News Archives - Sandyx

COVID-19: An update from Sandyx

16th April 2020

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Dear customers,

We hope everyone is well and keeping safe during this uncertain time.

The team at Sandyx just wanted to reassure you that the health, well-being and safety of our employees, partners and customers is imperative to us.

Doing our part

We are following Government advice on the Covid-19 pandemic and observing the situation daily to ensure we’re doing our best to support the community, and this has included making several temporary changes to our business.

As a result, our sales, admin, development and account team staff are all now working remotely.

This means we are able to continue providing our clients with the high quality and fast-paced service they’ve come to expect and depend on. We’re incredibly lucky to be able to operate as normal and want you to know that we are eager to help you and all of our clients in any way that we can.

Ensuring business continuity

Our team is on hand and easily accessible through the usual methods of telephone, email or online, should you have any technical support issues at any time. Please be assured queries will be answered promptly as usual. At a time like this, we understand it’s more important than ever to stay connected and we’re using our social media to stay up to date with clients and friends.

We wish all of our customers, friends and family good health as we manage through this time together.

Thank you and stay safe.

Mashukul Hoque

Managing Director

Celebrating 10 years of Sandyx

27th February 2020

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As we celebrate a decade of company success this month, we thought it’d be nice to look back on how far Sandyx has come over the last 10 years.

From our biggest projects to the changes in our team, our blog covers everything you need to know about the Sandyx journey so far.

Why did we become a Salesforce partner?

By the time we officially sought Salesforce partner status in 2010, the now-giant CRM platform had already began to take great strides.

Salesforce immediately became so attractive to us because it’s such an incredibly flexible platform with the potential to do more than most users realise.

We identified that, with the right development team, Salesforce can do literally anything in regards to CRM. It was swiftly decided then that our mission would be to help more businesses understand the power of CRM by delivering custom Salesforce solutions to organisations in a wide variety of sectors.

Our director went about assembling a team of Salesforce developers and consultants with the right experience and soon after, Sandyx was officially born. Thanks to tools like Salesforce Trailhead, even our newer developers who hadn’t previously used the platform have been able to pick it up in no time and play a huge role in delivering some of our most complex projects.

So, now we had the team of adept developers and enthusiasm for a challenge – all we needed was a big project to really get the ball rolling.

How do you obtain Salesforce partner level status?

If you’re a company looking to become a registered Salesforce partner, you need to have at least 2 Salesforce consultant level certifications under your belt – whether that is one person with two certifications or two people with one each as a minimum.

Registered status partners (like us) tend to be more niche and focus on particular industries or have smaller development teams, making them ideal for implementations in SMEs.

Silver, Gold and Platinum status partners achieve such titles by accumulating points based on 3 factors summarised below.

Global strategic partners, like PwC, exceed Platinum status and snap up the largest Salesforce projects – usually involving 100 licenses or more.

Introducing Salesforce to some of the UK's biggest names

We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some huge brands over the years.

Some of our clients are UK-based and some are international. Some were completely new to Salesforce and some have been using the platform for years, however every team we have worked with has always received the same no-nonsense, personable and dedicated Sandyx approach.

Check out our infographic detailing everything you need to know about our clients here

Every one of our clients has received a solution tailored just for them and no two results have been the same, whether it was a three year long project or just three months. For example, Hermes came to us needing support with their courier management, whereas Sainsbury’s wanted a flexible solution that would allow them to manage new store implementations.

All of our clients have received ongoing support from the Sandyx development team after their projects are complete, meaning that we never lose touch and have built unceasing loyalty as a result.

What else has Sandyx been up to over the years?

The growth of our marketing department has led to attendance at several events relating to the technology industry, such as the marketingSHOWCASE and the Tech Show North in 2019. We have also released our own custom-built application called AnyCal, which is an interactive calendar booking system developed on the Salesforce platform and is integration friendly for all of our clients. Insight Healthcare are one client in particular who we identified as in need of AnyCal and we were right – the app is still being used by them to this day to book appointments online whilst simultaneously displaying a customisable filter.

Our plans for the future

With a variety of projects in the pipeline, the future’s looking bright and busy for Sandyx. We plan to focus on delivering Salesforce to organisations in the public sector in 2020.

You can follow us on social media to keep updated with our news, events and activities.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss any aspects of the topics discussed in this article, or understand how Salesforce can help your business, then please get in touch. You can also ring us directly, on 0161 710 3250

Celebrating 150 years of Sainsbury’s

28th May 2019

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Congratulations to Sainsbury’s for having a positive impact on society for 150 years.

A brief history of Sainsbury's

Opening their first ever Drury Lane store in 1869 and stocking it with nothing but eggs, butter and milk, Sainsbury’s has achieved a lot since then.

Not only are they now the UK’s second biggest supermarket chain owning a total of 1,423 stores nationwide, they are a brand that cares about their customers, their employees and the environment. Sainsbury’s has been one of our top clients for the past couple of years and we are incredibly proud to think that the project work we do for them continues to support their growth.

We have created an infographic honouring the success of Sainsbury's over the years which can be viewed here

Sainsbury's celebration of 150 years

On Wednesday 22nd May, Sainsbury’s revealed that Her Majesty the Queen was a visitor in their temporary 1860’s style pop-up store, which was set up on Drury Lane – just a stone’s throw away from the original site of their very first shop. Aside from a nostalgic trip down memory lane coupled with a regal visit, Sainsbury’s also offered customers extra Nectar points over the late May bank holiday weekend. Motorists were also treated to a reduction in fuel prices across Sainsbury’s petrol stations. A big factor of Sainsbury’s success is due to their customers and this has clearly been acknowledged in their anniversary celebrations.

What did our project work for Sainsbury's entail?

When we first got in touch with Sainsbury’s, they were looking for assistance with their property portfolio management system. Given the abundance of stores they have, it’s hardly surprising that they wanted this system to be highly functional and efficient.

Sainsbury’s chose to partner with Sandyx because they were impressed with our hands on approach to the project and our goal of delivering a system that requires less external support, consequently freeing up time for their technical team.

The system they were using was based on the Salesforce platform, however it had been altered by numerous third party developers over the years. Sainsbury’s were looking to add further functionality and integration with a documentation system being developed in parallel, whilst cleaning up and simplifying existing processes.

The end result - a flexible and foolproof solution for Sainsbury's

By the end of the main project, Sainsbury’s had a refined system capable of future adaptation if necessary, without disrupting any functionality. The technical team at Sainsbury’s were delighted with our solution and further projects have been undertaken and are ongoing, to add additional enhancements and integrations.

If you have any questions whatsoever about your existing CRM system or Salesforce org, please do not hesitate to contact us today.

Safer Internet Day 19: What it means in the corporate world

5th February 2019

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Today, February 5th, is international Safer Internet Day.

This year, the event will be celebrating its tenth anniversary across 140 countries.

With more businesses, schools and individuals participating in the event than ever before, the UK Safer Internet Centre plan to make the 2019 theme of “together for a better internet” their most prevalent message yet. Notable participants from last year include Age UK, CBBC and Manchester City F.C.

What is the purpose of Safer Internet Day?

Just like every year, Safer Internet Day 2019 aspires to raise awareness and get people talking about ways to make the internet a safer and more trustworthy place. Although a lot of Safer Internet Day supporters are sharing tips about how to keep children safe online, we feel that the 2019 message is applicable to anyone who uses the internet daily or on a large scale. Even if you don’t work with children or young adults, 98% of UK businesses carry out some form of activities online, making Safer Internet Day 2019 a very relevant event you should participate in.

The robust protection offered by Salesforce

At Sandyx, we specialise in projects based on the Salesforce platform and work with Salesforce products on a daily basis, many of which involve a CRM system. The average CRM system alone holds masses of personal client data, which instantly justifies the need for robust security features. Salesforce incorporates various safety tools into each product and service that they offer, including a constantly-updating infrastructure and user security features like two-factor authentication and identity verification. Additional custom security features can also be implemented depending on your specific needs, which our consultants can assess in detail for you today.

Be sure to communicate with your employees

Although it may sound tedious, reiterating the significance of cyber security to your team is actually of paramount importance.

Every employee, regardless of their seniority, will handle some form of sensitive data and this instantly makes them a risk.

Seemingly innocent mistakes like reusing weak passwords, misplacing devices that store information and forgetting to delete ex employees off the system open your business up to infiltration. Reputational damage, hefty fines and even a lessened ability to operate are all potential outcomes of improper internet usage – and your employees need to understand this. Make it clear to everyone in your company that online security is a shared responsibility and unidentified behaviour, regardless of how it occurred, will be reported.

Enhance the digital functions of your business

Is your CRM software completely up to scratch? The chances are, we can make it better. If you would like to discuss anything that was mentioned in this article, or understand how Salesforce can help your business, then please get in touch. You can also ring us on 0161 710 3250 directly. You could be our next success story.

Why is Paula Goldman joining Salesforce?

14th January 2019

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Amidst the copious rumours that tech giants in Silicon Valley are misusing artificial intelligence, Salesforce has created a new Office of Ethical and Humane Use of Technology.

The brand-new department will be led by Paula Goldman, who was previously the Vice President of Omidyar Network and a well-respected member of the Salesforce Advisory Council.

U.S tech giant's problematic use of artificial intelligence

Several of America’s largest technology companies have been facing employee protests in the past year, including huge organisations like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Back in the summer of 2018, Google was at the centre of one of their most prolific controversies after thousands of employees penned a letter expressing their dismay over Project Maven. Project Maven involved creating artificial intelligence to monitor drone video footage, which would be used by the US Military in their efforts to counteract terrorism. Google employees warned bosses that carrying out this project will compromise everything the company stands for, writing in the letter “we believe that Google should not be in the business of war”. The letter also reads “amid growing fears of biased and weaponized AI, Google is already struggling to keep the public’s trust”, before making the final point that going ahead with Project Maven will damage the company’s brand “irreparably”.

Salesforce remain vigilant by thinking ahead

It could be argued that if Google had an Ethical and Humane Use officer on their team, the controversy arising from Project Maven would never have occured.

Clearly, Salesforce has observed the chaos happening around them and wisely decided to equip themselves with the likes of Paula Goldman and the new office she will be leading. Goldman has a passion for carrying out acts of social good within businesses and will be helping Salesforce to ‘develop and use products in a way that upholds the human rights of every individual’, according to the website of her new office.

What exactly will Paula Goldman's role entail?

The week starting Monday 7th January will mark Paula Goldman’s official first week at Salesforce, meaning that she is now one full week into her role. We don’t doubt that she will already be inundated with tasks, yet also brimming with ideas about how the company can uphold its exemplary reputation.

In a press release issued by Salesforce, they said Paula’s job is to “develop a strategic framework for the ethical and humane use of technology across Salesforce”.

More specifically, the purpose of her role is to monitor and tackle issues faced by Salesforce as technology develops and the potential grows for products to be used in unpredictable, or even dangerous, ways.

“We’re at an important inflection point as an industry, and I’m excited to work with this team to chart a path forward” Goldman told Salesforce on the day of her hire, adding that she has “long admired Salesforce as a leader in ethical business”.

Salesforce Summer ’18 is here!

11th June 2018

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Summer 2018 is here, in more ways than one. Not only have we been enjoying the summer sun here in Manchester, but the latest release of Salesforce is now available across all production orgs. The most obvious sign of this is that the bear is no longer watering his plants, he is now enjoying a swim. The number of improvements and enhancements to the key Salesforce components is too large to list here – the release notes provided by Salesforce currently run to around 500 pages – but there are a couple of standout features that we here at Sandyx thought worthy of mention.

Salesforce Lightning Report Builder

New for Summer ’18 is the announcement that Lightning Report Builder is no longer a Beta product. If you have Lightning enabled, it is now the default method for creating new reports in Salesforce.com. This feels like it has been a long time coming and our Salesforce Admin is over the moon that she no longer has to suffer the old classic reports interface, shoe-horned into the Lightning UI.

There’s also a matching Admin Permission to make this available to desired Profiles

Paths now available in Cases

Paths is one of the great features that has been introduced in the Lightning Experience. We have found that customers really love them and we build them into nearly every new engagement. They are especially useful in Opportunities and help guide a user through the Sales process – moving Opps from one stage to another. We’ve seen a gradual increase in the number of objects where Paths is available, over the last few Salesforce releases. Summer ’18 has addressed the final big gap – Cases. We can now guide Support Staff through the Case management process, using help and guidance tips.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss any aspects of the latest release, or understand how Salesforce can help your business, then please get in touch. You can also ring us directly on 0161 710 3250