A successful implementation doesn’t mean your organization will never see a single Salesforce developer or administrator ever again: oftentimes, maintenance is continuously needed afterwards, which is where Salesforce Managed Services comes in.
Managed Services for Salesforce Implementations are a set of services designed to help organizations manage and maintain the fruit of that implementation. These services typically include tasks such as system administration, data management, application support, and custom development provided by a Salesforce implementation partner. These efforts ensure that organizations get the most out of their investment in Salesforce, by providing ongoing support and maintenance for the platform. Since these services are typically provided by experts from a Salesforce partner organization.
Since it’s an additional time and financial investment, some organizations might be hesitant to proceed. In our experiences, Managed Services is generally worth it, with that initial investment going a long way to yield great returns. That’s because managing Salesforce yourself is also a substantial investment, so outsourcing it means taking off quite a bit of work off your organization.
You can read more about our very own Managed Services and other offerings here.
There are several reasons why companies should invest in Managed Services for Salesforce Implementations:
- Less work for your team:
Since the Salesforce partner company manages the Managed Services team, your organization won’t have to. You just manage the relationship. Outsourcing this work to a provider can free up your internal resources and focus on other critical areas of their business, such as spending more quality time interacting with your customers whom they already know rather than learning how to debug Sales Cloud. Now you don’t need to train or hire staff to do this work for you.
Even if you have some IT folks onboard who can do the job, it’s unlikely they’re as well-versed in Salesforce maintenance as certified developers and administrators from an official Salesforce partner organization. This might be more financially, logistically, and emotionally efficient compared to training your team on Salesforce maintenance.
- Help with user adoption:
Not everyone in your organization who’ll be using Salesforce will be involved in the implementation, so that might leave quite a few people who’ll have to learn it after. Although Salesforce’s interface is well-designed and intuitive, it’s still a complex software that takes a while to get used to. Managed Services providers can help organizations improve user adoption of Salesforce by providing training, support, and best practices. This can help ensure that all users are making the most of the system.
- Maintain quality data:
Providing regular data cleansing and management services helps an organization improve the quality of its data. This can help organizations avoid the risks associated with poor data quality, such as inaccurate reporting and decision making. Managed Services can advise you how to keep your incoming and past data clean and encourage you to have a data backup in place.
- Timely and proactive support for issues:
Salesforce is a complex platform, and ongoing support and maintenance are essential for ensuring that it continues to function the way it’s meant to over time. Having a team fully dedicated to this maintenance means that problems can be timely and proactively resolved, preventing them from snowballing out of control. Deeper problems resulting from festering bugs can result in costly downtime and other interruptions and losses.
If you were to leave this to an in-house team, they might have other priorities that aren’t Salesforce in the way. A Managed Services team may have other clients, but at least their priority is Salesforce so they’d be helping you quickly depending on the urgency of your issue.
Just like you constantly need to put in effort to retain and take care of your employees after hiring them, your Salesforce ecosystem needs some nurturing as well. Salesforce partner companies can either maintain the partner’s own implementation, or maintain a system already implemented by your own organization or another company.
By investing in Managed Services for Salesforce Implementations, companies can ensure that they get the most out of their investment in Salesforce and drive long-term business value. In the long run, this investment may end up costing your organization even less than hiring your own team members or fixing all the issues that’ll arise if left unattended.
If you haven’t already, check out our own services here, including Managed Services!
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