Introducing Salesforce1!

One of the major announcements at the 2013 Dreamforce was Salesforce1. Salesforce.com is powering ahead by adding capability to Salesforce that makes it possible to connect nearly any kind of device to the service. The service to the mobile device is getting better and better. Salesforce1 was previously called Salesforce Touch, which was only offered for the iPhone. Now Salesforce1 also supports Android and other mobile devices like the iPad.

This is an exciting development because we'll now be able to write one application in a Salesforce org and make that system available to any device that users in the org decide to carry.

Where I think we'll be helping our clients most with Salesforce1 is by writing visualforce pages to deploy custom functionality to IOS and Android mobile devices. Over the years we have written hundreds and hundreds of visualforce pages. Now we can deploy these pages to the mobile devices. Any visualforce pages deployed to a custom tab in the salesforce org can be enabled for a mobile device.

Example: A Mobile Quoting Tool

I'll give a simple example. Let's say we want to give a quoting tool to a sales rep in the field. The quote consists of a few details from the account, a few primary fields from a contact record, and the basic fields on the opportunity along with the product line items. The rep would like to be able to use one form to enter all the relevant details, have the system create the resulting Account, Contact, and Opportunity, and Product Line Item records, generate a PDF, save it against the opportunity, and email it to the client.

A visualforce page could be written, enabled for mobile devices, and deployed to a tab called "Mobile Quote". Then on the mobile device, the user simply selects that tab and they will see the form where they can conveniently enter all the relevant details. Since it is visualforce, we can also provide countless conveniences geared towards the client's business model. For example, rather than having to use a cumbersome lookup to find relevant products, those could be presented in a picklist or found by enter a couple letters from the product name, whatever the users think would be most convenient.

When finished filling out the form, in one click the PDF could be generated, saved against the opportunity, and emailed to the client.

The options really are endless. This will be a system that we put to great use for our clients. Salesforce1 is finally making mobile a reality for our clients.

If you have a project in mind or simply wonder if the idea you have is feasible, contact us through www.snapptraffic.com, we'd love to hear about your project and let you know what it might take to develop it for you.

Salesforce.com Touch Mobile Application Development

You see the advertisements every day now when logging into or out of Salesforce.com - it goes something like this: "Building your mobile app to work with Salesforce.com is easy as pie!"

So you start thinking: "okay, cool, my team sure could use a mobile app while out on the road to access their Salesforce.com data, and the standard mobile app doesn't do what we need - so if it's so easy, lets do it."

Then you start trying to figure out how to do it and you realize, this isn't actually "easy as pie." It's actually quite involved. But, it is doable - and our development team has done it - so let me tell you what we've learned.

There are several ways to provide access through a mobile device to salesforce.com data.

Salesforce.com Mobile Device Options

1) Use the native browser on the device to login in to Salesforce.com
2) Using a Salesforce Sites page - format the output of the website to fit in a mobile browser screen size
3) Build a native application on a mobile device that can access Salesforce.com data
4) Use HTML5 and the Touch platform to deliver salesforce.com visualforce pages to a mobile device.

It is option #4 that Salesforce is advertising. And while it is WAY easier to build applications on the Touch platform than it is to build a native application on IOS or Andriod (option #3), it isn't necessarily "easy as pie".

The Touch Platform - Web Pages in an App

Here is the key thing to know about  HTML5 and the touch platform: you are simply viewing a Salesforce.com visualforce page in the mobile browser on the page without the skin of the mobile browser. Even more simply: its a web page. A mobile web page. But it LOOKS LIKE an application on the device.

In Salesforce.com, visualforce makes it possible for us to write custom pages that provide custom functionality to your users. These visualforce pages can be built with display on a computer through a normal internet browser in mind, or they can be built with the intent of displaying them on a mobile device.

The Pro - Quick and Inexpensive Development

The cool thing about using the touch platform is that we can fairly quickly write these visualforce pages and your users can take advantage of them on their mobile devices. Many companies have realized the incredible upside to building custom applications on Salesforce.com. They can provide their user's with the means to quickly handle business processes against their data stored in Salesforce.com. At Snapptraffic Consulting we've written thousands of these applications and have seen first hand how the right functionality can greatly increase an employee's effectiveness. Salesforce Touch makes it possible to provide the same kind of custom functionality through the mobile device when away from a computer. Visualforce pages can be written relatively quickly. Native mobile applications (option #3 mentioned above) are much more time consuming. So writing visualforce pages that can be deployed through Salesforce Touch is a great way to increase productivity for your mobile employees without the expense of producing a native mobile application

The Con - An Internet Connection is Required

The downside, to use the application you've written, you must be connected to the internet. If you want the application to have the functionality to download data for offline use, then the touch platform isn't for you - a native mobile app developed for the device that accesses and downloads salesforce.com data (again, option #3) is what you'll need.

Ready to Build Your Own Salesforce Touch Mobile Application?

If you're thinking about building a mobile application to access your salesforce.com data and want some help making it happen, give us a call. We'd be happy to listen to your idea, give you a feel for the costs and timeline involved, and help make your mobile app a reality. You can reach us  through www.snapptraffic.com