For Indiana-based Intelligent Fiber Network (IFN), speed means everything. They offer secure fiber transport, Internet connectivity, and colocation data center solutions for large cities and rural communities nationwide. According to the company’s leadership team, “We live, eat, and breathe data. We dream about transport efficiency. We obsess over security.” That intensity does not just apply to their customers, but internally as well. Despite having a solid Salesforce environment, the team knew data, speed, and efficiency gains still existed, so they turned to code science Technologies for help.

The Challenge

IFN developed detailed geographic information that applied to all customers within a targeted city or town. Each geographic location contained at least five pieces of information on the associated county and utility providers. The data informed IFN’s product, pricing and marketing decisions. Despite the data’s importance, they used an “update as you go approach” in Salesforce that presented several problems: 

1. Multiple Salesforce users wasted time manually keying in data. 
2. Users often left fields blank. 
3. IFN lacked a data validation process leading to significant inaccuracies and outdated information when fields were completed. 

The missing and bad data ultimately rendered IFN unable to make key strategic decisions using Salesforce’s most basic reporting functions. To fix this critical issue, updated geographic information needed populated on the account records without relying on average Salesforce users to do the work. 

The Solution

code science Technologies stepped in and created a custom Salesforce object, also thought of like a spreadsheet table, for the city or town and all its associated geographic information. The team then used Salesforce Flow, which creates a business process for collecting data and acting on it such as updating, deleting, or generating records. The Flow automation matched the account record City Name to the custom object City Name and populated all the relevant data without a single extra keystroke from users. The only data updates came from IFN’s Salesforce Administrator who was tasked with maintaining the custom object. 

The Results

For a client who specializes in data and speed, this solution delivered that and more.

Staff Efficiency – before the custom object and automation were integrated, multiple users manually keyed in data. Our fix made the Salesforce Administrator responsible for all geographic updates using the new central location inside Salesforce. This saved countless unproductive work hours.

Data Validation – by updating the geographic information in the custom object, every associated record received the information, meaning data was always current and accurate. User permissions prevented editing the City Name within the account record, which ensured data stayed consistent across all Salesforce records. 

Better Decision-Making – with all geographic data accurate, IFN’s leadership team easily could run Salesforce reports for strategic decision-making. For example, they now were able to identify cities with a critical mass of businesses fitting their target customer profile. This prompted a marketing and sales campaign to those businesses offering a product solution proven to work in other cities of similar size and composition. 

Improved Speed – our Salesforce development solution provided better data more quickly to the sales, marketing, and executive management teams. Data updated in real time across all records tied to the custom object. IFN bid farewell to its inefficient “update as you go approach” and created a consistent process for keep geographic information up to date. The teams accessing the data now had reliable, current information for working smarter.  

IFN struggled with ineffective data for far too long. Once the code scienceTechnologies team got involved, we created a Salesforce solution in a matter of days. Don’t let poor data create unprofitable decisions for your business. Let’s discuss how code scienceTechnologies can help.