Steve Andersen has developed a really interesting metric in Salesforce based on actions taken by Activists/Donors in response to nonprofit campaigns. His solution exercises some new features in Winter '08, such as hierarchical campaigns and Apex scripts.

Update: The new security feature changes mentioned in this article have been delayed 1 week. Message from Salesforce:
"Please note the date change for this update - we will now go live with these features on Monday Nov. 26, 2007."

Salesforce.com is deploying additional security features over the weekend that may have an impact on applications integrated with Salesforce via the API, such as i-Dialogue portals, landing pages, and content management systems.

Starting next Monday, November 19th, 2007, Monday, November 26th, 2007 Salesforce.com users must modify their settings to implicitly trust i-Dialogue portals that connect to Salesforce. This feature, known as "whitelisting", requires entering the Internet address of the i-Dialogue portal.

Salesforce announced that any service connecting via the API within the past 4 months will automatically be added to the whitelist, so existing i-Dialogue customers may not need to update their settings.

Question: Will my i-Dialogue portal stop integrating with Salesforce.com on Monday, November 19th26th, 2007?
Answer: No. Salesforce has assured all AppExchange partners that existing integrations will be trusted by default. But without 100% assurance, we are prepared to guide customers through whitelisting steps if necessary.

Question: What is the IP Address for my i-Dialogue portal so that I may configure it for whitelist trusting?
Answer: We are sending IP address details directly to existing customers before the weekend to give customers time to prepare.

Update the Salesforce Profile for the API login user under the section "Trusted IP Ranges".

Question: How will I know if my i-Dialogue portal is no longer synchronizing with Salesforce?
Answer: Web-to-Lead and Web-to-Case web forms will continue to work, but portals and web sites that retrieve their content from Salesforce will be unable to access content updates if whitelisting is not configured correctly. Information on web sites (such as MLS portals) will appear unchanged from Sunday, November 18th25th. 

Our internal operations team will know within minutes if synchronization has failed and will take action to contact customers directly.

Question: Are there alternative ways to secure access to my Salesforce instance?
Answer: Yes. You can always generate an API token to be used as a password for remote applications that do not always access from the same IP Address.

Question: Are i-Dialogue IP addresses static?
Answer:  Yes.

Question: Will new i-Dialogue portals need whitelist configuration?
Answer: Yes. Our provisioning process has been updated to include instructions for whitelisting i-Dialogue Portal and CMS instances.

Anyone following my "tweets" on Twitter during the Salesforce.com Dreamforce '07 conference probably saw my references to lead scoring. The presentations and discussions inspired me to revisit this topic and explore how to implement lead scoring in Salesforce using an existing i-Dialogue web event data mart.

My past experiences with lead scoring were based on assigning "A", "B", "C", or "D" scores to leads derived from their online interactions. This prioritization gave sales reps some insight into which leads were supposedly more qualified than others.

A much simpler approach to lead scoring is to simply assign a score to each interaction and let the cumulative score provide a relative indicator. For example, in the illustration below, 2 leads enter a web site and initially appear to be equally qualified. But over time, and with enough data collection, we see that one lead was actually more interested in seeking employment with the organization rather than becoming a customer.

Defining lead score rules in Salesforce is possible through the use of a "Web Event Scoring Rule" custom object (see below), which is a prototypical definition of an existing Web Event object (already included with i-Dialogue).

A periodic evaluation by the i-Dialogue-to-Salesforce integration process evaluates each interaction and checks to see if it matches a lead score rule prototype. A match results in a Lead's score being increased or decreased by a defined amount. Rule prototypes may have any number of evaluation parameters, allowing for simple or complex rule definitions. If it can be captured in i-Dialogue, it can be evaluated.

A custom field on the Lead record named "Lead Score" is updated by the scoring process. Scores in Salesforce are updated in near real-time and are accurate to within 30 minutes.

This score then becomes the basis for Salesforce Reports and Dashboards. Once the technology is in place, an iterative/incremental relationship marketing process is implemented to routinely review and adjust scores and online event collectors. Lead scores will never be perfect, but the balance of online interactions and evaluation rules can achieve an 80% "good enough" state to be widely trusted by Sales Representatives and Marketing Managers.

Our company page seems perpetually outdated as we continue to grow and add new members to our team. Enough procrastinating... I've posted the updates and look forward to making many more.

The set of capabilities and services we can offer to clients have increased considerably in recent months. i-Dialogue web sites integrated with Salesforce are now sporting Flash interfaces, PDF printing, eCommerce support, localized translations, SMS alerts, finance calculators, sophisticated search engines... the list goes on, which only points to another area of procrastination... customer case studies.

Do you want a career in the Internet-based delivery of on-demand software?

Is your definition of "team building" playing WoW with Guild members? (Horde preferred. Alliance players accepted )

Do you enjoy the challenge of working with a diverse set of web development technologies, such as Flash, ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript, CSS?

Would you like to use next-generation technologies, such as Silverlight, AIR, VisualForce, and Apex?

Do you have an appreciation for test-driven design and development?

Then send your cover letter and resume to jobs@i-dialogue.com. We'd love to talk with you!