December 18, 2017

How to Prevent a “Gotcha!” in Salesforce Relationships

in: Business, Data, Programming, Software Tagged: business, data tag, database, sales force management, salesforce, Salesforce administration, Salesforce development, Salesforce relationships, softwares

Working with Salesforce relationships is a little different from traditional relational database structures, but Salesforce has great tools for building custom data relationships, and most people can adapt quickly to the SOQL model. As with any other system, though, there are a few “gotchas” to watch for when designing Salesforce relationships. I ran into one […]

November 1, 2017

Salesforce Winter 2018 Reporting Enhancements

in: Business, Data, Developers, Programming, Software Tagged: Dashboards, Lightning Experience, New Features, Reporting tag, salesforce, Salesforce development, softwares, solution design

It’s a funny thing about Salesforce developers. Many of us really dislike change, even when we know very well it’s necessary and worthwhile. Why? Too often, changing an application is like re-routing plumbing after the house is built: making a change that looks small can take a whole lot of effort with a whole lot […]

September 27, 2017

Software Automation Isn’t A Job Killer

in: Business, Developers, Programming, Software Tagged: automation, business productivity, custom software development, softwares

Can software replace my job? It’s a concern with roots going back centuries to the arrival of the first automated power looms in 18th-century England, continuing into more modern times with the large claw-like robots that build automobiles. Today it seems there are hundreds of websites making their living pushing clickbait headlines describing the perils […]

September 18, 2017

User Support Isn’t Always a PICNIC

in: Developers, Programming, Software Tagged: Developers, software development, softwares, tech support, technical support, testing, user support

It’s easy to assume that someone needing user support is not using the application correctly. What if there really is a bug? We’ve all seen the acronyms from user support techs: ID-10-T errors, PICNIC, PEBKAC, and so on. On the one hand, they’re pretty mean-spirited (but kinda funny). On the other hand, who can blame user […]

September 5, 2017

Keep Asking Why

in: Business, Developers, Programming, Software Tagged: business analysis, consulting, custom software development, solution design

DISCLAIMER – this article applies to mainly to Organizations without business analysts and programmers on staff. A few years ago, we were asked to quote a small automation for an existing, repeat client. They wanted help streamlining a spreadsheet-based process that took about 1/2 day of a high-level employee’s time each week. Client: Can you help […]