MK Partners Blog

Get $100.00 off your Dreamforce Registration

MK Partners is offering all of our clients a $100.00 USD discount off of their Dreamforce registration fees. There’s no catch, nothing you need to do to get it, it’s just our way of saying thank you. To get your discount, use promo code is EXDMKPTR when registering as a Dreamforce Attendee at www.dreamforce.com.

And when you’re at Dreamforce, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello.

Salesforce.com Winter ’11 Sandbox Preview Instructions

It’s that time again, when Salesforce.com gives their customers a sneak peak into their next release. As always, MK Partners is here to help you understand the process in as simple terms as possible.

The Winter ’11 sandbox preview begins on September 17th, 2010 and runs through October 9th, 2010. During that time you have the option of previewing Winter ’11 in your sandbox or keeping it as Summer ’10.

In order to know which set of instructions you need to follow, you need to login to your sandbox, look at the URL, and find out on which server your sandbox is currently hosted.

If your sandbox is currently on tapp0, cs3, or cs4, your sandbox will automatically be upgraded to Winter ’11 on 9/10/10. To downgrade it back to Summer ’10, refresh your sandbox after the upgrade. To prevent a downgrade don’t refresh it.

If your sandbox is currently on cs1 or cs2, your sandbox will NOT be automatically upgraded to Winter ’11. You need to move your sandbox to one of the other servers by refreshing it prior to 9/10/10.

If your sandbox is on cs5, you cannot participate in the Winter ’11 Sandbox preview.

Once the Winter ’11 release goes live, probably sometime in October, all servers will be upgraded and you can refresh your sandbox as you please.

Winter ’11 Sandbox Preview

Webinar: Winter ’11 Features

If you’re like us, then you’re eagerly watching the calendar as the Winter ’11 release of Salesforce nears. This year, Winter is coming early, which means that DF11 is going to be full of surprises. We don’t know what those surprises are yet, but we do know what’s coming in the Winter ’11 release. If you’re interested, you may want to attend an upcoming webinar showcasing the new features.

September 2, 2010
6:00–8:00 a.m. PDT
Repeats 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. PDT

Hour 1: Force.com & Chatter
Check out Force.com platform enhancements—including Chatter components and packages, as well as enhanced support for developing and debugging Apex and Force.com pages—designed to help you create amazing applications.

Hour 2: Sales & Service Clouds plus Chatter
We’ll preview new tools sure to boost collaboration and productivity among your sales and service teams.

Register Here

Migrate from Exchange to Google Apps

If you still haven’t switched your corporate email to Google Apps, there is yet another reason to do so. Google recently released an updated version of their migration tool for MS Exchange. This new release include IMAP support and PST support and adds better support for hosted exchange (for those of you already using the cloud for email hosting).

So if you were putting off the switch due to the complexity, you now have one less reason to do so. And if this isn’t enough of a reason, give us a call or send us an email and we’ll let you know the dozens of other great reasons to switch today.

Email migration now even easier [via Google Apps Blog]

New Force.com Labs App: LinkForce

There’s a new app in town and it’s called LinkForce. For those of you familiar with bit.ly and other link shortening services, LinkForce does the exact same function but is powered by Force.com Sites.

If you don’t regularly use URL/Link shorteners, then you’ve probably never sent out a link to a page only later to discover that you shouldn’t have. But, if you ever had the misfortune of doing so, I bet you wished there was a way you could’ve changed the URL you sent out. That’s precisely what a URL/Link shortener allows you to do. It’s just a little extra insurance bundled with some neat tracking ability.

Salesforce.com Winter ’11 Ideas

It might seem like it’s months away, but Salesforce.com has already updated the IdeaExchange with the list of enhancements likely to be released in the Winter ’11 release.

Check them out and let us know your favorites in the comments.

Webinar: Real-World Success with Chatter

Salesforce.com is hosting a webinar titled “Real-World Success with Chatter”. The webinar covers how to start using Chatter to make your business more effective including some examples from Dell, BCD Travel, and Vocera.

The webinar is available on three different dates:

August 11 10:00 a.m. PDT
August 17 10:00 a.m. PDT
August 25 10:00 a.m. PDT

Best States for Entrepreneurs

Roy Morejon @ roymorejon.com has a post with some interesting stats about the best (and worst) states to start a business in. Most of us probably don’t have the luxury of being able to move just to start a new business, but if you already live in or near one of these states and have the entrepreneurial spirit, then why not go for it.

With new incentives for starting businesses, hiring employees, and 100 free licenses of Force.com now’s the time to live your dream.

Best States for Entrepreneurs 2011

Free 250MB of Dropbox storage

If you’re not already using dropbox then you’re missing out. We’ve been using it for years to synchronize files across multiple pc’s and have an online backup.

Lifehacker had a recent post about how you can get a free 250MB of extra storage just by clicking on the Get Started tab and walking through a brief tour.

If you need ideas for what to do with all that extra space, check out our previous post Clever Uses for Dropbox.

Click the “Getting Started” Tab on Dropbox Web for a Free 250 MB Upgrade [via Lifehacker]

Dreamforce 50% discount extended through 8/6/2010

The Dreamforce 50% discount has been extended through 8/6/2010 so if you thought you had missed out on the discount you still have some time left! Visit www.dreamforce.com to register and be on your way to improving your productivity!