In very simple terms, Salesforce is the best digital adoption platform software that acts as a bridge between a company and its customers. Have you ever wondered why all the apps whether shopping, tracking your train or flight or food delivery apps and others ask you to rate them and leave feedback? It is because your ratings and feedback let them know what customers actually want and they can improve accordingly. This is just a nominal example of what Salesforce does.
Salesforce is a Customer Relationship Management(CRM) solution that connects businesses or companies to their customers. Salesforce started as a Software as a Service(SaaS) CRM company. It’s a platform that has integrated all the departments including marketing, sales, commerce and services and gives you one, shared view of the customer. So, professionals working in these fields can surely benefit from a career in Salesforce and can demonstrate their skills in front of the employers by achieving a Salesforce certification.
Let us dive in and get a complete overview of the certifications that Salesforce offers.
Types of Salesforce Certifications
Achieving certification in cloud computing has become a necessity for professionals looking forward to a career in Salesforce. It shows the expertise in the respective field. Salesforce certifications are industry-recognized standards or qualifications which validate that you are skillful in a certain field within Salesforce. There are different categories of Salesforce certifications that require different levels of qualifications.
The eight credentials based on the skills are:
- Salesforce Certification for App Builders.
- Salesforce Certification for Architects
- Salesforce Certification for Marketers.
- Salesforce Certification for Developers.
- Salesforce Certification for Pardot experts.
- Salesforce Certification for Implementation Experts or Consultants.
- Salesforce Certification for CPQ specialists.
- Salesforce Certification for Administrators.
There are two levels of certifications offered by Salesforce based on these eight credentials. The first level corresponds to the Administrator and the second corresponds to the Developers.
For Administrators
An administrator is legally vested with the right to manage the company, and crucial for a company’s success. The Salesforce certificate of Administrator validates your skills to establish and manage sales and service cloud applications.
To qualify Salesforce Administrator credential, you need to have a thorough understanding of the following concepts:
- Maintenance and customization of sales cloud and service cloud applications.
- Management of users, data and security.
- Building reports, dashboards and workflow.
Salesforce offers two levels of administrator certifications; viz, Salesforce Certified Administrator and Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator.
Salesforce Certified Administrator
In this certification, a candidate has to prove his/her expertise in customizing Salesforce, managing users, configuring the platform, and innovating the ways to derive more out of the features and capabilities of Salesforce.
The qualifying exam for the Salesforce Certified Administrator contains 60 multiple-choice questions. The time allotted is 110 minutes and the passing score is 65%. The registration fee for this exam is $200.
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator
This is designed for experienced professionals and tests the candidate’s skills in using advanced administration capabilities of Salesforce. This verifies a candidate’s progress in dashboards, designing advanced reports, and automation processes.
In this exam also, there are 60 multiple choice questions but the time allotted is reduced to 90 minutes. You need to score 65% or more to qualify for this exam. The registration fee is again $200.
For Developers:
As the name clarifies, a developer possesses the coding skills to create and extend completely customized applications on the force.com platform for clients. Salesforce offers three levels of developer certification on the basis of technical proficiency and other experiences.
Those are:
Salesforce Certified Commerce Cloud Digital Developer
In order to develop eCommerce solutions, this certification examines candidates’ skills and knowledge of using commerce cloud digital platforms.
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I
This certification is apt for experienced developers; verifies that a candidate has the skills to build custom declarative and programmatic applications on the Force.com platform.
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II
This demonstrates a candidates’ advanced knowledge of data modeling and coding skills of the Force.com platform. It examines candidates’ skills to build complex business logic and interfaces using the force.com platform.
Benefits of Salesforce Certification
Salesforce certification allows you to increase your marketability in an IT job. You can get certified in your chosen span of time, as in a few hours, days or months. The benefits of Salesforce certification include:
Gaining in-depth knowledge
The Salesforce certification lets you gain tremendous knowledge regarding sales and customer relations. It allows you to delve deep into the platform to discover new tools and applications.
Hands-on experience
Preparing for a Salesforce certification allows you to work on case studies and live projects including real-life examples. You can gain hands-on experience from these and you will more comfortable working on the projects of your organization.
Certified professionals are preferred by employers
The number of candidates competing for a single position is enormous and salesforce certification helps to filter out the prospective candidates. With the Salesforce certification, you become an elixir for your company to enable it in making the most effective use of the tools and features of Salesforce.
Rewards for your expertise
Salesforce certification helps you enhance your skills to configure salesforce. If you are Salesforce certified in any of the credentials, you can optimize Salesforce and customize it according to specific requirements. This certification makes you a prized requirement for your company.
High return on investment(ROI)
Salesforce certification offers a high return on investment in training-related investments rather than other courses. Therefore a Salesforce certification is beneficial for both the company as well as for individuals. As it adds to your skills and knowledge of configuring Salesforce according to the requirements of the company, it can improve the returns significantly.
Summing Up
Every company needs candidates who excel in customer relationship management apart from other technical and managerial candidates. Employers now know the value of the Salesforce certified professionals and they wish to add benefits that bring out potential out of their business. Salesforce certification speaks for itself and makes you eligible for the same. But it is necessary to qualify the certification exam to acquire it. You really need to work hard for that. Taking online courses according to your necessity and time availability will be of great help. It will make the process hassle-free and you may rely on the course providers for the topics and sessions of the real-life problems to be covered.