectations of our existing customers and help us bring our native Salesforce solution to new ones around the world.

Quarter one closed out a record-breaking 108% over our goal, setting the tone for the year and creating high expectations for the next three quarters--and they didn’t disappoint, meaning that 2019 was our most successful year to date.

Our accomplishments in 2019 were made possible by constant product innovation and a customer-first mindset - but they were also a direct result of our unwavering commitment to our values of trust, transparency, and security. Our customers trust our solution to be lightning-fast, easy to use, and secure. As a 100% native Salesforce solution, S-Docs is able to deliver on these expectations every time.

Welcoming New Customers

Our successful year would not have been possible without our incredible customers. In 2019, we were able to introduce hundreds of new clients from around the globe to the speed, flexibility, and reliability of S-Docs. Some of our new customers this year include the American Red Cross, Intel, Sciex, and French energy company Dalkia. We’ve also had the opportunity to work with several large healthcare and government organizations in a multitude of different countries.

In addition to the new arrivals, 2019 saw large expansions of several existing customers who saw the potential for document automation to make a big difference across multiple departments in their organizations. As a testament to their trust in the security and reliability of S-Docs, expansions were made at the Department of Veteran Affairs, United Healthcare, Philips, Dexcom, and Estee Lauder. 2019 also saw more and more companies adopting our 100% native e-signature solution, S-Sign.

Product Updates

Whether it was perfecting existing functionality or adding support for exciting new features, our product team was hard at work all year making S-Docs and S-Sign faster, more intuitive, and more powerful. Some notable updates include:

  • S-Docs Runtime Prompts, which ask users questions and merge that data into the document at runtime, feature new decision tree logic. This is perfect for when you want to insert data based off a specific response (say, users who say they’re located in CA and NY receive different clause options to insert into their contracts).
  • Though S-Docs is already quicker than our competitors due to being built on the force.com platform, we’ve gone a step further by optimizing to allow for up to 10x faster generation of particularly complex documents.
  • Both S-Docs and S-Sign now support multi-language functionality so users can experience building templates, generating documents, and e-signing in their native languages.

We never stop innovating, so keep a lookout in 2020 for new exciting features coming soon, like the ability to upload an existing PDF and drag & drop merge fields into it. You can view the most recent product updates by reading the release notes.

Growing & Getting Involved in the Community

The S-Docs team grew tremendously in 2019 as every department across the globe added new talent that embodies trust, transparency, and security. This means that the customer experience will only keep improving throughout 2020.

We also got involved in our local communities throughout the year. Starting in May, S-Docs welcomed a fleet of interns from the local University of Michigan, allowing them to gain valuable real-world experience in marketing, sales, and product development.

We organized several volunteering events in the Ann Arbor area as part of our commitment to Pledge 1%, most notably at the Delonis Center, whose mission is to end homelessness in Washtenaw County.

Finally, we were out and about in the Salesforce community throughout the year. If you’re a Salesforce enthusiast, you probably saw S-Docs at one of Salesforce’s many events in 2019. Whether it was the World Tour in London, NorCal Dreamin’, Midwest Dreamin’, Dreamforce, or a host of other user groups and basecamp events, we were connecting with new and existing customers and spreading the word about the power of document automation, e-signature, and our five-star service.

Get in Contact in 2020!

With 2019 in our rearview mirror, 2020 is looking to be even better. Don’t want to miss out? Reach out to us! You can leave us a message or contact us at sales@sdocs.com. For product updates, news, and leading developments in the document automation and e-signature worlds, you can also follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. 

See S-Docs In Action

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Ebook: 20 Life Hacks Every Salesforce Admin Should Know

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Whether you’ve been a Salesforce admin for fifteen months or fifteen years, you know in this profession, learning never stops. That’s half the fun of being an admin, right? You love a challenge.

With a new decade beginning, there’s no better time than now to re-evaluate your goals and your career. How are you challenging yourself? How are you helping your organization grow?

Just in time for the New Year, we’re gifting you a comprehensive list of life hacks gathered from the most seasoned Salesforce admins in the industry. This list will allow you to ask these important questions and catapult yourself to even higher levels of success. With this guide in hand, you’ll learn:

  • Valuable career insights
  • Time-saving Salesforce hacks
  • Efficiency-boosting productivity tips
  • And much more!

So what are you waiting for? Download the list by clicking below.

Get The List

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

Enjoying our blog?

Subscribe now and we'll make sure to send you the latest as we publish new content!

Connect With Us!

For Salesforce news, digital document & e-signature insights, or just for fun.

        

Read More

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