How To Install An App In Salesforce

The AppExchange is one of the best features of the Salesforce platform. Being able to install an App into your CRM as easily as on your iPhone, is a huge win for businesses who are constantly looking to innovate on behalf their users.

But with over 4,000+ on the AppExchange, which are the best Salesforce Apps for your business? We've chosen these Apps based on how effectively they extend the Salesforce platform, as well as how much impact they can have to your business.

Let's take a dive into some of the best, and most relevant Apps of 2021…

Chat Bot Apps

Chat Bots are becoming big business in the world of B2B. It's rare that you will visit a SaaS website where you won't be promoted by a little widget in the bottom right-hand corner which lets you speak to a bot or real person.

Connecting Chat Bots to Salesforce is a no-brainer, as you can directly integrate new customer enquires as Leads, or customer support requests as Cases.

Some of the most popular Chat Bots for Salesforce include Qualified, Drift, Intercom, OLark, Einstein Bots & Leadoo.

DevOps Apps

The Salesforce DevOps space is really heating up in 2021. There have been a number of large investments into a few AppExchange Apps, that show investors are placing big bets on this space to explode.

Why is Salesforce DevOps becoming so popular? The reason is pretty simple. As the Salesforce platform gets more complex, Salesforce's native deployment tools such as change sets, start to slow things down. Enter Salesforce DevOps tools to ensure companies can deploy in a rapid manner.

The Salesforce DevOps landscape is vast, and I would recommend reading this post to get to grips with it. But some of the market leaders include Gearset, Copado, Autorabit & Flosum.

If you are an Admin or Sales Ops professional interested in deploying faster, I recommend checking out Prodly who focus on Application Operations.

Data Collection (Form) Apps

Form Apps provide a simple, yet very effective way of collecting data, and integrating it directly into the Salesforce platform.

They allow you to create amazing looking forms to collect data for events, surveys, feedback, or any other use you can think of. Using a drag and drop interface, you can choose the type of input field, branding, colors, dependencies, and which fields you want to update in Salesforce when a form has been submitted.

Some of the most well known Apps in this space include FormAssembly, Formstack & 123FormBuilder.

Process & Impact Analysis Apps

As Salesforce Org's grow in size and complexity, it can often make it hard to ensure that you're not going to break something by deploying a new feature. It can also be a challenge to match up the technical implementation of features, with the actual process that has been defined by the business.

Some are calling these tools "Change Intelligence", and often include impact analysis, so you can understand what will be effected by your changes, as well as process mapping features.

Some of the leaders in this space include Sonar, Elements.Cloud, Panaya. Happy Soup is a free impact analysis tool you might also want to check out.

Document Generation Apps

The Salesforce Doc Gen space probably has one of the largest market shares across all 4,000+ Apps. It's functionality that Salesforce hasn't really offered (apart from in CPQ), which has made way for a great selection of partners.

Document generation Apps allow you to create Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF docs, using your Salesforce data. You can create fancy quotes, or contracts directly from the Opportunity record, or maybe even generate a Statement of Work. This can save businesses huge amounts of money, and time, in wasted Admin hours.

Some of the best Apps out there include, Conga, S-Docs, Nintex, Docomotion & PandaDocs.

Backup Apps

While data backup isn't the sexiest of tools, it is one of the most important. Salesforce has a variety of backup options available, but none are as comprehensive as some of the following AppExchange Apps.

These Apps back up your data, as well as your metadata. This ensures that both your customer data, and your configuration are protected in the event of loss.

There is a nice variety of backup Apps on the AppExchange. Some of the leaders include Spanning Backup, OwnBackup, Odaseva & CloudAlly.

Data Cleansing Apps

Data will always be an important topic in the world of CRM. As businesses place Salesforce at the center of their businesses, a greater amount of data is being collected and processes than ever before. And, with the rise of Salesforce's AI layer, Einstein, data needs to be clean in order to take advantage of these game-changing features.

The AppExchange has a wide variety of data cleansing Apps. These include deduping tools, that can help businesses with existing duplicate issues cleanse their database. Two of the market leaders include DemandTools & Cloudingo.

You also have powerful dupe blocking tools, that go beyond the standard Salesforce functionality to ensure your data stays clean, for example DupeCatcher. Duplicate Check offers duplicate cleaning and prevention functionality in a single app.

Digital Adoption Apps

CRM technology has advanced so much in the past few years, even the old age problem of user adoption can be solved! Adoption is usually a hot topic in any system implementation, but luckily there are apps out there that focus on exactly that.

Market leaders such as Whatfix & WalkMe have built Apps that allow users to receive on-demand personalized tips and training to help them navigate Salesforce.

Summary

The AppExchange is a huge selling point of the Salesforce platform, and if you haven't dived into some of the Apps available, now is your chance. Most of the Apps mentioned have the ability to completely transform the way your business operates using Salesforce, so the potential opportunity is huge.

The majority of Apps listed will also provide a free trial, no credit card needed!

Have we missed one of your favourite Apps out of the list? Let us know in the comments below…