MK Partners welcomes its newest client, The Natural Step, to the list of nonprofit organizations achieving salesforce.com solutions developed by MK Partners.

The Natural Step, an organization focused on developing blueprints toward sustainability for organizations of all sectors, lacked the technology to easily implement it’s mission statement. Struggling with outdated systems,  The Natural Step came to MK Partners to develop an integrated, web-based solution that could benefit their project management team in the field and the rest of their staff regardless of location.

Utilizing salesforce.com, MK Partners implemented a solution that enables The Natural Step to track donors, constituents, and all of the aspects associated with project management such as budgets, project teams, quotes, testimonials, and lessons learned in one web-based system.

Over the weekend, salesforce.com prepared sandboxes on some servers to be upgraded to Spring ‘10. The actual upgrade on the sandboxes will go live on January 22, but if you don’t want your sandbox to be upgraded during the sneak-peak period, now is the time to refresh your sandbox to keep it on Winter ‘10.

All of this is a little confusing so checkout the details here

Wish you could run more of your business in the cloud? To give users exactly what they need and make your entire company more efficient? Find out how Schumacher Group did just that—by building unique Force.com apps to manage relationships with physicians and to administer contracts and proposals.
Join Melissa and Sarah for another example of how to use your existing skills to build applications that extend beyond CRM. Learn how Schumacher Group harnessed the power of salesforce.com to meet the following business goals:

• Get better reports with summary fields
• Put an end to bad data with workflows, approvals, and validation rules
• Create a fresh new look with Force.com pages functionality

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your career.
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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?

As salesforce.com consultants, we can never stress the importance of ensuring user adoption enough. Investing in a system like salesforce.com is a big step in the right direction for your organization, but to get the most out of your investment, you need to work with a team that understands your needs. Just as important, your consultant and your staff need to be focused on a long-term relationship that accounts for any potential obstacles to user adoption.

With our knowledge of salesforce.com best practices and our training materials, MK Partners puts you in a great position to overcome any obstacles you might encounter following your implementation. With that said, we know that systems evolve, business processes change, and there is a learning curve in using salesforce.com. Our long-term client relationships focus on resolving any issues that arise over time. Recognizing critical success factors for implementation is the first step to a successful rollout, which is why we were big fans of this article: Salesforce.com: 6 Areas To Watch After Rollout.

Do you agree with the 6 factors mentioned? Do you have any to add to the list that were key to your implementation?

This summer, salesforce.com has begun offering the Force.com Free Edition, a “light” version of their Force.com platform enabling customers to build applications and run websites using salesforce.com’s cloud-based resources.  With this offering, clients are given a set of tools to build and deploy their first cloud computing application to up to 100 users.  Clients will also have some free access to Force.com Sites, salesforce.com’s recent addition to their cloud platform, which allows companies to build and run public-facing websites using their platform.  Clients using the free edition will get up to 250,000 pages views per month, as well as 10 custom objects/custom database tables per user, a sandbox development environment, online training, and a library of free application templates.

MK Partners loves this idea! This is the perfect solution for a small startup, medium-sized nonprofit, or just a low-budget initiative in any sized company.

For more information on salesforce.com’s Force.com Free Edition, check out this article.

Founder Collective, a venture fund, has selected MK Partners to optimize its use of salesforce.com. Founder Collective came to MK Partners because it felt it was not leveraging the full functionality of salesforce.com. Specifically, MK Partners will focus on modifying salesforce.com to better help Founder Collective track and monitor the tasks and data associated with its sales funnel and pending deals.

MK Partners is excited to bring Founder Collective the results it seeks and welcome them to the long list of businesses who have relied on MK Partners to better enhance their processes and service.

As of last week, QuickArrow’s home page is plastered with an announcement about Netsuite buying them out. As you many know Netsuite has competed with Salesforce.com for years but never comes near to overtaking them.

If you’re an existing customer of both QuickArrow and salesforce.com this is bad news for you as we think Netsuite will stop supporting (and possibly even offering) QuickArrow’s integration with salesforce. Naturally, you too are likely to have some concerns about how you will be impacted by QuickArrow’s disappeance, but MK Partners is here to help.

MK Partners is now offering a free migration for all QuickArrow customers to MK Partners’ time and expenses application SaaS TEa! In addition to the advantages of being an application native to salesforce.com, SaaS TEa is also less expensive than QuickArrow.

For more information on how you can migrate from QuickArrow to SaaS TEa at no cost, please contact MK Partners at sales@mkpartners.com.

A few weeks ago, salesforce.com and Google announced another significant step forward in their longstanding partnership with the new release of Force.com for Google App Engine.  This new offering is another win for cloud computing, providing developers with the ability to create and build applications entirely in the cloud using both salesforce.com and Google’s cloud computing platforms.  The new Force.com for Google App Engine has a whole host of new features, including Java language support and the ability for App Engine developers to easily access many Force.com services and capabilities.  In addition, it also includes other features such as an open source SOAP Web Service client and the ability for Google’s apps to read and write to Force.com using the Force.com SOAP API. 

Salesforce.com and Google have been partnering together since 2003, when they first worked together on google.org.  Since then, they’ve embarked upon a number of joint ventures together, including the integration of Google Apps and Google AdWords with salesforce.com’s CRM application.  The two organizations are a good fit, with their cloud computing technology models, their subscription-based business models, and their commitment to philanthropy.  For more information on their latest partnership in the new release of Force.com for Google App Engine, check out this article.

In our current economic climate, it’s critical to assess your internal business processes from time to time, and evaluate how to reduce costs while still increasing productivity and efficiency.  In addition to deploying CRM solutions like salesforce.com to accomplish this feat, many companies big and small have begun using Google Apps for their productivity and messaging needs.  Google Apps enables employees to stay connected through messaging apps like Google Calendar and Gmail, which includes voice, video, and IM capabilities.  It also increases productivity and facilitates the sharing of company information through collaboration apps like Google Docs, Google Video, and Google Sites.  Check out the Google Apps site for more information on the rich set of features included with Google Apps.

At $50 per user for a year, Google’s Premier Edition for businesses offers an affordable solution to organizations of all sizes.  Furthermore, its web-based platform eliminates the need for businesses to spend exorbitantly on hardware, software, and ongoing maintenance.  As part of their longtime partnership, Google and salesforce.com have developed Salesforce for Google Apps, integrating the two applications and allowing you to access Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and Google Docs all from within Salesforce.  For all of these reasons, many larger corporations have begun adopting Google Apps internally.  At MK Partners, we use it in conjunction with salesforce.com quite extensively, enabling us to stay connected all the time and share key information with each other easily.

For more information on implementing Google Apps within your organization and syncing it with salesforce.com, contact us at sales@mkpartners.com.