As 2013 turns into 2014 SkyPlanner looks towards what we can all expect in cloud computing.

Few things on Earth, if any, evolve as quickly as technology and cloud computing is one of the best examples of that. Cloud companies such as Salesforce are always rolling out innovative products as the needs of business both big and small continue to stretch the limits of what's already available. SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, prides itself on being on the cutting edge of those trends in order to make sure our clients are ahead of the curve as well. Here are some trends that are coming down the cloud computing pipeline as we enter 2014:

Gamification Will Become The Preferred Method Of Employee Management 

As emerging technologies makes it easier for more people to start businesses and sales becomes more competitive with every passing day, companies will need to find effective ways to track and motivate their sales staffs. Applications such as Salesforce's Work.com will continue to become integral part of a business's day-to-day operations. And because social media can turn a single customer service issue into bad press, companies will apply gamification to making sure their customer service reps are keeping customers as happy as possible as quickly as possible. 

Hybrid Clouds Will Become The Norm 

Companies that have accepted cloud computing as the future may still not be completely confident housing all their data in the public cloud. Recent issues such as the NSA and Wikileaks scandals have not really helped. That means companies will continue to look towards implementing hybrid systems which incorporate both private and public clouds where information such as financial data and customer service data are stored separately.

Security and performance will become even higher priorities

As stated above, scandals involving spying as well as the ever-present threat of hacking will cause companies to look closer at how they protect their cloud-based data. Cloud companies will continue to make checking for breaches in security even easier. This will be especially beneficial for smaller businesses that can't afford dedicated teams to test their cloud applications for holes in security.

Companies will accept that they need help with Big Data

Information is key for any company regardless of size, and getting as much of it as possible is important for making decisions that will improve operations and increase revenue. But there comes a time when there's too much information for a company to both store and analyze on its own. Companies will want, or be forced, to adopt Data as a Service (DaaS) as quickly as they adopt IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

These trends, while not surprising, are nonetheless important to be on top of and SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, plans on doing just that. That's why our clients can always be assured that they will not always get a personal touch with every service we provice, but they will also be one step ahead of their competitors. 

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Get tips on good business habits, pricing your products to keep your business competitive and more!

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Find out what we at SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, have been reading, watching, listening to, and learning from in the past week. Click on each link to view our curated content. 

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Our SkyPlanner Success Spotlight series shifts its focus from our past projects to the innovative and successful apps we've created to help not only our clients but the rest of the Salesforce community. This segment is about spVFComponents. It's a tool we designed to help others trying to learn Salesforce have an easier go at it. 

At SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, we love to hear from ours clients and supporters so please feel free to comment with any opinions or suggestions for future content.

SkyPlanner Success Spotlight: spVFComponents

In our newest blog series, SkyPlanner will showcase some of the successful projects that we've completed over the last few years. The first half of the series covered some of the successful projects we've completed for clients. This next round in the series will cover the apps that we create for other Salesforce admins and developers, and are available on the Salesforce AppExchange. 

Overview

VF Components is a tool that allows beginner Salesforce users (developers, admins) to see visual examples of their Salesforce components in real-time while they are first learning to use APEX code.

Link

https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N3000000B4NABEA3

Description

Ever wonder what your Salesforce components will look like while you’re developing them? spVFComponents let’s you see real-time visual representations of what you’re working on without having to deploy first.

• See real-time visual representations of main Visualforce components as they are being coded.
• Quickly access Apex backend code to cross-reference each visual example.
• Includes the default standard Salesforce help for reference.

Reviews

Kimberly Cancel - SPVF Components AWESOME
This makes life much easier.. Thank you so much for this app.

Screenshots

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Salesforce Platform, sales tips, and SkyPlanner celebrates another successful year!

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Find out what we at SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, have been reading, watching, listening to, and learning from in the past week. Click on each link to view our curated content. 

The Salesforce Platform once again finishes a year as the world's #1 CRM platform. Watch the Dreamforce '13 Platform keynote to learn all about it plus what's in the store for the future. 

Like it or not, sales are becoming customer centric. There are just too many choices out there. Here's 10 ways to better connect with your customers and grow your business. 

Being a sales coach as well as a manager is essential to getting the most out of your sales staff. Here is an effective way to manage both roles that can be implemented in the new year. 

Our SkyPlanner Success Spotlight series shifts its focus from our past projects to the innovative and successful apps we've created to help not only our clients but the rest of the Salesforce community. The first segment showcases our highly successful image capture app, spImages. 

As the year ends we all start to appreciate those around us, and at SkyPlanner we are no different. We recently celebrated the end to another successful year with our annual Christmas party. Click here to see how we celebrated. 

At SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, we love to hear from ours clients and supporters so please feel free to comment with any opinions or suggestions for future content.

SkyPlanner closes another successful year with another successful Christmas party.

Last week we took a break as South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company and celebrated the end of the year with our annual Christmas Party. This year's soiree was held at db Bistro Moderne in downtown Miami. It was a fun night spent with close friends and family, good food (duck foie gras isn't that bad once you try it) and good wine. 

SkyPlanner Success Spotlight: spImages

In our newest blog series, SkyPlanner will showcase some of the successful projects that we've completed over the last few years. The first half of the series covered some of the successful projects we've completed for clients. This next round in the series will cover the apps that we create for other Salesforce admins and developers, and are available on the Salesforce AppExchange. 

Overview

spImages is a unique image capture application that has never before been attempted on the Salesforce platform. Images allows a company’s Salesforce users to add a visual component to your company’s data and provides for a more personalized touch to an enterprise's operations.

Link

https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000009v5y3EAA

Description

spImages allows its users to take pictures using a webcam installed on their computer and save them to any record as attachments. spImages displays not only the pictures saved from a webcam but also any image uploaded to Salesforce and then stored as attachments in the record layout. The viewer itself can display images in two ways: a linear view and an attractive carousel view. With Chatter mobile integration you can capture and upload images in real-time wherever you are using your smartphone.

Reviews

Lee Harrison - Nice App great support
Need to install with a custom object sent an email got response right away and the guys fixed my issues no charge.

Larisa Hall - Woo-Hoo!
I have been looking for something exactly like this! I am fairly computer savvy, but not when it comes to programming etc. The installation for this app was easy. I had one minor bit of confusion on uploading images, but I called the customer service number and got an immediate answer. Thank you!

Sharath Krishnaraj - Great app and good support
This app met most of our requirements, we needed it on a custom object and the team was very forthcoming in making the changes. We also learned that their next release will support this feature of force.com touch.. That's the real deal!!. Thanks a lot folks, waiting for the next release anxiously.. :)

Alfredo Salcedo - I already see the benefits that could touch every job function within our organization
Great App, I already see the benefits that could touch every job function within our organization, such as being able to upload customer company pictures just a clear visual representation our our customer... Easy to use and great interface.

Javier Gonzalez - Excellent App, Long Overdue!
I find it very surprising that this functionality has not been implemented before for the AppExchange. Great app! Excellent functionality and UI.

Group Administrator - Great App!
We were looking for a solution to take pictures of visitors and parents to our school, and this app works great. Easy to install and does what is says. I had a few follow up questions, and the support was very cordial and fast. And its free! Thank you!

Screenshots

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Marc Benioff's keynote, adapting to The Internet of Customers, how the Cloud continues to grow, and more!

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Find out what we at SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, have been reading, watching, listening to, and learning from in the past week. Click on each link to view our curated content. 

First, SkyPlanner would once again like to join our thoughts and prayers to the millions who are also mourning the loss of a great man, Nelson Mandela. 

The Internet of Customers. This is the future of the business as it shifts even more towards the Cloud. Listen to Marc Benioff speak on this very subject during his keynote speech that launched Dreamforce '13 (He also just so happened to re-tweet our tweet about his keynote). 

Due to customer-centric services such as Salesforce, business is becoming more and more of a buyer's market. So how should businesses adapt to that development?

The Cloud just continues to grow and grow. Here are some more trends to look forward to in 2014. 

B2B marketing is evolving, which can make it difficult for businesses to keep up. Here's what you need to know to stay ahead of the curb. 

Finally, here's another installment of our SkyPlanner Success Spotlight blog series. This particular post was about the work we did for Reduction International. 

At SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, we love to hear from ours clients and supporters so please feel free to comment with any opinions or suggestions for future content.

SkyPlanner Success Spotlight: Reduction International

In our newest blog series, SkyPlanner will showcase some of the successful projects that we've completed over the last few years. Today we highlight the work we did for Green Star Biodiesel. 

Overview

Before bringing SkyPlanner into the fold, Reduction International’s business practices funneled almost all of the company’s logistics through misapplied on-premises software, primarily Quickbooks. SkyPlanner was able to transform Reduction International’s sales structure with complete customization of the company’s recently implemented Salesforce platforms.

Challenges

Reduction International suffered from a complete lack of informational control within the company and a severe disconnect between departments due to lack of a standardized sales process. There was no semblance of a lead management process, document management was ineffective, and a total lack of internal collaboration. Ineffective analytics led to an inability to effectively target potential leads within the company’s niche market.

Solution

SkyPlanner leveraged a Salesforce CRM custom app for account management, lead management, and opportunity management and the Force.com platform to quickly generate customized purchase orders and quotes. SkyPlanner also created custom solutions for email management and enhanced visuals with layouts. Finally, SkyPlanner implemented a Chatter rollout. 

Value

Thanks to SkyPlanner, Reduction International saw increased conversion rate from leads, an inncrease in the number of won opportunities, and a decrease in time from lead generation to closing of deals. Better analytics has led to more successful pinpointing of potential clients while marketing activity has increased due to confidence within Reduction International that the company can handle more concurrent sales. Lastly, there has been an increase in overall satisfaction from sales staff due to sales being easier to track and execute. 

Notes

• The main purpose of SkyPlanner’s work for Reduction International was to put an effective sales process in place that could maximize the efforts of the company’s small workforce. 
• SkyPlanner performed an extensive analysis of Reduction International’s internal operations to fully map out the best course of action to take in order to replace the company previous business management software. It was determined that leveraging the Salesforce platform would allow for the quickest possible turnaround of the project from beginning to end. 
• The newly implemented lead management process and custom analytics allows Reduction International to see their target market in a specific manner instead of in broad strokes, as was the case with the company’s previous system. This makes it much easier for Reduction International to pinpoint their most likely customers and concentrate their efforts on those potential clients.
• SkyPlanner’s extension of Force.com to manage documents and attachments according to Reduction International’s preferences made for a more streamlined operation, which cut down on the time it takes for employees to close sales, assess inventory, and ship product to clients.
• Heavy customization gives Reduction International the ability to configure certain aspects of their business process. These include choosing between different invoice templates or addresses from which to send emails depending on the client. 

Screenshots

Homepage with Dashboard

Commercial Invoice

Email Solution

Custom Quote Template

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Like our post-Thanksgiving selves, this week's Parachute isn't light on content just because of a short workweek.

It's SkyPlanner Parachute Monday! Find out what we at SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, have been reading, watching, listening to, and learning from in the past week. Click on each link to view our curated content. 

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Starting and growing a business is never easy. Luckily, the internet provides for an almost limitless supply of resources to prepare you for the process. 

Continuing with our blog series on SkyPlanner's most successful projects, aptly named SkyPlanner Success Spotlight, we present the work we did for Green Star Biodiesel.  

At SkyPlanner, South Florida's premier Salesforce consulting company, we love to hear from ours clients and supporters so please feel free to comment with any opinions or suggestions for future content.