Understanding Certinia (Formerly FinancialForce): Decoding the ‘What’ and ‘Why’

So, you know how Salesforce started mainly for Sales in 1999? Well, over time, it’s grown into this massive platform that covers everything from HR to customer service and even ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) through different apps.

One of the pioneers in this space was FinancialForce (now Certinia), which was one of the first apps built into Salesforce that linked up all the different parts of a business. It brought ERP right into Salesforce, letting companies center everything around their customers. But now, it’s evolved even further.

As Salesforce keeps expanding and changing, the entities working in it have to keep up too, as FinancialForce (now Certinia) did!

Previously, FinancialForce ERP primarily focused on providing a complete set of financial management features, including accounting, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. However, it has since evolved beyond its ERP roots and broadened its scope to offer a comprehensive technology platform tailored for service-based businesses. This expansion, coupled with its leadership in Professional Services Automation (PSA), necessitated a rebranding to reflect the extent of its offerings better.

That’s why they rebranded as Certinia: the go-to platform for running service-based businesses. Their platform is all about helping companies offer top-notch services, boost customer satisfaction, and grow faster – and it goes way beyond just finance.

Let’s dig deeper into the nitty gritty and understand more about Certinia.

What is Certinia (formerly FinancialForce)?

Built on Salesforce’s robust platform, Certinia is a comprehensive platform designed to streamline operations for service-based businesses. It offers a wide range of functionalities to manage service operations, from project planning and delivery to customer success management and financial planning.

Certinia serves as a Service-as-a-Business (SaaB) platform, focusing on connecting all facets of service operations to ensure seamless and efficient delivery of services. It helps companies improve customer experience, accelerate growth, and optimize their overall service management processes.

As FinancialForce, the platform initially focused on integrating ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) functionalities into Salesforce, allowing businesses to centralize their operations and place customers at the core of their activities. However, over time, the platform expanded beyond finance to encompass a broader scope of service management functionalities.

By rebranding to Certinia, the platform aims to reflect better its comprehensive capabilities in managing service operations and providing value across various aspects of a business, going beyond just financial management. Certinia continues to evolve and innovate, offering businesses a powerful solution for optimizing service delivery and driving growth in today’s competitive landscape.

Why is Certinia Built on Salesforce?

Scalability: Salesforce is a highly scalable platform that can accommodate the needs of businesses of all sizes. Certinia leverages Salesforce’s infrastructure to handle large volumes of data and users, ensuring scalability as the business grows.

Customization: Salesforce provides extensive customization capabilities, allowing Certinia to be tailored to meet the unique requirements of different industries. Users can customize workflows, data fields, dashboards, and reports to align with their specific certification management processes.

Integration: Salesforce offers seamless integration with other business systems and applications, enabling Certinia to integrate with existing CRM, ERP, and third-party solutions. This integration streamlines data exchange and enhances interoperability across different business functions.

Security: Salesforce prioritizes data security and compliance, providing robust measures to protect sensitive information. Certinia leverages Salesforce’s built-in security features, including encryption, access controls, and audit trails, to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of certification data.

Understanding the Features and Use Cases of Certinia

Certinia Explained: Answering Some Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Certinia and how will it be used in my daily work?

Certinia is a versatile cloud-based platform designed to manage various work aspects based on the specific solution implemented. It serves functions like project management, human resources, and more. For detailed information on its relevance to your daily work, reach out to your manager or HR department.

• How can I use Certinia to manage my projects, assign tasks to team members, and track progress?

Certinia offers project management features to create project plans, break down tasks, assign them to team members, and set deadlines. You can also track progress through dashboards and reports to identify potential bottlenecks.

• Is Certinia built on Salesforce?

Yes, Certinia is built on the Salesforce platform. This means it leverages the capabilities of Salesforce to provide a cloud-based business management solution.

Here are some of the benefits of Certinia being built on Salesforce:

Seamless Integration: Salesforce is known for its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools, and Certinia leverages those functionalities to provide a unified system for managing both customer interactions and business operations.
360-degree Business View: By using Salesforce as a foundation, Certinia offers a comprehensive perspective of your entire business. This can improve visibility and decision-making across departments.
Bridging CRM and ERP: Traditionally, CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems functioned separately. Certinia, built on Salesforce, bridges this gap by offering functionalities from both areas within a single platform.

• Does Certinia offer reporting tools to help me visualize project data and identify any potential roadblocks?

Yes, Certinia provides reporting tools that allow you to visualize project data in various formats like charts and graphs. This can help you identify areas needing attention and make data-driven decisions.

• What permissions do I have within Certinia to access project information and documents relevant to my tasks?

Your access level will depend on your role and what your manager has assigned. You’ll likely see project information and documents directly related to your assigned tasks.

• Does Certinia require access to servers, databases, or any other assets supporting the underlying infrastructure?

No. Certinia applications are 100% native to the Salesforce platform. Certinia applications cannot function without Salesforce’s platform infrastructure. Certinia only provides applications; Salesforce provides the infrastructure. As stated previously, Certinia Customer Support personnel may require access to the Customer’s Salesforce instance as needed to diagnose and resolve support cases. Any such access must be authorized by the customer on a case-by-case basis using the Salesforce Platform “Login As” process. This is the only scenario in which Certinia would have access to Customer Data entered in Certinia applications and stored on the Customer’s Salesforce instance.

• Does Certinia have an information security policy? Additional supporting policies?

Certinia has a dedicated security and trust function that coordinates security policy, program, and verification efforts, to ensure that customer and company information assets are adequately protected. Their Information Security Program includes identifying, evaluating, and reporting on security risks, compliance with security and privacy regulations and commitments, threat and vulnerability management, and security incident management and response. Certinia has an Information Security Policy and Standards framework based on ISO 27001/27002 that describes standards, best-practice guidelines, and approaches required to protect customer data and corporate assets (including people, information, and infrastructure). It has numerous supporting policies that establish requirements and meet compliance objectives. Further details can be found in our SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports through our Full Whistic Profile.

• Where does Certinia store customer data?

As a 100% native force application all Customer Data processed by Certinia applications reside on the Salesforce cloud platform owned, operated, and managed by Salesforce. No Customer Data is stored in the Certinia organization. Since Certinia is 100% natively deployed on the Salesforce platform, Salesforce provides the data centers. Salesforce also provides all of the physical security to protect customer data as a result. Please refer to the Salesforce SOC 2 report for more information. In general, Customer Data is stored in data centers in the region from which a customer subscribes to the Covered Services; however, customers can request at the time of sign-up to be hosted in a different region. For American customers, Salesforce stores Customer Data in US data centers. For EMEA customers, data is stored in European centers, and for APAC customers, including Japan and Australia, data is stored in Japan.

The Bottom Line

Certinia isn’t just another software solution; it’s the knight in shining armor for service-based businesses facing the daily hustle of project management, resource allocation, and customer satisfaction. By addressing pain points head-on, Certinia streamlines operations, enhances efficiency, and drives growth in today’s competitive landscape.

So, if you’re ready to take your service-based business to the next level, Certinia is your trusted ally on the journey to success.

Embrace Certinia Today and Unlock the Full Potential of Your Service-Oriented Enterprise. Let’s Get Started!