Salesforce Terminology
Salesforce.com – An Introduction to Terms
Salesforce.com is a web 2.0 Customer-Relationship Management tool utilized by everyone from Fortune 500 companies to small Non-profit organizations. Salesforce.com enables organizations to track their customer contacts, key performance indicators, fundraising opportunities, recruitment operations and much more. The analytical tools on Salesforce enable organizations to run custom reports to find out how to improve their business processes. At MK Partners, we help clients get the most out of their Salesforce accounts by providing custom configurations, implementation, change management, data migration, and training services.
One key component to the success of Salesforce.com is its accessible and easy to use interface. Visually, Salesforce.com is structured to resemble a file cabinet where specific information can be located by a graphical representation of file folder tabs.
To standardize functionality and utility for users, Salesforce.com has developed specific terminology. As a consulting partner of Salesforce.com, MK Partners references Salesforce.com terminology throughout its Statement of Work and implementation process. To help familiarize you with Salesforce.com terminology, a reference guide is listed below to include definitions and graphical representation, when applicable.
Salesforce.com Terminology
Object- An object allows you to store information in your Salesforce organization. The object is the overall definition of the type of information you are storing. For example, the case object allows you to store information regarding customer inquiries. For each object, your organization will have multiple records that store the information about specific instances of that type of data. For example, you might have a case record to store the information about Joe Smith’s training inquiry and another case record to store the information about Mary Johnson’s configuration issue. Standard objects in the Non-profit edition of Salesforce include items such as: Contacts, Accounts, Campaigns, and Opportunities. Custom objects can be built to provide functionality not provided by standard objects. Objects are accessible via tabs by the same name in Salesforce.com.
Field - A field is a specific piece of information stored on every individual record. Fields can be created as many different data types including numbers, text fields, websites, and picklists. Each standard object has a specific set of fields associated with the object. Custom fields can be built to track any type of information that cannot be captured by standard fields.
Workflow Rule - Workflow rules are customized processes that enable you to automate specific functionality. An example of a workflow rule, is creating a rule that says you will send out an automatic thank you email to every organization that agrees to work with one of the individuals you provide services to at The Arc of San Francisco. Another example could include receiving an email 1 day prior to the birthday of any individual affiliated with The Arc of San Francisco.
s-Control - An s-Control is code stored in Saleforce.com that can be run after logging into Salesforce.com. s-Controls can be used to create custom screens that serve unique purposes. For example, you could use an s-Control to create a screen that allows you to log a call and edit a lead on one page. s-Controls can also be used to automate complex processes. For example, you could use an s-Control to create a button that when clicked will set an Opportunity’s Stage to “Closed Won” and mark the Account Type as “Customer”.
Apex Code - Apex is a programming language that allows developers to program Salesforce.com to automatically perform operations based on actions taken by a user. For instance, you could program Salesforce to automatically mark a Contact as having opted out of receiving emails when that Contact’s Organization is marked with a status of “Out of Business”. Unlike s-Controls, all Apex code runs on the Salesforce.com platform instead of in your web browser.
Salesforce.com – How Terms Correlate to Relationships
To be an effective Customer-Relationship Management tool, it is imperative that the data in Salesforce.com can interact with related data stored in the system. Therefore, the information stored in fields applies to the objects you’ve created in Salesforce. Data stored in objects can be related to other objects. Information can be received through the application of workflow rules.
These relationships can be conceptualized graphically in the following formats:
The following screen shot is included to provide an example of how Salesforce.com users will encounter the terms listed in this document in their daily activities.
- This record is stored in the contacts object, which is found in a list of tabs resembling file folders. Additional objects are represented with tabs such as organizations, households, and campaigns.
- Fields are listed on the record to store information such as phone numbers.
- The map field is actually an s-Control that enables a user to locate the address of the individual on Google maps with one click of a button.
