Introductions to Salesforce Process Mapping

by Anna Roebuck

Salesforce has always recognised the importance of process mapping for businesses.

Their free, online-learning platform Trailhead offers a module focused on process mapping for business analysts as part of their Salesforce Business Analyst course.

Liberty Spark, our process mapping and improvement solution, uses UPN (Universal Process Notation) as detailed in their training course. We’ve expanded on the reasons why mapping processes is crucial for successful Salesforce or any software implementation.

Process mapping in Salesforce

Process mapping in business refers to visualising the steps you take to ensure that your organisation or company is functioning correctly. Seeing them in a map form makes it a lot easier to understand the stages to your process and to find places for improvement.

Without process mapping, it is very difficult to truly understand what is happening in your business from a bird’s eye view. You tend to be so deeply involved and entrenched that you can miss things very easily.

And if you’re changing your CRM to Salesforce, you do not want anyone to be confused about how this new technology is going to work and where it will fit within your existing processes.

The CRM adoption process even has a name: CRM implementation. You need to closely work with the customer onboarding team and know what it is you are after. Otherwise, you will both come out losing from this interaction. And this is why mapping and sharing that visual aid, is an absolute necessity in systems implementation.

An existing process, or As-Is process, is the map you create of what you currently do. You study it to find places for improvement and then look for tools that will help you. You then create a To-Be process.

Salesforce is a formidable tool and CRM. But, you have to know how you are going to use it to truly make the most of it.

Known as requirements gathering, this part of the process helps you understand your To-Be process a lot more. Having determined your As-Is process and found its faults, you now have to think about how you would re-structure it with Salesforce as your CRM and where it would best help your team.

You then start building your To-Be process with the implementation of Salesforce in mind.  You want to make sure that it is accessible and understandable for all involved parties. While this may seem daunting at first, it is not difficult to implement Salesforce for your business, nor is it necessary to hire an external expert.

Simply understand and map your process with the right tool and you can ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to the steps to correctly implement Salesforce to your business.

This is why we believe so strongly in process mapping.

By creating your ideal process, you can share it with the Salesforce customer onboarding team. This ensures everyone understands what is happening, when it occurs and why it is important.

It makes it easier for both sides to know what is happening at any given point in time, so the entire process can go off without a hitch.

And the best way to make sure everyone is on the same page?

Utilising a simple notation in your process maps, such as Universal Process Notation (UPN).

UPN implementation and salesforce

At Spark we recommend UPN.

We know it is the easiest notation for everyone involved in the process to understand and follow along. It does not require extensive study, like BPMN, nor does it result in cutting out steps, like Swim Lane Diagrams.

Instead, UPN simplifies the process without removing any important information or steps. It does not leave anything out. Starting with a top-down approach, you must  take the business as a whole into consideration,  From there, you can then look into the processes that help your business run as it does and the sub-processes that help them.

With Spark, we’ve made it easy for you or anyone in your organisation or company to understand and help you build your map. And our focus on UPN has paid off.

Salesforce recognises the importance and usefulness of UPN when it comes to business process mapping.

Trailhead’s Business Process Mapping course now includes a module focused on UPN. They recognise that although several forms of diagrams for processes exist, UPN’s simplicity is applicable for all industries, for every level of complexity and business and for organisations of any size. For this reason, it is a favoured option. They state that UPN diagrams:

• Will demonstrate every part of a process from an overview to detailed diagrams
• Can be created in collaboration with others
• Because UPN diagrams can be viewed online and integrated into existing applications
• Can be broadened or narrowed depending on the process
• Provide enough information and context for metrics to help make decisions

UPN diagrams are unambiguous, read from left to right and have very simple symbols that do not have multiple possible meanings. Anyone is able to understand and follow along in a process map built with UPN.

And this is what you want. Stakeholders should be able to follow along and understand what is being presented to them, not expected to be versed in incredibly specific symbols and meanings.

Process mapping should answer key questions about your current business organisation. When is something happening – UPN answers this by being read from left to right and utilising arrows. What is happening – UPN answers this by the action placed within the Activity box. Who is doing it – UPN answers this by filling out this information below the what.

No rocket science required.

With business giants such as Salesforce now incorporating UPN more and more, it won’t be long before it very much becomes the norm when it comes to process mapping. You don’t want to be left behind!

At Spark, we’ve taken this notation and made it the cornerstone of our process mapping software.

Netcall’s approach to process mapping

Spark is the ultimate solution to correctly implement process mapping for any business.

Salesforce recognises this and it is encouraging others to learn about UPN as part of their free online learning for business analysts. And people are beginning to take notice of this shift towards UPN.

Our team at Spark has always known and trusted in the simplicity and utility of UPN when it comes to business process mapping. We use it ourselves, after all.

The goal of our software is to simplify everything and help our clients improve their business. When this happens, it means that our thesis regarding the utility of UPN is correct. And fortunately, it happens more often than not.

Business process mapping with Spark and with UPN, is quite easy as you can see.

Our YouTube channel offers videos from the Spark team  where you can educate yourself further on our easy process improvement solution.

We aim to introduce the concept of UPN to more businesses and encourage them to develop their own process maps.

Creating process maps for different aspects of your business can lead you to have a process library as a business that you can constantly refer back to and this will help you improve further.

Using Spark, you can save the process maps you’ve made, creating knowledge that can stay with your business for years to come, without having to check old notes or asking a particular specialist. Anyone can understand what you were doing at any time and anyone can access it.

Salesforce Process mapping recommends UPN

Salesforce has given UPN its seal of approval.

The fact that is has appeared as part of its online learning coursework indicates that it is very much the future of process mapping.

Beyond that, UPN is a simple, clear notation that can help everyone involved very easily understand and follow along your process map.

Spark is proud to use UPN as the base of our process mapping software and prouder still when we are recognised as a great source of information on the subject.

If you’re interested in utilising UPN for your business processes, including those related to Salesforce, get in touch with our team!