The importance of regular health checks
Regular health checks for your Salesforce instance are not just beneficial; they are essential. As a central element of your technology stack, Salesforce allows you to create and modify functionalities easily. This remarkable capability, however, requires careful and continuous oversight. Over time, aspects of your Salesforce environment might become outdated or unnecessary. For instance, certain Objects or fields that were once crucial may now be redundant, collecting virtual dust.
Dealing with technical debt and system evolution
Technical debt accumulates when outdated or unused features linger in your system. This can lead to inefficiencies, such as users adopting workarounds for broken features or forgotten customizations that no longer serve their original purpose. Regular health checks help identify and address these issues, ensuring your Salesforce instance remains streamlined and effective. This process is akin to an annual physical check-up, where the overall health of your Salesforce system is assessed in light of the changes and developments in your organization.
Challenges for resource-constrained organizations
While larger organizations with dedicated technical teams might routinely conduct these checks, smaller organizations or those relying on accidental admins might struggle. Regular health checks are often overlooked in such scenarios, leading to a pile-up of issues that can become overwhelming to address. This is where the role of external consultants like us at Fíonta becomes crucial. We provide the expertise and support necessary to conduct these checks effectively, helping organizations understand and act upon the findings.
Our comprehensive health check approach
Utilizing Salesforce built-in tools
Salesforce offers tools like the Security Health Check and Optimizer, which we at Fíonta leverage to start the health check process. These tools help assess your system’s security and overall performance, aligning it with Salesforce best practices. The security Health Check, for instance, reviews your settings against these best practices and suggests updates, which are then prioritized from critical to compliant.
Guidance through complex updates
Understanding and implementing the recommended updates can be daunting. Our consultants play a crucial role here, advising which updates require immediate action, which need change management strategies, and the implications of not acting on certain recommendations.
Salesforce optimizer for enhanced system health
The Salesforce Optimizer is another vital tool used by us at Fíonta. It analyzes your Salesforce instance, offering recommendations to improve system performance, suggesting cleanup opportunities, and simplifying customizations. This tool’s regular use is advised, particularly before installing new apps, before Salesforce releases, or at least once a quarter. However, our expertise becomes invaluable when interpreting the results, which are often detailed and complex.
Below is an example of a Security System report with a rating of Poor. While this may sound frightening, we are here to help decode and prioritize in partnership with your technical team.
And an Optimizer report with 54 items to review—again, likely daunting and perhaps a bit cryptic. Is Page Layout clean-up more important than updating APIs? Well, it depends on your business case and priorities, and part of our responsibility is to help you understand the findings and prioritize the to-do list.
In-depth analysis and tailored recommendations
Our approach goes beyond standard checks. Our consultants thoroughly review your Salesforce instance, focusing on customizations, integrations, managed package usage, custom code, and storage. We identify elements that may no longer be relevant or have been superseded by more efficient technologies. Additionally, we use advanced tools to provide deeper insights into field usage, error logs, current APIs, automated processes, system performance, and data analysis.
User feedback integration
Understanding the end-user experience is also a part of our health check process. We often conduct user surveys to uncover additional areas of improvement, ensuring that your Salesforce instance aligns with technical best practices and its users’ actual needs and experiences.
Preparing for a healthy Salesforce future
A health check is paramount as you prepare your Salesforce Org for a robust 2024 and beyond. Upcoming blogs will include information related to Code Review, Fonteva, NPSP, Nimble, and more, offering a comprehensive approach to ensuring your Salesforce instance remains a powerful, efficient, and user-friendly tool for your organization.