Best Practices for Implementing Salesforce CRM - Cloud Experts

4 questions to answer for a successful portal implementationusing a payment processing app. Because apps from the AppExchange are pre-integrated, they’re a fast andeasy option to make your portal more valuable to your customers.If you find yourself in uncharted waters with no existing apps, remember that the Force.com platformincludes lots of tools to customize your app or build new apps. Check out Developer Force to find out justwhat you can do.Question #4: How will we measure ROI?After you roll out the portal, train your users, and enhance functionality based on user feedback and appsfrom the AppExchange, it’s time to measure the results of your efforts. By using familiar dashboards, youcan compare the initial metrics you defined with the data you capture as the portal is used.To get accurate ROI numbers for your sales or customer service organization, establish performancebenchmarks before your implementation. These benchmarks should reflect the priorities you outlined inyour vision and in the planning stage, discussed on page 1.Here are some common metrics for customer portals:• Case resolution times, case age• Cases closed per rep, # of self-closed cases• Average case response time (time spent in New status)• Cost per case ($ spent on portal support resources/number of cases resolved through portal)• # of escalationsFor partner portals, try these metrics:• # of deals registered by partner• Pipeline generated by partner• Average age of deals by partner• Closed business by partner• Cost per partner (marketing support, funding requests)Together with custom training and high-touch engagements, the software company used dashboards to helpkeep its partners on their toes. By using leaderboards that showed the comparative performance of itspartners, the company met its goal of increasing channel sales from 40% to 60% of its total sales.BEST PRACTICE 3