SalesForce Graphs - Annual Perspective

Scenario

A customer using salesforce needs graphs that show an annual perspective based on the financial year. The graphs are essential for high level reporting on leads and opportunties. 

Solution

<p>Building an apex&nbsp;custom page and controller and SalesForce object that could take the data, perform aggregate functions on it and then use google graphs to display the data. </p><p>By using a custom object, it is possible to store the OSQL (the script that retrieves the data) as a variable in the object, which&nbsp;meant that the object could be re-used for multiple graphs.</p><p>The resulting graphs show values for activities per month, both for the current and previous&nbsp;financial year.&nbsp;</p><p>The graphs included:</p><ul><li>Leads Generated</li><li>Leads Converted</li><li>Opportunities Closed</li><li>Opportunities closed</li><li>Costs associated with lead generation and opportunity closure</li></ul><p>These graphs could also be refined by</p><ul><li>Type of opportunity</li><li>Geographic region</li></ul><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Simple

• The SalesForce user can navigate to a page within SalesForce and see the graphs

Practical

• The graphs are available within the environment that the user is familiar with
• Google graphs are a fantastic facility that is free to use

Bottom line

• To be honest, these were expensive graphs! But they were exactly what the customer needed.