Visualforce for One Screen Data Entry in Salesforce
Salesforce users who have come from the single entry screen environment of a contact manager find that they have to go through more clicks and screens then they are used to in order to add a new Contact for a new Account and then schedule a Task to call the new contact at some point in the future.
Even though Salesforce provides considerably more power than a contact manager, salespeople in particular are not fond of having to spend any more time than they think is necessary to key data into a CRM system.
Visualforce and Apex to the Rescue
A Visualforce page with an accompanying Apex custom controller can allow for data to be committed to multiple Salesforce objects simultaneously. So, using Visualforce and Apex, it’s possible to create a single data entry screen in which a new Account, Contact and Task can be added at once.
A Visualforce page such as the one pictured below can simply be added as a new tab — after a user clicks on the tab, they are immediately in data entry mode. Note that the approach of creating a new tab leaves the default add Account and add Contact functionality untouched.
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Since Visualforce along with Apex provides such a high level of control over a custom Salesforce page, it’s possible to create variants of the screen that’s shown above. For example, the bottom section of the screen could be for scheduling an Event rather than a Task. Custom Account or Contact fields can also be added.
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Steve Chipman is the founder and president of Lexnet Consulting Group, based in San Francisco. Lexnet is a leading value added reseller for CRM (customer relationship management) solutions.
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