Salesforce Platform Reviews

My role is account director and client partner. I use Salesforce more for opportunity management, and I have been using it for the last eight to ten years.

Salesforce provides customization that aligns with our organization's lifecycle management of opportunities. It integrates with our call records, meeting notes, and the Outlook calendar, which helps in mapping roles and managing opportunities effectively. It allows us to monitor the progress of opportunities and assess the probability of their closure.

The customization options that Salesforce provides are the most valuable. It allows organizations to align Salesforce with their specific processes and stages of opportunity management. Integration with call records and calendars, as well as detailed reporting on progress, are also significant features.

I would like Salesforce to recommend related opportunities within the organization that have been taken to closure, so we can fast track new opportunities based on past experiences. It could also serve as a comprehensive knowledge management repository for storing technical and commercial proposals.

Salesforce is very stable. The only downtime I have encountered has been during planned maintenance and upgrades.

Scalability has never been a limitation. We have a large user base, and I have never seen it as a challenge.

We have an in-house technical team that liaises with the Salesforce professional services team for any needed customizations. The expert service from Salesforce is always available to suggest the best ways to implement these customizations.

Neutral

As long as the organization provides the licenses, it is easy to use for me.

Salesforce is not inexpensive, but the convenience of using the platform justifies the cost.

I would compare Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics and Freshworks.

I would recommend Salesforce to other users.

Public Cloud

Other

The primary use case of the solution is that it supports liaison tickets, creating cases, and resolving them.

The escalation process and service module are valuable features of the solution. So, creating an escalation process is a valuable feature.

Salesforce Platform is an evolving product. Salesforce Platform is a bit expensive compared to other CRM products, which is a drawback. Other than that, this product is evolving and adding new features. So they are trying to serve the needs of each and every person. The only thing I consider is that they are a bit expensive compared to other CRMs, so the price needs to be improved.

As an end user, I have an experience of eight years using the solution. Since it is a SaaS solution, it has been continuously upgrading since last year.

There are no major performance issues in the solution.

In my company, 160 people are using the solution. We have two different products, and both use Salesforce differently. So we wanted to bring all these users together, that includes a batch of 150 and more than 100. We wanted to merge and use it as a unified product. So, we are trying to bring that cost down. Also, I am searching for other alternatives to find a better solution than Salesforce.

Previously, I was using Hyperionix. With Hyperionix, the look and feel were not very good compared to Salesforce. Also, following follow-ups and creating cases were all tedious processes in Hyperionix. Usability-wise, Hyperionix was not flexible.

For maintenance, we need around four members. I was not involved in the implementation process. After I did Salesforce admin certification, I came to know that it was really easy to migrate all the data from Hyperionix to Salesforce. The implementation process took approximately three to four months. For deployment, around ten members were required.

Our own in-house team was involved in the implementation process.

I don't know the exact costs involved in the solution. However, if you look into the comparison, Salesforce charges double the rates, or almost three times, compared to its competitors. Our company does incur additional charges for maintenance and support.

Someone from the higher management was involved in the evaluation process.

I love to use Salesforce Platform. If the solution fits your budget, you should go for it for projects. Overall, I rate the product an eight and a half out of ten.

I am using Salesforce Platform for managing customers, managing cases, opportunities, closing deals, and project management. It is not technical project management; rather, it focuses on managing people, collaboration, and the next steps.

Everything is in one place. We are also using Tableau, and currently, the UI of Salesforce Platform includes the Tableau dashboard. This integration allows us to manage customers from all aspects in one place, providing a clear view.

I do not like the number of clicks required to get information. The UI is not very intuitive or innovative. They can improve this aspect.

I have used the solution for three years.

The implementation is very long, and to make changes, it takes time to implement and adjust. On the positive side, it is custom-made for each company, but it takes time.

There are some glitches or performance issues. Sometimes the system is stuck when many users are using it.

Salesforce Platform is very scalable.

The support is very good.

Neutral

I gave an overall rating of nine points because the implementation is very long, and to make changes, it takes time. However, it is beneficial that it is custom-made for each company. My overall rating for the solution is nine.

I have been working mostly for the automotive industry over the last four years. Within that, I have been associated with after-sales, customer care, new business development, and customized solutions for specific areas of business, either in customer care or sales.

There are improvements when you can integrate a multi-team process by automations. Many features in Salesforce allow you to automate processes. The trend right now is to use what they call out-of-the-box functionality with flows to optimize processes. This is the current trend. 

They are also starting to use artificial intelligence in agents to automate customer care bots, mostly. That part is new and still has to prove its mettle.

Stability of the platform is important, as are security and flexibility. The out-of-the-box functionality covers 70% to 80% of the most common scenarios that a client has in sales, customer care, and service.

Identification management systems integration should be easier. This is one of the current problems as different customers have different identification management systems, and integrating Salesforce with external corporate systems is challenging. 

Additionally, development for mobile platforms could be improved, as the current versions are not good enough.

I have been using it for 15 years.

It's a very stable system. I would rate it a nine out of ten.

I would rate it at eight out of ten.

Support is not the strongest point. I would rate it at six out of ten. When the issue is technically challenging, the first and second level support don't have solutions for truly technically challenging problems, even if they are Salesforce related.

Neutral

I would rate the initial setup at nine. It's one of the easiest platforms to set up.

The cost is reasonable for the corporations I work for. I would say an average would be around $100 per month per user.

The best advice is to fully understand your business and your processes, then see how Salesforce fits. Have a good consultant at the beginning, even before you spend money.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

We deployed Salesforce for global shared services, for global business services, where we consolidated and standardized on case management software. It's a marketing cloud. We used Einstein as well. We had a pretty large Salesforce deployment. If it was for all internal customers around our global shared services and business services, which was connected with the contact centers. We built contact centers in Manila, Prague, Bogota, and Tampa, among others. Salesforce was the platform that we consolidated all our processes on. We brought it together with Genesis and Interactive Intelligence around the call centers so that we brought everything together.

When we first did the assessment, it was global and it was for putting in a standardized software platform for all the corporate functions of HR, finance, procurement, payroll, and compliance. We standardized all their processes on Salesforce, and then we did that around case management and knowledge management as well. We did that across all those call centers, and that was our Salesforce deployment. We had to EBOM that with ServiceNow and Workday and all the financial systems, SAP, et cetera. We use Salesforce as one of our enterprise platforms.

The flexibility around the deployment is the most valuable aspect of the solution.

The user-friendliness and the interactiveness of Salesforce are great. The tools that came built with it are useful. Between Genesis and Salesforce, there were some schemas that were prebuilt. In terms of the implementation around the popups on the Genesis system and the Interactive Intelligence, they had some pre-built Salesforce schemas which made it very simple. 

With AI for Einstein, the bot capabilities, self-service capabilities, were great. We built a global portal that was Einstein, and the bots were key for the self-service capabilities that we were trying to deploy as part of this transformation to digital, and we basically put all of our documents and we digitized just about all the processes. There was a lot of our documentation as well and we put everything online. Einstein helped in the evaluation of these products. It helped navigate for the users, the end-users, which were all internal. We had some external too, as we ended up providing that service for third parties around invoicing and procurement. That said, Einstein helped in the user effectiveness and efficiencies around the interactions.

The biggest challenge we had was the cost and the licensing, and we ended up getting an ELA, so enterprise licensing agreement. That took a lot of negotiations and a lot of pressure, however, we were able to get good pricing, the community licensing, and they bundled in Einstein. They bundled a lot of capabilities for us with the ELA.

I've used the solution for the last two years, although it was deployed in 2017 or 2019.

The stability is very strong. We haven't had any issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

The product is scalable. 

We ended up getting premium support. Due to the fact that it was a critical environment, the call centers, we ended up getting the premium support that was built into the package that we provided. We did get the higher level, higher SLAs, to make sure that there was business-critical support.

We had a large Salesforce deployment in our pharma and medical device organizations. Therefore, we ended up getting enterprise licensing. We ended up having a good set of knowledge. We ultimately used Deloitte to do our development, and Deloitte had some very, very strong capabilities in Salesforce, specifically around case management. That got us going pretty quick. We had a very successful deployment in Salesforce.

From a capability standpoint, Salesforce has really met our needs. It was pretty easy to deploy. We kind of stuck to the basic versions and tried not to customize. We did configurations, however, we tried to stay native for most of Salesforce.

You really have to work hard with the licensing. they are open to negotiating, however, it takes a while to get there. 

We evaluated Salesforce, Appian, Pega, ServiceNow, Remedy, and we ended up selecting ServiceNow and Salesforce.

We selected Salesforce over Pega as we were able to consolidate everything on it. Then we selected ServiceNow for the IT side of it.

I'd advise to definitely not customize. As they rolled out the new versions, which were every six months, there had to be some significant testing and verification that happened. New companies need to have a good, strong third-party provider that is very experienced to assist. We used Deloitte. We did investigations. We evaluated Accenture, KPMG, and some others - even IBM - however, basically, we decided on Deloitte and that was a good decision for us.

You need to have a really good partner who has a center of excellence, or experts, that could give you a lot of insights into what they've learned that could jumpstart your deployment. I'd advise new users to just stay standard and really focus on the licensing. Otherwise, it could get really costly. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We are quite satisfied with Salesforce. 

Use cases include sales interactions, sales management, and marketing. This is for the internal customer or internal user. For external offerings, we have field service management and CPQ, along with most of the other models of Salesforce.

The valuable features of the solution are mainly the solution's sales modules and CPQ.

Salesforce mostly offers a modular-based solution that may not be integrated. Therefore, a mini version of the overall CRM would be helpful for most customers. An application for small to medium-sized enterprises would benefit many tier-two and tier-three customers. In short, there is a need for a consolidated application rather than a bigger individual modular-based application.

An improved UX may be helpful in the solution's next release. However, I cannot elaborate explicitly on the features that should be included in the next release.

I have experience with the Salesforce Platform, as my organization has been using it for the past six to eight years as both a customer and a SI partner. The solution has no specific version, as it may automatically update to the latest version, such as Salesforce Spring '23.

It is a stable solution.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. In general, my company's clients have enterprise-sized clients.

I rate Salesforce Platform's technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

After considering many instances, I can say that the solution's initial setup is easy. I rate the initial setup of the solution around eight or nine out of ten. The deployment process takes place on the cloud. The deployment process for a small project may take three to six months, while that of a medium-scale project typically takes around nine months on average, and larger implementations can take up to twelve months.

The deployment process includes solution discovery in the initial phases, followed by the build and testing phase. After that, there is the launch phase and post-launch live support.

I rate this solution a six out of ten for pricing. Though the solution is on the pricier side, it still offers good value for money.

My recommendation for those planning to use this solution is first to plan out what they hope to achieve with the platform and ensure that they can access most of the out-of-the-box features with a certain level of customization. This is definitely possible. Additionally, try to leverage the platform's capabilities as much as possible instead of relying on customizations, as many features are already available in its out-of-the-box feature. Most of the implementation may take time or may face failure, but if they adapt to in-house or inbuilt features, then it can be done. Though my only concern is the solution's pricing, overall, I rate this solution a ten out of ten.

Our primary use case for Salesforce Platform is to manage our sales, customer support, and other business processes. I primarily work on Salesforce CPQ, Conga CPQ, Conga Composer, and Adobe eSign.

Salesforce Platform has significantly helped our organization. For instance, with a previous customer, we moved them from managing their data on Excel to using Salesforce, which improved their efficiency. 

The automation capabilities, monitoring of reports and dashboards, and the overall ability to handle sales data have been instrumental in their success. Our sales representatives have doubled their revenue as they can now handle multiple records and connect with customers more efficiently.

The lead conversion process in Salesforce Sales Cloud is extremely valuable. It allows leads to be converted into accounts, contacts, and opportunities with just a few clicks, which saves time and reduces manual work. 

The automatic updates and customizable user interface are also beneficial. Another valuable feature is the optimization required by Salesforce, which ensures that everything is running efficiently.

Salesforce could improve the performance of their lightning components as they are currently quite heavy on the system and slow to load. Optimization in this area would be beneficial as customers expect quick loading times.

I have been working with Salesforce for seven years.

Salesforce Platform is generally stable, but there are occasional days when it loads very slowly or doesn't work at all. These issues are rare and we usually contact Salesforce support to resolve them.

Salesforce's scalability is generally good, but there are some limitations with managed packages that can be time-consuming to address. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate its scalability as a seven.

Salesforce's customer service is quite responsive and collaborative. They have the technical knowledge needed to assist effectively. I would rate their customer service an eight point five out of ten.

Before using Salesforce Platform, we managed everything on Excel sheets using macros. This method was inefficient and cumbersome compared to Salesforce's capabilities.

The initial setup of Salesforce Platform is not very easy but not too difficult either. Salesforce provides a representative to assist with the setup process, which makes it manageable. I would rate the initial setup as a six or seven out of ten.

We used a team of two to three people for the initial deployment, which included handling repositories and moving changes. As the project became more complex, the team size increased to four or five people.

Using Salesforce has contributed significantly to our revenue growth. Our sales representatives have doubled their revenue because of the increased efficiency and new product offerings made possible by Salesforce.

Salesforce is quite expensive, especially for vendors in India. I would rate the pricing of Salesforce Platform as a six point five out of ten due to its high cost.

I was not part of the decision-making team when Salesforce was chosen, so I do not have information on other vendors that were evaluated.

Salesforce Platform is a very good product. They are responsive and go beyond to help you out. It is easy to maintain and entirely cloud-based, which is great for new generation needs.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Public Cloud

Other

We use the solution for deal tracking, lead generation, committing deals, and connecting on LinkedIn.

We've done a solid job managing past account history, enabling us to quickly review past activities and the contacts we've engaged with. Now, Salesforce has integrated a LinkedIn feature, streamlining the process by eliminating the need to manually input data into LinkedIn separately. This integration adds LinkedIn profiles to customer profiles, enhancing efficiency. They've also introduced a sales console platform.

It's all set up for us in a way that establishes our account. We need to tag ourselves to opportunities. You have to tag yourself to the opportunity manually; you need to find it yourself and tag it. Sometimes, it's difficult to figure out how to assign yourself to the opportunity, which is time-consuming. In a way, it needs to be a little more seamless.

I have been using Salesforce Platform for seven years.

There are no major stability issues.

20,000 users are using this solution.

We open up an IT case, and the IT team interacts with us.

We don't find much utility in Salesforce due to the inaccuracies in the data. Therefore, before we can effectively utilize Salesforce as a platform, the company must prioritize correcting the data, as we can only rely on trustworthy data. While Salesforce utilizes some intuitive algorithm to generate opportunities based on historical data, sometimes these opportunities are inaccurate, resulting in hundreds of false opportunities that need to be manually deleted. Ultimately, this underscores the importance of ensuring data accuracy, as accurate data is essential for reliable predictions.

The previous interface was very static and not very user-friendly. It has undergone an update, which initially confused the organization because it was not the most user-friendly.

Salesforce isn't the most user-friendly platform. I often need to search on Google for guidance on navigating opportunities or working with various fields within them. This complexity can make tasks a bit challenging. Additionally, when it comes to viewing all opportunities or assigning myself to multiple ones, I still resort to Googling for instructions. The interface isn't intuitive enough to accomplish these tasks easily.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.