The rise of the Salesforce Admin

Salesforce Admins….there certainly could be a strong case for saying they are most important folk in the Salesforce eco-system. They help keep our data clean, our functionality on point and our business processes and CRM in sync. .

However, believe it or not in days gone by, some people saw Salesforce Admins as ‘just the IT guy (or girl)’, you know, the one in the corner with the headphones in. They were apparently there to work with the sales team and make sure that the ‘sales team systems worked’. How wrong could they be!

Salesforce.com has now became the brain of many organisation’s set-ups, not just their IT set up either, it is now deeply embedded across multiple departments including; marketing, finance, service and even the HR department.

So what impact has this has on the Administrator?

Well apart from no doubt being a little more busy on a daily the basis, the impact has been excellent. Now Salesforce administrators are being consulted by senior managers and directors of varying departments, on how they can leverage the application to boost results, employee engagement and productivity. Salesforce Administrators are now bridging the gap between IT and the Business in ways that haven't been done before, they are becoming the Salesforce expert for all things outside of code, declarative development as it’s better known.

Salesforce Administrators are being tossed responsibility like never before. A common responsibility is to identify a 3rd party applications to plug in to Salesforce, where out of the box functionality is not suitable. Weather it being implementing Conga, MapAnything, Taskfeed or any other app from the appexchange, this in itself opens up the Salesforce Administrator role of significantly. The SFDC Admin is now playing the role of business analyst, project manager, change manager, and implementation consultant to ensure a smooth and effective implementation into the org. The skills picked up in projects like this are absolutely golden in terms of career progression and making that next career step including becoming a Salesforce Consultant, CRM Manager and latterly down the line, a Salesforce Solution Architect.

So what do I say to Salesforce Admins?

• Immerse yourself into the platform like never before. If you’re in a company that isn't taking Salesforce seriously then get out!

• Salesforce make no bones of the fact that their customers are changing the way business operates and it’s a journey you need to be on

• Dive deep into those existing complex business processes, understand what’s making the dependent teams tick and what’s driving them crazy, and then solutionize accordingly.

• If their is a Salesforce implementation partner on site, or other Salesforce experts in the company such as developers and architects, then buddy up. The Salesforce Ohana is driven by family values and sharing knowledge. What you could learn from them could be crucial to your role of tday and tomorrow

• Finally, never stop developing (I’m not talking about Apex and Visualforce), I mean personally. Platforms like Trailhead make it so easy to learn and master your craft in your own time. Many of our clients hiring Salesforce Administrators want to know what badges their applicants have, especially those Superbadges.

Keep up the good work Salesforce Admins!

Lewis Steadman