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Zach Brueck

The Data Security Benefits of Native Salesforce Apps

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The Salesforce AppExchange has been an enterprise gamechanger for over 15 years. Chock-full of business apps for Salesforce (4,000+!), it can enhance your org’s functionality by several orders of magnitude.

When you consider installing a third-party application into your CRM, however, there should be one major question on your mind: how will this app affect my org’s security?

While there are a number of security considerations you can (and should) take into account when seeking a best-fit Salesforce app for your business, we have one that we don’t think should ever be overlooked: is the app 100% native to Salesforce? If it is, you may be able to save your team weeks of security vetting.

What Are 100% Native Salesforce Apps?

Salesforce apps are considered 100% native if they are built entirely on the Lightning Platform (formerly the force.com platform). That’s the same platform that products like Sales, Service, and Experience Cloud are built on - they all share Salesforce’s core technology stack.

When we discuss native app security, we’re actually discussing the data security practices of Salesforce itself (which we’re assuming your organization has vetted and approved, since you’ve already invested in the platform). See what we’re getting at here?

100% native Salesforce apps leverage the data security of the Salesforce platform, meaning your team can approve and use them faster - without worrying about your data being processed anywhere other than your Salesforce org.

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Native Salesforce App Data Security Benefits

There’s a reason Salesforce is preferred by leading organizations in security-conscious industries like healthcare, government, and financial services - it invests in unmatched data security. That investment carries through to cover native applications.

Salesforce Security Architecture

Salesforce prides itself on its network security. In most cases, your data is stored in Salesforce-owned data centers in the region you’re located in. If your company is based in the United States, so is your Salesforce data, and so on.

When you access data in Salesforce, it’s encrypted in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS) with at least 2048-bit RSA server certificates and 128-bit symmetric encryption keys. Traffic passes through stateful packet filtering firewalls and edge routers that protect your org’s perimeter.

Their servers are constantly monitored by intrusion detection systems and any incidents that occur are reported in real time at trust.salesforce.com. Salesforce also conducts regular penetration testing and vulnerability scans.

Native apps are covered by these same security measures. When you use a native application, your data never leaves the protections of the Salesforce platform.

Data Processing Control

Salesforce processes customer data only as customers instruct. Where data must be processed by one of Salesforce’s sub-processors, Salesforce has entered into written privacy and data security agreements with those sub-processors - and these agreements are enforced by regular audits.

Native Salesforce apps automatically comply with Salesforce’s data processing policies. They never process data in any way that you haven’t already agreed upon with Salesforce.

Certifications

Salesforce boasts dozens of data security certifications globally. These include (but are not limited to):

  • Department of Defense IL-2 & IL-4
  • GDPR
  • HIPAA & HITRUST
  • ISO 27001/27017/27018
  • Payment Card Industry (PCI)
  • Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5)

Native apps are covered by most application security controls that these certifications require.

Reliability and Disaster Recovery

Salesforce works hard to ensure data stored within the platform is never lost or corrupted. Their networking components, network accelerators, load balancers, web servers, and application servers are configured redundantly - which means that if any one piece fails, there are multiple backups available to keep things running.

Your Salesforce data is stored on redundant, carrier-class disc storage with multiple data paths, and is automatically replicated in real time and backed up to localized data stores.

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In the event of a disaster, Salesforce has procedures in place designed to restore services within 12 hours. These procedures are tested annually.

Native Salesforce applications don’t process your data outside of Salesforce, meaning your data is always protected by Salesforce’s reliability and disaster recovery policies.

Customer-Driven Security

While the Salesforce platform architecture is incredibly secure, Salesforce data security also depends upon how you use the platform. The best network security in the world can’t protect against insider threats or negligent access policies.

Luckily, Salesforce provides its customers with configurable security controls that allow them to ensure their org is protected from the inside out. From simple controls like secure password policies to more complex permission sets and data sharing models, your internal compliance policies can always be enforced within Salesforce.

Native applications respect all customer-configured security controls, ensuring no data is leaked or accessed by the wrong individuals.

Physical Security

Salesforce’s rigorous network security policies are backed up by equally strong physical security. Its data centers are only accessible by authorized personnel - buildings are unmarked and surveilled by around-the-clock guards that enforce 2-factor access screening. They’re also built to withstand adverse weather conditions and use systems that monitor temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors. Alternate power systems are also in place to prevent electrical failures.

These data centers also host native Salesforce apps, meaning you can always be sure that your data is protected - from the digital to the brick-and-mortar level.

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Data Return or Deletion

At the end of the day, Salesforce isn’t for everyone. If your company decides to move away from the platform, you can request a return of all data within 30 days - and it will be permanently deleted after at least 120 days of contract termination.

If you leverage native apps, you’ll never have to worry about your data floating around external servers if you decide to stop using Salesforce. It never leaves the platform.

Native Salesforce Apps: Partners In Secure Business Innovation

Native Salesforce apps extend Salesforce’s functionality while leveraging its world-class application architecture for superior security and speed. They’re built to help your business achieve its goals digitally, without the complexity of external security evaluations.

While native apps are not a universal solution, you should look to them first as you work to streamline and enhance your Salesforce workflows. Your team will thank you!

S-Docs: 100% Native Document Generation & E-Signature For Salesforce

Speaking of native apps: S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation & e-signature solution for Salesforce. We help businesses automate and e-sign their digital paperwork faster, more easily, and more securely.

S-Docs is leveraged by leading government, healthcare, and financial institutions due to its secure native architecture that never sends data off-platform. From invoices to sensitive medical documentation, S-Docs is the trusted partner for secure document generation and e-signature collection for Salesforce.

Interested in digging a little deeper? Contact our sales team at sales@sdocs.com, or request a demo today.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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How Financial Services Organizations Are Using Salesforce In 2021

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In recent years, the financial services industry has been undergoing a transformation. Today’s hyper-informed world has shifted power to the consumer - and the consumer is using it.

Expectations of personalized service and the demand for digital everything are at an all-time high. At the same time, industry regulations are continuously tightening. The unique challenge of keeping up with competitors and remaining compliant is greater than ever before.

Salesforce is helping financial service firms overcome the digital age disruption. It provides a connected interface through which they can intelligently manage their sales, customer engagement, and business processes - while complying with strict industry regulations.

But how exactly do financial service firms like banks, insurance companies, and investment firms get value out of Salesforce? Let’s dive into real customer stories to see how companies are using Salesforce for financial services - and how you could be, too.

It Starts With Salesforce Financial Services Cloud

While customer relationship management is relevant to any industry, Salesforce offers a specialized version of its CRM for financial services companies - Financial Services Cloud.

It offers the core features of Sales Cloud plus custom fields and objects for tracking financial accounts, assets, liabilities, and client goals.
Source: salesforce.com
This specialized financial services CRM helps financial institutions grow their books of business, track and maintain great client relationships, and stay compliant with industry regulations at the same time.

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How Financial Services Organizations Are Using Salesforce In 2021

Now for the fun part. Who is using Salesforce for financial services today, and how?

  1. Salesforce for Banks
  2. Salesforce for Insurance
  3. Salesforce for Investment & Wealth Management

How Banks Use Salesforce

Banks are tasked with increasing customer and employee engagement, keeping productivity high, and protecting operational resiliency as they digitize their processes. Luckily, Salesforce has been instrumental in helping banks overcome these challenges.

Ulster Bank Crushes The Customer Experience With AI

Service excellence is a must for banks, and Ulster Bank knows this better than anyone. As a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, they serve over 1.9 million customers. Creating great experiences for such a large client base required a scalable solution that could provide its employees with the right data when they needed it.

Ulster Bank uses Salesforce Customer 360 and Einstein to gain a deeper understanding of every customer. Service reps review customer records before meetings that show what products or services the customer has used in the past, as well as predictions for future requirements. Einstein helps improve the customer experience by calculating whether the customer is using best-fit products, and suggests alternatives.

Ulster Bank also leverages another big Salesforce advantage: the Salesforce AppExchange, which provides financial service apps for Salesforce that can enhance its functionality further. They implemented S-Docs to automate the loan application process - customers can log into a Salesforce Communities portal, answer a few questions, and then receive an auto-generated loan document immediately. And since S-Docs is native to Salesforce, it brings the same data security and compliance protections with it.

With the help of Salesforce and apps like S-Docs, Ulster Bank is able to create experiences that keep customers coming back.

 

Mascoma Bank Streamlines Economic Recovery

While the pandemic brought most of the world to a halt, Mascoma Bank stepped up to the plate to help small businesses keep their workforces employed. As the US government rolled out the Paycheck Protection Program, which enabled businesses to secure loans during the turbulent time, Mascoma Bank used the power of Salesforce to get a year's worth of loan applications processed - in just 13 days.

Mascoma Bank was able to automate banking processes with Salesforce like application form submission and document requests to skyrocket efficiency. They also leveraged Salesforce Communities to allow businesses to digitally access their applications - and with the help of Mulesoft, they were able to connect their core banking platform to Financial Services Cloud for a seamless end-to-end loan application process.

Salesforce enables Mascoma Bank to be always-on for their customers.

How Insurance Companies Use Salesforce

Insurance companies are doing business with consumers that are more informed about their services than ever before. Attracting and keeping customers today requires using data intelligently to provide personalized experiences - and stay compliant with ever-growing regulations. Salesforce is here to help.

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Pacific Life Uses Data To Delight

Pacific Life has always been customer-centric: you can’t do business for 150+ years without focusing on the customer experience. But as the definition of “customer-first” has evolved in the digital age, they implemented Salesforce Financial Services cloud to ensure they use data to their - and their customers’ - advantage.

While employees have access to a 360 degree view of every customer, enabling them to tailor interactions and prioritize conversations, Tableau CRM works in the background to analyze that data further and recommend next-best-actions.

MuleSoft AnyPoint Platform allows them to connect multiple systems across their internal, partner, and vendor networks - allowing them to seamlessly distribute their insurance products through a range of digital platforms.

Amica Integrates Salesforce and Guidewire For Better Service

Data is a powerful tool for customer service - but to access that power, silos need to be broken down. Amica Mutual Insurance Company is accomplishing this by unifying Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and Guidewire InsuranceSuite.

By integrating Guidewire ServiceRepEngage and Guidewire ProducerEngage with Financial Services Cloud, Amica is able to achieve higher first-call resolution rates and better customer satisfaction as a result of reps having access to all the data they need, all the time. The integrated platform also keeps service reps happy and productive, which translates into better customer interactions.

How Investment & Wealth Management Firms Use Salesforce

Investment and Wealth Management firms need to make the best possible decisions for their clients to ensure they meet their financial goals. Salesforce allows them to do this through one unified platform.

Morgan Stanley Makes Intelligent Decisions With Tableau

Analytics are part of any financial service firm’s DNA, which means that for Morgan Stanley, Salesforce is too.

Tableau helps Morgan Stanley visualize and make intelligent use of the abundant data available to them to personalize client experiences and make better decisions on their behalf. It also helps them grow their business by showing what services customers are responding to, and what they’re not.

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Since their representatives have relevant data visualized in front of them for every client meeting, better decisions are made across the board that benefit all parties involved.

Sequoia Financial Group Markets Smarter With Pardot

Salesforce can help financial service firms increase brand awareness and drive new business with more intelligent marketing. Sequoia Financial Group leverages Pardot, Salesforce’s marketing automation platform, to market smarter with personalization.

While their past marketing strategy revolved around impersonal email blasts, Pardot enables Sequoia Financial Group to plan specialized content around different client needs. Their diverse customer base includes everyone from young professionals to retirees, meaning the ability to personalize their marketing efforts is key to obtaining a positive ROI.

After a year of leveraging Pardot for financial services marketing, Sequoia Financial Group saw over $335,000 in savings and 361% ROI.

Salesforce For Financial Services: A Perfect Match

Since its humble beginnings in 1999, Salesforce has grown into a solution to business success in any industry. Because of its robust feature suite, focus on analytics, integration options, and world-class data security, it’s now used by thousands of financial institutions globally to manage sales, client relations, and business processes.

S-Docs: Secure Document Workflows for Financial Services

When it comes to financial document generation for Salesforce, S-Docs is here to help. As a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution, S-Docs is the trusted partner to thousands of financial service organizations including Ameriprise, AllState, and United Healthcare.

Our customers use S-Docs to automatically generate and distribute financial service documents like loan applications, insurance forms, reports, client agreements, and much more. Since S-Docs is native to Salesforce, our customers can rest assured that their data is in good hands: it never leaves the Salesforce cloud.

For more information on how S-Docs can help streamline your financial service document and e-signature needs, request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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April 22, 2024

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Top 5 Salesforce Apps For Productivity

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It's always important to ensure that you are getting the most out of yourself, your team, and your Salesforce org!

Optimizing productivity is essential in creating the best results for your company. While Salesforce in itself is a great platform for the productive worker, combining Salesforce with applications found on the AppExchange can improve your org tenfold.

After researching and reviewing a multitude of Salesforce AppExchange applications specifically designed to increase productivity, we have found that on the merits of features, functionality, and customer reviews, these are five of the best Salesforce productivity apps that every business should have.

Table of Contents

  1. RingLead Field Trip - Data Management and Organization
  2. S-Docs - Document Generation and E-Signature
  3. anyGoal - Performance and Productivity Tracking
  4. Calendar Anything - Project Management and Organization
  5. Cirrus Insight - Email Integration and Management

1. RingLead Field Trip

We all know that in order to have a productive business you need to have an organized one. With the amount of data that you can input into Salesforce, it can often become confusing to read and manage. That is where Field Trip comes into play!

Field Trip will help you analyze the fields of any object in your Salesforce org, allowing you to see what percentage of your records (or a subset) have that specific field populated. Clustered or unused fields create havoc within your Salesforce org; with the help of Field Trip you will be able to achieve that cluster-free page layout we all dream of.

Top Features

  • Run reports on the overall health of your Salesforce data to see which fields can be removed and/or improved
  • Receive a RingLead Data Quality Score that is composed of the fill rate and weight of your object's fields
  • Analyze the fields of any and all objects within your Salesforce Org

Price: Free

What Users Think:

“Easy, intuitive app - a very useful tool for both simple and complex data cleanup projects.”
- Alecia S., Data & Business Systems Analyst at Marketron Broadcast Solutions

2. S-Docs

With the world turning digital after this past year's pandemic, electronic documentation and electronic signature solutions have never been more important to running a successful, productive business. That is why we think you should check out S-Docs!

With S-Docs, you will get a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution that will allow you to seamlessly and safely automate your document workflows in Salesforce. You will be able to generate and e-sign quotes, invoices, proposals, and many other documents in just one click- all right in your Salesforce org.

Top Features:

  • S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation solution for Salesforce on the market. No third party sites. No add ons. No extra downloads. Your data stays completely within the Salesforce Cloud.
  • Create emails, reports, claim forms, welcome letters, form letters, and many more documents in one click, with data merged from anywhere in Salesforce.
  • An easy-to-use template editor that is created for non-programmers to help you design your own beautiful and professional documents.

Price: Free

What Users Think:

“The fact that it is built native on the Salesforce platform is one huge benefit. The features are very robust (Flow, customizable button URLs, related lists in templates, live document edits) and continue to expand as new updates are released.”
-David H. Salesforce Administrator at Semler Scientific

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3. anyGoal

Productivity relies heavily on having people within your business set and achieve their goals. Without having a clear end result defined and desired, employees can become complacent and important tasks can fall by the wayside. An easy solution to this problem is anyGoal!

By giving you the ability to create individual goal targets for any data point or source, anyGoal will allow you to track and measure the performance on anything in your organization. anyGoal also allows you to provide real-time performance results via leaderboards, stack rankings, and contests to help drive productivity to the max!

Top Features:

  • Align your entire organization around key performance indicators.
  • Publish real-time goal performance leaderboards to create friendly competition and boost productivity.
  • Use anyGoal Lightning components to help engage and motivate your team in seconds.

Price: $12 USD per user per month

What Users Think:

“We installed anyGoal about 1 1/2 months ago and it has been the perfect solution for assigning and tracking goals. This app offers flexibility on many levels and the support has been awesome at guiding us through complex and unique situations.”
- Robin T. Sales Operations Manager at Symphony MediaAI

4. CalendarAnything

One of every company's biggest assets is the business calendar. Planning down to the minute when deadlines are due and meetings are taking place helps people stay on top of their tasks and improves productivity! Now introducing the number one calendar application for Salesforce: CalendarAnything!

CalendarAnything is more than just an ordinary calendar as it allows you to schedule and manage various aspects of your business; the most common of which being marketing campaigns, resource allocation, project management, and event management. On top of all that, you can move the data and records from your Salesforce org right into the calendar to properly share and schedule with the correct people.

Top Features:

  • A color coding and drag and drop system to organize and enhance project, task, and resource management.
  • The ability to share internally or externally by embedding dynamic Salesforce calendars on records or websites,
  • Create, edit, and move records in Salesforce right from the calendar in Day, Week, Month, Gantt, Agenda, Swimlane or Custom views.

Price: $12.50 USD per user per month

What Users Think:

"We use Calendar Anything as a resource capacity planning tool, as well as production and fleet delivery scheduling. This gives our entire company visibility in order to allocate resources (labor and assets) accordingly. We have used Calendar Anything for over 6 years and have continued to develop new ways to use it.” - Shannon J. CFO at MM Solutions

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5. Cirrus Insight

According to 80 percent of professionals, email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention. It is obvious that emailing is a HUGE aspect of every business in today’s world, so it is no surprise that we include an email integration app on this list. Having a seamless and clean Salesforce email integration can save you a ton of time and drive productivity like no other. That is where Cirrus Insight comes in!

Cirrus Insight perfectly integrates Gmail, Outlook, Office 365, iOS, and Android with Salesforce making your life easier both at home and on the go. With this capability, you will be able to modify the data and access all of your custom fields in Salesforce directly from your inbox.

Top Features:

  • Sync emails and calendar events to Salesforce and be able to track the customer intelligence gained from them.
  • Create/update leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities, cases, and custom records on any standard or custom Salesforce object from inside your inbox.
  • With the My Lists feature see your reminder tasks, opportunities, cases, contacts, leads, and campaigns.

Price: $27 USD per user per month

What Users Think:

“Using Cirrus and Salesforce has been very productive and helpful at work. Now all my emails and communications are stored and documented in one place not needing to do extra manual work.”- Jorge P. Digital Strategist at White Shark Media

Increase Productivity Today With S-Docs

Looking to increase your business’ productivity? S-Docs is the trusted partner to so many incredible companies that span a variety of industries.

Developed by former Salesforce Technical Architects, we have been experts in helping businesses solve their document generation and e-signature problems for over ten years with no sign of slowing down soon!

For more information about how we can help your organization cut down on manual processes and increase your productivity, request a demo today or reach out to sales@sdocs.com

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

Enjoying our blog?

Subscribe now and we'll make sure to send you the latest as we publish new content!

Connect With Us!

For Salesforce news, digital document & e-signature insights, or just for fun.

        

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The Performance Benefits of Native Salesforce Apps

By Blog No Comments

You’ve probably heard about the security and compliance benefits of native Salesforce apps. Since they never send data off-platform, native apps can be trusted in the same way that Salesforce can be trusted.

Native Salesforce app performance, on the other hand, is a lesser known gem. The on-platform infrastructure of native apps allows them to function more harmoniously with the processes already occurring in your org. The result? Pretty big performance benefits - benefits that can enable you and your team to work more efficiently.

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Native Salesforce App Performance Benefits

Click a native app advantage to scroll down to it!

1. Native Salesforce Apps Don’t Experience External Server Latency

Server latency is the time it takes for a packet of data to travel from one destination to another. When you integrate two separate systems (for example, Salesforce and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system), latency will occur as the two systems talk to each other.

Native Salesforce apps don’t experience this server latency because they don’t need to communicate with external systems to function. The resources that they use are directly inside your Salesforce org.

Native apps may offer integrations with external systems - for example, S-Docs allows you to generate documents in Salesforce and store them in external repositories like Google Drive or Box - but their core functionality only depends on Salesforce.

Because of this, native apps will typically respond much faster than non-native alternatives.

2. Native Salesforce Apps Don’t Use Up API Calls

An API call is a set of protocols and tools that allow interaction between two applications. Your Salesforce org is only able to make a limited number of API calls per day; running out can stall business processes.

Native apps do not count against your org’s daily API limits. Because they are built on the Lightning Platform, they don’t require interfacing with external applications. Even if you do run out of API calls, your native app will still function.

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On the other hand, non-native apps may require multiple API calls per invocation. When you add up calls being made by other processes in your org, you may approach your API limits faster than you think. Once reached, your non-native apps may not continue working until your API limits are reset, or you purchase more.

Depending on the function of your non-native app, this can range from annoying to business-breaking.

3. Native Salesforce Apps Have Balanced Resource Usage

Because they run on the Salesforce platform exclusively, native Salesforce apps must adhere to Salesforce governor limits. While this may sound intimidating, governor limits exist to ensure resources are allocated efficiently across Salesforce’s multi-tenant platform. They help prevent runaway processes from monopolizing resources, and prevent the use of unsupported processes.

These governors ensure that native apps follow best practices and operate within your org as efficiently as possible. Your native app resource usage will be smoothly balanced, translating to better performance and no peaks and valleys.

While non-native apps are not bound by these governor limits, there’s no guarantee that their performance will be consistent.

4. Native Salesforce Apps Have Unmatched Uptime

Nothing is more frustrating than opening an app you rely on, only to find that it’s temporarily down. App downtime can impede your business processes - and there’s really no way to see it coming.

That is, unless you use native apps. Since native Salesforce apps run on Salesforce’s servers, they’ll always be up when Salesforce is up. Essentially, this means that native apps are always working when you need them - if Salesforce is down, you won’t be able to use your apps in the first place, native or not.

The best part about the fact that native apps share Salesforce’s uptime is that Salesforce publishes their system status in real time. You can check the service availability for any of their products at your convenience.

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Native Salesforce Apps Are Partners To Salesforce Users

All in all, the ROI you obtain from Salesforce is derived not only from how you use the platform itself, but also from the solutions you choose to enhance or extend it. Leveraging native Salesforce apps is a step toward a more productive and cohesive org.

They make efficient use of your org’s resources to deliver better performance that raises the quality of work possible in Salesforce. In many cases, native Salesforce apps are the best choice for enterprise organizations looking for solutions that can handle their volume of work, and are poised to scale with them.

S-Docs: 100% Native Document Generation & E-Signature For Salesforce

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. Create complex documents, send them for e-signature, and automate your workflows faster and more efficiently.

S-Docs is trusted by leading enterprise organizations because it helps them create the mission-critical documents they need at scale. Whether it’s ten documents a day or 1,000 at once, S-Docs is able to meet your document workflow requirements.

Interested in learning more? Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. We’d be happy to walk you through how we can help transform your Salesforce document workflows.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

Enjoying our blog?

Subscribe now and we'll make sure to send you the latest as we publish new content!

Connect With Us!

For Salesforce news, digital document & e-signature insights, or just for fun.

        

Read More

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April 22, 2024

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Reduce Your Compliance Burden With Native Salesforce Apps

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Native Salesforce applications are third-party tools built on the Lightning Platform (formerly known as force.com). Choosing native apps to enhance your Salesforce org can significantly reduce your company’s IT compliance burden. How so? Let’s take a closer look.

Compliance Is Up To You

Whether you have a Chief Compliance Officer or a single Salesforce Administrator, it’s your job to meet the digital security regulations that apply to your business.

This is a tall order - noncompliance can lead to stiff fines, damage to your company image, and even getting shut down. What’s more, ensuring IT infrastructure compliance is only getting harder, as regulations tighten and grow each year.

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...But You’re Already Paying For Compliance

The good news is that your Salesforce licenses have compliance baked into them. As the world’s #1 CRM by market share, Salesforce has the resources to develop a product that meets even the strictest cloud computing regulations.

As a business with hundreds of customers in heavily regulated industries such as government and healthcare, it also has the incentive to make sure its products are compliant.

The result is a CRM that puts IT compliance at the forefront of its priorities.

Check out this webpage for yourself here. Now - where do native apps come in?

Native Apps Inherit Compliance From Salesforce

100% native Salesforce apps have the same IT compliance benefits that are baked into Salesforce - plain and simple. The dollars that you put toward Salesforce pay for the same infrastructure that protects all native apps.

With non-native apps, your data is constantly changing hands.

Non-native Salesforce applications can be useful, but it’s up to them to design and maintain their own security and compliance infrastructure - meaning it’s up to you to judge whether or not it’s good enough for your organization. You’ve already done that for Salesforce, meaning you’ve already done that for native apps.

Because of this, evaluating, implementing, and maintaining a native app is a much smoother process for compliance teams.

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As regulations change and grow, Salesforce invests in keeping their platform up to date every year. Like we said before, they have the resources and incentive to do so. Native apps are better positioned to keep you compliant now - and as you scale and grow in the future.

Native Apps Are Great For Corporate Compliance, Too

Regulatory compliance is vital, but it’s also important to make sure your employees follow internal policies. Salesforce allows you to set up permission sets and sharing rules to protect internal data access.

Native apps respect these permissions out of the box. And since they’re built using the same tools as any of your own customizations (custom objects, Visualforce, and Apex), it’s much easier to control access to the custom components that come with them.

Salesforce Compliance Is A Breeze With Native Apps

One of the main native Salesforce app benefits is compliance. Salesforce was designed to put an end to disparate systems, aiming to become a single source of truth. Don’t fight against this model by adding apps that complicate compliance.

Choose native Salesforce apps to get the features you need to improve your business, purpose-built for the platform you rely on every day.

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S-Docs: The Only 100% Native Document Generation & E-Signature Solution For Salesforce

S-Docs is the only 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. Create complex documents, send them for e-signature, and automate your workflows without ever sending data outside of Salesforce.

S-Docs is trusted by leading government, healthcare, and financial service organizations because it helps them create the mission-critical documents they need while staying compliant with strict industry regulations.

Interested in learning more? Request a demo today or contact sales@sdocs.com. We’d be happy to walk you through how you can transform your Salesforce document workflows with top-notch data security.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

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10 Salesforce Apps Every Sales Team Needs

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Everyone wants to stand out at work (unless you’re a spy or secret agent, in which case blending in may be smarter).

Excelling usually means showing up and working hard, but a person can only do so much. That’s why we combine our human drive with the power of business tools like Salesforce.

While it’s a great customer relationship management tool on its own, your sales team is missing out if you aren’t customizing your CRM with solutions from the AppExchange. Salesforce’s solution marketplace is filled with sales apps to help your team crush its goals.

We reviewed dozens of apps based on features, functionality, and user ratings on the AppExchange and G2. Based on our findings, here are 10 AppExchange apps every sales team needs.

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Table Of Contents

Click an app to scroll directly to it and learn more about it!

  1. S-Docs - Document Generation & E-Signature
  2. Groove - Email & Calendar Integration
  3. SMS Magic - Multi-Channel Messaging
  4. Squivr - Sales Playbooks & Org Charts
  5. Hoopla - Sales Incentivization
  6. Distribution Engine - Lead Assignment
  7. ZoomInfo - Sales Intelligence
  8. GeoPoint Mapping - Location Intelligence
  9. Duplicate Check - Deduplication
  10. Salesforce Adoption Dashboards - Productivity

#1: S-Docs

Documents are at the heart of any sales process. Customers need quotes and proposals to learn about your services, contracts and agreements to seal the deal, and invoices to pay you. Call us biased, but we’re starting with our own product because it’s just that useful.

S-Docs is a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution that’s purpose-built for Salesforce. It allows you to automatically create the documents we listed above and more - in one or fewer clicks. Sales reps who use S-Docs and S-Sign spend their days selling, while S-Docs allows them to create, track, e-sign, and store the documents they need in Salesforce.

The best part? It’s built on the Salesforce platform. That means that it generates documents fast, integrates into your team’s existing workflows, and never sends your data externally.

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What Users Think

“We've been using S-Docs for the past several months and I must say it's truly an amazing product! Our clients have had requirements ranging from simple templates to complex ones and S-Docs has been able to handle it all.”
- Navdeep S, Technical Account Manager

#2: Groove

Manual work is the bane of any sales rep’s existence. Nobody wants to spend hours every week logging emails, calls, and activities in Salesforce - it’s just not productive. That’s where Groove comes in.

Groove is a chrome extension that syncs your email, calendar, and dialing activity with Salesforce so that you can spend time nurturing relationships. You can access, edit, and create new Salesforce records right from your inbox, and associate emails and calls with custom fields. Groove’s reporting feature will paint a much more accurate picture, since no activity slips through the cracks.

What Users Think

“Groove has helped me tremendously in my day to day sales process! It is very easy to navigate and super user friendly.”
-Gabrielle G     

#3: SMS Magic

35-50% of sales go to vendors that respond first. The ability to be in front of your prospects when they want to talk is critical.

SMS Magic is a messaging solution that allows sales reps to reach prospects through text, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp - without ever leaving Salesforce. This app can be used for inbound conversations or to create targeted marketing campaigns that convert (after all, the average open rate for a text is 99%).

Whatever you’re using it for, SMS Magic will make sure your prospect gets the message on the right channel. It even has a built in compliance feature to make sure your communication aligns with your prospect’s data residency laws.

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What Users Think

“This texting solution provides our users with an easy interface, smooth Salesforce integration and a quality experience with our users. The SMS team is quick to respond to tasks and assistance when needed.”
-Stefen G, Salesforce Administrator         

  

#4: Squivr

To succeed in sales, you need to get the messaging right, have a positive attitude, and be curious about your prospect’s needs. But these things won’t work if you’re targeting the wrong person.

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Squivr is a native org chart and sales playbook tool for Salesforce that helps reps understand their prospects’ relationships to drive more sales. With a visual indicator of a prospect’s hierarchy, decision-making ability, and buying role, reps can strategically upsell and cross-sell into different teams much more efficiently.

Squivr org charts are interactive, filterable, and exportable, meaning any organization can fit them into their unique processes. You can also rate contacts by influence, relationship, power, and cadence to create even smarter interactions.

Finally, Squivr playbooks align sales and customer success methodologies to ensure your team sells with the tried-and-true cadences that work best for your business and drive the most revenue.

What Users Think

“Squivr's org-chart technology is extremely easy to implement and delivers immediate value. I have used this tool extensively in a variety of environments with great success. Any time that I'm stumped, the Squivr team has been quick to respond and a pleasure to work with to reach an ideal state."
-Peter T, Lead Solutions Engineer

#5: Hoopla

Sales reps are competitive by nature - everyone wants to be a top performer. But consistently motivating your team can be difficult.

Hoopla is a sales gamification app that leverages your team’s desire to compete and turns it into positive ROI. With sales leaderboards, win announcements through Slack or Teams, and races/contests, Hoopla helps create a culture of energy and performance.

What Users Think

“It's rare to find a solution that every role in a company enjoys using and finds value from. For us, Hoopla is one of those tools.”
-Jessica C, Revenue Operations Manager

#6: Distribution Engine

Leads are 9x more likely to convert if a sales rep follows up with them within five minutes. Sounds like a tall order - but with automated lead distribution, it doesn’t have to be.

Distribution Engine is exactly what its name implies. It allows you to automate your lead distribution process so that leads get to the right reps at the right time. Its configurable based on how your company does business.

You can apply round robin distribution for fairness, weighted distribution for reps with higher quotas, or loaded distribution so that reps stay topped up. Distribution engine also lets you control which reps get which leads based on your criteria.

What Users Think

“Distribution Engine is an extremely flexible and well-designed tool that our team wouldn't be able to function without. They're constantly coming out with new features that make our workflows even easier and allow us to optimize for the way we work.”
-Jaimie A, Operations

#7: ZoomInfo

Accelerating sales growth is top of mind for every sales team - and to grow faster, you need to target the contacts that are most likely to buy from you.

ZoomInfo, powered by DiscoverOrg, is a sales intelligence platform that provides contact data for sales and marketing teams.

ZoomInfo allows teams to identify buyers in their target market and reach key decision-makers faster. Connection rates are improved with verified phone numbers and email addresses, and conversation quality increases with insights about tech stacks, projects, and company attributes.

What Users Think

"ZoomInfo’s Salesforce App is best tool to use in our day to day life. The best part of the app is it directly update the information about the Contacts, Companies, Leads etc. in Salesforce which reduce our copy past work. I would definitely recommend this app to others."
-Samuel N, Data Analyst

#8: GeoPoint Mapping

As in-person meetings slowly trickle back into the norm, knowing where your prospects are located will be important.

GeoPoint Mapping gives sales teams location intelligence. It allows them to see where their prospects are and plan optimal routes and stops around their meetings. It also allows operations to set up and manage territories, analyze results by geography, and create geo-targeted campaigns and events.

What Users Think

“I would highly recommend Geopointe to others (even over Salesforce Maps!). The tool is easy to use, quick to set up, and if you ever get lost, their resource library likely has a how-to video on the topic.”
-Kseniya K, Senior Business Analyst

#9: Duplicate Check

Duplicate Salesforce records are annoying. Anyone can tell you that. But they can also hurt your business (you wouldn’t want to reach out to a lead that’s already a contact!).

Duplicate Check for Salesforce is a top-rated tool that lets you find, merge, and prevent duplicate records from clogging up your org - and hurting your sales team’s productivity. You can find cross-record duplicates, check for “fuzzy matches,” and analyze incoming records to stop duplicates before they happen.

What Users Think

“I've implemented DuplicateCheck in a handful of Orgs, all with incredible success. The interface is easy and intuitive - and provides an immense amount of control and oversight over the merges and auto-converts.”
-Ian S, Consultant

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#10: Salesforce Adoption Dashboards

A team of great sales reps using powerful AppExchange apps can produce some incredible results. But if your team isn’t making use of Salesforce like it should, your investment might not bring in the returns that you expected.

Salesforce Adoption Dashboards, developed by Salesforce Labs, allows you to track your reps’ productivity by monitoring their Salesforce adoption. You’ll be able to see which features they’re making use of, visualize login history and trends, and customize your dashboards to track activities that are important to your business.

What Users Think

“Great application, works amazingly when it comes to understanding the blind spots with regards to the Salesforce adoption in the organization.”
-Shilpa S, Salesforce Business Analyst

Start Using The AppExchange To Crush Your Sales Goals

The Salesforce AppExchange is filled with thousands of applications for almost any business need. Nobody has time to sort through all of them, so we hope this guide has helped you narrow down your search.

About S-Docs

S-Docs is a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution for Salesforce. We’ve been helping businesses digitize and automate their sales documents for over ten years. Developed by former Salesforce Technical Architects, we’re experts in leveraging the AppExchange to better your business.

Companies like Nestle, AT&T, and Unilever rely on the speed and security of our native solutions to get their sales documents created quickly, securely, and error-free.

To learn more about S-Docs, request a demo or contact sales@sdocs.com.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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How to Create Immaculate Invoices in Salesforce

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What is an invoice?

Sure, it’s a document one business sends to another detailing services rendered and how much they cost. It’s a bill.

But an invoice is also a first impression. Done right, it shows a client who you are. Your logo, your colors, your address. The services or products you proudly offer. It sends a message about what working with you is like.

The way you create and manage your invoices can affect whether you get paid on time or at all - and set the tone for your entire customer relationship. All in all, invoices are pretty important.

At S-Docs, we’re invoice experts - we’ve been helping our customers efficiently generate them for over 10 years. Today, we’re going to share our knowledge.

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How To Create Immaculate Invoices In Salesforce

Creating great invoices starts with creating reusable invoice templates. Once you have the skeleton, building out the meat will be a much simpler process.

Pro Tip: It’s easier to create invoice templates with a document generator, since your data can be pulled in from Salesforce at the click of a button - but we’ll still share our secrets even if you opt to go manual!

In general, a good invoice will contain all of the following information.

True, invoices vary from business to business. A flower shop and a legal office might deliver documents with quite distinct looks.

But when it comes down to it, an invoice’s primary purpose is to get you paid as easily as possible - and money is a universal language. Despite their differences, invoices will contain the same basic ingredients. Let’s walk through them in more detail now (click an invoice component to scroll down to it!).

Components Of A Good Invoice

  1. Your Branding
  2. Company Information
  3. Invoice Details
  4. Itemized Services/Products
  5. Payment Terms
  6. Thank You

1. Create An Invoice With Your Branding

Ever heard the phrase “clean space, clean mind?” We’re going to coin a new phrase today: “professional invoice, professional company.”

By “professional,” we don’t mean all seriousness and no fun. We mean that when you put care into invoices that represent your brand, you give the impression that you’ll treat your customer with the same care.

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Always include your logo somewhere prominently on the page - preferably at the top. You can also add design elements like a graphic or image that show off your brand colors.

A few more presentation tips:

  1. Don’t use too many colors or fonts - stick with one or two.
  2. Keep your invoice to one page if possible. If your services or products are more complex, you can include a separate description document.
  3. Remember that this document is a reflection of your company, so use intuition. If you’re a creative agency, show off your design skills. If you sell consumer goods, consider including a photo banner of your products.

2. Include Contact Information For Your Company And Your Customer

Contact information gives your customer an easy way to reach you if they have questions or problems paying your invoice - and ensures it gets to the right person in the first place.

You should also clearly label your invoice as...well, an invoice. Remember, the main goal is to make sure you get paid - this document should be as clear and concise as possible.

3. Be Sure To Add Invoice Meta-Information

Invoice details (like invoice number and issue date) may sound boring, but they’re crucial. For one, developing a unique numbering system will help you quickly find your invoice later. In addition, an issue date ensures that you can hold your customer accountable to your payment terms.

If you’re not sure of the best way to establish a good invoice numbering system, consider these tips:

  1. Make it sequential - start with 0001 or INV0001, and go up from there.
  2. Use a customer code. An account named Dynamic Solutions might receive invoices like DYN0001, DYN0002, and so on.
  3. Incorporate dates, like 09-17-2022-01.

We also recommend calling out the total amount due at the top - clear and concise!

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4. Add The Invoice Meat - Your Services/Products And Their Cost

The body of your invoice is the most important piece of the document - that’s why it’s the focal point! This is where you break down exactly what you provided to your customer and how much it cost.

Be as specific as you can when you itemize your products/services without making the invoice too long. Use the same wording that was included on the original quote or proposal, if there was one, to avoid confusion.


Pro Tip: If your products/services can be broken into categories, consider including a master summary of charges per category at the top, and then organize the individual items by category (which we’ve done in the invoice above).

5. Add Payment Terms To Your Invoice

You’ve told your customer what they owe - now it’s time to make sure they know how to pay, and that they do it on time. Include payment terms at the bottom of your invoice to do just that.

You can include specific details like who to write checks out to or your wire transfer information, but it’s always a good idea to add an email too. If your customer has any questions or difficulty paying, it’s best to make it as easy as possible for them to reach out for help.

6. Thank You Goes A Long Way!

Adding a small thank-you message at the bottom of your invoice can show that you appreciate your customer - and it can even help you get paid faster, according to this study by FreshBooks.

Immaculate Invoicing In Salesforce

While invoices will vary by company and industry, they all contain the same basic components. We hope this guide has inspired you to craft invoices for your own business that make your company shine.

However, “invoicing” isn’t just about design. You might have a pristine template stored in Microsoft Word, but if you have to clone it and copy-paste data from Salesforce for every customer, you’ll eventually run into problems that even the best-designed documents can’t fix.

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hat’s where Salesforce document generation tools like S-Docs can save the day. S-Docs allows you to build and store your invoice templates directly within Salesforce (or upload existing PDFs!).

With your template created, all you have to do is click a button on a record, choose your template, and let S-Docs create the invoice for you. S-Docs enables:

  • Lightning-Fast invoice creation. In just a few seconds, your invoice will be ready to go. And if you want to skip the clicks, setting up automatic invoices that are generated and emailed in the background is simple.
  • Reduced Errors. When your data is merged directly from Salesforce, you can be sure your invoices contain the most up-to-date and correct information, every time. Say goodbye to late payments because of mistakes on your end.
  • Faster Payments. Reduce your day sales outstanding by setting up automatic reminder emails.
  • Better customer experiences. Your customers will thank you for on-time, on-brand, clear, concise, correct documents. And if you need to collect a signature, our e-signature solution S-Sign enables your customers to access and sign your invoices from anywhere.
  • Easy access and storage. S-Docs automatically stores your invoices on the record that they’re generated from - or uploads them to your external document repository of choice.

The best part? S-Docs is 100% native to Salesforce. That means it’s built on the platform, never sends data externally, and automatically integrates with your existing workflows or apps.

Transform Your Invoicing Process With S-Docs Today

Ready to see what S-Docs can do for you? Request a customized demo today, or contact sales@sdocs.com.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

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The Best Salesforce Healthcare Apps in 2021

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When you hear the word “innovation,” what comes to mind? Other than stock photos of lightbulbs, we think of someone in a lab coat - a healthcare professional.

Healthcare companies depend on innovation to stay relevant and competitive, so this image is no coincidence. But in the digital age, innovation doesn’t always mean developing a new drug or surgical procedure. Now, it also means finding new ways to streamline business processes, meet rising patient expectations, and remain compliant.

Healthcare companies using Salesforce are leveraging a platform with one of the richest application ecosystems of any healthcare software available. Customizing it into a powerful source of truth that helps meet patient demands and innovate is entirely possible - if you choose the right solutions.

Let’s walk through some of the best Salesforce healthcare apps on the AppExchange. We hope you’ll learn something new, get inspired, and find a new way to improve your own org.

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The Best Salesforce Healthcare Apps Depend On Your Goals

When you look for great Salesforce healthcare apps, it’s best to start with a set of goals. In this article, we’ll be looking at apps that help healthcare organizations meet the following three goals:

Click a goal to scroll down to our recommended healthcare apps for that category.

Pro Tip: Look For Native Salesforce Apps

Just one more thing before we dive in (promise!). We recommend starting your search by filtering for apps that are 100% native to Salesforce.

100% native apps are built entirely on the Salesforce platform and never send data externally. This makes them compatible with security-conscious healthcare companies since most compliance concerns are virtually eliminated based on native app architecture.

If your data isn’t leaving Salesforce, it’s not leaving the world-class data security that Salesforce guarantees.

Salesforce Healthcare Apps For Increased Sales & Patient Acquisition

Sales are pivotal to business, and healthcare companies are no exception. These apps will help increase awareness and acquire new customers or patients.

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1. Axtria SalesIQ

Axtria SalesIQ is a sales planning and operations application for Salesforce that’s built specifically for the healthcare & life sciences industry.

With this app, you can identify high-potential customers and the most relevant channels of interaction. You’ll also be able to optimize field team productivity with territory alignment, motivate behaviors with incentive compensation, and report on everything with real-time analytics.

Axtria SalesIQ customers typically see a 50% reduction in alignment cycle times and a 40% overall cost reduction.
Source: Axtria SalesIQ

2. S-Docs

S-Docs is a 100% native document generation and e-signature solution that allows healthcare companies to automate their document workflows in Salesforce.

From quoting/invoicing to patient intake forms, the healthcare sales & patient acquisition process can become complex and unscalable when handled manually - and even put data at risk.

S-Docs allows healthcare companies to generate the documents they need with the click of a button, and send them for e-signature just as fast. The best part? Since S-Docs is 100% native, documents are created and e-signed without ever sending data outside of Salesforce.

3. Healthgrades Hg Mercury

Healthgrades Hg Mercury is a leading engagement platform designed to increase patient acquisition, retention, and lifetime value.

Healthgrades has spent over 30 years innovating on its suite of healthcare solutions. Marketing, contact centers, provider engagement, data management - if you’re looking for a unified solution for healthcare growth, we recommend checking out this platform.

Customers have seen a 36% increase in new patient retention and 110K additional visits.

Salesforce Healthcare Apps For Better Patient Engagement

Intelligent patient engagement can lead to better health outcomes and lower costs. These apps will let you contact your patients at the right time - and help them help themselves.

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4. Appointiv

Appointiv is an appointment scheduler that increases bookings and reduces no-shows.

This app lets you organize your entire team’s one-time or recurring appointments, create waitlists, book resources, and set automatic reminders. You can add a booking button to your website to let patients set their own appointments - and it’s fully mobile compatible, so your customers can self-serve how they want.
Source: Appointiv

5. Health AI-Powered Patient Engagement

Health AI-Powered Patient Engagement aggregates your clinical, claims, and consumer data to create more intelligent patient and provider engagement.

This app advises your organization of valuable engagement opportunities based on AI so that you can create personalized and proactive patient outreach. It provides automated next best actions (NBAs) to increase patient conversions and add revenue.

Customers using this solution have seen real results - as much as a 350% in patient conversions.

6. Vonage Contact Center

Vonage Contact Center for Salesforce is a telephony solution that enables healthcare organizations to create better customer service experiences.

This app empowers agents with data so that they can delight patients with personalized interactions over the phone. It also uses AI to analyze conversation quality and help agents continually improve their skills. With click-to-dial, call routing, and automatic logging, it also helps increase employee productivity.

Patients want to feel important when they interact with your organization. Vonage Contact Center helps you deliver on their expectations.
Source: Vonage

Salesforce Healthcare Apps That Enable Integration And Data Protection

Healthcare companies must maintain data across a variety of different systems. The ability to integrate it with Salesforce while remaining compliant is vital for those looking to continue creating innovative business processes in the cloud.

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7. Trackwise Digital Quality Management System

Trackwise Digital Quality Management System (QMS) is an end-to-end quality and compliance solution.

This app allows you to manage regulatory audits with ease - including assessing risk, identifying causes, and initiating corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs). It also provides a solution for managing the complaint lifecycle, controlling documents, and executing training policies that may be tied to regulatory requirements.

For all of your quality management needs in Salesforce, we recommend checking out this app.

8. Redox EHR Integration

Redox EHR Integration enables you to connect Salesforce to over 55 leading EHR vendors.

It comes with pre-configured workflows that will help make the integration process as smooth as possible, including data models for demographics, schedules, clinical summaries, providers, and referrals. While most Salesforce EHR integrations can take 6+ months, Redox customers can typically complete the process in just a few weeks.

9. Imprivata FairWarning Cloud Solutions - Risk Analytics and Intelligence

Imprivata FairWarning Cloud Solutions helps protect your data against insider threats and meet HIPAA requirements like 164.402 and 164.312.

This app allows you to monitor Salesforce usage and identify unusual activity, set up privileged user access, and ensure any remote workforce is secure.

Salesforce For Healthcare Innovation

Salesforce is leading the charge in healthcare business innovation. The AppExchange opens the door for healthcare organizations to mold it into a unified solution that can positively impact revenue and health outcomes at the same time. For more great healthcare apps for Salesforce, check out the healthcare industry collection.

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S-Docs for Healthcare

Looking to transform your healthcare document workflows in Salesforce? S-Docs has been a trusted partner to the healthcare industry for over a decade.

We help organizations generate, store, distribute, and e-sign any type of document in Salesforce. Since S-Docs is 100% native, your data never leaves the Salesforce cloud - making it one of the most secure solutions available. It also means that S-Docs easily integrates with the apps in this guide, so that you can tie your document requirements with your other business processes and never miss a beat.

For more information about how we can help your organization cut down on manual processes and stay compliant, request a demo today or reach out to sales@sdocs.com.

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

Request Demo

Enjoying our blog?

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How To Get More Value Out Of Salesforce Revenue Cloud

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If you’re reading this article, chances are you either currently use Salesforce Revenue Cloud, or you’re looking to.

If so, take a moment to ask yourself: what drove you to purchase (or consider it)?

At risk of sounding too on the nose...Revenue, right? We think it’s safe to assume that your Revenue Cloud investment hinged on the expectation that your business’s revenue growth would accelerate. Salesforce doesn’t name their products just anything, after all.

Revenue, it turns out, is one of those pesky numbers that business leaders always want to see increasing. This leads us to the ultimate question (and likely the reason you clicked on this article): how can you increase the value that you get from Salesforce Revenue Cloud?

How To Get More Value Out of Salesforce Revenue Cloud

Salesforce Revenue Cloud is made to manage and accelerate your revenue growth. But to really start shaking all the green we can out of it, we need to dig into the weeds a little bit. How does it accelerate revenue growth? Understanding the details makes it much easier to use them to your advantage.

To make things simple, we’ve created a short infographic.

In essence, Salesforce Revenue Cloud makes the sales process much easier -- for your employees, and, by extension, your customers.

Your sales teams can easily put together complex deals with multiple product categories, pricing structures, and discounts -- leading to faster and more accurate quotes and invoices -- leading to deals that get approved by finance the first time.

Your customers can’t see this well-oiled machine on the backend, but they can feel it. Instead of trudging through the sales cycle for weeks only to end up with misaligned quotes and invoices, they receive a smooth experience -- leading to faster payment and increased loyalty.

Increasing your Salesforce Revenue Cloud ROI is a matter of enhancing the ways in which it smooths out the lead-to-cash lifecycle.

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Identify The Gaps In Your Current Lead-To-Cash Lifecycle

So what does smoothing out your lead-to-cash lifecycle mean? Here’s a quick screenshot we grabbed from Google:

The key is creating a revenue lifecycle that’s “free from perceptible projections, lumps, or indentations” (maybe not so literally -- but you get the picture).

Salesforce Revenue Cloud takes care of a lot of the smoothing-out:

But it’s still not a perfectly straight line. We need to identify the gaps in your lead-to-cash lifecycle, and then implement solutions to smooth them over.

Pretend Like You’re Implementing Revenue Cloud For The First Time

A good way to identify the gaps in your processes is to take a step back and reevaluate. Imagine that you’re planning to implement Revenue Cloud for the first time -- what are your goals? Common ones might include:

  1. Reducing sales cycle duration
  2. Increasing quote accuracy
  3. Increasing win & renewal rates
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How did you originally see Revenue Cloud functioning with your processes? Sketch out your ideal workflow from start to finish, as if you’re planning an implementation. Does it look like what you’ve actually got now?

For example, maybe you wanted to reduce friction between Salesforce and your ERP system. Sketching out your ideal integration might make you realize you wanted to be on tier 4 in this image, but you’re only on tier 2.

Source: Salesforce & Simplus

Close The Gaps

After identifying the bumps in the road, the next logical step is to patch them up. Sometimes, this will involve new configurations within Revenue Cloud itself, such as enabling Advanced Approvals for Salesforce CPQ.

When Revenue Cloud falls short, you’ll need to venture to the pothole-patching shop: aka, the Salesforce AppExchange.

Billing (like Digital Route’s usage-based billing app), accounting (like Accounting Seed), and payment gateway apps (like Blackthorn Payments) are all common solutions to enhance certain gaps left open by Revenue Cloud.

However, we know of one solution category that nearly any Salesforce Revenue Cloud customer can use to enhance their processes and close the final gap between lead to cash: document generation and e-signature apps.

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How Document Generation & E-Signature Enhances Salesforce Revenue Cloud

Document generation and e-signature solutions like S-Docs close a glaring gap in Salesforce Revenue Cloud -- the ability to send on-brand, accurate documents like quotes, MSAs, and invoices at any time during the sales process, and create binding agreements with signature collection.

Wait, you might be thinking. Salesforce Revenue Cloud allows you to create quotes and invoices -- that’s what CPQ & Billing is for. Right?

While this is true, document generation & e-signature solutions close a gap left open by CPQ & Billing and render their limitations obsolete. Let’s break it down.

Create Any Type of Document, Anytime

Salesforce Revenue Cloud may help you get your quotes and invoices out the door, but odds are your sales cycle requires more than that. Document generation solutions like S-Docs allow you to create any type of document and send it out -- at any point in the lead-to-cash cycle -- with one click (sounds smooth as silk to us).

Create More Powerful Documents

Sure, Salesforce Revenue Cloud helps reduce the complexity of pricing out complex deals. But in the end, especially for larger deals, complexity can’t always be avoided.

Document generation solutions allow you to create quote and invoice templates that can merge data from anywhere in Salesforce and contain thousands of line items. 100% native solutions like S-Docs (built on the Salesforce platform) are especially good at getting this done quickly -- we’re talking 100,000+ invoices in under a half hour quickly.

They can also help you out with complex dynamic content -- like different T&Cs merged in based on the product configuration or any other business rule you could think of.

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Seamlessly Collect E-Signatures

There’s no getting around it -- Salesforce Revenue Cloud doesn’t provide e-signature functionality. You could find an outside app to integrate with your CPQ & Billing templates, but that adds another layer of complexity.

Combined document generation & e-signature solutions will let you create document and e-signature templates using the same system. You can configure and price deals, send quotes and invoices for signature, and track their progress -- without missing a beat. Smoothing the gaps.

Stay Professional & On-Brand

Document generation solutions give you the power to create quotes, invoices, and other documents that you can be proud of. You aren’t limited by CPQ templates when you use document generation -- meaning you can create truly customized documents that reflect your business.

Quotes and invoices are often the first formal impression a customer gets from a business -- so it’s important to make them count!

Salesforce Revenue Cloud: Keep The Gaps Closed With 100% Native Apps

Salesforce Revenue Cloud can be an incredibly valuable tool that nets you improved revenue processes and a smoother lead-to-cash cycle. Upping your ROI means identifying the biggest benefit Revenue Cloud brings to your business, and then figuring out how to close the gaps and enhance that benefit.

100% native Salesforce apps like S-Docs are positioned to help you get more out of Revenue Cloud without adding complexity or clutter. Since they’re built on the Salesforce platform, they’re already seamlessly integrated into the system your team depends on every day.

For more information about how S-Docs for Salesforce Revenue Cloud can help accelerate your lead-to-cash workflows, request a demo today or reach out to sales@sdocs.com

See S-Docs In Action

Leave your Salesforce document workflow worries behind.

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