Perspectives on Salesforce.com

Auto vCard 2.0 was released in January of this year with major functionality improvements, one of which was it running native on the force.com platform.  The older 1.x versions of Auto vCard used scripts running on Arrowpointe web servers.

The 1.x scripts are being retired.  If you are running a 1.x version of Auto vCard (go to your Setup | View Installed Packages page in Salesforce to check), you should be aware of the following changes taking place.

• Beginning  Tuesday, June 16, 2009, the behavior of the 1.x version will be changed.  Instead of the app automatically giving users the option to open/save the vCard, a link will be available on the popup window to get the vCard file.  Also, a new browser window will open directing them to this page explaining that they are on an older version that is set to expire.  Initially, this new behavior will only occur once every 2 days, but it will be more frequent as the July 31 date approaches.

• Auto vCard 1.x is expiring July 31, 2009.  At that time, anyone on version 1.x will start receiving an error message when creating a vCard.

• You can avoid issues related to either of the above 2 bullet points by upgrading your Auto vCard installation now.

To learn more about version 2.0, you can visit the product page on our website or the AppExchange listing.  Version 2.0 offers a free 60 day, 5 user trial.  After that, it is $1/user/month to subscribe and you can subscribe any number of your Salesforce users to it.  Non-profits can use it for free.

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 has announced the Best Apps of 2008 and I am pleased to report that Auto vCard was named Best Productivity Application!  The “Best App” honor is given to the application in each AppExchange category receiving the most 4 and 5 star reviews.

In case you didn’t hear, Auto vCard 2.0 was released.  This is a major improvement to the app, allowing for total flexibilty and configurability in the creation of vCards from Salesforce data.  In fact, you can now create vCards from any object, pass any field through, use International characters and it all runs on the force.com platform!

To learn more…

• Auto vCard 2.0 Announcement
• Auto vCard on AppExchange
• Auto vCard Info on arrowpointe.com
• All Arrowpointe Products

I am pleased to announce that Auto vCard has been re-written and version 2.0 is now live on AppExchange.

Auto vCard allows you to create a vCard file for the import of information from Salesforce.com (e.g. a Lead, Account, Contact or User) into a Personal Information Manager (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Apple Address Book, etc.) that supports the import of vCard (.vcf) files.

Features in Version 2.0

• Force.com Native Application – The application is 100% on the force.com platform. It utilizes Visualforce and Apex Code to perform its operations.
• All Editions Supported – The application fully supports the Group/Team, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited and Platform editions of Salesforce.
• Pre-configured support for Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Users – Upon install, you immediately have the ability to generate vCards for Leads, Accounts, Contacts and Users.
• Custom Field Mappings – Using a custom Visualforce page, you have the ability to map your custom fields for inclusion in the vCard.
• Custom Object Mappings – Using a custom Visualforce page, you have the ability to map your custom objects to a vCard.
• Many vCard Field Options – A Visualforce Component is included with the application that allows you to map (using a custom Visualforce page) to any of the following fields in the resulting vCard.
  • Name (First, Last and Nickname)
  • Organization/Company Name
  • Title
  • Website
  • Addresses (work, home, other)
  • Phone Numbers (work, home, mobile, preferred, fax)
  • Emails (up to 3)
  • Birthday
  • Note
  • Geographic Coordinates
  • Logo
  • Photo
  • Categories
• International Character Support – Auto vCard fully supports the ISO-8859-1 character set.
• Click to Download – When you click the vCard button, the file is downloaded directly to the browser without popping up a new window.
• Seamless Install & Upgrade

Required Upgrade

Support for older versions of Auto vCard (versions 1.4.1 and before) will be ending over the next few months.  The older versions point out to Arrowpointe servers to produce the vCard file.  These endpoints will be going away and the only way to run the application will be on the force.com platform using a 2.0 version.  If you are running Auto vCard version 1.4.1 or before, don’t worry, you have plenty of time before the changes are made.  Email & blog communications will happen well in advance of the changes taking place. However, I would encourage you to try out the new version and see what you think.  If you don’t want to lose the current version you have going, try running it in a Sandbox.

Cost

Install now and get a free 60-day, no obligation trial. The application costs $1/user/month and will be available via Force.com Checkout starting at the end of February.  License only the users that need to use the application.

It is free for non-profits.  Contact your Salesforce Foundation representative to have them request the licenses.  You can have as many licenses as you want.  Please install the application first and then make the license request.  Be sure to provide your Salesforce.com Organization ID (found on the Setup | Company Profile | Company Information page in Salesforce) with the request so we can apply the licenses to the correct system.

Support

You should find an answer to most questions in the knowledge base.   If not, support questions, suggestions or bugs can be communicated to Arrowpointe on the Support Page by submitting a Case.

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.