“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This can be true in many situations. That said, doing nothing can impede innovation and hold your org back. Can your business afford to miss out on improvements? This is where a Health Check comes in.
Recently, Adam Lawrence and I discussed the value Health Checks can provide. We shall cover the key reasons for doing a Health Check and tools available to help.
Why do a Health Check?
Nothing stays the same. Your skills, your team’s skills, business needs, and Salesforce itself; everything changes. What worked before may not be best now. For example, Salesforce’s retirement of Workflows and Process Builders and migration to Flows. Salesforce’s enhancements to Flows provide many opportunities for improved org performance and functionality!
Taking this further, many things that once required code can now be done declaratively (i.e. via point and click). Such code is now technical debt. This reduces your org’s flexibility and innovation.
Health Checks provide an opportunity to non-judgementally reflect. This can help start conversations, identify opportunities, and add additional value to your business.
Areas to consider
A Health Check can explore many areas of an org. Here are some ideas:
- Data. Data is the lifeblood of your Salesforce org. It drives processes and informs decisions. Consider benchmarking it against data quality metrics such as: accuracy, completeness, uniqueness, consistency, timeliness, and validity.
- Licensing. Are you using all your licenses? Do you need more, or are they underutilised?
- Limits. How close is your org to limits (e.g., data/file storage, field, automation, API, etc)
- Integrations. How reliable / performant are your integrations? Are they fit for purpose?
- Reports and Analytics. Are your analytics meaningful? Do you have obsolete reports which cause confusion?
- Security. How secure is your org? Does your org align with best practices?
- Technical Debt. Is your org maintainable and scalable? Are you using outdated features and/or versions?
- User Experience. Are page layouts long, cumbersome, and slow?
Tools to help
If you are not sure where to start, there are various resources available to help! Let’s look at some of the resources available.
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This flipchart is by no means exhaustive. Also, bear in mind that in some instances, you may need specific resources for different clouds. Nonetheless, the key thing to bear in mind is that there are many resources out there to help. Be sure to find the ones that help you with your needs!
Learning from the experience
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, remember that a Health Check is an opportunity to learn. It is not intended to be used to blame.
Everyone learns and grows. Decisions taken previously may have been right at the time, but your org may have outgrown them. When carrying out a Health Check, make sure everyone feels they are in a safe environment. Use this as an opportunity to engage stakeholders, seek improvements and grow the value of Salesforce for your business. That way, everyone wins!
Summary
If your org just ‘works’, it can be tempting to maintain the status quo. However, be sure you are not missing out on opportunities to improve! This post summarises the reasons for carrying out a Health Check, areas to consider and tools which may help. If you do carry out a Health Check, ensure it is done constructively. A good Health Check can help take your org to the next level and add more value for your business.
Lastly, but far from least, thanks to Adam Lawrence for his contributions to this post!
Until next time, thank you for reading! 
Bonus Penguin Fact
It is well known that most species have an annual breeding season. However, did you know that the King Penguin has the longest breeding season for all penguin species? When including the pre-moult period, this can range on average 13 to 16 months! In contrast, Little Penguins have a breeding cycle lasting ~50 days.
This fact came from Birdland, in Bourton-on-the-Water. Birdland is only one of two zoos in the United Kingdom to have a colony of King Penguins. Be sure to check out their Penguin Cam or better still, visit Birdland if you are in the area!
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