When I think of Relationship Map 1.0, I think of OrgView by DreamFactory(check out my review). Similar concept, with a different twist on the relationship. Rather than looking at the contacts at an account through a hierarchy, Relationship Map provides a view of your contacts based on a positive or negative rating.

Here is where I think this is helpful:

• Channel Managers - if you work with several partners and you’re trying to track who’s who and how they know you - this is helpful
• Channel Executives - if you are trying to understand penetration into the channel; who have you spoken to, how do they perceive you.

This application is not very complicated to build but it shows you can create unique applications on the Salesforce platform. Curious to hear other uses for it.

I know when I am selling through the channel it is good to understand which Account Executives perceive us positively, which Sales Engineers have we penetrated, who doesn’t know about us, and much more.

Not much more to say about this. Don’t have a rating for this one since it’s too simple, but I’m glad it exists. Anyone using it?

**Sorry. I apologize - it’s been a crazy couple of months with a new role but I’m now back on track. If any application wants to be reviewed, please let me know. **
I thought I would write about this one since I just started a sales role.

No one wants to deal with paperwork in this information age. Your credit cards can go paperless. You can start using efaxes - you can even file your taxes without printing a piece of paper. Signing contracts is almost that easy with EchoSign Contract Management Service.

If you have ever been in sales, services, or have just dealt with getting something signed, it is a huge pain. Questions you ask are:

• Have they received the paperwork?
• Have they opened the paperwork?
• What is the status of the paperwork?

Choose between getting an electronic signature or fax.  Here is the process:

1)From an opportunity in salesforce.com, create an agreement.

2)Enter the following information: Recipient, CC names, Agreement Name, associated Opportunity, associated Contact, Message

3)Chose between Written Signature and e-Signature.

4)Attach the agreement

5)Click send for signature. (You can view when the order has been viewed. This is great for tracking any follow-up activities.

Upon signature, it will be attached to the opportunity and the client will receive the signed agreements as well.

Pros: Very automatic. Helps the sales team be more productive since chasing paperwork takes time. Can create status dashboard so reps will know where the paperwork is going.

Cons: The ultimate process would be generating the agreement and then being able to attach the agreement to the opportunity. Problem is that a lot of work has to be done outside before attaching the agreement. For example, quotes, order forms, MSA, PSSAs, legal documents.

Freshexchange Perspective: 8.2/10

I had to write this after writing the Attachment Manager 1.0 post. The development of this application just goes to prove that there is a long tail in the AppExchange model. Why someone would need to manage all there notes - to view and delete notes particularly - is still not clear to me? Someone from Salesforce.com would say - “Well someone out there might need this!”

Summary: Notes Manager 1.0

One tab: Filter on notes based on set criteria.

Good: Free - though I’m not sure if anyone really needs this.
Bad: I think this app is one of those - it’s easy to build - so let’s build it. Filtering on ‘ParentId’?? That’s not useable at all. Only 2 filters. Too much Apex API stuff on there - not an end-user tool.

FreshExchange Perspective:

As I mentioned, perhaps someone out there needs this, but I don’t think this is a ‘useful’ application. If someone were to sell this and build a business around this, it wouldn’t make any money. Probably why it’s free. I’ll leave it up to the Salesforce community to decide whether they want this.

FreshExchange Rating: 2.6/10

Part of moving to the on-demand model means that you no longer can maintain your own rack servers and control the amount of storage. For those concerned about storage space, follow this rule:

• Personal Edition: 5 MB per User license (~2,500 records OR you could kill it all by some large attachments)
• 1 GB per 5-User license package for Team Edition
• the greater of 1 GB or an aggregate of 20 MB per User license, for Professional and Enterprise Edition
• Unlimited = Unlimited - but by this point you’re paying $195/user/month

The best part is the statement in the Master Subscription Agreement: If the amount of disk storage required exceeds these limits, you will be charged the then-current storage fees. Salesforce.com will use reasonable efforts to notify you when the average storage used per license reaches approximately 90% of the maximum; however, any failure by salesforce.com to so notify you shall not affect your responsibility for such additional storage charges. Salesforce.com reserves the right to establish or modify its general practices and limits relating to storage of Customer Data.”

Be aware. It would be great if storage was offerred the same way Google does - a constant running counter. As Salesforce.com grows, the amount of storage provided to a customer just increases. If you want that, please comment.

So why is this all important? Attachments EAT UP YOUR STORAGE. Before you plan to migrate any attachments or train your users about the neat attachments related list, ask yourself the following question:

• Why am I storing this attachment to the account, contact, or opportunity?
• Is it improving the level of collaboration between the multiple groups?
• Do I need to access this attachment anywhere and everywhere?
• How big is this file in the first place and is this the most effective use of the storage in our application knowning that it’s consuming the additional space I can use the load contacts, accounts, etc.?

I have worked with several customers who want to migrate their historical attachments from one legacy system into salesforce.com. This is fine - but the first thing I have always asked is how many files and how much storage do these files take up? Most importantly, do know this is eating your storage.

For customers who have exceeded their storage or reached the 90% mark, well that’s why you’re looking at this Attachment Manager.

Summary:

Tab: Attachment Manager; allows users the ability to search and filter attachments based on storage space. This is very useful given you might want to understand which attachments are taking up the most space. It also allows you the ability to select multiple attachments and delete them.

Good: Free. Easy to install and has very to use interface. For administrators in Enterprise companies who have many 100+ users, this is application is fairly practical for managing Salesforce.com.

Bad: It would be nice to mass download the files before you run through any delete - so you can archive the files that you are about to delete. Better yet, if you couldn’t mass archive them locally at least one-by-one.

FreshExchange Perspective: Salesforce.com EE or PE Admins should get this. Be careful to not delete the attachments until you have archived the attachments. Can you undelete an attachment? I think so - but will need to check it out.

FreshExchange Rating: 8.2/10

I thought it would help define what an application is before talking about this Appexchange ‘product’. An application is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. So - a user must ask the computer to perform a task for it be even considered an application. While I think Scribe ActNow is not really an application, at least a user performs a task(i.e. upload a database).

This is not an application and should be removed from the AppExchange.

Summary

But for those intrigued, here is a brief description of the ’service’. This is used for lead generation for Pervasive for data migration consulting projects OR selling a salesforce.com prospect their Pervasive Business Integrator product. Pervasive Software Business Integrator is an ETL tool that can help with data migration projects from source applications such as ACT!, Goldmine, SalesLogix, etc. Pervasive has a built-in connector to Salesforce.com so it’s easy to map fields from the source application to objects directly into salesforce.com.

Good: None. If you need migration services, it would make more sense to contact your Account Executive and have them refer you to a trusted partner.
Bad: This is not a product. I mean, check out the specifications:

• Custom Objects: 0
• Custom Tabs: 0
• Custom Applications: 0

FreshExchange Rating: 0.0/10 (There is nothing to rate as far as a product is concerned). There is a reason why there aren’t any reviews. If this was really legit then all services companies should upload the ’services’ they provide on the AppExchange. That would be bad news for prospects who are trying to navigate the AppExchange. I’m curious why Salesforce.com considers this a product/application - anyone care to answer that for me?