Your Salesforce – The one you just inherited

So you Inherited an existing Salesforce Org – What Next?

So it is you first day on the job as a Salesforce System Administrator for your dream company, and you have inherited an existing Salesforce org that has been in use for years. How do you go about evaluating the current state of the org? What actions do you need to take? How do you plan for the future?

Where to Start?

It is probably a good idea to evaluate your “Current State” before you take action to make changes. Generally it is unwise to change something that you do not fully understand. Understanding the current state is not just about the Salesforce configuration, you have to understand the broader system, process and business environment that Salesforce is in.

So where do you even begin to understand your environment? Well if you are a curious person by nature, and most system admins are, you need a checklist of things to look for that can help you piece together the “Current State”. Some of the areas I look at when I encounter an existing implementation are:

Evidence

1. Is there any documentation that was created during the initial implementation project? Solution design, project documents and training documents?
2. What users are active, what business function are they from?, and what processes are being supported by Salesforce?
3. Do I have any Salesforce tools available to me?
4. What was the original CRM vision?
5. What critical success business metrics are being tracked in Salesforce?
6. What does the security healthcheck tell me?
7. What customizations have been made (new fields on standard objects, custom objects, flows, process builder, workflows, validation rules, code, visualforce, custom settings, record types, page layouts, profiles, permission sets, etc)
8. What apps are installed and how are they being used?
9. What reports and dashboards have been created?
10. What does end user adoption look like?
11. What does the data quality look like? Perhaps use apps like Field Trip.
12. Are data backups and archiving being done?
13. What integrations to other systems are there?
14. Is there a change management process and a supporting release landscape (sandboxes, changesets)?
15. What standard objects and processes are in use?
16. What Edition do you have?
17. How many system admin users are there?
18. Are people sharing logins?
19. Are there any critical updates that need to be applied?
20. Are there any errors being reported in the logs?
21. What does the security and data model look like? Who has access to what?
22. Look at the audit trail to look at the last 6 months of history
23. Look at the system overview to get an at a glance view of data usage, licenses, and customizations

Digging for more evidence

1. Interview or survey the end users, managers and executives to see how they feel about Salesforce
2. Watch the users, manager and executives using Salesforce
3. Map current processes by role and confirm with stakeholders
4. Determine who owns the CRM and who is the executive sponsor
5. Find out what capabilities they want in the future (each with a priority)
6. Determine who the advocates, followers, laggards and nay sayers are

Document the “Current State” and confirm with stakeholders

Taking Action

By now you should have a good idea of what is going on and have identified some initial actions that are “low hanging fruit”. Typically items are:

Low hanging fruit

• Remove system admin rights from that users that do not need them (ensure that you do not break functionality they do need!). Do some testing in and sandbox to be sure.
• Ensure all future change requests go through you.
• Uninstall Apps that are not in use.
• Remove fields from page layouts that are not being used, and wait a few months to see if anyone complains!)
• Move reports that are not being used into an archive report folder, again wait for a few months to see if anyone complains.
• Establish data backups and archiving
• Deactivate users that are no longer with the company or no longer need access
• Address security health check items to improve score about 75%
• Establish a release landscape (sandboxes)
• Build a relationship with the executive sponsor, as they will decide on big future changes and provide funding
• Create a Salesforce Center of Excellence (CoE) or Steering Committee that has the key stakeholders as members
• Address low adoption issues with training and minor modifications

Future State

• Work with the CoE or Steering Committee to create a joint CRM Roadmap for future changes
• Establish a support function (consider certification of internal resources, premier support and the use of external Salesforce partner for deeper expertise)
• Communicate planned future changes and seek input from end users and managers

Path to Success

“Path to Success” is a process we developed that walks through all of the pre, during, and post implementation steps that identifies what you need.  It is also a great first step when thinking about revitalization or enhancing existing functionality. Get your free copy of it here.