In the previous chapter, we looked at how, through the use of various sharing rules, we can control the access to records in Salesforce CRM. Various mechanisms that help manage the quality and integrity of data were also described, along with an overview of the facilities to import and export data using import tools.

In this chapter, we will continue to look at the subject of data but will do so from the viewpoint of reporting, where we will describe the analytics building blocks within Salesforce CRM.

These analytics tools allow you and your users to customize and manage the reporting and visual representation of data. For example, the sales team can produce reports that show the sales pipeline, the marketing team can report on the progress of campaigns, and you can create reports that display the number of active users in your Salesforce organization.

The features available to report data are described in detail and include details of...