The engine that powers traffic safety
A major part of this government agency’s core mission involves funding regional partners to run programs that promote traffic safety.
“We get money from the federal government each year and we give that money out to local government partners, and state, local, or county agencies.”
Grant recipients include local law enforcement agencies and police and sheriff departments, and state universities. This government agency is subject to regular and routine auditing processes and even when grants close, records need to be kept for specific lengths of time before being destroyed — sometimes up to six years. That means they need to protect this data from loss.
Salesforce for everything… including managing grants
Most state government departments are at least a few hundred and sometimes thousands of people strong, but this government agency is around 45 people, including a three-person IT team.
In 2023, this small department awarded $127.3 million spread across 442 different grants — the largest amount in its history.
With such a small team supporting a large mission, they must ensure that the department’s technology is reliable and easy to use. This is especially important for Salesforce, which everyone — including grant coordinators, IT, and administrative staff — uses.
“It's a mission-critical system for us. We have a community portal for when we solicit applications, and we internally review the applications, select which ones to award, and once they’re awarded, the grantees and internal staff manage the grant with Salesforce.”
The claims process encompasses everything from claiming money and related activities to quarterly reviews and performance metrics. “[These metrics define] how well the grantee is doing with the funding that we give them. It's a really big part of our core mission for us.”
This government agency also integrates third-party products with Salesforce to support the grant management workflow. The department uses Nintex DocGen to generate grant agreement documents, as well as Adobe Sign for signatures.
In addition to using Salesforce for the grants process, they also use it for internal purposes. “We use it for our IT ticketing system, inventory, [and] time-off applications,” as well as for products and services the team have built in-house. It comes back to size again: “We don't want to go out and buy another system for HR. And [Salesforce] is a really important tool for us, for sure.”
Getting backup right: Why Own is needed
For years, the IT and Systems team at this government agency grappled with a critical oversight: the absence of a robust data backup strategy for their Salesforce environment.
While the native file data export function offered a semblance of security, it fell far short of the comprehensive protection required for mission-critical data. Recognizing the significant risks associated with data loss, the team understood that a dedicated backup solution was not merely desirable, but an absolute necessity.
Defining your Own solution
The evaluation process was a breeze. “We looked at some other products, but Own was the best one and easiest to use.”
Some of the reasons they chose Own include:
✅ Ease of use: It was easy for such a small team to set up and use Own.
✅ Easy restore process: This government agency has luckily avoided big data losses so far, but, with Own, it’s been easy to address the minor issues that have come up. For example, when someone recently deleted a single field, the team was able to run a simple query to restore it.
✅ Metadata support: “The other [tools] didn't do metadata, whereas Own does. That was a big thing for us—not just the backup [functionality].” For example, when someone accidentally deleted a flow while working in a sandbox environment, they were able to quickly restore it instead of having to rebuild it from scratch.
✅ Alerts: Own lets this team set alerts on sensitive records, such as grants, applications, claims, so they will receive an email if data is deleted when it shouldn’t be.
✅ Affordability: Own offered the right combination of required features and nice-to-haves at a cost that aligned with the department’s budget.
First Backup and Restore, now Archive
This government agency was impressed enough by Own for backup and restore to procure Own’s data archiving solution.
For specific reasons, this team needs to archive certain records outside of Salesforce, but the records must remain visible internally for the department’s retention policy. Prior to Own, they would export records to Excel or screenshot them in Word to create an archive.
Now, with Own Archive, they can archive those records off of Salesforce, while making them available to any staffers who need to view them. Own turns an hours-long process into the click of a button and offers a familiar user experience.
“It totally saved us. The program's happy because it looks just like it does in Salesforce. I'm happy because it's not in Salesforce.”
Backup for a better future
The team is also relieved to know that Own will support them as the department upgrades other aspects of its technology.
They use Salesforce Government Cloud (similar to Sales Cloud) to help manage its grant applications process. The department hired an external vendor to implement Salesforce several years ago. Since then, their instance has grown outdated.
This team is eager to upgrade it, but big moves away from legacy architecture come data risks. Own will help his team ensure that nothing happens to data during the merge process. “When we do upgrade, having a backup of our current production data is very reassuring for us.”
The bottom line: The right solution, with meaningful support
So far, this government agency has avoided major issues that would significantly affect its operations. But they know that issues arise. With Own for backup, restore, and archive, this small team can trust that its data is protected and they can focus on the business of keeping their state’s roads safer.
