Getting started with CRM Analytics
Einstein Analytics, Tableau CRM and CRM Analytics. Over the years, these are the names given by Salesforce to it’s very own native Data Analytics and Visualisation tool. Gosh … so much for nomenclature XD. Irrespective of what you choose to call it, CRM Analytics is a powerful tool that helps us visualise large amounts of data and create interactive visualisations based on our data. Today I will be giving you a brief overview of CRM Analytics and by the time you’re done reading this blog, you will be able to create a basic Dashboard using CRM Analytics.
CRM Analytics-enabled Developer Edition org
Enabling and setting up CRM Analytics in your own developer org involves a set of admin actions (for example, defining all necessary permissions and loading test data).
To save us the hassle, we will be using a CRM Analytics-enabled Developer Edition trial org provided by Trailhead. Use the following link to sign up for the trial org :
trailhead.salesforce.com/promo/orgs/analytics-de
Analytics Studio
To get started, login to the trial org and open Analytics Studio. Search using the App Launcher and select Analytics Studio from the results.
Analytics Studio is the platform used to explore all the functionalities and elements of CRM Analytics. Once Analytics Studio is finished loading you should land on the Home page.
Asset
In CRM Analytics anything which helps user to analyse or visualise data is termed as an Asset. Home page primarily provides quick access to both of your recent and favourite assets. You can filter and search in specific asset types using the Browse page.
What’s an App in CRM Analytics ?
CRM Analytics allows you to organise your data and visualisations into specific sets. Such sets are referred to as Apps. While you’re on the Browse page, click on the Apps filter and look for My DTC Sales in the Asset Results.
My DTC Sales is a pre-built app in our CRM Analytics trial org. We will be using this app to understand the other asset types, use the dropdown menu in front of My DTC Sales to mark it as favourite for easy access going forward.
Now, you can find My DTC Sales app on the Favorites page as well.
It’s time to understand the various assets that can be associated with an app. So, click on My DTC Sales app in the Asset Results to open it.
Dataset
A dataset is a formatted data source which is optimised for exploration in CRM Analytics. A dataset can be created based on data from multiple sources like :
- Salesforce objects
- External data sources
- Other datasets
While you’re exploring My DTC Sales app, click on Datasets filter and look for DTC Opportunity in the Asset Results.
DTC Opportunity is a pre-built dataset in the My DTC Sales app. We will use this dataset to create our visualisation.
Lens
A Lens is a visualisation of data, a new lens is created when you access a dataset record in CRM Analytics. Within a lens you can perform the following actions :
- Filter data to fetch specific rows
- Group the data by some dimension
- Use aggregate functions to calculate a measure for all the rows of grouped data
- Compare results for different groups of data
- Limit the number of rows to be used for visualisation
- Customise the mode of visualisation
You can click on DTC Opportunity dataset to create a Lens right away!
The default visualisation is a bar chart. If you observe the options available on the left hand side of the screen, Count of Rows is selected as Bar Length. Rest of the options don’t have any value selected for them. As of now, this visualisation is a bar chart that displays the count of rows in our dataset.
Bar Length
Bar Length option determines the measures that will be visualised on the bar chart. In general, these measures are results of some aggregate function applied on a dataset column.
Bars
Selections made under Bars option are dimensions to be used for grouping our data.
Let’s make some selections to modify the current visualisation.
Use case : Calculate and Visualise average Amount for every Stage across Open opportunities, having Account Type as Customer.
Step 1 : On the left hand side, click on Filters tab and add a filter for Open opportunities. Click on ‘+’ option and search for Closed field.
Select Closed field in Dimensions, use Equals operator and select false as value.
Step 2 : Similarly we need to add a filter for opportunities having Account Type as Customer. Click on ‘+’ option and search for Account Type field.
Select Account Type field in Dimensions, use Equals operator and select Customer as value.
Step 3 : Click on Data tab, you’ll be able to see Count of Rows selected as the Bar Length. Since we have to visualise average of Amount, click on Count of Rows to modify the selection. Change the aggregate function to AVERAGE instead of COUNT, select Amount as the field.
Step 4 : There are no selections made under Bars as of now, click on ‘+’ option to add some grouping to our visualisation. Search for Stage field.
Select Stage field, this will group our DTC Opportunity data by Stage.
And just like that, we have created a basic visualisation. However, it would be better to add this visualisation on a Dashboard for a better experience for the end user.
Dashboard
Dashboard is an asset where you can add all the visualisations you create. A dashboard typically consists of Charts, Tables and Metrics. From the end user’s perspective, a dashboard helps them interact with your visualisations and draw meaningful insights from them.
When a Lens is added to a Dashboard. The dashboard uses the underlying Query and Chart options from the Lens.
Coming back to the New Lens we have just created, look for the Scissors icon on the top right.
Clip to Designer option will make this Lens available as a Query for use in a new dashboard (or the most recently used open dashboard). Click on the scissors icon, provide a label for your query (I’ve used Query as label) and click on Clip to Designer button.
As you can see a New dashboard is created. Our query (labelled as Query and having API name Query_1) from DTC Opportunity is available for use on the right hand side. Drag and drop the query on to the dashboard. The visualisation we created in our New Lens will get added to our New dashboard. You can stretch the chart to fit the canvas area.
Click on Preview button to view the final result!
That’s it for now. But I will soon be posting more content related to CRM Analytics. In the upcoming blogs, we will explore the different Chart Types available in a Lens and how we can programmatically modify our visualisations using SAQL (Salesforce Analytics Query Language).
