In our blog post, "6 Reasons Everyone with Salesforce Needs an Admin," we outlined why it's so important to have someone dedicated who can learn the platform and manage your Salesforce system, even if that person is you. What if, though, you don't have the time or the skill to be that person? Here are some ways you can find help without having to become the admin…

Do you really need a Salesforce admin? Yes, you do. Salesforce is an investment in the future of your business, so every business with Salesforce, even a company with a total user count of one, needs a Salesforce Administrator to get the most out of that investment. Read on to find out why.

Starting this week is Salesforce's Developer week; and today I traveled to Greensboro to learn about Salesforce's Lightning framework for building apps, processes, and connecting data. I love learning about new things and Salesforce just keeps getting better.  Here's a quick overview of each piece of the puzzle that we covered, an example of how to use it, and a link to the tutorial where you can try it out yourself.

I'd like to welcome Cloud Giants' newest team member, Chad Pfrommer.  Yes, yes - we have the same last name.  No, no - he's not my hubs. Chad's my brother-in-law and a great developer.

Chad brings to us a wealth of experience in technology and will drive the programatic development that Cloud Giants delivers. 

"Oh my goodness, I've been waiting so long for duplicate management, I CAN'T WAIT TO TURN IT ONNN!!!!" - Says many a Salesforce customer. Yes, its SUPER exciting, I am definitely jumping up and down about this, but slow down, wait a minute. Don't rush in and just turn it on, its tempting, but you want to take a pragmatic view of this - Turn it on too much too fast, and your users are going to be upset - maybe even stop putting data into the system. 

I have a confession, I make mistakes. I am human. I try to remind my clients they are human too - they work with new technologies, they are learning, mistakes will happen. I’ve learned more from my mistakes than from my successes.  My customers often get nervous when setting up their very first email template in Salesforce.  They want to be sure it looks right and has everything they need.  They worry they will send to the wrong people, or send too soon.  But knowing how to recover from a mistake is one of the most important things a business can do to retain trust amongst their customers.  

Have you read the release notes yet for Salesforce's Spring 15 release yet? No? Well you should get in there, its so impressive, all the great new features Salesforce has added . . . I can't remember a release that was this awesome.  Can you?  

Here's a list of my favorite things that are coming in the next release. . . .its a long list, that's how much Salesforce has delivered.

I went to Dreamforce this year for the first time. Whoa. What an intense, intense thing that is. Its a thing. I would start my day at 7:30, walking out the hotel lobby and not end my day until 8,9 or midnight depending on my energy levels. People around me were clocking 15K to 20K+ steps on their fitbits. That's like seven to ten miles a day!! I had to ice my legs and feet at the end of the day. It was worth it. I cannot thank my client enough for sponsoring my trip, I made so many valuable connections, learned so many things, and just had fun!