Answers to the Two Issues Manufacturing Companies Face While Using Salesforce

Read this insightful post to find out how you can resolve 2 major problems in implementing Salesforce for your manufacturing business viz. validation of business data and automating your business processes with high efficacy.

Salesforce is used extensively in the manufacturing sector to personalize customer journeys across various channels. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) powerhouse enables companies in the sector to streamline and enhance the efficiency of their business processes and make the best use of marketing and client data to formulate the winning strategies.

Manufacturing companies also leverage Salesforce to seamlessly connect with their distributor and dealer networks. The robust CRM system empowers manufacturers to provide first-rate customer service, thereby delighting their clients. No wonder, Salesforce has become the preferred choice of the manufacturing world.

So, are you too planning to salesforce implementation in manufacturing industry? You must ensure the implementation is done in a proper, systematic manner; otherwise, it could result in low organizational efficiencies and employee productivity can take a severe beating.

Today, we will look at 2 major challenges in implementing Salesforce for manufacturing firms and how they can be resolved in an efficient manner.

2 Key Challenges in Implementing Salesforce for Manufacturers and Their Solutions

Challenge 1: Ensuring High Levels of Data Quality

We all know data of good quality plays a key role in ensuring the success of a manufacturing organization (or for that matter, any business). Unfortunately, many manufacturers face various challenges with their data after implementing Salesforce. These include data of poor quality entering the CRM system, incorrect use of data objects and fields and poorly-created data maps that create havoc while validating data.

Solution to the Problem

Manufacturing firms need to develop a comprehensive framework before they implement Salesforce to avoid problems with data. A robust data framework goes a long way in facilitating hassle-free migration of data from the legacy system, helps ensure smooth integration of the CRM platform with various applications and enables seamless execution of data entry tasks. The framework must include 3 key elements viz.

1. Comprehensive Cleansing of Data
2. Thorough Analyses of Data Objects and Fields
3. Effective Mapping of Data Interdependencies

Comprehensive Cleansing of Data

Spare no effort to clean your data thoroughly before it enters the newly-implemented Salesforce CRM platform. You must take steps to purge redundant records from the data in your legacy system. You should also see the data is complete and doesn’t contain any inconsistencies. We advise you to eliminate incomplete, inconsistent and unnecessary data and archive unused data. It is also a good idea to utilize constrained picklists and fix data quality problems at the source to prevent bad data in the legacy system from creeping back in.

Thorough Analyses of Data Objects and Fields

You should comprehensively analyze data objects and fields to make sure they support proper execution of your business processes and implementation of set data policies. For example, you have a data policy where a person visiting your website must provide both his mobile number and e-mail ID to access an on-demand webinar. In this case, you should make sure the fields used to capture the mobile number and e-mail ID of the person are made mandatory.

Effective Mapping of Data Interdependencies

A data interdependency indicates which data drives which process. It is a good practice to list and map all data interdependencies effectively to facilitate proper use of business data. You also need to clearly indicate the type of each data field (numeric, text, date and so on) and specify the data length and security requirements for it.

Interested in Teaming Up with an Experienced Salesforce Partner to Develop a Robust Data Management Framework?

Our Specialists Will Help You Develop the Ideal Solution to Your Needs. Get in Touch

Challenge 2: Enabling Effective Automation of Business Processes

A major reason why most manufacturers wish to implement Salesforce is the CRM system enables them to automate their business processes efficaciously. However, it is important to use the automation capabilities of the IT platform in a proper way to fully realize the benefits of the implementation. Many manufacturing firms are not able to harness the complete potential of Salesforce to automate their processes, and as a result, they are not able to achieve the desired levels of efficiency.

Solution to the Problem

You can make the best use of Salesforce to automate your business processes with high efficacy by focusing on 3 vital aspects.

1. Use Only One Automation Capability at a Given Point of Time
2. Make Sure You Automate All Steps of a Process at a Time
3. Utilize Reusable Actions to Automate Processes Rapidly

Use Only One Automation Capability at a Given Point of Time

Salesforce provides a wide range of features to automate your business processes; ensure you utilize only one of these features on an object at a given point in time. Make sure to follow automation workflow rules in the right order, without any deviation. Also, you must disable workflow rules or apex code created earlier before you begin to automate a business process.

Make Sure You Automate All Steps of a Process at a Time

The process automation capabilities of Salesforce are quite simple to use, and you must make sure your process configurations are also simple. It’s a proven best practice to use a single procedure for controlling all activities performed to create records for a given object. Try to minimize the number of activities as much as possible to prevent organizational constraints.

Utilize Reusable Actions to Automate Processes Rapidly

We suggest you reuse common actions for automating business processes to expedite the completion of the automation initiative. Salesforce enables you to create reusable actions with little effort. You can also reuse actions created for invocable processes.

Thus, you can overcome the two major challenges involved in implementing Salesforce for your manufacturing organization.

Hope you liked this post. How do you plan to use Salesforce? We’d love to know.