Master Class: Data Management (Sept 8 - Oct 6 2022)
You use Salesforce because you need a way to capture data about donors, participants, partners, and other constituents, as well as their activities. Salesforce provides a powerful reporting engine, but often organizations hit a wall with their reports because of a gap in understanding how to manage complex data for Salesforce specifically. And many organizations are moving toward more robust data visualization tools and are struggling to close the gap between their transactional (living) data and what is needed for analysis.
This course is for the admin who has at least six months of experience and has done a lot of report writing. In a small group with your peers, guided by an instructor who has managed enterprise data for a long time, you will gain new approaches and tools to manage your Salesforce data for a range of reporting and analytics needs.
This class meets four times, for 90 minutes each time and includes assignments that may take more than an hour between classes.
You use Salesforce because you need a way to capture data about donors, participants, partners, and other constituents, as well as their activities. Salesforce provides a powerful reporting engine, but often organizations hit a wall with their reports because of a gap in understanding how to manage complex data for Salesforce specifically. And many organizations are moving toward more robust data visualization tools and are struggling to close the gap between their transactional (living) data and what is needed for analysis.
This course is for the admin who has at least six months of experience and has done a lot of report writing. In a small group with your peers, guided by an instructor who has managed enterprise data for a long time, you will gain new approaches and tools to manage your Salesforce data for a range of reporting and analytics needs.
This class meets four times, for 90 minutes each time and includes assignments that may take more than an hour between classes.
You use Salesforce because you need a way to capture data about donors, participants, partners, and other constituents, as well as their activities. Salesforce provides a powerful reporting engine, but often organizations hit a wall with their reports because of a gap in understanding how to manage complex data for Salesforce specifically. And many organizations are moving toward more robust data visualization tools and are struggling to close the gap between their transactional (living) data and what is needed for analysis.
This course is for the admin who has at least six months of experience and has done a lot of report writing. In a small group with your peers, guided by an instructor who has managed enterprise data for a long time, you will gain new approaches and tools to manage your Salesforce data for a range of reporting and analytics needs.
This class meets four times, for 90 minutes each time and includes assignments that may take more than an hour between classes.
Course Schedule
Sept 8, 2022 from 10:00 - 11:30am (Eastern) - Course 1: The data and analysis ecosystem
Sept 15, 2022 from 3:00 - 4:30pm (Eastern) - Course 2: Creating and managing data sets part 1
Sept 22, 2022 from 9:30 - 11:00am (Eastern) - Course 3: Creating and managing data sets part 2
Oct 6, 2022 from 9:30 - 11:00am (Eastern) - Course 4: Moving beyond Dashboards
Who should take this course
You have been managing Salesforce for at least 6 months and have built several reports in report builder
Your organization has relatively complex data - reporting on program participation for example - or report requests that you’re struggling to accommodate in Salesforce
What you’ll learn
Course 1: The data and analysis ecosystem
A tour of the different types of data and reporting needs that most organizations encounter
A refresher on mapping your organization’s key data and object relationships to prepare for more advanced reporting.
A discussion of the tools and approaches to use with Salesforce to prepare data sets for your organization
Participant-led q&a to orient to the types of data and common data problems in Salesforce, including the “dreaded hinge” problem of reporting off of two peer objects that are children of a common parent
Course 2: Creating and managing data sets part 1
Each participant will design and create an initial data set storage object that is appropriate for their organization.
Tools like process builders, DLRS, Flows, and reporting snapshots will be used to create and manage these data sets, and will be introduced as solutions to common data management problems in Salesforce
Course 3: Creating and managing data sets part 2
A continuation of part 1. Creation and management of data sets is a complex and time-consuming project that is best done with support and in a collaborative environment.
We will discuss strategies for documentation, sharing information with users, and ensuring that the data set is maintainable over time
Course 4: Moving beyond Dashboards
Your Salesforce data set may be able to power most of the dashboards your users need. But what about more advanced exploration or visualizaions?
Often, foundations or donors offer analysts who are ill-equipped to work with small teams in the nonprofit space. We’ll talk about strategies for managing these volunteers and getting the most out of their time
We’ll introduce the concepts of ELT/ETL, talk about data warehousing, data lakes, and tools like Snowflake and SQL databases and how they fit into your Salesforce ecosystem
What to expect from this course
There are four classes in this course.
Each class is 90 minutes, online, taught by a senior consultant who has built uncounted Salesforce automations of all kinds and coached dozens of other admins through it
You will receive Zoom links prior to the course you’re registered for
This course is designed as a small, focused cohort of only 6 administrators at about the same level of expertise and is expected to be highly participatory. You will learn from the instructor and from each other, and you will directly apply everything we discuss to your own situation. You will have homework between sessions and access to the instructor and your peers via a dedicated slack channel during and after the course.