Whitepaper: Salesforce Integration Best Practice V 1.2

Transcription

1 Whitepaper: Salesforce Integration Best Practice V 1.2 Dec

2 Introduction... 3 The Roambi Solution... 3 The Roambi Business Salesforce Connector... 3 Salesforce Reports and Roambi Best Practices... 3 Overview... 4 Key Benefits... 4 Common Use Cases... 5 Samples... 7 Comparison to Previous Roambi & Salesforce Integration... 7 Working with Salesforce Reports... 8 Report Types... 8 Tabular Report... 8 Summary Report... 9 Matrix Report Preparing your Salesforce Reports Folder Cloning Naming Report Options & Parameters Time Frame Show Opportunity Status Probability Show/Hide Details Summarize information by Filters Salesforce Permissions Group/Role permissions Folder & Report Permissions Data Permissions Roambi Update & Sharing Disable update when you want to: Enable update when you want to: Connecting to a Custom Salesforce Instance Appendix A: Advanced SFDC Report Features Appendix B Administrators FAQ

3 Introduction The Roambi Salesforce Connector provides the foundation for seamless integration between Roambi and Salesforce. The connector will enable: Viewers to access their Salesforce data and reports and visualize them in Roambi Analytics Publishers to create their own custom RBIs populated with Salesforce data Administrators to manage and distribute Salesforce data The challenge most companies face is how to deliver the reports created in these tools to an increasingly mobile workforce in a readable, small- screen format without having to redesign or rewrite the reports. The Roambi Solution Anyone with a Salesforce account can use the Roambi Salesforce Connector to quickly and easily access their reports and data on their mobile device. The Roambi Salesforce Connector is designed to appeal to all users and roles, sales directors and sales reps especially can benefit from access to their data on the mobile screen anytime, anywhere. Roambi Business with its Salesforce integration is an enterprise- grade mobile application that leverages the investment companies have already made creating reports with Salesforce. Roambi Business transforms these reports into secure, interactive mobile dashboards, instantly delivered to any iphone or ipad. Not only are the reports transformed directly from Salesforce, but they are also visualized to optimize their use by small- screen mobile devices and to maximize the impact of up- to- the- minute information. This makes using Roambi mobile dashboards an enjoyable experience, instead of a cumbersome task of reading miniaturized versions of desktop reports. With Roambi Business, Salesforce reports epitomize the create once, consume anywhere approach by delivering them to users in the palms of their hands. To see a short video of Roambi for Salesforce in Action Click here. The Roambi Business Salesforce Connector To maximize the usefulness and impact of a report on a mobile device, the information must be clear, easy to navigate and secure. However, most of the reports as they are created in Salesforce are not designed to fit into a small screen. But, Roambi was designed from the ground up for the mobile device. It transforms most of your existing Salesforce reports into easy- to- read, easy- to- navigate visualizations for the iphone and ipad, with little or no additional development. Salesforce Reports and Roambi Best Practices When designing a report in Salesforce, the author has to consider the mobile use case and provide the required data in the report to make a compelling Roambi. The following are a few best practices that will give you a head- start on creating Roambi mobile dashboards that will give your end- users an informative and enjoyable experience. 3

4 Overview This document assumes you 1. Have an active Roambi Business account 2. Have a Salesforce account 3. Have completed the Salesforce Connector Getting Started Walkthrough Key Benefits The Roambi Salesforce Connector provides members at every level of a sales team or organization - including sales directors, sales reps, sales operations, administrators, and executives - with direct access to display their Salesforce data and reports in Roambi Analytics visualizations on their mobile device in just a few easy steps. The Salesforce Connector provides value for users, publishers and administrators. Users Easy Access to Salesforce Data: users just need to enter Salesforce credentials to access their reports and data Anytime, Anywhere: users can access their Salesforce reports and data easily on their mobile device anytime, anywhere, with or without a wifi connection. Understand Your Numbers: The Roambi Salesforce Connector displays user data in Roambi Analytics views, stunning visualizations that help you understand your numbers and make better decisions. Publishers Create Roambi Views that aggregate individual Salesforce data into Roambi Analytics visualizations No document size limit Support for all standard and custom objects/fields Administrators Inherited security - The Roambi Salesforce Connector inherits all permissions and access from Salesforce Limited IT involvement: Security tokens and API keys are not required Need Roambi Publisher and Salesforce credentials Import standard and custom reports Support for custom objects and fields Does not require API security token 4

5 Common Use Cases Sales Directors and Managers Easily monitor sales team data and performance including opportunity and pipeline analysis, sales analysis, calls activity, all by geography, product and sales rep anytime, anywhere. Present sales reports and activity via engaging analytics and publications through Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow Sales Reps Easily track individual performance by monitoring leads, opportunities, pipeline, customer and call activity anytime, anywhere from their mobile device. Present performance and activity via engaging analytics and publications through Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow Salesforce Admins Easily empower users without using IT resources Focus on managing Salesforce users and numbers instead of installations, setup and security. Deliver and present Salesforce data via engaging Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow. Maintain organization s user roles and access and keep data secure 5

6 BI or Business Analyst Deliver and present Salesforce data via engaging analytics and publications through Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow. Executives and Management Easy access to company performance and sales trends anytime, anywhere from their mobile device Faster insights through better presentations powered by Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow 6

7 Samples A number of Sample Analytics based on Salesforce are available just click on the links from your ipad or iphone. CMO - Campaign Analysis 118c- 4eb6-8b23-9c4ad3ffe92c CMO - Campaign ROI by Rep 09d b23a- ee67fa1766f8 Sales Ops - Account Info da3c- 41da- b0cb da39bec Sales Ops - Rep Activity 8bcd- cab2b9d81ed0 Sales Ops - Rep Scorecard b b76b- 2aa222a4cc9f VP Sales - Fiscal Year Dashboard 00de- 4e94- af98- dcb6e0b7d739 VP Sales - Forecast Summary 42c7-84d8- c802ebdcf3e3 VP Sales - Product Pipeline f9ec- 4fab- 9a94- c1ff18e84c0f VP Sales - Sales by Rep b5bb- 77f2148a1acd Comparison to Previous Roambi & Salesforce Integration The new Roambi Salesforce Connector is a major upgrade from its previous iteration. Major benefits for existing Roambi Salesforce users include: Limited IT involvement: Security tokens and API Keys are no longer required User does not need admin account or Modify All Data permission No 5 MB document size limit (RBI is no longer stored in Salesforce) All standard and custom objects/fields are supported. 7

8 Working with Salesforce Reports Report Types The Roambi Salesforce connector supports 3 Salesforce report types, which may be used as a source for Roambi Analytics: Tabular Report Summary Report Matrix Report Currently it does not support Joined Report Dashboards Tabular Report Tabular reports in Salesforce are similar to tabular reports in other data sources. It takes the form of a raw data, with no inherent grouping or hierarchical structure. These can be used to build views that require a simple list of data such as Card, Pulse, Squares or Superlist however since the introduction of Raw Data support in Roambi Business tabular reports can be used to create a hierarchy in Roambi views such as Layers or Catalist. For example from this Salesforce tabular report the dimensions can be defined in Roambi Business 8

9 which would appear in Roambi Analytics like this There is a video outlining the full process of report creation here: us/articles/ In Salesforce, tabular reports do provide grand totals at the bottom of the report, but these are not imported in Roambi Publisher. Instead, aggregations can be performed in the Publisher using calculations. Tabular reports are the best starting point for creating Roambi Analytics from Salesforce. However, if the volume of transactional data is very large it may be worth investigating the use of Summary or Matrix reports to improve performance as Salesforce will be quicker at aggregating data than Roambi can be. Summary Report Summary reports are similar to tabular reports, with the exception that you can have basic hierarchy and grouping at the row level. The grouping will provide subtotals. Card View Pulse View Squares View Crosstab Views without microcharts (e.g. Layers, Catalist) 9

10 In Salesforce, tabular reports do provide grand totals at the bottom of the report, but these are ignored in Roambi Publisher. An example of a Summary Salesforce Standard Report would be the Opportunity Owner Matrix Report Matrix reports are like summary reports, but you have the capability to group and have hierarchy at the row and column level. Tabular reports are best used with Catalist View Layers View Trends View Pie View Examples of Summary Reports Salesforce Standard Reports: Opportunity Pipeline Trend Forecast Summary Salesforce Report Type Tabular Summary Matrix Joined Dashboard Best used with Card Pulse Squares Card Cardex* Catalist* Layers* Catalist Layers Trends Not supported Not supported * - Will not contain comparison chart or microcharts Preparing your Salesforce Reports You want to start by using one of the standard reports to get acquainted to the Salesforce reports and the types of fields available. You can modify them and customize them and save them as your own report. Later on you can create your own custom reports that include custom objects and fields. See Appendix A for more information. Proper folder management, report location management, and naming can save you a lot of headache down the road when creating Roambi files from Salesforce reports. Folder Salesforce reports are organized in folders. You can create new folders for organization. Each folder can be configured to be shared and accessible to certain groups. If there is a folder not accessible in Roambi Publisher, be sure to check if the current user is able to see the folders in Salesforce as well. 10

11 One important thing to note is that folders cannot contain subfolders. There is only one level of organization in Salesforce. Examples of folders: Organize by Object Type: Opportunities, Sales, Accounts Organize by Dept./Groups: Inside Sales, West Region, San Diego Organize by Roambi Views: Layers, Card, Pulse Create a folder just for Roambi: Use descriptive report names Cloning You can quickly duplicate a Salesforce report by cloning the report. This is useful when one wants to extend an existing Salesforce report without potentially affecting its current use case. Cloning can be useful in creating multiple versions of the same report, but using different date parameters. Cloning is also useful if you want to duplicate the same report across different folders. You may have a Sales Report that you use to make a Layers View. You may want to save the report in the Sales folder and also a Layers folder so that you have both examples ready. Naming Proper naming can save a lot of headache down the road. While it is tempting to name a report as Sales Report, it will be much better to include some of the key parameters in the name. For example, Sales Report by FQ Layers. With this naming mechanism, I know this is the sales report for calendar year 2013, and there is some grouping by the fiscal quarters. This report has been organized in a way optimized for Layers (meaning it has hierarchy). Another thing to consider adding is description for Salesforce reports. This is good metadata to help you understand what report data contains without opening the report self up. The most important thing is coming up with a system that works for the publishers and Salesforce users, and optimize for the Roambi publishing workflow. 11

12 Report Options & Parameters Parameters are useful to repurpose reports without creating a new report from scratch. The Roambi Salesforce connector takes advantage of many of these parameters to empower publishers to create compelling Roambi views and help them be more efficient. This guide will go in detail what is supported for each of the following parameters: Time Frame Show Opportunity Status Probability Show/Hide Details Summarize information by Filters It is important to note that at the time of writing, the Roambi Salesforce connector does not support on- device parameters. This also means that at the time of publishing, the parameters must be set and cannot be modified post publish. While this may seem limiting at first, Salesforce offers several dynamic parameters, and Roambi will continue to update the data based on these dynamic parameters. Additionally, it is important to note that parameters are locked in at the time of import into Roambi Business. Changing the Salesforce report parameters after import, will not affect the parameters imported in Roambi. 12

13 Time Frame The most commonly configured parameter would be the Time Frame. Salesforce offers a variety of dates (e.g. Opportunity Close Date, Account: Created Date). The user has the option to select a date field and the interested date range. The date field allows the user to set some context when deciding an appropriate date range. For example, if I am interested in showing all opportunities that started in the month of Janurary 2014, I would select Start Date as my date field, instead of the default Close Date. I would then set the range to 1/1/2014 to 1/31/2014. When inputting a date range, it is recommended to use Salesforce default options such as Current FY, Current CQ, Last Month, Last 90 Days, etc. When using these default parameters, we consider them as dynamic parameters, meaning not only does the data in the report changes with respect to time, the date range change as well. This differs to the example above where I set the specific dates 1/1/2014 to 1/31/2014 which makes the date range static. As a publisher, I can take advantage of this dynamic parameter concept to reduce the number of Roambi Views to publish. Here are couple examples to illustrate this: Sample Use Case #1: If I were to create a Quarterly Sales Report, I would select Current FQ as my date range and import the data into Roambi Publisher. The Roambi Report I create will then have data based on the current fiscal quarter. So in one fiscal year, I can reuse the Roambi Report for all four quarters. If I were to use static date range for each quarter (e.g. 1/1/2014 3/31/2014), I would have to create four Roambi Reports in one fiscal year. Sample Use Case #2: If I were to create a Rep Scorecard that tracks the activity count for the last 2 months, I would select Last 60 days as my date range and import the data into Roambi Publisher. The Roambi report will always have the most recent activities for each rep for the last 60 days. As a publisher, I only have to create this once for all of the Sales Ops managers. Salesforce provides several dynamic parameters that relates to the Fiscal Year, Fiscal Quarter, Calendar Year, Calendar Quarter, Calendar Month, Calendar Week, and Calendar Day. It is highly recommended to start with these default parameters as it reduces the republishing work of the publisher, and also provide Roambi Report with the most relevant data. 13

14 Show All Salesforce objects such as Opportunity, Leads, and Accounts belong to an owner and a team. Often times, reports are created for specific teams and/or individual owners instead of simply displaying the whole company s data. The Show parameter filters the Opportunity report based on My Opportunities, My Team s Opportunities, or All Opportunities. Other Salesforce objects will have similar options such as My Campaigns or My Team s Activities. For more details on the specific definition of each option please refer to the following Salesforce Knowledge Article. Sample Use Case #1: If I wanted to create a Opportunity Pipeline report for all the regional managers, I would use My Team s Opportunities for the Salesforce report, so that the Roambi Report will contain the manager s opportunities and also his direct reports opportunities. This gives the manager a sense of what his team s opportunity pipeline will look like. As a publisher, I do not have to create a Roambi for each regional manager. The Roambi will check for the regional manager s credential and populate the Roambi with the corresponding data. Sample Use Case #2: Sometimes it is necessary to use All Opportunities to create a report for teams to compare themselves to other teams. Do note that Salesforce does implement row and object level security. So depending if members have the permission to view other team s data, this use case can take two paths: 1. If granted permission, Roambi report viewers can freely compare their results with other teams 2. If not granted permission, Roambi report viewers can only see what they have access to. Meaning, a member will only see his or her opportunities, while each manager can see the team s opportunities. A Director or VP on the other hand, will be able to see every team s opportunities. To learn more about Salesforce permissions, see the Permission section below. Note: Summarize information by is not a supported parameter as it modifies the report structure. 14

15 Opportunity Status Many Salesforce Reports are derived from opportunities and its metadata. Salesforce provides a Opportunity Status parameter that filters opportunities based on its current status of Any, Open, Closed, Closed Won. Sample Use Case #1: If I want to create a closed sales report, I would select Closed Won so that the report only contains Won opportunities. Sample Use Case #2: If I want to create a win lost analysis report, I would select Closed so that the report contains both Won and Lost opportunities that have been closed. Probability Probability parameter provides user more flexibility in filtering opportunities. Each opportunity in Salesforce falls into a specific opportunity stage. Each opportunity stage has a corresponding probability of closing. So instead of just being able to filter opportunities based on Open and Close like Opportunity Status, one can filter opportunities to ones that have a probability of > 60% to close. Sample Use Case #1: If my Salesforce has the following opportunity stages and probability Opportunity Stage Probability Prospecting 1% Value Proposition 10% Technical Review 50% Contract Negotiation 80% Closed Won 100% I can set my Probability parameter to > 70% to look at all the opportunities that have at least entered the contract negotiation phase. Pairing with Opportunity Status set to Open, I would only see opportunities in contract negotiation phase that has not been closed. Show/Hide Details If you want to show the actual record level instead of summaries, you want to toggle the Report to Show Details instead of Hide Details. In most cases, you want to leave the setting as Show Details. One scenario where you may want to hide details would be a Matrix Report where there are record information that do not fall under the measures. Note: In Matrix report, if you want to hide Record Count from appearing in the report you can click on Customize > Show > Uncheck Record Count. See Appendix A for more info. Summarize information by Summarize information by parameter regroups the report s data by the parameter. Modifying this parameter fundamentally changes the heirarchy of the report. If used on a tabular report, this would change the report to a summary report. In most cases, you will have configured the hierarchy of the report when you customize and build the report, instead of using this parameter. You will also fix this parameter before you import into Roambi Business. This option is convenient when quickly testing which parameter is best suited for summarization when reviewing the report data. 15

16 Filters Similar to Summarize information by, this is a parameter where you will have configured while building your report and do not intend to change after you have imported your report. Filters are great way to pinpoint specific dataset you want to show. If the aforementioned parameters do not serve the needs of your report filtering, you can build your own custom filters. While Filters are powerful, it can be error prone when the logic becomes complicated and if many filters are used. Also if there are ad hoc filters that are serving the needs of permissions and access of data, this can get confusing with the default roles and permission feature Salesforce provides. As best practice, if you use filters in the report, it is best to include a brief description of what is filtered in the Roambi description so there is transparency in the data. Salesforce Permissions There are a variety of ways Salesforce provides access to data. Salesforce implements its row- level security control in a variety of layers. The three common permission controls for reports in Salesforce are the following: 1. Group/Role permissions 2. Folders & Report permissions 3. Data permissions Each organization can configure these settings optimized to their needs. Having a good understanding how the permissions are controlled at the organization level or understanding how data is segregated amongst the groups will be an important variable when creating Roambi. Roambi Business will inherit all the Salesforce permissions by default, but depending on the use case, you may end configuring the accessibility in Salesforce or Roambi Business to achieve the desired goal. Group/Role permissions Group/Role permissions control the hierarchy level the report is being viewed at. Certain groups and roles will be able to see certain region of data. Additionally, Salesforce has built- in features where managers have the option to view their direct reports data. This feature controls the filter option like show my opportunity only, my team s opportunity, etc. The groups and roles become filter options for folder and report permissions. Folder & Report Permissions As mentioned previously, folders and reports can be shared specifically to groups, roles, and users. Folders can then be visible to users that need to be granted access. Data Permissions Each Salesforce object can also be configured to be viewable and editable by certain groups and roles. As mentioned before, by default managers are able to see all their direct reports data. Salesforce also enable anyone up in the hierarchy chart to view data below them in the organization chart. 16

17 Roambi Update & Sharing When publishing Roambi reports, you are given the ability to enable updates. Without update, the Roambi report will contain a snapshot of the data. The data will not be updated. With update enabled, the Roambi report can retrieve the latest data either automatically or manually triggered. A SFDC credential is required when update is enabled. In the context of Salesforce, here are couple use cases for using update on or off Disable update when you want to: Create a report and share with folks who do not have SFDC credentials. o Example: Financial Overview Report, where executive team would want to analyze all the major KPI in sales and sales operations. However, the executive team does not necessarily need to have a SFDC account, as they would not be logging into SFDC on a regular basis. Create a report and share with folks who do not have all the necessary permissions in SFDC, but you still want to share with them some data without modifying their permissions in SFDC. o Example: Rep Score Card, where the director has access to sales rep data. Director wants to show how reps compare with each other on monthly basis in a report, but do not wish to grant them view/edit access in SFDC. Create a snapshot of report for record keeping or archive purpose: o Example: Sales by FY, where you want to keep a record for posterity purposes. Enable update when you want to: Create a template report and populate the report with data based on the viewer s permission o Example: Opportunity Pipeline Report, where sales reps want to see their individual opportunities are progressing in the various stages, last activity, and next action item. Create a dynamic report and populate based on the current time frame o Example: Rep Activity Last 60 Days, where managers and directors can monitor how active their direct reports are with their accounts. Connecting to a Custom Salesforce Instance Roambi Business can support custom domain URL (production environment), e.g. To enable this, when prompted to login to SFDC, you need to select 'Log in to a custom domain' 17

18 You will need to enter the domain name. 18

19 Appendix A: Advanced SFDC Report Features Bucket Fields Bucket fields Bucketing lets you quickly categorize report records without creating a formula or a custom field. For example, create a bucket field named Size based on the # Employees field. Then, create buckets that group records into Large, Medium, or Small ranges that you define. Bucket fields can be used like any other field to sort, filter, and group your report. Salesforce Documentation: Categorize Data Quickly with Buckets Salesforce Demo: Getting Started with Buckets Formula Fields Formulas let you create custom summaries based on calculated values using report data. These formulas can then be used as columns in your report. The Fields pane displays fields from the selected report type, organized by folder. To add a new formula to a summary or matrix report, double- click Add Formula. Once you define it and click OK, it's automatically added to the preview as a column for summary reports, and a summary field for matrix reports. Salesforce Documentation: Work with Formulas in Report Builder Salesforce Documentation: Build a Custom Summary Formula Remove Record Count In Matrix report, by default the record count is displayed as a measure in the measures list. In the event where the record count does not provide any new information to the report, you can choose to hide the record count from the list. Salesforce Documentation: Show and Hide the Record Count for a Block Limitations Roambi Publisher reads from the printable view Report Limits: Analytic Limits All Editions Report Performance (PDF): Maximizing Report Performance For Administrators (PDF): Salesforce Limits 19

20 Appendix B Administrators FAQ What Are The Risks? Roambi is designed to work in conjunction with your existing Salesforce security framework. Roambi s multi- layer security model protects your Salesforce data in transit (via HTTPS, VPNs and Reverse Proxy), at rest (via Apple s native app encryption) and on your mobile device via Roambi s native security features, including: Inherits Salesforce row- level permissions on reports, objects, fields Offine- enabled App Level Pincode Timed File Expiration File Recall and Recovery App Blockout and Wipe How Does Roambi for Salesforce Work? Roambi uses Salesforce.com reports as the source to populate the mobile views with data. These reports can contain custom fields and, of course, will still respect whatever user filters you have in place today. What Am I Being Asked To Do? Apply a Roambi Business Package to your Salesforce.com: Use this URL to install the package into any organization: AJ Note: If you are installing into a sandbox organization you must replace the initial portion of the URL with Once installed, inside the package setting change the IP Restrictions settings to "Relax IP restrictions": 20

21 How Can I Test This? Ask the administrator of your Roambi Business domain to invite you to join their Roambi Business domain. They can do this by following these steps: Login To Roambi Business Open Invite Users Open People Press + Select Single Invite o Enter your name & o Role: Administrator You will then receive an invite to join the Roambi Business domain once you have accepted the invitation you ll be able to link to Salesforce.com with your credentials and start creating reports. Note that you can create also Roambi views based on your administrative reports - why should end users have all the fun? You can find out more here: - if you have any issues support is available here: 21