A few weeks ago Real Systems attended the Salesforce World Tour at the Excel Centre in London. The Salesforce World Tour is a yearly event that brings together the Salesforce community (platform users, partners, customers etc.) to showcase the latest ways that Salesforce is innovating to solve today’s business challenges. This year’s focus was on AI, which is something that we are very excited to utilise to further help our customers.
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With 80+ learning sessions and 50+ live demonstrations, the world tour is a great way for the Real Systems team to stay informed on the latest developments in the non-profit sector so that we can offer our clients top notch support.

The opening talk was given by Zahra Bahrololoumi, the CEO of Salesforce UK & Ireland. This focused on motivating, inspiring and educating around how we use AI. Zahra discussed how Salesforce has been pioneering AI since 2014, and has 300 AI patents, 227 AI research papers, and how the current Salesforce AI use has generated 1 trillion AI predictions a week!

With the opening talk concluded, the event space opened up. We attended many interesting talks and demos, with the ‘Trailhead Challenge’ being a favourite. The challenge was to attend a number of short talks on a variety of Salesforce topics (many of which had an emphasis on AI), all of which we found to be very insightful and excited the team about how we can offer AI to our customers in the very near future.
During this challenge we earned AI skill badges for our Trailhead learning account, and once we had completed the list of talks we were rewarded with a plush ‘Codey the Bear’, the mascot for Salesforce Developers!

We also attended longer form talks throughout the day, with many highlighting how non-profits are customizing their Salesforce systems with the help of consultants – such as Real Systems! These talks confirmed guidance on how non-profits, when working with consultancies, can lead to greater engagement. If you’re interested in how Real Systems can help your non-profit maximise engagement and maximise budget, please get in touch by clicking here.

We were then back with Zahra, closing the day with an interview with Mo Gawdat. Mo is the former chief business officer at Google X, and is the author of the book ‘Scared Smart’. This book looks at the development of AI and discusses the ethic around its creation.
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In a time where there can be mistrust and even fear around the fast paced field of AI, Mo’s message was (thankfully!) one of hope. Mo explained to the audience how he believes that we will eventually get ‘the AI we deserve’, and that ultimately AI will reflect humankind as a whole. Mo positioned AI as our collective child, and how we treat is a key aspect in what role AI will have in our future. He has certainly made us make sure we are saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to ChatGPT!

​Morning
Mornings always starts with a morning team meeting, which is a great way to kick start the work day and helps us to feel like we are working in a tight knit-team even when remote working. After a general catch up, we discuss the priorities for the day – this could be a particular piece of work we are all contributing or individual goals.
After this, I work through our helpdesk to see if there are any urgent cases that need our attention. In particular, I look cases that have come in the previous evening or early this morning from clients who are experiencing difficulties logging in to their systems. As these are often ‘show stopping’ issues that prevents someone from starting their work day, I make sure that resolving these in a timely manner is my top priority.
Once these are dealt with, I pick up the remaining cases and order them in priority. The helpdesk is a very popular feature offered by Real Systems, as it offers customers virtual support with a very quick response rate - this level of support prevents customers from ‘show stopping’ technical issues.
 
After Lunch – User Creation
After lunch I received a number of user creation requests. I read through the user requirements provided by the customer carefully, so I can determine what kind of license and accesses the new user will need.
In order to manage cost for our clients (and to maintain high data security), I check our reports for any users who have been inactive for a long period of time. I then deactivate them, which frees a license to assign to the new user instead of needing to purchase a new one
Once this is done I let the client know that the new users will be receiving an activation email to complete set up.

Development
Once I’ve responded to any cases that have come in during lunch, I begin work on a small development project. A client has requested that we build three new types of questionnaires into their systems, so that their users can input data gathered from their own clients.
After meeting with my manager to discuss the best approach to this, I begin developing the solution in our sandbox. I create the new fields and then put them into the new page layouts I have also created. Once this is complete, I double check the build with my team and then deploy it into the live system.
This is a really interesting aspect of my role as it’s a project I can work on from start to finish. It’s a great way to test the knowledge I’ve been building in a creative problem solving way.

End of Day
Heading towards the end of my day, I wrap up any remaining cases and work on any urgent cases that have come through.
Our team always ends the working day with a team call, where without fail one of us will mention how quickly the day has gone by! We discuss any bits of work we have collaborated on and anything important coming up tomorrow. The call usually ends with the team asking one another what we’re having for tea that night!​

Helpdesk support is just one of the services that we provide, so if you're interested to hear more about how Real Systems can help your charity use Salesforce get in touch today.

The fifth annual Salesforce report on Non Profit Trends was recently released, with below being some highlights that are particularly interesting for Real Systems. In this short blog we will discuss some of the key takeaway points that we think are of particular interest to our customers.
 
This report heavily uses the ‘Salesforce Non-Profit Digital Maturity Scale’, a five point scale that gauges to what extent data guides a non-profit’s operations (more on this below).
 
Digital Maturity​
 
The overall message from this report is that ‘digitally mature’ organisations are faring better in a time of economic and societal turbulence. The 5 points of this digital maturity scale are;

1. ​We make decisions based on data and evidence. 
2. When there is a problem to solve that involves different departments across my organization, it is easy to find and share data. 
3. We design our programs and services using information about and engagement with the recipients of our programs or services. 
4. We are able to personalize messages to specific subgroups of our supporters with digital communications. 
5. We are able to accurately forecast income from our fundraising campaigns.

 
Real Systems can help clients achieve all of the above goals with our custom built systems. We think that this scale could be useful for our customers to use to reflect their own needs from the systems we build.
 

Encouraging Message for Real Systems 

This report provides an encouraging message for Real Systems as it shows that there is a real market need for the services we provide. For example;

• The strategic use of technology has been directly linked to improved organisational efficiency and help to strengthen stakeholder relationships. In our case this would be the systems we build for clients, for example.
• Innovative tech use has been seen to also mitigate staff burnout and a healthier workplace culture.
• Three-quarters of non-profits say that digital transformation is vital, while only 12% of these organisations score high on the digital maturity scale.​

These are just a few of the ways in which Real Systems can help a business become digitally mature, which will in turn make sure they are fully prepared to face future business challenges. For more information, please get in touch at [email protected].

To view the full Salesforce Non-Profit Trends Report visit https://www.salesforce.org/resources/report/nonprofit-trends-report-fifth-edition/

 

Real Systems are now offering a free 30 minute Salesforce consultancy meeting to any organisation working with people who are facing or experiencing homelessness or other multiple disadvantages. 

Whether you're a charity who is thinking about implementing a CRM but doesn't know where to start, or a Salesforce Admin who has some questions and isn't sure where to ask them, you can book a 30 minute session with us to discuss anything at all Salesforce related.

To book in a time to talk to us now, email [email protected]