Salesforce Saint

August 30, 2015

Dreamforce 2015: Ready or Not…

It’s almost here! Just two weeks until the biggest and the bestest conference we’ve ever seen! It’s coming up really quickly – and ready or not, you’re going. You’ve booked your hotel (hopefully). You’ve built your agenda (probably several times by now). You’ve joined the Dreamforce-centric groups in the Success Community (oh, you haven’t? check out this blog post).

Now what? You might think you’re ready – but here are some last-minute, final-countdown tips that will make Dreamforce even better for you.

Apps: As you may have heard, there is no need to lug around a laptop at Dreamforce. But there are a few apps that I like to make sure I’ve got on my phone and/or tablet for easy access during the week. Here are my must-haves:

Dreamforce ’15 – This is a no-brainer – it’s the best way to check your agenda throughout each day. Tip: also keep a printed copy of your agenda on you – we’ve been known to crash the app on occasion!

Partyforce – I love this app! It lists of all the events that will be going on during the conference. Tip: make sure to register for the parties ahead of time – many of them require registration, and they are filling up fast.

Evernote – Most sessions are recorded, so there is no need to take notes on the content or photos of the slides in those sessions. However, I really like to jot down the “a-ha!” moments that happen during great sessions – for future inspiration. I also like to have notes from non-recorded sessions (roadmap sessions in particular are not usually recorded). And if you take a hands-on training session, make sure to make a note of the login to the org that you used during that session – you will have access to it for a month and might want to revisit it to refresh your memory. (Any note-taking app is helpful – Evernote just happens to be my favorite.)

Eventbrite – Most of the parties that I’ve registered for this year used Eventbrite for the tickets. Having an Eventbrite account and the app really streamlines the process of getting in.

Packing: Start making your list now. I’m not kidding! When the day comes to actually pack for the trip, I will always forget something really important if I don’t have a list. Here are the things I always make sure to bring:

Phone and tablet chargers – because all those apps are battery killers! And because there will be places to plug in all over Moscone.
Snacks – because my brain doesn’t function when I’m hungry! I always have a couple of protein bars in my bag. I also like to bring instant oatmeal cups for a quick breakfast in my hotel room. These things are way cheaper at my local grocery store, so I stock up before the trip, instead of hunting for them after arriving in San Francisco.
Business cards – because we’re all going to be meeting new people and want to stay in touch! If your company does not give you your own business cards, have some made with your basic professional contact info on them (I get mine from Zazzle).
Layers – because the weather is unpredictable, and you will experience a wide range of temperatures, going from hotel to outside to Moscone to a party location and back! I like to keep a scarf and light sweater/jacket with me at all times, and never wear anything that will get too warm.
Comfortable shoes – because you have never walked this much in one week! I can’t say it enough. Be kind to your feet, they will thank you.
Space – meaning, leave empty space in your suitcase! You will get a backpack at check-in. You will most likely pick up a ton of swag. And you may even do some shopping if you are in town before or after Dreamforce. Do not overpack – leave room for all the goodies you will be bringing home.

Check-in: You will want to check in as early as possible on the very first day you arrive. The exact times and locations have not been posted yet, but the Dreamforce FAQ page says that check-in will begin Monday at 2:00pm at various locations. If you are arriving on Monday, try to check in that day. If you come in too late to check in on Monday, then you’ll want to check in as early as possible Tuesday morning. I waited in line for about two hours one year because I got there late on the first day – so this is not something you want to put off. The team at Dreamforce will do the best they can – keep in mind that there will be over a hundred thousand people checking in, and be patient!

Downtime: Dreamforce had something like 130,000 attendees last year. Even if you are normally outgoing and social, it can take a toll on you. Here are my tips for taking care of myself without missing out.

You don’t have to go to every party. Really, you don’t. Go to the gala, because that is always a good time! For the other parties – pick the ones that you are truly interested in. If you are an introvert (like me), give yourself one night off during the week to just be alone and recharge.
Take care of your body! Make sure to stay hydrated. Eat food that is as close to your normal diet as possible, and keep snacks on hand for when you are running low on energy. Don’t over-drink at the events, or you will be too tired for your morning sessions.
Pack your agenda with as many sessions as possible, but make a note of which ones you’re okay with missing if need be. For example, I make sure not to miss roadmap sessions and hands-on trainings – but everything else will be recorded for later viewing. It’s good to plan for this ahead of time in case you need to run back to your hotel for a mid-day catnap!

Miscellaneous:

Are you taking a certification exam at Dreamforce? You should already be studying! Don’t cram at the last minute, it will just make the entire experience more stressful. Study now.
Do you have specific Dreamforce goals, or some questions that you want answered? Make a list. I look at my list every morning of the conference to keep in mind what I hope to accomplish during the week.
Is your hotel further from Moscone than you’d like? You can purchase short-term public transportation passes, so keep that in mind as an alternative to taxis if you are not within walking distance.
On Friday, check out of your hotel early and check your bag at your hotel’s front desk, or at Moscone. Make sure to give yourself extra time to get to the airport to fly out – traffic will be insane, and the airport security line will be much longer than usual with the conference attendees heading out all at once. Book an airport shuttle in advance, or take BART to avoid street traffic.
Have more questions about Dreamforce? Visit the FAQ page here.

Happy Dreamforcing!

August 18, 2015

Making the Most of the Success Community

For a while, I just didn’t “get” the Salesforce Success Community. Other admins talked about it, and I knew how to vote for ideas… but I never really took the time to explore everything that it had to offer. And then one day I was hunting for an answer, I stumbled upon some hilarious Chatter conversations, and something just clicked in my head. What had I been missing out on? Over the past year, I’ve become more involved – and as a result, I’ve found answers to every question I could come up with, I’ve connected with some incredibly talented and inspiring people that I have loads in common with – who I hope to meet at Dreamforce! – and, finally, I get it.

If you are new to the Success Community, it can appear quite daunting. The UI is wonderfully intuitive, but many of us – yes, myself included – have been unsure of the best way to start using the Community to our advantage, or how to simply jump in. If that’s you, then keep reading!

Understand how you are connecting. A good place to start is to make sure you know how Community profiles work. When you log into the Success Community, you log in with your Salesforce.com credentials. As time passes and you change jobs, your Community profiles will start to stack up – a new one exists for every Salesforce login you have ever had! I just searched my own name, and this happened:

Yes. Those are all me.

If you have your own dev org – usually set up with personal credentials that you will keep – you can also log into the Community using that login. That’s my personal choice, just so I can keep all of my interactions in the same place.

Also, keep in mind that when you first log in, if you are already logged into a Salesforce org (for instance, while you are at work), that is the Community login that you will be using. It’s easy to accidentally log in with the profile that you didn’t intend to use.

There has been a lot of user frustration over time because of the inability to merge Community profiles – there is also an idea for this feature that you can promote here. But if you think about it, it makes sense. Each of our Community profiles is a User record in Salesforce’s own org (much like partner portal users, if you’ve ever dealt with those). Users can never be merged or deactivated, so this is probably why it is such an issue.

Update your profile. Once you are logged in with the Salesforce account of your choice, click on the arrow next to your picture (or the smiley face if you have no picture) in the upper right corner, then click on your name. This is where you can upload a picture, and edit your profile. You can determine the visibility of your profile info, sharing it with Employees (other users within your Salesforce org), External (your org’s Partner or Community Users), or Public (all Success Community Users). Note: Your name and the About Me section are always publicly visible.

Join Chatter Groups. Groups are a great way to instantly connect with like-minded people and get involved. Click on the Collaboration tab at the top of the page, then click Groups in the left-hand navigation menu. It will default to your recently viewed groups. Click Active Groups for a complete list of available groups. To find a specific group, start typing a group name in the search bar. In your search results, there will be a “Join” link to the right of each group name. If you are on a group page, the “Join” link will be in the upper right. Hint: Most of the groups which are managed by Salesforce begin with “Official,” so if you aren’t sure what to search for in Groups, try that first!

Most groups will have a description and additional info on the left-hand side of the group page. The center area will list all posts to that group.

The first group that I recommend you join is the Official: Success Community Corner group (pictured above). If you want more detailed info after reading this blog post, go to that group and click on all of the Key Resources listed – they have far more information than I am covering right now!

Join your local User Group. Click the User Groups tab at the top of the page, and you will see an alphabetized list of local user groups (there are also several user groups by vertical). If there is not a user group in your area, you can start one!

Tailor your Feed so that it makes you happy. This is a continuous effort for me. I follow and unfollow other Users, and join and leave Groups, on a somewhat regular basis. I will often follow someone or join a group based on a couple of interesting posts, but over time those posts may not be relevant to me. These changes are easy to make with one click (hover over a user or group name and the option will be there), so follow/unfollow until your feed is showing you the stuff you want!

Don’t spam. EVER. The Success Community is not the place to try to sell products or solicit donations. Just don’t do it. Go spam people with Marketing email blasts, like everyone else does. (My Marketo admin is going to punish me for saying that…)

If you have a blog, join the Blog Group and share your posts there. It is also considered appropriate to share blog posts in groups that the subject matter is relevant to – for instance, a blog post on the Process Builder could be shared with the Salesforce Workflow Automation Group.

And please do share anything Salesforce-related that may be useful or interesting. One of my favorite things about the Community is the articles and ideas and random conversation-starters that bring us together!

Be respectful. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning anyway. We are all in the same boat here, regardless of levels of experience. It’s a community of peers, so avoid negativity and respect your fellow users. You don’t have to like everything that is said – just be mindful of the difference between a healthy debate and a rude remark.

Get Answers. To me, this is the meat of the Success Community. Are you stumped by some minor configuration detail? Can’t get what you want into a report? Have a question about a new feature that you just can’t wrap your head around? The answer is here, 99.9% of the time. What I like to do is start on the main Success Community page, and type some keywords into the search bar just below the banner. This will bring up results in every area of the Community.

From here, I can decide where to look for the answer I want. Maybe I’ve already checked Documentation, so Questions is a better place to look. Or maybe these results are giving me the impression that what I want is not possible, so I will check the Ideas to see if it has been requested yet.

You can also post your question on the Answers tab. Tip: Always search for an answer before posting a question. Chances are, someone else has asked it – and you will find that the Community has already responded with a solution!

And if you see a question from another user and you know the answer, please jump in and answer it! We will all thank you for it. Most of the people who answer those questions don’t get paid to do it, they are just helping out. Every answer from every user is valuable.

Now… get going! Again, make sure to check out the Success Community Corner group’s resources for more details on how to interact in the Success Community – they have a video, and excellent documents with even more details to help you out.

Jump in, and enjoy!

July 29, 2015

Dreamforce 2015: Get Your Ducks in a Row

As a Salesforce admin with years of experience, I still find Dreamforce educational as well as inspiring for both my job and my blog. But every year, I feel the same sort of “am I ready for this?” panic as the date grows closer. If I feel that way – and this year will be my 8th Dreamforce – then the newbies out there must be freaking out!

Well, there’s no need to panic. But there is a need to prepare. Have you got your ducks in a row? (Or as my mother would say, “Have you got your poop in a group?” Seriously, mom – eww.) Whether you are a Dreamforce newbie or a veteran like me who just needs a few reminders, I hope you find my own Dreamforce checklist helpful.

1. Hotel Reservations: Oh, you have not booked your hotel yet? OUCH. Seriously, this is going to be tricky for you. But it is still possible. Here are a few tactics for getting a hotel somewhere other than Oakland:

Search for hotels several times a day. As people change hotels or cancel their registrations, the rooms that they had reserved will become available again. Have your credit card ready though, because they will disappear just as quickly! August 15th is the cutoff date to cancel Dreamforce registration with a full refund, so the week prior is a great time to be searching. Seriously, do a search every half hour if you can.
Reach out to the All Dreamforce group in the community, and ask if anyone would be willing to share their room – many people have booked hotel rooms with two beds and are fine with roommates.
Look for a room outside of the Dreamforce site. It can be done! Vacation rentals, Airbnb, and many other travel sites will have random available rooms pop up between now and the conference. Look what I just found on Booking.com!

2. Join groups and participate in the Community! There are some great groups to join that will keep you updated on all things Dreamforce. The All Dreamforce group is a must. If this is your first Dreamforce, make sure to join the New to Dreamforce group too. There are also groups based on your role and company size. There are fun groups too – whether you will be spending your spare time at the gym or at the parties, there’s a group for that!

3. Get on the Road to Dreamforce! Every Tuesday at 11:00am PST, the Road to Dreamforce is a live webcast, running approximately 30 minutes, and full of news and tips that will help you get the most out of your trip to Dreamforce. If you’ve missed them, don’t worry – they are all recorded and ready to watch at your convenience.

4. Add training or certification! On your Dreamforce registration confirmation page, there is a link to add training or add a certification exam. If you’ve been considering either of these, Dreamforce is the perfect opportunity. The certification exams are half price when taken at Dreamforce as well, so there is no better time. DO IT. (And check out my previous blog post to find out how I passed my cert exams without taking the classes!)

5. Bookmark your sessions NOW! The Agenda Builder goes live on Monday, August 3rd. But you can do a lot to prepare ahead of time. Many sessions have already been posted, so you can go through those, and save them as favorites so that they are easy to find later. You can view personalized, expert picks, or all sessions.

In the navigation menu on the left, you can update your personalized settings, or search for sessions’ titles.

Some tips for session registration once the Agenda Builder is live:

Register for as many hands-on trainings (a.k.a. “HOTs”) as possible. You can find these by searching “hands-on.” These sessions are my favorites because you actually sit at a computer and are walked through the steps of creating/configuring something specific. They are also a great way to try something that you think is over your head or completely foreign to you, because the step-by-step instruction makes it so much easier to grasp. And you have access to the org that used in each hands-on session for 30 days afterward!
As it gets closer to session registration day, pay attention! You will receive an email notification from Dreamforce when session registration is available, but sometimes it’s a good idea to log in and check – the sessions go live incrementally, and they fill up quickly. Sometimes they go live at midnight, sometimes at 5:00am.
If too many of the sessions you want have filled up, don’t panic! Keep checking for added sessions between the initial go-live and the conference. The Dreamforce team is constantly working to add more to the schedule, and popular sessions will most likely be repeated during the conference.
If you still can’t register for a particular session that you absolutely must attend, you can still get in! A number of seats in every session are reserved for walk-ins. Just plan to get there early and wait in line.

6. Be smart about booking your flight. Who doesn’t love hanging out at the airport? Oh, you don’t? Then LISTEN UP.

Keep in mind that the majority of attendees will be scrambling to get to the airport in the early afternoon on the final day of Dreamforce. There is usually a half-day of sessions that day as well, so I always try to leave late in the evening, or stay an extra day and have fun in the city before I go. If you decide to fly out on Friday afternoon, be prepared for major delays. There were, what, 130,000 people at Dreamforce last year? So… just keep in mind what that could do to airport traffic.

There is a very thorough Dreamforce FAQ which includes contact information, and should answer most of the usual questions and/or concerns. Another great place to get fast answers is the All Dreamforce group in the Community. I will be posting additional preparation tips as the big week draws closer, so stay tuned. Happy planning!

July 15, 2015

When Leap Year Attacks…

Another leap year is coming! Normally, I am a fan of anything that puts another day between now and my birthday. But recently, I discovered the chaos that a leap year – really, leap day – can cause in date calculations.

If you’ve ever cloned records where you have to move the date fields out one year, then you’ve done things like this:

Not an issue if you are manually cloning, right? Because you can simply adjust as needed for those pesky little February 29th dates.

I’ve created a flow that runs when someone clicks a button (on an opportunity page layout) named “Create Renewal Opp.” The flow creates a renewal opportunity, and also clones the products from the original opportunity. (I would also like to add that I could not have done it without this blog post – thanks Rakesh!) In this flow, there are some nifty date formulas that were working just fine… until we got closer to February 29th, 2016.

There were two ways that I attempted to calculate my dates + 1 year. The easiest was DateField + 365. It simply adds 365 days to the date it’s looking at. The problem with this is, if 2/29/2016 is within that 365 days, and what you really wanted was for the month and day to be the same (and just move the year out by one), then it won’t work. If you add 365 days to 7/15/2015, you will get 7/14/2016.

The other formula I tried was DATE (YEAR (DateField) +1, MONTH (DateField), DAY (DateField)). This keeps your month and day the same, and adds +1 to the year. This is perfect. Except… when it tries to add a year to 2/29/2016, it will fail – because 2/29/2017 is not a valid date.

So when I used my fancy “Create Renewal Opp” button on an opportunity that had 2/29/2016 as one of the dates, I got a flow error message, as well as an email alert that told me I had an invalid date value.

No renewal opportunity was created.

There are some really complicated formulas out there in the Help & Training documentation that are supposed to get around this leap year issue. But really, if you are just adding one year (or two years, or whatever), it is much simpler than that. After extensive testing and trial & error, I finally settled on a formula that worked for me:

To break it down: if the date is February 29th, then add 365 days (which will take you to February 28th of the next year) – otherwise, add 1 to the year and leave the month and day the same. The beauty of this calculation is that it never looks for a specific year. It just keeps things in line during any year, leap or not.

So keep this handy for when you need an “add-a-year” calculation, enjoy the fact that you’ll never again need to re-calculate things because of leap years, and relax!