How Salesforce1 Makes Your Business Truly Mobile – The Experts Tell

It has been rightly remarked if business plans don’t include mobile, they are not finished. With global marketing revenues generated through smartphones and tablets growing at a breakneck pace, mobile-enablement has become the top priority of the 21st century business organization.

Many companies have initiated programs to make their businesses mobile-enabled. However, only a few of them could succeed. Recently, we conducted a survey to find out what was preventing the business world from making the best use of mobile technologies. Here are the results of the poll.

How can these problems be overcome? What does it take to harness the immense growth potential of the mobile rapidly, in a cost-effective manner? They need to use a robust platform that allows its users to access required information and transact seamlessly through their smartphones and tablets. One of the most widely used mobile business systems is Salesforce1.

Salesforce1 is a cutting-edge, integrated platform that enables businesses to create innovative solutions for the mobile with minimal effort and expenditure. To find out more about this mobile powerhouse, I talked to Rajesh, a veteran Salesforce delivery manager and Dilip Singh Bhola, a seasoned technical architect. Here is what they had to say.

There are several platforms in the market that facilitate mobile enablement of business. What makes Salesforce1 the leader?

Rajesh: I believe it is the complete visibility of the business that Salesforce1 provides. It’s no exaggeration to say you carry your CRM system on your mobile device with this application. You can access and use all business data and get real-time insights with the same ease as you would on your computer.

Dilip: I’d like to add what Rajesh has said. Salesforce1 can be used to develop a consistent, fully-customizable interface that allows users to have excellent experiences across devices. This goes a long way in preventing the ‘device disconnect’, if you will, which can have a huge impact on productivity.

Staying on with multiple devices, many companies are adopting Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy to reduce their IT infrastructure costs. How can Salesforce1 be used to support BYOD initiatives?

Dilip: Salesforce1 is one of the few mobile systems that can be used seamlessly on all popular mobile platforms, including iOS and Android. This makes it the natural choice of companies adopting a BYOD policy.

Effective coordination and collaboration between different teams is vital for success. How does Salesforce1 enable personnel of companies, who are constantly on the move to be in touch and exchange information?

Rajesh: Salesforce1 allows users to stay connected with your team. Users can create and share documents and task lists with each other. They can also share information pertaining to accounts in real-time through chat rooms and email; the mobile business enablement platform also allows managers to seamlessly monitor their teams’ performance and manage their actions to ensure high levels of productivity. Many of our clients have reported their people are able to collaborate at least 25% faster with Salesforce1.

When we talk of productivity, how does Salesforce1 enable hassle-free execution of business tasks by mobile teams?

Dilip: You can list and organize the tasks you need to perform using Salesforce1. All information pertaining to the tasks can be stored in the mobile platform. You can also access the information about all the latest developments related to your customers. In short, all information required to successfully perform your tasks will be available at your fingertips.

Rajesh: Salesforce1 can be fully integrated with MS-Office 365. You can view and make changes to the files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive, without leaving the mobile business system. The easy, timely access to information has helped our clients enhance their productivity levels by as much as 30%.

One of the key concerns of the corporate world about mobile enablement of business is data security. How does Salesforce1 help address this concern?

Dilip: Salesforce1 helps ensure absolute security to data. Companies can facilitate certification-based authentication. They can also mandate second-factor verification in the login process. You can also configure the mobile business platform to share downloaded data only with approved users. Furthermore, you can automatically enforce a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection for all traffic that passes through Salesforce1.

Rajesh: You can implement a wide variety of Mobile Device Management (MDM) policies to ensure the safety of data. For instance, you can customize login host settings to limit access to certain business information.

Effective analytics capabilities go a long way in helping businesses utilize data to make the right decisions. How well does Salesforce1 fare on this front?

Rajesh: Salesforce1 is fully integrated with Salesforce Einstein suite of analytics tools, which makes it truly a mobile analytics hub. It enables business users to perform real-time forecasting activities using their smartphones and tablets. You can also utilize the predictive lead scoring capabilities of Salesforce1 to identify the most promising sales opportunities. The mobile system can also be configured to provide intelligent recommendations based on usage patterns.

Often, mobile users face the problem of poor internet connectivity that affects their productivity. How does Salesforce1 help overcome this problem?

Dilip: Good question. Salesforce1 can be used offline, without any problems. You can read, create and modify records in the Salesforce system without getting connected. The mobile platform can be configured to automatically synchronize all business data even in conditions of low and no Internet connectivity. All changes to the data made offline will reflect in the Salesforce database when you are online.

We all know mobile apps are used extensively in the world of business. However, it takes time, money and coding skills to develop a good mobile app. Does the Salesforce1 platform help companies obviate this problem?

Rajesh: Salesforce1 is developed with the non-technical user in mind. The mobile business system enables people with no coding skills to develop apps with little effort thanks to more than 500 drag-and-drop components. In fact, many of our clients develop highly successful mobile apps using Salesforce1, which helped them increase user adoption levels by as much as 40%.

Change is the only constant in technology. Developers of business systems often come up with updates. Many users spend considerable time installing these updates. Does Salesforce1 provide a solution?

Dilip: Absolutely. All updates to Salesforce1 are handled by Salesforce itself. So, users need not worry about patches (periodic updates to enhance system performance) or version upgrades.

What do you think is the future of Salesforce1?

Rajesh: Salesforce makes its products better with each passing day, and Salesforce1 is no exception. As increasing numbers of people across the globe use their mobile devices to connect and do business, we expect more localized versions of the mobile business platform.

Dilip: Groundbreaking developments in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) domain are opening new possibilities, and there is no reason to believe why Salesforce1 will not incorporate these. For instance, facial recognition technology holds great promise in ensuring mobile security. As the eminent physicist Neils Bohr rightly remarked it is hard to predict, especially the future. (laughs)

This is what the two experts had to say about Salesforce1. Hope you enjoyed the post. How do you make your business mobile? Do share with us.

About Solunus:

Solunus is a dedicated Salesforce partner organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Our unrelenting focus on comprehending the unique needs of our clients coupled with our unrivaled expertise of the Salesforce platform enable us to deliver the perfect solutions that create the best value. Our unflinching commitment to quality and affordability has earned us a 100% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score from all our customers.