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Columbus Business First hosts a Best Places to Work ceremony every year to celebrate the top companies and organizations in the Greater Columbus region. This year, Summit Technologies is proud to receive an award for Best Places to Work. Summit Technologies is ranked #2 out of the micro-sized businesses this year. The winners for Best Places to Work are determined exclusively on the basis of their employees' responses to the Best Places to Work Survey. Employee responses from the 30 standard survey questions, along with the number of employees that respond to the survey, are calculated to determine the company's overall score and ranking. Summit Technologies was happy to participate as the competition presents a great opportunity to learn what employees are really thinking and provides valuable information to improve day-to-day operations and workplace environment. Summit Technologies is a Salesforce consulting partner, providing innovative and creative no-code or low-code solutions to Salesforce customers in a wide variety of industries. The company was established in Columbus Ohio in 2016 and has grown to fifteen full-time employees providing solutions for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Pardot and Communities as well as a number of other related apps and technologies. Learn more about Summit Technologies custom Salesforce solutions here.

by Shannan Hearne, Summit Technologies Marketing Specialist Don’t confuse omnichannel marketing with multichannel marketing. They are not synonymous. In a multichannel environment, customers can connect with your brand in multiple ways, but those channels aren't necessarily providing a cohesive experience. With a truly omnichannel approach, the customer or user can move between different channels – mobile app, desktop website, in-store, on the phone – and enjoy a truly cohesive experience. And you benefit with a complete 360 degree view of your customer and the ability to deliver beyond the customers’ expectations. Research shows that brands with a strong omnichannel strategy retain, on average, 89% of customers, in comparison to 33%t of companies with a weak or nonexistent omnichannel approach. You can leverage Salesforce to give customers the seamless experience they’ve come to expect from the brands they trust. If your current structure needs support from design and technology experts with Salesforce experience, Summit Technologies LLC can help. NOTE: Salesforce Service Cloud offers Omni-Channel. Omni-Channel is a flexible, customizable feature, and you can configure it declaratively—that is, without writing code. Use Omni-Channel to manage the priority of work items, which makes it a cinch to route important work items to agents quickly. Manage your agents’ capacity to take on work items so that they’re given only the number of assignments that they can handle. You can also define which agents can work on different types of assignments. For example, you can create one group of agents to respond to leads and sales inquiries, and another group that helps customers with support questions. Omni-Channel is a service department specific tool but Salesforce has developed tools farther reaching than just in service mode and made omnichannel versus multichannel a way to do business. Broadly, omnichannel means a user engagement solution which provides end-to-end accessibility to customers across channels, platforms and devices. Modern-day businesses are aware that they can no longer rely on a single marketing channel to reach out to their customers. With each marketing channel presenting a unique set of challenges and opportunities, there exists a pressing requirement to combine them for maximum impact. And from this requirement, evolved multichannel and omnichannel marketing strategies. Multichannel marketing involves the segmentation of direct and indirect customer interactions. Traditionally, multichannel media channels were physical stores and websites. In the last decade, it has grown to include email, social media platforms, phone or chat, etc. And despite being a part of the same business organization, these channels are all isolated from each other. This lack of integration results in siloed information. Even though you might see it as a challenge, one of the many goals of multichannel marketing is to ensure the disparity in communication between the online and offline segments provides improved accessibility to and for customers. Omnichannel is a communication strategy that combines all business communications over a single platform across the various marketing channels. It consolidates operations-related information and customer experiences over the centralized location to maintain uniformity. As a result, every communication channel has access to what the other is doing. Customers can anticipate seamless and continued interactions at every touchpoint. The consistency provided by a holistic and inter-connected communications framework also opens up room for service personalization. The multichannel approach focuses on maximizing reach by tapping into all communication channels. The same message is passed through two or more channels, with email and social media being the most popular picks. Multichannel marketing taps into only limited communication media and they operate in a vacuum. In contrast, omnichannel marketing adopts a multidisciplinary approach by connecting all the communication channels with each other and then with the customers. Plus, it attempts to incorporate as many communication channels as possible. An omnichannel strategy would employ anything from calls to push notifications, with each element complementing the entire customer journey. Since omnichannel marketing is integrated and focuses on customer welfare, all communication channels work towards collecting data and using it to understand their customers better. As a result, your business gains insights into their requirements and expectations through inputs on their pain points, preferences, lifestyle, demographics, etc. In fact, this data can be granular to the point that you can identify factors like why certain individuals abandon your cart or app! Equipped with this data, you can hyper-personalize everything, from your products and services to marketing strategy to cater to your client’s taste. Like a customer preference center on steroids, omnichannel marketing recognizes the wants and needs of your customer and utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve their experiences with every touchpoint. While the omnichannel setting is quite complex, multichannel marketing mostly relies on call to action (CTA) links and buttons to encourage users to take action. However, such messages are often generic, with limited or almost no personalization. Generic interactions offer the least impactful CX and provide your company with the least increased understanding of the customers’ needs. Customer engagement is a powerful metric that defines the efficacy of any marketing strategy. Omnichannel marketing observes a marginally higher engagement and conversion rate owing to several factors ranging from improved customer journey to personalization. It is a proven fact that offering value to your customers at every touchpoint will make them more willing to interact with your brand and more trustful of the information they provide. If you are looking for an easier way to reach out to your customers and engage them, then multichannel marketing would be more useful to meet the requirement. You would primarily have to identify a few effective marketing channels, understand their best practices, and execute the plan. With this relatively low-effort strategy, you could overlook minor considerations. But when a business commits to adopting the true omnichannel route, they have to stick to it until the final execution! Half hearted efforts will only result in system failure and waste of time, money, and resources. Not to mention that integrating all marketing channels can be a Herculean task, which will proportionally increase depending upon business complexities. Omnichannel will require the active participation of business leaders and the C-suite to foster a shared vision and implement it throughout the organization. The leaders bear the primary responsibility of initiating change and sustaining it through constant encouragement. The omnichannel charge has to be led in the organization from the top down to achieve success. Given that omnichannel marketing offers a seamless customer experience, business leaders tend to be more inclined to make it a part of their marketing strategy. However, they need to be prepared to face the challenges that come with it. The corresponding cost and complexity are the primary roadblocks in the omnichannel path. At the same time, becoming future-ready through omnichannel marketing automation is too attractive of an opportunity to pass up. Certainly the last two years have taught us all that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. While multichannel marketing may seem like an attractive alternate solution, it may be short-term as customer expectations and behaviors are reshaping how businesses operate. It is only a matter of time until businesses are pushed to adopt omnichannel marketing or be pushed aside by the competitors who do adopt. Clearly the key differences between omnichannel vs. multichannel marketing are quantifiable. You can make an educated comparison and settle on what works for your business.

Summit Technologies was recognized as the seventh fastest growing company in the greater Columbus Ohio region for 2020. Founders Mike Leibrand and Moez Chaabouni accepted the award on behalf of the team at a ceremony hosted by Columbus Business First. "We are excited and honored to be recognized for our team's efforts which were instrumental in the rapid growth of Summit Technologies. When we founded the business in the summer of 2016, we knew we were starting something special and are thrilled to work with a team of dedicated and talented people" remarked Moez Chaabouni after the ceremony. Summit Technologies is a Salesforce consulting partner, providing innovative and creative no-code or low-code solutions to Salesforce customers in a wide variety of industries. The company was established in Columbus Ohio in 2016, and has grown to fifteen full-time employees providing solutions for Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Pardot and Communities as well as a number of other related apps and technologies. Learn more about Summit Technologies custom Salesforce solutions here.

The shift to digital commerce presents new opportunities for sales teams in B2B companies. However, the traditional sales culture that has focused on making calls and hitting quotas may have some hesitation about how this change will affect their role. By implementing ecommerce solutions, sales teams can streamline order processing and free up their time for more strategic pursuits. In fact, according to a study, nearly half (47%) of digital leaders say that digital commerce enables sales teams to act as trusted advisors to their customers. Additionally, 60% of B2B sellers report an improvement in job satisfaction among their sales team members. To help ease the transition and ensure the success of your digital commerce strategy, involve key stakeholders early on. This includes IT, sales, customer service, legal, and marketing/business units. Ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of the compensation for digital sales and the benefits that come with the shift. This can include access to new insights, reduced time spent on routine tasks, and improved customer experiences. Additionally, consider using your digital commerce strategy as a recruiting tool for high-performing sales professionals. These individuals are drawn to companies that prioritize innovation and digital transformation. By highlighting your plans in the job description and during the interview process, you can attract top talent to your sales team. A well-executed digital commerce strategy can benefit both your sales team and your company as a whole. By streamlining processes, improving job satisfaction, and attracting top talent, you can take your sales game to the next level. Summit Technologies LLC can help you take a cross-functional approach to launching digital commerce sales platforms.

Salesforce CRM is a cutting-edge software solution that revolutionizes the way businesses manage their sales processes. With its powerful automation capabilities, valuable customer insights, and seamless integrations, Salesforce CRM enables companies to streamline their operations, increase productivity, and grow their revenue. Summit Technologies LLC has been helping companies customize the use of Salesforce CRM since 2016. By utilizing automated workflows and tasks, sales teams can focus on high-value activities, freeing up time for more strategic and creative endeavors. Salesforce CRM eliminates manual data entry and reduces errors, providing businesses with accurate and up-to-date information about their customers. With intelligent customer insights, businesses can gain a comprehensive view of their interactions with clients and create targeted marketing campaigns that deliver personalized sales approaches. Salesforce CRM integrates with other systems and tools used by businesses, creating a cohesive and streamlined workflow. This reduces the need for multiple and disparate sales tools, resulting in a more efficient and effective sales process. Salesforce CRM is the ideal solution for businesses looking to improve their sales efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive revenue growth. Whether you're a small startup or a large enterprise, Salesforce CRM has the tools you need to succeed in today's fast-paced business world.

Encryption scrambles up existing data so that only authorized people can understand it. Encryption is actually a form of steganography, a fancy word for hiding secret data in plain sight. Think about using invisible ink to write a secret message to a spy, for example, or using a code to translate a message only specific parties can understand. Encryption is a valuable tool of cybersecurity; in fact, there’s an entire profession devoted to it! Cryptographers are cybersecurity professionals who create the algorithms and ciphers needed to encrypt data. Data encryption is the process of converting plaintext data into a form that is unreadable to anyone without the proper decryption key. Encryption is used to protect the confidentiality of data, ensuring that only authorized parties can access it. There are two main types of encryption: symmetric and asymmetric. With symmetric encryption, the same key is used to both encrypt and decrypt the data. This means that the key must be kept secret, as anyone with access to it would be able to decrypt the encrypted data. Asymmetric encryption, on the other hand, uses two different keys: a public key that is used to encrypt the data, and a private key that is used to decrypt it. This allows for secure communication even if the public key is widely known, as only the owner of the private key is able to decrypt the data. Encryption is an important tool for protecting the confidentiality of sensitive data, such as financial transactions, personal information, and government secrets. It is used in a variety of contexts, including online communication, storage of data in the cloud, and secure transmission of data over networks.

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. Cybersecurity is the responsibility of everyone in your organization, or your home. Cyberattacks are designed to steal information from systems through any means possible, such as damage, manipulation, and disruption of networks and hardware. In today's digital world, cybersecurity threats are one of the biggest existential threats we face. It's important to practice cybersecurity at all levels - individual, organizational, national, and global. This includes developing an awareness of the world of hacking, understanding the risks of personal data breaches, and following best practices for keeping your data and the data of others safe. There are two types of hackers: criminal hackers, who have malicious intent and hack for harm, and ethical or defensive hackers, who hack for good. Criminal hackers, also known as threat actors or malicious hackers, use various methods to gain unauthorized access to data within a system for nefarious purposes. Ethical hackers, on the other hand, exploit networks or systems to find security flaws and recommend ways to fix them. They aim to break things in order to strengthen defenses and fix vulnerabilities. Malicious hackers typically target assets, such as data, information, devices, or any other aspect of a system that has value and can be used for financial gain. These assets often include sensitive data or information that should only be accessed by authorized individuals. In the realm of data, hackers usually go after personal payment information, personally identifiable information, and personal health information. It's important to be aware of these threats and take steps to protect yourself and your organization. This includes using strong passwords, keeping your software and devices up to date, and being cautious when clicking on links or downloading attachments. It's also a good idea to educate yourself and others about cybersecurity best practices. By being proactive and staying informed, we can all help to make the digital world a safer place. Summit Technologies can assist you in keeping your Salesforce ecosystem secure and safe from cyber attacks.

A Salesforce Managed Services Provider (MSP) is a third-party company that provides ongoing support, maintenance, and management for Salesforce implementations. MSPs typically offer a range of services, including configuration, customization, integration, data management, and user support. MSPs can be useful for companies that do not have the resources or expertise to manage their Salesforce implementation in-house on an ongoing basis. They can provide the necessary support and guidance to ensure that the Salesforce platform is running smoothly and efficiently, and can help a company get the most out of their investment in Salesforce. MSPs may offer different levels of service, such as basic support, advanced support, and premium support, depending on the needs of the customer. Some MSPs may also offer additional services, such as consulting or training, to help a company optimize their Salesforce implementation. Salesforce managed services cover a comprehensive variety of activities aimed to ensure proper Salesforce CRM performance and prevent system downtime or issues. Being a Salesforce managed services provider, Summit Technologies helps companies maintain and evolve Salesforce solutions in line with their growing business needs. Overall, a Salesforce MSP can be a valuable resource for companies looking to get the most out of their Salesforce platform and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business operations. What are the benefits of hiring a Salesforce Managed Services Provider? A Salesforce Managed Services Provider (MSP) can help your business in a number of ways: Ongoing support and maintenance: A MSP can provide ongoing support and maintenance for your Salesforce implementation, ensuring that the platform is always running smoothly and efficiently. Customization and configuration: A MSP can help you customize and configure your Salesforce implementation to meet your specific business needs and goals. Integration: A MSP can help you integrate Salesforce with other systems and platforms, such as your CRM or marketing automation tools, to create a seamless workflow. Data management: A MSP can assist with data management tasks, such as importing and exporting data, setting up data governance policies, and maintaining data quality. User support: A MSP can provide support to your users, helping them with any issues or questions they may have about using Salesforce. Overall, a Salesforce MSP can help your business get the most out of your Salesforce investment and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your business operations. Salesforce’s MSP Partner Program is designed for firms that are inspired to lead the next phase of innovation and help their clients connect with their customers in entirely new ways by offering managed Salesforce services. Different from Consulting partners who engage with customers during sales and implementation, Managed Service Partners offer activities post-enrollment. Summit Technologies, a Salesforce Consulting Partner, provides Salesforce Admin services, Salesforce Admin support, managed services, custom Salesforce integration, Salesforce maintenance and more. As your business grows the demands on your Salesforce instance grows too. Summit Technologies provides reasonable and creative managed service packages that allow us to partner with you and your company and provide the proactive attention and services you need to grow Salesforce to scale how you need it when you need it. Summit Technologies partners with you to ensure that your Salesforce implementation remains aligned with your organization’s goals and business model. Many Salesforce customers initially deploy Salesforce for one department. Summit Technologies helps bring other departments including customer service, delivery, field service and marketing on the same unified Salesforce platform for maximum ROI. We work closely with our clients to ensure success with Salesforce every step of the way. Whether you require Salesforce managed services for just a few hours a month or for a serious, hands-on maintenance of your Salesforce instance Summit Technologies can customize a solution for your business.

Salesforce, known for its "No Software" number one CRM platform, has always taken an ecosystem approach to partnering rather than a classic reselling model. This means that Salesforce has developed relationships with companies that build software applications that integrate with Salesforce and with companies that offer services around Salesforce. Reselling does exist, but it is a secondary model. The end customer contracts directly with Salesforce and is invoiced based on usage, although it is not a pure consumption model like AWS. Instead, customers commit to a fixed level of usage over a fixed period. Partners make money from referral fees and from software or services they add to the Salesforce deployment. The Salesforce Partner Program underwent a major overhaul in 2019 and relaunched in 2020. It has two tracks: the AppExchange Partner Program for software developers and the Consulting Partner Program for companies that offer value-added services, practices, and tools. The Consulting Partner Program uses a points system to evaluate partner commitment to Salesforce and to trigger rewards. It has four levels, and partners are placed into levels based on their points. Points are earned based on customer success, innovation, and engagement. Partners can also become resellers by enrolling in the Cloud Reseller sub-program, but they must meet certain revenue and certification goals. Suffice it to say, Salesforce partners are not simply compiled in a list of the "best salesforce partner companies". The best Salesforce partner for you is one who understands your business with a demonstrated history of success in similar Salesforce implementations.

Salesforce is for more than just your sales team. Many companies using Salesforce are unaware that Salesforce is capable of empowering far more than just the sales and marketing teams in an organization. Sold products may be tracked as Assets. Contracts may be entered and managed. Cases will allow service teams to affiliate service calls to the specific product and the associated service contracts. Custom onboarding, delivery and installation processes will keep everyone informed as to the status of any post-sales processes. After the sale, Salesforce enables service and delivery teams by managing sold products and licenses as assets. Assets allow specific information about the sold products such as serial numbers, license numbers, manufacturer, service providers, status and custom information specific to your company or products. Cases may be associated to Assets to track issues and service calls over the life cycle of the asset. It is even possible to track competitor assets sold to your customers in Salesforce to create a clear picture for the sales and service teams as to relevant equipment, software or licenses in use for each client. Salesforce also allows for sales and service teams to create contracts, which may be tracked in Salesforce to ensure renewals do not come and go unnoticed and the terms are documented and clear to sales and service teams. Assets and Cases may be affiliated to Contracts to identify exactly what the contract is for and any claims, redemptions or service calls that might be associated with them. In addition to out-of-the-box capabilities to track assets and contracts, Salesforce allows us to create custom onboarding, delivery and installation processes. Just like opportunities go through multiple stages before closing, many companies have complex post-sales processes from onboarding to installation that need to be carefully tracked and monitored by the service team. These processes are also of great interest to the sales team who sold the products or services and want to ensure successful delivery. A post-sales process that automatically kicks off when the sale closes which creates tasks and notifications for the relevant personnel in the organization is highly beneficial not only for sales and service, but also management who needs to ensure that these services are delivered correctly and on time. These processes can be managed via multiple options, including list view, Kanban view and dashboards to provide maximum visibility. In short, Salesforce enables sales and service to work together on a single platform, which keeps everyone informed and aware of the status of post-sale processes through powerful reports and dashboards visible to all stakeholders.

If your organization has been using Salesforce for a year or more, there is a significant chance it is not optimized for your organization as best it could be. With three releases a year, most companies simply don't have the internal resources to stay on top of new features and functionality, much less build and follow a roadmap to extend Salesforce functionality in sales and marketing as well as to post-sales service and delivery. The truth is, most companies are only using a fraction of the capabilities of the platform and have not integrated Salesforce with the other applications used to run their company including accounting, ERP and marketing platforms. Here are some questions to ask your organization about Salesforce Is there a Salesforce roadmap in place? It is important to be aware of business needs that could be addressed in Salesforce, new functionality that would be advantageous to the organization, other applications that would benefit from integration with Salesforce and have a plan to implement these enhancements. Is Salesforce integrated with the other applications and services we use to run the business? Salesforce CRM can and often should be the hub of your operation, with spokes going to marketing email marketing platforms, event sites, surveys, customer and partner portals, accounting and ERP systems and just about any other program or website used by your company. This saves time from double-entering data, reduces errors, makes reporting and dashboarding easier and improves employee morale and productivity by allowing them to focus on their professional talents. Is Salesforce being used for post-sales service and delivery? Salesforce can be set up for case/ticket management to ensure sales and service have a complete view of the customer. Post-sales onboarding and delivery can be managed in Salesforce. Assets (sold products) and service contracts should be created and managed through Salesforce. Is everyone in the organization using Lightning? Lightning is the future of Salesforce - all new features are being added to Lightning only. If your organization has not moved yet, it is time. Many users that may have tried it and switched back have likely not seen it recently, properly optimized. It is much more intuitive and easy to use than it was when it came out. Is all the information you want to see for an Account on the Account page? Lifetime sales, open opportunity totals, date of last sale, graphs of a breakdown of sales by opportunity type and much more should be information you shouldn't have to look for. Is it quick and easy to create Opportunities, Accounts and Quotes with fields defaulting to most popular options and pre-populating from parent records? Using a properly tuned Salesforce feels effortless and intuitive. Are Account statuses and other fields up to date? Users should not have to go back to an Account record and update a status from a prospect to a customer...this should be automated along with any similar updates that happen when a deal is created, closed, lost or any other record updates. Are you using Products and Quotes? Are you building and generating sales documents from within Salesforce? Is DocuSign or another e-sig product integrated to allow for one-click proposals, emailed to the client with e-sig enabled? If the answer is no to any of these, your sales team may be working to hard on operations and not on selling. Do your team members have a dashboard that tell them at a glance about their performance today, this week, this month? Can your managers easily see how their team is performing? Does your executive team get a dashboard emailed to them daily with KPI's showing the overall health of the company? When is the last time you had a Salesforce training session? There is a lot of productivity-enhancing functionality your team may not be aware of. Annual or biannual 15 to 30 minute training sessions will help new team members get up to speed and more seasoned members learn new tricks. If you would like to learn more about any of these topics, feel free to drop me a line.

If you are considering purchasing any of Salesforce's large family of products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement), CPQ or Communities, Salesforce will tell you that you should use a Salesforce partner. If you are having any doubts whatsoever about that, I would strongly urge you to read my other posts on common implementation mistakes , why you should use a Salesforce partner and Six Steps to Salesforce Success. Assuming that have chosen the path of best practices and decided to use a Salesforce partner, how do you decide which one to use? Salesforce may have given you a list of several, you may have found some others from the App Exchange or Google, but which one should you go with? Although it might be tempting to simply request quotes from any or all of them and choose based on price, we believe that although price is an important consideration, there are a number of other critical and important factors that should also be looked at. Critical Considerations If your organization is in the US, we strongly recommend US-based based implementation teams. Why? Although teams based in another hemisphere might be less expensive, implementation involves a significant amount of communication, and working with different time zones, difficult to understand consultants and bad audio and video connections can create a frustrating and time consuming experience that is not worth the savings. Read the online reviews. For example, my company, Summit Technologies has a perfect 5 star rating and 10.0 customer satisfaction score from the Salesforce App Exchange. Ensure they are a Salesforce partner and all the resources working on your project are Salesforce certified. Salesforce will not allow just anyone to be a partner, and their certification process is rigorous- I should know as I presently have earned nine certifications as a Salesforce certified architect. At Summit, we require that all of our consultants and developers be certified. Important Considerations Working with a local partner has some advantages, but maybe not quite as many as you might think. We have dozens of clients local to us, but more often than not, we are working remotely. This is more efficient and helps us keep our costs down. That said, we are always happy to visit our clients, especially for training and discovery meetings. Industry experience is also very nice to have but not always a critical requirement. Why? Because we have learned from over 60 implementations that they have more in common than they are different. It is certainly helpful to know the industry jargon, but we are quick learners! At the end of the day, the implementation partner is someone you should be spending a lot of time with, so it is important that you feel comfortable with the company and the team. You may want to ask to speak with the consultant who will be working with you before you sign any agreement to ensure it is someone you can easily communicate with. A botched implementation is often harder to fix than doing a new implementation from scratch, so take some care with this important decision, and let us know if you have any questions.

In the spirit Thanksgiving, Summit Technologies LLC has committed to Pledge 1% http://pledge1percent.org/ of our services to non-profit organizations in the Columbus Ohio area. Our first partner in the Columbus area is LeaderSpark, Inc. http://www.leaderspark.org/, a fantastic organization dedicated to building youth leadership through training, coaching and mentoring. We are excited to lend our SalesForce expertise to help them achieve their mission. Happy Thanksgiving!