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Mar 24
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How To Evaluate The Security Of AppExchange Apps

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There are many things that go into building great customer relationships -- personalization, communication, consistency -- but few are as foundational as trust. Consumers don’t want to give their business to companies they don’t trust with their information. Since doing business and sharing personal information are two entwined activities in the modern world, trust has become more important than ever.

While new laws have started regulating how businesses use and store personal information (such as GDPR and CCPA), companies who proactively improve their security practices have big opportunities to continue building successful customer relationships and winning over the trust of new prospects.

If you’re using Salesforce, the good news is you’re already ahead of the curve. Salesforce incorporates a large array of security services out of the box, and there are countless options available to fine-tune your security preferences to your business and industry standards.

The thing is, most companies that use Salesforce don’t use it by itself -- over 71% of Salesforce customers use applications downloaded from the Salesforce AppExchange, and that number is only growing as more solutions are added to the marketplace every day. While you can rest assured that Salesforce will keep your data safe (it's trusted by top government and healthcare organizations around the world), the same can’t always be said for the applications that you use with the platform.

The S-Docs team compiled this guide to help you evaluate the security of Salesforce AppExchange apps, drawing from over ten years of experience as a trusted document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. Here are a few of our biggest recommendations for choosing the most secure solutions.

1. Check Out The App’s AppExchange Listing Page

Our first piece of advice for evaluating the security of AppExchange apps is simple: head over to the app’s listing detail page to get a first impression of the app. It’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you can’t judge an app’s security by its AppExchange listing page -- but there are a few things on that page that can give you a head-start into your app analysis. Here are a couple things to look for as you glance through the page:

How Old Is The Latest Release?

The top of every AppExchange listing will include a star rating, the date the app was first listed, and the date that the most recent version of the app was added to the AppExchange. This is the date you need to look out for.

You’ll likely come across many apps with latest releases ranging from a couple months ago to a couple years ago -- but sometimes you’ll find apps with “Latest Release” dates that are closer to the birth of the AppExchange itself than they are to the present.

It’s possible that installing an old application might pose a security risk simply by the nature of the app’s age. Since Salesforce’s security infrastructure and data security best practices are constantly updating, older applications may not incorporate the latest security advancements.

However, an old “Latest Release” date doesn’t always mean that the app hasn’t been updated in a while; it could also mean that a newer version of the app exists that just isn’t on the AppExchange. If you’ve found an older app that you think your business might really benefit from, contact the app vendor for information about a more up to date version.

How Do The Reviews Look?

While it’s true that an app’s reviews aren’t necessarily a good indication of that app’s security infrastructure, it doesn’t hurt to glance through them and see what others have said about the app in the past. It’s possible that a reviewer has pointed something out about the app that you didn’t notice during your initial evaluation.

Pay attention to the dates on the reviews, too -- older reviews might not be a good representation of the app in its current state.

You Might Also Like: 5 Best Salesforce Apps You Should Install Now

2. Find Out If The App Uses External Services Or Platforms

After you’re done looking through an app’s listing detail page, it’s time to dive in a little deeper. The next thing to look for during your app security review is whether or not the application requires external services or platforms to work, as well as whether or not it stores data on those external platforms.

There are a few ways to figure this out. The easiest way is to click the “Get It Now” button on the app’s listing detail page to begin the installation process (but you don’t actually have to complete it at this time). If during this process the app prompts you to authorize access to third-party websites, then you can be sure that it uses external services or platforms.

It’s also possible to figure this out by visiting the application’s website and poking around in their documentation, if it’s available; they’ll likely have information there about the external platforms or services that their app utilizes.

Why Do External Services Or Platforms Matter?

We’ve established that Salesforce itself is a secure solution with multiple data security measures in place -- after all, your team already trusts it with your sensitive business data. However, an application that uses external services or platforms is only as secure as its weakest link.

Although Salesforce isn’t the only secure platform available, whenever a new platform or service that handles your data is added, another security risk is introduced. Applications that rely on external platforms by nature require your data to be transferred away from Salesforce for processing. Each time your data changes possession, another vulnerability is created.

If an AppExchange application also stores data on a platform other than Salesforce, this could be a problem for your organization for a number of reasons. Like we said before, introducing another platform introduces another opportunity for a data breach. Your IT department probably spent a great deal of time and resources vetting Salesforce as a secure platform to trust with your company’s data; the same process would likely need to be repeated for the additional platforms that an app is using to store data. Additionally, it's hard to know who really has access to your data when it's being stored (even temporarily) on other platforms. The more platforms with access to your data, the less secure it is.

3. Choose Native Apps Whenever Possible

We get it -- evaluating the security of any new Salesforce application is going to take some time; data security is of the utmost importance, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, it doesn’t have to take too much time. There is one thing you can do that will significantly cut down on your evaluation timeline: choose native Salesforce applications first.

Native Salesforce applications are built on the Salesforce platform, meaning that they are hosted and operated entirely within the Salesforce cloud. When you choose a native app, you don’t have to worry about whether or not that application uses or stores data on third-party platforms or services. Native apps live completely within Salesforce, and the data they process does too. Native apps allow your security team to rest assured that no additional platform vetting will be required, since all of your organization’s data will remain in your already-approved Salesforce environment.

The Security Benefits Of Native Apps

Native Salesforce applications have more out-of-box security benefits than any other type of application on the AppExchange. While native solutions are not a universal answer to every Salesforce need, we recommend looking to them first before seeking out non-native alternatives. Here are just a few of the security benefits that come with native apps:

  • Salesforce Servers - All of your client data stays within Salesforce (unless you download, export, or email it). It is not sent nor stored on external servers nor does data enter from external servers, which may be the case with non-native applications.
  • Security Settings Consistency - A native Salesforce application conforms with the same security settings and sharing rules that you have already created within Salesforce. These rules and settings may not be applied with a non-native app, and data could be vulnerable as a result.
  • Secure Integrations - Native app integrations are more secure. API interactions with any native app services require authentication with Salesforce. This ensures the highest level of security and minimizes the need for specially built integrations. For example, a single-sign-on (SSO) integration requires no additional consideration to work with a native app.
  • Data Residency Compliance - Since all data used by native apps continues to be stored exclusively on existing Salesforce servers, native apps inherently meet the strictest government data residency requirements – just like Salesforce.
  • Reliable Uptime & Connectivity - Since native apps reside 100% within Salesforce, they will always be up and running when Salesforce is running. Non-native and hybrid apps depend on outside servers and network connectivity, which may or may not have the same enterprise-class infrastructure as Salesforce. Downtime may not only cause loss to a business, but could also pose security risks if the application is being used for mission-critical processes.

You Might Also Like: How 2009 Changed The Salesforce AppExchange Forever

How Can You Tell If An App Is Truly Native?

Seeking out native applications first is a significant step towards finding and implementing the most secure solutions for your Salesforce org. However, discerning which apps are truly native can be surprisingly difficult. Some apps that aren’t 100% native try to capitalize on the marketing advantage that being native comes with, using phrases in their listings like “native integration,” “on-platform,” and “without ever leaving Salesforce.” Apps that include some native aspects, but still require you to connect your Salesforce org to external URLs, are not truly native, and do not come with all of the security features that 100% native apps do.

To figure out whether or not an AppExchange app is truly native, head back to the AppExchange listing detail page, and look under the highlights table on the left. Only 100% native applications will be designated as native in this table.

If you’re still not convinced, click the Get It Now button, and initiate the installation process again. If you’re prompted to grant access to any 3rd party sites, then the app is not native. If not, you can rest assured that the application is truly native.

4. Ask Your Vendor The Right Questions

When in doubt, asking the right questions can help give you a better understanding of an app’s security infrastructure. Here are some additional key questions to ask your vendor during your evaluation of an AppExchange application:

  1. Does your app require that I whitelist any IP addresses in Salesforce to use any feature of your app?
  2. Does your company use any web services that are required to use any feature of the app?
  3. Where are those services hosted? Are they regional and do they meet data residency requirements?
  4. How are services encrypted?
  5. How are networks separated between corporate domain and services?
  6. What are your SLAs for service and performance regarding uptime, bandwidth, and latency?
  7. What is the communication process for downtime and breaches? Can you provide a history of those for the previous 24 months?
  8. When was the last time you implemented your emergency management procedures?
  9. What audits and certifications do you have?

Keep Your Data Secure With S-Docs

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution available on the Salesforce AppExchange, and it’s free with up to 2 templates. S-Docs holds all of the security benefits that come with native applications -- documents are designed, generated, emailed, and signed within Salesforce, and your data doesn’t leave your org.

The native benefits don’t stop at security -- S-Docs is faster, more reliable, and easier to use. Top government, healthcare, and financial service firms around the world trust S-Docs with all of their Salesforce document generation and e-signature needs. Being native allows it to work great with any Salesforce product, from Service Cloud, to Shield, to Government and Healthcare Clouds.

Get started today by contacting us to request a customized demo, or reach out directly to sales@sdocs.com.

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Business As Usual: Tips For Working Remotely

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This is a historic time for both our country and the world as we try to navigate the best way through this COVID-19 pandemic. At S-Docs, we think it’s important to come together, albeit virtually, to support one another and share best practices about the changing tides in business. We’re doing everything we can to keep our employees safe and our customers happy. We’re working behind the scenes to keep everything business as usual.

Since the outbreak started, a lot of companies have migrated to have employees work from home, which has been a big adjustment for some. Luckily for S-Docs, some of our team is already used to working remotely. We have employees and contractors who live in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, New York, and Ann Arbor. In light of the situation facing us today, we thought we'd draw from our years of experience accommodating remote employees and share some of our favorite tips for getting the job done at home. Whether they're stress relieving tips, funny GIFs, real-world solutions, or advice for adjusting to remote work, here are a few things we use on the daily when we're working remotely. They help keep us sane in times like these, but also keep things (dare I say it) business as usual.

Tip #1: Video Calls

At S-Docs we use Go-to-Meeting for our voice and video calls, but Zoom and Google Hangouts are also good options. If you’re in a pinch, UberConference has a reliable free version that can be used globally. Video & conference calls are a necessity to make remote work feel like business as usual. We have daily syncs in the morning to kick-start our days. This helps us stay connected with everyone, regardless of where they’re located. It provides a view into how everyone is doing on a personal level, and allows us to adjust our focus based on what's a priority for that day, week, or month.

Pro tip: If your conference line is slow to launch, try joining just a few minutes earlier to avoid the rush when everyone is logging on for a meeting at the top of the hour.  

Tip #2: Instant Messaging // Workplace Communication

Slack is a powerhouse in our stream of work. Forget email. Instant messaging your colleagues is another great way to stay in the know about all the various projects that are going on. For example, we have a different slack channel for our dev team priorities, strategic POCs that are ongoing, and product feature updates/requests to name a few. Don’t forget a big piece of staying sane while being remote is being able to have fun with your colleagues. We have a few channels dedicated to non-work topics, and are also huge fans of the /giphy function that randomly creates funny GIFS for you.

Tip #3: Calendar Blocks

Use your calendar to schedule your day, otherwise you might end up either working way longer than anticipated (whoops, is it really 6pm already?) or the opposite can happen (accidently have a spotless kitchen at 3pm?). It’s crucial to block out personal time in addition to ‘in-the-zone’ times for when you need to really crank something out. The remainder of your available time throughout the day will easily be filled with recurring meetings or last-minute phone calls with clients. This is the bullet-proof way to stay on schedule for yourself and provide transparency to what you’re working on throughout the day.

Tip #4: Use Team Collaboration & Document Centralization Tools

There are a ton of tools out there to help facilitate group collaboration. Internally, we use Google Docs and Trello to help manage multiple projects and to-do lists. Both tools help us work together on various projects all at once. Having a centralized place where all of our marketing, sales, and development content exists makes it much easier to find the pertinent information to keep things running.

Pro Tip: Try adding a label standardization to your foldering system, and cleaning up old files. A little organization goes a long way!  

Tip #5: Automate Business Processes

This might sound trivial, but when you’re not used to working remotely it can be a lifesaver to have automation in place. Since swinging by John’s desk to check the status of that pricing approval isn’t feasible when everyone is remote, you can set up an automated workflow that sends out an alert via Salesforce when John updates a field approving (or denying) the pricing request. It’s these little workflows that we take for granted when we’re in an office full of people. At S-Docs, we, along with hundreds of our customers, use our native document generation and e-signature solutions for Salesforce to build out these automated workflows. It saves us time and keeps us on track regardless of whether we’re on the go, or designated to our living rooms for the time being.

.Tip #6: Don’t Forget to Unwind & Destress

Exercising with repetitive activities, like walking or running, is great for relieving stress, especially in hard times like these when a global pandemic is in full swing. Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, if your city or country has mandated all citizens to stay inside, then please stay inside. There are tons of on-demand workouts like yoga sequences, breathing exercises, and bodyweight workouts you can do at home to get your mind off of work and any craziness that’s surrounding you. Try planning a virtual trivia night with your colleagues in lieu of the traditional happy hour. Let the team bonding & virtual fun begin! 

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How US Government Entities Are Using Salesforce In 2022

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Although it begins with the word “Sales,” Salesforce is about as far from being a solution exclusively for sales teams as S-Docs is from advocating for manual workflows (automation is where it’s at!). As a customer relationship management platform, Salesforce absolutely helps businesses crush it at sales -- but it also breaks down frustrating data silos, manages and automates marketing efforts, streamlines customer service, and provides valuable AI-based insights that aid every organizational layer from the bottom to the top.

Because of this, it’s no surprise that government agencies around the globe have started leveraging Salesforce’s eclectic capabilities to transform their citizen engagement and everyday workflows. The public sector has historically been slow to adopt new technologies like cloud-based CRM solutions, even if they've been established for some time. Salesforce and its partners have been vital to remedying this reputation and transforming the way government entities do business and serve their constituents.

How Are US Government Organizations Using Salesforce In 2022?

In a modern era that’s more connected and faster-moving than ever, government organizations face three big challenges:

  • Managing legacy, on-premises systems
  • Meeting ever-rising citizen expectations
  • Maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements that are constantly growing

Legacy data systems aren’t built on the cloud and don’t allow for efficient communication between databases. These data silos can hurt productivity and communication, leading to everyday tasks being carried out slower than they could be, and ultimately hindering innovation.

Modern-day consumers expect proactive service, connected experiences, and personalization when they interact with companies in 2022. These new, ever-growing expectations don’t magically turn off when it comes to the government -- citizens now expect a much faster, cleaner experience that’s available to them from any device.

Additionally, government organizations are restricted by inflexible regulatory policies that are always growing, making it difficult to upgrade outdated systems and introduce innovative new strategies.

Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners, consultants, and independent software vendors diminish these challenges by reinventing the government’s relationship with technology. Because it’s so easy to set up, maintain, and customize, Salesforce is suited to improve the way any government organization works, from the United States federal government to government contractors and federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs).

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How The US Federal Government Uses Salesforce

The US federal government is made up of hundreds of different agencies that all have their own unique business requirements. Salesforce is valuable to the federal government because of its infinite customization capabilities that make it a viable option for virtually any project imaginable. Little to no coding knowledge is necessary to build custom applications using the lightning app builder, and a host of ready-to-deploy applications built exclusively for government organizations are just a few clicks away on the AppExchange.

The power of using one platform for thousands of different projects cannot be overstated. Ordinarily, different branches of the federal government would need to develop or purchase hundreds of different solutions that don’t integrate well with each other and aren’t backed up in the cloud. Salesforce allows these many different branches to satisfy their needs with a singular platform that facilitates connectivity between each agency.

The United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is just one federal government agency that leverages the power of Salesforce for a number of different projects. Most notably, Salesforce is being used to improve the caregiver program, which was originally approved to provide healthcare services to veterans injured on or after September 11, 2001, and give benefits to veteran caregiver households. Several attempts were made to develop an in-house IT system for the program, but when the MISSION Act passed, stipulating that caregiver program benefits eventually be extended to all veterans, it became clear that a new, scalable solution was necessary. The VA turned to Salesforce to better maintain the program’s data, track its progress, and ensure a smooth transition to covering more veterans and caregivers.

The VA recognized the importance of using one cloud-based solution for many different projects, and extended this philosophy to the applications that they use in conjunction with Salesforce. They leverage S-Docs and S-Sign for their document automation and e-signature needs, benefiting from our on-platform advantages like increased speed, security, and ease of use. Since they’re native to Salesforce, S-Docs and S-Sign mirror its look and feel, maintain compliance with all of its security requirements, and have the same server uptime. This makes them easy to implement, customize, and scale -- just like Salesforce.

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How State & Local Governments Use Salesforce

State and local governments also take advantage of Salesforce as one versatile platform. Most local government organizations have multiple departments that all offer different solutions for their citizens. A big responsibility of most of these agencies is direct citizen interaction, from answering questions to processing applications. Salesforce is a way to unify these different citizen touchpoints.

The District of Columbia’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC) implemented Salesforce for this very reason. As an agency responsible for both the city’s emergency 9-11 and city service 3-11 calls, it was already interacting with citizens 24/7. Several other government call centers were added to the OUC’s jurisdiction as well, including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles. In addition, the agency’s twitter was responsible for answering questions and even processing service requests.

Salesforce Service Cloud was instrumental in unifying these different points of contact, giving citizens a consistent experience across multiple channels and providing service agents with insights into individual service requests and overall trends. Chatbots and automated call responses for the highest-volume call topics were introduced to increase productivity. Salesforce also alleviated additional costs incurred from legacy systems like maintenance required for updates and storage space. In addition, it’s extremely scalable, allowing the OUC to be the adaptive, proactive government entity that citizens and employees are looking for.

How Government Contractors Use Salesforce

Agencies directly connected with the government aren’t the only ones who use Salesforce to improve their processes. Government contractors also leverage its wide-ranging abilities to better serve their government customers and indirectly make an impact on the citizens that those governments serve.

Government contractors need to get in contact with government entities and maintain those relationships, which is why in this case, Salesforce really is about sales. Business development is a big responsibility for government contracting agencies -- they first need to find customers in order for their great solutions to make an impact.

Atlantic Diving Supply used Salesforce to grow from a small company to a top 50 Federal Government Contractor that supplies tactical diving gear and similar products to the United States Department of Defense and other government agencies. Using Sales Cloud and FedRAMP-authorized Salesforce Government Cloud, they were able to utilize data that previously slipped through the cracks to increase their sales and provide their products to more and more agencies. They also expanded their Salesforce usage to include Service Cloud, Event Monitoring, Identity Connect, and more.

Salesforce also improves the day-to-day lives of government contractor employees, allowing them to access mission-critical information from responsive, customizable mobile apps. The increase in productivity that this brings allows them to deliver the exact solutions that government entities need, right when they need them.

Salesforce Helps Government Agencies Do What Matters

There are thousands of different government entities throughout the United States and around the world, and we could go on and on about how many of them are using Salesforce to improve. Though their business needs are different, they all have one thing in common: using a secure, centralized platform lets them focus on what really matters. Salesforce gives them a 360 degree view into their constituents, their service requests, their project data -- whatever it may be, it’s easier to work with, customize, and scale using the power of Salesforce as a single platform across any number of different projects.

Applications that enhance Salesforce’s functionality should be the same way. That’s why S-Docs Document Generation and E-Signature is built 100% on the Salesforce platform,  exclusively for Salesforce users. S-Docs uses powerful document generation technology to create sophisticated documents and send them for e-signature in seconds -- yet because it’s native to Salesforce, users don’t feel like they’re interacting with an external app at all. S-Docs is pre-integrated, meaning that users who already know Salesforce will know how to use S-Docs out of the box.

Since it’s built on the platform, S-Docs also enjoys the same uptime and security compliances as Salesforce. As the trusted partner to hundreds of government organizations around the world, S-Docs generates thousands of secure documents every day, automating manual tasks and pushing government productivity to the next level.

To see how your organization can benefit from native document generation and e-signature, contact us for a customized demo. Request a demo or reach out directly to sales@sdocs.com.

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What Makes E-Signature A Good Fit For Healthcare?

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For as long as they’ve existed, corporations from every industry have endeavored to paint themselves in a noble light. They minimize talk about the money and maximize talk about the greater mission. Sometimes it feels disingenuous, sometimes it feels sincere -- but with most businesses, the only real way to tell is to look at their track record and assess whether their values align with their actions.

The healthcare industry, however, is usually a different story. No matter which company you look at, the industry as a whole boasts arguably the noblest mission any business can have: contribute to the health and wellbeing of our society. This mission aligns well with their business needs: keeping patients healthy and happy creates loyal customers.

Of course, virtuous as their philosophies may be, healthcare companies are still businesses, meaning that they have all of the operational requirements that traditional businesses do. Operations, marketing, purchasing, hiring, maintaining patient paperwork -- depending on the industry sector, there’s so much going on behind the scenes that patient care is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s easy for these administrative tasks to pile up and slow down the care cycle, but they can have a profoundly negative effect on the patient experience. And if patients feel they’ve been relegated to the sidelines, they’ll start searching for new healthcare practitioners that are able to deliver better, more personalized experiences.

To be quite honest, healthcare patients don’t want to feel like they’re dealing with a business at all -- and in our opinion, they shouldn’t have to. Administrative tasks like paperwork and signature collection should blend seamlessly into the patient experience, not interfere with it.

Ironically, by focusing more on streamlining current healthcare business processes now, healthcare professionals can focus less on the business aspect of their job in the long run and more on the foundational values of their industry: keeping patients happy and healthy. Fortunately, we live in an era where the technology required to elevate patient care to the next level not only exists, but is easily accessible. Enter Salesforce and e-signature.

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Salesforce and E-Signature: A Perfect Match For Healthcare

Salesforce is an exceptional tool for both healthcare providers and patients. Their Health Cloud gives healthcare providers a detailed view into their patients’ health, valuable analytics and insights, and data management and storage solutions. On the other side, patients can connect to their health profile at any time, from any device, to track and manage their health goals in a way that fits their schedule. By using Salesforce, healthcare professionals spend more time on personalized care, and patients feel more like valued members of their healthcare organization.

Electronic signature solutions are the next step on the way to seamless patient experiences. While collecting signatures may seem like a trivial part of the business cycle, it’s actually one of the most important aspects of the healthcare journey in particular. Healthcare companies of all kinds need to process hundreds of forms that require signatures every day; they’re an unavoidable part of the patient experience and the day to day lives of healthcare professionals.

Although Salesforce can greatly improve other aspects of the care cycle, it doesn’t take much to throw everything off track: small snags in the system can have a big impact. If outdated signature procedures slow down any part of the patient journey, this roadblock will be remembered, no matter how fast and modern the rest of the experience was. It doesn’t make sense to be a forward thinker for most of your patient care, yet remain a laggard when it comes to this critical business process. Patients expect a seamless experience; there’s little room for error.

Because of strict regulations, healthcare companies also need signatures to be securely obtained and stored more so than other industries. Growing patient expectations, higher data security needs, and a faster-moving business world all make one thing clear: wet ink just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Salesforce E-Signature Solutions Create Seamless Patient Experiences

Like we mentioned before, patients expect a seamless experience across the entire care journey, and small hiccups along the way can derail the whole effect. Think about it: if you’ve had several great interactions with an organization, and one not-so-great interaction, which of those is more likely to stick in your mind? The unfavorable occurrence, of course, because it stands out -- and we’re more likely to remember negative events than positive ones.

We’re not saying that signing a form with a pen is itself a horrible experience -- but pen-and-paper signatures slow down the entire care cycle because they take longer to collect and process, which can compound other issues and frustrate healthcare professionals and patients alike. What’s worse, they represent an outdated way of doing business; an unfortunate blip in an otherwise modern experience.

Implementing an e-signature solution on top of Salesforce for healthcare fills in the gaps in the patient journey, creating truly seamless experiences. Patients can initiate a relationship with their healthcare provider, receive top-notch care, review their progress online, and sign forms on an as-needed basis without missing a beat. E-signature is the missing link that allows the entire journey to progress in a smooth, intuitive, modern way. In a time where the patient experience is everything, the gaps can’t be ignored. Salesforce e-signature for healthcare helps to ensure that you have all of your bases covered.

Salesforce E-Signature Solutions Keep Patient Data Secure

The healthcare industry is regulated by some of the strictest data security laws in the United States -- most notably the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). As more and more healthcare data is transitioned into electronic health records (EHRs), the need for robust data security policies continues to rise.

Wet ink signatures are not exactly champions of data security. They’re subject to physical limitations like being misplaced or damaged. They take longer to collect and store, which makes these events more likely to happen. Additionally, since they don’t capture information like intent to sign or verifiable time and date, they’re easier to falsify.

Electronic signatures fill in all of the gaps that wet ink signatures leave open. They’ve had the same legal validity as wet ink signatures since the ESIGN Act was passed in 2000, and they’ve only grown more reliable and secure since then. Today, they’re among the safest methods for signature collection in existence, which makes them a great fit for the security-conscious healthcare industry.

E-signature applications require signers to express intent to sign and can use two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security. E-signature solutions also record every event from document creation to signature, making it easy to get the full picture should a dispute occur. Finally, they can be automatically tracked and stored in Salesforce (if you’re using the right application). Although HIPAA does impose certain regulations on the usage of e-signatures, you can rest assured that the best solutions satisfy them all.

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Salesforce E-Signature Solutions Make The Day-To-Day Easier

E-Signature solutions for Salesforce create better patient experiences and are far more secure than paper signatures -- but they also make healthcare professionals’ daily lives much easier. They streamline otherwise slow paper workflows, potentially accelerating document processing time from days to just seconds. They speed up the purchasing cycle for medical equipment, getting professionals the tools they need when they need them. They keep patients happy by contributing to a seamless experience, which keeps professionals happy in turn. Finally, they allow professionals to be confident in their company and brand, knowing that it employs modern solutions and is serious about delivering great patient experiences.

Here’s the bottom line: the healthcare industry’s mission is honorable, but it’s no small task. In the modern world, the right tools are required to uphold the values that the industry was founded on. Treating healthcare like a business and focusing on finding the right solutions to optimize for efficiency is the way forward towards better patient care. Electronic signatures might seem like a small part of the healthcare world at first, but when you look a bit closer, it’s easy to see that they’re actually vital components of the modern day industry, and play their part in the greater mission as a whole.

It’s clear that e-signatures are the way to go, but choosing the right solution can be tricky. Searching for “e-signature” on the Salesforce AppExchange will yield around 40 results. Which solutions are HIPAA-compliant? Which solutions are easiest to use?

Look no further than native apps like our e-signature solution S-Sign. Native Salesforce applications are built on the Salesforce platform, meaning they are compliant with the same  security regulations as Salesforce out of the box. They also mirror the look and feel of Salesforce, meaning they’re easier to use and take the meaning of seamless to a whole new level. Without much configuration at all, they can also do things like write critical patient data back to Salesforce and run Salesforce validation rules. They can also be easily automated, allowing professionals to spend even more time on what really matters.

Ready to start closing the gaps in the patient experience with a secure solution that’s purpose-built for Salesforce? Contact us to schedule a personalized S-Sign demo today -- request a demo today or email sales@sdocs.com. We’ll be happy to hear from you!

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How To Build A Game-Changing Proposal In Salesforce

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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! 

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

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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.

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June 12, 2024

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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!

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