The Salesforce Admin Series: Building the Report
In the previous entry, we discussed what data quality means and how you, as an SFDC admin, can achieve it. In Part 3 of our Salesforce Admin series, we discuss the role of a Salesforce admin on a team and how it affects admin reporting tasks. Executives and sales teams often turn to Salesforce admins when they have questions about the pipeline that only an admin would know the answer to. Often times, this results in a new report being generated.
It may seem like a daunting task to come up with a solution, but we have found the following method to be a solid starting point. It can help you outline the necessary steps you must take to accomplish your goal.
To begin, SFDC admins must ask themselves some basic questions:
- How do I connect the right systems, processes, and users to the right data?
- How can I generate an answer from the data that I already have?
- What is missing, what are the limitations, and how can I overcome them?
Management is looking for answers here. How can you give them the information they need? You need to figure out what data to connect them to. Management needs to see the right data if they are going to get utility out of the reports you provide. Ask yourself: which systems can provide this data? You must connect to the right systems, use the most effective processes, and grant the right permissions to view this sensitive data.
Admins need to understand what those systems are, which processes are relevant to management’s business problem, and what needs to be done from a backend point to give leaders the information they need.
Know your audience.
Keep in mind who is asking for answers here. How do they prefer to learn? Is it through data visualizations, or are they more receptive to reports? If you know their preference, which dashboard would be most effective for the visual learner? Which report format is most preferred by the report receptive manger?
Half of the battle is finding the delivery method that resonates most with your audience. Data is already difficult to interpret so if you’re able to neatly wrap it up in a format you know your management team prefers, everyone’s lives are instantly made easier.
After determining which data to connect your users to and how to format it, there are only a few things left to consider. Is anything missing? Am I facing any limitations in providing management with this data?
You may find that the data you need is missing, or the way you are collecting data is not providing clear and actionable answers to management’s questions. The two previous blogs on “Missing Information” and “Data Quality” take a deep dive into these possible issues and provide insight into why you may be facing these limitations in your reporting endeavors.
Identifying your limitations is an important step. Think of this step as you going the extra mile to ensure there are no communication issues in the future. Management will appreciate you taking initiative— and you’ll save yourself a lot of work down the road!
To learn more about SplashBI and its amazing ability to improve organizations reporting processes, check out our reporting page. Need Salesforce® specific answers? Visit our Salesforce® connector page to answer all your Salesforce admin related questions.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Part 1 of the Salesforce Admin Series: Missing Data.
In part 1 we help you understand why the problem of missing information exists, and provide potential solutions that suit your reporting needs.
