Salesforce Platform Reviews

I primarily use Salesforce for tracking opportunities, sales activities, and providing high-level dashboards on each opportunity stage.

The solution provides good control on opportunities, allowing me to see our progress and next steps clearly. This organization improves our ability to manage sales-related activities effectively.

Salesforce offers control over the opportunities to see where we are and gives me high-level dashboards on each opportunity stage. It also allows for streamlined tracking of sales activities.

Salesforce could improve by adding more capabilities to the dashboard, such as additional fields for more filters and more control over what I would like to see. More options for the dashboard would be beneficial.

I have used Salesforce Platform for about 11 months.

Sometimes it would be a little bit slow, however, it's manageable.

It is scalable enough.

I cannot rate technical support. I did not open any case with them.

Positive

I have not used previous solutions within this context.

There is no initial setup needed as it is a cloud-based solution.

This task is managed by the IT team, not by me personally.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Our primary use case for this solution is lead management, mainly B2B as I don't think it's that good for the B2C model.

I would say that compared to our previous CRM, Salesforce helped us improve our lead management and lead assignments like location, performance, and other factors. We are able to automate the process quite smoothly with SalesForce and it helps us a lot.

The most valuable features for me were the comprehensive reports. I like using the reports feature, but also the fact that we are able to have a smooth process when it comes to leads and opportunities. Opportunity management is a good feature.

I think that Salesforce can improve lead management when it comes to B2C. I would like to have more features specifically related to the B2C segment. The current process where you create a lead that's in the B2C segment and it creates an account makes no sense. 

In the next release, I'd like to see the opportunity to send text messages and actually call customers from Salesforce.

I would rate the stability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. The reason for this rating is that sometimes the platform can be slow.

I would rate the scalability of this solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. We have about 30 users of this solution in our company with plans for scaling.

I would say that the initial setup process was complex. We haven't been able to have all the resources available for this, so we had a Salesforce admin help us. I would say it takes about five or six people to deploy this solution.

We have seen a return on investment when it comes to this solution and especially considering our previous CRMs.

My impression is that this solution is a bit expensive for what it offers. I know other solutions have better pricing, but considering Salesforce is a global solution, we need to go with it.

I would advise other people looking into this solution, that if they're mainly dealing with the B2C model, to not go with Salesforce as it's not fit for it.

I would rate the Salesforce solution a seven, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

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.

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.

We were trying to use Salesforce for an ecosystem to create a loan origination system. So, we are developing a product on the Salesforce platform.

Salesforce's out-of-the-box features are sufficient for most businesses. For instance, if I consider Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, they encompass almost every feature that businesses need for their sales and service processes. If customization is required, Salesforce offers good options, such as using their process automation tool called "Flow" or taking the programming route with Apex programming. They provide a wide range of capabilities under what they call "No code," "Low code," and "Pro code" options. Businesses can use these to tailor their processes on the Salesforce platform.

Salesforce introduces a lot of products and sometimes rebrands them, causing confusion. They acquire products like W and retain their names, creating confusion in the market. This confusion isn't related to the product's functionality but rather its positioning and rebranding. For instance, what was once known as Community Cloud is now referred to as Experience Cloud. This can be confusing for business leaders. Regarding the product's functionality, I find it quite competent. 

We did encounter some issues with Einstein, specifically Einstein Discovery, which is Salesforce's tool for building machine learning models. While it offers out-of-the-box features, we faced occasional problems with it not running properly and had to seek support from Salesforce. There were also some bugs affecting the results. The features didn't always seem stable. The support we received was often delayed, which was frustrating. So, in terms of Einstein Discovery, there were some issues with stability. Our support issues were primarily related to Einstein Discovery. We were getting really late support.

So, there is room for improvement in Einstein Discovery. 

We have been working with this platform for close to two years.

The solution is highly stable. They are among the best in this regard. They prioritize transparency and trust, promptly reporting any outages. Therefore, the solution consistently maintains its uptime without issues.

Our customers are in the enterprise category. They have a considerable number of licenses, more than 10,000.

Salesforce is indeed scalable. The key is to strictly follow to their design guidelines and recommendations when it comes to data storage. Since it's a cloud-based platform, they suggest using external objects for smaller data. By following their recommendations, there are no inherent limitations in scalability. They also offer options for data archival. However, the challenge arises when organizations deviate from these recommendations, which can lead to performance and scalability issues.

The current recommendations are quite satisfactory. Considering it's a cloud platform, the capabilities are impressive. The only challenge is that as the platform grows, it becomes more complex. There's now a greater degree of customization and additional features, which can be overwhelming for smaller clients who may not need all of them.

With Salesforce introducing numerous features annually, the product has become larger and more intricate. Before implementing these features, they undergo extensive due diligence. However, as the product has grown, it now contains a lot of features. Some of these features may not be relevant to a particular client. For instance, a smaller client that has purchased Salesforce might find these features overwhelming rather than beneficial. It would be helpful if they could also offer lightweight applications that cater to specific sets of features rather than providing everything to every client. However, this might not be feasible due to its cloud-based nature. Nevertheless, there are many features that do not add value to the client. To put it quantifiably, if an organization or client uses only 10% of 100 features, it implies that 90 features are superfluous. So, it has indeed become feature-rich. But how do we determine which features are actually being used? Is there uncertainty around that? The usage of features can be somewhat doubtful.

Einstein Discovery support was somewhat delayed. The response time could be faster. 

Salesforce is cloud-based, so there's no installation involved. You simply log in using the provided organization login. There's no need for installation.

There are two approaches, managed and unmanaged packages. For maintenance, a team is required because new features need to be developed regularly. Everything is managed within Salesforce itself, including DevOps. The team is needed not just for maintenance but also for feature enhancements.

The people required for the deployment process vary depending on the specific module or feature. For example, in a larger implementation like insurance, you might require a big implementation team of 15 to 1,000 people. However, even for a smaller 15-member team, ongoing maintenance and support by at least 10% of the team is necessary.

However, it's not fair to base this solely on team size. Suppose we're talking about a significant feature; we've delivered the entire thing in two to three months, but we still need at least two to 10% of the team to maintain it.

The licensing is on the expensive side, but most clients engage in negotiations to reach a more favorable agreement. For stand-alone or medium-sized clients, it can be relatively costly.

Currently, it operates mainly on a monthly basis, with options for yearly subscriptions. In practice, clients often opt for the annual subscription, which results in monthly billing.

Pricing is somewhat intricate in that regard. Salesforce offers various types of licenses, including unlimited, enterprise, and CFO licenses, along with different Sandboxes and channel support options. The licensing structure is not very straightforward. It's very cumbersome.

So customers have options within the license only where customers can get an option of different Sandboxes and channel supports.

When planning a Salesforce implementation, or any similar platform for that matter, it's essential to have a crystal-clear understanding of your needs. This advice extends beyond Salesforce to other platforms as well. 

Salesforce often provides recommendations on how objects and custom objects should be created. My suggestion would always be to aim for a solution that leans towards standardization. Avoid adding unnecessary complexity through extensive programming or excessive custom object creation.

I recommend leveraging no-code or low-code solutions rather than diving into pro-code development. Pro-code can introduce complexity, especially when dealing with new releases. With no-code and low-code approaches, you can ensure that your solutions remain robust and don't break with each update.

Therefore, it's advisable to rely on standard objects and processes as much as possible. If customization is required, prefer configuration or flow options. Only in the most complex scenarios should you consider pro-code, such as Apex programming. This approach ensures stability. Additionally, during the design phase, create plenty of instances to facilitate the entire process.

This advice is applicable across the board, but it's particularly crucial for Salesforce implementations. Properly planning data design and reference architecture before implementation is key. These principles can significantly impact the success of any implementation.

Overall, I would rate it as an eight out of ten. It's a very good solution, but it does come with complexity.

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 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.

The tool's most valuable feature is the CRM. Salesforce Platform comes with out-of-the-box capabilities. 

Salesforce Platform operates as a cloud system, and within our organization, numerous internal systems handle data processing. While real-time data retrieval is feasible through services, achieving real-time communication poses some challenges.

We haven't experienced any issues with stability. 

I haven't contacted the support yet. 

I have used Pega CRM before Salesforce Platform. They have different capabilities except for the workflow. Salesforce platform leads in sales automation. 

Big organizations can take three months to complete deployment, but smaller ones can complete it earlier. You would need 20-30 resources for deployment. 

Salesforce is cheap. 

I rate the product an eight out of ten. Salesforce Platform does offer workflow capabilities, but challenges arise when dealing with real-time data integration, particularly for large organizations, especially in the financial sector.