Concept of Person Accout and Business Account in Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com has of two types of Accounts :-

1. Business Account or normally termed as an Account 
2. Person Account

The basic difference between these two types of accounts is the business model on which they are based. One needs to understand the business model of the Organization and decide which type of account will meets it requirements. Business Account will work in the B2B Industry i.e. Business to Business whereas Person Account will work in the B2C Industry i.e. Business to Consumer.

 

In Person Account i.e. Business to Consumer Industry there is no concept of Contacts as you are dealing with one individual who is termed as an Account. Example of B2C is loan taken by an individual from a company. SFDC CON 201 Certification Question

 

For enabling person accounts, a feature request needs to be raised with salesforce.com and they do the need full. Please remember Person Account once enabled can not be disabled, but they can be used in parallel with the Business Accounts. SFDC ADM 201 Certification Question

 

The change that happens in your Organization on the enabling of person account is that a new record type is created on account with the name as person account. In Person account record type contacts related list on account will be missing whereas in case of business account record type contacts related list will be present.

 

For both scenarios the contacts and accounts will be saved as two different records in the database. For Person Accounts the contact information will come from the standard account fields which are internally holding the contact information. This is the reason person account record still occupies 4 KB of data; 2 KB of space for account and 2 KB of space for the contact record. For business Account we have no such issues as two separate placeholders for keeping the account and contact information.

Different Types of Salesforce.com Sandbox

There are Two kind of salesforce.com environments:

Production Environment
Sandbox Environment

Sandbox is  an environment shared by Salesforce.com for the testing and the development purpose and is mostly used by Developers and Testers.

Production is an environment where the actual users work with the actual data and is maintained by Administrators.

Migration from sandbox to production environment can happen via Eclipse toll or SFDC Change sets. Eclipse tool is a much more recommended approach.

There are three kind of Sandboxes in SFDC and the difference lies in the limit of Data Storage

Developer Sandbox: This is the most basic sandbox provided by SFDC. This comes as free and can even be created by anyone who wants to have Look and Feel of SFDC. It can store 10 MB of data and can be refreshed everyday ( Feature of Winter'11 Release ).This sandbox can not be created from production environment.

Config only Sandbox: This is a paid sandbox and cost around 10% of production environment. This is mostly used when system needs to be tested with good chunk of data. This sandbox can be created directly

from the production environment and can be refreshed everyday. This Sandbox has the 500MB Data Limit.

Full Copy Sandbox: This is also a paid sandbox and cost around 15% to 20% of production environment. The Full copy sandbox of SFDC is exact replica of the production environment and even stores the actual

business data. This sandbox can be created from the SFDC production environment and can be refreshed after every 28 days. The Full Copy Sandbox has same Data Limit as the Production environment has.

The Record Id's are similar only in the case of Full Copy Sandbox and Production Environment as Full Copy Sandbox is replica of the Production Environment. CON 201 Certification Question, DEV 401 Certification Question

It's always advisable to negotiate for these Sandbox at the time of buying salesforce.com licenses as one gets different no. and types of sandboxes depending on the edition of salesforce selected.

Difference between Salesforce.com and Force.com

The biggest difference between Salesforce.com and Force.com lies in the concept  on which both are based.

Force.com is based on the concept of Platform as a Service or commonly known as PAAS where as Salesforce.com is based on the concept of Application as a Service.

So, we can say Salesforce.com is an application build by SFDC on force.com platform and has been made available to people for use at a per month per license pricing.

As a rule of thumb: Force.com platform license is three times cheaper then the Salesforce.com license but takes three times of effort and time to build any functionality which is billed in Salesforce.com application.

Force.com is the platform because of which SFDC says sky is the limit for developing any application. There are numerous examples of the same on Appexchange where people have Build Contract Management, HR
Systems, Social CRM etc.

To see a demo of Contract Management build on force.com Platform CLICK HERE

Dashboards in Salesforce.com

Dashboard is an amazing medium by which the companies whole information can be shared with the CEO as a SCREENSHOT.

Some important things to know about Dashboard are:

• With Dashboard a user can even see the information to which he does not has the access, Thanks to the concept of Running User. ADM 201, CON 201, DEV 401 question.

• One can have only 2 or 3 columns in a Dashboard.

•  In Home, Dashboard component you only see the FIRST ROW of the source dashboard. ADM 201 certification question.

• You can restrict the access to a dashboard by restricting the access to a folder in which that dashboard is placed.

• Dashboards can be scheduled to run any time during a day and you can get them delivered via an Email

• Dashboards can only be created with custom reports as the source reports. One can not have the standard reports as the source reports for the Dashboard. ADM 201 Certification Question.

• Only 20 components can be added to a dashboard.

Inline Editing in SFDC

Salesforce.com provides Inline Editing feature which is applicable to the entire organization.

Inline editing is a feature by which one can edit a record without pressing the edit button. User goes to the detail page, doubles click on a field, changes to a new value and presses save. This process makes sure the field value is updated to the new value.

Inline editing limitations:-
Does not work for all fields, some fields are exception to Inline editing like opportunity stage.
Inline editing can not be turned on for one user and turned off for another. It is global and works for all or none. ADM 201 Certification Question

To set inline editing go to:

Setup - customize - UI Settings - inline editing

Business advantage:- Saves on the no. of clicks required to edit a record.

Point to Remember:- If you have changed a value using Inline Editing but forgot to press the save button then those changes will not be saved and will get discarded as soon as you close that particular window.

Concept of Tabs in Salesforce.com

Few important things one must know about the TABS are:

• Tabs can help you in making the views which help user to see the information at a glance. Example: List of all contacts whose birthday is in this month, list of all opportunities which are in negotiation stage.

• There is a limitation on the number of tabs one can have in their organization, Maximum of 25 tabs are allowed in the enterprise edition.

• For a profile you can set the status of tabs as "Default On", "Default Off" and "Tab Hidden"

• Default On: User with this Tab setting will be able to see the Tab for custom object every time he enters in to the SFDC.
• Default Off: User with this Tab setting will NOT be able to see the Tab for a custom object when he enters in to SFDC but has the ability to add this tab to his view by customizing the tab view.
• Tab Hidden: User with this Tab setting will be NOT be able to see the Tab for a custom object and even will NOT be able to bring the tab by customizing the tab view settings.

• Search is enabled only for those custom objects which have a Tab. So if you are unable to search on a custom object then the reason could be that the Tab for that custom object is not enabled in profiles or you have not created the Tab for that object. DEV 401 certification Question

• Web Tabs are the tabs from which  user goes to the external websites. So use them when you want to divert the user from SFDC to External Systems.

Concept of Roles and Profiles in SFDC

Roles and Profiles are the two pillars in SFDC on which the entire access hierarchy is based.

For a user in SFDC It is mandatory to have a profile but not a role.

Profile is used for multiple things in SFDC and some of the key one's are:

• To analyze the type of SFDC license used by the user.
• To give the access to an object. If the object level permission is missing in the profile then the user will not be able to see the records of that object in salesforce.com.
• To give access to Tabs, fields via FLS, General and Administrator settings.

A role is used to maintain the role hierarchy. Role hierarchy allows the mangers to see the data of the user reporting to them.

Remember:- Role hierarchy is a tool given to developer to meet the data roll up requirements. It need not be the organization role hierarchy.

Role hierarchy can be enabled or disabled for the custom objects. This will decide that data of managers will be seen by CEO or not.

In nutshell profile give access to Object where as role give access to the Records Standartd SFDC Certification Question

Junction Object or Many to Many Relationship in SFDC

There is no out of box relationship present in SFDC i.e. Many to Many in nature, So to have a many to many relationship in SFDC a JUNCTION OBJECT is required.

A junction object joins the two objects with two master detail relationship. Junction object is always on the detail side of the object.

                                   Obj1  M : 1  Junction  1 : M  Obj2

This way junction object creates Many to Many relationship between Obj1 and Obj2. (DEV 401 Question)

One example of many to many relationship among standard objects is Case and Solution. One case can have many solution attached to it and one solution can be used in resolving many cases.

Concept behind Validation Rules in SFDC

Purpose: Validation rules are written to maintain the integrity of the data.

Mandatory fields while writing a validation rule are Name, Formula and Error Message.

Name: Unique name of validation rule

Formula: The formula is written in a way that it evaluates to true for the condition in which you do not want your record to be saved.

Business Case: If opportunity stage is negotiation then discount is mandatory.
          
Formula for Business Case:       Ispickval(stage,'negotiation') && Isblank(discount)

Error Message: This is the message which will be displayed to the business users. The thumb rule is that it should be Short and Crisp.

Location of error message:
Error message can be placed at two places:
Top of the page: Displays error message  at the top of the page
@ field: Displays error message at the field

HTML Tags in SFDC Field Labels

The SFDC allows you to use the HTML tags in the SFDC field label. This way you can now make a field label Red in color or underline a field label or do anything as per your business requirements.

Some of the limitations are:

• The 80 character limit on the SFDC field label still applies. So HTML tag needs to be less then 80 characters.

• In reports instead of HTML name you see the HTML Tag which means you can not see these fields in the reports. The workaround is to create one more formula field in report and display that field with HTML field value.

VLookup Function in SFDC

There are some of the functions which can not be used with formula fields and one such function is vlookup.

This function is only used in the validation rules.

Vlookup works exactly the same way the Lookup function works in excel and helps in maintaining the integrity of your data.

Business Use Case: We want to make sure, the discount entered is as per the master table shared by the organization based on n variables.

Difference between LookUp relationship and Master - Detail relationship in SFDC

Lookup relationship is an example of loosely coupled relationship whereas Master-Detail is an example of Tightly coupled relationship.

• In tightly coupled (M-D relation) when we delete the parent record, all child records are also deleted but nothing of this sort happens in loosely coupled (Lookup relation). Sure shot ADM 201,CON 201, DEV 401 question.

• In M-D relation, a person who can view the master can see all the detail records of that master as the their is no owner on the detail side records and detail side gets its access properties from the master. Nothing of this sort happens in the Lookup relation as both objects have owners.

• Roll up summary field can be made on Master Detail relation but not on the Lookup relationship.

• One detail side record can have maximum 2 masters but no limit on the Lookup fields. DEV 401 certification question.

• Standard objects can never be on the detail side of the master detail relationship but no such thing in a Lookup relation. (ADM 201)

How to make the Rich Text Field Mandatory by a Validation Rule

If you want to make the Rich Text Field Mandatory in SFDC by a Validation rule then ISNULL, ISBLANK  functions will not work. You will require to use the LEN (Length) Function and make sure the validation rule looks like

                        IF LEN (Rich Text Field) == 0 then fire the Validation Rule

with this approach the validation rule will make sure the Rich Text field always has the value.

Business Case:- Make Other (Rich Text Field) Mandatory when the Reason (Picklist Field) is selected as Others.


Note:- ISNULL was previously used for the Numeric fields whereas Length function was used for Text field. Now ISBLANK is a new function which can be used for both the Text as well as the Number field.

Different Ways to make a field mandatory in salesforce.com

As we know there are different standard ways of making a field mandatory in SFDC. This is a brief about all of those ways. Sure shot CON 201 and ADM 201 Question :-)

• Make a field Required while creating it by checking the Required check box:- This makes that field required for everyone in the organization. In other words this is like making the field required from Field Level security.  
• This will be used if the requirement says " I want to make sure that all sfdc users should enter Salary Amount in the payment details record"

• Make a Field required via Page layout:- This is done to make sure that for that particular Page layout this field is mandatory and for others it is not.
• The Requirement will be like " I want to make salary amount mandatory in payment details object for salary pagelayout but not for Interviewed people in Interviewees salary pagelayout"

• Make a field required by a Validation Rule:- This is to make sure that a field is mandatory on a particular condition.
• The Requirement will be like "Make the Salary Amount mandatory if the  Interview status says Selected"

Certification Question:-  Difference between FLS and Page Layout ( How will you make a field Required and why)

 Note:- Please add if I have missed any other Standard Way :-)

Salesforce.com and its Competitors

Every company wants to have a part of SAAS Pie. Salesforce.com is a clear leader at this point of time but faces stiff competition from some of the prominent well established or very Niche Players.

Some of the key one's are:

Microsoft Dynamics:- A company which charges 25% of what SFDC charges per license and even do not charge for initial 6 months. I am sure they are giving Sleepless nights to Salesforce.com.

Sugar CRM:- This is a CRM which is available Free of cost and that's the only thing which goes against It.

Siebal On Demand / Oracle on Demand, Sage Software, Right Now Technologies

Net Weaver and Business By Design are always seen as the next big thing. Net Weaver has started to prove the point where as people have still big expectations from SAP BByD.

And Be aware about the GOOGLE, They have started looking at the application business very seriously and that's not a good sign for Salesforce.com

*Please add any other key player which I have missed :-)

SFDC Unique fields Limitation

Salesforce.com has put some silly restrictions and one of those is limit on No. of Unique fields per object. It allows only 3 External ID fields per object and considers Unique fields as type of external Id's only.

So, you can create maximum 3 Unique fields per object but can get this limit extended by requesting the salesforce via raising a Case.

ADM 201 Question:- Only 3 External ID Fields can be created on an Object.
ADM 201 Question:- Only Text, Email, Number fields can be made External Id fields.

Note:- You can not make a field unique if it contains data which is not unique.

SFDC Reports Explained (Diff b/w Tabualr, Summary, Matrix Reports)

There are 3 kinds of reports in salesforce.com

1) Tabular Reports
2) Summary Reports
3) Matrix Reports

Each Report has a specific use and I am listing down the scenario's in which each type of Reports will be used :-

Tabular Reports:- These kind of reports are used when the requirement is just to view the data.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show me all Open Opportunities
• Show me List of all Accounts which do not have any closed opportunity
• Show me top 10 Opportunities by revenue

Dashboards can not be created on Tabular Reports :- Salesforce ADM 201 certification question

Summary Reports:- These reports are used when the requirement is to summarize only X Axis. In short if you need to do the sum or calculate the average on even one parameter then summary report is the answer.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show sum of all Open Opportunities
• Show opportunities sub total bu my Team

Matrix Reports:- These reports are used when the requirement is to summarize both the Axis i.e. when requirement is to group both Rows as well as Columns.
Some of the examples are:-

• Show Accounts grouped as Customer or Prospect depending on the opportunity stage
• Show monthly performance of salesteam on closing opportunity by Geography for current year

Note:- Charts can not be made on Tabular Reports as no grouping of data is available

Activity Attachment

Finally, Thanks to Salesforce Communities... Activity Attachment has arrived

SalesForce mentions it in their Winter'11 release and I quote

“You can now add attachments to events and tasks. After you add the Attachments related list to the Activity page layout, your organization can attach files using the task and event edit pages. Activity attachments can't be private and don't sync to Outlook”

Just to simplify it means now you can add Notes and Attachments to your Tasks and Events. You  do not need to enable it for your entire organization and can restrict it to a certain set of users with the help of Profiles and Record Type combination. Attachments will be visible to the Owner of Task and Events or to the users who have access to the object to which the task or event is related to.

For any thing else feel free to Comment and I will try to answer back.

SFDC Winter'11 Release

Salesforce has come up with some cool features in Winter'11 Release.

To know them in detail please see the following 2 Video's

Video #1 :- To know more about Platform and Chatter






Video #2:- To know more about Sales & Service Application

Contract Management in SFDC

If you want to have contract management in SFDC then Apttus is an option available on AppExchange. See the below video for further details on it's capability.