Salesforce Essentials Reviews

I have experience with Salesforce Essentials' Tableau and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but not extensively. I was more focused on their CRM platform, specifically the core CRM and sales basics.

My experience is primarily with Salesforce Essentials.

We use Salesforce Essentials primarily for its dashboard capabilities and reporting for customer tracking of quality. These are basic file management use cases.

Mobile access is important for my business operations because it increases availability significantly. However, while mobile access is adequate, there are many opportunities for improvement.

The best features of Salesforce Essentials include its status as a pre-established product. They have developed decent APIs to integrate with other platforms. Similar to Apple, the overall ecosystem is pretty efficient.

Their reporting and analytics features have a very significant impact on my company's operational efficiency.

The scalability of Salesforce Essentials has benefited my business as it grows because we were using enterprise licenses.

The mobile access can be improved in several ways. Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables. This is not very user-friendly for mobile. Mobile should be more drag and drop or click away with a self-driven user interface. The user interface needs to be tweaked to be better. When that happens, some of the backend may need to be modified as well.

I have used Salesforce Essentials for several years, approximately six years.

I would evaluate their support and customer service with Salesforce Essentials as pretty decent, diligent, and to the point.

Negative

I have experience with products such as Acronis and Huntress, though Salesforce Essentials serves a different purpose.

I have had experience with Huntress for the last few months as we are an MSSP and offer Huntress to our clients.

I have used Odoo and HubSpot recently, though not extensively.

The main differences between Salesforce Essentials and HubSpot or Odoo is the market presence. It is comparable to the Windows versus Linux situation because both have a huge presence. They have deeper pockets so they can spend money on collecting insights and developing features. Integration and good partnerships with major companies make Salesforce Essentials better than the others.

Regarding return on investment, it was a continuous process. We have been using Salesforce Essentials for a long time and haven't seen any negatives. The ROI was always in a positive direction. The payback in many cases was about three years initially in Canada. It was continuous improvement and there was nothing significantly wrong to trigger any constructed conversation, though there were some constructed conversations but nothing negative.

We don't have any SIEM, but we do have EDR or what they call ITDR.

Regarding lead management, there is a lot of tagging and labeling involved. The more we automatize these processes, things will get better. If we develop decent algorithms for self-learning, that would help. Salesforce Essentials has a significant amount of ML backend, but some legacy applications don't connect effectively.

I have used the built-in AI features Einstein Analytics, though I am not currently using Salesforce Essentials. I last used it near the end of last year.

I might recommend Salesforce Essentials to others considering these types of CRMs, though it depends on specific needs and location.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Salesforce Essentials a 9.

We are using the Salesforce Essentials core, which includes Experience Salesforce Sales and Forecasting, a traditional CRM, customer experience, and forecasting and planning capabilities.

We use Salesforce Essentials for everything we do on the sales side. This includes managing leads, managing opportunities, customer profiles, synchronizing with marketing systems, logging all actions, planning product demos, quoting, making commercial offers to teams and customers, and collecting requirements for new products. We use it also for cases involving customer experience. When a customer reaches out to us with a problem, tickets are created. We also use it for customer complaints, case management, and as a ticketing system.

The lead and opportunity management and the whole setup in Salesforce Essentials is particularly impressive.

Salesforce Essentials is an open platform where anything is possible. It is very customizable to specific needs. Salesforce comes up with a new release every six months, so most needed features typically arrive in these updates. The Lifecycle Management is particularly well done.

All necessary features are present in Salesforce Essentials, with nothing fundamentally missing from the product. AI features in Salesforce Essentials are currently somewhat rudimentary but are continuously developing and improving.

We use a limited number of automated workflows in Salesforce Essentials. The workflows we implement are designed to make sales teams' lives easier when executing certain tasks. Instead of requiring users to think about system navigation and clicking procedures, they can simply follow a workflow that guides them through the process. This is particularly useful for tasks that need to be executed by many people who may not have extensive training.

I have been using Salesforce Essentials as a user for approximately four years, and then another five years as the person ultimately responsible for the platform and sales operations, focusing more on the business admin side.

Salesforce Essentials is absolutely scalable. It is one of the most scalable systems available.

We rarely need to communicate with Salesforce Essentials' technical support. On the occasions when we have needed their assistance, they have been super responsive. Their service and uptime is phenomenal.

Positive

We do not have any other CRM systems. We have worked with various software solutions, but our main systems are SAP for transactional purposes and Salesforce Essentials for commercial operations. These systems are integrated.

Salesforce Essentials is very expensive, but it delivers exceptional value. It is a good platform to have if you can afford it because it has numerous add-ons and modules. Anything that Salesforce Essentials does not provide can be obtained through third-party plug-ins, making it very flexible.

The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant. The licenses are expensive, and the operational costs are considerable, including the necessity to maintain a team of approximately 15 people to run the system.

I was not present when the decision was made to implement Salesforce Essentials, but I do not believe alternatives were considered.

We are a large organization with 14,000 people. As a user, Salesforce Essentials is extremely easy to use. The complete rollout from minimum viable product to final acceptable product took two years for our global deployment.

The business operations for our 14,000 people are managed by approximately 10 people on the business side. These business admins are responsible for sales operations, troubleshooting, training, and driving features and requirements from the sales and marketing organizations. Additionally, we work with product owners on the IT side and a team of programmers. Daily operations require about five people for IT work, security programming, system connections, and development execution. For day-to-day user support, we need eight to ten people in the business.

We operate on Microsoft Azure private cloud infrastructure.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate Salesforce Essentials a 9 out of 10.

Positive

Salesforce is used to manage the order-taking process.

The CRM system has SAP Sales, SAP Service, and SAP Billing, with everything integrated into an on-premise SAP CRM system. Salesforce Essentials replaced this on-premise system, bringing all functionalities onto the cloud platform.

Salesforce Essentials includes both Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, which are crucial for customer interactions. Sales Cloud is where you identify and reach out to customers and manage the sales process from initial contact to closing a deal and taking orders. Service Cloud, on the other hand, handles post-sales activities such as order fulfillment, delivery scheduling, and customer support, all within a SaaS framework.

Salesforce should encourage new users by offering smaller license packages, such as packages for three or two users. You must take at least five licenses, each costing $350. If someone wants to start with three users, they cannot purchase Salesforce Essentials. They might consider going to Zoho CRM or another alternative. The lowest number should be one for a license.

I have been using Salesforce Essentials since 2018.

If you have an SAP system, the integration is very smooth and has no challenge. I rate the solution’s stability a nine-point five out of ten.

This solution uses 1200 users, including sales, service, and marketing.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

The initial setup is easier than with SAP. It takes up to eight weeks and is subject to data migration. If your data migration is very complex, it may go up to three or four months. If data migration is simple, you can start as soon as possible. The modernized deployment of Salesforce is quite advanced. 

Suppose you want to create a lead or opportunity. You can migrate the customer, keep it ready, activate the components, and start using the system.

Salesforce is easy to implement and user friendly. The UI is very simple and easy to navigate. It's a quick return on investment.

I work from home for a heater manufacturing company. They wanted to move away from their current SAP CRM system to Salesforce. There is a fulfillment process, which involves taking an order, delivering it, and providing service. Salesforce is used to manage the order-taking process. Once an order is taken, the backend system, SAP ERP, handles product manufacturing, delivery, and installation. After installation, the Service Cloud in Salesforce takes over for ongoing service management.

Once your order is confirmed, integration with the SAP ERP backend will be seamless. The system takes the sales order from Salesforce and starts processing it for procurement, starting with creating a production order, manufacturing, and then delivery. Once the product is delivered, this information is passed back to Salesforce Service Cloud.

In the Service Cloud, a service engineer receives a notification indicating that a product needs to be delivered to a specific location for installation. The engineer then inspects and installs the product at the designated site.

SAP ERP manages the product manufacturing and delivery processes. After the product is delivered to the customer, Salesforce Service Cloud takes over. It manages service requests and dispatches engineers to resolve issues reported by customers. Service Cloud captures the information and creates an incident record when a customer reports a product fault. Engineers receive this information and promptly visit the client site to fix the issue.

The solution is easy to implement.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It's a lead generation tool. We use it as a lead generator.

It is just for CRM purposes. So, we use it for CRM.

It is not a service migrating software. It is purely CRM, Salesforce.

The CRM is for taking leads. Like, if there are ten customers that use it, it's a process where we can grab the opportunity and convert that lead into an opportunity and then handle the build. That's what.

It's very easy to use. The UI is user-friendly. 

Salesforce provides the best they have with the current version. Most of the features we need are already there, and it's very easy to use.

The mobile app support is good. 

Less integration would be better. It should work independently. 

I have been using it for four to five years. 

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten because no product in the world will give you everything.

Scalability really all depends on the product enhancements and what other features they are giving us, as it depends on the OEM.

There are around 50 end users using this solution. 

The initial setup is straightforward. It takes about one to two months. 

OEM is required for the deployment process. For the entire process, one project manager and then three or four engineers will be enough.

It's a perpetual license, and the subscription can be expensive.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It is a good product. 

It's very user-friendly and very convenient. You will find Salesforce to be a good choice among three or four CRMs.

I use it when I’m collaborating with organizations. I use it to register opportunities and collaborate with different vendors. 

For example, I work with Zendax. So I use it, and that uses Salesforce. I log in to the product, create opportunities, and download marketing materials. All of my interactions with them are through Salesforce.

For me, registering these opportunities with the customer has been seamless. I can register for opportunities and get updates very easily.

We use it as a vendor portal, so the processes have been standardized. 

I have seen Salesforce evaluate a lot of AI and analytics into that. But as an end user, I don’t have that much input.

So, I would like to have more AI functionality here. That would be really helpful.

I have been using it for two years. 

High availability is really important for us to get our reports as a vendor.

It is very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability of this solution a nine out of ten. It is quite scalable. That’s why a lot of enterprises are adopting it because scalability is good.

There are around five to six end users. We log into the portal two to three times a week because we are a sales organization. So, our usage is not regular or extensive. But we log into the portal to update the opportunities weekly. 

We do not plan to increase the further usage. 

The customer service and support can improve. 

Neutral

Zoho CRM is what we use internally.

We need people to maintain Salesforce Essentials. It requires consultants.

At least we would need four or five people, including a consultant. I'm not quite sure if we need more if we are integrating with different sources. That would differ.

We are trying to integrate, and we are seeing about integration possibilities of Salesforce with Tableau. That is their own analytics platform. Now they have made it out of the box. So it’s a very seamless integration because now they are part of Salesforce.

The ROI is in terms of accelerating sales, helping the sales team with opportunities and the next steps, and automating the sales process.

The pricing is a bit on the expensive side, maybe when we compare it with other solutions.

I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price. The licensing is expensive.

Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

We use the solution to manage leads, sales, and billing. It is easy to manage the customer requirements up to invoice.

Salesforce makes tracking every product and customer activity easy, enabling managers to monitor their products, such as key products and their peak performance.

The solution could be cheaper.

I have been using Salesforce Essentials for over 3 years.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is easy because we are growing and adding more people to our organization in Salesforce.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The initial setup is easy. First, you need to obtain an architecture license. Then, we create a user. Once this is done, we can easily access the web page, connect to the internet, and use the app. It's straightforward to open and utilize. To deploy, create the user ID and access, and the end user can immediately go on.

ROI is good.

The product has a yearly pricing.

I recommend the solution to enterprise users. It's cloud-based, making deployment easy, and the cost is reasonable.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use the solution to manage customer interactions by maintaining a list of digital information about all the members of the international centralization committee.

I can download the data to Excel, create tables, and do whatever I want. I am very comfortable with the tool's mobile application.  Its main benefit is transparency because I can share it with representatives.  

When we use mixed languages, it can be uncomfortable because there seems to be no consideration for right-to-left speakers. It feels like these tools were developed by people who only speak left-to-right languages and didn't consider other language types' needs.

I have been using the product for a year. 

I rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten.

I rate Salesforce Essentials' scalability a ten out of ten. My company has ten users. 

Salesforce Essentials' deployment is straightforward and doesn't take much time to complete. We have two to three sources for managing it. 

I rate Salesforce Essentials' pricing an eight out of ten. 

I rate Salesforce Essentials a nine out of ten. 

Salesforce Essentials has brought about a tenfold improvement in our deals, especially in common use cases. The upgraded user interface in the DX has significantly enhanced the overall user experience.

In terms of features, the cloud-based solution and easy deployment are standout elements that have made a difference. Regarding AI, Salesforce Essentials' AI capabilities have indeed helped in better segmenting our customers and providing a broader view of customized types. While it may not be perfect yet, it has helped in avoiding false information and improving overall customer relationship management.

Areas that could be improved or upgraded in the next release include analytics, automation capabilities, and stability. There is a room for improvement in pricing and support.

I have been using Salesforce Essentials for five years. 

Stability is good with minimal bugs.

The scalability is easy, supporting around one to two thousand users. 

Technical support is decent.

Positive

I was involved in implementing Salesforce Essentials. The process involved integration, customization, and testing, which took around three months before launching. We usually deploy it in a private cloud due to data privacy concerns, especially for big clients like government agencies. 

The pricing is on the higher side, especially with additional costs for professional services like consultants.

I'd rate Salesforce Essentials a seven out of ten due to its strengths in functionality

We are using the solution to automate the Salesforce application. We are using the automation tool Tricentis Tosca to automate Salesforce. I am not sure of the function because we just started.

Salesforce Essentials is a reliable and powerful application.

Salesforce Essentials is not a very straightforward application when it comes to testing and automating. We are finding it a little difficult to automate the application.

The solution's UI is not user-friendly. Too many things are on the page, and you must know Salesforce properly to understand it.

Regarding automation, I rate the solution's stability three and a half out of five because we face a lot of wait time and delays during automation.

Around 25 to 30 users are using the tool daily in our organization.

We use the solution for entire testing purposes. The entire development of the application and testing are done on a daily basis.

Salesforce Essentials is a proper web-based application. I would recommend Salesforce Essentials to other users because, from what I've heard and seen, Salesforce is a very powerful application.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.