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We’ve done about 20 Salesforce implementations, and have 5 more going right now. We’ve developed a base template–a set of objects, fields, reports, dashboards, workflow, scontrols, visualforce, and apex that we start with for each client. We then customize that to their needs.

When I first started this work, it would take about a week to get a base install set up. All the objects had to be created in the web interface. Fields and values had to be done by hand. Code had to be copied by hand. It was a drag.

Then came the Appexchange, and we got to package up some things and install them with a few clicks. Then the Appexchange got better, allowing for more things to be packaged.

The last time I did a base install of our template, it took about 8 hours.

Much of this time was getting the page layouts to look right. If you’ve ever worked on a page layout, you know how complex they are. First you have to get all the fields in the right place by dragging and dropping them. But you then have to click into each field if you want to make it read only. You have to pick the buttons you want to show up on the page. You have to pick the related lists, and then each related list has a list of fields in a specific order, as well as sort order.

Page layouts were a significant piece of work, and I’d often find out in training with the client that one related list didn’t have the right fields, or wasn’t sorted the correct way.

The Metadata API and the Force.com IDE have changed how we deal with page layouts. We can now set them up in our template instance and copy and paste them into our customer org.

I have a new customer and I set them up with our base template yesterday. It took me 2 hours.

For each customer I deal with, the Metadata API will save me 6 hours of point and clicking in page layouts. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me–hand-tweaking page layouts isn’t the greatest value-add to the environmental cause.

You can also copy and paste Profiles, so we now have some template profiles set up, and the next install will go even faster.

If you’re a consultant, you need to use the Force.com IDE and the Metadata API. It’s a massive time-saver and will only get better as more things are added–roles, sharing rules, record types, buttons and links–who knows what’s next?

Dreamforce is on election day. I hear tell San Francisco is Obama country. Anyone know of a good place to party after the results come in?

We don’t have an email blasting tool that effectively supports drip campaigns, so we’re faking it a bit. A picklist represents all the steps in a drip campaign. After we send all the communications for this month, we shift everyone to the next step. To make this easier, I built a VisualForce page that updates all Contacts to the next value in a specified picklist.

You could do this kind of thing with workflow field updates (there is an option for moving fields to the next option in the picklist) but there isn’t a great way to query the objects. A List Button won’t work because you have to page through and select all your Contacts before clicking the button. So, this is what I came up with.

Scott Hemmeter has a cool new feature for his Salesforce.com mapping product Arrowpointe Maps: proximity searches. Find nearby Accounts and Contacts on a map. Very cool Scott!

I was listening to NPR today and Juan Williams was arguing that it is strange that Obama isn’t picking Clinton for VP. In his mind, she’s the only one that helps him in the polls, and pushes him over 50%, “because that is how you win–get more than 50%.”

Now, you can argue with Williams’ assessment of Clinton’s possible affect on Obama’s chances in the presidential race. But you can’t argue that he’s correct in saying that getting more than 50% of the vote is sufficient to win the presidency.

For the last 232 years the only way to win the presidency has been to get a majority of the electoral college votes. It is certainly possible to win the presidency with less than 50% of the vote, but we can forgive Williams because he would have researched all the way back to 2000 to find an instance of that happening.

These guys are phoning it in. Thanks for your contribution to creating an informed electorate.