We use Conga Composer to build complex reports that meet very specific parameters. It is easy to navigate and set up but there are lots of details that go into actually building the queries and solutions, many of which I think could be more user-friendly. So far it has been very helpful in regards to the reports that we build to see a very specific subset of data.
Pros
Build a solution.
Assign queries to the related solution and set up pass-through filters.
Edit queries to your specific needs.
Cons
Provide one central spot where I can see what solutions are using specific queries.
Provide one central spot that shows me what queries are using certain fields.
Make the act of creating queries more of a step-by-step process.
Likelihood to Recommend
I am unsure of other scenarios where Conga Composer would be more appropriate as I have only ever used it for one particular use case. I will say that it has been very helpful in the times I have used it to set up specific reports where Salesforce is simply not efficient. Some of the processes could certainly be more user-friendly but all in all, it is a very solid program.
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (Building Materials company, 201-500 employees)
Conga Composer allows us to generate documents at the press of a button. It's a great tool which allows users to generate documents that pull information directly from Salesforce. We also use Conga Sign to which eliminates the use of paper documents and allows us to send documents which require a signature directly to a customer. We then get notifications and are able to report on what's been signed or not.
Pros
Easy document generation from Salesforce
Great support
The ability to report on transactions
Cons
The set up needs someone who is technically minded
Resolving error messages can sometimes need support
Likelihood to Recommend
We are able to send documents directly to customers via email using Conga Sign, previously these documents were been printed and needed a wet signature. The document would then be uploaded manually. Using Conga Sign takes a lot of the effort out and also risk. It keeps an audit in Salesforce so we can see what has happened.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (Construction company, 201-500 employees)
We use it in conjunction with Salesforce CPQ so users can create quotes associated with opportunities and then press create quote, and it pulls in all legal documents as well as quote information into one succinct PDF that the user can then send off to their potential customer and get approved. It's made our selling process much more efficient.
Pros
Great PDF generator
Pulls in all quote info easily
Very user friendly
Cons
Easier to adjust documents when necessary on back-end
More user friendly for admins
Have improvements
Likelihood to Recommend
It's well suited for CPQ users and makes it easy for us to have everything in one place. It's great for when users need to constantly make minute adjustments to quotes, and then they can produce the quote easily and have it presented to the client. We have to be able to get quotes out quickly for us to win jobs.
We are using Conga Composer to populate a variety of forms that are respectively used regularly in their department. These forms range from supporting our claims process with customers to bid submittals on the sales side. It is allowing us to reduce time in the claims management process. For bid submittals it creates consistency, reduces time creating the bid and allows us to track multiple iterations of the bid.
Pros
Design flexibility
Ease of use
Excellent customer support
Cons
We needed to use an implementation partner to set these up, but I think that is symptomatic of Salesforce and not this program
Likelihood to Recommend
We keep finding new uses for Conga Composer. If you have a process that requires data entry plus form submission, you will find this tool incredibly useful. We have reduced the amount of time spent entering duplicate data and have increased efficiency in three processes that have been moved into Salesforce and are facilitated by Conga Composer. If your processes do not require form submission, it may not be as beneficial to you.
Clark Construction uses Conga Composer to generate reports based on Salesforce data spread across multiple objects. The reports generated are used in our business development teams and executives to keep track of our pipeline. The main area that Conga addresses is the limited functionality of standard Salesforce reports both in terms of the data they can aggregate, and the output format. We are able to create templates which our end users are familiar and comfortable with and output the data to a PDF.
Pros
Managing source reports for data is intuitive.
Output of various file types is easy to define.
Creating queries and leveraging SOQL makes for a powerful too.
Ease of copying fields to the specified output template.
Cons
Some special URL switches can be hard to find documentation for.
Accessing the template builder can be tricky.
Excel formatting can be a challenge with larger tables.
Likelihood to Recommend
Conga Composer is well suited for reports and output formats that need some very hands on formatting. In my experience using Conga to manage the creation of PDFs and other documents is much easier than trying to output the data in another format or using Visualforce to generate PDFs programmatically. If you just need a crosstab of data though, standard reports and exports will work much better.
