The era of big data has brought to light problems that have always existed in data warehouses, such as dirty data, missing fields or duplicate records. Poor-quality data can have a significant impact on the accuracy of your analyses, resulting in wasted time and frustration for users. Luckily, Salesforce has always understood the need for third-party solutions to help enrich your data and fill in the gaps, giving you the ability to better manage your business and derive greater benefit from your analytics.
The best third-party products or services will depend on your goals and the tasks you need to complete. Following are some of the top solutions available in the Salesforce AppExchange, along with a brief overview of each to help you determine which ones are best for your situation.
- Data Loader for Salesforce — If you need to load into Salesforce or delete or export it after loading, this free, cloud-based solution might be ideal for you. There is nothing to download — simply log in with your Salesforce credentials. You can import and export from multiple sources, including DropBox, and automate imports and exports.
- PeopleImport — This data loader lets you import lists, such as existing contacts or leads, into Salesforce in one pass — without duplicates. Existing records will be updated, and at the same time, they can be linked to tasks and campaigns. End users can create customized scenarios easily and quickly.
- Informatica Cloud MDM — As a rule, the cleaner your data, the happier your users will be. The Informatica Cloud MDM — which stands for master data management — can help you retain the integrity of your data. Whenever a contact, lead or account is updated or created, the app will clean and standardize the data as well as prevent duplicates. If you need to enrich or consolidate data across other databases, such as Oracle or SAP, you can do that as well. The app also lets you manage hierarchies and consolidate or enrich data from multiple organizations, Salesforce environments or sources.
- Dell Boomi AtomSphere — Salesforce offers a variety of ways to integrate your data. If you have chosen to keep some or all of your data on-premises, this app can help you leverage all of your data. This is an SaaS solution, so there is no need to install software, and no coding is needed. You can integrate Salesforce with Great Plains, SAP or virtually any other application. This solution can be ideal if you need to connect a combination of on-premises, SaaS and cloud applications.
- Gainsight — Gainsight is built completely on the native Salesforce1 platform. It is a customer-success solution that offers predictive analytics as well as integrated surveys. Gainsight can capture and consolidate data from different siloes to provide you with a 360-degree view of your customers as well as an early-warning system to alert you to potential issues. Gainsight creates a picture of your customer’s “health” by blending key sources through big-data analytics. It will identify opportunities to upsell, manage renewals and help eliminate unexpected churn.
- cfMAX — Suppose your reps knew the best time to call on a specific customer to optimize the potential for a sale or what to upsell or cross-sell? cfMAX uses predictive analytics and the action steps in your Salesforce CRM to help sales reps increase sales, lead conversion rates and customer retention. cfMAX is ideal for B2B sales and enterprises offering multiple services or products, and it can benefit both outside and inside sales reps.
To Sum Up
As you can see, there are dozens of third-party solutions that can help you improve the quality of your data as well as enrich your analytics. If you want to get the most out of your data:
- Visit the Salesforce AppExchange and review the different solutions available.
- Determine the combination of solutions that work best for your specific needs.
- Do not hesitate to enlist the services of a technology partner to have a custom app developed if none of the third-party solutions fit your requirements. After all, you need to make your data work as hard as you do.