Automation & Data Integration With Salesforce Website
CLIENT:
Utility Business Media
– A reliable Industrial Safety training provide
INDUSTRY
Industrial and Occupational Safety
DELIVERY:
Salesforce Data Integration & Automation
TECHNOLOGY
Salesforce
Introduction
Utility Business Media, Inc. (UBM) is the utility industry’s leading publisher and producer of utility safety and leadership-focused content and education. They were looking for some experienced Salesforce development teams to help them set up, track the customer journey, and automate their routine client communication which was based on different criteria within their Salesforce website, such as automated generation of training certificates for registered candidates based on hours completed throughout the sessions. However, the training hours were dynamic and varied from applicant to applicant.
Challenge
When the client reached out to Mpire Solutions they already had a functional Salesforce website. The client used to manually enter the data of the registered applicants based on attendance and training hours in order to generate certificates for each individual.
The UBM management decided to get a customized and integrated Salesforce system that can generate certificates automatically based on hours completed by each registered applicant.
The main challenge was to work on the different conditions, limitations, and validations to automate the process of certificate generation. The client used to record the attendance of the training sessions by manually maintaining an excel sheet before uploading the same to their Salesforce system.
Another challenge was to deal with the exceptional cases throughout the data management system. For instance, an applicant is registered for a specific training session but never punched the attendance, or joined the session late leaving behind no records. We had to consider every basic possibility to create the best-fit Salesforce solution for the client.
Requirements
- Automated Certificate Generation – To generate certificates for each individual based on attendance and hours.
- Eligibility Criteria – To manage and keep track of the registered users before generating the certificate of any particular training.
- Data Integration and Management – To streamline the entire end-to-end training process.
- User Creation – To identify the status of whether the applicant is new or already registered with the platform.
Solution
To meet the requirements of the client, we created a customized and integrated Salesforce system. There were 4 basic conditions we worked for certificates automation;
- Information of the applicants.
- Beginning date of the event.
- Ending date of the event.
- Number of hours spent by each individual in training.
To monitor and track the presence of the registered users, we created a customized training management calendar for each applicant that tracks the total number of hours an individual has spent throughout the training sessions, before generating the certificate. We also worked on the eligibility criteria of the applicants whether they are eligible for the certificates or for a specific training session. In order to avoid human error in setting dates, we excluded backdating entries within the platform to keep things reconciled.
The Salesforce team at Mpire Solutions developed customized options for the client through which they can send the certificates to the trainees via email. However, to avoid exploitation, this customization access was only available for the admin.
There is a limitation of sending the number of emails in a single day through Salesforce. Salesforce allows you to send a maximum of 5000 emails in a single day. Sometimes UBM had to deal with more than the provided limit. This hype could be the result of discounted offers, packages, or limited offers to attract a potential audience. To deal with this challenge, we had to develop a customized batch class in Salesforce to meet the target without any limitations.
In addition to that, our Salesforce developers worked on the user’s information to check whether it’s a new applicant or already a registered applicant with the platform.
Results
- We successfully managed to automate the certificate generation process.
- A proper mechanism was developed to track and monitor the attendance of the registered applicants.
- Entire data was significantly integrated with the Salesforce website to manage the training process.
- A mechanism now can identify the status of the applicants whether they are new users or are already registered
- The platform now can check the eligibility criteria of the applicants.
Benefits
- Certificate Generation Process was automated.
- Attendance Verification Process was automated.
- Instead of generating certificates for every individual, the client is now only a click away to send certificates to the trainees via email.
- The client now simply has to upload the attendance to their Salesforce platform and get the desired results.
- Trainings, Trainees, Attendance and Certificate Issue Data was significantly integrated throughout the platform.
