Perspectives on Salesforce.com

Salesforce is currently running their Best of ‘09 AppExchange awards.  The awards are solely based upon 2009 4-star and 5-star reviews.  If you use an Arrowpointe application, I encourage you to leave a review.  In addition to helping with awards, it’s the best way to give me your feedback and to help fellow Salesforce users know what’s quality and what is not.

Links to the Arrowpointe AppExchange listings are below:

• Arrowpointe Maps
• Auto vCard
• Spam Check
• Info Center
• User Adoption Dashboard

Thank you for your feedback!

I had the privilege of being asked to present to the San Diego Salesforce User Group this past Friday.  The topic for the day was Appexchange Applications, Tools, and Components that you can download for Free!

I presented on a number of Arrowpointe Products as well as some 3rd party ones that, over the years, I have come to really appreciate.  I included apps that are both free and ones I consider well worth the money.  The list is not exhaustive and there are lots of good candidates.  For 3rd party apps, I tried to pick ones that were useful to all Salesforce Customers and not ones that were focused on specific business processes or technologies to be integrated with.  That pares down the list quite a bit.

If you are interested, you can download my slides.  For each app I presented on, there are links on the slides to learn more about them.

Thank you San Diego User Group for being a great group to present to and I hope to make it down that way again soon!

Salesforce conducts a security audit for all AppExchange applications on an annual basis.  I am pleased to report that Arrowpointe Maps has once again passed this review and has been certified for another year.

Version 1.2.1 of Arrowpointe Maps was just released. You can read about all the improvements on the Change History page.

The changes most applicable to end users are:

• Search Nearby now includes the ability to start from an arbitrary address.  The Other Tools section of the front page now has a “Search Nearby” link.  This link will let you search for a Lead, Account or Contact or you can manually enter an address.  When in the midst of a Search Nearby process, clicking the Start Over button will also bring you to this page.
• You can now assign specific icons/colors to your Data Sets.  Edit your Data Set and select a Data Set Image.  You can see the image used for each Data Set by viewing your list of Data Sets in the Admin Area of the application.
• The Company/Account Name is automatically included for Lead/Contact Search Nearby searches.
• The first 3 fields configured for a Data Set will now appear in the table of results.  All configured fields still appear in the map marker bubble on the map.
• Search Nearby queries now allow you to use decimal amounts for a range (e.g. 0.25 miles)
• Number fields on Map Pages now accept decimal amounts.
• You can now see a list of the records that failed to map.  On a result set, you currently see something like “29 of 30 records successfully mapped”.  If there is an errored record, a link that says “Show Unmappable Records” will appear and you can click it to see a list of the records that did not map properly.
• The Color Markers By parameter now saves with each Map Report run and will be automatically set for users when that report is mapped the next time.
• The Language and Unit of Measure (miles vs. kilometers) on the Routing screen are now saved as a user preference.
• The last Data Set, Range and Unit of Measure (miles vs. kilometers) used in a Search Nearby query are now saved as a user preference.
• Improved performance on the initial load of the Routing screen.  This improvement also fixes the issue with IE6 and its sporadic inability to load routed records.

NOTE: This upgrade was automatically completed for all users.  It does not require any changes to the AppExchange installation.

About Arrowpointe Maps

Arrowpointe Maps is an on-demand mapping platform that facilitates a conversation between Salesforce.com & MapQuest allowing for easy deployment of mapping capabilities in your organization and providing end-users a simple means for mapping their data. Arrowpointe Maps is configurable and can be tailored to your organization, so that your users can work with their information in a meaningful way.

The official location for information on Arrowpointe Maps is its product page at http://www.arrowpointe.com/maps. There, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions, screencasts and links to its AppExchange page.

The recent release of Arrowpointe Maps introduced functionality to perform proximity searching within Salesforce.com.  We call it “Search Nearby”.  With the click of a button from a record in Salesforce, you can search for Leads, Accounts and/or Contacts that are within a user-specified proximity.

Click the image below is see a demo of the functionality in action.

About Arrowpointe Maps

Arrowpointe Maps is an on-demand mapping platform that facilitates a conversation between Salesforce.com & MapQuest allowing for easy deployment of mapping capabilities in your organization and providing end-users a simple means for mapping their data. Arrowpointe Maps is configurable and can be tailored to your organization, so that your users can work with their information in a meaningful way.

The official location for information on Arrowpointe Maps is its product page at http://www.arrowpointe.com/maps. There, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions, screencasts and links to its AppExchange page.