
908 Devices boosts operational efficiency, breaks down siloed business processes, and improves Salesforce data quality with Validity DemandTools.
The challenge:
Projects impacting the structure and standardization of Salesforce data need to be executed quickly to enable teams and integrated systems to fully leverage the potential of their Salesforce data.
Gathering insights and using powerful data is close to the heart for 908 Devices, not just for the smart and easy-to-use devices they develop, but for internal business operations and how they connect with their audience. The data in their Salesforce CRM is paramount and relied upon to fuel daily sales, service, and marketing functions and to deliver insights to company leadership. Like any business, 908 Devices must adapt to changes in how they operate—and quickly. Whether it’s a change in how the sales team is set up and divided across territories, or how Tableau will process and interact with data from Salesforce, the team at 908 Devices knows the importance of aligning their data to these changes. Joshua Johnson, Salesforce Administrator and Tableau Analyst at 908 Devices, put it this way: “The inputs from Sales, Service, and Marketing into Salesforce are vital to Leadership’s decision making and strategy so they have to be able to trust the data is up to date.”
However, out-of-the-box Salesforce utilities proved insufficient to satisfy the complexity and speed of the company’s needs.
“I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for over ten years and grew up in this space on DemandTools. I didn’t even consider another vendor because I knew what the platform could do, and there is no competition.”
Jennifer Cole, Director of Business Intelligence & Automation at 908 Devices
The solution:
Finding the right Salesforce admin and technology to traverse the ongoing changes to their data so they can provide better customer experiences, supported by Validity DemandTools.
In 2022, Johnson was brought on to manage the 908 Devices Salesforce Org by his mentor and Salesforce Golden Hoodie recipient, Jennifer Cole, Director of Business Intelligence & Automation at 908 Devices.
“I needed a team member to help manage our Salesforce Org who has the right perspective of our data, from how it’s used by our sales team to further downstream in Tableau where it’s being analyzed for decision making,” said Cole. “Joshua’s experience in sales, sales enablement, and the Salesforce ecosystem bring those key attributes to our organization.”
Having the right people and processes is a step in the right direction but Cole knew she also needed the right technology to help manage Salesforce and enable Johnson to achieve his goals.
“I’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for over ten years and grew up in this space on DemandTools,” she said. “I didn’t even consider another vendor because I knew what the platform could do, and there is no competition.”
Johnson and Cole agree that DemandTools is pivotal to the success of any project that touches or changes their Salesforce data. “Our story is one about efficiency and project support. It’s a given that any project involving our Salesforce Org will be supported by DemandTools. Many things we do today just wouldn’t be possible or would take exponentially longer without the capabilities DemandTools delivers.” Johnson said.
One of the DemandTools functions Johnson relies on heavily dovetails with his favorite Salesforce function, Flows. When he builds a new record-triggered flow, rather than waiting for something external to edit the record and trigger the flow, he turns to DemandTools’ Modify module. Modify enables Johnson to “touch” thousands of records in one quick process that updates the last modified date without any record modifications, which is just enough to have the records evaluated by the logic in his flow. He no longer must wait to see his Flow trickle update his data; he can put it into action immediately. This is very useful when leads come in with a sparse amount of data. “If a lead comes in with no data, it will just sit there, but I can quickly touch those records with DemandTools and trigger my Flow to pull in data from our data enrichment solutions, making the lead more valuable,” Johnson explained.
“Now that we have Josh and DemandTools, we have the bandwidth and project support to scale our processes and remain proactive to aid 908 in its continued growth and achievements,” said Cole.
Initially, Johnson got pushback from Sales when manipulating the data. “They resisted change at first,” he said. “They didn’t like me messing with their data. But now they understand the value in how we manage our data and are comfortable with the process.”
The results:
Confidence in their ability to manage data changes quickly so everyone has access to high-quality information.
While project support is where DemandTools really shines for the team, Johnson is attuned to the daily care and feeding of their Salesforce Org and puts DemandTools to work there, too. From deduplication, standardizing phone numbers, zip codes, and state and country values to proper casing Contact and Account names, importing records into Salesforce, and keeping record ownership aligned with their territories, DemandTools is Johnson’s go-to solution. Not only do these changes empower his sales and marketing teams to send clean, professional communications, they also ensure that once the data reaches Tableau it is in a format that can be analyzed efficiently.
Johnson and Cole recently moved to the newest version of DemandTools and are loving the efficiency gains in the release. The new features within Tune, Delete, and Import save time by reducing the need to extract and manipulate data within Excel by allowing the individual to access and enrich the data within DemandTools, reducing a two-step process into one. Enhanced navigation and user experience increase the ability to leverage the full functionality of the platform’s capabilities; acronym cleaning and scheduled runs, to name a few. All these features and more will aid in the team’s success as they embark on new projects, like CPQ and work related to company integration.
“We’re not just admins,” Johnson summarized. “We are business partners that enable the organization to realize every opportunity to grow through data. We have a saying around here, ‘Don’t cheat yourself out of data.’ DemandTools makes this possible for everyone and helps us continuously nurture our Salesforce Org as a living entity.”
“Our story is one of efficiency. It’s a given that any project involving our Salesforce Org will be supported by DemandTools. Many things we do today just wouldn’t be possible or would take exponentially longer without the capabilities DemandTools delivers.”
Joshua Johnson, Salesforce Administrator & Tableau Reporting Analyst at 908 Devices

Located in the heart of Boston, 908 Devices (NASDAQ: MASS) develops devices that bring together the power of complementary analytical technologies, microfluidic sampling and separations, software automation, and machine learning for simple, smart and speedy chemical analysis. 908 Devices directly address some of the most critical problems in bioprocessing, pharma/biopharma, forensics, life sciences research and adjacent markets. The company name is a nod to the point of stability and instability within ion trap mass spectrometers—the point at which the magic happens.