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Why Ongoing Salesforce Support and Service is Crucial

May 8, 2017by Admin

Salesforce.com (SFDC) can be a tremendous asset for an organization; however, without ongoing optimization, support, and service, Salesforce can quickly become an ineffective and costly line item on your financial statements. The truth is, that Salesforce is what you make out of it. Unfortunately for most organizations, they invest in the initial implementation and ramp up of Salesforce, but fail to continuously support and evolve their SFDC instance on an ongoing basis. This ultimately leads to aging systems and processes that no longer satisfy the needs of the organization, and can result in decreased in both efficiency and productivity.

This doesn’t have to be the case. With the right maintenance plan, Salesforce remains a core contributor to organizational success. Here’s why ongoing Salesforce support and service is crucial to achieving that success:

Optimization and Automation

Do you ever find yourself thinking “wouldn’t it be great if Salesforce did that?” If you have, then you need to invest in ongoing Salesforce service and support. Salesforce has nearly limitless potential as a core business system, but it won’t get there without continuous process improvement, effective optimization, and automation.

The reason SFDC has survived and thrived for so long as a business tool is that it truly is a flexible system. Entire apps can be built out to fit your team’s needs. If you’ve dreamt up an automation rule or other customization, chances are you can make that dream a reality. All you need is to find the right Salesforce professional to make those tweaks and modifications. With an ongoing service plan, those possibilities can be implemented at your request.

Things Change

Your organization should evolve over time. Your products and services will mature, your internal processes will become more refined, and your team’s skills should develop. Unfortunately, if your Salesforce instance does not evolve in tandem you run the risk slowing growth, restricting talented employees, and losing business opportunities. Change is one of the few constants in high performing organizations, and you must ensure that your Salesforce and other business systems can change and evolve as well. Having an ongoing support and service plan will ensure that your Salesforce instance evolves and remains an asset for the organization.

New Apps & Technology

One of Salesforce’s biggest differentiators is the expansive network of Salesforce application developers. The robust AppExchange marketplace makes it easy to find and install apps and extensions that can instantly enhance your instance. As developers build custom software that solves common business challenges they often productize it and add it to the AppExchange so that other organizations can utilize their technology.

In fact, CEPTES has done just that. Our XFilesPro and Encryptik products were built to solve the business needs of our clients, but are now available on the AppExchange so that many other organizations can utilize them to solve their storage and encryption needs.

Your ongoing Salesforce service program should support your organization’s evolution, and incorporating new apps or tools into your instance to help refine or reinvent processes is a great way to ensure growth.

No Admin or IT Team? You Can Still Gain the Benefits of Ongoing Salesforce Support and Service

An ongoing Salesforce support and service program is imperative to ensure you’re getting the best ROI for your Salesforce instance. You may, however, be asking yourself, “How do I start and maintain a support program with my current team and resources?” There are only two ways to ensure your SFDC platform is continuously being improved and optimized:

  1. Staff an internal Admin: Adding a full-time Salesforce Administrator to your IT team.
  2. Hire an outsourced Salesforce Support team: Outsourcing to an experienced team of Salesforce consultants

Having an admin on the payroll is convenient, but it is often hard to generate a desirable return from a dedicated Salesforce admin, especially for instances with fewer than 100 seats. That one Salesforce admin might have limited experience and bandwidth and may get distracted or pulled away from Salesforce to work on other projects. Hiring a trusted Salesforce consultancy ensures that you have the knowledge and experience necessary, as well as the bandwidth to marshall more or fewer resources based on your needs.

To learn more about starting an ongoing Salesforce support program, please request a free consultation with one of our Salesforce consultants.