Top 10 Salesforce Add Ons Part 1

Top 10 Salesforce Add Ons Part 1

Salesforce.com introduced a completely new way of driving business processes and customer relationship management (CRM) through hosted solutions that eliminated software implementations. The company’s approach to the market enabled Salesforce to rapidly achieve market dominance, spurring the creation of add ons that extend the value of the platform. A number of Salesforce add ons can enhance capabilities for your users. Take a look at the first installation of the top 10 to see what might contribute to your environment, and check out the Salesforce.com Review for more information on SFDC.

Citrix Online a Powerful Choice in Salesforce Add Ons

A division of Citrix Systems, Citrix Online provides on-demand solutions designed to be easy-to-use for remote access and collaboration. A full line of solutions enable remote capabilities, including GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToAssist and GoToWebinar. This Salesforce add on is great for your geographically dispersed team members, allowing them to collaborate on projects and gain remote access to key applications. The downside to this platform is that you are limited to Citrix capabilities that may or may not integrate well with your current environment.

Salesforce Add Ons Include Informatica Data Loader

Available in a free or enhanced for-fee version, the Informatica Data Loader can add to the value of your Salesforce add ons by offering data migration. This add on promises a better user interface and deep integration capabilities with other applications. If you need to keep a copy of your Salesforce data in-house, this data loader offers two-way data replication. You can easily drive data warehouse management to leverage effective reporting and business intelligence initiatives. The downside to this add on is the free version could easily limit your capabilities, demanding that you move to a more costly version.

Look for Data Quality in Salesforce Add Ons

Within any environment, you definitely want to avoid a situation where you have to manage garbage data. Quality is essential, demanding that you implement Salesforce add ons that allow for record and data de-duplication. DupeBlocker and DuperCatcher are two solutions that extend this capability in real-time. All data quality violations are monitored and if suspicious quality is suspected, the user is notified immediately. DupeBlocker allows you to create the necessary rules, while DupeCatcher is a simplified and free version. The downside to this Salesforce add on is that your quality rules could ignore issues that can degrade the value of your data.  

CountryComplete Salesforce Add Ons

To its credit, Salesforce allows you to enter anything you want for location, but it does not identify misspellings or incorrect abbreviations. CountryComplete is one of many Salesforce add ons that extend your capabilities beyond the standard platform. It introduces a drop-down list to help you keep your CRM data clean and more useful. CountryComplete will override the text entry field for real-time validation. The downside to this add on is it could limit your data entry capabilities if you want to get more specific.

Do You Need Grids as Salesforce Add Ons?

The ability to edit multiple records at once could enhance the power of your Salesforce application. The GridBuddy is designed to allow you to quickly access and edit multiple records in a grid that resembles a spreadsheet. You can edit all fields and save as you go. As one of many Salesforce add ons, this one can reduce the time you spend updating records. The downside is it could allow you to get into too many records at once, enhancing your risk of errors.

Click here to view Part 2 of the Salesforce addons in the Salesforce AppExchange >>>