Operational Efficiency Series: Enhancements & Customization

Published by Steve Wood at June 13, 2016

For Companies Seeking the Ultimate in Efficiency, “Good” Should Never be “Enough”

Salesforce is an undeniably robust CRM platform designed to improve efficiencies while providing companies with the tools needed to offer excellent customer service. However, it should be understood the AppExchange exists for a reason. Any company making the decision to purchase Salesforce should be aware, since 2005, developers have been focused on creating apps to customize and improve the Salesforce user experience.

Depending on how long you’ve been using Salesforce, you likely have turned to the AppEx to enhance certain functionalities of the CRM platform. Or, perhaps you decided to build a solution to meet your needs, rather than buy. Either way, it’s widely accepted while Salesforce, in many ways, provides a rock solid foundation for managing service and support, customization is common.

As Salesforce’s business app marketplace, the AppEx provides valuable turnkey solutions for both enterprises and small businesses, providing further technology enhancements to an already effective product. There are more than 3,000 apps available for either purchase or free download on the AppEx, and the apps offered cover all categories from sales to marketing to finance. (As an aside, you may not know this but Salesforce was the original owner of “The App Store.” CEO Marc Benioff gifted it to Apple and then coined the name “App Exchange” for its own use.)

Salesforce apps provide organizations with fast, cost-effective implementation while minimizing the resources and expertise necessary to deploy and manage the solution. Specifically, 100% native apps empower organizations to leverage Salesforce capabilities as though they had developed custom solutions.

Internet Creations: A Case Study

Internet Creations started as a website development and IT services company in 1996 (hence the name Internet Creations.) It morphed into a Salesforce company in late 2004 when founder Chad Meyer heard about the new cloud-based CRM and decided it was a great way to provide the very best customer service experience for his clients.

The platform was expensive, but worth the investment, Meyer said. And, while Salesforce off-the-shelf didn’t meet all of Internet Creations’ needs, it did launch a new business model for the company.

“We had this software but, out of the box, we felt it was unacceptable from a user experience. I found things that we could improve upon and I knew my employees and my customers deserved better,” Meyer said.

So, he sat down with his developers and decided to take a shot at upgrading some of the functionality of the CRM platform. The result was market-changing for Internet Creations. Once the enhanced solution was in use, Meyer found out that other Salesforce users were experiencing the same challenges that led Internet Creations to develop an app called Email to Case Premium (E2CP is an upgraded version of Salesforce’s basic Email-to-Case function). Compared to Email-to-Case, Internet Creations’ flagship app E2CP provides users with a more streamlined and efficient solution for communicating about cases via email. E2CP is a 100 percent native, managed Salesforce app that offers users rapid ROI.

E2CP saves time and increases agent productivity. Features include: Automatically Create New Contacts, Clean Case Comments, Email Loop Protection and Forward to Case. Additionally, the ability to Write and Share Comments via Email in One Click and choose Canned Comments with Merge Fields simplifies communications and promotes consistency across the org.

When Internet Creations decided to license E2CP, Salesforce users quickly decided to “buy” recognizing there was no reason to be challenged by lacking functionality anymore.

Today, IC is committed to creating operational efficiency, internally and for Salesforce users, by developing and marketing paid and free apps to enhance the basic functionality of Salesforce orgs in companies all over the world. Free trials of the company’s apps are available on the AppEx and, staying true to its promise to provide excellent service, Internet Creations backs its products with exceptional support.

Ready? Set? Customize!

To borrow a phrase, if you are using Salesforce and feel the need to enhance its capabilities and functionalities in some way, there’s likely an app for that. Peruse the AppExchange yourself. Or, contact a Salesforce consultant like Internet Creations to find out how existing applications can be further customized to take your org to the next level.

Ready to learn more about how we can help your company grow through operational efficiency? Contact Internet Creations today for a consultation.

In the next installment of this series on operational efficiency, we will bring it all together and focus on the ultimate goal: exceeding expectations by providing an extraordinary customer experience.

About Internet Creations

Internet Creations is a business technology and Salesforce consulting firm that empowers organizations to operate efficiently and accelerate success by aligning people with technology. We help our clients leverage the benefits of technology and avoid the perils by delivering innovative solutions backed by world-class customer service.