A Force to Reckon With

Wow wow wow!

It has been an extremely exciting time in the Dreamforce app!  Not long ago if you’d asked if there was a mobile client for access to Dreamforce or if you wanted to know how to export your calendar after successfully building your schedule… I would have said “nope, sorry!”

Not anymore!!!

First you can now access the Dreamforce org through Salesforce Chatter Desktop and Chatter mobile clients.  The one catch I have heard so far is it is not working on the latest Mac release Lion for some people nor on iPhones.  However, if you’re on Windows or Android, it is your lucky day.  Since we still don’t have the full SFDC mobile client on Android, I don’t feel bad this doesn’t work for you fancy iPhone users. 🙂  This does not by any means replace the full Dreamforce mobile app that will arrive the week or so before the event, but it does give us something to use in the meanwhile.  Props to Brian Martinez for discovering and sharing the hack!

Basically how it works is like this– download and install the chatter desktop (or mobile) application.  When you open the app it will ask for a server (or go to the settings) and add this address:

https://dreamevent.my.salesforce.com

Follow the prompts on the screen, use your Dreamforce username and password when prompted.  If things are going well, you will see an OAuth type error.  This is expected.  Close out, try it again and it should work.  You may see it ask for permission for the app to access your account, say yes/accept.  Once you get the error, you can try clicking back in the app- that’s worked for me as well to get it going.
One of the other big requests is a way to export your Dreamforce calendar so you can update your usual calendar app (and use that to share etc).  Short of manually updating your calendar there was no other option, till now!  Matthew Botos of Mavens Consulting has put together a solution that will allow you to take the emailed version of your Dreamforce calendar and update your usual calendar software!  You can read more about it at Mavens Consulting Dreamforce Schedule Exporter.

Two solutions that come from the community because they saw a need, accepted the challenge, and shared what they discovered and created.  Where else do you find such amazing community members?!

Last Friday was an important day for those of us in Salesforce-land, the day Agenda Builder went live in the Dreamforce App. Agenda Builder is the piece of the app where you register for the sessions you would like to attend at Dreamforce. If you completely skip over all the social advantages of participating in the app, Agenda Builder is the one piece you can’t afford to miss. Otherwise, no complaining when you arrive on site in August and your favorite sessions are full! Get in there now and reserve your spot!

That said, the next question I’m asked a lot is what should I sign up for? This is a hard question because I don’t know you, I’m not sure what your role is with your Salesforce org, and I don’t know what you want to learn or what your company needs you to learn about. There are so many choices and options and opportunities at Dreamforce only you can decide what you want to do.

Here are some helpful questions and tips to get you started if you’ve not selected your sessions yet.

1- What is your role? Are you an admin, a developer, a user? Are you an admin who wants to learn to be a developer? Are you a user looking for new functionality or insight into how Salesforce works? Look for various hands on training sessions and intro to the service or sales clouds.

2- What are you wanting to do with Salesforce you’re not doing today? You can find sessions for just about anything you can imagine expanding on. From more complex dashboards and reports, to social media and user adoption.

3- Are you interested in what is coming? Register for various Roadmap sessions. Remember safe harbor applies and these sessions are typically not recorded for viewing after Dreamforce.

4- I actually know someone who had a successful dreamforce experience and did not attend one session. Do I recommend it? Not necessarily but it just goes to prove a point- Dreamforce is what you want it to be. You can make a lot of great connections and learn a lot without going to a session. So if you have the opportunity to talk shop with someone, perhaps it is better to go grab some coffee rather than rush to the next session. Odds are you can catch it later on YouTube anyway and your new contact could lead to new opportunities or a friendship that is invaluable.

5- Whatever you do, get there early. Tuesday morning is Community Conference – if you’re not participating in the community already, here’s a chance to learn about it and meet a lot of the names you’ll seen on your screen.

Just some basic information to make your job a little easier. Regardless of what you choose to attend, you’re going to have an incredible time at Dreamforce!

I love the promise that chatter brings to our group. It has been slow to get my field guys interested- they are still thinking in their silos and honestly, most are pretty old school when it comes to using technology. So I encourage them and look for ways to increase adoption in passive ways for now.

When I started rolling out chatter, I had the same concerns as other admins– how to handle disruptive chatter, what would I do if someone is inappropriate on chatter, honestly I don’t have all the answers here because it is going to depend on your policies and practices in your company. What is good for one is not accepted in another…

What I would like to discuss with you is one area that no one I’ve talked to has been prepared for and share with you what hindsight has given me as to how I wish we had done it.

Last fall one of our field sales managers was killed along with his wife in a motorcycle accident. It was a difficult time for our team as he was very well liked and left behind 2 children at home. We’re in the south where people tend to visit and bring food when a death occurs, a tricky situation when you’re a few hundred miles away. In addition, not everyone could go to the funeral as it took place in his hometown so for many there wasn’t the closure that funerals and such provide.

We’re all adults here, so we dealt with Jimmy’s passing in our own ways. As work picked up again I was considering what we could have done using Salesforce to help each other and possibly provide something to the family. As that was going through my head, it came to my attention that Jimmy was still “living” in our Salesforce instance. For example, his information came up in searches, accounts et al could be transferred to him, but the most hurtful seemed to be when he would show up as a following suggestion. (Not everyone follows everyone else by default)

I had prepared for inappropriate behavior, I had planned for terminations, and planned to get new hires on board as quickly as possible. I had never planned on how to react at the loss of an employee.

My tentative plan for now is in the event of a death, if not naturally begun, I’ll start a chatter thread on the person’s profile. Here anyone can share a story or sympathy regarding the employee with the idea after a while it will be printed and distributed to the family (if appropriate). Additionally, I’ll inactivate the user as quickly as possible without causing system issues to avoid the “follow suggestions” situation. Then follow with my standard steps used when someone is being removed from our instance for any reason.

Every company is different and every employee will process loss in different ways. As the SFDC admin who is one of the drivers of more collaboration and communication, I feel it is also our responsibility to assist our users by giving them the place to come to during this time as well. You can also provide additional information to all as to where donations/flowers/cards can be sent, funeral/visitation schedules, and other significant details.

I wish I had done this for Jimmy’s kids really, they would have been able to receive insight into an aspect of their dad most kids never really know.

Just something to consider while you are building your strategies and processes. Work has become more personal in the last few years even over great distances, we have to be prepared for all eventualities.