Top Ten

Checklist For

Successful

Salesforce

Implementation

Salesforce implementation is essential for driving your

business seamlessly.

Implementing a Salesforce CRM will help you in integrating all

the business related aspects on one platform. It will also help

you in deriving business intelligence with ease. Salesforce

implementation is not an ad-hoc activity. It requires careful

planning and detailed execution.

Smallest mistake in planning the implementation could lead

to major business impact. Lack of planning can often make

you go overboard and lead to unnecessary expenses and

delay in implementation.

Here is a quick checklist that could help you for successful

Salesforce implementation.

Planning Preparation Organizing A

Team

Set SMART

Goal

Data Clean-up Decide Your

Approach

Freeze Your

Priorities

Customize The

CRM

Add Users To

The System

Enable The

Users

Planning

Planning the implementation is the basic activity that needs

to be done prior to beginning of the project.

Planning stage would involve writing down your business

goals, vision of your business, mission of your business, your

area of expertise, and all the resources at your disposal.

You must also write down your performance metrics as they

will be key parameters in deriving business intelligence.

In other words, planning would involve data collation.

Preparation

Next step for successful implementation is to use the

available data for preparing the blueprint of implementation

activity.

You would need to understand the availability of your

resources and the outcome that you expect at this stage.

Planning requires you to take consensus from all

stakeholders to ensure that everybody is on the same page.

Organizing A Team

Selecting the right team is half the battle won when it

comes to Salesforce implementation.

Every Salesforce implantation team would need to key

members like executive sponsor, system administrators,

trainers and sample users.

Executive Sponsor: an executive sponsor needs to be the

guiding star right from the inception of the ideas, to

mobilization, go live and other stages of the process. An

executive sponsor is the head of the business.

Project Manager: a project manager is your single point of

contact for project updates. The role of the project manager

is to oversee the entire implementation process and ensure

that all the tasks are being achieved as per the set deadline.

System Administrator: System administrators play an important

role in effective implementation. They need to understand the

back end process and should understand the criticality of the

application. They should be able to come with best possible

solutions for any user challenges with regards to Salesforce

implementation.

Trainers: Trainers are essential for creating reference materials

and manuals for users. Trainers can help in identifying

potential areas of learning and then create relevant training

materials for the same.

Users: test users are essential for checking the operational

efficiency of the program. They are the first point of reference

in identifying user based challenges.

Set SMART Goal

It is but natural that sometimes we may set unrealistic goals

for implementation.

It is ideal that all your goals are specific, measurable,

achievable, realistic and time bound.

Such goals are known as SMART goals. Smart goals allow

you to divide the project into smaller goals and then track

the implementation as per the deadline.

Data Clean-up

Many users neglect this step and directly upload the data

in CMS.

It is essential that you take time to analyse your data and

clean it up.

Data cleaning will provide you with an opportunity to

check if you are tracking all the business critical data.

It will also help view in reviewing additional data that can

be tracked for better performance.

Decide Your Approach

Conventionally Salesforce implementation can be carried out

via two different approaches.

The first approach is the conventional “waterfall” approach

where the project is implemented in a sequential manner.

Another approach is the “Scrum” approach whereby all project

members meet once a week to monitor the performance.

All the activities are carried out simultaneously and are

monitored on a regular basis.

It is important that you define your approach to

implementation.

Freeze Your Priorities And Associated Time Lines

It is important that you decide a broad based timeline for

Salesforce implementation.

It is important that you set your priorities correctly.

It is a good idea to make a list of all the features that are

essential for Salesforce implementation and then divide

them into must have and could have options.

Your choice of approach for each implementation approach

will affect your project timeline.

Customize The CRM

Once you have chalked out the implantation plan, listed

down your resources, your approach and your time bound

goals, it is time to set up the CRM and to customize it to

suit your specific need.

Add Users To The System

Once you have set up the CRM, it is time to add users to it.

These users will provide you continuous and consistent

feedback on the system

Enable The Users

Last step in the successful Salesforce implementation is to

train the users and enable them to use the CRM with

ease.

Following this simple checklist can help you in ensuring

swift and successful Salesforce implementation.

Read more on Salesforce:

1. How Social Media Integration With Salesforce Drives More Business

2. Top 10 Salesforce CRM Apps To Supercharge Your Business Productivity

3. Know Why Salesforce Is An Unparalleled Platform For SMB’s

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