We are thrilled to announce the launch of our first app on the Salesforce AppExchange! New Veeam Backup for Salesforce, our data backup and recovery app, protects you from losing your data and metadata due to human error, integration issues and other Salesforce data loss scenarios.
If you are new to Salesforce or do not have experience with the AppExchange, let me touch on exactly what the AppExchange is, what it means to be a Salesforce Partner and how to build an AppExchange strategy.
What is the Salesforce AppExchange?
Salesforce AppExchange is the worlds leading marketplace for solutions, consultancy and cloud computing apps. This marketplace empowers companies to build, grow and market their apps in a completely new way while offering Salesforce end-users ready to install third party applications, all in one place. It offers a variety of free and paid apps that help solve business challenges and accelerate digital transformation. Some popular ways to search listings is by keyword, by Cloud, by role or by collection. With over 7000 apps and 10 million installs, it is not surprising that over 90% of customers have installed at least one AppExchange app. Check us out on the AppExchange.
Fun fact:
Steve Jobs was actually the person who gave Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff the advice to build an application economy, which in 2006 was named the App Store. As a gift in 2008, Marc gifted the trademark back to Steve to thank him for his support over the years, of course it is now what we all know as the Apple App Store.
What are the different Salesforce partnerships?
Being a Salesforce partner involves more than just being on the AppExchange. Partnership is built as a community that continually helps with best practices, gives access to support and offers resources. Partners undergo a comprehensive process to ensure they are providing top-level technology and services to Salesforce customers. The two main types of partnership are ISV (independent software vendor) Partners (who build apps for the Salesforce platform, helping customers to solve business challenges) and Consulting Partners, who focus on configuration, training and integration of Salesforce products within your operating system.
ISV Partners sell commercial solutions on the AppExchange. These solutions range from software development building blocks to full-fledged apps that run on the Salesforce platform and use external services. Partners build solutions specific for the Salesforce platform. Partners create products that will meet unique business needs for customers. Partners need to follow rigorous legal requirements and approval through Salesforce Security Review and Assessment to become a partner.
Consulting Partners are companies authorized by Salesforce to develop and provide custom solutions, managing the development, coding, configuration, user training, implementation and integration of Salesforce products within your operating systems. Partners make money from referral fees and from software or services that Consulting Partners add to clients’ Salesforce deployments. These partners bring industry expertise and can help you and your employees configure Salesforce according to your unique business needs.
Building an AppExchange strategy
Because of the number of choices on the AppExchange, it can tend to be overwhelming, which is why building a strategy before you search can be helpful.
Let’s help Dave, a Salesforce admin from company ABC, build out a strategy to use for deciding on a third-party backup and recovery app on the AppExchange.
- Define the needs of the department. Discuss with the specific department heads to find out their exact needs and then try to match those needs to solutions available on the Salesforce AppExchange. It is important to find out the needs of the department — what are their main pain points, and what business problems they are trying to solve? Timelines are also important to the process. These conversations are important to match the organization’s needs when searching the AppExchange.
- Once you establish the needs of the department, find out what the solution needs to do. Differentiate between which features are must-have as opposed to nice to-haves, then start your search.
- Knowing the budget is also crucial, is there a budget in place for solutions that are per user? Do you need to license all users for the solution to work?
- Weigh your choices. Is there specific criteria that need to be met? An example might be if your organization is looking for an app to back up their Salesforce data and metadata. Are they looking to back it up in the cloud? If so, make sure your research only includes app’s that have this capability.
Use these points to help build and execute your strategy when searching the AppExchange
Ready to explore the AppExchange and learn everything it has to offer? Why not start by checking out Veeam Backup for Salesforce on the AppExchange and learn how we offer:
- Complete control: Deploy your Salesforce backup anywhere you choose, strategically separating it from its source, avoiding lock-in and giving you the ability to adjust your backup strategy to meet business demands
- Flexible recovery: Recovery exactly what you need, when and where you need it, with intelligent recovery options for both bulk and granular restore scenarios
- Purpose-built backup: A custom-engineered specifically for Salesforce data and metadata, including granular scheduling, an easy-to-use UI and near-continuous backup with efficient use of Salesforce APIs
Veeam has already mastered data protection for virtual, physical and cloud workloads, having been named a Leader by the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the 6th time. Now the Global Data Protection Leader protects Salesforce.
Don’t forget to check us out on the AppExchange!
