Salesforce at UCSF: Build Simple CRMs, Fast

Here at UCSF we often encounter people who are fairly new to working with Salesforce and are looking for ways to use this tool to meet their business needs. Salesforce is a robust and powerful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool that is highly configurable and extremely customizable. Though some complex business processes require custom coding in Salesforce, an out-of-the-box or “vanilla” Salesforce CRM can provide a faster, easier, and simpler way to manage your customer relationships.

Are you wondering if a Salesforce CRM is right for you? These frequently asked questions will provide insight on out-of-the-box CRMs, whether it is right for your organization, and how you can get the most value to make Salesforce an indispensable tool for customer management, engagement, and collaboration.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Salesforce? 
   
   Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This platform helps develop cloud-based applications such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Health Cloud, most of which can be managed easily without the need for IT experts. Salesforce aims to create a more streamlined, efficient, and effective sales or service process.
    
2. What is a Salesforce out-of-the-box (OOTB) application and how does it differ from a custom-built application?
   
   OOTB application simply means you get standard Salesforce features and the application can be set up without any custom coding. Unlike custom-built Salesforce applications, OOTB apps use standard features already available for users to start using. Salesforce provides many of these standard features without having to make any modifications to the code.

   Salesforce Terms	What it actually means	Standard or Custom?
   Lead	Potential Customers	Standard
   Contacts	Qualified Customers or Partners (people)	Standard
   Accounts	Qualified Customers or Partners (companies)	Standard
   Opportunities	Projects or business deals with your customers	Standard
   Integrations external to Salesforce	Pulling data from an external system into Salesforce; or pushing data from Salesforce into an external system (not the same as importing/exporting files; e.g. pulling “people data” from UCSF directory into Salesforce)	Custom
   Advanced reporting and dashboard	Complex matrices; analytics	Custom

3. How do I know if a Salesforce OOTB app is right for my group?
   
   That depends on what feature(s) you think you need and what is important for your business. If your business entails managing partners or customer relationships from a service you are providing, and your business process has some flexibility, an OOTB app can provide you with a quick and easy way to track leads, opportunities, and contacts with minimal configuration.
   
   In most cases, Salesforce OOTB apps are being used to replace legacy systems and manual processes. Tools like desktop applications (Filemaker, MS Access), Excel, or just plain manual tracking on paper without a single source of truth can be challenging to track. Salesforce OOTB can help track your pipeline and create standard reports for your metrics to help serve your customers better.
   
   Here is an example of an Opportunity in progress:

However, not every solution is a Salesforce solution. Think about what value you are getting from building this app, if it is meeting your business needs, and if it is worth the cost -- not just cost in development, but time and effort to train your staff to become power users, and ongoing support and maintenance. If you think you need a fully customized CRM that falls outside of OOTB, please consult with SOM Tech for a custom-built application. 

Here are recent UCSF examples:

4. How much will a Salesforce OOTB app cost? How long will it take to launch the product?
   
   You can acquire a UCSF Salesforce license at no cost. However, the configuration of your OOTB app can typically range from $20K-$40K and can take 4-6 weeks depending on your requirements, and time and resource availability. This cost is exclusive of initial business analysis, ongoing support and maintenance, and user training. Note that having your own “Salesforce org” requires you to have a designated systems administrator who can manage the application and will require more in-depth training than other standard users in your group.
    
5. If we decide we want a Salesforce OOTB app, how can we get started?
   
   If you are fairly certain that your needs fit a Salesforce OOTB app, you can contact SOM Tech for an initial consultation. Upon consultation, we need to do some initial discovery (business analysis) work to validate if your requirements fit an OOTB app. If so, we can connect you with our trusted vendor to help you get started while still providing some guidance. Alternatively, if your requirements fall outside of an OOTB app, we can do some further analysis and provide some recommendations on how to move forward.
    
6. How do I get more information about Salesforce applications builds?
   
   You can find more information about Salesforce by contacting SOM Tech at [email protected].