As the most powerful and advanced CRM tool in the world, Salesforce can transform the way a business operates. Through Salesforce, businesses can create meaningful connections with their customers, grow their customer base, elevate their output and ultimately increase their bottom line.
The benefits of Salesforce are endless, but having easy access to and benefiting from these capabilities comes down to successful implementation.
Choosing an experienced and capable Salesforce implementation partner can speed up your solution’s time to market and increase the ROI you derive from implementing Salesforce in your organisation.
Do You Need a Salesforce Implementation Partner?
Salesforce is more than a CRM tool, it’s essentially an ecosystem of solutions that are integrative and customisable. Having Salesforce on your side essentially means the sky’s the limit when it comes to the potential your business has, but it also means there’s a lot to get to grips with and understand.
Without an implementation partner guiding you through the process of selecting the right Salesforce solutions, overseeing their rollout and showing your team how to get the most out of them, you may lose valuable time trying to work through everything yourself – time that takes your attention away from your core business processes.
While it is possible to attempt rollout and implementation on your own, having an experienced and dedicated partner at your side to speed up and smooth out the process allows you to fully reap the benefits of Salesforce faster and more effectively.
What to Look for in an Implementation Partner
Choosing the right implementation partner to oversee your Salesforce rollout is just as important as deciding to work with a partner. Not all implementation partners offer the same services. Some partners specialise in certain areas of Salesforce, while others focus more on one overarching service.
It’s a good idea to keep these essential points in mind when choosing your implementation partner.
Knowledge and awareness of implementation best practices
A good implementation partner should know that the implementation process doesn’t begin with the rollout, it begins with understanding the business of the client. Often, the Salesforce solution that best suits the client’s needs might be different to what the client envisioned or asked for.
It’s up to the implementation partner to have the knowledge and expertise to recognise this and make suggestions and recommendations as required to ensure the client achieves the optimal results they’re looking for.
Your ideal partner should also understand not only how to implement the right solutions, but also understand how to align these solutions to the unique needs and processes of your business.
Resource and talent pool
An implementation partner’s knowledge and expertise should reflect in the resources and talent they assign to your rollout and implementation. Depending on the project requirements, your partner should assign a dedicated team of consultants, developers and architects to ensure the solution designed is seamless.
Having a dedicated team that solely focuses on your implementation is essential, as they’ll need to leverage their expertise and hands-on experience to oversee the rollout, any customisations, integrations and configurations and ensure best practices are followed at every level.
Teaching and training capabilities
Having your solution up and running can be an incredibly exciting and empowering feeling. However, without the understanding and technical know-how for operating and maintaining it, your ability to optimise its features is limited.
Your implementation partner should have the capabilities and resources to facilitate a training process for you and your business. This can either be training the entire team who’ll be using the software or simply training a manager who will then train their team.
Their training shouldn’t be a “one size fits all” process, it should be carefully considered and reflect the unique structures and processes introduced by the solution – for instance, only one team member might be working with a particular software in the system. Your partner should take this into account when planning their training procedure.
Ongoing support and planning
After a successful Salesforce rollout and training, you should feel confident and able to navigate the Salesforce suite implemented by your partner, but the relationship shouldn’t end there. What if you run into a bug with the software that you can’t fix? Or your team needs help with a feature?
A good implementation partner should actively keep in touch with a client to ensure they’re maximizing their returns from their Salesforce solution. If you need technical support or have a question, your implementation partner should be readily available on the other end of the line.
In addition, they should monitor and keep track of new releases and software upgrades coming from Salesforce, and make recommendations for updates that will benefit your business
CloudSmiths is Africa’s largest all-in-one Salesforce implementation partner and advisor. With over 310 successful CRM projects under our belt for local and international clients, our ability to connect clients with their customers through Salesforce is unmatched.
Our extensive expertise enables us to tailor unique strategies and solutions that help clients drive sales and transform their customer experience.
We offer end-to-end Salesforce consultation, implementation, management and support services:
- Consulting and advisory services – we take the time to understand your business, customers and industry to create an optimised, informed digital strategy.
- Salesforce development – we work with the very best Salesforce developers in Africa who specialise in designing custom Salesforce solutions.
- Salesforce licenses – we help you identify the best Salesforce license for your business and help you obtain it.
- Managed services and support – we help you manage and develop your Salesforce platform in line with emerging trends, features and functions.
- Salesforce implementation – we get you up and running with the best Salesforce suite of services, tailored to your unique business needs.
- Training – we train your employees in how to navigate and manage your Salesforce solution so they can hit the ground running.
