MK Partners Archive for August, 2009

Batch Apex Demo at nonprofitcrm.org

Our friends at nonprofitcrm.org have put together a great demo of batch Apex. Check it out here.

Since batch Apex is only available in pilot, you may not be that familiar with it. It’s an asynchronous form of Apex that can run over the normal Apex governor limits. It’s very useful for nightly jobs that have to run on all your records and other complex processes.

Winter ‘10 Sandbox Preview Window Instructions

The salesforce.com Winter ‘10 release is quickly approaching! In preparation for the release, a Sandbox Preview Window is scheduled for September 18th, 2009 through October 10th, 2009. You may continue to use your Sandbox throughout the Sandbox Preview Window to test new customizations or features before rolling them out to users.

As a Force.com Sandbox customer, we want to make you aware of the options available to you during the release upgrade time. To determine whether there is any additional action you need to take to prepare for the Sandbox Preview Window, review the choices below.

1. Would you like to participate in the Winter ‘10 Preview on your Sandbox instance during the Sandbox Preview Window?
2. Would you like your Sandbox instance to retain the existing Summer ‘09 functionality until October 10th, 2009?
3. Do you have multiple Sandboxes?
4. Do you plan to upload and/or install any AppExchange packages to or from your Sandbox instance during the Sandbox Preview Window?
5. Do you plan to take no action with your Sandbox instance during the upgrade window?

Once you have reviewed these choices, you will need to go to the Force.com Winter ‘09 Sandbox Preview Window page to determine the action you need to take for each.

* http://www.salesforce.com/community/sandbox-preview-window.jsp
o Please note these instructions are in English only

If you have additional questions about your Sandbox options in conjunction with the Winter ‘10 release please contact MK Partners support or your Customer Success Manager or salesforce.com Customer Support team.

Winter ’10 Webinar

Join us this month for a presentation of on the exciting new Winter ’10 features. We’ll start off with an interactive preview of upcoming innovations in Force.com, such as batch Apex, Bulk API and Site integration with Portal. This will be followed by an equally intriguing look at new features in Salesforce CRM Cloud Apps, such as Inspector, Quoting, Dynamic campaign viewing and much more. Attend either part or come to both for the full picture.

Register today—and get a head start on Winter ’10.

The Business Case for Salesforce.com

During tough times, you may find that everyone in your organization is having a more difficult time allocating limited funds. As a result, many organizations are finding it difficult not to take a myopic view of their technology needs. Suddenly, many employees who understand the benefits of technology might find themselves in a position where they need to explain the importance of tools like salesforce.com to your executives.

We think this article does a stellar job of detailing how to explain the need for salesforce.com to your CFO and decision-makers. Focusing on terms that make sense to company executives, this article breaks down how salesforce.com relates to the three elements of total cost ownership: procurement, implementation, and operations.

Have you had to make a business case for salesforce.com in your organization? How did you do it?

force.mkpartners.com 100% Force.com Sites

Our customer list changes often. While we are very happy using WordPress as our content management system, it’s really not conducive to the rapidly changing environment in which we work. Having to login to yet another system is just one of the many hurdles to overcome to advertise our successes and get credit for our work.

Fortunately, there is an easier way. Force.com Sites enables you to create dynamic website content and control it from within your existing salesforce.com or force.com database. Not only does that means one less login to remember, but since we are already tracking our sales and projects in salesforce.com, we don’t have to retype our customer information. We took it a step further and use the built-in workflow, triggers, and approval processes to automate the entire process of updating our customer list, all with existing salesforce.com functionality.

As of today, our customer list is 100% hosted by Force.com Sites, check it out at force.mkpartners.com/customers

And this is just the beginning, stay tuned as we not only add more Customer stories to our website but also use Force.com Sites to control our Partner list, our Customer Portal, and much more!

Nonprofits: Win a Free Dreamforce Admission

The salesforce.com foundation announced a new contest yesterday for nonprofits:

Calling all nonprofits!

Show us how your nonprofit uses salesforce and you could be featured on the salesforce.com foundation’s website and win yourself a trip to Dreamforce!

It’s easy – create a quick YouTube video showcasing how your organization uses Salesforce and shoot the link to success@salesforcefoundation.org by October 9th. We are looking for the video that best answers the question, “What does salesforce do for nonprofits” with bonus points for originality & fun factor. To give you an idea, here’s a great example video that explains cloud computing.

We’ll announce the winner October 16th.

And what do the winnings include? Well nothing beats the fame and fortune of having your video kick off the Nonprofit Orientation at Dreamforce as well as being featured on the salesforce.com foundation’s website! We’ll also be sure you attend Dreamforce on us.

Give it a whirl – help other nonprofits discover the power you have successfully unleashed for your organization through Salesforce! We appreciate your support of our global nonprofit community.

Visit MK Partners at Dreamforce 2009

We are excited to announce that MK Partners will be exhibiting at salesforce.com’s Dreamforce 2009, taking place November 17 – 20, in San Francisco, CA. We invite you to join us at the could-computing event of 2009 with a special discount of $100 USD off your registration fees. To receive your discount, register at www.dreamforce.com and use the promotional code EXH29224 during the final step of the Registration Process.

We hope to see you there!

Live Webinar: Build a profitable cloud computing business

salesforce.com is hosting the following webinar on August 27, 2009, 10:00 a.m. PST

What does the explosive growth of cloud computing mean to the channel? What do customers expect from their solution providers? How are other channel leaders already taking advantage of this market opportunity?

Join salesforce.com executive Bobby Napiltonia, salesforce.com partner Steven Warshawsky of Perficient, and our featured guest, Forrester analyst TJ Keitt, to find out.

  • Learn what’s driving the growth of cloud computing
  • Find out which business models and strategies work best
  • Hear from a partner who’s profiting from the cloud

Plus—there will be a groundbreaking channel announcement from salesforce.com. Be the first to hear the news!

Register now

Learn how you can build a profitable business in the cloud.

New salesforce.com video: What is Premier Training?

salesforce.com now has a youtube.com channel.

One of their latest is a sales pitch for premier training.

Winter ’10 Release Features

We know it’s still months away, but there’s a list on ideas.salesforce.com for features likely to be in the Winter ’10 release. Of course salesforce.com’s safe-harbor statement applies.

http://ideas.salesforce.com/popular/coming_in_winter_10