3 AppExchange Tools Every Salesforce Admin Should Use – Jenny’s Admin Tip #11

One of the responsibilities of a Salesforce Administrator is to make the work of their colleagues and customer that little bit more easier within Salesforce. Whether that be creating workflow rules, setting approval processes, creating report types, cleansing data etc. However, what about making the work of Admins that little bit more simple? Well thanks to the plethora of Admin Tools available in the AppExchange to do just that, we Admins are often spoilt for choice!

You don’t have to look hard to find the right tool for job in the AppExchange.  In fact there is a whole section for IT and Administration for you to select the perfect tool to install into Salesforce. This includes, Admin and Developer Tools, Data Cleansing, Integration, IT Management and more for you to search for that perfect app.

Here are 3 apps that I couldn’t Admin without:

The Permissioner – Permission assignments Made Easy.

Admins, forget multiple unmanageable profiles in your salesforce org and forget the frustration of assigning and revoking permission sets assignments to multiple users. Unlike the standard Salesforce functionality which allows admins to assign permission sets to a single users at a time, the Permissioner enable Admins to select one or more permissions sets and assign those to one or more users at one single time in a intuitive simple interface. This app can be installed from the AppExchange in 5 minutes and you can be on your way to mass assigning permission sets in less time than that!

Dupe Catcher – Data Quality Made Easy

With lots of data comes great responsibility. Therefore, it’s best to be equipped with the tools that help keep things in tip top condition. Now there are several tools on the AppExchange that are there to help relieve Admins of their data duping responsibilities, but until the much awaited Dupe Alerts arrives which is currently in Beta stage  (hurry!), the DupeCatcher app identifies, blocks and dedupes leads, accounts and contacts in real time at the point of entry. Why is this good? Not only will you have full control over identification and merging process, but you no longer have to worry when it comes to cleansing data.

Mass update and edit – Updating Made Easy

Clicking through records one by one and updating a specific field can not only be time consuming, but quite frankly dull. This handy Mass update and edit duo tool is not only available for admins, but standard users can use it too. And with it’s easy step by step process, modifying records from any filter view or related list is a doddle for all. Out of the box, Mass update and edit supports the following; Campaign, Lead, Account, Opportunity, Contract, Case, Product, Solution and Assets, however to reap the rewards of this productivity product you can also add it to any custom object in your organisation. Go on. Give yourself some time back.

And here is a cheeky extra.

Login as any user – Support Made Easy.

If you provide support to clients then the login as any user function is a must have. Forget asking users to grant your login access, now Org Admins can log in as any user without having access granted. However, unlike the rest of the tools on my list, this feature is not available in the AppExchange and will need to be granted by Salesforce Support before it is enabled in the org. Once this has been enabled, user will no longer be able to grant access to admins, but will still be able to grant access to salesforce.com or partner support agents. Note, for Admins to login as any standard user they first must have Modify All Data.

There are many more apps available in the AppExchange so go and take a look. And be sure to let me know if there are any other tools out there that you couldn’t Admin without by leaving a comment or send a tweet to @jenny_bamber.

See you next week

Jenny