Why is Salesforce Testing needed - Key reasons

The humungous growth in the number of online businesses in arguably every possible domain has meant only a few can compete for the top slot. The rest in all probability can be categorized as also-ran, unless of course they too come up the ladder. Coming up the ladder, however, would need garnering the most important attribute in business – customer satisfaction.

According to a survey by Gartner, close to 90% of businesses have understood the importance of customer experience as the very metric upon which competition will take place.

The centrality of customer experience

Achieving a rich customer experience is no mean task as it requires the strengthening of your business processes. The processes, in turn, can help the sales and marketing teams to quickly gather the feedback and deliver the best possible response. This is important as in many enterprises the customer feedback mechanism is woefully inadequate - not to speak of a general lackadaisical attitude of the persons handling customer queries. This calls for implementing a robust Customer Relation Management (CRM) platform like Salesforce.

The role of a CRM platform

A CRM platform provides the tools, technologies, methodologies, and systems to leverage customer data and enhance communication. It is only through a CRM platform that an enterprise can quickly consider customer issues and offer relevant solutions. Importantly, this aspect should not be treated as an adjunct to the main business but an integral part of the business lifecycle. A robust customer feedback mechanism helps to strengthen business relationships and foster business growth.

This is where the cloud-based Salesforce pitches in with its Customer Service and Support functions. Moreover, as confirmed by Forbes, with the cloud-based CRM platforms estimated to corner around 62% of the market, Salesforce has emerged as one of the premier SaaS applications.

What makes Salesforce tick?

• Easy to implement
• Scalable and flexible
• Cost effective
• Ease of developing bespoke applications quickly
• Seamless integration of different business functions
• Strengthens the customer interface with business

Salesforce facilitates the integration of various applications, activities, and departments. These can be accounts, admin, campaigns, contacts, leads, or opportunities. Since the business outcomes of an enterprise depend on the implementation of Salesforce, it should be tested for any inherent glitches. Furthermore, the criticality of Salesforce testing has assumed salience given the rapid pace at which a plethora of applications are developed and deployed in the SDLC.

Key reasons for Salesforce testing

Better B2C interface: Customers are the fulcrum around which an enterprise revolves. In fact, the eventual success of the brand, products, and services of an enterprise depends on the kind of experience it provides to the customers. More often than not, enterprises seem to trip on matters of customer query resolution. This is due to the fact that the information stored in multiple databases is often found difficult to be accessed by the customer query handler. However, with Salesforce, the databases are brought under a centralized control, which then makes it easy for any customer query handler to access and resolve the issue. However, an inherent bug in the Salesforce platform can put paid to all such efforts and hence, the need for Salesforce application testing.

Automation of Sales & Marketing: The automation of the Sales and Marketing functions of an enterprise can facilitate a better closure rate. This is due to the fact that automation of these functions can bring about an efficiency in the dissemination of information. Salesforce is capable of automating the entire customer interface, which in turn helps in offering a rich customer experience. To ensure the automation process remains foolproof, scalable, and flexible, Salesforce application testing should be undertaken.

Short application release cycle: Salesforce applications have become increasingly complex but at the same time, their delivery cycles have become short. This is a consequence of increased competition where every enterprise wants to reach the market with new applications. Such quick release cycles need a comprehensive test automation for Salesforce to cover the entire end to end application codes.

Better quality of applications: The market not only demands a faster release of applications but their superior quality as well. This is where test automation for Salesforce becomes critical to address the inherent glitches. Moreover, apart from increasing the test coverage area, automating Salesforce application testing can identify (and eliminate) the bugs during the development stage only. This can lead to a better quality of products that hold firm as far as functionality, performance, and security are concerned.

Conclusion

Salesforce can confer a lot of benefits to business such as providing an improved analytical data, creating a robust reporting mechanism, automating and streamlining various functions, and enhancing communication among others. The same can be achieved only when Salesforce application testing is implemented with rigour.

Diya works for Cigniti Technologies, Global Leaders in Independent Software Testing Services Company to be appraised at Cmmi-Svc v1.3, Maturity Level 5, and is also Iso 9001:2015 & Iso 27001:2013 certified.