Ensure Higher ROI and Cost Savings With Salesforce Custom Application Development

Organizations irrespective of the industry verticals they deal in accumulate data across categories such as customer contacts, purchase history, buyer behavior, lead journey statistics, and so on. Given the immense volumes of data generated globally today, the most preferred mechanism for businesses to track and leverage this data is by leveraging Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software such as Salesforce CRM (formerly known as Force.com). But what differentiates Salesforce from other plenty of CRM options available in the digital space? It is the suite of low code application development tools that it provides and a range of wonderful capabilities such as AI, automation, visualization, etc., that make Salesforce a highly viable CRM solution. In every organization that has implemented a Salesforce CRM in its workflow, it is the Salesforce application development teams that help in personalizing the way data is consumed, tracked, and processed in the company. With the help of the right application development customization, the usage of Salesforce CRM tools can be maximized.

This article explores how Salesforce application development works as well as what it can really do for an organization’s technology-related data workflows.

Understanding Salesforce Application Development

Salesforce CRM offers a comprehensive suite of management tools to businesses of varying sizes and scopes to handle their customer and organizational data with accuracy and precision. It provides options for custom application development according to the intricacies of the way your business works. There are a plethora of third-party platforms providing increased plugin flexibility for the same, though it can be carried out using the Salesforce Platform.

The cloud-based Salesforce platform offers retrofit models for application development. Apart from this, Salesforce developers have the option of developing on other platforms. Businesses can build a robust data framework with the help of managed services or custom Salesforce application development services from a technology partner.

Salesforce Application Development Lifecycle

Just as there are steps involved in the development of any enterprise software or framework, the Salesforce custom application development process goes through a series of stages—it includes developing the application itself on the Salesforce platform, and deploying it in various environments, accompanied by continuous testing of the same. The entire process is carried out by accredited experts such as developers, testers, product owners, project managers, release managers, DevOps enablers, and so on.

Take a look below to understand the different processes involved in Salesforce application development:

• Setting Up Version Control

All new metadata, classes, triggers, etc., regarding the Salesforce application, can be defined using separate Git repositories. In fact, the main application itself can be divided into several modules so that each module can be set up in a separate repository. You also have the flexibility to deploy either each module in parts or set up the entire project at the end of the development workflow.

This allows everyone involved in the development process to drive changes in the overall project via separate Git commits, facilitating seamless collaboration and a team effort. Besides, it is the release manager who decides who works on which branch of the assigned project.

• Development Stages

One of the tangible advantages of using the Salesforce platform is it involves low-code application development using dependencies as well as support tools that come along with a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) feature. The Salesforce developers work in sandboxes—modules that do not get affected no matter what happens in production. The developers work in a sandbox as per their field of responsibility.

It is imperative that the latest changes go into the repository after proper checks as there are a number of people working on the same Salesforce application. The Salesforce Platform IDE assists with plugins as and when required as well as delivers the metadata; thereby establishing connections with the separate sandboxes.

• Testing

Businesses must test every change implemented in the project using the same environment that was used for the development phase, phasing it out. It is done before the step wherein professionals integrate the changes made based on the changes of the teammates to make sure that everything is compatible and works together.

Besides, the quality assurance team involved in the testing process has its own sandboxes wherein the code is moved from the code repository. The Partial Copy sandbox is a useful feature for analysts to test only particular sections of the application.

• Build And Test Releases

Businesses can aggregate all the modules as well as assets into a single release artifact that also includes all the ancillary customizations before the test release stage. Simply put, this is the build release stage which is then followed by the last and final stage of testing.

The final stage of testing is acceptance testing for a majority of the software, which is no different for Salesforce custom apps either. If there are changes to be implemented at the end of the testing phase, then the team goes back to the development phase, which is the second step in the life cycle.

• Release To Production

Now is the time to release the single-release artifact to production after collecting the partial changes to be made to the application. At the same time, the end-users of the product must be informed about the changes via proper knowledge-transfer training sessions.

For training purposes, a separate environment with realistic representations of the amendments/changes to the application can be put up in place. In the meantime, performance testing with the help of additional sandboxes can also be carried out. These can then be followed by regular patch releases if there are additional fixes that need to be implemented.

Distinguishing Features of the Salesforce Platform

Just as every business has different requirements, Salesforce's Platform as a Service (PaaS)-based tools collectively form the Salesforce Platform as well as assist developers to figure out how an application can be developed so as to address their specific CRM-related needs and queries. CRM process automation, collaboration, and scalability are some of the many advantages of using this development service. Elucidated below are various stand-out features of this PaaS service. Look at these:

• Workflow Representations

The Salesforce platform provides tools for frictionless data representation so that categorization and arranging data does not prove to be a challenging task for knowledge workers. Its dashboards enable businesses to represent data by managing with low code as well as converting leads, sales figures, and conversion statistics, arranging them in vertical and horizontal graphs, pie charts, funnel charts, etc.

• Business Process Automation

Salesforce offers highly-efficient tools such as Workflow, Approvals, Process Builder, Flow Builder, and so on. Developers can leverage these tools to automate processes and flows according to unique business needs. Standardization of internal procedures to automate, for example, automating an email-based subscription, can be accomplished by using some of these tools.

• Leveraging AppExchange

Publishing the developed Salesforce application on AppExchange is an effortless and hassle-free function that needs little to no know-how or prerequisites. In addition to this, the comprehensive security review process makes sure that the developed application meets the required security standards as well as best development practices. So, the next time there is an app update, you can publish the new version of it by registering the package on the unified license management app.

• Development For All Platforms

Developing the application by leveraging the Salesforce Lightning Platform enables developers to accelerate app development, making the experience more intuitive as well as the learning curve flatter at the same time. In addition, the apps developed through the Salesforce platform are automatically calibrated for all platforms extending across tablets, mobile, and desktops. There is full flexibility for adding any required dependencies and plugins, given the fact that the codebase stays the same. Apart from this, configuring the app for different platforms as well as making the changes takes just a single click.

Final Thoughts - Avail Robust Salesforce Custom Application Development for Business-centric CRM

All of us are well familiar with the fact that unique project requirements need a high degree of personalization and customization and personalization for every company. And, in this digital age, Salesforce is the genie in the bottle, which can manage all your sales and customer support just the way you desire—as Salesforce always delivers the best user experience irrespective of industries or verticals. Besides, there’s no exception when it comes to tailored app development.

The ideal Salesforce app development strategy assesses the client's current business situation, prioritizes their unique needs, and concludes by developing a long-term CRM plan for them. As illustrated above, every step of the custom application development process involves repeated interception as well as consultations so that the resultant product is in line with the security standards of AppExchange and scalable.

So, availing of Salesforce application development services from a certified tech partner is the smarter way to build an application that works in accordance with your business-specific CRM requirements.