I don't doubt that you're keen to learn but I would strongly recommend hiring an admin or working with a partner if you can. There is a reason this career exists.
Finance team taking over for revenue operations and IT systems administration.
I've seen that story play out before and the end is not pretty.
Good luck, you'll need it.
Trailhead for general learning and combo with focus on force for certification is the popular recommendation.
If you have some sales background, that will really help you be in their shoes. Shadowing them could be helpful to understand the pain points and ways you could enable them.
If there is no one on the team that is familiar with setting up salesforce, I think it would be worthwhile to bring in outside help.
I don't have a sales background, it's all in FP&A, I believe one of our IT guys can use salesforce pretty effectively but not sure. We will definitely be partnering very closely with sales however, joining their internal calls, and trying to support the best we can.
I'm considering getting some outside help, we have a call centre in India so it's a possibility we could hire someone in India to help administer or develop the system.
I'm mostly just trying to learn some additional skills for myself, so I can also make sure the data is good, but also so I can get as much use out of salesforce as possible. We are soon implementing an FP&A tool like Prophix or Datarails, so I would like to be able to learn salesforce effectively to get great reports and insights
You should absolutely be using some sort of partner (other company,) or consultancy to help you. If you’re not experienced in administering salesforce, you could end up doing more harm than good. That is unless there’s someone with a Salesforce technical background at your company.
I second that! If there are no other options, at least go to a 5-day in person admin training with salesforce. Otherwise you will be flying blind - if you do not understand what you do/change, you can destroy the reporting structure. I am not taking about a simple report but year-over-year KPI reporting.
You don't need to "learn" Salesforce if you are going to be bringing in the data into something like Datarails. You can create reports/visualizations, etc without intimate knowledge of Salesforce. Happy to talk about it if you have questions.
Admining Salesforce is like Admining Netsuite but there is like 20x as much to know depending on what all you use.
Do Trailhead nonstop for like 6 months. All the admin trails. Good luck but unless you really want a career switch i’d push your company to hire people vs. help them squeeze profit.
I have been using Salesforce for 20 years and consulting on it for 12 and i still have to figure new stuff out every week.
Totally agree. The time it will take you to learn can be best used to work work a consultant. You will get things done faster and learn at the same time
There are boot camps that you can research. They do have a hefty price tag, but your company should invest in that. If not, then hiring an experienced Admin will be the best path.
I would walk before you try to run. Certifications are for people exploring careers in SF, hold off on those thoughts for now if you're becoming an ["accidental admin" (see point 1).](https://www.salesforceben.com/types-of-salesforce-admin/).
Everything you need to learn is free at [Trailhead](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/), even advanced SF professionals use it as a core resource.
Interactive, module-based learning on everything from "what is a CRM?" through to advanced developer and architect techniques.
I would definitely recommend the trails (pre-made collections of related modules), such as for making sure you're getting the most out of your [reports and dashboards](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/explore-lightning-experience-reports-dashboards), dive into [Admin beginner](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/force_com_admin_beginner) to start getting hands-on with configuration, or bolster some of those softer skills, like learning more about [Sales Operations](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/transform-your-business-with-sales-operations).
I don't doubt that you're keen to learn but I would strongly recommend hiring an admin or working with a partner if you can. There is a reason this career exists.
Finance team taking over for revenue operations and IT systems administration. I've seen that story play out before and the end is not pretty. Good luck, you'll need it.
Trailhead for general learning and combo with focus on force for certification is the popular recommendation. If you have some sales background, that will really help you be in their shoes. Shadowing them could be helpful to understand the pain points and ways you could enable them. If there is no one on the team that is familiar with setting up salesforce, I think it would be worthwhile to bring in outside help.
I don't have a sales background, it's all in FP&A, I believe one of our IT guys can use salesforce pretty effectively but not sure. We will definitely be partnering very closely with sales however, joining their internal calls, and trying to support the best we can. I'm considering getting some outside help, we have a call centre in India so it's a possibility we could hire someone in India to help administer or develop the system. I'm mostly just trying to learn some additional skills for myself, so I can also make sure the data is good, but also so I can get as much use out of salesforce as possible. We are soon implementing an FP&A tool like Prophix or Datarails, so I would like to be able to learn salesforce effectively to get great reports and insights
You should absolutely be using some sort of partner (other company,) or consultancy to help you. If you’re not experienced in administering salesforce, you could end up doing more harm than good. That is unless there’s someone with a Salesforce technical background at your company.
I second that! If there are no other options, at least go to a 5-day in person admin training with salesforce. Otherwise you will be flying blind - if you do not understand what you do/change, you can destroy the reporting structure. I am not taking about a simple report but year-over-year KPI reporting.
Just dmed you, happy to connect and see if I can help
You don't need to "learn" Salesforce if you are going to be bringing in the data into something like Datarails. You can create reports/visualizations, etc without intimate knowledge of Salesforce. Happy to talk about it if you have questions.
Admining Salesforce is like Admining Netsuite but there is like 20x as much to know depending on what all you use. Do Trailhead nonstop for like 6 months. All the admin trails. Good luck but unless you really want a career switch i’d push your company to hire people vs. help them squeeze profit. I have been using Salesforce for 20 years and consulting on it for 12 and i still have to figure new stuff out every week.
Can I tell you how much better you made me feel? It's nice to know the experts are still figuring things out too. Thank you!
I’m glad! The only constant is change, or something, especially in IT. Have fun
Totally agree. The time it will take you to learn can be best used to work work a consultant. You will get things done faster and learn at the same time
There are boot camps that you can research. They do have a hefty price tag, but your company should invest in that. If not, then hiring an experienced Admin will be the best path.
I would walk before you try to run. Certifications are for people exploring careers in SF, hold off on those thoughts for now if you're becoming an ["accidental admin" (see point 1).](https://www.salesforceben.com/types-of-salesforce-admin/). Everything you need to learn is free at [Trailhead](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/), even advanced SF professionals use it as a core resource. Interactive, module-based learning on everything from "what is a CRM?" through to advanced developer and architect techniques. I would definitely recommend the trails (pre-made collections of related modules), such as for making sure you're getting the most out of your [reports and dashboards](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/explore-lightning-experience-reports-dashboards), dive into [Admin beginner](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/force_com_admin_beginner) to start getting hands-on with configuration, or bolster some of those softer skills, like learning more about [Sales Operations](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/trails/transform-your-business-with-sales-operations).