We understand that your time is valuable, but investing just a few minutes in reading this guide will set your team on the path to success with Element.cloud. Here, we present an overview of key benefits and essential steps to quickly get your team provisioned and productive.
Once the initial setup is complete, you and your team can explore our extensive repository of resources, including helpful insights on utilizing Element.cloud effectively. You can find these resources in our online help documents and the free online academy at academy.elements.cloud. Of course, if you need any additional assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to us via chat or email at success@elements.cloud.
If you know all about Consulting Licenses and need to purchase more or get going right away, please email salesops@elements.cloud and/or click on the chat icon (bottom right of your screen) - and we will get you setup and going asap!
We are here to help and support you in achieving your desired outcomes with your clients.
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Benefits of the consulting license
The list below summarizes what a consulting Company can do with consulting licenses:
Unlimited consulting spaces: Firms can create as many "consulting spaces" as needed, typically one per client. Each consulting space is enabled with full access to the standard Elements.cloud platform capabilities including diagrams, Salesforce connections, Change Management and more. And, a consulting Space can be connected to as many Salesforce Orgs as you want including production orgs and supporting Sandboxes. Click here to learn more about consulting spaces.
Project Team Collaboration: Projects benefit from teamwork, so we've made it easy for consulting companies to build and manage teams. Not only do your licenses allow the creation of an unlimited number of consulting spaces, but it also enables firms to staff their projects with the right mix of consulting resources. Any number of licensed consultants can be added to any number of consulting spaces at no additional cost. Moreover, the pool of consulting resources you can draw from is not limited to just consultants working for the same firm. Any consulting License holder, anywhere, can be invited to join ANY Elements.cloud consulting space in the ecosystem. This ensures you have maximum flexibility to assemble the right team for the job.
Client collaboration. By default you you can grant your clients read-only access to the Space enabling them to review, comment on work you want them to see. But, if your client wants to edit or have administration rights on the space, they would need to be licensed as a customer. We are happy to pick up that conversation and engage with you or the client direct as appropraite to the situation. Reach out to success@elements.cloud to discuss or book a quick call with one of us to go through the situation and get support..
Alignment: Elements.cloud is not a tool, it's a feature rich platform on which teams can work together in a shared space having greater visibility into workload distribution, progress, backlog, and overall project velocity. Furthermore, Elements.cloud assists teams in de-risking projects by automatically flagging potential technical conflicts and even providing alerts when org changes occur for reasons beyond the scope of a project—an all too frequent reality that can have a significant negative impact!
Beyond the Project: There is no time limit governing the life of a Space or its connection to related Salesforce Orgs. As such, you can maintain a Space and keep it aligned with the client's orgs for as long as you and/or the client agree. Two ideas worth considering are the benefits during:
Post-project technical support/ Warranty period: By continuing to utilize Elements.cloud during any warranty period after project completion, you can significantly expedite issue resolution times. For example, the platform contains a comprehensive and searchable source of project documentation of your past work and org config. With Elements.cloud you have quick access to both the historic work and key decisions you may need to review. Additionally, keeping a Space connected to Salesforce ensures a space remains aligned with Salesforce config which proves invaluable for conducting root cause analysis when post project platform changes post have undesirable outcomes. This proactive approach ensures a smooth and efficient post-project phase, offering you greater peace of mind and enhancing client satisfaction.
Managed Services Arrangement: For all the reasons mentioned above, making an Elements.cloud space and org sync the backbone of a managed service offering can deliver incredible value to your firm. The enduring connection between the Space and Salesforce Orgs ensures seamless ongoing support, optimized performance, and continuous alignment with your client's evolving needs. It empowers your team to deliver exceptional managed services, fostering long-term partnerships with clients and positioning your firm as a trusted industry leader.
By embracing Elements.cloud beyond the confines of individual projects, your organization can unlock enduring value and elevate client experiences to new heights.
Managing your investment in Elements.cloud
But wait, don't act now, there is more!
We also include usage of our "Corporate Management" featureset purpose built for efficiently managing your firm's usage of the Elements.cloud platform.
The Corporate Management module allows you to:
Montor important Elements.cloud usage and adoption information
Allocate & Revoke consulting licenses to users ensuring you can maximize utilization of your licenses and apply them where they are needed
Centralize governance of user, space and ownership of important information stored within the platform.
You can find more specific details about Corporate Management in this collection of help articles.
Important: Corporate Management requires a custom domain in order to function. And also important, a user must register for an Elements.cloud account using an email address that is on the same email domain registered to your corporate Elements.cloud account.
If you don't have a custom corporate domain, let us know by emailing us at success@elements.cloud. You will need to set one up for your company.
Quick Setup Steps:
Setting up and allocating your Consulting Licenses to users within your Company
Once you have been informed that consulting licenses have been allocated to your corporate pool and the "Corporate Management" has been enabled by Elements.cloud the following steps can be performed by the Corporate Admin:
(if you do not have Corporate Admin rights you will need to get your Corporate admin to conduct this. If you cannot
1. Go to corporate management
Log into your Elements.cloud account
Click on the cog icon in the upper right corner of your screen in the main application and select "Corporate settings" from the dropdown list.
2. Assign licenses to users.
Go to the users' list, select a user, and assign a license by turning on the "Multi-space editor" toggle in the right sidebar. That user now has consulting licence allocated.
If you do not see a user you wish to grant a consulting license to:
Have that user register for a free Elements.cloud account using their email address with the same domain that is registered to your Elements.cloud corporate account.
Have them notify you when they have finished the account registration process and return to the steps above.
Next steps:
Your consultants are probably eager to get started quickly too! Here is a useful video for them to get get up and running on the basics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why are there users and spaces already associated with my Elements.cloud account?
A: Any person with a corporate email address associated with your company who has registered for an Elements.cloud account will automatically be associated with your account-- regardless of how long ago it happened. Think of this as as an indication of past interest. The Corporate settings utility will allow you to review and purge any user account you deem fit. It is also useful to review the user list to ensure everyone you wish to issue a consulting license to has registered for a free account. Remember they need to first register as a free user before you can assign them a paid license.
Q: Why am I seeing Spaces already associated with my Elements.cloud account?
A: Similar to the above situation-- any prior usage of Elements.cloud by people using a corporate email address will be automatically associated with your newly established corporate account. You can review the Spaces and decide what action to take. One such action might be to delete a space and another might be to upgrade it to a consulting space.
Q: I tried to allocate a consulting license to a user but I received an error that I did not have any licenses available. What now?
A: FIrst check to see how many licenses you've allocated vs how many you own. You can find that information on the details page of your Corporate Management app under the section titled: "Number of allocated Multi-Space licenses". The first number is the number assigned and the second number is the number owned. Check to ensure those numbers make sense to you. Secondly you can review the Users who have been issued consulting licenses by navigating to the Users icon in Corporate Management and then changing the filter in the "Role" field to show only Multi-space editor. And lastly, for any user you wish to revoke a license from, you can simple select their name and deactivate the Multi space editor slider.
Q: I tried to deactivate a mutli-space license assignment from a user and was presented with a warning that the user was the only admin assigned to a space. What do I do?
A: A space needs at least on admin and if you try to manage that user in a way that would violate the minimum number of space admins rule your action will be blocked. Fortunately you as Corporate Admin can delete the offending space if appropriate or add another user to the space and assign the role of space admin. To do this, navigate to the spaces incon in the Corporate management app and press the "delete space" button OR add another user to that space with the role of Space Admin.
Once completed you can then continue with your original user administration.
Q: If my client wishes to become the owner of the space we created for them what do I need to do?
A: Firstly your client will need to purchase and setup an Enterprise account with Elements.cloud. We can help with that. After that, the steps for transfering the Space to them is easy.
Also note that your consultants can remain part of the space and continue their work without interruption despite ownership being transferred but their access would be governed by the client rather than via your Corporate Admin console.