At the end of each month, we take a moment to cover all the great Salesforce content you might not have caught. This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, Mike and Gillian, we have September’s Monthly Retro episode to highlight all the blog posts, videos, and everything else from this month.

Join us as we talk about everything groovy that happened in September.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation between Mike and Gillian.

Learn MOAR about the Winter ‘21 Release

There’s a lot of excitement building around the Winter ‘21 Release, and we put out a series of five blog posts to help get you up to speed. From Lightning Email Templates to the new improvements to Flow, there’s a lot to learn and we’ve brought it all together in one place so you can dive in.

• Winter ’21 Release Notes
• Learn MOAR with Winter ’21 Release Highlights for Admins
• Learn MOAR in Winter ’21 With Lightning Email Templates
• Learn MOAR in Winter ’21 with Salesforce Flow
• Learn MOAR in Winter ’21 with Einstein Bots
• Learn MOAR in Winter ’21 With The Optimizer App
• Learn MOAR Winter '21 for Admins Trailmix
• Release Readiness LIVE, Winter ‘21

#LowCodeLove

If you’re looking to uplevel your skills and take advantage of all the great tools Salesforce has to offer, spend some time with our #LowCodeLove content. We cover Flow Builder, how you can more effectively drive change management, and what you can do to create a multi-layer security strategy in your org.

• Low Code Love - Innovate Fast by Getting Hands-on with Flow Builder
• Low Code Love - Drive Change Management With New Tools
• Low Code Love - Maintain a Secure Org and Scale With Confidence

Podcasts

This month, we tackled security on the pod. We learn all about MFA, SSO, and all the best practices and tips for how you can protect your org. We also had a great conversation with Tiffany Thomas about how her work as a business analyst helps her be a great Salesforce admin.

• Trust Champion: Prag Ravichandran Kamalaveni
• Security Q&A with Laura and Kerry
• Think like a Salesforce Business Analyst with Tiffany Thomas

Content Retro

Take a moment to journey back into the past with us and look at what was going on two years ago, four years ago, and five years ago, including the Awesome Admin Dance, Admin stories, and the first time we had a stage of our own in the very first Admin Zone.

2 years ago:

• Get Ready for the Awesome Admin Challenge at Dreamforce 2018
• Discover Your AwesomeAdmin Superpower (Quiz Broken)

4 years ago:

• Admin Stories
• Defining Your Role as a Salesforce Admin
• What Type of Salesforce Admin are You?

Listen to the full episode so you don’t miss our recap of all the groovy songs and movies we loved from the ‘70s.

Social

• Salesforce Admins: @SalesforceAdmns 
• Mike: @MikeGerholdt
• Gillian: @GillianKBruce

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

 

Full Show Transcript

For this episode of the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re joined by Tiffany Thomas, Senior Salesforce Business Analyst at New York Life Insurance. We learn how getting your users to collaborate can have a huge impact on buy-in and adoption.

Join us as we talk about why active listening and good communication skills are the foundation of being an effective BA, how that’s changed with more remote users than ever before, and why it’s so important to remind your users that they are the experts on their own business processes.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Tiffany Thomas.

SABWA? More like SABZA.

Tiffany always knew she had an interest in technology, but it wasn’t until she got a chance email from PepUp Tech that she got a chance to make those dreams a reality. “PepUp Tech is an amazing organization that inspires and empowers underrepresented people by teaching technology skills, such as Salesforce,” she says, “and also provides a strong network of support to help people launch a successful career in tech.”

These days, Tiffany is focused on a new challenge: migrating her org from Classic to Lightning. “We’re not just taking everything that was in our old house and bringing it to our new house,” she says. She’s in charge of meeting with all fourteen service teams to go over their business processes—especially in light of more people working remotely—and creating user stories around them. In other words, Tiffany does SABWA (Salesforce Administration By Walking Around) as a job, though these days it’s maybe more like SABZA (Salesforce Administration by Zooming Around).

Maintaining business relationships in a remote environment.

When Tiffany first started at New York Life, financial services was a new industry for her. That meant she had to really understand what her users are trying to do and what their workflows look like. Most importantly, she was able to ask why they do what they do, and understand what’s important and what’s not.

Prior to COVID-19, New York Life already had employees working from home, so Tiffany had experience helping those users through Salesforce. However, one thing that’s been different is not getting the chance to run into people and find out what’s on their mind. “For me, the most important thing was trying to maintain the relationships I’ve built with my users and letting them still feel like they’re playing a part because they are,” she says.

The two skills every BA needs.

Tiffany is a Business Analyst working in Salesforce, and she has a couple of tips for how to harness a little BA magic for yourself. “One of the most important skills that a business analyst can have is being an active listener,” she says, “listen to understand.” You might not know all of the business processes, but being able to hear what your users say and understand the Why behind it can go a long way.

The other key skill is effective communication. “Communicating back what you’re hearing will help when you’re trying to get buy-in,” Tiffany says. “I like to start each meeting reminding my users that they are the experts in that business process,” she says, which brings them into a collaboration with her on how to improve their workflow and, ultimately, helps drive adoption.

Trailhead:

• Best Practices for Working from Home
• Virtual Collaboration
•  

Social:

• Salesforce Admins: @SalesforceAdmns 
• Gillian: @GillianKBruce
• Mike: @MikeGerholdt

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

Full Show Transcript

Gillian Bruce:
Welcome to the Salesforce Admins podcast, where we talk about product, community and careers to help you be an awesome admin. I'm Gillian Bruce.

Mike Gerholdt:
And I'm Mike Gerholdt.

Gillian Bruce:
And today we are talking to Tiffany Thomas. She is a senior Salesforce business analyst at the New York Life Insurance Company in New York. And we had Tiffany hop on the pod to talk about how to think like a BA or a business analyst. It's very helpful for admins. She had some great tips. And so without further ado, let's welcome Tiffany to the podcast.

Gillian Bruce:
Tiffany, welcome to the podcast.

Tiffany Thomas:
Thank you so much for having me.

Gillian Bruce:
Well, I'm very happy you took the time to join us. I wanted to get you on the podcast to talk a little bit about the idea of being a business analyst and kind of what that means for being an admin. But before we get into that, can you give us kind of a brief overview of your journey to Salesforce?

Tiffany Thomas:
Yes. My journey to Salesforce actually started about three years ago. I was working full time in high education and I've always had an interest in technology. During the last year of my Master's program, I joined some tech mailing lists just to do as much as I possibly can so I could break into this industry. A little while after, I received an email about this program that helps people start their careers in tech. And of course I applied immediately and that program was PepUp Tech. PepUp Tech is an amazing organization that inspires and empowers underrepresented people by teaching technology skills, such as Salesforce and also provides a strong network of support to how people launch a successful career in tech.

Tiffany Thomas:
I was accepted into the program in October 2018 and Selina Suarez, one of the founders was my instructor. I was in the program for about 10 weeks and over the course of those 10 weeks, I learned about the Salesforce platform, I built a recruiting app and really began networking with members in the community. And I learned this after the fact that the reason why I was even able to know about this PepUp Tech is because of a partnership that CUNY and PepUp Tech had. And that was spearheaded by a PepUp Tech alum, Shaquille Cameron. That's how everything came to life with that. I'm like, oh my goodness. I didn't know it until I actually heard his story on the podcast. I'm like, wow. It's just really amazing, things that we can get from PepUp Tech and that an organization like PepUp Tech exists. That's how I broke into Salesforce.

Gillian Bruce:
I love that Shaquille was one of the vehicles that led you to the Salesforce ecosystem. That's pretty awesome. I didn't know that.

Mike Gerholdt:
Yeah. I think it's really cool also that there was more than one vehicle. I think, hearing that intro, Tiffany, I'm always struck by when you read on the community, everybody's like, what's the one thing you did? Well, it wasn't one thing, it was multiple things and multiple introductions, which is kind of how the community blankets people, I guess I'll say.

Gillian Bruce:
Right. Blanket is good, Mike, I like that.

Mike Gerholdt:
Well we're heading into fall so it's blanket season.

Gillian Bruce:
It is. Tiffany, tell me a little bit, so now, you've been introduced to the Salesforce ecosystem in a few ways, by some really amazing people and by amazing programs, what are you doing with Salesforce now?

Tiffany Thomas:
Oh, with Salesforce now, one of the biggest thing is working on the move to Lightning. We're still in classic and right now I am meeting with the user. I work at New York Life. I've been at New York Life for about a year and I'm approaching my milestone, my year and a half milestone next month. That's pretty exciting.

Gillian Bruce:
That's awesome. Congrats.

Tiffany Thomas:
Thank you. Thank you. And, okay, so we're moving into the new org and we're not just taking everything that's in our old house and bringing it into our new house. No. I'm actually responsible for meeting with the service users. There's about 14 different service teams and I would meet with them, go over their business processes, see if anything has changed with the move from working in the office to now 99% remote and just trying to solidify those requirements, create user stories around them and working in concert with the development team to build out some of those requirements in an innovative fashion. That's the biggest thing that takes up the majority of my time. That's what I'm doing with Salesforce right now.

Mike Gerholdt:
You do like SABWA as a job?

Tiffany Thomas:
Yes.

Mike Gerholdt:
Salesforce administration by maybe, oh SABZA, Salesforce administration by Zooming around.

Tiffany Thomas:
Yes. Financial services is new to me. Stepping into insurance, specifically, everything was new. And one of the things that I did is I met with my users and just sat with them, show me how you do this. How do you process this transaction? Why are we doing it this way? What is the importance of this? And there was a lot of value in that, in that my team, the users were able to show me how they do their job. And more importantly, I was able to learn from them as well. And it just made for a really great, start off a great professional relationship. I started to build that with the different team members across the service department.

Mike Gerholdt:
Tiffany, I'm curious, was it more important for you to be in tech or more important for you to be in financial services? When you were choosing this as a career and as a path, I think sometimes people try to marry the two, but often one is more important. Which kind of weighed on you as you thought about taking this position?

Tiffany Thomas:
That is a great question. It was important for me to break into technology, but I also have a bachelor's in finance so it was almost a perfect fit in a sense that yes, here come this bachelor's degree in finance and this interest in technology and throughout my journey, I've actually been doing business analysis, even though I didn't know it was called business analysis at the time, I was doing it. It just seemed, it was beautiful how it came together. It was a perfect fit. Now I'm a BA and I'm working in technology and financial services. I could pull on those different experiences to help me in my current role.

Gillian Bruce:
It's amazing how, when you fall into these situations in life, where you get to use both kind of the areas of expertise and what you care about, it's pretty amazing. Good for you, Tiffany. It's really great. You did the work to get there. Like you said, you had your bachelor's in finance and then, you're really passionate about breaking into tech and kind of did all of the things that you needed to do to kind of open those doors and get there so go good for you. But it does, it takes work to kind of get those things aligned.

Gillian Bruce:
One of the things that you mentioned, Tiffany, on things that you're using Salesforce for is adjusting to kind of this 99% remote life that all your users are doing. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the challenges that you've had to overcome to make that happen? It sounds like, as Mike said, you're doing a lot of SABZA, Salesforce administration by Zooming around, and kind of figuring out what users need to get their jobs done with this kind of new environment. Can you talk maybe a little about a couple of the challenges that surprised you or that you've come across in kind of this transition?

Tiffany Thomas:
Sure. One of the good things I would say is prior to COVID, we actually had remote workers. We were using Skype and for users that were working remotely, I would meet with them via Skype to just see what their business processes were. The challenging or the part I had to get adjusted to was users that were in the office because I was headquartered in New York City and we had quite a few people that would work in the office and those random interactions that you would have with people just by seeing them, that is something that I had to adjust to in the now well, 99% remote environment and still building and maintaining those relationships that I have with the users. Now that they're not seeing me day to day and seeing my face.

Tiffany Thomas:
With Zoom and Skype, yes, we could get on the camera and see each other and go over the business requirements or any new things that may have come up since we moved working remotely. And then of course, with the technology issues, sometimes they don't always work. That's always a challenge, but for me, what the most important thing was trying to maintain those relationships that I've had with the users and letting them still feel that they are playing a part because they truly are. I value what they have to say and their business processes and any areas that we can possibly improve on. Just making sure that they feel heard in that regard and maintaining those relationships. And we're doing pretty well, given the circumstances.

Gillian Bruce:
That's awesome. Yeah. I think, finding a way to maintain those relationships with technology exclusively is a challenge, but congrats to you on doing the work to make that happen. Now, one of the things that you said that I thought was really interesting is having your users feel like they're a part of it. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? I know your role is kind of a business analyst and realizing that you've been doing this for a long, basically being a BA for a long time. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of having your users feel like they're part of what you're doing and how you accomplish that?

Tiffany Thomas:
Sure. In order to accomplish that, I think one of the most important skills that a business analyst could have is being an active listener, in that for me, I listen to understand. As I mentioned earlier, I was new to this industry and as a BA especially, you may not know all of that business' processes, especially if it's a brand new industry. You're not going to know everything and just being able, so listen, so what those processes are and listen to really understand what it is and not necessarily to solve for the pain point right there, but listen enough to understand so you could then communicate that back to your users is helpful. And that's another important skill, being an effective communicator. Now that you have an understanding of your users' business processes, yes communicate back what you're hearing and then that will help when I'm trying to get buy in. That's what I found.

Tiffany Thomas:
And I would say things like, "Well, what I'm hearing is," or, "this is my understanding of the process, please, correct me if I misstate anything or if what I'm stating is incorrect." I give them that opportunity. And I like to start each meeting letting my users know that they are the experts because they truly are. They live and breathe this during their workday. They are the experts in that business process or those several business processes. And I say that because I believe it and I want them to feel a part of it. And I appreciate those type of environments where we're coming together, understanding what the problem is and we're working together on a solution.

Tiffany Thomas:
And what I found is that that helps with driving adoption, because here you have this subject matter expert who told you what the problem was, worked on the solution with you and now they're going to train, let's say their teammates on that new process. And it just, it's been a really great experience so far and I think it's important as we're building out solutions for our users that we remember it's for a user or for a group of users, for a human I like to say it and not just, oh, this is great for the system, but it's your users that would have to use it on a day to day. Getting their buy in is important.

Mike Gerholdt:
Tiffany, I'd be curious to know, it sounds like your job was mostly in the office and somewhat remote and now, users are working from home. You're most likely working from home. What adjustments have you made to be in the Zoom? I think I heard it on the news the other day, the Zoom culture that we live in, what adjustments have you made to show that you're being an active listener and a good communicator? Because I find that there's some fidelity loss in a webcam.

Tiffany Thomas:
True. For me, I nod, even while we're here on this podcast. I nod to show that I'm listening because I am. I'm listening. And then there's some moments where I may like put up a finger because wait, I have a question. Let's pause right there. They still get to see, I would say, your personality. That human part of it, even though we're in front of screen and we're seeing each other on camera, so trying to keep some of the human elements to it, I find helpful. And then, now they have those, wave or raise your hand, but I actually raise my hand on the camera, if we're on camera or if we're not on camera, I will say, "Wait, wait, can we just pause here for a second? And let's step back for a little bit."

Tiffany Thomas:
But using language such as that, but when they're seeing you on the camera, it does help break down some of that, I guess, barriers, if you will, that makes this in a remote environment. It's not as, I guess, it's not that it's not user friendly, but it's missing certain human elements, but we just adjust. It's temporary. We don't know how long, but we just adjust and we're here for a reason and we're going to solve it and work toward that solution.

Gillian Bruce:
I think, that whole idea of active listening and letting your users or whoever you're talking with, we know that you're engaged. I think it's really important. I think those are some great tips for how to do that in a remote world. One of the other things that I heard you talk about was getting users to train and enable other users. Kind of creating those kind of those champions or those kind of mini evangelists within your organization. What are some of the ways that you've been able to do that? Because I know that's kind of a secret to success, especially in this world, where it's all about the relationships and you can't have Zoom meetings with every single person in your company. How have you been successful in kind of creating those enablers or those implementers, kind of your super users, if you will?

Tiffany Thomas:
I think one of the benefit is this project that we're working on with the new org. What I would do, I tell the team leads. There is a junior team lead and a senior team lead on this project that we're working on. And I do let them know their importance, what the expectation is that I have of them, which is they will come to us with process improvement ideas, any problems that they have regarding the current state and any ideas for the future state. And I do let them know that they are the leaders of this. You will be leading this, you will be training people on it. And what I find is it gives people an opportunity to step into leadership in a sense because let's say your primary job is a call center representative, for example. Now, you're doing something that's a little outside of your primary function, but it's something that you want to do. You've expressed interest in it.

Tiffany Thomas:
What I do, I tap into that, I'm like, okay, well, here's what we're doing regarding this state. We're in the initial state of the project. Right now we're just solidifying the requirements and then building it out. And I let my users know that. The next stage is when we develop and after we've tested it, they too, the leaders that we have selected, will be part of that. I do let them know what's coming and if they have any questions or concerns, I ask them. I answer whatever those concerns may be. And for the most part, the people are excited about this because we're all in this remote environment. And well, how do I still show up? And how do I still lead when no one can't see me? And I think that's what we're addressing here with giving the team leads this opportunity, because they're going back to their teams and asking their teams, "Hey, this is what we've been thinking about. What other things have you thought about?" Everyone gets to input on that. And then the team leads will bring it back to my team and we'll collaborate again with it.

Tiffany Thomas:
I think that that helps, building those relationships and making everyone feel included and getting your users to step into those leadership positions in a sense, or those leadership roles that they wouldn't normally step into in a different environment or if they were just focusing on their day to day. Little projects like this helps. And if you have let's say, multiple projects happening at the same time, maybe you could pull on a different user. Now you're giving exposure to other people who've shown interest in learning more about technology or just even just stepping outside of their role. That would be my advice to get users to do it.

Gillian Bruce:
I like that, giving other people chances to shine and lead. I think that's a really good way of framing it. And I like how you say you set the expectations at the outset. Of here's what it's going to mean of you and here are the opportunities it may provide for you and all that. I think that's really great.

Gillian Bruce:
Tiffany, I'm wondering what tips do you have for admins who may be thinking a business analyst might be new to them. What are some things that you have that might help an admin kind of put on or learn about how to use a business analyst mindset?

Tiffany Thomas:
Oh, I'll have to go back to listening. And it's a little bit difficult because with the platform, so for example, if the user comments are saying, "I'm getting email notifications from this group, another group and the format is completely different or it doesn't have the information that I need and I always have to go back or pull it up." I think when we hear something like that, we're automatically thinking, okay, this may be a use case for, let's say an email template or an email alert. That can help standardize that process. But what's really important here is we need to understand why is this a problem? It's that why and I think that's what's really helpful. That's what admins can tap into, as opposed to someone coming to us and saying, "Hey, well create this check box and create this field." And we don't understand the why or what is this checkbox? Or what is this field going to solve?

Tiffany Thomas:
By tapping into what is it going to solve will help us better understand the business process and what is it we are being asked to do as admin. I think we need to listen and ask them those questions why. Why are we doing this? But ask it in a nice way. and let them know you're not trying to offend them, but it's really, I'm trying to understand what we're solving for here. What is the problem? Let's step back. Let's go back to the beginning. What is the problem? And why is this a problem? Because the way I tie it, I will make an analogy here. You wouldn't want to go to a doctor and they just started prescribing you medication without first hearing what your problem is so don't do that to your users.

Gillian Bruce:
That's a great analogy. I love that. I love that. Tiffany, this has been so great. Thank you for sharing on the podcast. Thank you for the expertise that you bring and the real, tangible, tactical tips that you shared, I think are going to be very helpful about active listening, especially in a remote environment, how to empower your users to empower each other and lift each other up. I think that's these are all really great. I really appreciate your time and sharing with us.

Tiffany Thomas:
Thank you so much, Gillian and Mike, I appreciate speaking to you both today.

Mike Gerholdt:
It was great speaking with you. And turn on your webcams. That's what I learned. One of the things.

Tiffany Thomas:
Yes. And I would say one more thing here. If you want a webcam enabled meeting, let people know ahead of time, because I think there's a lot of pressure every time people see Zoom, the expectation is they're going to be on camera. But if you set it up in the offset, in your meeting invite, hey, I really want everyone to be on camera for this meeting, it gives them an opportunity to prepare, instead of you just forcing this on them when they're in a meeting. Turn on your webcam. No, wait, I'm not ready yet. That's one other, I guess, tip.

Gillian Bruce:
Hey, I appreciate that. Especially as a female who likes to brush my hair, maybe put on some lip gloss, that's fair.

Tiffany Thomas:
I need to know what I'm getting into.

Gillian Bruce:
Excellent. Well, thank you again so much, Tiffany. I really appreciate it. And thanks for sharing all your expertise with our amazing admin community.

Tiffany Thomas:
Thank you so much you guys.

Mike Gerholdt:
It was great to meet with Tiffany and Gillian, thanks for setting that up. I loved the discussion that we had with her. Few things that stood out for me. One, Tiffany did a really great job of combining her education. She had a BA in finance with her new found tech career. And I think as I mentioned in the interview, that's one of the things that I always get asked and Gillian, I'm sure you get asked as well is, how do we decide what industry we can go into because Salesforce works in most every industry. I like that she found the industry that she was both passionate and knowledgeable about, to combine her tech knowledge.

Mike Gerholdt:
And then the second thing, one of the keys to Tiffany success, as she mentioned, was being an active listener and being a good communicator and even more so in this era, the Zoom culture that we live in, where we have to do a lot of listening. And we also have to do a lot of active communicating. I think it might be a few more times that I'm going to start raising my hand on calls when I have questions to bring up because that's a good way to get everybody's attention.

Mike Gerholdt:
And the third thing that stood out and it's something that we often forget because as Salesforce admins, we're experts in our field, but remember, when we're talking to our users, they're really experts in the process that they're helping to manage and that they're helping to make better. As you be a good active listener, as you be a good communicator, this is one of those times when you can sit back and talk with them because this is the process that they work with and that they're really trying to make better every single day, as are you.

Mike Gerholdt:
Now, if you want to learn more about all things Salesforce admin, go to admin.salesforce.com to find more resources. And as a reminder, if you pop on over to iTunes, please give us a review. Honestly, that helps the iTunes algorithm move the podcast up so that more admins can find this amazing podcast and hear all of the great stories like Tiffany Thomas. You can stay up to date with us on social for all things admins. We are @SalesforceAdmns, no I, on Twitter. You can find me on Twitter. I am @MikeGerholdt and of course Gillian is @GillianKBruce. With that, stay safe, stay awesome and stay tuned for the next episode. We'll see you in the cloud.

Gillian Bruce:
Let's do this. Tiffany, Oh yes, Mike?

Mike Gerholdt:
Nothing.

Gillian Bruce:
All right.

Mike Gerholdt:
We've been doing this for a while. It's always funny when one of us is like, okay, we're getting serious now.

Gillian Bruce:
Yeah. Mike.

 

This week on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re bringing on Laura Pelkey, Senior Manager of Security Customer Engagement at Salesforce, as a guest interviewer to talk to Kerry Schoepfle, Salesforce Engineer at Rackspace, and a member of our new Trust Champions program. We learn all about Multi-Factor Authentication and how you can use it in your org.

Join us as we talk about how important MFA is to security and how easy it is to implement, how to make it easy for your users to buy in, and how to make security fun.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Laura Pelkey and Kerry Schoepfle.

Why every org should consider MFA

Kerry first got started in Salesforce working as a Certified Financial Planner at a wealth management firm. “We used Salesforce to keep track of client information and assign operational tasks, but I knew there was so much more we could be leveraging the platform for,” she says. Since her firm didn’t have a dedicated admin, Kerry thought she’d give it a go and quickly discovered that she enjoyed building on the platform, so much so that she decided to change careers.

At the firm, Kerry was super excited to roll out MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), which provides an extra layer of security to your Salesforce login process. This requires users to verify their identity with two or more pieces of evidence to show they are who they say they are. There’s even a free Salesforce Authenticator App which you can download to your mobile device to make the adopting MFA as easy as possible with no coding required. Securing your customers’ data has never been easier.

Making adoption easy for your users

With security, it’s helpful to think in terms of layers. “In the security world,” Laura says, “this is called a Defense in Depth security strategy (DiD).” What can be difficult is getting buy-in from users as to why these extra steps are so essential. “As admins, I think we have a responsibility to be thoughtful and deliberate with the changes we make to our end-users’ experience,” Kerry says, “people can be resistant to change, especially if they don’t understand the reasons behind those changes.”

For Kerry, the answer is to always focus on how to make things as easy as possible for her users. She created a one-page job aid with instructions on how to download the Salesforce Authenticator App, and also spent time with each department to answer any questions they may have had. “Once the users were educated on the benefits of Multi-Factor Authentication, understood how it would protect them and our clients, and saw how easy it was to use, we really had strong adoption,” she says.

How to make security fun

One thing Kerry did to encourage adoption was to gamify the process a little bit by encouraging some friendly competition between departments. Think creatively about how to make the process fun, whether that’s hosting a launch party, or making special videos reminding people that changes are coming. “There’s lots of ways out there to get buy-in from your users by adding a little fun, gamified aspect to it,” Kerry says.

Making MFA a reality means getting buy-in from leadership, and that starts with educating yourself so you can make the case for the benefits of implementing it. Kerry recommends hitting up Trailhead and the Trailblazer community to get started. “Connect with other individuals who have experience with implementing MFA, get their feedback,” she says. There are a number of options for MFA, so think about what makes sense for your org and you can make a strong case to leadership.

Links:

• Can you Secure the ‘Force?
• MFA - Getting Started Trailblazer Community
• Admin Guide to Multi-Factor Authentication
• Video - Set Up a 2-Factor Authentication Requirement for Your Org

Trailhead:

• User Authentication

Social:

• Salesforce Admins: @SalesforceAdmns 
• Laura: @LauraPelkey1 
• Kerry: @tinytrailmix
• Gillian: @GillianKBruce
• Mike: @MikeGerholdt

Love our podcasts?

Subscribe today or review us on iTunes!

Full Show Transcript

Gillian Bruce: Welcome to the Salesforce admins podcast, where we talk about product, community and careers to help you be an awesome admin. I'm Gillian Bruce.

Mike Gerholdt: And I'm Mike Gerholdt.

Gillian Bruce: And today we are talking about security, a very near and dear topic to all of us Salesforce admins, because we know, well Salesforce trust is our number one value. And I know as a Salesforce admin, it is one of your top priorities for your organization.
So we are featuring a guest interviewer and a guest today. We have Laura Pelkey, who is a senior manager of security customer engagement here at Salesforce. She's been on the pod many, many years ago, and she is helping pioneer our new trust champions program. You've heard [Prague] on the podcast a little while back, who is one of our trust champions, and we got Laura on the pod because Hey, she's a security expert here at Salesforce, and we wanted her to highlight another amazing trust champion, Kerry [Shefali 00:01:14]. So without further ado, Laura, take it away.

Laura Pelkey: Thanks, Gillian and Mike. Hi everyone. My name is Laura Pelkey. I am on the security communications and engagement team here at Salesforce. And my job is to talk to customers and partners about how they can secure their Salesforce data. So I'm really excited to be here today with one of our amazing trust champions, Kerry Shefali. And we're going to talk a little bit about Kerry's story with security and just get to know her a little bit more. So hi, Kerry, how are you doing today?

Kerry: Hi, Laura. I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on the podcast. It's a pleasure to be here.

Laura Pelkey: Yeah. So excited. So just to get things kicked off, I'd love to hear a little bit about how you got started as a Salesforce admin?

Kerry: Yeah, it's been an exciting journey. I was working as a certified financial planner at a wealth management firm, and we used Salesforce to keep track of client information and assign operational tasks, but I knew there was so much more, we could be leveraging the platform for. We didn't have a dedicated admin, so I took the opportunity to start learning the admin tools myself, and I rolled up my sleeves, hit the trails on Trailhead and discovered that I really enjoyed building solutions on the platform to solve business needs. So that sort of prompted my career pivot from certified financial planner to becoming a Salesforce admin. And now I'm a four time Trailhead ranger, I have six certifications and it's been a lot of fun.

Laura Pelkey: That is awesome. That is definitely quite a pivot, but I love that you who were able to utilize Trailhead and just kind of learn everything you needed to learn and be successful. That's great. So as I mentioned, a few seconds ago, you recently joined Salesforce's trust champions program. Can you tell us a little bit about one of your favorite security related projects that you run as an admin?

Kerry: Yeah. So one of my favorite security related projects is when I rolled out Multi-Factor Authentication or MFA, at the wealth management firm, in order to add an extra layer of security to protect our orgs data. So MFA adds an extra layer of security to your Salesforce login process by requiring users to verify their identity with two or more pieces of evidence or factors to prove they are who they say they are.
So these factors are something the user knows, like their username and password, plus something they have like the code from an authentication app, on a mobile device or physical security key. So we use the Salesforce authenticator app, which is free and can be downloaded to your mobile device. And there's some initial configuration necessary, but it's a very straightforward process for admins to set up. There's no coding required. And once it's configured users will receive a push notification on their device every time they log into Salesforce and with a single click, those users can either approve or deny the login.
And MFA is really a very effective way to add that extra layer of security to your orgs data. Because even if an attacker or what we call a bad actor were to obtain a user's login name and password, it's highly unlikely that they would also have access to that mobile device as a second factor. So they'd be blocked from gaining access to your org. And what I love about the trust champions program is the focus on educating Salesforce, admins and users about the benefits of MFA, as well as providing resources for admins every step of the way.

Laura Pelkey: Well, we are so excited that you were willing to join our trust champions program. This is a newer program that we just started here at Salesforce, and I'm really excited about all the great things that you champions are going to accomplish.
So it sounds like MFA is kind of a magical thing that helps protect you against some really just common things that we face nowadays with security, like phishing attacks. So that's great that you decided to roll that out at your company. Can I ask, what made you decide to implement MFA?

Kerry: Sure. So as we all know, and Salesforce holds very important, customer trust is a sensitive topic for companies in every industry, but particularly when you're talking about access to someone's personal and financial information, it doesn't really get much more sensitive than that. And at the time we decided to implement MFA, there were some high profile data breaches in the news that impacted millions of people's financial information. So this sort of prompted us to examine our own security practices and evaluate how we could best protect our client data. Obviously, the threat landscape is constantly changing, It's a lot to keep up with, but it was clear to us that user credentials alone are no longer adequate to guard against unauthorized account access.
So we chose to implement MFA specifically because it's an effective way to add another layer of security to our environment. It was something that we could implement quickly, and because it was the right action to take for the duty that we have to our clients.

Laura Pelkey: That's awesome. And you mentioned an added layer, and I just want to call that out. We definitely think about security in terms of layers, and the more layers you have, the more secure you are basically. And this is called, in the security world, it's called a defense in depth security strategy. So I love that you brought that up and MFA is definitely a really important layer of security for really any account.
So this definitely sounds like a little bit of an undertaking rolling out MFA. I know there is several components to doing something like this and getting all of your users to adopt MFA. What was the most challenging part of rolling this out for you, would you say?

Kerry: As admins I think we have a responsibility to be thoughtful and deliberate with the changes we make to our end users experience. Now people can be resistant to change, especially if they don't understand the reasons behind those changes. We're probably all guilty of operating on autopilot at times, and any deviation from that can seem disruptive. So I really tried to make it as easy for the users as possible. I created a one page job aid with instructions on how to download the Salesforce authenticator app. And I spent time with each department in order to answer questions, provide assistance, and just sort of walk them through that process.
And once the users were educated on the benefits of Multi-Factor Authentication, understood how it would protect them and our clients, and saw how easy it was to use, we really had strong adoption.

Laura Pelkey: That's awesome. Yeah. I know one of, probably the biggest deterrence for admins to implement MFA is probably the work that's involved, getting your users to actually use it. And I would say, it is definitely a little bit of an undertaking initially, but after the second time a user logs in, it's just kind of second nature. I want people to feel who are listening and who might be interested in MFA that it's a little bit of an undertaking at first, but it definitely is worth it in the long run, and users get used to it pretty quickly.

Kerry: Absolutely.

Laura Pelkey: Yeah. So security can kind of be a bit of a dry topic you can say for users and for even some admins, it's not necessarily the most exciting thing. And you said this also Kerry, sometimes it's just not a huge priority for users, especially. What are some ways that you have made security fun for users or made using MFA a little bit more fun or the rollout? How did you kind of make that appealing to your users?

Kerry: I think we made it fun by keeping it simple. We've really put the focus on reducing the potential for user frustration by having strong communication about the change over a period of weeks before we actually implemented it. So depending on the version of Salesforce that you have, there's some flexibility when implementing MFA that can help you strategize your rollout. You can roll it out to all of your users at once, or you can adopt a phased approach, which is what we did. So we had a smaller group of pilot users that we implemented first, and we walked them through the initial setup and collected their feedback before rolling it out across departments.
But once we did roll it out to other teams, we tried to gamify the process as much as we could and add some friendly competition just to see which department it could reach full adoption first. But there are other ways that you can introduce some fun into implementing MFA as well. You could have a launch party, you could send out special videos reminding people that the change is coming up. There's lots of ways out there to sort of get the buy in from the users, by adding a little fun gamified aspect to it.

Laura Pelkey: I love that you talk about gamification. We are huge fans of that at Salesforce and especially on the security team here. Some of the listeners that are tuning in today may have attended a Dreamforce or Trailheadx where we ran a game called secure the force, which is kind of something that I am a big fan of which sort of gamifies learning about how to secure a Salesforce org.
And so I can speak to this firsthand. If you want to make security engaging, make it into a game. I love the idea of having different department's kind of competing against each other to adopt MFA and even having a launch party. I know, at Salesforce we use MFA as well. And when we started having employees use that years ago, we had some internal events where we were trying to build awareness internally and make it fun and appealing, and you can give away some prizes to like the first some number of people who downloaded the Salesforce authenticator app. So there's definitely things you can do and ways you can make security a little bit more fun for your users.
Now kind of going from the user perspective over to the leadership perspective. So admins are often required to work with IT teams or technology leadership to implement these larger changes to their org. What advice would you give to an admin who's trying to get buy in from leadership in order to implement MFA?

Kerry: The first step I would say, would be to educate yourself as an admin. There's a great Trailhead module called user authentication, that provides a lot of information on the background of why MFA is so important. And it also gives admins the hands on opportunity to implement MFA in a Trailhead playground or a developer org. And then I would say to leverage the amazing trailblazer community, connect with other individuals who have experience with implementing MFA, get their feedback. There's a great community group called MFA getting started, that has linked to a lot of excellent resources. There's an implementation video and admin setup guide ebook. And then after you reviewed these resources, you can evaluate the implementation options within MFA, think about really what makes sense for your organization.
So this could be based on your number of users, your number of geographic locations, or if you're already using tools like single sign on at your organization. So yes, you'll definitely want to coordinate with your leadership, with your IT department to determine the best approach. And of course, finally, you'll want to make sure that you communicate that plan to your users, preferably in multiple methods, whether it's a job aid or email communication during staff meetings or creating short videos, you want to make sure your users are informed about the changes so that they can make simple the processes simple for them as possible.

Laura Pelkey: Yeah, that's really good to point that out. Communication is key. So I think you also mentioned earlier doing a phased approach when rolling out MFA, and I think that's super important as well. We look often at who would account have the highest level of privilege or access you can think of. Who has the most access at your company inside of Salesforce? And that would most likely be a Salesforce admin or the equivalent of an admin and an executive probably. So I think getting buy in from executives and also having them be part of your pilot group is a great way to do that. Just demonstrating how important it is to secure their access and the accounts that have very high access is a good thing to point out.
And we do have some resources. Salesforce has created a bunch of resources to kind of help walk you through how to have these conversations and the change management that is involved with this kind of a rollout. So we'll be creating some of these and releasing some of them soon to help admins who are maybe interested in rolling out MFA, but aren't sure how to handle the change management aspect.
So Kerry, last question for you. If someone listening is considering implementing MFA, what would be one piece of advice you would give them?

Kerry: So I would say to educate yourself as an admin, that way you can have all the tools in your arsenal, then be prepared to have those conversations with your leadership, be prepared to have those conversations with your users. Tap into the Ohana, get in touch with people who have already rolled out MFA. The Ohana, as we all know, lots of help. So post your questions to that MFA getting started group. There's also the Salesforce trust website. That's at trust.salesforce.com. It has a lot of great tools and resources for admins. So I would start there.

Laura Pelkey: Awesome. Yes, we are here to help. There are resources that are out there and also don't feel afraid to contact your success manager or post questions in the trailblazer community. We're here to answer your questions and to help with this process.
So Kerry, thank you so much for joining us. I really loved chatting with you about your experience rolling out MFA and with security. And I appreciate you coming on the podcast.

Kerry: Thanks for having me, Laura. It's been a lot of fun.

Laura Pelkey: Yeah. So I will hand it back over to Gillian and Mike.

Mike Gerholdt: So it is great to meet Kerry, and I'm so thankful that Laura could jump in and be our guest interviewer this week. I do think everybody who enjoyed this podcast should tweet Laura, ask her to come back, we're always happy to have a guest host, especially when we're talking about really fun things like security.
So, let's get into the three things that I learned and I'm sure you learned as well from our discussion with Laura and Kerry. So first MFA is an important layer of security and can be implemented without code. That second part super important, I think, because it's very empowering to know you can implement a layer of security without code. Making change is easy for users to understand the benefits and always think about what's in it for them. So a lot of change can be very difficult, but always think of that benefit for, what's in it for them.
And of course, if you didn't get from the interview, Laura and Kerry loved to have fun with security. Make it fun for your users, keep it simple, reduce user frustration with a lot of communications. I think Gillian, we say that a lot in all of our presentations for admins, it's all about communication, communication, communication. And think about a phased approach. Maybe gamify it with a friendly composite competition. I'm always a fan of doing that. It's a good reason for you to put out a chatter post every now and then.
Now if you want to learn more about all things, Salesforce admin go to admin.salesforce.com to find more resources. And as a reminder, you love what you hear, be sure to pop on over to iTunes, give us a review. That helps other admins find us when they're looking for something to listen to. So, you're helping other admins by giving us a review, I promise. And you can stay up to date with us on social for all things, Salesforce admins, we are @SalesforceAdmns on Twitter. You can find our guest hosts, Laura Pelkey on Twitter, she is @Laurapelkey1. Of course, I'm @MikeGerholdt on Twitter. And Gillian is @Gilliankbruce.
So that, stay safe, stay awesome and stay tuned for the next episode. We'll see you in the cloud.

Gillian Bruce: Tadaa. Yeah, I'll take a drink of water too. It sounds good.

Mike Gerholdt: Oh, it's coffee.

Gillian Bruce: Yeah. I could tell by the way you sipped it. Because there's like with coffee, you always do a little bit of like a Slurpee thing. Because it's still a little hot.

Mike Gerholdt: Even if It's not hot, I think you have to do the Slurpee thing.

Gillian Bruce: It's just the way you drink coffee.

Mike Gerholdt: Yeah.

Gillian Bruce: I wouldn't know. I don't drink coffee because God knows what that would look like. Hi, my name is Gillian and I love coffee.

Mike Gerholdt: I know. There would be no periods in your sentence and exclamation points in between every word.

Gillian Bruce: Yeah, it would make transcribing a podcast very difficult.

Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we’re talking to Prag Ravichandran Kamalaveni, Salesforce Lead at CloudKettle. We learn all about the new Trust Champions program, which recognizes trailblazers who have expertise in and champion or advocate for good security practices and effective use of Salesforce technology to protect their company’s data.

Join us as we talk about security best practices, lessons he’s learned about how to roll out Salesforce security features, and what you can do as an admin to get started.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Prag Ravichandran Kamalaveni.

 How Prag became a Trust Champion.

“For many Salesforce admins, security is something that they’re less comfortable with,” Prag says, “so when I started attending and hosting Trailblazer community meetings, most of my topics were around security.” When people started thanking him for helping them understand complex topics, Prag realized he not only had a gift for decoding security on Salesforce but for explaining it to others.

One big tip that Prag has is to use pen and paper before you turn on or off any security feature in Salesforce. “When it comes to security, there’s no user interface for how the sharing works,” Prag says, “so make sure you write down your sharing model and see how data is going to be shared. Spend time on visualizing how security is going to work inside your org.” Take the time to actually map out how everything is going to work to make sure you understand what’s going on.

Practical security tips for your org.

Admins often have god powers in their own orgs, but when it comes to best practices, you want to restrict access across the org and apply the principle of least privilege for user records. “Salesforce provides so many great features on the verification and authentication process,” Prag says, “and my leveraging these features, Salesforce admins can significantly increase the level of security for sensitive operations by raising the users’ permissions to high assurance under session settings.”

A big part of keeping everything secure is taking advantage of the multi-factor authentication (MFA) features that are baked-in to the Salesforce platform. Safeguard access to your user accounts, and make sure that there’s more protecting your accounts than just usernames and passwords written down on a piece of paper somewhere. “As security threats grow increasingly common, it’s essential to implement stronger measures of account security,” Prag says, and he has some tips and tricks for how to get better adoption from users and get buy-in from leadership.

It’s important to remember that these security features are complicated and can often be nonintuitive, but you’re not in this alone. “Look to the community if you need help,” Prag says, “there are thousands of community groups in your local area, so feel free to log in and ask your question.” In the meantime, educate yourself and make sure you understand all of the security features Salesforce offers, and see what you can do to roll them out to your org.

Links:

• Multi-Factor Authentication Quick Guide for Admins

Trailhead:

• Multi-Factor Authentication module
• Security Specialist Superbadge
• #LowCodeLove Security Trailmix

Social:

• Salesforce Admins: @SalesforceAdmns 
• Prag: @Prag_RK
• Gillian: @GillianKBruce
• Mike: @MikeGerholdt

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