Salesforce IP checking is a royal PITA
Posted on April 4, 2008
Filed Under Internet & Technology, Salesforce, mobility | 5 Comments
A few months ago, Salesforce implemented a security feature that while I agree with on principle (and therefore don’t want to take steps to completely disable), it has been driving me crazy.
In short, when you log in to your Salesforce account, the system looks at your IP and recognizes whether or not you have logged in from that IP before or if your IP is already cleared by the system administrator. If it’s a new IP in your account, you have to click an activation link which sends an email to the account you’re trying to log in under. You click the link in the email which activates the IP and you’re good to log in and get work done.
Businesses that have static IPs (or even dynamic IPs that don’t move around that much) aren’t bothered by this. However, someone like me whose office usually consists of a laptop and any power outlet she can find is finding this security feature challenging to say the least.
Even when I’m home, Verizon is changing my IP at least 2-3x a day. It’s annoying to have to dance over to my email so often to authorize yet another IP address. Thankfully, that email arrives in fractions of a second after I click the link so I’m not delayed that much. Otherwise, I would just authorize entire IP blocks that Verizon DSL uses, which I’m not sure I want to do.
However, yesterday I found out what happens when I can’t get to my email: Not fun.
I did a little presentation/demo at the New York City Nonprofit Salesforce Usergroup. The meeting was hosted at Wells Fargo Insurance services in midtown Manhattan. When I attempted to log in to Salesforce, of course I got the “Activation Needed” box. Okay, so I fire up a browser window to check my email. Now that we are fully migrated to Google Apps, I no longer use a separate mail client. A window pops up that mail.google.com is blocked by the corporate firewall. The little note on the message says that all external email applications are blocked. Uh oh.
So what did we do so I could use my Salesforce account during the demo?
Another attendee (thanks again, Marc!) found that he could use my computer to log in to his webmail (SquirrelMail). I guess they let that one get away, likely since it was webmail.domain.com and not a known mail application. So I clicked the link to activate, retrieved the message on my Blackberry, forwarded to his email where he could open the message in a window on my computer and activate. Phew!
I completely agree with the extra security measure of making sure that the account holder is the person logging in to Salesforce. I agree with the notion that if there’s a doubt, notify the user via the email address on their account. But I wish Salesforce wouldn’t base this decision solely on IP/physical location. Guess what? That’s the point of Salesforce. We can log in from anywhere and move around.There has to be a better way of verifying that I’m me.
What about a software token (Mac compatible, of course) that one could install on a computer in a secure way that Salesforce could check for if it doesn’t recognize the IP address? That way, every time my computer is used to log on, Salesforce knows it’s me. I don’t know.
When tech support rocks
Posted on March 16, 2008
Filed Under Macintosh, Salesforce | 4 Comments
Last week I complained about the nightmare that is calling Verizon. Now I want to blog about what it’s like when tech support is done right.
First, Apple Computer. Apple has always had a reputation for really good tech support, and it’s still well-earned.
I had been having trouble with my CD/DVD drive for a while now. Sometimes DVDs would just stall in the middle. More often, I started having difficulty copying files. I’ve hired photographers for our events who send me files on DVD. I couldn’t copy the data. I would begin the copy, and it would estimate really long times to complete (1-2 hours for 1 GB), and the Finder would typically get stuck in the middle, with no disk activity. If I tried to cancel the transfer after it wasn’t moving for a while, the entire Finder would crash. After this happened with 3 different CD/DVDs, (restarting many times in between) and those disks worked just fine on other computers, I called SOS-APPL under AppleCare on Friday.
Compared to calling Verizon, the experience of calling Apple is great from the first moment. The voice recognition actually works and is quick and easy to navigate. I only had to tell the computer which device I was calling about, and whether I was calling from a school and I was right in the queue. The friendly bot-voice told me accurately how long I could expect to be on hold.
I wish I remembered the CSR’s name, because he was outstanding. Easy to understand, friendly, and very competent. He never once talked to me like I was an idiot. We talked about what could and could not be causing the problem, and what it would involve if it was a hardware issue with the drive that needed to be repaired by Apple. He suggested that I might fix the problem by resetting the SMC. I heard about this, but didn’t realize that it could help CD drive issues. He patiently walked me through shutting the computer down, removing the battery and power supply and holding the power button down for 15 seconds. Then put the battery back and restart. Sure enough, it worked! The same CD that just wouldn’t complete a copy of data before now smoothly moved 1.5GB of data in about 5 minutes.
Next, it’s a shout out for AppExtremes, and in particular Mark Whiteside, the company’s COO. AppExtremes makes a product called CongaMerge which automates mail merges through Salesforce.
Out of the box, you can easily create a report in Salesforce, run it out to Excel and then in to Word for a mail merge. In addition to having to execute all those steps, you also have no easy way to leave an activity entry on records. If you want to run a letter leaving an activity entry (to log that the letter was done), you have to do it one-at-a-time for each record. With CongaMerge, you can create mail merges for multiple records in a couple of clicks, leaving an activity log on each record. Even better, while the initial templates are best set up on a PC, the merges can be run to Word or PDF from any platform, including Mac.
I played with the demo of CongaMerge months ago, but never had a strong case to purchase it. AppExtremes offers a 50% discount for nonprofits ($72 per user per year, minimum 3 users). I have a specific need now where CongaMerge is essential and well worth the $216 annual cost.
I wrote Mark a note, as my demo had long expired. Not only did Mark get back to me quickly on a Saturday afternoon (I would have been fine waiting until Monday, but I was still glad to hear from him), not only did he quickly enable the full version after I said we were ready to buy, but he realized based on something I wrote in an email that I was making something more difficult than it needed to be. He called me this afternoon to catch me before I spent too much time going down the wrong path (yes, it’s Sunday but I answered my work # anyway). We ended up having a great conversation, complete with GoToMeeting session to get things set up exactly as it should be.
Talk about going the extra mile for a customer. Thanks, Mark!
My vision for data portability utopia
Posted on February 24, 2008
Filed Under Nonprofit, Salesforce, mobility | 2 Comments
I’ve been following the conversation around the “collaboration wars.” Tit for tat comparisons between Microsoft Word and Google Docs. What’s the point?
I find it ironic that users yell and scream that they want one massive application that does everything including the kitchen sink, then scream “bloat! bloat!” when companies try and deliver exactly that.
We have choices, people. That’s good. Let’s celebrate the smaller, more streamlined applications that do a fantastic job at a few core tasks. It’s not about the application’s features, it’s about how they handle data. They must spend as much time worrying about how a user is going to bring existing data in and out as they do worrying about how the user will create and manage new information.
I’m tired of reading about how the data portability movement is all about social network profiles. It’s much more than that (I hope). You’ll sell me based on what you do with the data I feed in, and how easily you let me take that data out again…not on how tightly you hold on to me once I’m a customer. My “data” is not just the photos I upload or my friends’ birthdays and email addresses.
Case in point: We have our Call-on Congress event coming up in a couple of weeks, where we’re bringing in 40 advocates from all over the country for an advocacy training day and visits to Capitol Hill. We are prepping materials for folders for the advocates, as well as what they’ll bring with them to their Congressional meetings. I’m up here in New Jersey, the rest of the staff is in Virginia. The VA-based folks are writing the copy, it’s my job to do the formatting/layout, making sure all the documents look consistent.
Here’s what we’re doing to make sure all the documents are accurate and ready to go:
- Each document starts as a Google Doc in our Google Apps, collaborated between folks within C3 to make sure the wording is right.
- Once it is approved and ready for formatting, I get a task assigned to me in Salesforce letting me know. Even though other tools we use have task management features, Salesforce is our trusted system for assigning tasks between us so we stick with it.
- If I haven’t already been collaborating on the document, the final version is shared with me in Google Docs.
- I export the file to Word and if it’s just simple text, I leave it in Word to add logos, formatting, headers/footers, etc. Otherwise, I bring the text into InDesign for more complicated layouts.
- I export the file to PDF. If I feel the team needs to review the layout (since the copy is already final), I’ll make the PDF editable/reviewable in Adobe Reader and post to our shared WebDAV server we only use for Acrobat comment layers. Otherwise, I just create a simple PDF and leave it at that.
- We use Basecamp for project-related messaging and files. So I’ll post the final PDF there, either with a message letting folks know I think they need to review/comment on the PDF or I’ll post directly to the files area in a “Ready for binders” category I set up.
- I mark the task complete in Salesforce, which lets folks see which documents still need my attention.
- When the binders are ready for assembly, folks just have to view the “ready” file category in Basecamp and pull down the final documents for reproduction. Since the files are all PDF now, I don’t have to worry about font issues or the layout shifting around when it’s opened by someone else using the Word 2003 or 2007.
No files are emailed. No single tool would work as well as when we use them all in a clear, organized fashion. To me, it’s like trying to build a house with a swiss army knife. Even though you can use the end of a saw to bang something in, you’ll do a better job if you reach for a hammer.
Basecamp is handy for project milestones, messages and files, but the lack of WYSISYG in the Writeboards makes that part of the suite unusable for us. Google Docs is phenomenal for collaboration, but painful for formatting compared to desktop software.
Developers either have to spread their resources thin (and therefore charge more) trying to add features that duplicate what the competition does, or they can (and should) say, “hey, this is what we do really well…stick with us for that, and go use the other guys for what they do really well, and we’ll all concentrate on ways we can make it easy for you to move back and forth so you’ll be happy with both of us.”
That is why I’ve been so jazzed about the Convio/Salesforce connector. It’s not about the tool. It’s about the conversations I’ve had with both companies, and that is exactly the attitude they are both taking.
GettingHappy with Convio
Posted on February 3, 2008
Filed Under Nonprofit, Salesforce | Leave a Comment
When Convio announced their acquisition of GetActive over a year ago, I was not a happy camper.
I have a routine going with GetActive. I know where everything is and I have a system for getting data back and forth between GetActive and Salesforce easily. I have no intention of switching from Salesforce to the Convio eCRM. Will the Convio folks work with little ‘ole me to seamlessly transition us to their systems for donations, messaging and fundraising without charging us more?
Here we are, one year later, and C3 has just completed its migration from the GetActive platform to Convio. We only use GetActive/Convio for Fundraising, Advocacy and Email so there wasn’t as much to worry about regarding our public site. And we recently signed a 2-year contract extension with Convio, so I can now say my pricing fears were not an issue.
For Convio, migrating all those GetActives sites is going to be a long process of which it’s still early. I don’t know how many clients completed migration before us, but I know there are many more left to do than have been done.
Why did we migrate early? Two main reasons:
- There are features on Convio that we want to be able to start to use sooner rather than later, such as Tributes and eCards.
- Convio and Salesforce made a commitment to work together for data exchange. Finally! There’s a perception that small organizations can’t afford Convio, and therefore there’s no point in syncing to Salesforce which until recently, was a solution aimed at small organizations. I am thrilled that this thinking is being turned upside down…on both sides. I had been invited to be a part of the pilot program for the new data sync connector. It wasn’t like I was exactly quiet about my desire to see this happen. In order to help shape the product (and let’s face it, get it quickly) we had to be on Convio so I pushed on having the migration done.
So what do I think about Convio after a couple of weeks? More after the jump…
Convio Summit. Day 1.
Posted on October 18, 2007
Filed Under Nonprofit, Salesforce | Leave a Comment
While we won’t officially be off the GetActive platform and on to the Convio platform for a few weeks yet, I like what I see so far. For now, we can deal with the areas that Convio falls just a bit short as compared to GetActive, most notably in the advocacy module. It’s not terrible, but it’s not quite as flexible. In return, we’ll be taking giant leaps forward in fundraising with the addition of Tributes (honor/memorial pages) and eCards. I also like the way Convio handles list segmentation over GetActive’s implementation.
I admit I was a little nervous while flying out here that I got it wrong in my post on Monday. What if it was all hype and I got all excited over some nice press releases and not much more? Notta worry. The Convio folks are serious about the open initiative, and they have the goods to show for it.
As Michael Hoffman shares, the Convio Facebook application is really good. I like it for all his reasons and one more…Convio enables nonprofits to make a Facebook application, and then it gets out of the way. The Causes application is the Causes application, listing your nonprofit within their “envelope.” With the Convio toolkit, to the person adding the application to their profile, it has nothing to with Convio. They…your constituent…don’t care about Convio. They care about your organization and your organization’s cause. That’s the application name they add. It’s a much richer, more thought-out experience than anything I’ve seen for nonprofits on social networks.
I saw the Salesforce.com database connector in action this afternoon. The connector will be demonstrated for all during tomorrow’s general session, but I couldn’t wait that long to see it. Wow. If a contact in the Salesforce.com database has an email address, it syncs beautifully with the Convio database regardless of which database originated the information. Online transactions from Convio are created as Opportunities in Salesforce, practically in real time. I spoke to the engineers involved in developing the connector, and they told me that once they got started on the project they were surprised at just how easy it was to do.
Now all Convio has to do is lower the entry barrier for smaller nonprofits. Not counting the nonprofit donated licenses, Salesforce offers a Group (formerly Team) edition that’s only $600/year for 5 users. Yes, it’s heavily crippled compared to the Enterprise edition. If Convio were to adopt a similar model it would allow smaller organizations a taste of the product and an environment they can grow into, without breaking the bank. They don’t have to provide support or customization at the lowest levels. Maybe offer a few canned templates and limit the number of allowed resources.
Those American Cancer Society sized accounts are great, but there is incredible opportunity out here on the long tail. What are you waiting for, Convio? Do it while you’re ahead.
