Designing and developing custom business software using Salesforce can be a complex and involved process. But with the right team of experts, it can also be an incredibly powerful and effective way to streamline your operations and improve your bottom line.

The first step in the process is to assess your business needs and goals. This involves conducting a thorough analysis of your current operations and identifying areas where custom software can help. This will provide the foundation for the design and development process and ensure that the final product is tailored to your specific needs.

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Next, the design phase begins. This is where the user experience and overall look and feel of the software are developed. The design should be intuitive and user-friendly, with a focus on making the software as easy to use as possible.

Once the design is finalized, the development phase begins. This is where the software is actually built, with the help of experienced Salesforce developers. This phase can be complex and time-consuming, but it is crucial to the success of the final product.

Throughout the development process, regular check-ins and testing are important to ensure that the software is meeting the original goals and requirements. This also allows for any necessary adjustments or changes to be made along the way.

Once the development is complete, the software is ready for deployment. This may involve training for your team, as well as ongoing support and maintenance to ensure that the software continues to meet your needs and evolve with your business.

The process of designing and developing custom business software using Salesforce may seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. With the help of an experienced team like Relay, based in Philadelphia, you can streamline your operations and achieve your goals faster. So why not reach out to the experts at Relay and see what they can do for your business?

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Salesforce for Small Business

Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy and we at Relay want to help these businesses and provide the tools and resources they need to manage the business's interactions with existing customers and new prospects as well help every department from marketing, sales, commerce, service and IT teams to collaborate more effectively, even when individuals are working remotely. We know that the decision to implement Salesforce is not an easy one. But when done correctly, you can make sure it's the correct choice now and into the future.

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Customizable, Across All Aspects

The unique nature of Salesforce is that it allows your small business to grow and scale on one platform over time. While initially you may just need Sales Cloud to kickstart your sales pipeline, you may find that you need to expand your reach further as your business grows. If you need to expand your marketing efforts, there is the Marketing Cloud that allows you to create email campaigns and automate expansive campaigns. But if you need to cater to your existing clients, you may want to look into Service Cloud that allows you deliver personalized support to your customers and solve cases faster with a single source of truth. The best part is that it all starts and grows from one platform, so you and your employees never need to learn another complicated tool.

Various Plans to Cater to Your Needs

While Salesforce has the reputation of being a costly platform, this actually could not be further from the truth. With plans starting at $25 per user, per month, the barrier to enter the Salesforce ecosystem remains very affordable. While yes, the costs do go up as you scale and add on more to your Salesforce platform, the initial cost can be quite minimal if you're hesitant to get started with Salesforce.

Connect the Apps you Already Use

Of course we realize that there are many apps that you use everyday to keep your small business running efficiently and effectively. Whether your team is cross-communicating on Slack or using Docusign to generate agreements, once you move to Salesforce you can rest assured that all of those existing apps will play nice with your new CRM. With over 3,000 current apps on the Salesforce AppExchange, there is a great chance that every single one of your current apps have a prebuilt connector to work with Salesforce.

Leveraging the Power of Custom Apps

But say you're scrolling through the AppExchange and you can't find that one crucial app that your business uses, or the current app that is there is just not powerful enough to do what you need it to do. Don't worry, that's where we here at Relay will come in to serve exactly your needs. We will work with you to build a custom app tailored just for your business and for your Salesforce environment. Rest assured it will do everything you need it to do, and nothing you don't.

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Reach Out to Relay

If you’d like to learn more about how we at Relay can help your small business,  please contact us using the form below. We’ll be sure to respond to your message within one business day and have a meeting scheduled to answer any initial questions you may have about our process. We look forward to working with you soon and we can’t wait to learn more about how we can best incorporate our Salesforce skills into your business.

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Contact Us

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As a business owner, you know that staying competitive in today's market means constantly striving to improve and streamline your operations. One way to do this is by using custom software tailored to your specific business needs. This is where a team of expert Salesforce consultants, like Relay, can help.

Custom software, as opposed to off-the-shelf solutions, is designed specifically to meet the unique requirements of your business. This means that it will be more effective at helping you achieve your goals and will be easier for your team to use. It also allows for greater flexibility and scalability as your business grows and changes.

But why choose Relay, a specialized Salesforce consulting team, over other options? The simple answer is experience and expertise. A team that has worked with Salesforce for years, like Relay, will have a deep understanding of the platform and how to customize it to meet your specific needs. This means that they will be able to deliver solutions faster and with fewer setbacks.

Working with an experienced team like Relay also means that you will have access to their wealth of knowledge and best practices. They can provide valuable insights and guidance throughout the development process, helping you make informed decisions that will benefit your business in the long run.

In addition to their expertise, a team like Relay can also provide a level of flexibility and scalability that may not be possible with in-house development. As your business grows and changes, they can quickly adapt and modify your custom software to meet your evolving needs. This means that you won't have to worry about outgrowing your software or having to start from scratch.

Overall, the benefits of hiring an expert Salesforce consulting team like Relay are numerous. From their expertise and experience, to their flexibility and scalability, they can help you streamline your operations and achieve your goals faster. So why not take the first step and see what a team like Relay can do for your business?

Salesforce & Nonprofits: How We Can Help

Nonprofits work to solve some of the toughest global, social, and local problems we face. As we slowly emerge out of the coronavirus pandemic, we are reminded how more than ever, leveraging the digital world has become critical to advancing any mission. Come read along as together we uncover the critical elements which will help your nonprofit succeed in today’s digital age. Relay will help you build better tools to manage your programs, donors, fundraising efforts, participants, and volunteers. Relay will help you drive your mission forward.

Salesforce Offers Many Free Incentives for Nonprofits

At the very core of Salesforce is the 1% pledge. A movement to create a new normal whereby social impact is integrated into the core DNA of every company. Salesforce offers many technology grants to qualifying nonprofit to empower nonprofit teams to fund and run their entire mission with one integrated platform that helps build meaningful and enduring relationships. With the help of Relay, we can help you harness the power of the platform and let the technology work for you and your mission!

A Multitude of Apps to Choose From

For the past 20+ years, Salesforce has earned its reputation of being the #1 CRM in the world. But even with all its capabilities, there are many things that it can’t do out of the box. This is where Salesforce apps come into play. These apps are designed specifically to maximize your productivity, connect your different tools and systems, and make your teams job a lot easier. But with literally thousands of plug-ins and apps on Salesforce AppExchange, it’s hard to tell which apps actually help and which are just a waste of space. With the help of Relay, you will have a dedicated and time tested partner to help you completely tailor Salesforce to the way your organization operates.

Utilizing the Wide Reach of Salesforce Community Members

Salesforce has developed a strong reputation of building a world-class product and company. Much of the success Salesforce has enjoyed can be contributed to its focus of its community and culture. The Salesforce Ohana. The Salesforce community is a deep-seated support system that is nurtured from within the company itself. But it doesn’t stop at the employees it hires — it extends to the partners, the customers, and members of the communities it serves. At the core of both Relay and Salesforce, we believe collaboration, taking care of one another, having fun together, will ultimately leave the world a better place.

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Top of the Line Workflows

Salesforce is a household name due to this simple reason: it works. It’s as easy as that. The main component behind how well it works are its extensive workflows, which help you and your organization do better each and every day. Once Relay has the opportunity to help you successfully establish the right workflows for your nonprofit organization, the sooner you’ll realize just how much time you’re able to save. When workflows are automated with our custom Salesforce development for your nonprofit organization, the amount of good you’ll be able to accomplish will ultimately be up to you.

Taking Reporting to the Next Level

As your nonprofit continues to grow month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year; you’ll want to see the nuanced details every step along the way. This is another area where we at Relay come in to help. Our custom reporting initiatives have helped many nonprofits just like yours see what’s working and what’s not working, and pivot accordingly. We want you to see the true potential of your organization, and we can’t think of a much better way to do so than through learning from your very own data.

Strong Data Points to Accelerate Your Nonprofit to New Heights

One reason Salesforce has become a #1 CRM in the world is because of rate of adoption. It's easy to use and easy to understand. With the help of Relay we can help you better understand the data you are collecting and demonstrate why it's important to your mission. It doesn’t matter who is using Salesforce, with the help of Relay we can make sure your entire organization feels comfortable and empowered to harness the power of the data being captured to make better decisions, faster.

How Custom Salesforce Development Can Help Your Nonprofit Succeed

Every organization is different, and every mission is important. Being successful with Salesforce is making sure the technology and platform fit into your organization. With the help of Relay, we can make sure you advance your mission and help you leverage Salesforce to have the greatest impact.

Contact Relay to See What We Can Do for Your Nonprofit, Today

If you’re interested in learning more about all aspects of what a custom Salesforce for nonprofits relationship can look like, be sure to reach out! We’re always seeking exciting, new partnerships with nonprofits, and yours may be the perfect match for what we do here at Relay. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

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We are proud to announce that we are entering into the summer of 2022 having achieved Ridge level partner status in the Salesforce Partner Program. This recognitions comes after an incredible year of all-around growth and delivering meaningful solutions to our clients and partners.

In 2021, our team grew by 5 members; adding to our roster operations, technical, and solutions architecture expertise. We delivered custom Salesforce solutions across varied industries like insurance, healthcare, finance, SaaS applications, and nonprofits.

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"We continue to demonstrate that a personal approach to design, wide industry experience, and deep technical expertise deliver the most robust solutions for clients big and small." said Gustavo Melendez, the Founder and Lead Technical Architect of Relay. "Our goal is to continue to focus on helping clients make the most of the Salesforce platform through tailored custom development. From executives to end-users, businesses are tired of ill-fitting and poorly configured Salesforce solutions that complicate your day to day operations. We strive to develop tailored solutions that truly address your short term process needs while maintaining line of sight with longer term business goals and needs."

How did we get to Ridge Tier?

Relay has demonstrated the ability to scale across numerous industries while maintaining a consistent degree of knowledge and capacity for each industry. Part of that is showcasing our expertise through Salesforce's certification system.

Relay as a team have a combined 20 Salesforce certifications including Level 4 System Architect and Level 3 Application Architect and Nonprofit Cloud Consultant.  We are constantly striving for more and plan on adding additional certificates to our resumé in the coming year.

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Beyond that, Relay has dedicated their practice to sustainable development and equality, two of the pillars of entering the Ridge tier. Salesforce has incorporated the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as the framework for partners to impact change in their local communities and Relay has gladly achieved all three goals. These include volunteerism, monetary donation and a corporate policy for sustainable development.

We are also proud to be a part of the "Pledge 1%" campaign where companies and partners across the world pledge to donate 1% of their time, profit, product or equity to charitable organizations.

Where do we go from here?

This is an incredibly exciting achievement for the entire Relay team as we truly believe this a reflection of all the hard work we have achieved with our clients throughout the years. We are truly thrilled by what we have built and what we will continue to build as a Ridge Tier consulting partner.

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Integrating QuickBooks into Salesforce: Our Guide

Integrating QuickBooks into your Salesforce campaigns is easy with Relay. We’re the experts when it comes to all things Salesforce. Especially with our seamless QuickBooks integration strategies for your business’ Salesforce platform. Read on to learn more and discover just how much time you can save with a “QuickBooks + Salesforce” integration from Relay!

Always Preparing for Tax Day

As a business owner, you know you’re always preparing for tax day and other tax deadlines throughout the year. Your customers are most likely preparing for tax day and other tax responsibilities as well. With this being said, it’s important to have the right integrations throughout your Salesforce campaigns so you and your customers are prepared for anything which may come up throughout the course of conducting business.

Salesforce CRM + Accounting = Harmony

Accounting can be messy as it is. Pair accounting with the many moving parts of your company, multiple hands in the pot, and potential human error(s); and you may have quite the issue developing over time. With a properly set up Salesforce campaign, integrated successfully with QuickBooks, you’ll be able to create the harmonious relationship you’ve been searching for and stress less.

Reducing the Headaches Involved

As mentioned briefly above, accounting can be quite the headache. If we at Relay can help with the integration of your accounting and Salesforce platform, you’ll have a lot less headaches and be able to focus on the business side of things.

Viewing Your Business from a 360-Degree Point of View

Accounting can be as easy as seeing from a bird’s eye view or having to dive into minute details which may make your eyes go fuzzy. Which would you prefer? We thought you’d choose the bird's eye view. With an integration of QuickBooks and Salesforce for your organization, you no longer have to nitpick each and every set of financial data to discover what you’re searching for. With our customized approach here at Relay, there will be unique approaches to your business’ complex accounting problems; solved every step of the way.

Improving Sales & Revenue Management

The only way to improve is to reflect on past performance. If you can see your sales and revenue, all customized to your preferred styling; you’ll be able to reflect on what went right and what went wrong. This type of financial data separates the great from the good companies out there. Be the best you can be through analysis of your sales and revenue, all while improving inefficiencies each and every month. 

Generating Accurate Financial Data

Accuracy is another key component of any successful accounting implementation. Without accurate financial data, you’ll run the risk of reporting revenue incorrectly and this could be quite the mess with the IRS. Nobody wants to deal with an extensive audit, so take control of the financial data you compile and let Relay provide customized solutions to better display and analyze your financial data sets.

Optimizing Your Time

Time is money, and those who are business owners, accountants, or anyone involved with day-to-day financials realize this quite early on in most cases. Allow Relay to save you time, and in turn save you money over the long-term. Eliminate overbearing processes which strain your entire staff and see how Relay can help your organization achieve peak performance and efficiency with our unique strategies and implementations.

Allowing Operations to Run Smoother

When everything runs smoother in the accounting department, the rest of your business will most likely run much smoother as well. There’s something to be said about the accounting department. It’s the lifeblood of the company, and when there’s a wrench thrown into the mix, it may certainly cause ripple effects felt throughout the rest of your organization. Avoid this by integrating QuickBooks into your Salesforce platform and see how powerful data, accounting, and Salesforce can be.

Connecting Your Sales Team with Your Accounting Team

Sales and accounting go hand-in-hand. If one is not working correctly, the other is thrown off as well. Think about how interconnected sales is to accounting. Everything from commissions paid out, to revenue generated for the month, to expenses billed along the way. These are just a few examples of what can be customized to your liking when we build a truly customized Salesforce platform for you with QuickBooks integrated throughout.

Reduction in Data Duplication

Duplicate data could mean the difference between accurate financial reporting and a very  costly mistake. Don't allow yourself to accidentally pay out an invoice twice due to some mismanagement of your accounting processes. With a QuickBooks and Salesforce integration, you’re no longer beholden to human errors when everything is set up correctly the first time. Rest assured your financial statements are accurate and avoid costly mistakes along the way.

Increasing Overall Productivity

The entirety of your company’s productivity is dependent upon its people. When the people involved in your company are performing at their best thanks to not having to worry about accounting matters on a daily basis, everything else will most likely perform better. Taking the step in the right direction with a QuickBooks and Salesforce integration can be monumental when establishing patterns of your future success.

Focus On What Matters: Business Growth

”If you’re not growing, you’re slowing.” These words ring true in the world of business and they’ll certainly be felt strongly if your accounting is not operating as it should. Don’t let accounting mishaps deter proper business growth. You’ll want to look back on your years in business and appreciate just how much you were able to grow your company.

Taking Advantage of Your Accounting Data

The entire point of integrating QuickBooks with Salesforce is to take advantage of all the accounting data your organization produces every day. Not taking advantage of this precious data is leaving money on the table. Exploring how Relay can drive success your way through our custom Salesforce integrations will open up new doors to opportunities you never knew existed.

Choose Relay for Your Quickbooks Integration into Salesforce

Feel free to reach out to us using the form below and we’ll be sure to respond to your inquiry as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you soon and developing a plan of action to have your company on the right path with a customized Quickbooks and Salesforce integration.

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According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, there are approximately 30.7 million small businesses in the United States. While our team works with companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 1000, we find it particularly gratifying to deliver solutions for small businesses. Small businesses are often challenged by budgets, time, and their team's bandwidth. That's why they benefit more from focusing their efforts on implementing applications and tools that streamline processes and automate manual and repetitive steps. Salesforce is often seen as a heavyweight CRM that is challenging to implement for small businesses, but with a trusted Salesforce partner they too can reap the benefits of a world-class CRM and business process automation platform.

In this week's Small Business Spotlight, we are excited to highlight Industrial Fire Products Corp. Our team worked with IPFC to implement Salesforce for their sales and accounting processes, and we're excited to share some of their insights about their business, their challenges, and their advice for implementing Salesforce!

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What does IFPC do

Founded in 1992, we are a corporation dedicated to serve our customers in all Firefighting, Rescue and Safety Equipment needs. We are equipped with the knowledge, the skills, the experience, and commitment to meet our customer’s requirements. IFPC is a distributor of public safety equipment and vehicles serving Puerto Rico and the Caribbean since 1992. We sell anything from PPE equipment to an emergency vehicle (ex. fire truck). If a first responder uses it, we sell it.

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What are some of your business or client goals?

Our customers main objective is to save lives and property and IFPCs main goal is to protect our communities by providing the best service and equipment to first responders. We help them have the best equipment on the market so they can do their jobs safely and efficiently.

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What would you say was your greatest business challenge before implementing Salesforce?

We didn’t have a CRM so it was difficult to track all of our contacts in one place as well as tracking the actual status of each quote or opportunity.

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What has been the biggest benefit you’ve seen from your Salesforce investment?

We now have visibility, through the use of Dashboards, to structure our sales teams with sales targets and real-time opportunities/sales status. In addition, Sales Reps now receive notifications when all the items from a sales order have arrived and are ready to be delivered. This was not possible with our previous software (Quickbooks).

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What advice would you give to small businesses thinking about whether they should implement Salesforce into their workflow?

Go for it! At first, the president of our company thought it was overkill for our small business. However, thanks to the help our implementation partner, Relay, we quickly were able to demonstrate that Salesforce would provide a solid foundation for our growth plans. I recommend implementing it together with a native accounting software like Accounting Seed to keep all your data in one system. Salesforce is more than just a CRM, it lets you build simple automations that can eliminate busy work.

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If you are interested in learning more about how Salesforce custom apps and integrations can help you run your business processes more efficiently and unlock insights into your operations, schedule a 30 minute consultation with one of our Salesforce Architects today or send us a message!

Salesforce for Law Firms: Our Guide

Successful law firms are organized, efficient, and effective. When a law firm such as yours is beginning to grow and you’re seemingly playing “catch-up” every week, you can begin to feel extremely burdened with employee management, record maintenance, handling of cases, and admin work. In this post, we’ll be discussing how you can best implement a customized Salesforce approach with our team here at Relay. Read on to discover the power of Salesforce when paired with Relay custom applications can help your law firm accelerate and grow over the upcoming years.

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How Salesforce Can Benefit Your Law Firm

Salesforce has a way of allowing your law firm to thrive without having to be inundated with extra amounts of task management and administrative work every single day. The main purpose of Salesforce, at least when Relay is customizing the approach, is to empower your law firm with the best foundation for future growth. Whether you need to know what is on the docket for the day, case status and case management, payment status, or even past client case outcomes, Salesforce can handle that.  Need to feed recent arrests into Salesforce? We can create an integration for that. Every implementation we make to your custom Salesforce environment is designed with you and your company in mind. There are many nuanced components of a Salesforce solution we’ve been able to identify over the years, and we’re thrilled to be able to incorporate our knowledge and expertise into your everyday practices.

Employee Management

With any successful law firm, there are going to be growing pains with employee management. With Salesforce, you’ll be able to manage your employees efficiently and effectively, across multiple departments with ease. From identifying skillsets of case managers so they are assigned the right kind of cases that match their strengths to being able to audit interactions they've recorded with clients and even keeping track of reviews and professional development plans, Salesforce can help with that. A customized approach to Salesforce will allow you to ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to company-wide goals. Bridging the gap between employee departments as your law firm begins to transform from small to large is a critical component of your future success.

Maintaining Records

If your business records are scattered all over the place, both physically and digitally, you’ll probably end up experiencing issues along the way. With Salesforce, everything is housed digitally and cloud-based. Whether you’re visiting another city within your state to gain a better understanding of an ongoing case, or you’re on the other side of the world attending a legal conference; you’ll be able to pull the data you need within seconds. International law firms often have unintentional overlap between office locations and this could result in everything from miscommunication to an accidental over-billing of clients. Both of these scenarios are not ideal and may end up causing you undue grief and issues. Avoid this with a custom Salesforce application for your law firm.

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Managing Complex Cases

Many law firms will encounter complex cases which require many hands in the pot, so to speak. When there are multiple variables at play, alongside multiple attorneys within your firm handling a single case; it can become complicated quite rapidly. To avoid a pending fiasco, you’ll want to manage your complex cases by having a clear understanding from the onset. This can be accomplished by establishing a solid plan, developing processes for common and uncommon actions, and coordinating the Salesforce workflow to meet your law firm’s unique needs. From there, it’ll most likely be much easier to manage complex cases, far and wide, across the globe.

Consolidating Administrative Work

Administrative work can be the final straw for many law firms when it comes to a buildup of stress and paperwork. A custom Salesforce build from Relay can help minimize redundancy and prevent a large buildup of to-do lists from overtaking all of your employees’ entire days. Automated emails which are trigged when case statuses update, or when court dates are set keep your client in the know. They know what is happening with their case, when the next court date is, and whether or not they need to be there. If their payment is overdue they can get automatic notifications, and you can process payment right in salesforce via an integration with your payment gateway. When Salesforce is implemented correctly from the start, you’ll often find there are many benefits to the overall day-to-day workflow; especially when it comes to admin work.

Contact Relay for a Customized Approach to Salesforce

If you’re a growing law firm, or even a highly established law firm seeking customized Salesforce applications; you’ve come to the right place. We’re here to help your law firm exceed expectations, both internally and externally. Feel free to contact us using the form below and we’ll be sure to respond to your inquiry within one business day. We look forward to hearing from you soon and can’t wait to learn more about your law firm, your goals, and how we can help you quickly achieve your ambitions.

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