Dreamforce 2013: What Does Salesforce1 Mean for Nonprofits, and other key takeaways

Fifteen members of the Idealist Consulting team went to Dreamforce this year, and we had a blast attending sessions, hosting our NPO Engagement Party, talking to clients and partners at our booth in the Hilton Foundation Zone, and zipping around San Francisco by pedi-cab. Here are some key takeaways from two of our CRM Consultants, Corinn and Carolyn (answers edited slightly here).

What were the 5 most impactful solutions you saw at Dreamforce? Why?

• HOT’s: I went to a lot of hands-on-training sessions about native functionality in Salesforce.   I now feel far more confident about permission sets, joined reports, cross filters, etc...These are all things I have known about but haven't had to implement so have had no practice.  
• Click and Pledge: I’m excited about some of the new functionality in Click and Pledge Events – I have a current project this should be great for.  I think it will make the system much more intuitive.  The Click and Pledge connection for peer to peer fundraising looks interesting. The Click & Pledge Social Connect platform will give additional ways for constituents to donate or participate in peer to peer fundraising.
• Demand tools: Reminded of how much I need to learn Demand Tools.  That's first thing on my list when I get back!  No excuses!
• Drupal: I would love to know more about how well and in which ways Drupal plays with Salesforce.  I think that learning more about how to extend SF into client websites is something I need to learn more about.  
• Connected customer/connected devices: allow for seamless live feed of data into SFDC. I see the Impact and Trend for example in Digital Health Monitoring. It will affect the way we treat preventative medicine.
• Clicktools: Better analysis of customer survey information.  The key to surveys is getting the voice of the customer and then acting upon it. Using the reporting and visualization on Dashboards to understand the metrics that are important to your company/organization's mission.
• Mobile self-service and the updated Knowledge app: "KnowledgeOne": combines the managing and searching of articles in one place. Provides internal agents with an easy way to track revisions and archiving of articles. Helps to keep the articles current and viable.

Where do you see value in Salesforce 1 for the NPO sector?

I'm excited about the functionality of SF1 because it allows for so much in the palm of your hand.  Having their whole SF instance in mobile format can be a game changer especially for smaller orgs who didn't think having a mobile platform was in their reach. Other benefits I see:

• Will enable more people/companies to develop apps more easily.  
• Will enable smaller NPOs to function with fewer resources.
• More apps will be developed and sold directly to individuals vs. entities. 
• More customizable user interface, brings together more functions in one place

Possible use cases:

• Off-site events: I think it will be very useful for NPOs when they are doing events off-site and don't have a place where they can set up a desktop.  SF1 seems like it will allow for checking clients in for events while having all their records fully available. NPOs may not be doing "sales", but are still so much about managing relationships.
• Better donation and fundraising systems: Seems like there are a lot of possibilities here.

What are the trends you see in the Salesforce space that are worth paying attention to in 2014?

• Getting a 360 degree view of your customer- capturing as much relevant information and using it to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing them with service when and how they want it. This relates to your constituents - getting their preferences on ways to donate to your cause.
• Improving the user experience- adding icons, graphs and other visualization to easily and quickly see statuses
• Mobile self-service- relates to setting up mobile communities/forums to collaborate with others, answer questions and contact service or call centers. Giving customers the access to solving their own problems and allowing customer service agents to focus on more difficult/complex problems
• Knowledge Centered Support- using these guiding principles to create a knowledge base for your users and customers

Did you go to Dreamforce? How do you see NPOs using Salesforce1 and other new tools/trends in 2014? Please share your comments below.