New System: Build Capacity in Education Organizations

Posted in: Blog

In today’s funding environment, education organizations are being pushed to do more with less, and fundraising is becoming increasingly competitive as funders are no longer satisfied with case studies and anecdotes of success. These important stakeholders are demanding data around student outcomes and proof of an organization’s effectiveness. This situation leads overburdened staff to complete complex, manual processes related to tracking student intake, enrollment and participation in the organization’s programs, while measuring progress and providing sophisticated reports to funders.

Not surprisingly, in response to this pressure, many organizations choose to expand their use of technology to reduce the burden on staff, better track students, and gain insights into their results. The impact of these systems includes increased funding, expanded capacity, improved reporting, and a deeper understanding of which program strategies are leading to student outcomes. By automating manual processes, removing data silos, and centralizing your nonprofit’s information, your staff can focus on the real mission: helping students and families.

But where to start when you’re trying to identify the best system for your needs? We’ve put together a checklist that will help you in your research efforts. (We created this list with education organizations in mind, but the steps are also applicable to other nonprofits that are looking to build capacity by implementing technology.)

Checklist: Preparing for a New System

  1. Identify the top organizational process(es) you want to automate or expand with technology.
  • Which processes are mission-critical?
  • What processes currently limit the reach of your mission because of lack of resources?
  • What type of services could you be offering to further your mission if you were able to incorporate additional technology?
  1. Define the goals of your system.
  • What would success look like for your system?
  • What pain points/challenges are you trying to solve?
  • What are the benefits (like time savings, new or improved services, expanded reach) that you are hoping to achieve?
  1. Map the organizational process(es) you want to replace/introduce with technology.
  • What are the steps that your staff takes to complete your processes?
  • What information is collected and from what sources?
  • What systems are you using to complete these steps?
  • Who are the internal and external people involved in the processes?
  1. Determine your budget and timeline.
  • How much can you spend?
  • How soon do you need to roll out your new solution?
  • If your budget and timeline don’t allow for what you want, what are your highest priorities?
  1. Make your business case and get buy-in.
  • How much time, money and/or staff capacity can be saved with your new technology solution over time versus how much you’ll spend now?
  • What new services can you provide your students, and what will be the additional impact?
  • Who are the key stakeholders?
  • How will you track the impact of the system and who will be responsible for this?
  1. Identify and select your technology partners.
  • Who should be involved in the selection process?
  • What information do you want from each potential technology partner (examples: delivery methodology, technical features, price of implementation, maintenance and support)?
  • How will you gather this information (examples: formal RFP, informal meetings, demos)?

This checklist is a great framework to use during your system evaluation process, but the proof is in the pudding. For examples of systems we have built for our education clients on the Salesforce platform, please read the success stories of KIPP Foundation, and OneGoal.

Observations from 2018

Posted in: Blog
By: Rem Hoffmann

My interactions with clients, prospects, colleagues, partners, leaders and influencers in the nonprofit space have been a source of inspiration for me over the past 12 months. I am constantly reminded of the purpose and meaning behind our work: creating impact.

As the year comes to a close, I would like to share two of my observations from 2018, as they signal a broader understanding of how technology can be a game-changer for nonprofits of all sizes.  

First, there is a clear shift in mindset as organizations accelerate their use of technology to measure and achieve impact. In prior years, organizations have looked at information systems functionally to support fundraising, marketing, and programs operating in silos, rather than in a coordinated way. Now, the conversation has expanded and evolved to address whole-agency solutions that support all of these important areas. The jury is no longer out: transactional, point solutions are inadequate when trying to serve the broader needs of the organization with a bigger picture goal of achieving impact. The need for integrated impact platforms, which truly help changemakers use data for impact, is becoming more widely understood and is being embraced by nonprofits across all categories—from human services agencies to education changemakers to foundations.

Second, for those organizations that have made the commitment to implementing an impam ct platform, there is a growing appreciation for the capabilities and skills required to get the most out of these investments. The journey toward using information systems in a high-impact way increasingly means building the team, the knowledge, and the processes to manage information systems well. Information systems management requires different capabilities at different levels, going beyond system administrators to include processes, tools, and skilled individuals individuals who will operate, manage, and expand that impact platform over time. Change management, systems adoption, user training and support, systems administration, data and security management are all examples of the core competencies that organizations must look to acquire.  As the use of impact platforms becomes more sophisticated, the management of this technology must follow suit. Software and tools are important pieces of the puzzle, but another piece—staffing and processes—is now garnering the attention that it deserves. Many nonprofits now recognize that in order to create and fully leverage an impact platform to manage operations, achieve high performance, and strive for outcomes, they need certain elements in place.

I am personally excited to witness this change, and to be part of this transformation of our social sector. As changemakers, all of us at Exponent Partners believe that these two ingredients—impact platforms and capability in managing them—must be combined with a third one to support an organization’s success and social impact. So much so that they are are enshrined in our own organizations’ theory of change.

That third capability lies in the use of data. It is progress in this area  that gets me fired up! All across our incredibly diverse nonprofit sector, we are seeing increasing attention to how information is used to support, grow, and accelerate social impact. In our work, we see more sophisticated methods of visualizing and analyzing data, applying machine learning to data sets of program interventions to generate predictive and prescriptive information, and generating evidence of program performance and success. In our clients and partners, we are seeing evidence of an increased focus on using information well. Often this takes the form of new position titles, such as Chief Impact Officer, Data Scientist, and those that I often—tongue in cheek, of course!—call the “ampersand positions”: Monitoring & Evaluation. Data & Learning. Knowledge & Outcomes. These positions indicate that the organization is going from being a transactional user of technology—where data is only being tracked and reported—to managing and leveraging data as a strategic asset.

As I look forward to 2019, I am optimistic and energized by the change, the opportunity, and the social impact that lies ahead!

TAG Conference 2018 – Impressions

Posted in: Blog

I was fortunate to have attended the TAG 2018 Annual Conference last week in Tucson, AZ. As I expected, it was an incredible opportunity to network, explore and learn alongside others who are committed to philanthropy and technology. And what a beautiful location for this fantastic event.

Photo Source: https://www.tag2018.org/photos.html

TAG kicked off with an incredible keynote by Larry Irving, a well-known and highly-regarded technology strategist who coined the phrase “digital divide” while in the Clinton Administration. Larry’s keynote was a great launch point into the conference as attendees had an opportunity to consider and discuss how they could use technology to truly change the world. Indeed, access to technology is a game changer in society and can transform the way people think, vote and live.

However, much of the philanthropy space is still talking about tactical solutions to solve operational challenges. Some are leveling up to integrating technology, processes and staff, so that their organization can gain access to solutions that can measure impact and foster positive and inclusive experiences for grantees. It can be challenging to make this kind of change in an organization, especially since the philanthropy culture changes slowly. (In fact, an entire session was dedicated to the topic of making change!)

There were also several sessions about effective project management and unique methodologies to develop positive user experiences. We were encouraged to hear a great deal of discussion about Salesforce and its benefits as a platform. Equally as exciting was that it was standing room only for the session, “Choosing a Platform for Philanthropy: Grants Management and Beyond,” which was hosted by Exponent Partners’ very own Steve Andersen. This popular session featured speakers from Hewlett Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Heising-Simons Foundation, all of whom shared their positive experiences using the Salesforce platform. There was a great deal of picture taking happening when each speaker displayed details about the many applications they use in their solutions! (One of our clients, Campbell Foundation, uses many of the same apps. You can find out more in our case study.)

But, for me, the biggest aha moment came when the report, Investing in Impact Infrastructure, was released at the conference. YES! The report aligns with our strong belief that leaders in philanthropy need to start investing in technology in order to maximize their organization’s impact.

This report is definitely a great start towards promoting the shift from finding solutions that will solve operational challenges towards defining approaches that document and measure key impact data. As the report says, “The current state of philanthropy requires a more integrated holistic approach.”

Frankly, we couldn’t agree more.

 

New york landscape

Breakthrough New York Manages Student Lifecycle with Salesforce

Posted in: Blog

Our client Breakthrough New York prepares motivated low-income students for college graduation with a transformative program that includes a 10-year commitment from sixth grade through college. How do they maintain high-quality student support and program operations over this extensive lifecycle?

We were excited to hear Breakthrough New York share the story of how they recruit, manage applications, provide student support, and track progress effectively. Their recent full adoption of Salesforce has helped them increase their efficiency in numerous ways.

Amy Cruz, Chief Operations Officer at Breakthrough New York, remarks, “When I started at the organization, one of the apparent needs of our team was being able to use time more efficiently and productively on the quality of support that our students and our families needed. Once I observed the team in action, for me that meant: not spending our time on Google Sheets, not spending our time creating and recreating Excel templates. That’s what led me to Salesforce.”

Managing Program Results from Beginning to End

Breakthrough New York has seen tangible, real results from their new Salesforce program management system in their first season since launching. The system has helped Breakthrough program-wide, from initial application to student performance management.

Initial Application Process: Previously, six Breakthrough New York staff members spent three weeks, or 240 hours, collecting, collating, and processing applications. Now with Salesforce, two staff members spend three days or 48 hours processing, with hopes of getting that number down to even less next year.

“The new application functionality has been an absolute game changer and has allowed us to expand to more students than ever before, and process more quickly than ever before. The automatic email about missing materials has been especially efficient,” says Natalie Cox, Senior Program Director at Breakthrough New York.

High School and College Application Process: Previously, staff spent the majority of their time following up on student to-dos and chasing down submissions. Now with their new system, staff focus only on the quality of applications, such as essays and interview preparation. The system is set up to auto-remind students of outstanding tasks.

Student Support and Opportunities: Previously, student support situations and college access opportunities existed in individual email accounts or staff members’ memories. Now, they are shared across all staff in Salesforce, giving them a historical record of student needs.

Managing 10 Years of Student Performance: Previously, success metrics were undefined and unaligned. Building their Salesforce system helped Breakthrough New York be more explicit about defining their metrics and what was important to track overall along the 10-year timeline.

Walking Through Breakthrough New York’s Salesforce Student Data Management Solution

Breakthrough New York breaks down their student 10-year journey into a few critical phases:

  • Initial application to Breakthrough New York
  • Student support through middle school (focus on academic support)
  • Student support between ninth grade and last year of high school (focus on socio-emotional support)
  • Student support in college (focus on career support)

Each of these phases contains processes that Breakthrough New York manages through Salesforce.

Breakthrough New York Application Process: The start to the student journey, the Breakthrough New York application, is highly competitive.

Students must meet 6 core eligibility requirements (such as being a current 6th grader in a New York High School), and 2 out of 4 of another set of requirements, such as being an English language learner and being the first in their family to attend college. Student selection is also based on applicant scores from essay responses, recommendations, interviews, and in-person observations.

Breakthrough New York leverages FormAssembly, a third-party app that Exponent Partners integrated into their Salesforce platform, to collect and track all students’ application materials in one accessible place. The FormAssembly application features:

  • A link that any sixth-grader can use to apply for the program
  • Basic information tracking, such as contact, demographic, and other information that program managers need internally and for funders
  • Questions that meet and trigger basic and complex eligibility requirements, such as the middle school they attend, and how they performed on state test scores
  • Household and income information tracking
  • The ability to upload proof documents directly like test scores, report cards, and income documentation
  • A second unique link for students to fill out the qualitative portion when deemed eligible
  • The automatic sending of a link and form for a teacher recommender to submit when the student enters a teacher email

When students enter their application in FormAssembly, it is immediately entered into Breakthrough New York’s Salesforce back-end as well.

Within Salesforce, staff can track student applications at a glance by opening a view that shows all application statuses, alongside name, overall scores, eligibility status, location, and more. From there, they can drill into individual student records to view more details such as receipt of their documents and qualitative responses.

Rather than staff manually entering each application and sorting thousands of documents, they can dedicate more time to assessing qualitative responses. Also, they can more easily see an overview of the applications and the quality of candidates they are receiving.

For recruitment purposes, they have a unique link to the application they can easily share via email, mailings, social media, partner communications, and more.

Student Support (Academic, Emotional/Social, & More): Breakthrough New York tracks academic data like student grades, test scores, and attendance in Salesforce on the student record. This helps them see where they can provide support at each stage of the student lifecycle. They track how students are performing in the Breakthrough New York program as well as their current schools.

Staff can also manage mass data, such as summer program attendance. With a tab showing a view of Breakthrough New York sessions, they can enroll an individual student or many students, see an attendance roster of a given day, and keep track of homework and meals. From this view, they can also drill down into an individual student’s attendance and performance. They use a similar format to track school grades, school attendance, school enrollment, and opportunities.

The format works for other custom aspects of their program. For one facet of social/emotional support tracking (a later focus of the journey), they worked with Exponent Partners to create an object called “Risks,” which tracks individual student issues. A staff member can note an issue like bullying, rank its severity level, and note whether it is active or resolved.

Tracking College Access Opportunities Throughout Program: Students in the Breakthrough New York program have varying opportunities at different stages of their journey, such as internships and scholarships. Salesforce allows Breakthrough New York to more easily note and share out the criteria of a given opportunity (deadline, location, compensation, etc), and track eligibility. If a student applies, staff can track them as one applicant on the opportunity, and see how many students total are submitting to it.

This tracking also helps when students are completing their college applications, as they have a history of extracurriculars that are tracked on their individual student records.

Monitoring Student “Health” Annually: With Exponent Partners, Breakthrough New York created a feature called “Pathways” that shows the overall aggregate rating of a student as a color: green, yellow, orange. These display when a student struggled or did very well, and are tracked for each year. This provides an at-a-glance view of what students accomplished at the end of the year, based on aggregate milestones, paperwork, and expectations.

Cruz recommends, “Choose a data system and build it. While you’re waiting for the perfect system, it never really comes along. You have to create it. Make it a priority, and take the time to build the system that will help your staff support your students in the best way possible.” Learn more about Breakthrough New York’s program management on Salesforce and see their live demo in this webinar.

Salesforce.org Takes on Program and Impact

Posted in: Blog

Salesforce.org is moving into program management and impact management with intentionality, and that is big and welcome news for all of us who work in the social change information systems ecosystem!

A key promise of the Salesforce platform is that it enables a nonprofit organization’s ‘whole agency’ strategy, where all key business processes are creating useful information in one integrated system. This is such a departure from the more typical proliferation of data silos that it is hard to understate the importance of this platform. And this is what makes the Salesforce platform such a compelling improvement over legacy point solutions like Blackbaud and all the other smaller fundraising, marketing, and communications systems.

This increased focus on program management also opens up the door to social impact measurement, monitoring, and management. Impact – social impact, impact on a community, impact on a neighborhood – is achieved by changemakers in the nonprofit sector who design and deliver great programs and great program outcomes to their participants. Extending the power of the Salesforce platform to this indispensable part of an organization’s social mission will also enable increasingly sophisticated and real-time connections and analyses between ‘what works’ and ‘what it costs’.

Dreamforce 2018 provided a wealth of experiences and announcements where this focus on program and impact was evident.

Roadmap

In the Salesforce.org Product Roadmap for Nonprofits session, SFDO’s Lori Freeman, who leads nonprofit product management, unveiled the roadmap for Salesforce.org across three domains: fundraising, engagement, and program. Shelly Erceg, the program management director, then focused on the program roadmap. And while it is certainly early in its development, it is clear to see that the emerging framework starts to pick out vital capabilities, like case management, program management, services management, and impact measurement (all of which are part of Exponent Case Management (ECM), natch!), in addition to volunteer management, project management, and call center capabilities. A key takeaway is that program management is now finally given equal billing with the traditional strengths of the Salesforce platform in fundraising and engagement. And that is a welcome development indeed.

Sessions!

The tone was set with the nonprofit keynote – Become an Impact-First Nonprofit. There were more sessions focused on program management than at previous Dreamforces, especially in the human and social services domains. Considering that these types of organizations represent more than one-third of the nonprofit sector, this is good to see. Just among Exponent Partners ECM clients, we had great representation. Sandy Allen of United Way Bay Area demonstrated her organization’s deep knowledge of program management, evaluation, and impact in her talk on planning for systems change. Kai Harris at California Human Development talked about using program data to go beyond backward-looking reporting and to start looking forward with data through diagnosis and prediction. Program and impact were everywhere.

Tools

The new capabilities in Einstein Analytics and Einstein AI are directly supportive of the work of program management and impact management. Analytics are vital in describing, building shared understanding, and working to continuously improve ‘what works’ in programs (i.e. what social interventions are effective for what participant). Einstein AI will enable machine learning applied to our clients’ program management data sets, and tease out the learnings and insights about which interventions should be applied to which participants in what situations and contexts. This ability to provide predictions and prescriptions right within program staff’s case management application represents a leap forward that other point solutions just cannot match.

These are early days in program management for Salesforce.org, but all the signs above are incredibly encouraging and point to a bright future for salesforce.org, our partner ecosystem, and especially for the nonprofit organizations which look to us to help build their social impact and program success! Onwards and upwards!

Dreamforce Lightning Flow Builder

Dreamforce Roundup

Posted in: Blog

The annual Salesforce user conference finished up on Friday, September 28 and, once again, it was an amazing spectacle. Somewhere north of 150,000 people flooded session rooms around downtown San Francisco, all there to learn about some aspect of the Salesforce platform.

My first Dreamforce was in 2006, when I was one of 5,000 attendees. That year marked the launch of Apex, the Appexchange (it had over 400 apps!), sandboxes, validation rules, the new Classic user interface, and so much more. The keynote let us watch Marc Benioff log in on stage, head over to Setup, and configure Salesforce. It was quite a different world from 2018.

Dreamforce is a splashy event, and so there are always some big announcements. But because Salesforce has three releases per year, Dreamforce isn’t a big-bang announcement-fest like events held by other companies, such as Apple. There’s often some interesting new services, partnerships, and features announced, but we get used to the drumbeat of new features in October, February, and June each year, so sometimes Dreamforce can be a bit less dramatic than it seems from the outside.

Here are some of the interesting announcements  from this year’s Dreamforce, plus a few others that were revealed over the summer.

Low Code Tools

From the start, Salesforce has had point and click tools to customize and automate the platform. There are two new low code tools that are interesting:

Lightning Object Creator allows you to turn a spreadsheet into a Salesforce application without any code. If you use spreadsheets for a process, you can drag and drop them into the Object Creator, review fields for accuracy and publish a digital form, available on desktop or mobile. You can further analyze the data or add it to existing records with support for Search, Notes or Files within Salesforce. Check out the blog post for additional details.

 

Lightning Flow Builder is a revamp of Flow Builder, which helped us all create drag and drop processes, forms, and automation. The look and feel of Lightning Flow Builder has been matched to the Lighting Design System, giving us a level of familiarity that improves the user experience. In addition, Salesforce announced Flow Actions – pre-built, reusable components that can be dropped into any Lighting Flow. Lighting Flow Builder and Process Builder have some overlap in what they can do–it’s clear that Lightning Flows is where R&D energy is going at the moment. Here’s a Trailhead that may help you better understand when to pick one over the other.

 

A New Lighting Page Layout Editor is coming in the future, and will include ways to filter out blocks of detail content based on context. While information is limited at this time, it’s hard not to get excited about what this blog post says is coming–the power of having sections of a page render or not render based on data, user, etc. We’ve been wanting this capability on the platform since day one, and we’ve had to use Record Types as our only recourse other than a full UI rewrite. I’m excited to learn more!

Google released the Data Connector for Salesforce, a free add-on for Google Spreadsheets that allows you to query, create, and update Salesforce data right in a spreadsheet. While there are existing, similar tools, the fact this is put out directly by Google is interesting. I’ve used tools like this to do very complex data manipulation in a spreadsheet while maintaining the benefit of data directly linked to Salesforce. Simply press a button and your data is refreshed from your CRM. It’s worth trying out the Data Connector–my only issue with it is that it will only pull 2,000 rows from Salesforce reports, leaving you with incomplete datasets. For very large data sets, you can write SOQL queries, or use a tool like Xappex’s G-Connector.

The Einstein Family of Products

Salesforce kicked off Dreamforce with the announcement of Einstein Voice. The next version of the Salesforce mobile app on iOS will be able to take dictation, help you smartly connect that note to records it has discovered in your note, and even create or complete Salesforce Tasks. It’s a pretty cool piece of app functionality.

You will be forgiven if you’re not sure how this fits together with everything else that falls under the Einstein family of products. Think of Einstein as Artificial Intelligence on the platform, and you’ll be mostly there. Each of the core areas of Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, and Community have turnkey tools that can be used to apply artificial intelligence in smart ways to solve common problems. In Sales, for example, Lead Scoring uses artificial intelligence to prioritize the Leads that are the most likely to turn into deals. There are about 15 of these out-of-the-box AI components listed on the Salesforce Einstein product page.

In addition to those turnkey components, there are a number of Einstein services created for platform developers. These services allow developers to build their own AI tools to work with Salesforce. With Prediction Builder, Language, Vision, and Bots, developers can tune AI for use cases that are unique to their industry or  specific needs. We are very excited about Prediction Builder. Lead Scoring for salespeople is a nice feature too, but we’re much more interested in the possibility to use AI to identify the right interventions for kids receiving services from a direct-service nonprofit. This is an exciting toolset on which to build really smart software, and we are just at the beginning of this journey.

The final member of the Einstein family is Analytics, and it really is different from the others.  Formerly called Wave, Analytics is a data visualization and dashboarding solution. It has an AI component called Discovery that analyzes large data sets and helps see connections between data that might not be clear at first glance. But all in all, Analytics is more about data and dashboards than AI.

A Million Other Things

Salesforce.com spends around $1B on R&D every year, so it is impossible to note every improvement they have made, even in the last few months. All you have to do is watch this DX Super Session to see how many new technical aspects of the platform can be jammed into a 40-minute presentation. It’s remarkable, and a big reason we love Salesforce–it’s being driven forward by an economic engine much larger than the nonprofit sector could ever generate, and we get to take advantage of all of it. The hardest part is keeping up!

Dreamforce Braeden Blog

Dreamforce Through the Eyes of a Rookie

Posted in: Blog

Unlike my colleague, Sean Speer, I’m not a Dreamforce veteran. Truth be told, I’m a Dreamforce rookie and 2018 was my first time attending this epic event. It certainly won’t be my last!

As I prepared for the event, I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I reached out to a few of my teammates for advice. Everyone mentioned that I would be blown away by the sheer volume of people at Dreamforce (and I was), but then came the practical tips. Wear comfortable shoes. Attend as many sessions as possible. Learn what’s new with Salesforce and what’s around the corner. Take time to visit the booths of other companies and listen to their presentations. Be a sponge and soak up as much information as possible.

This sound advice helped me make the most of my first Dreamforce experience. The event definitely surpassed all my expectations, even though I missed the concert with Janet Jackson. Sad face.

One of the most memorable aspects of Dreamforce was standing alongside my colleagues, watching them team interact with customers. No matter what questions or difficult problems customers threw at them, my teammates responded confidently, leveraging their in-depth knowledge of the Salesforce platform. I was left inspired to dive deep into everything Salesforce has to offer.

Among the various sessions that I attended, my favorite was with Dr. Vincent Matthews, who is the SFUSD Superintendent. He spoke about equity equaling equality, and supported this theme with a tangible example. Specifically, he showed a photo of three children as they tried to watch a baseball game. One of the children was very tall and had a great view; the second was average height, so could see the game by standing on a one-step stool; and the third child—the youngest and shortest—needed a stool with three steps in order to watch the action. Dr. Matthews explained to the audience that not every child has the same abilities as other children, but that does not mean that they can’t reach the same goal, which, in this case, was watching the baseball game. Indeed, in a classroom setting, some kids need no help, some need a little, and some need a lot. Everyone is different and has their own strengths and weaknesses, but with the appropriate help, they can all reach the same goal. This effective example reminded me of the impact that we can make on people’s lives by giving them the tools they need to succeed.

I wrapped up Dreamforce over a debrief dinner with my colleagues on Thursday night. As we shared our learnings, favorite moments, and insights, I was reminded how lucky I am to be part of the Salesforce ecosystem. I’m already counting down the days to Dreamforce 2019!

 

 

dreamforce event

Being a Dreamforce Veteran

Posted in: Blog
By: Sean Speer

As a San Franciscan working in the nonprofit Salesforce ecosystem, there are two big events each year that vie for my attention: Dreamforce and Burning Man. Some years they overlap, whereas other years they take place one right after the other. (If you’ve ever attended either, you can just imagine going to both, back-to-back!)

After attending both events many times, the years start to blur together: was that the year that Metallica played Moscone South? Or was that the year Daft Punk played at the trash fence? There were definitely people handing out tequila shots that year and asking me to sign up for an obscure “service” that I probably didn’t need. Then there was the memorable art at both events. Where was it that I saw those giant inflatable forest creatures? I’m pretty sure I did see them! There’s oontz-oontz music everywhere, and a pretty good chance you’ll be screeching Bruce Springsteen songs at 1am with your best buddies, some of whom were strangers only a few hours earlier.

No matter which event you attend, you will learn more than you thought possible and expand your horizons in the process. Skills you thought were useless will suddenly be in demand. Your ability to manipulate digital systems will enthrall everyone around you.

I don’t know if I can call myself a veteran(1) of either event, but I do feel like I have sufficient experience to offer advice to those who are lucky enough to be repeat offenders attendees. So, for those of you coming to the City by the Bay for the biggest annual technology brain-melting love-fest extravaganza–I’m talking about Dreamforce–here’s a list of advice from someone who has your *best* interests at heart.

  1. Do the Expo the right way.
    • You have to do the Expo. I mostly just float around the Expo and look for old friends and acquaintances. Like everything in life, your network is your power. Rekindle old relationships with anyone and everyone you recognize. Catch up on what they’re doing. With a year or more between seeing these people, you never know where they might be now; a lot can change in a year. Think of the Expo not as a vendor demonstration hall, but as a giant networking event.
    • Tchotchkes: Don’t just grab anything in sight. Be thoughtful about which tchotchkes you take, so that they don’t end up in the landfill the week after Dreamforce. C’mon folks, be green and only take items that are actually of use to you.
  2. Make a list for the Expo ahead of time.
    • If you really must get software demos, make a list ahead of time of the kinds of things you want to see. Interested in document merge capability? Then write that down, do some research on which companies you’d like to talk with, and then talk to those people. You can ignore all the other stuff that isn’t on your list until you have open blocks of time that aren’t scheduled. Unless of course they’re doing a Segway raffle, in which case: YES, SIGN UP FOR THE RAFFLE, YOU FOOL. (Note: Entering a raffle is different from grabbing another bobblehead.)
  3. Pace yourself.
    • Think of Dreamforce as an Ironman Triathlon that takes place over four days. The first day is literally just diving in and swimming several miles while everyone else is kicking and punching you, trying to make space in a sea of people all wearing the same thing and going to exactly the same place. Do you like getting punched? No? Then remember you can do the Expo any time. Wait until Thursday when the crowds have died down, the booth people are desperate for someone to talk to, and you just don’t have it in you to attend another email marketing automation session.
    • On day 3, remember that you still have to get on the bike and ride 112 miles. Now, I’m not saying you have to be at peak performance, but if you can’t make it out of bed and your first thoughts at 10:45 am on Thursday are: “Water! I need water. Am I on booth duty? Where am I? Why is someone holding my head in a vise?”, then you may want to dial it back on the evening festivities because you still have a triathlon to finish.
    • Those carts that Salesforce rolls out into the Expo at, like, 4 pm with free booze? Caution, my friend. I’m not saying you shouldn’t partake, but just remember to pace yourself as you still have some meetings ahead, probably a big dinner with coworkers and clients, and possibly some Springsteen karaoke to take care of at the end of the evening. MAKE SURE YOU CAN MAKE IT TO KARAOKE. That’s all I’m sayin’.
  4. Take the bus to the concert.
    • Seriously. Uber and Lyft will be buried in requests. Be smart and take the provided free transit. Bonus: you will meet people on the bus, and they just might be as cool as you! It’ll be just like riding an art car from 8:45 and D across to Frozen Oasis at 3:15 and Esplanade with some dude in the back passed out from too much Purple Drank. Not sure what that means? Ask a Burner.
  5. Leave space.
    • Your first instinct is to sign up for everything. They give you that book that lists all the cool stuff going on and you just want to do EVERYTHING in it!
    • Resist the temptation to do all the things. Seriously. Leave some space. Do a LOT of things, but save some time to roam the halls and meet people. Or grab a couch and relax for a few minutes. You never know who might sit down next to you. You can always get back up and attend that email marketing automation session that you’ve been dreaming about.
  6. Learn. But enjoy. But also: LEARN.
    • Developer Zone.
      • Your organization made an investment when they paid for your Dreamforce registration.  Make the most of this investment by checking out the Developer Zone. Even if you’re not a developer, talk to the folks there. You might learn something, or even discover a passion you didn’t know you had. APEX code might be intimidating, but, like learning any language, it just takes practice and patience.
    • Peer Learning
      • Remember when I mentioned that you should just float around the hallways and talk to people? Yeah, well, when you do talk to new people who do the kinds of things you do try to trade ideas, tips, and tricks.
      • Have you ever shown your Salesforce instance to someone outside of your organization? I know, it’s feels like walking around naked (side note: not recommended at Dreamforce), but showing each other your instances can be really mind-opening.
  7. Divide and conquer, but also regroup and share.
    • Send people from your organization to all sorts of different sessions, and then make time to come together to share what you learned. (Lunch is a good time, as is that vortex between 4pm and happy hour.)

Are you an actual veteran attending Dreamforce?

Make sure you check out VetForce and get set up with some of the veteran nonprofits who use Salesforce, like IAVA. Need an intro? Drop me a line and I’ll get you set up with some other veterans at Dreamforce. I’m the stranger who might become your new friend.

Amplify

Exponent Partners is Now an Amplify Sponsor

Posted in: Blog

We are proud to announce that Exponent Partners is now an Amplify sponsor!  

Impact. Innovation. Diversity. These are the core values of Exponent Partners; they are the values that motivate our staff to meet the current challenges of today’s working world. As a social venture working exclusively with impact-focused nonprofits, our goal at Exponent Partners is to do well by doing good.

We achieve this goal by using technology to support the success and growth of our nonprofit clients. We know that by supporting an inclusive workplace, providing opportunities to innovate while bringing your whole self to work, we create a collaborative and cooperative environment for our employees.

With our values, we enable our staff and  organization to grow. We’ve been able to expand over the years, while maintaining a balanced female/male staff with women filling nearly 50% of our technical positions and nearly 40% of the roles on our leadership team, far exceeding the industry averages of 25% and 17% respectively. Equal pay for equal work is also a core belief. Our recent salary review demonstrated that for every dollar earned at Exponent Partners, men earn $0.97 and women earn $1.03.

To continue to be the inclusive and diverse team that we strive to be, we will work with Amplify to expand our knowledge and cast our net even wider.  We look forward forging a strong and positive learning relationship!

universal intake process

Increasing Efficiency with Universal Intake

Posted in: Blog
<p>For many clients who are enrolling in multiple programs offered by a Human Services agency, the following scenario might be all too familiar.</p>

Meet Susan—a single mother who wants to register for a training program that will make her more employable. After filling out a lengthy form by hand, Susan meets with one of the agency’s employees who asks questions to supplement the information provided. Fast forward three weeks when Susan finds herself evicted from her current rental. She returns to the agency to find out if she is eligible to explore low-income housing services. Susan completes another form—one that is almost identical to the one she completed weeks ago, with the exception of a few extra questions. She then meets a new employee who asks that same questions that were posed during her previous visit.

The pain of this process is palpable on the agency side as well.

John has been working at the agency for almost a decade, during which time new programs have been added, but not much has changed with the client intake process. After a client fills out the required paperwork, John asks follow-up questions to fill in the blanks that the client skipped, and then the intake form is added to the client’s paper file, which is kept in the program’s department. When the client enters another program, the process is repeated; another paper file is created and housed elsewhere. More paperwork. More files. More data silos. The result is not only a time-consuming process for everyone involved, but also limited visibility into the big picture of the client and the agency.

Fast-forward to reporting time, when John’s manager asks him for a report that details the number of clients that the agency has served over the past year. And so it begins: the counting, the manual entry of data into an Excel spreadsheet, the removal of duplicates to get accurate numbers. John spends many hours on these tasks—hours that he would rather spend helping clients. The entire process is not only painful and time-consuming, but it is also ripe for human error.

Susan’s and John’s experiences are common place among Human Services agencies, especially ones that have under-invested in technology for various reasons–internal funding challenges, resistance to change, lack of internal capacity or alignment.

However, the tides are turning, largely due to increasing pressure from funders, changes in legislation, and the need to do more with less by streamlining processes.

And with these pressures and challenges come opportunities including:

  • An opportunity to make it easier for a client to gain access to your programs.
  • An opportunity to streamline the intake process for staff. An opportunity to simplify the report creation process.
  • An opportunity to spend more time helping people instead of pushing papers.

These opportunities can be seized when an agency implements a universal intake form—a distilled version of multiple intake forms across the agency’s programs—that is accessible to staff whenever they have internet access. The online form allows for rapid data capture of the client’s basic demographic information, as well as other information that is pertinent across programs, and then stores the data in the different places where it belongs (e.g., contact record, case record, referral, assessment, and/or household). Your agency’s universal intake form can be supplemented by additional program-specific forms. By having all of a client’s data housed in one system, your agency gains a complete view of the client and avoids the creation of duplicative information.

So, what does a universal intake form mean for clients and staff?

  • Clients: With universal intake, clients like Susan who use multiple programs within your agency will have a superior enrollment experience—one that is smooth and efficient.
  • Staff: For employees like John, their jobs will get a lot better, as they can quickly access key data online. They no longer have to gather information from colleagues and paper files, and then enter and manipulate data in a spreadsheet. The time saved can be used to provide more services to a larger number of clients.

Organizationally, an online universal intake form is a game changer in terms of identifying trends and promoting the right programs to the right clients at the right time. Your nonprofit will gain agency-wide reporting capabilities, giving your organization more data and better data, which can translate to improved service delivery and greater impact.

Want to see universal intake in action? Register for an upcoming webinar where we will demonstrate the universal intake process using Exponent Case Management (ECM).

Code Reviews: Boost Quality and Supercharge Your Team

Posted in: Blog
<p>“Code Reviews” have been used for decades in software engineering in order to deliver bug-free, high quality software to users. Historically, the primary focus has been on the code written by programmers – applying a formal process to focus on finding and fixing defects. Over the past few decades, there has been significant movement towards making reviews more agile, less resource-intensive, and applicable to work products other than programmers’ source code. This new application of “code reviews” can be very useful to Salesforce administrators and analysts, as well as developers.</p>

While reviews can add steps to your process, they can ensure a better solution for your users and ultimately higher user adoption. Here, we’ll take a look at some of those benefits and some of the review opportunities available when building solutions on Salesforce.

BENEFITS OF REVIEWS
Benefit #1: Improved Quality
As a Salesforce consultant, your primary goal should be creating robust, correct, usable solutions that are scalable, maintainable, and add value for customers. Reviews are one of the most effective tools when working toward that goal. Logically, applying multiple perspectives to a problem results in solutions that are more likely to be correct. Here, we’ll focus primarily on code reviews, but reviewing architecture, design, and test plans can help uncover “big picture” issues that may be overlooked when focusing on the code. Be sure to consider each of those opportunities when implementing reviews on your project.

In many disciplines, we realize that to err is human and plan accordingly. Consider the number of rewrites, reviews, and edits an author will go through before publishing his final work. As Salesforce consultants, we must realize that we are “authors” and the quality of our work will improve as we seek the input and ideas of our coworkers.
“In a software-maintenance organization, 55 percent of one-line maintenance changes were in error before code reviews were introduced. After reviews were introduced, only 2 percent of the changes were in error. When all changes were considered, 95 percent were correct the first time after reviews were introduced. Before reviews were introduced, under 20 percent were correct the first time.”
~ Steve McConnell, “Code Complete”, p. 481

Benefit #2: Skill Building
While improving the quality of our work, reviews will also spread domain knowledge and improve consulting skills. A brief review of a requirements document or data flow diagram can help communicate details that might otherwise be tough to uncover. As a developer, I can’t count the number of tips and tricks I’ve learned by reviewing others’ code. Code reviews help build productive and skillful programmers.

Benefit #3: Communication
Last but not least, reviews are a very effective way to communicate domain and solution information among team members who may be each working on a different part of an app. Reviewing work products such as source code, workflow rules, or test scripts helps to communicate specifics at the more detailed level. Team mates who analyze each other’s work will understand the comprehensive picture of the app better and produce a more consistent product.

REVIEW METHODS
There are several review methods. Find one that fits the way your team works and implement it!

Formal (Fagan)
This is a careful and detailed process with multiple participants and multiple phases. Formal reviews are the traditional method, in which co workers attend a series of meetings and review line by line, usually using printed copies of the material. Formal inspections are extremely thorough and have been proven effective at finding defects, but also take significant time.
Over the shoulder
In this method, one person looks over the author’s shoulder as the latter walks through the code.
Email pass around (+ Google Docs)
Here, the author or source code management system emails code to reviewers and requests comments, such as through Google docs.
Pair programming (online tools)
“Pair programming” was introduced in the “Extreme Programming” methodology, and refers to two authors working together.
Tool assisted
This refers to any process where specialized tools are used in all aspects of the review: collecting files, transmitting and displaying files, commentary, and defects among all participants, collecting metrics, and giving product managers and administrators some control over the workflow.

The “Tool Assisted” method works well on Salesforce projects and fits in well with other best practices such as revision control and project management systems. When implemented in a Salesforce team, the process might look something like this:

  1. Create a branch within the source code repository where the code and configuration is stored.
  2. Edit and test your work in a development or sandbox org.
  3. Push your changes to the new branch in the repository. Include configuration changes, code, unit tests, comments, etc.
  4. Create a pull request and invite others to participate in the review.
  5. Reviewers evaluate the work and make inline comments. Review is based on requirements documents, user stories, and coding standards. Complete initial review within 24 hours
  6. If rework is required, return to step 2.
  7. Once all reviewers have approved the changes, the work is merged into the repository, where it can be deployed to the next org in the process.

Review Best Practices

  • Keep it small – 200 to 400 lines of code. This is what most people can review in 60-90 minutes.
  • When requesting a review, add documentation so that the design is understandable.
  • Take the time! When reviewing someone else’s work, take the time and effort to do a thorough job.
  • Keep it positive. Besides pointing out defects, comment on good design and best practices.
  • Use checklists
  • Address and/or resolve all comments from reviewers
  • Iterate (use findings to update checklists)

CODING STANDARDS
Well-written code is easy to read, understand, debug, and maintain. One key to attaining these attributes in your team’s code is to define coding standards – guidelines that may cover file organization, indentation, comments, declarations, statements, whitespace, naming conventions, programming practices, programming principles, architectural best practices, etc.

The following are example coding standards for languages typically used in Salesforce development. These should be modified to fit your team’s background, processes, and preferences. Be careful to avoid needless work and arguments over personal preferences. Make sure each standard is specific, unambiguous, and contributes to more readable, maintainable code.

Finally, note that these checklists are meant to be brief reminders. More verbose standards and samples should be provided to your development team.

Apex

  • Use config instead of code when possible
  • Clearly separate concerns (model / controller / trigger handler / view / tests)
  • Avoid duplicate code – add base classes, utilities, subroutines, etc.
  • Prevent SOQL injection
  • Handle all potential errors; comment cases where errors should be ignored
  • Provide useful and complete documentation for classes & methods
  • Write small, clear, single-purpose methods
  • Use descriptive names for classes, properties, methods, variables, etc.
  • Use whitespace to improve readability
  • CamelCase classes, ICamelCase interfaces, camelCase methods, properties, and variables, ALL_CAP finals
  • Use spaces instead of tabs
  • Make properties and parameters final when possible
  • No SOQL, DML, or @future calls inside loops
  • Use static queries, binding variables or escapeSingleQuotes to prevent SOQL injection attacks
  • Bulkify all trigger and asynchronous code
  • Use asynchronous code (future, batch, scheduled) when possible
  • No hard-coded Ids
  • Create at most one trigger per object
  • Use centralized trigger processing (ITrigger pattern)
  • Use custom settings, labels, or metadata types for configurable settings and preferences

Apex Unit Tests

  • Assert proper behaviors
  • Test conditionals, valid inputs, invalid inputs, error conditions
  • Provide useful and complete documentation
  • Avoid duplicate code – add base classes, utilities, subroutines, etc.
  • System.runAs a specific user
  • Write tests for multiple records
  • Use mocking framework for callout testing
  • Don’t rely on existing data
  • 100% unit test coverage

Visualforce

  • Use config instead of code when possible
  • Avoid duplicate code – use components, includes, templates, etc.
  • Provide useful and complete documentation
  • Prevent cross-site-scripting attacks
  • Move CSS and Javascript to static resources
  • Include Javascript at the bottom of the page
  • Use transient properties, read-only pages, and caching when possible
  • Use whitespace and indenting to improve readability

Javascript

  • Move Javascript to a static resource
  • Load Javascript at the bottom of the page
  • Wrap all code in a namespace or anonymous function to avoid collisions
  • Avoid duplicate code – add utilities, subroutines, etc.
  • Handle all potential errors; comment cases where errors should be ignored
  • Provide useful and complete documentation
  • Write small, clear, single-purpose methods
  • Use descriptive names for methods, variables, etc.
  • Use whitespace to improve readability
  • Use spaces instead of tabs
  • Declare all variables and functions