Where Do I Learn How To Use Salesforce.com?

One of my clients contacted me this past week and asked a simple question – where do I learn to do what you do?

“When I call you, we log in together to my Salesforce.com account, and then you talk me through the process of setting up some custom fields, custom objects, moving things around on page or whatever. These are all things I feel I should probably know after using Salesforce for over a year. Where do you learn to do all the things you do?”

First, in the interest of full disclosure, it’s appropriate to share that my educational background is Computer Science, and my 20-year work experience has been in the fields of database architecture, software application development and customer support. My learning might have been at a slightly faster pace because of that background. However, I don’t think you need a software engineering degree to become proficient in Force.com. That’s the beauty of the Salesforce.com platform, and cloud-computing in general: anyone can come up to speed on it – very, very quickly.

Here are my tips for mastering the Force. These are in no particular order, but the sequence is roughly how I came to know the platform, and I think it’s a pretty good path:

1. Dedicate Time for Training: Dedicate a couple hours per week to learning about the Force.com platform. Schedule it as your Monday morning or Friday afternoon ritual. If you have absolutely no time to budget for Force.com training during the work week, make some time after hours at home. Reserve these hours on your calendar, put a reminder on your Blackberry, do whatever it takes – but make sure it is quality, non-interrupted time.



2. Browse the Force.com Online Help: Start by just browsing the online help. Login to your instance of Force.com, and then click on the “Help & Training” link near the top-center area of your browser content window.
   
   
   Click on the “Help” tab, and you’ll find a ton of useful resources for all different types of users and administrators. You can select / print the “Printable User Guide”, or just walk through all the various help topics in the left side-bar.
   
   
   Be sure to check out the “Tips & Users Guides” link, too. You’re sure to find a lot of information here that will eat up those “training hours” that you scheduled for yourself in step 1.



3. Get a Developer Account: Did you know that you can get a Force.com developer account for free? A developer account has 2 user licenses, and limited data storage capacity, but it’s perfectly suited for testing your new Force.com skills. In your Developer account, you can try out changes before you implement them in your corporate environment. Before creating a developer account, be sure you have a personal email account (other than your work email account). If you don’t have one, they’re easy to create – just browse over to www.gmail.com and click on the Sign-up for Gmail link.
   
   Once you have a gmail account, use that email alias to create a developer account. Go to the Apex Developer Network at developer.salesforce.com and click the "Join Now" button.



4. Download the Book: Download a PDF version of “Creating On-Demand Applications: An Introduction to the Apex Platform”. This manual is the first of a two-book series that was handed out at Dreamforce 2007. It walks the reader through the process of creating a “Recruiting” application. During this process, you'll create custom objects, tabs, custom fields, custom formula fields, validation rules, page layouts, and more. All the skills that a Force.com administrator should know are covered in this book, step-by-step.



5. Browse the AppExchange: If you haven’t yet been to the AppExchange, now is the time to check it out. AppExchange is a library of applications built for Force.com. You can demo the applications, view screenshots of them, read user reviews, view online presentations / demos, etc. Some of the applications cost money, but many of them are free. Use the search engine to search on a few topics that might be of interest to you, or just browse through the categories until you find something that suits your fancy. Download an application to either your Developer account, or to your corporate account (if you have sufficient admin priviliges) -- don't worry, they're easy to remove, if you find that you don't like it. Or, you can use your budding talents to customize the application, so that it does work for your implementation of Salesforce.com.



6. Browse Successforce: Check out Successforce at success.salesforce.com. In particular, check out the Guides tab. I really wish I’d known about this resource when I started the roll-out of my first Salesforce.com implementation. There are tons of downloads available on this site, including process maps, implementation guides, and free training presentations.



7. Official Training from Salesforce.com: Consider attending a Salesforce.com “Administrator Essentials” training class. This 4-day training class is held periodically throughout the year, in major cities all around North America. It’s $3,000 for the course, and covers all the topics outlined in the “Creating On-Demand Applications” manual above. I confess that I didn’t take this route myself, because I’ve never favored these type of training events. I learn better from a book and online content than I do from classroom lecture – especially a lecture that lasts 6-8 hours for 4-5 consecutive days – ugh! But I know there are others who learn better in a classroom enviroment, so it's worth mentioning.
   



8. Join a Salesforce.com User Group: There are dozens of Salesforce.com User Groups around the globe. These user groups schedule meetings throughout the year, and discuss all things related to our favorite SAAS platform, Salesforce.com. You’re sure to pick up tips, tricks and best practices, as implemented by other professionals working with the Force. It’s a great way to network and collaborate with other administrators, developers and/or power users. To find the Salesforce.com User Group nearest you, check out http://usergroups.salesforce.com/ If you can't find a user group near you, consider starting your own!



9. Take it to the Next Level: By now, you should be fairly proficient as a Salesforce.com Administrator and/or Power User. If that was your goal, you can stop here. If you want to kick it up a notch, and get even more from your implementation of Salesforce.com, it’s time to cross over from Administrator to Developer. Your journey starts here: http://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Getting_Started

Like all things in life, the more you practice it, the more proficient you will become. Follow these steps to get started with the Force. They'll start you on the path. How far you go, how adept you become, is up to you.

Of course, if you don't have time for all this -- then hire a Force Monkey to assist you!