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Joel Purrier is Director of Service Cloud Solutions at Centerstance. He's been working in the CRM industry since 1994 and using Salesforce since 2004. Previously at Siebel Systems, Joel has been on the Centerstance team for six years and has worn many hats including pre-sales engineer and solution architect. A fun fact about Joel is that he was one of the first people ever to become Service Cloud certified back in 2010! Joel lives in Seattle with his wife, two boys (4 and 2) and niece (14 going on 20).
As a solution architect working with hundreds of clients to define their solution footprint, I've recommended almost everything on the AppExchange . I've recommended free apps such as Inline Account Hierarchy and subscription-based applications like CRM Fusion's Demand Tools. I've also recommended solutions across many different category types.
My favorite project is working to create a complete 'end-to-end' solution for clients. The one I am sharing here includes Salesforce, QuoteQuickly, DocuSign and FinancialForce PSA and FinancialForce accounting.
These can be used to create a great end-to-end solution. It starts with Salesforce for Marketing and Sales Cloud leveraging QuoteQuickly for the configured product sale and then DocuSign to execute the NDA and final contract. Then comes the handoff to the delivery team who uses FinancialForce PSA and their time, expense and billing ends up in FinancialForce Accounting. And to complete the loop, we've got Service Cloud to manage the ongoing customer support.
Here's more on the apps:
Steel Brick's QuoteQuickly app provides an easy-to-use yet robust quoting solution that effortlessly integrates with Salesforce. Not only does the extensive feature set work well for most businesses, but CEO Max Rudman and his team are truly a delight to work with. We've been working closely with them since 2009 and have really seen the application grow and mature as a direct result of their attentive response to clients and prospects. Max has always been willing to 'go the extra mile' for his customers.
DocuSign is one of those apps that fundamentally change the way business gets done. Not only does it completely compress the timeframe for getting contracts, MSAs, NDAs and other documents signed, but you get a 360 degree view into the whole process - you know if the recipient opened the email, read the document, or forwarded it on to someone else - it's all tracked from within your Salesforce org. We use it ourselves daily in our organization - one of our managing partners estimates he's saved a full day of work as a result of using DocuSign's application.
FinancialForce Professional Services Automation (PSA)
FinancialForce PSA is an end-to-end services management app which gives you the insight needed to place the right people on the right projects for successful delivery to your customers. It too, is built on the Force.com platform for easy implementation and customization. One of the many things I like about this app is it has a mobile element so I can record my time on the go.
FinancialForce cloud accounting app is built on the Force.com platform so your Salesforce org can share the same data. Billing, invoicing, accounts payable, and reporting all work seamlessly with Salesforce CRM. Not only is is a huge timesaver not having to rekey invoices into a different program, but it eliminates those 'awkward' moments such as a salesperson trying to upsell an account only to find they've been in arrears for 6 months.
Both FinancialForce Accounting and PSA are integrated with Chatter so sales, service and finance can work collaboratively to best serve customers.
Combine FinancialForce Accounting, PSA and Salesforce and you get a complete Services Resource Planning (SRP) solution. SRP is an end-to-end solution for professional services organizations encompassing sales, the hand-off from sales to services, resource management, project & portfolio management, accounting, and billing. It solves the obstacles often found in a siloed or fragmented systems approach and allows for 360° visibility of your customers, projects and resources.
We don't just recommend these solutions to our clients - we use them ourselves. We implemented FinancialForce's SRP solution in our own organization, and experienced a dramatic increase in our ability to plan and allocate resources, higher utilization and project margins, and reduced administrative overhead. Interestingly, in a recent benchmark study performed by SPI Research they discovered that all the top 10 "Best of the Best" professional services companies (including us!) had integrated CRM and PSA systems.
