Size DOES Matter - in email recipients!

Have you ever noticed, that the number of irrelevant questions you receive in response to an email is directly proportionate to the number of people that are included on the email?

It doesn't really seem to matter if these are people with whom you correspond on a regular basis, who normally have no issues staying on "point", or if they are completely random recipients.

I spent two days composing a very important email, that needed to be reviewed by my director, and then sent to approximately twenty-four separate recipients.

This was a proposed notification process that would involve all of the people which were on the recipient list. All of those people were identified as being someone that needed to know when the development team released any changes to our SFDC production environment. I outlined what the proposal was, and added the nifty "Vote" option to the email to make things easier for everyone.(The proposal was simple... create a new distribution list comprised of all of the people on the list, and everytime we release something, we send an email to that distribution list with a notification of the change and the date/time of the scheduled implementation)

I received two completely irrelevant questions (questions about a separate issue that had nothing to do with the email to which they were responding), and a request for clarification, because the user didn't think that there was any need for that user to have to vote on any of the changes if they weren't affected by the changes.
I've received eight approvals... and the remainder of the twenty-four have not responded at all.

I asked that they vote before 5pm on Wednesday, and set a reminder on the email... I wonder what's going to happen on Wednesday at 4pm when that reminder goes off! (16 random questions?)

8 Layers of Computer Networking

We have implemented a new category for our cases, and called it Layer 8. It was a toss up between that and PICNIC or PEBKAC. But Layer 8 seemed to be the most PC way of saying that it was a user issue not a system issue.

Yesterday a user came to me frantic, because his report "wasn't working". I took a look at the report, and it seemed to be functioning as he wanted. However, there was a field that he was using as a filter, that was showing a "Last Communication" type of something other than what the actual last activity was.

I explained that the problem wasn't the report, it was the value in the field that was being used as a filter, it didn't seem to be updating correctly. He asked me to please fix it ASAP, it was an emergency.

I immediately took some time to look over the code that updates that field. The code specifies, if the last activity on that record was a type in this predetermined list, then update the field "Last Communication". This allows the users to see if we called last, and can now send a fax or an email etc. (we don't want to send too many emails/faxes in a row).

The Type on the Activity that he was using was "Fax". The picklist doesn't include the type of "Fax", it only has "Fax Received" and "Fax Sent". Therefore, the predetermined list on the trigger wasn't seeing his activity entry as a "communication"!

My trigger wasn't malfunctioning! :-)

So, after about 2 hours of searching through my code, and trying to figure out why that field wasn't updating, it turns out that it was actually a "Layer 8" issue!

I explained to the user that the Apex Data Loader will let you put pretty much anything that you want into a picklist field, even if the option doesn't exist when you are adding the activity manually. I advised him that he needed to use one of the predetermined "Types", and provided him a list.

Portal License Predicament

One of my biggest pain points is the fact that I have internal project managers that are able to add client portal users, and I'm not able to keep up with the number of licenses that I currently have, and what we need.

For example, I like to keep about 10 licenses available for use, and yesterday I had 10. This morning I got a case from a project manager who was passive aggressively telling me that I don't do my job properly, because she needed to add 24 users and was only able to add 9.

The process is that if they need to add more than 5 at a time, they should submit a case to make sure we have enough available. Because she didn't know this process, or forgot, she was upset.

I've decided to create a custom object, called "License Tracking", and attempt to create some triggers that will add and subtract the number of licenses used when we add users, or deactivate them.

Cross your fingers!

"Manning" the "HelpDesk"

I'm a member of the Developer Team, but I'm also sort of the most accessible of our department. I've worked here for 8 years, and have been a member of the majority of the different departments. From entry level researcher, to Project Manager, so I've become sort of a "subject matter expert" for quite a few of the subjects here. I love my job and the people that I work with. (Now, if I ever got a chance to work with @appirio, I'd JUMP on it... but that's a story for another time).

I've been working in SFDC for approximately 6 years now. I've taken every free course I could get my hands on, and basically taught myself the admin functions by just my own hard-headedness. This August I took (and PASSED) my Dev401 Certification while at DreamForce.

I'm a member of the #GirlyGeeks on #Chatter, and have made some fantastic contacts there, and I'd like to think friends as well! I'm on a quest for SFDC Certifications, in addition to my Dev401 - I'd like to have ... well... everything - mwah ha ha!  

Sometimes funny things happen here...and I know I make my own share of mistakes.. I guess the point I'm trying to make here, is that I want to share the things I'm learning as I go along. Perhaps someone else will benefit as well!

Today's Favorite Case - doesn't have anything to do with SFDC, but I laughed. Maybe you will too.

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