Appendix A: Case Studies
1. CiscoServiceOne (CSOne) Project – Salesforce Service Cloud Implementation
Background
Currently the majority of service operations for Cisco are handled through Oracle ebusiness based ( C3) solution. However this application is highly customized and over a period of time has reached to a stage where any further customization will adversely affect system performance. Furthermore the application does not fulfill additional UI related requirements of business and hence several Shadow IT tools are developed which are built on the top of C3. Cisco ServicesOne project is for migration of entire service operations to Salesforce service cloud. CSOne will become the common support platform across Cisco Services, enabling a more holistic view of our customers.Project Requirement
Customize Salesforce.com service cloud to support Cisco specific service request attributes Assign cases to most eligible support representative Build Business processes to ensure smooth flow and monitoring of cases throughout case lifecycle Provide appropriate alerting, notification and escalation framework Provide integration capabilities to integrate Salesforce.com CSOne application with onsite systems in Cisco Keep data in sync between C3 and CSOne Provide user friendly custom UI like WebMon / CaseMon to enhance productivity of support representatives Provide Reports and Dashbords for analysis of service request data Enable collaboration between CSE for timely resolution of cases and meeting SLAsChallenges
Data Model for cases in C3 was Highly customized for Cisco needs Very heavy integration needs Very complex business processes and monitoring requirements Need to provide ability for multiple teams to share ownership of cases, collaborate on cases and transfer ownership between multiple people based on case complexity Very complex UI requirementsSoftSol Solution
Customized Salesforce data model using custom objects, record types, relationships Configured Salesforce Case Assignment rules to assign cases to right CSEs Implemented business logic using workflow, Case Escalation and Triggers using custom Apex Code Integrated with C3 using Salesfoce.com Web Service API and Cisco DES framework Developed custom UI using Visual Force Pages, Java Script Libraries and Custom controllers and components Customized Salesforce Email services to facilitate communication between customers and Cisco internal users Always focused on using Salesforce provided functionality and configuration approach and used customizations only where absolutely necessary thus ensuring application is robust, highly maintainable and scalable
Technology Used
Salesforce Case Management features Visual Force pages, Apex Web Service API and SOA architecture for integration Salesforce Reports and dashboardsDevelopment Methodology
Used Agile methodology for iterative development combined with Cisco PLM for Integration releases requiring ERMO processResults
The CSOne application is able to achieve all project requirements consequently, more business units in Cisco are now coming up on CSOne roadmap to leverage Salesforce platform capabilities and integration capabilities.
2. Case Study ‐ Cisco Corporate Affairs – Salesforce Implementation
Background
Corporate Affairs leads two of Cisco’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) focus areas: managing social investments that help build stronger and healthier communities and CSR governance. In order to make these investments Cisco works with various NGOs around the world and empowers them to make larger impact in the field of education & economic developments and in Critical human needs. These social investments enable Cisco build strategic relationships that drive both social and business benefits and position Cisco as a leader in Social Investments and CSR. To execute these CSR programs successfully CSR governance is must which is driven by operational excellence that requires collaboration, transparency, alignment and sustainability. To achieve this Cisco chose Salesforce as their main CRM tool which also supports custom development to meet the complex requirements for executing and monitoring the CSR programs. Based on the software quality practices, mature Salesforce practice & development methodology and flexible operational model, Cisco, chose SoftSol to support its Salesforce implementation initiative to manage the CSR programs.Project Requirement
Develop a custom Salesforce application which would facilitate the execution and monitoring of the CISCO‐CSR initiatives. This application should support Corporate Affair’s strategic customer relation management, business planning, grants pipeline and initiatives portfolio management using Salesforce platform. Following are the key features required in this application ‐ Dynamic, collaborative and integrated custom CRM application. Support program portfolio, account, pipeline and data management. Contacts, Organizations, Leads and Opportunity management Marketing campaign management and mass emails to contacts using custom email templates. Case management Custom reports and Dashboards containing key operational metrics aligned with corporate affairs priorities. Develop complex workflows and validation rules as per the requirements. This would help in communicating operational performance to the executive management as well as support them in making strategic investment decisions.Challenges
The major challenge in this application is the custom feature development for program and portfolio management. Other than that, validation of the data, development of complex reports and dashboards and interfacing with other third party application for data synchronization are the challenging tasks SoftSol was required to perform. User adoption and training was another critical responsibility that SoftSol was supposed to handle. SoftSol successfully overcame these challenges by developing the custom features using the apex programming language, scheduling data exception reports to validate the data and developing the interfaces for data upload from other systems using the Salesforce Apex Data Loader.SoftSol Solution
SoftSol implemented the solution using the core CRM features that Salesforce platform provides and did the custom development for the complex requirements using the Apex and Visualforce languages. Apex dataloader is used for mass uploading of data received from other external applications so that data in both systems is in synch. Following are the key tasks performed by SoftSol – Requirements gathering & custom development using Apex classes, triggers, Visual force pages. Data administration, backup, clean‐up and regular validation of data by scheduling exception reports Documentation of the system and end user training. Project management & reporting using key artifacts. Process improvements End user and production support using case management framework To implement the solution SoftSol proposed a flexible and hybrid project execution model. To support this model SoftSol provided certified Salesforce developers and onsite project manager so that project is delivered on time and within budget.Technology Used
Apex (cloud computing language) Visual force Apex data loader Salesforce CRM platform JavaScript, CSS, HTMLSoftSol followed the system development life cycle methodology for this project: Requirements gathering and Analysis Prepare Detail Design Implementation Testing Production Deployment End User Support To support this methodology SoftSol configured the following environments in Salesforce platform sandboxes. Development Testing Staging Production
Results
The system is deployed to production and currently being used by different departments in Cisco Corporate Affairs organization. The user adoption is increasing and data being entered by users located in different parts of world is facilitating the collaboration and helping operational excellence. The quarterly and reports and dashboards which are available online has facilitated the management reporting has proven to be very informative and useful for Ops reviews. This has proved very helpful in overall CSR governance process.3. COPART Salesforce Implementation
Background
This is a CRM implementation for COPART Sales and Services Groups that consists of different sub‐ groups such as Direct Sales, National Sales, Dealer Services and Member Services.Project Requirement
Develop a CRM application with different custom profiles and roles in Salesforce. This application provides functionality to capture leads from multiple sources such as; micro sites, iphone app, email, phone and third party. Once the lead converted as opportunity, the application should provide a facility to transfer the opportunity data to the auction system. The auction system creates an assignment with the opportunity data and sends back to the Lot number and Yard number along with the response. The lot number becomes unique in both systems throughout the process flow. The application should receive updates from the auction system for each opportunity, set up Case Management using Service Cloud2, configure case and knowledge base, historical Data Migration for Members, Case, and Knowledge base. Develop reports, dashboards and analytical snapshots for corporate metrics, productivity and resource utilization etc… Development of Cron job component to schedule and maintain the scheduler jobsChallenges
Creation of Data Model to fit all the sales and service group’s requirements and migration of historical data
Implementing of custom security using Profiles, Roles, Sharing Rules and public groups at object and record level
Integration with legacy systems using SSL certificates Hosting secured web services using SOAP and REST
SoftSol Solution
Development of the CRM application using Salesforce cloud environment ‐ Force.com platform which provides out of the box business process capabilities using Workflow and Approval processes
Use Apex classes and Triggers to customize and business processes Use VisualForce for development of the front-end UI
Use ReportBuilder tools to create custom reports and dashboards Use Chatter collaborative tool to send feeds
Use integration tools like boomi.
Technology Used
Sites
Visual Force pages, Custom Visualforce components Workflow & Approvals
Triggers Email
Reports & Dashboards
