Salesforce Sales Cloud Reviews

This is very flexible product. I can tune many of its features for our company. Also, it integrates almost all needed tools for a small company, like ours. I like its powerful dashboard and third-party integration tools. In different tabs, you can track accounts, leads, and opportunities with one click. Also, I love their PRM system for communicating with indirect channels. I worked with Salesforce for one-and-a-half years and I completed many projects with it.

Salesforce is more expensive than other CRM services. It also has fewer features than many others competitors. Each of these reasons is not a big deal, but they forced us to eventually find another solution.

I used it for one and a half years.

There were no deployment issues.

There were no more than a dozen cases of instability a year.

It scaled well for us.

Customer service is nice.

They sometimes have problems with finding the root cause of an issue.

We didn't use a previous solution.

This is an expensive solution.

Chatter, Mobile Platform along with Mobile Push, Salesforce synchronization for MS Outlook, simple & smart analytic dashboard

User Adoption has improved a lot resulting in improvement of Data quality & ROI of Software.

Need to make complex CRM processes as Out of Box features, Address interface challenges between Salesforce and On-premise enterprise Software, Lot of dependency on affiliate software such as Service Max & Marketo

7 years

Digitizing complex business process around Sales (Multiple layer of approvals), building complex dash board consolidating Sales, Marketing data (Marketing ROI), building interface between Salesforce and On-premise enterprise software.

Yes. In Data synchronization & Replication.

Yes, when we moved beyond 3000 seats, we had challenges in meeting some Performance & Scalability standards.

I would rate them 7 out of 10.

I would rate them 6 out of 10.

Yes, I used Siebel & we switched to have better user adoption and better manage the cost of ownership of CRM software.

Initial setup was easy however we faced a lot of difficulty when we tried to interface it with other enterprise applications.

Our business was a mixed one i.e. combination of in-house & vendor team. Initially, we had a lot of challenges in terms of scaling up vendor team.

Unfortunately, we don't have a comprehensive way to capture ROI however we can observe both tangible & intangible benefits of using Software (Better user adoption, simplified data entry, better decision making through alerts of software, etc.)

Setup cost was way higher than expected. We spent close to $1.5 million on setup including interfaces for 3000 seats. Our d-d cost is approx 900k.

Yes, we evaluated SAP CRM, Oracle On-demand and Siebel

I strongly recommend it for a small to mid size company.

You can have non-sales and marketing personnel using Chatter without driving up licensing cost.

The bulk edit page is nice for creating multiple users at once with the most basic information.

The integration piece is missing.

Salesforce has a integration capability, but the moment we say integration, it's categorized into the following types:

- Synchronous and Asynchronous integration

- Hybrid integration: direct and middleware based

- Cloud-to-Cloud integration such as Salesforce.com to RightNow

So my point was whether Salesforce has the mentioned integration capabilities or not and answer is always the same -- it depends.

In such cases, we have to consider integration from the beginning and what kind of legacy systems we have and what the architectures of the current accounting system are, etc.

But also have to recognize that simply because we use a legacy system from a vendor who has a Salesforce too, that doesn't mean it integrates all that easily.

For Salesforce.com products to truly add business value to the enterprise, integration is thus crucial.

The increasing shift toward hybrid architectures, moreover, means that integration solutions must be able to seamlessly connect Salesforce.com with other SaaS applications and on-premises legacy systems.

And here, based on my past experience, I can say that Salesforce still have room for integration improvements.

We've had no issues with deployment.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.

The ease of customization plus the availability of an extensive selection of apps.

We have moved away from sharing docs and now everyone is on the same page with only one source of truth.

It is still relatively expensive - would like to see it a little cheaper.

I have worked with all versions, contact manager. group, professional, enterprise, unlimited and non profit starter pack for almost seven years.

I did need some external help initially but the reason for that was my fairly complex formula fields.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

It's outstanding.

It's outstanding on standard support plus they off premier support.

I worked, for a limited time, with Zoho and was looking for a bigger "ecosystem."

I had a few issues with the formula fields otherwise it was straightforward.

We used an in-house with some vendor assistance who had a very high level of expertise.

It's never been measured, but our year on year growth would have never been possible without Salesforce.

I would rather go for a version with less functionality, but allows a budget for more users.

Zoho CRM

It is not a perfect solution to all needs but is certainly an ideal solution for most.

Prepare an extensive needs analysis - ensure that Salesforce can deliver the solution you need.

The most valuable feature of Salesforce platform is the development model of Customer Facing Implementation/Applications. Salesforce provides a basic data model already prepared for users and allows developers to customize the platform according to their business needs.

Salesforce helps in increasing the productivity, sales, lead-management process (in which every lead is tracked in an efficient manner). The users within the organization are able to track their (and their sub-ordinates') opportunity pipeline. Sales managers have the tools, real-time tracking and instantaneous feedback are by far the best methods and hence they can give more energy to selling and immediately incorporate managers’ instant feedback with deals in motion.

Salesforce is itself expanding at a fast pace for all the partner, customer, and developer community. But as a Salesforce developer, it would be great of Salesforce can step towards the Open Source platform for development and implementation.

I have more than two years of experience working on the Salesforce platform. I have worked on Apex classes, VF pages, REST API, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, etc. for developing and customizing Salesforce for our clients.

While the Salesforce version upgrades are in process, there may be some performance issues (however, Salesforce does inform users about this beforehand).

In terms of scalability, the Salesforce platform is a multi-tenant platform and, hence, it focuses more on the governor limits and scalable applications. But if a company wants to expand the CRM, they can ask Salesforce for the 'unlimited' version which enables a larger limit with a per usage count.

Salesforce provides various levels of technical support for different types of customers based on the version they have purchased.

I have not worked on any other CRM application development platform.

Salesforce provides a basic data model which matches most all of organization models, but there is always a requirement to customize it according to a company's user needs in the most efficient manner. The consultants or the Salesforce developer can help the customers to achieve company-level customization.

We implemented it through a vendor team. I have worked on a Salesforce appExchange product (quick modular application specifically designed for companies to overcome implementation efforts).

The best advice for Salesforce implementation is to check if the feature is provided by Salesforce in the standard version; if not, then search for a Salesforce app on AppExchange which might fulfill the requirements, and if no such app exists, then we might have to develop it ourselves for the particular situation.

Costs and benefits in most cases are hard to determine, but don’t let perfection be the enemy of valuable information. If you are looking for a systematic functioning within your organization, Salesforce is one of your paths towards it.

There are various case studies on Google which suggests the options for choosing the best CRM. It depends on various factors such as cost, productivity, implementation cost, maintenance cost, etc.

You can try Salesforce as a free developer version (with lots of limits). You can contact me at vishal_kdn@yahoo.co.in for any kind of help and advice.

There are several valuable features, but the ones most useful to us are:

• Contact Management - this allows for better tracking of communication with end-customer tracking.
• Opportunity Tracking - you do not forget about opportunities that could slip through cracks.
• Excellent tech support for premier partners - pay for premium support as they always answer rather quickly.

It gives us great visibility into tracking opportunities and interactions with customers through email and phone conversations.

It needs improvement on integration with common apps, such as Outlook and iContact.

We've had no issues deploying it.

We haven't had any issues with instability.

We've been able to scale it as needed.

It was easy to do. 

We did it in-house, but help from having their premium support team. 

To use it in the most beneficial way for your organization, be sure to find a company that is familiar with the product for the integration.

I have only ever used the Sales Cloud as customized by the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP) as provided by Salesforce.org and virtually all aspects of that application are incredibly helpful from a nonprofit perspective. It really takes the ‘Sales’ Cloud and turns it into the ‘Nonprofit’ Cloud. We use it for fundraising, grant management, volunteer management and everything in between.

We use Salesforce for every aspect of our business and it improves efficiency and gives us one source of truth when it comes to organizational information. Everything from fundraising to volunteer management goes through Salesforce!

There are data limitations on the platform – in terms of how much data you can store on the platform without having to purchase more. Generally, anything over one GB of data is going to cost your organization extra – this happens fast too so watch out. There is a lot you can do with zero programming knowledge and you can automate most repetitive tasks with no code!

I've used it for roughly five years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

There have been no issues with the stability.

I would call out the one GB data limits as a scalability concern – as it is often an unexpected cost as Salesforce generally hides this nugget of information in the documentation/limitations of the product. From a deployment perspective – not really. It’s a complicated tool so the amount of time, expertise and/or money you have is generally going to impact deployment.

Salesforce relies heavily on their Community to do the work of support/customer service and it has paid big for them. I am usually headed to the Power of Us Hub or the Salesforce Community before I pick up a phone to call support. Overall, that experience is far more positive than trying to contact support. In the rare instances where I have had to call support, they are responsive – but beware of the additional costs for the ‘Premium’ support packages.

In my current role, no. In previous roles, we evaluated other donor solutions and determined that Salesforce was best suited for fundraising and program management. The flexibility and 360 degree view of your constituents is really the draw.

It’s a fairly straightforward purchase process – but the set up can be complex depending on your organizational requirements. The NPSP makes it easy to get off the ground quickly, but additional customization can often require consultant assistance.

I’ve done both – generally working with a vendor for any heavy development/coding work that needs to happen. Everything else I was able to learn. Salesforce does a great job empowering customers and ensuring that they have what they need (including access to peers) to learn the platform. I would say this is a core organizational strength of Salesforce.

In terms of non-profit licensing, you get your 10 free Enterprise Edition licenses as a 501(c)(3) and take advantage of those to learn the platform! As your organization grows, see Salesforce as an investment, not as a free tool that you must ensure continues to cost your organization $0. This will do more harm than good – learn the platform and allow it to grow with you.

You generally have two routes to go when implementing; you can hire a vendor to do the work for you, or you can invest in/hire a staff member/team to learn the platform, gain expertise and implement internally. In the non profit space, I heavily favour the second option as I think investing in some staff time to learn this is great and there is an amazing community to support the process.

The most valuable features for us are

• Visualforce and Apex
• Process Builder
• Knowledge Base

Our productivity and capability to solve and anticipate problems in the Call Centre team increased at least 50%.

Although the implementation was straightforward with our in-house team, it did take 12 weeks to complete the process.

I've been using it for five years.

There were no issues with the deployment.

Through their site, they expose their stability KPIs for their customers.

Considering they are 100% cloud, if the customer needs scalability you just have to contract more users.

10/10

10/10

We had a different solution, and switched because they have a 100% integrated platform where my team can develop our business processes almost without code.

It was straightforward, and it took 12 weeks to do the first implementation.

We did it in-house. I strongly recommend good project management and some Salesforce certified people to help with the system integrations.

Start with a small group of users, and take care with user adoption.

Salesforce has a great Customer Community where the users can add their suggestions and ideas.