Yeah baby! This thing rocks. The name (which is "inbox" backwards) is kinda weird, but the functionality is genius. Yes it indexes your mail (although only a small chunk of it until you go into the options and tell it to grab it all), but if that was it then Google Desktop would of course be the way to go.
But that's just the tip of the emailberg. It threads your conversations. By clicking any email from a user it shows every file you've exchanged with that person, and you're just one-click away from getting back to those files. It also displays this person's network: all of the people that this person has emailed before, by order of frequency. It grabs their phone number intelligently by scanning their signature file.
Interested? You should be. It's a private beta right now, so add a comment if you want an invite.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Phone menus suck
I got 3 big gripes here.
I hate talking to a computer. I totally dread it when the "Jimmy-cool-guy" voice comes on and says stuff like "Ok, how can I help? You can say something like 'Change my address,' or 'Billing question.'" Because it seems like then I always hear "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." And then, a little while later, I hear "I'm sorry you're having trouble, goodbye." And I have to start all over. Grrrrr.
They never use the data they make you give them. You carefully select 1 to transfer your service, then punch in the phone number on your account, then your zip code, the last four of your social, and then your account number. Then you wait. Then somebody answers, and they have absolutely no idea who you are or what you want to do. My theory on this is that management actually does use that data in the back office to help them generate reports to determine needed head counts, but rather than go the last mile and provide that data to the poor customer service reps, they make them ask it all over. I say we rebel against this - use the gethuman database to short-circuit these menus.
When are voicemail greetings going to stop telling us how to leave a message?
File this in the same area as my complaint that airlines are still telling us how seat belts work, but, jeebus, is there really anybody left on this planet that doesn't know that you start talking after the beep? I'm so sick of that woman, you know the one, that explains how to leave a message. How about this? It's off by default and then people could enable it in their voicemail menu.
I hate talking to a computer. I totally dread it when the "Jimmy-cool-guy" voice comes on and says stuff like "Ok, how can I help? You can say something like 'Change my address,' or 'Billing question.'" Because it seems like then I always hear "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." And then, a little while later, I hear "I'm sorry you're having trouble, goodbye." And I have to start all over. Grrrrr.
They never use the data they make you give them. You carefully select 1 to transfer your service, then punch in the phone number on your account, then your zip code, the last four of your social, and then your account number. Then you wait. Then somebody answers, and they have absolutely no idea who you are or what you want to do. My theory on this is that management actually does use that data in the back office to help them generate reports to determine needed head counts, but rather than go the last mile and provide that data to the poor customer service reps, they make them ask it all over. I say we rebel against this - use the gethuman database to short-circuit these menus.
When are voicemail greetings going to stop telling us how to leave a message?
File this in the same area as my complaint that airlines are still telling us how seat belts work, but, jeebus, is there really anybody left on this planet that doesn't know that you start talking after the beep? I'm so sick of that woman, you know the one, that explains how to leave a message. How about this? It's off by default and then people could enable it in their voicemail menu.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Glaring gap in ability to customize Salesforce
I bet it's starting to sound like I don't like Salesforce. The truth is I think it's fantastic, which makes the problems I write about that much more frustrating.
So, speaking of frustrating: you can't add a related list to the opportunity line item object. I have complained about this through the IdeaExchange and got a whopping one vote (every vote is worth 10 points and every idea starts off with 10 points). I have a theory about why this got no love, though. Try going to the IdeaExchange and searching for my idea. I've looked for it using every keyword combination I can think of, and always end up with 70+ pages of results.
So, for all I know, lots of other duplicate ideas like mine exist out there, but they're buried admist lots of other unrelated ideas. I just can't believe that only one other person doesn't have a need to add a related list to the opportunity line item object. This is, by the one, one of maybe 3 total objects (case comments comes to mind as another area - anyone know of others?) in the entire system that can't have related lists added to it. The inability to add objects here has cost us thousands of dollars in customization work to find workarounds for this obnoxious bug.
So, speaking of frustrating: you can't add a related list to the opportunity line item object. I have complained about this through the IdeaExchange and got a whopping one vote (every vote is worth 10 points and every idea starts off with 10 points). I have a theory about why this got no love, though. Try going to the IdeaExchange and searching for my idea. I've looked for it using every keyword combination I can think of, and always end up with 70+ pages of results.
So, for all I know, lots of other duplicate ideas like mine exist out there, but they're buried admist lots of other unrelated ideas. I just can't believe that only one other person doesn't have a need to add a related list to the opportunity line item object. This is, by the one, one of maybe 3 total objects (case comments comes to mind as another area - anyone know of others?) in the entire system that can't have related lists added to it. The inability to add objects here has cost us thousands of dollars in customization work to find workarounds for this obnoxious bug.
The Salesforce javascript customization wizard
I've worked with a lot of consultants on a lot of projects, and if anyone reading this is looking for Salesforce javascript customizations, then I would enthusiastically recommend EZSAAS. No project has been too big or too small, and they have always delivered on-time and on-budget. All of that would be enough, but they always go the extra mile and offer thoughtful insights on the project we're working on. From the first project they delivered my expectations have been exceeded, and I never miss an opportunity to recommend them.
Want to copy that? Go to the paste menu
Ok, we all had a good laugh when Windows 95 came out and you had to "start to stop" because to shut down the computer you clicked the Start button. Personally, I never had much of a gripe with that. But now Microsoft really has gone too far in Office 2007. Say you're in Excel and you want to copy a range as a picture. Guess where you go? C'mon, just guess.
Yep, the paste menu.
Really.
Here's the full scoop, nicely written up by PC Magazine.
Yep, the paste menu.
Really.
Here's the full scoop, nicely written up by PC Magazine.
Launching Salesforce ID links from Excel
I've built a lot of Excel pivottables that work of a local copy of our Salesforce data (thanks forceAmp!) and one feature that I incorporated into them that's very popular is the ability to click on a cell that has a Salesforce ID (15 or 18 digit versions, either will work) and then run a very simple macro either from a button on the toolbar or from a keyboard shortcut that will take the user to that record in Salesforce. It's an incredibly simple macro, too. Here it is:
ActiveWorkbook.FollowHyperlink ("https://na3.salesforce.com/" + ActiveCell.Text)
Note that na3 will need to be replaced with your Salesforce server code. If anyone needs help in creating this macro and adding it to the toolbar and as a shortcut, let me know and I'll add those instructions. If anyone comes up with improvements to this thing, that would be cool, too. It doesn't gracefully handle it when a user doesn't have an ID selected, for example.
ActiveWorkbook.FollowHyperlink ("https://na3.salesforce.com/" + ActiveCell.Text)
Note that na3 will need to be replaced with your Salesforce server code. If anyone needs help in creating this macro and adding it to the toolbar and as a shortcut, let me know and I'll add those instructions. If anyone comes up with improvements to this thing, that would be cool, too. It doesn't gracefully handle it when a user doesn't have an ID selected, for example.
Salesforce is stingy with the storage
Do you remember back when 1gb of online storage was pretty awesome? Me too. I think it was about 3 or 4 years ago. I know that Gmail offered that much when it went live on April 1st, 2004 and it seemed like a lot at the time.
Today, Gmail offers 6.5gb of storage. This is for a free service.
Salesforce.com is not a free service. In fact it's a very expensive service. Pricing for Salesforce starts at $65/user/month for Professional Edition and $125/user/month for the Enterprise Edition. Both packages include 1GB of free storage. Beyond that, storage is $300 per year for each additional 50MB!
That is a truly staggering fee in the context of online storage. It's got to be a huge profit center for Salesforce, and I find it ridiculous. So do a lot of other people.
Today, Gmail offers 6.5gb of storage. This is for a free service.
Salesforce.com is not a free service. In fact it's a very expensive service. Pricing for Salesforce starts at $65/user/month for Professional Edition and $125/user/month for the Enterprise Edition. Both packages include 1GB of free storage. Beyond that, storage is $300 per year for each additional 50MB!
That is a truly staggering fee in the context of online storage. It's got to be a huge profit center for Salesforce, and I find it ridiculous. So do a lot of other people.
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