Podcast
Salesforce Admins Podcast
Hosted by Mike Gerholdt · EN
The Salesforce Admins podcast features real-life Salesforce Admins, product managers, and community leaders who transform businesses, careers, and community with clicks, not code. This 20min (sometimes a bit more) weekly podcast hosted by Mike Gerholdt feature episodes to empower Salesforce Admins who are implementing Enterprise CRM solutions. There may be some (digital) confetti. For more than our most recent episodes, go to https://admin.salesforce.com/salesforce-admin-podcast.
43episodes
Episodes
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Exploring Agentforce Vibes Through Real-World Admin Use Cases
Jan 1500:32:35Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Daryl Moon, Founder of CertifyCRM.com. Join us as we chat about how curiosity and a test-first mindset can help you get the most out of Agentforce Vibes. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Daryl Moon. Fishing and the art of AI maintenance Daryl came into tech as a generalist who did a bit of everything: hardware, software, networking, whatever needed doing. One fateful day, however, he took on a contract to import some spreadsheets into a CRM and ended up as the de facto Salesforce Admin for his organization. Just like everyone else, Daryl has spent the last year trying to get his head around AI and how to separate the smoke and mirrors from the actual potential value. A keen fisherman, his mind was blown one day when he used AI to summarize the fishing reports from his local bait and tackle shop and immediately went out and caught six fish. How Daryl got started with Agentforce Vibes On one of his trips to the local boat ramp, Daryl decided to throw on the ol' Salesforce Admins Podcast, where he happened to catch our episode about Agentforce Vibes with Josh Birk. He was already planning to work on a video about new Apex features in Spring '26, so he figured he'd give Agentforce a shot. Daryl decided that the best way to learn about Agentforce Vibes was to try to build something simple that he was already familiar with. He spun up a developer org and asked the AI to build a Lightning Web Component for open opportunities, and while there were several things about it that didn't quite work as intended, he was impressed with how Agentforce Vibes would take things step by step using the plan and act modes. What to build first with Agentforce Vibes In order to learn more about building in Agentforce Vibes, Daryl decided to take it a step further. What would happen if he tried to build an entire application? He ended up getting most of what he asked for, though the AI got stuck on building a few automations. Most importantly, it got him 80% of the way there for 10% of the time investment. Daryl's biggest piece of advice for any admin trying to learn Agentforce Vibes is to start by building something you already know. AI is a tool like any other, so work with something familiar so you can properly judge how well it's working. Make sure to listen to the full episode for more from Daryl about how he learned Agentforce Vibes. And don't forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: How Agentforce Vibes Speeds Up Admin Workflows Salesforce Admins Blog: Introduction to Agentforce Vibes for Salesforce Admins Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Daryl on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: Welcome to the Salesforce Admins Podcast. This week I am joined by Daryl Moon, retired fishing enthusiast, but that's not what we're talking about. He is a longtime Salesforce pro who recently dove into Agentforce Vibes and he's going to bring us along for the ride. So from tinkering with lightning web components to building a full-on job seeker app, Darryl shares how his curiosity and a test first mindset helped him explore this new AI tool. And of course, we talk about some unexpected challenges of token limits, but that's going to happen when you're learning something. So if you've ever wondered whether Agentforce Vibes is worth your time, this episode is for you. And with that, let's get Daryl on the podcast. So, Daryl, welcome to the podcast. Daryl Moon: Thanks, Mike. Mike: I'm very excited to have you on, especially after you posted on LinkedIn that you decided to jump in feet first into vibe coding, so I definitely want to talk about that. But before we get to that, I'd love to learn a little bit more about Daryl Moon. So, Daryl, tell us, how did you get started with Salesforce and what got you into vibe coding? Daryl Moon: Yeah. Look, I'll try and keep it short and sweet. But basically, I was working overseas and then returned to Australia in 2014. And obviously, was looking for a job because I'd been away for 10 years. And the IT industry, during that time, had changed a lot. I was a bit of a generalist, I'd done a bit of everything. A bit of application development, a bit of hardware, software, networking. So I came back to this environment where the job roles were very specialized and I was finding it a bit hard to find a role that really fitted me. So I managed to find this one that was a contract just for a couple of weeks to fix up some spreadsheets and I thought, "Excel, I can do that." And that turned out to be fix up some spreadsheets that had all this data that they're importing into a CRM. A CRM, which at the time wasn't Salesforce, it was another product. And this other product had some gaps in it and it turned out to be a bit of vaporware. When we started talking about opportunities, while that was something that they were going to build. So they had the account and the contact functionality, but opportunities were something off in the future and that was a bit of a concern. And it really came to a head when we wanted to raise some issues that we had with the existing functionality and discovered that this company was actually using Sales Cloud or Service Cloud to record these issues that we had. Our CEO at the time was a former Salesforce customer. Cut a long story short, we did a pivot and we switched to using Salesforce and I became the defacto accidental admin. Mike: It happens quite a bit. Daryl Moon: Yeah. So the next thing was, well, how does this Salesforce thing work? We had a partner that we were working with and they were great, and they were helping do some of the heavy lifting. But also, being able to work with those consultants, I was able to start and learn my way around the admin side of things. Of course, this was about 2014, 2015, just before we had Trailhead. So it was a bit of a learn and discover as you go, until Trailhead came out, until I got hold of some resources. There was fairly limited YouTube content around at the time, but there was some really helpful posts from people like Steve Mo and Jennifer Lee, and people like that, some of those. Jennifer's obviously joined your team, and Cheryl Feldman at the time. So yeah, that was the early days when I got started. Mike: Wow. So you've grown up on the platform for a lot of the time that I've been at Salesforce. This last, I would say, year-and-a-half, two years since AI has come, how has your learning and what you work on the platform changed since that? Daryl Moon: I've been a bit of a critic of the whole AI movement and the value of it, certainly at the start. But I would have to say probably over the last six months or so, I've been starting to see that there's a little bit more beyond just the smoke and mirrors and there is actually some value there. Just to give an example, I'm a really keen fisherman. Now that I'm retired from full-time work, I can spend a bit of time doing that. I get these emails once a week from one of the local tackle shops and they tell me, for our four local rivers, what people have been catching, and where they've been catching, and when and what tackle they're using. And over a course of 12 months, I've got 50-odd emails and I thought, "It'd be great if I can grab all that content and summarize it, and maybe I can learn something." Mike: Yeah. Daryl Moon: So I cut and paste them all into one document, throw it into ChatGPT and said basically, "Summarize that for me." And it came back with a really great summary, and I went out fishing that weekend and caught six fish applying the knowledge that I'd got from that. So that was a bit of a turning point where I'm thinking, "Hang on, that's one thing it's really good at." Because it's a bit like weather forecasting, there's no black and white, true and false, 100% guarantee, but if it points you ...
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How Can Admins Influence the Salesforce Product Roadmap?
Jan 800:26:46Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Rebecca Sherrill, VP, and Shelly Erceg, Product Leader, both on the Salesforce Research and Insights team. Join us as we chat about the newest updates to IdeaExchange, including RoadmapExchange and Idea Insights, and why now is the perfect time to get involved. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Rebecca Sherrill and Shelly Erceg. How feedback shapes the product roadmap If you've ever wondered what happens after you submit an Idea to the IdeaExchange, this episode is for you. The Product Research and Insights team has been working on several new things to improve transparency and enhance collaboration between PMs and the Salesforce community. Joining us for this episode are Rebecca Sherrill and Shelly Erceg. Rebecca started at Salesforce in user research, where she talked to, interviewed, and observed hundreds of admins to better understand their needs. "I have a huge appreciation for the admin community because I spent so much time with them during those years," she says. Shelly, meanwhile, started as a PM on workflow and process automation tools, building products like Process Builder and part of the Flow engine. "Admins are my jam," she says. On the Product Research and Insights team, she's focused on IdeaExchange and True to the Core. Together, they're here to tell us about how RoadmapExchange and Idea Insights will help you see how your feedback influences the product roadmap. What is RoadmapExchange? If you've ever submitted to IdeaExchange, it's natural to ask yourself, "How do I know if they're working on my Idea? Is it ever going to be implemented? If not, why?" That was the impetus behind RoadmapExchange, which maps ideas to Salesforce product roadmaps. The goal is to offer a peek behind the curtain, allowing you to see what the product team is working on right now and what they're considering for the future. Most importantly, it allows the community to provide feedback and use cases to help guide the product team's decisions. "It's an opportunity to help shape what we build," Shelly says, and it also gives you a better idea of what's coming so you don't waste resources solving a problem that the product team is already working on. Get in on the conversation with Idea Insights The other IdeaExchange feature that Rebecca and Shelly are really excited about is Idea Insights. After twenty years, there are a lot of ideas out there. Idea Insights provides context into what's happening right now in four key areas: Top Trending Ideas with the most votes overall from the past year. Recently Updated Ideas by the Salesforce product team. Top Open Ideas of all time by cloud. Recently Delivered Ideas to check out in the product. The goal is to keep you up to date with everything happening on IdeaExchange. On the other side of things, the product team is making a push to provide more transparency and updates about Ideas, even if it's something that's not in the cards right now. Finally, if you don't have a lot of time, Rebecca encourages you to take a look at the Salesforce Research Program. All you have to do is fill out a form about yourself, and you'll only be invited to participate in things that are really relevant to you—we'll even pay you for your time. The Research and Insights team wants to hear from you, so be on the lookout for Rebecca and Shelly at a Dreamin' event near you. And don't forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce 360 blog: A Guide to RoadmapExchange: Your Feedback, Next Steps Salesforce 360 blog: Delivering on Your Feedback: Introducing Idea Insights Sign up: Salesforce Research Program Salesforce Admins blog: Introducing True to the Core Deep Dive: In-Depth Product Conversations with Salesforce PMs Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Rebecca on LinkedIn Shelly on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins podcast, we're diving deep into the evolution of the IdeaExchange with two very familiar voices, Rebecca Sherrill and Shelly Erceg from Salesforce's research and insights team. They're here to unpack the newest updates like Roadmap Exchange and Idea Insights. And why now is the prime time for Salesforce admins to get reengaged with the IdeaExchange. So if you've ever wondered what happens after you submit an idea, or how your feedback actually influences the product roadmap, this episode's for you. So let's get Rebecca and Shelly on the podcast. So Shelly and Rebecca, welcome to the podcast, or should I say welcome back to the podcast? Rebecca Sherrill: Thank you. Super excited to be here. Shelly Erceg: Thank you so much. Mike: Both of you are veterans of the podcast, but both are back for a different reason. So Rebecca, refresh our memories from 100 years ago when you were on the podcast and what you do at Salesforce. Rebecca Sherrill: Yes. So I've been at Salesforce for 13 years and yes, I was on this podcast 12 years ago. I had to look that up. I started out here doing user research for our platform products, including setup. And so what that means is that in my early years at Salesforce, I talked to, interviewed and observed hundreds of admins to understand what they needed, so that we could build that into our products. So I have a huge appreciation for the admin community because I spent so much time with them during those years. And then these days I'm leading a research and insights team. And my team continues to do research with customers to understand what they need from our products, and make sure that we build that into our roadmap. But these days, my team also runs the IdeaExchange, which is I think what we're mostly here to talk about today. Mike: Yeah, absolutely. And Shelly, you're a familiar voice and face in the admin community. Shelly Erceg: Admins are my jam. I started off at Salesforce in the platform as well, working on our workflow and process automation tools. Built Process Builder and part of the flow engine. And then also spent some time with our nonprofit customers over on the NGO side. And now I'm here in Research and Insights focused on the voice of the customer really on IdeaExchange, true to the core, and bringing back really what our customers need to our product teams. Mike: Yeah. So I was a huge IdeaExchange fan when I was an admin because I love to browse like, "Oh, I hope that's coming. People need to vote for it." But I think Rebecca sent me right. Like since I've been a customer and you've been around for a while, the IdeaExchange kind of changed and expanded now, hasn't it? Rebecca Sherrill: That's right. Yeah. So my team has been involved with IdeaExchange for the past three years. And what we've been doing during that time is really trying to bring it up to speed with the current needs of the community and with Salesforce, because so much has changed over these many years. And so most recently we have launched a new part of IdeaExchange called Roadmap Exchange, and hopefully we'll get into more details on that. And we've also launched something called Idea Insights, which the goal of that is to bring more visibility into the ideas that ...
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2026 Roadmap for Salesforce Admins: AI, Agentforce, and Emerging Trends
Jan 100:23:43Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Lee, Joshua Birk, and Kate Lessard from the Admin Evangelist team at Salesforce. Join us as we look at what's next for admins and Agentforce in 2026 and revisit our predictions from last year. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Lee, Joshua Birk, and Kate Lessard. Revisiting our predictions for 2025 Happy New Year! Last January, I asked the Admin Evangelist team to make predictions for 2025. So let's check in on those and see how we did. Josh Birk promised that admins would find building with Agentforce to be easier than they expected. I think that's turned out to be true, especially with resources from Salesforce like Agentforce NOW to help you get started. However, building agents is only part of AI adoption. There's still plenty of work to be done to get organizational buy-in and get the most out of Agentforce. Jennifer Lee was excited about the potential of Setup with Agentforce. And while these new features didn't make it out of pilot in 2025, she's still excited about how much easier things will be when it goes live. And if you want to see it in action, check out the Admin Keynote from Dreamforce '25. Finally, Kate Lessard was all about security for 2025 and how important it will be for AI adoption. Time and again, what she's found is that getting Agentforce buy-in at your organization starts with a clear governance story. Dreamforce '25 featured our first-ever Security Keynote, so this is a topic that will continue to be top-of-mind for admins. What's on the 2026 Roadmap for Salesforce Admins? Next, I wanted to ask the team to make predictions for 2026. For Josh, it's not just about the agents that admins can build. It's about the agents that help you get more things done on the backend. With tools like Setup powered by Agentforce, Agentforce for Security, and Agentforce Vibes, there are more and more ways to amplify your skills with AI. In other words, it's agents all the way down. Jen, as always, is all about automation. As she puts it, "Without any type of automation, how good are your agents?" In 2026, she sees admins building with smaller, simpler flows that leave the heavy lifting to AI agents. With your Agentforce skills amplifying your automation skills, you can simplify complicated processes without breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, for Kate, 2026 will be all about finding new partners in the organization. Admins will need a seat at the table with security teams, legal teams, and business leadership to ensure a trusted AI implementation. In 2026, admins will have the agency to do what? Finally, on the theme of agents and agency, I asked the team: "In 2026, admins will have the agency to do… what?" For Jen, it's bringing innovation into your company by being at the forefront of everything that's going on with Salesforce. Trying new tools, looking for new ways to simplify business processes, and becoming the AI expert at your organization. Josh gives some examples of that expertise in action. He predicts that admins will feel more empowered to jump in and build Lightning Web Components or even an Apex class with the help of AI. It's not about replacing developers, but expanding the potential for collaboration. Obviously, Kate is focused on the importance of proactive AI governance. "When governance is reactive, admins get forced into cleanup mode," she says. So Salesforce Admins need to build strong partnerships with their stakeholders to make sure any AI implementation is safe and secure. Be sure to listen to the full episode for insights from Kate, Josh, and Jen. And don't forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday. Happy New Year! Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Agentforce NOW Dreamforce '25 Admin Keynote: Admins Power the Agentic Enterprise Dreamforce '25 Security Keynote: Protecting the Agentic Enterprise Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Josh on LinkedIn Kate on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on X Love our podcasts? Subscribe today or review us on iTunes! Full show transcript Mike: Happy New Year and welcome to 2026 and the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Well, this year, we're going to kick things off by revisiting a tradition we started last year, which was future-gazing, with Josh Birk, Jennifer Lee and Kate Lessard on the Admin Evangelist team. Now, in this episode, we're going to get you started for 2026 by revisiting all of our predictions from 2025, and then exploring what lies ahead for Salesforce admins in this new year. From Agentforce breakthroughs to proactive governance, everybody brought some very sharp insights and a few surprises. And because it's the new year, it's a fresh start and the perfect time to plan your roadmap ahead for this year. So with that, let's get everybody back on the podcast. Okay. So welcome back everyone to the podcast. Jennifer Lee: Hello. Josh Birk: Oh, hi. Mike: Great. I didn't call you out specifically. It's always like I've heard the story of you put 10 people in a room, one person will emerge as the leader. So I like to say intros like that and then just see who's going to speak first, because it's like, "Oh, you're going to go. No, you're going to go. No, you're going to go." Josh Birk: It's a very bold interview strategy, to actually ask a question and just wait for the silence to break itself. Mike: Yeah. It also is bold interview strategy of here's a podcast and a welcome and silence. Kate Lessard: Oh, I was on mute. I apparently still haven't figured that out. Mike: Goals for 2026. Kate Lessard: Aiming high. Mike: I still feel like they sell those shirts that say, "You're on mute." Kate Lessard: Well, maybe my Secret Santa will get one for me. Mike: One can hope, right? All right. So I will link to in the show notes, we did this podcast in what sounds weird of like a hundred years ago, 2024 for 2025. And I thought it would be fun to revisit that, because we've replayed it, but also revisit each of your predictions, and then have you break out the crystal ball, or Johnny Carson used to use an envelope, that shows how old I am, and look to the future of 2026. So Josh, we're going to start with you. Josh Birk: Okay. Mike: You said last year that admins would find Agentforce easier than expected. Did that hold up? Dun, dun, dun. Josh Birk: Dun, dun, dun. First of all, I think that was almost like a cheat strategy there, because I think when we recorded this, everybody thought building agents was going to be pretty hard. So anything we've done to make that easier, I think the predictions come pretty true. I don't have the numbers on hand, on me right now, but we've had a lot of success with the Agentforce NOW, the virtual workshops that this team has helped host and present. I don't know, Mike, what was your biggest audience number? It was like a few hundred, right? Mike: Oh, easily. But that aside, I think it's more of people aren't afraid. Josh Birk: Yeah, yeah. I think people aren't afraid, and I think the tooling... First of all, the tooling has gotten really good and the tooling looks like, if we're moving into the prediction phase, the tooling looks like it's getting better too. So I think that one held true. I feel like people are... It's n...
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How Can Small Teams Benefit from Salesforce Foundations and Generative AI?
Nov 21, 202400:28:47Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Andrew Russo, Salesforce Architect at BACA Systems. Join us as we chat about Salesforce Foundations and why it’s a game changer for solo admins and small orgs. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Andrew Russo. The solo admin guide to Dreamforce Andrew calls himself a Salesforce Archi-admin-eloper. At BACA Systems he’s a team of one, managing a complex org with all sorts of flows and customizations. Despite his busy schedule, he also manages to get himself out there to all sorts of Salesforce events, so I wanted to chat with him about what caught his eye at Dreamforce as a solo admin. Like everyone else, Andrew is psyched about the possibilities for generative AI and Agentforce. He knows that data health and cleanliness are crucial in order to take advantage of these new features, and he’s already started a project to implement Salesforce Knowledge in his org. But what he’s really psyched about is Salesforce Foundations. What’s so exciting about Salesforce Foundations? Like many smaller companies, Andrew can’t easily do a pilot to test out larger features. “Having access to try things before you actually fully configure them is really helpful for us to look at where we can grow and move to with the platform,” he says. Salesforce Foundations gives you access to all of the little features you wish you had from each cloud. For Andrew, they can swap over from using an external email marketing tool to doing everything in Salesforce. They’re also looking at implementing Salesforce Payments instead of doing it over the phone. While they may not be the shiniest tools in the toolbox, the time saved with these little features adds up in a small organization like Andrew’s. Manage requests with a Salesforce roadmap One thing that can get tricky as a solo admin is handling requests while keeping the org on track. Andrew keeps a Lucidchart roadmap for where they’d like to be with things like data cleanup and their Salesforce Knowledge project, which helps him balance short-term needs with long-term goals. “We’re not trying to implement features just because we have them,” he says, “it has to align with ‘our company goals.” Andrew has more to share about tips for solo admins, why you should get started going to Salesforce events, and the best cold pizza, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us every Thursday. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Andrew on X Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Bluesky social Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: Hey there, Salesforce Admins. So, buckle up because today we got Andrew Russo on board, who's not just managing the Salesforce org, but is essentially the captain of a one-man cruise ship. That's the analogy that we made. So, you like that? I said on board. No, but seriously, this guy is juggling a lot of flows, customizations, and data, much like we all are, and he's steering the ship solo, so single Salesforce admin. Now, in today's chat, we're talking about everything from taming data gremlins to rolling out Salesforce Knowledge, but big is what he found impactful at Dreamforce this year, which was Salesforce Foundations. And we're also getting some insight into how Andrew's planning on keeping his org ready for the next wave of AI. And of course, we reminisce a little bit about Dreamforce, and it wouldn't be a Salesforce Admins podcast without food. This time we're talking pizza. No surprise. So, before we get Andrew on though, make sure you're following the Salesforce Admins Podcast on your favorite podcast app or wherever you listen to podcasts. That way, as soon as a new episode becomes available, it will download. So, that being said, let's get Andrew on the podcast. So, Andrew, welcome to the podcast. Andrew Russo: Thank you for having me. Mike Gerholdt: Absolutely. Well, it's been a little bit since you've been on, so let's refresh everybody's memory. What have you been up to and what do you do in the Salesforce ecosystem? Andrew Russo: So, right now, my role is as the Salesforce architect, admin, developer. I mean, we're a small company at BACA Systems, so I'm the solo Salesforce resource. So, I kind of play a lot of hats and I manage our entire org. So, that's the main thing that I do here. We have a lot of flows, of customization. So, I've been trying to learn a lot about that and how to manage our complex org. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Captain of the ship, which is what most admins play. Andrew Russo: Yeah. It's a big ship though. It's challenging. Mike Gerholdt: I know. Yep. Well, the whole goal is to grow the ship and then maybe you get a fleet of people to help you. Andrew Russo: It started as a rowboat. Currently, it's like a cruise ship with one person in charge of it, and cruise ships are hard to drive with one person. Mike Gerholdt: They could be, yes, but you need to have resident comedian, house band, buffet. I'm sure those are all fun analogies to things. Before we go down the cruise ship line, that's for another podcast, let's talk about, you were at Dreamforce and I think a few Salesforce Admins were at Dreamforce. If not, they definitely saw some of the content that's online. I'd love to know when you get back from, was it three days of Dreamforce now? And the content that you're a part of and the notes that you've taken, what are some of the things that you do to think about what's next or to put into action some of the things that you learned? Andrew Russo: Yeah. I think when I'm there, really the big thing is I like to take high-level notes when I'm there. I think if you get too in the details trying to take notes, it's hard for me at least to go and actually take actual things. So, generally what I've learned to do is I take some of the high-level notes of key areas and then I go back to them. So, when I'm there, I'm able to just focus on the content and the learning and connecting with other people in the community, and then I go back to the content that I thought was really helpful and I look at it. But for me, right now, if I think about some of the big takeaways, one of them was data quality and really getting everything in shape is probably the most critical thing that you can do for an existing org like us. Trying to fix those type of things that are just foundational to support all of our future things we're trying to do. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. I mean, I know anecdotally from seeing some of the session data, all of the sessions that were about data and cleanliness were really well attended, and it makes sense, right? Because good data in, good data out, and now good data for AI to consume. Andrew Russo: Exactly. I think that's probably one of the biggest drivers is looking forward of the AI, and it's also thinking about what can we do to position ourselves to be ready for generative AI and how that will play a role. Thinking about on our service side, one of the big projects that became probably one of our top projects we're going to be rolling out, Salesforce Knowledge, I think was probably one of the biggest takeaways or actionable things that I now am ... That's my big project for this fall is to get our Knowledge base for service up and going to help our customers. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, that's no small feat. I feel like that's building your own library. Andrew Russo: It is building a library, an organization system and structure for a library, and then getting everyone who hasn't gone to the library in years to want to go to this library, and authors. <p dir="ltr...
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Key Security Best Practices for Salesforce Admins Using Data Cloud
Nov 14, 202400:16:51Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, Josh Birk talks to Jagan Nathan, Technical Architect with Customer Success at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about guest user anomalies and what you can do about them with the Threat Detection app. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jagan Nathan. The most important thing for a successful Data Cloud migration Jagan works as a Technical Architect with the Customer Success Group at Salesforce. He’s focused on helping businesses use Data Cloud to de-silo their data so they can get a full picture of their customers. Jagan estimates that 60-70% of the time you spend on a Data Cloud migration is used to make sure you understand what needs to be done. That’s because the most important decisions are around what objects and data sources you want to map and how it all fits together. If you need help getting started, his team has put together the Data Cloud Workbook Template to walk you through everything. What is a guest user anomaly and why is it dangerous for your data security? The biggest security issues Jagan encounters in orgs come from changes made to profiles and permissions over time. All those consultants can begin to add up! At some point, you need to do an audit of who can see what and apply the principle of least privilege. And that’s the reason we brought Jagan on the pod, because one way this can happen is through something called a guest user anomaly. Essentially, it’s when a guest user account has more access than it otherwise than it should. For example, an Apex class that allows them pull all of your data. It’s the kind of thing that’s difficult to identify but can leave you primed for a data breach if you don’t know about it. How the Threat Detection app can help you identify guest user anomalies The good news is that there’s something you can do about guest user anomalies. If your org has Event Monitoring, you can use the Threat Detection app to identify problematic accounts and take action. It uses the power of machine learning to figure out where the gaps are in your permissions and flag them for you. In fact, the Threat Detection app can help you monitor all sorts of other anomalies, too. Like if a user who does their reports in the same time window each week suddenly logs in at 3 a.m. to pull a bunch of data, or someone based in Albuquerque logs in from Finland. It can even monitor your APIs. And the best part is that enabling Threat Detection is as easy as turning on the permission set. Jagan gets into more specifics in our interview, so be sure to take a listen. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Security Guide: Threat Detection Salesforce Security Guide: Guest User Anomaly Salesforce Help: Best Practices for Investigating Guest User Anomalies Trailhead: Get Started with Event Monitoring Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jagan on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Josh Birk: Hello Admins, it's your guest host Josh Birk here. Today, I'm going to welcome Jagan Nathan to talk about some very specific things about security, specifically quirks in security that can sometimes be a little difficult to detect and how we're going to help you detect them. So without further ado, let's go to Jagan. All right. Today on the show we welcome Jagan. Did I do that right, Jagan? Jagan Nathan : Yes. Josh Birk: All right. We're going to talk about some very interesting security things, but first of all, welcome to the show. Jagan Nathan : Thank you, once again, for having me. Josh Birk: Thanks. All right, well, let's start, once again, in some of your early years. How did you originally get into computing? Jagan Nathan : Oh, yeah. So back then during school days, we used to play Counter-Strike. We have in-house network connected with a group of friends. Josh Birk: Nice. Jagan Nathan : So that is how we started into it. We started in a playful mode and then we slowly started programming and all those aspects to it. Josh Birk: Did you actually get into modding Half-Life and all that stuff? Jagan Nathan : Not really. Josh Birk: Got it. Nice. How did you originally get involved with Salesforce? Jagan Nathan : Salesforce, initially I got trained in the Java platform and then back then we got a new project on Salesforce and we have been asked if we could try this out and then I initially thought of giving it a try. I initially thought Salesforce is purely sales driven or some sort of MBA-related work, but that is how it was. And then slowly I got into it. It was quite interesting. And then back then it was even more interesting without Trailhead. We had a lot of learnings. We used to push in developer forums. It was quite challenging and interesting. From that point of time, there's no looking back. We just love this platform. Josh Birk: Nice. How did you find the transition from Java to Apex? Jagan Nathan : So I was able to correlate most of our things through the basic modules. I usually compare Java-related world with Salesforce Apex related, so that it was easy for me during the transition phase. Josh Birk: Got it. And how would you describe your current job? Jagan Nathan : So current job is more of a technical architect part of customer success group. Work with different set of customers. Each customers have their own set of challenges and problems to be solved. So right now I'm even focusing on the Data Cloud related piece of it. Try to stitch in the data from multiple data source what customer is having. They have a lot of silos data across the platform. We are using the power of Data Cloud to bring in and harmonize all those data. Josh Birk: Got it. I feel like that's a very common thing at the company right now. So welcome to the club. Just as on that topic itself, especially when it comes to Admins, are you finding any particular specific challenges that run into when they start adopting Data Cloud? Jagan Nathan : Our Data Cloud, the best part is we at Salesforce, we have a template called Data Cloud Workbook Template, which is mainly recommended for all the admins and then whoever is trying to configure Data Cloud. So Data Cloud, what we have seen so far is 60 to 70 percentage of time we need to spend on understanding what needs to be done, like what objects we're going to map, what are the data sources we're going to map. So we have a pretty good decent template out there called Data Cloud Workbook Template, which is highly recommended for our customers so that they spend a lot of time on what needs to be done, what fields needs to be mapped, what should be the data sources. So once we have that in place, admin life looks even more simple. Josh Birk: Got it. Nice. And I think I'm going to ask this in the right way because I believe I don't know the answer, but since we're talking about security today, does Data Cloud offer any new thoughts on what to be concerned with security, or does it just kind of bolt itself on the platform and the platform is taking care of security like it normally would? Jagan Nathan : Yes. So Data Cloud currently supports our data spaces. We have this concept called data space filters through which we can set up the security of it so that authorized users can access a particular set of data instead of accessing al...
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What Makes Tableau Pulse Essential for Salesforce Admins?
Nov 7, 202400:31:47Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to John Demby, Director of Solution Engineering at Tableau. Join us as we chat about Tableau Pulse, Tableau Einstein, and how easy it is to get started. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with John Demby. Getting to know Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein John leads a team of demo engineers for Tableau. What that means is they get their hands on all the new solutions and products ahead of time, and use them to make cool things. And two of the coolest, newest things out there are Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein. Tableau Einstein takes all of the goodness of Tableau, the powerful features of Data Cloud, a new semantic layer called Tableau Semantics, and brings that into Salesforce. There’s also a Tableau Agent, allowing you to open up the power of business intelligence and analytics to everyone on your team through Agentforce. Introduction to Tableau Pulse “We started thinking about how people consume data,” John says, “and I think it’s changed.” People want to consume data within the flow of their work. They don’t want to have to go looking around for things, or sift through multiple dashboards to figure out what information is relevant. That’s where Tableau Pulse comes in. It provides contextual, relevant insights from your data directly into Salesforce. With a simple KPI scorecard, you and your users can see what metrics are up, what metrics are down, and get insights about the next steps you should take. AI-infused and ready to share The scorecards Tableau Pulse provides are just the beginning because you can also ask it questions. Pulse is AI-infused, meaning you can ask plain language questions to generate specific insights about your data. It’s also built for collaboration, so it’s easy to take these insights and start a conversation with anyone else in your organization. Getting Tableau Pulse is as easy as installing a managed package in your Salesforce instance. “We’ve made it really for a Salesforce Admin to set this up with little to no Tableau experience,” John says. There are nine premade dashboards to get you started, and it’s easy to customize things to get something that works for you. John shares a lot more great stuff about Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein, so be sure to take a listen. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Get Tableau Pulse More about Tableau Pulse What is Tableau Einstein? Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social John on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we've got the much loved John Demby, our resident Tableau guru, here to talk about some of the really super cool things that Tableau has come out with, specifically Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein. Now, you may remember John and his team create these amazing demos that really show all of the possibilities of Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein. And boy, we get into it, about how we're driving insights with AI, and of course we talk about why pie charts are so out. This is really a fun episode. Now before we get started just a quick reminder, if you want to hit that follow button, that way whatever podcast app you're listening to, every Thursday a new episode will be downloaded right to your phone. So with that, let's talk Tableau Pulse and Tableau Einstein and get John on the podcast. John, welcome to the podcast. John Demby: Hey Mike, it's great to be back. Mike Gerholdt: I know, it's been a while. So what have you been up to? What do you do at Salesforce, for the people that haven't run into you at our many events? John Demby: Well, I have I think today the coolest job in the world. I work in our pre-sales organization in solution engineering but what I do is, I lead a team of demo engineers. You might go, demo engineers, why is that really cool? Well, we get our hands on the solutions and the products ahead of our customers. We get to put it through its paces and figure out what it really can do and how it can do it, and then we build these just really ... pardon the expression, kick-ass demos to show to our customers and to anybody else that wants to see them. So yeah, that's what I do. I lead a team and they are all all-stars and amazing people, and we have just been killing it. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah, it sounds like fun. I mean, that's also what admins do, get our hands on stuff and try and build killer demos to get our executives to fund it. John Demby: Yeah, we've got a lot of similarities there. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. Well, I mean, also a very close kinship. You kind of started out with Tableau the same way I did, you were just a super admin power user that got hired on. John Demby: Yeah. My story goes back to a long time ago ... man, probably about 12, 13, 14 years ago, I was working with Salesforce data. I was leading at that time a pre-sales organization, and I couldn't get a decent report out of Salesforce, no offense to dashboards and reports. It was partly because of the way we had configured our Salesforce data. I mean, we had the same company in Salesforce maybe 70 times because they were all around the globe and stuff like that. I couldn't figure out where my solution engineers were spending their time. I did a Google search, found this really cool thing called Tableau, downloaded it, and within about 10 minutes I had the report that I'd been wanting to make for months. So I filed that away and became a power user of Tableau, and then when I was ready for a career change, it just worked out. Tableau and I made things happen, came to work for Tableau. I did some pre-sales work for Tableau and then we got acquired by Salesforce. And then I got to do all sorts of cool things, like move into the office of the chief product officer where I worked on Salesforce Tableau integration strategies, and now I get to lead my fun team. Mike Gerholdt: Yeah. I remember ... Well, I mean, you're right, there's totally a limitation on the reports and dashboard stuff. But I remember the last time we talked, one of the things you gave me the insight into was just all the visualizations that Tableau could do. I think it was, "The biggest common mistake is, everybody makes a pie chart." John Demby: Oh yeah, pie charts are not very good for analyzing data, believe it or not. But yeah, we build that into the product. In fact, when you start analyzing your data in Tableau, we actually propose or suggest or give you the best practice visualization for what you're trying to find. Mike Gerholdt: So it's not a dashboard of pies. John Demby: No, not a dashboard of pies. Mike Gerholdt: That's okay. We have AI now, so let's talk about that because we've got Tableau Einstein and Pulse. Help me figure out what these are because these sound fun. John Demby: Well, I want to talk to you a lot about Pulse today, but let's talk about Tableau Einstein real quick. So Tableau Einstein ... Well, just back up. AI in general is disrupting everything and very much so in the business analytics space. Two years ago I went to the Gartner Data and Analytics Conference, and all the vendors were starting to talk about AI. Last year, it was the subject of everybody. It was everybody had a cockpit, or a copilot rather, and were starting to feed data into LLMs, and now it just got to be part of the table stakes of the application. You've got to be able to use the power of AI to be able to generate and understand and see things even quicker. So what we did with Tableau Einstein is, we are envisioning a new paradigm infused with AI and built on the Salesforce platform. So we're actually taking all of the goodness of Tableau, we're bringing it over to Salesforce, we're using all of the fantastic features of Data Cloud. We're adding things like a new semantic layer that ...
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How Can Salesforce Admins Overcome Imposter Syndrome and Stress?
Oct 31, 202400:35:09Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, guest host Josh Birk talks to Katie Villanueva, Golden Hoodie winner and Salesforce Administrator at 10K Advisors. Join us as we chat about her work with mental health advocacy and mindfulness principles that you can apply to your work as a Salesforce Admin. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Katie Villanueva. Mental health advocacy in the Salesforce ecosystem Katie started out as an accidental admin, getting her degree in radio and television. These days, she works as a Salesforce Administrator for 10K Advisors, where she’s hard at work updating legacy code with flows and improving workflow processes. Katie’s also the founder of the Mental Health and Illness Trailblazer Community Group. It’s a space in the ecosystem to make meaningful connections, share resources, and share stories. “We’re not alone in our struggles,” Katie says, and what’s important is to build that support network and talk about it. Mindfulness principles for stress management and personal growth Recently, Katie gave a talk at Midwest Dreamin’ entitled “Appreciate Your #AwesomeAdmin Self,” based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s seven principles of mindfulness. The principles are a skill and something you have to practice, but they can help you overcome fear, doubt, imposter syndrome, burnout, stress, and negative self-talk. The principles are: Non-judgement Patience Beginner's mindset Trust Non-striving Acceptance Letting go In the talk, Katie gets into how you can apply those principles to your work as a Salesforce Admin. As seen on the Dreamforce stage At Dreamforce, Katie presented “Automate with AI: Prompt Builder, Flow, and Slack,” about the magic you can make when you get all three working together. If you missed out, she recently covered the same topics on How I Solved It with Jennifer Lee. Katie has so many great insights to share, so be sure to listen to the full episode to learn more. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast so you never miss an episode. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Trailblazer Group: Salesforce Mental Health + Illness Group (Virtual) How I Solved It: Harness the Power of AI, Flow, and Slack to Summarize and Notify Users Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Katie on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full Transcript Josh (00:05): Hello, Admins! Guest host Josh Birk here, and today I'm going to bring you my guest, Katie Villanueva. You may have known Katie Villanueva from her recent Golden Hoodie Win. Also, Katie and I share a long history of mental health advocacy, and indeed, today we are going to talk about mental health and wellness tips for the workplace. Now a quick note due to the Gravity, well, which is Dreamforce. We actually recorded this shortly before Dreamforce, but it is not coming out until well after Dreamforce. So just kind of imagine when Katie's talking about the session that she's going to do at Dreamforce that she already did it. I attended it and it was wonderful. Now over to Katie. Alright, today on the show we welcome Katie Villanueva to talk about her work with mental health advocacy and some of her upcoming presentations. Katie, welcome to the show. Katie (00:56): Hi, thanks for having me. Josh (00:58): Alright, well let's start with your early years. What did you go to school for? Katie (01:02): I went to school for radio. Television. Yeah. Well, no, actually a farmer. And then I graduated with radio, television, so I bounced around until I found my niche in the world, which is Salesforce being an admin. Josh (01:20): Okay. And what was your first involvement with Salesforce? Katie (01:23): I was an accidental admin, accidental on purpose admin. I wanted to do the job so they didn't have anybody doing the job. So at a company that didn't have a team or didn't have any experience with Salesforce, you always have that one person who ends up being the accidental admin. I sought out that position and said, I want to do it. Josh (01:49): So you were kind of a voluntold admin, but you sort of voluntold yourself? Katie (01:54): Yeah, yeah. I had a lot of really good ideas and nobody was going to execute 'em the way that I wanted to execute them, so I just decided to steer the ship myself. Josh (02:09): A classic form of if you want a job done. Right. Got it. Katie (02:13): Yes. Love it. Josh (02:16): And how would you describe your current job? Katie (02:18): Oh, my current job, I am no longer steering ships. I am absorbing all the things about Salesforce. I went to, the first role that I had was at a smaller company, no integrations, we only use Sales Cloud. It was a great role to wrap my arms around Salesforce and what its core capabilities were. But I graduated into this role. Now I'm with 10 K advisors. They're amazing, made up full of great people, and they have a really old org and it's full of code, and they're looking to update it with flows and retire those old workflow rules and put 'em into flows and clean up that old code and put it into something that now Salesforce is capable of doing that it wasn't able to do eight years ago. So I'm learning a lot about Code and Flow and also just the mega massive org that it is. And I'm working with a team, so I'm also learning best practices and how to work with others and share the helm. Josh (03:31): Got it. Nice. Nice. Well, we're focusing on mental health for the most part today and awareness. So tell me a little bit about the Trailblazer community that you started. Yeah, Katie (03:40): So I created the mental health and illness user group, and it is a space in the ecosystem where we can make meaningful connections and share resources and share stories and try to figure out this not only work-life balance and build up a support system around you, but understand that we're not alone in the struggles that folks have that I think everybody has at one point or another in their lives, or folks that are dealing with mental illnesses such as myself, I have bipolar disorder and I get to meet other people with bipolar disorder, and we get to talk about how that affects us doing the job and how we get through that. So all kinds of, everybody's got stuff going on and we weren't talking about it that much prior to the group, openly, at least that I was aware of. And I started talking about it and folks gathered around and I went to Salesforce and said, Hey, I think there's a community here that could use some support and can flourish. And they agreed and we created the user group. It's a virtual user group, but at conferences we try to meet up and color Well, I mean, conferences are so exhausting. Katie (05:15): You get zapped or whatever the word you want to use, you get drained really easily over socialized, overstimulated. And some folks use it as a quiet time and put on some music and chill out. And then other folks just use it as icebreakers too, to meet some other people, conference goers, and then it's very library vibes. It's quiet, there's small talk or there's no talk. I love it. Josh (05:47): Which is sometimes exactly what people need. So that's good. Yeah, no, I agree. And I feel like it's actually Dreamforce and Trailhead DX have only gotten, I think is the way I'd put it. Being on the floor on Moscone can just be visually overstimulating even before you start lingering in sounds and social interactions and things like ...
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How Can Salesforce Admins Leverage Foundations to Prepare for Agentforce?
Oct 24, 202400:27:28Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management at Salesforce. Join us as we chat about Salesforce Foundations and how it can give you access to even more capabilities within Sales, Service, and beyond. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Eddie Cliff. Introduction to Salesforce Foundations Eddie is the lead PM for Salesforce Foundations, and he’s here to tell us how it can be a game-changer for orgs looking to incorporate AI. Now, if you’re a longtime listener to the podcast you know that AI tools are only as good as the data you give them. And while Data Cloud is meant to help you bring all your data into one place, it’s not always easy for customers to make the transition. That’s where Salesforce Foundations comes in. It adds the basic capabilities of Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud, and Agentforce to your org, for free. How to get started with Salesforce Foundations The goal with Salesforce Foundations is to make it easy to get that 360 view of your customers. As Eddie says, their philosophy is “Easy by default, advanced by choice.” And you’ll find that as you start doing more with segmentation and personalization, you’ll realize just how much further you can go. Right now, customers with Sales or Service EE or UE can get Salesforce Foundations for free. All you have to do is go into Setup and click on the Salesforce Foundations node, and you’ll be presented with a handy-dandy checklist with everything you need to get started. Preparing for Agentforce Foundations makes it easy to get your org ready for Agentforce. That’s why Eddie and his team have included a freemium version of Agentforce in Foundations. “What’s really cool,” he says, “is that as you do more and you use more of these cross-cloud capabilities, your data in Data Cloud gets richer and more powerful and so does Agentforce.” There’s a lot more in this episode about how Foundations was developed, what’s coming in the future, and the ins and outs of sea kayaking, so be sure to take a listen. And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode of the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Trailhead: Salesforce Foundations: Quick Look Help docs: Considerations for Salesforce Foundations Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Eddie on X Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike: This week on the Salesforce Admins podcast, we're talking with Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management at Salesforce, about some exciting developments in Salesforce Foundations. It was the subline to Agentforce that you heard at Dreamforce this year. Eddie has been at Salesforce for nearly 14 years, transitioning from roles in go-to-market and solution engineering to now product management. And in this episode, Eddie shares insights into the evolution of Salesforce products like Starter, Pro Suite, and we learn about Salesforce Foundations. Now, before we get started, I just want to make sure that you're subscribed to the Salesforce Admins podcast on whatever platform you get your Salesforce podcast on. Go ahead and click that subscribe, or sometimes it's a follow button. And that way, when new episodes come in every Thursday morning, they will be downloaded to your phone. So with that, let's jump into our conversation with Eddie where he explains how Salesforce Foundations is designed to give customers access to even more capabilities within sales, service and beyond, including all of their existing Salesforce implementations at no cost. So Eddie, welcome back to the podcast. Eddie Cliff: Hey, thanks for having me again. Good to be here. Mike: Yeah, absolutely. Well, product managers that work on good features that admins love, we love to have on the podcast. So if people aren't avid listeners, let's refresh their memory. Tell me what exactly you do at Salesforce and how you came to be? Eddie Cliff: Yeah, definitely. So my name is Eddie Cliff, VP of Product Management, leading product for our Starter, Pro and now Foundation Suite, which I'm really excited to talk about today. I've been at Salesforce for almost 14 years now, and I've done a variety of roles, from go-to-market and sales and solution engineering and customer success prior to moving into product management about eight years ago now. Mike: Wow, I didn't know you were an SC. I don't think you said that in the last podcast. That's awesome. Eddie Cliff: Yeah, SCs are amazing in what they can bring from their technical understanding and how Salesforce works, but also working with our customers to understand their requirements and needs, and ultimately designing the solutions that they can present back to the customer to hopefully prove out the value of Salesforce as they look to explore it. So actually, have a couple of SCs on my team... Well, former SCs that are now PMs. SCs make really great PMs because of that solutions mindset that's really tied to customer outcomes, which is super valuable. Mike: Yeah, no, I hear you. I also steal from the SC pot as well because they make for good evangelists too. Eddie Cliff: Definitely. Mike: And they help us present and run demos at Dreamforce, so it doesn't hurt. Speaking of Dreamforce, maybe not lost in, but the byline under Agentforce was Salesforce Foundations, which we announced, and your leading as the PM force. So let's talk about what Salesforce Foundations is. Eddie Cliff: So it was buried there at the very end of the keynote. So perhaps some people missed it because it was all about Agentforce and it was an amazing keynote. But we're really excited about Foundations because it's going to help customers unlock Agentforce. And so before I talk about Foundations a little bit more, I want to take a step back to talk about AI in general, which I know is top of mind for a lot of businesses today and probably a lot of the admins listening today. And I promise we're going to get to the meat of Foundations, but I think it's important to talk about this first. So first and foremost, great AI starts with great data, and you can only have great data if all of your apps and systems are connected and you have that single source of truth. And that's what Data Cloud really does for a lot of our customers. Now, bringing all that data into one system will lead to happier customers because now you can do targeted marketing, smarter commerce, and more effective sales. And what's really cool is that this also gets all of your data centralized and ready for AI, but it's not easy for a lot of our customers to go from say just Sales Cloud or just Service Cloud on their own to the full Customer 360 that we talk about a lot. You need time and resources, and I know from a lot of customers I talk to, that's not something that they have the luxury of having. And so that's the goal here with Foundations is we're making this easier by bringing all of these capabilities to all of our customers through Salesforce Foundations. So Foundations gives all of these sales and service customers access to more of Salesforce included with their existing Salesforce implementation, and this is free. I want to make sure that's clear. That's not something we're charging for, and you can add this to your existing organ, we'll talk a little bit about that. But ultimately, with Foundations, we've made it easier than ever before to get started with that Connected Customer 360 by building our foundational apps into your CRM. And this includes the basic capabilities within Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud, and now Agentforce, which is really exciting because as of today, it's now available at no additional cost as part of Foundations. Mike: Yeah, free is always good. I also thought for a second that I was like, somebody said, "Well, did you hear about Salesforce Foundations?" And I think they dropped the S and I was like, "Yes, I've heard of the Salesforce Foundation." That's not what we're announcing. E...
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How Business Process Documentation Enhances Data Collection
Oct 17, 202400:35:34Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jennifer Cole, Director of Business Intelligence and Automation at 908 Devices. Join us as we chat about how Salesforce Admins can bridge the gap between business processes and data accuracy. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer Cole. The importance of understanding the 'Why' behind data entry Jen gave a stellar presentation about business processes and data strategy at World Tour Boston, and I wanted to bring her on the podcast to learn more. “Data isn’t helpful if you don’t know your process,” she says, “it’s just interesting facts on a screen that maybe make pretty graphs. But what does it tell you if you don’t know what questions you’re answering?” More often than not, the people doing a business process don’t understand why they need to log data a certain way. That’s why as Salesforce Admins, we need to understand the “Why” behind data entry. If we can bridge the information gap and explain why having accurate data is so important, we’re more likely to get people on board. The impact of inaccurate data on business tools With new AI tools like Einstein Copilot or Next Best Action, having accurate data is more important than ever. As Jen puts it, “Inaccurate data creates inaccurate business decisions.” But in order to get there, you have to explain why it’s important. Jen supports a lot of sales teams, and it’s a great example. Sales teams want to sell things, and they don’t always understand why they need to log an email into Salesforce or create the next step on an opportunity because they don’t know how that information will be used. It’s up to Salesforce Admins to bridge this gap and spell out what the data is used for. If your sales team knows that logging their calls accurately will help you tell them the best time to call each prospect, they’ll be a lot more attentive to how they enter that data into Salesforce. Strategies for improving data collection Jen points out that trainings are a great time to get started with explaining the why behind data collection. When they fill in this field, who else will use that information and how will it help the business as a whole? You need to get them invested in the process and help them see the broader picture. Finally, it’s important to establish feedback loops that help your team stay invested in the process. If they can see how accurate data impacts their day-to-day, they’re much more likely to be invested in the project of data collection. There’s a lot more great stuff from Jen about how to look at your business processes and data strategy, so be sure to listen to the full episode. And don’t forget to subscribe to hear more from the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Podcast: Solving Business Problems with Composer and Flow with Jennifer Cole Blog: How to Use Salesforce to Manage Your Documentation Blog: How to Write Great Documentation to Help with Future Problem Solving Podcast: Understanding the Importance of Data Health in Salesforce Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jen on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we're talking with Jennifer Cole about data strategy and process. Well, yeah, a little something different because in the world of AI and a lot of tools just in general, not to mention automation tools, it's good to know what you're doing with your data and do you have a process in place to make sure you're collecting good data. Also, I ask her about bad data, so that's an interesting answer. But really understanding what data are you collecting, and does everybody know the process for data collection because as we know, it's going to be even more important to have great data so that AI can give us even better insights. But if we don't know the process, then I think we're in trouble. So Jennifer's going to help us with that. But before we get into the episode, just a reminder that if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, be sure to click the follow button, that way this podcast can automatically be downloaded right to your device so that when you're out on your dog walk, you don't have to worry about downloading it because it'll already be there. And of course, I always appreciate a good review, so let me know how we're doing. With that, let's talk process and data quality and maybe data strategies. There's quite a few things in this podcast with Jennifer. And let's get Jennifer on the podcast. So, Jen, welcome back to the podcast. Jennifer Cole: Thanks, Mike. I'm really excited to be back. Mike Gerholdt: Well, last time, and I'll put a link in the show notes because you won't hear that a thousand more times today, but we were talking about documenting your process as an admin when you're solving things. Jennifer Cole: Yes, good stuff. Mike Gerholdt: I know. Well, I really enjoyed that. I could spend, again, probably another two hours doing that because, first of all, I constantly forget, "What was I doing here?" I should have wrote that down better. But we've since caught up a thousand other times and wanted to expand on that conversation because with AI, there's so many more shiny tools out there. Jennifer Cole: There are. Mike Gerholdt: I know, seriously. Jennifer Cole: A lot. Mike Gerholdt: I'm getting the cart in front of the horse. Let's refresh people about the amount of awesomeness stuff that you work on and what you do in the community. So let's start there. Jennifer Cole: Sure. Yeah. I am Director of Business Intelligence and Automation at 908 Devices, which is a super cool title that basically says, "I am still an awesome admin." I'm building apps and supporting my team. I run a team of awesome admins and have recently been able to co-present with one of my awesome admins at the Boston World Tour last, what, two months ago? Wow, time flies. Mike Gerholdt: I know. Yeah. Jennifer Cole: Oh, so much. Talking about process and data strategy. So that is my sweet spot and what I'm still rocking out at 908. Mike Gerholdt: I feel everybody now is paying attention to data with AI. Data, data, data. Pay attention to your data, clean your data, wash your data, put your data in a dishwasher. Jennifer Cole: Give me your data. Mike Gerholdt: Cascade is going to have special data tabs here pretty soon. Tide's going to have data pods, right? I'm kidding. Jennifer Cole: I was going to ask if they were going to be Salesforce branded, that would've been fun. I would've bought those. Mike Gerholdt: Oh, I know, right? But they only work in the cloud, so you'd have to stand outside in the rain. That wasn't a well-thought-through joke, so that's okay. You can't have a zinger every single time. But you bring up a good point. So what good is data if you don't know your process, right? Jennifer Cole: Yeah. I don't know that it's helpful if you don't know y...
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What Can Salesforce Admins Do with Slack Integrations?
Oct 10, 202400:36:32Tap to summarizeToday on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Jim Ray, Director of Developer Relations and Advocacy at Slack. Join us as we chat about Workflow Builder, Slack integrations, and what happens when you put them together. You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Jim Ray. Slack as a multi-purpose tool Jim is here to tell us that Slack is much more than a chat tool. Automations and integrations can open a whole new world of utility for your organization. And while Slack integrations have always been a thing, you used to need some technical knowledge in order to build your own. All that’s changed with the launch of Workflow Builder. This tool allows you to build automations in Slack without ever having to code or host an app. Once you get started with making your own Slack integrations, you’ll never know how you got by without them. Empowering admins with Workflow Builder You can do a lot of cool things in Workflow Builder, like create a new channel or automatically post a formatted message at a certain time each week. But Slack integrations are where it really gets interesting. For example, let’s say you have a weekly status report meeting. You can create a scheduled workflow that automatically drops the relevant Salesforce info into a Slack channel so everyone can refer to it for the meeting. Slack integrations go both ways, so you can also use a Slack automation to execute a flow in Salesforce. With Workflow Builder, you can bring your Salesforce data directly into Slack and vice versa, and the possibilities are endless. Enhancing Productivity with Slack AI Finally, Jim had a lot to say about Slack AI, which gives you the ability to search Slack with natural language queries and summarize or format the results. When he came back to work after his paternity leave, he needed to prep for a first meeting with a new skip-level manager. So he asked Slack AI, “What does this person think about the Slack platform?” It gave him a summary of everything they ever posted on the subject, complete with footnotes so he could look at specific comments. Most importantly, Jim points out that the automations you create in Workflow Builder are exactly the kind of structured data that Slack AI loves to work with. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for how you can share information across your organization without the need to put everyone on Salesforce. This episode is full of use cases and tips for how to get started with Slack integrations, so be sure to take a listen. And don’t forget to subscribe for more from the Salesforce Admins Podcast. Podcast swag Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store Learn more Salesforce Admins Podcast Episode: Amber Boaz on Slack Best Practices Admin Trailblazers Group Admin Trailblazers Community Group Social Jim on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn Salesforce Admins on X Mike on Threads Mike on Tiktok Mike on X Full show transcript Mike Gerholdt: Okay, this week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we are going to have a lot of fun because we are talking about Slack automations with the director of developer relations and advocacy, Jim Ray of Slack. Now, you're probably a Salesforce Admin, you're like, "Oh, but we don't use Slack. I'm not going to listen to this." No! This is a fun episode and it's going to give you a ton of ideas for, hey, maybe we should think about using Slack. I'm not here to sell you anything. I don't get any commissions. I just love when I can give you ideas and creative answers to challenges that you're facing. And Jim talks us through a whole bunch of fun stuff that you can do in Slack and gave me a ton of ideas. We talked about canvases. I don't know if you use canvases, but it's a ton of fun. Now, before we get into that, I want to tell you about, hey, what we got coming up in April, because this is last episode of March. I have architect evangelist Tom Leddy coming on to talk about decisioning. I reconnected with Lizz Hellinga at TrailblazerDX. Remember, she was on a previous episode talking about the importance of clean data and why that's important for AI. She's coming back. I'm working on getting Skip Sauls with the Data Cloud update, so Data Cloud. And then I'm going to introduce a new episode at the end of April where I'm bringing my co-worker, Josh Burke, on, and he's going to do a deep dive episode with a product manager. We're working on getting somebody really cool to help you change the way you do some of your thinking. That's all I'm going to tease out for right now. But of course, if you're not already subscribed to the podcast, make sure you're doing that, make sure you're following it. It's a different word on every podcast platform. But if you do that, new episodes automatically get downloaded to your phone. That way when you wake up in the morning, you put the leash on the dog, you go out, boom! You press play, podcast is going, and you can get some great information. You don't have to think about it, or maybe you're riding the bus to work or bicycling. It's starting to become summer now. So anyway, that's a whole long way. This is fun. You're going to enjoy this podcast. Let's get Jim on the pod. So Jim, welcome to the podcast. Jim Ray: Thanks so much. It's great to be here, Mike. Mike Gerholdt: I always have fun talking Slack. I feel like the last time we talked Slack was with Amber Boaz and she was telling us how to replace meetings with Slack. And then you did a presentation in the admin track at TDX about automating in Slack, and I just feel like that's the next level for people that use Slack is getting it to do stuff automagically. So that's what I'd love to talk about, but let's start with how did Jim get all the way to Slack? Jim Ray: That's a great question. I'm also glad you mentioned Amber Boaz. I had the opportunity to meet her at TDX. Mike Gerholdt: Oh, she's wonderful. Jim Ray: She's from my neck of the woods, so I'm going to try to drive down to Durham in a month or so and hang out with the user group that she's got. Mike Gerholdt: That's pretty country down there too. Jim Ray: It is. It's nice. I went to school down there too, so it's pretty great. So if we're talking background here, my background is actually in journalism. I have a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina. That's what I did. Mike Gerholdt: So it's obvious that you would work in tech. Jim Ray: Obvious that I would be working in developer relations at Slack. It's maybe not as much of a leap as people might think. I was always kind of the techie guy that was looking for... My degree is in this multimedia storytelling. This was the late '90s. We were trying to figure out how to do interesting new ways of telling stories on the web, and that's what I was into. So I always had a tech mindset inside of the newsrooms that I worked in. And then when I switched over to tech, I still brought that media background with me. And interestingly enough, DevRel has merged those two things. It wasn't something that I'd set out to do, but I was really interested in what was going on at Slack. I started working at Slack in the middle of 2016, so just as the company was really rocketing off. It was a really incredible first year. The user growth was happening a lot. The company itself was growing tremendously. It was a different place every year for the first couple of years that I was there. And so I've been working on the DevRel side for most of that time. And then recently, about a year and a half ago, I took over our developer advocacy team. And so on developer advocacy in Slack, what we do is we work primarily with our customers who are building on the Slack platform. The platform is multifaceted in some ways. We have our Slack App Directory where you go and you install apps that are built by our partners, or they're built by companies that are building their business on top of Slack. <p dir="ltr...
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