Managed Services: The Go-to Model for Salesforce Users
The global managed services market is anticipated to reach the $275 billion mark by 2026 with an 11 per cent CAGR - showing rising demand for outsourced services and solutions. A similar trend can be expected in the CRM market with Salesforce being the first choice of global businesses when it comes to outsourcing.
Today, more than 150,000 businesses, non-profits, and institutions rely on Salesforce to manage diverse business functions including marketing, sales, service, eCommerce, manufacturing, etc. While many Salesforce users manage their Cloud deployments through in-house teams, most rely on a shared model (in-house and managed services) to keep solutions updated and well-maintained.
What are Salesforce Managed Services?
As the name suggests, Salesforce managed services are the external support users need for the systemic functioning of their Salesforce deployments. Under this model, Salesforce solutions are developed, administered, and maintained by remote professionals who work as an extension of a company’s in-house team. These experts work proactively taking real-time cognizance of issues that helps in keeping Salesforce applications updated, optimized, and error-free.
Types of Managed Application Services
To give you a better insight into what comes under managed services for Salesforce, we have dissected the managed services into 3 core components.
- Operating: You can avail of operating services for deployment, testing, validation, sandbox management, technical consulting, license management, cost optimization, etc.
- Optimization: Salesforce-managed services: (SMS) can be availed to add continuous improvements to your Salesforce applications. You can help with enhancement support for fixing updates, adding upgrades, audits, license optimization, integration, customization, and other needs.
- Maintenance: You can hire Salesforce managed service providers (MSP) for knowledge-keeping and administration services. Your SMS partner can help you manage the environment, break/fix issues, assist with business queries, and perform day-to-day administration tasks.
Don't forget to check out: What are the Development Tools in Salesforce?
Benefits of Salesforce Managed Services for Companies
Salesforce-managed services are highly beneficial for existing users as well as for companies wanting to leverage the Salesforce platform in some way. Some points make managed services for Salesforce irresistible for CRM users.
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Reduced Operational Cost
Managing Salesforce deployments in-house is quite costly which deters most users from continuing full-time support. In managed services, contracts are structured in a way that businesses can reduce operational costs and maximize their investments. Instead of hiring experts on a full-time basis, you can hire MSPs for selective periods. Since you only have to pay for actual work hours and not full-time, you can save immensely and use it on digital campaigns and other business expansion setups.
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Zero Ramp-Up Time
While in-house experts take time to get onboard after hiring, Salesforce-managed service providers do not need significant ramp-up time. They can start as soon as they join your project helping your in-house team in Salesforce development/administration. If you want swift on-demand support and higher ROI, consider managed services as the way forward.
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Diversely Skilled Experts
The managed services model allows businesses to overcome hiring and retention hassles. Instead of reaching out to individual developers or consultants, you can have it all under one roof with a Salesforce-managed service partner. You can expand your Salesforce team by hiring the following resources for your project:
- Project Manager: Project managers in a managed services model work collaboratively with team members similar to an in-house team set-up, ensuring you achieve the most out of managed service arrangement.
- Operating: You can avail of operating services for deployment, testing, validation, sandbox management, technical consulting, license management, cost optimization, etc.
- Optimization: Salesforce-managed services (SMS) can be availed to add continuous improvements to your Salesforce applications. You can help with enhancement support for fixing updates, adding upgrades, audits, license optimization, integration, customization, and other needs.
- Maintenance: You can hire Salesforce managed service providers (MSP) for knowledge-keeping and administration services. Your SMS partner can help you manage the environment, break/fix issues, assist with business queries, and perform day-to-day administration tasks.
- System Administrator - You can hire system administrators as well under a managed services model. A remote administrator performs day-to-day tasks such as report generation, data validation, dashboard customization, account management, etc —keeping the system updated and optimized.
- Salesforce Developers - Salesforce developers create Visualforce pages, and workflows, create/edit triggers, integrate third-party apps, and use pre-built components for custom development. You can hire developers on-demand under managed services and pay them on an hourly basis.
Beside hiring developers, administrators, and project managers, you can also hire architects, consultants, and cloud-specific experts with managed services and scale their contracts as per peak/non-peak season.
Check out another amazing blog by Alok here: Boost Fundraising With Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Implementation
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Fewer Chances of Critical Failure
Small-medium businesses have constrained budgets to manage and optimize CRM and other connected applications. Due to huge work responsibilities, in-house admins often get preoccupied with day-to-day tasks, making the system prone to critical failure (server crash, network failure, disk crash, etc). Managed services allow you access to multiple experts for a single role at the cost of one, minimizing the chances of such failure.
Bottomline
Managed Services for Salesforce is a cost-effective and business-friendly solution for organizations irrespective of their size and scope. It allows firms to overcome hiring and cost-based challenges by aligning specialized experts on demand. The flexibility in contract, contract, cost benefits, and proactive service of Salesforce-managed service partners makes it truly irresistible. If you want uninterrupted service for your Salesforce solutions or other on-premise/cloud apps, do consider availing of managed services along with in-house IT.
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