Salesforce Managed Services: Significance and Important Considerations

Salesforce managed services refer to the team of specialists that are dedicated to providing personalized help depending on the special needs of an organization. Salesforce-managed service providers help businesses concentrate on the chief goods and services they provide by taking responsibility for tasks like day-to-day updates, security checks, and other administrative tasks. 

For its maintenance and upkeep, a Salesforce org requires an administrator. When the capabilities and expertise needed to run a business org reaches a threshold owing to the increased business growth, losses are incurred. Businesses end up making decisions based on imperfect data and there is a lack of better insight. This results in businesses missing their financial targets. 

Salesforce managed services are a foolproof solution for businesses to handle their administrative tasks. It is a scalable and economic solution to managing Salesforce and helping a business realize a better ROI. Managed services Salesforce keeps the Salesforce org functioning effectively. The service providers offer ongoing support to a business so that the Salesforce platforms function according to the growing needs of a business. 

managed services for salesforce

What is Included Within Salesforce Managed Services?

Businesses focused on expanding their core competencies do not have sufficient time to keep up with the new releases, updates, and enhancements required by Salesforce. It becomes challenging for teams to resolve issues when they arise. Salesforce managed services provide a range of solutions that prevent such cases. They ensure the smooth working of Salesforce org. The important activities that fall under the horizon of managed services include the following: 

Improvements and Optimization

The processes and goals of a business evolve with time and it is vital for Salesforce org to evolve too. Managed services help in streamlining business processes and refine backlogs to ensure uninterrupted delivery. This is done by introducing automation, reducing technical debt, and determining inactive functionalities. They merge new features with old ones to create a smooth process. 

Consulting and Planning

The policies of managed services for various tasks ranging from process review to business analysis assist an organization in making efficient use of CRM. This ultimately helps an organization realize its long-term value.  

Execution and Support

Managed services Salesforce creates an infrastructure that implements the vital Salesforce Clouds and apps into the present system. For example, the impact of transition is kept under control while migrating to Lightning with managed services. Also, managed services provide real-time synchronization. Whenever problems and bugs occur, they offer great technical support. The services are adept in integrating the infrastructure with third-party solutions and tools like ERP

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Benefits of Salesforce Managed Services for a Business

The proactive nature of managed services is what distinguishes them from others. The services help in resolving any issues that might interrupt workflow, obstruct revenue streams, or result in the failure of the management. This is accomplished by setting up systems that address risks so they don’t become a serious concern. Here are the important benefits of Salesforce managed services:

Boost User Engagement

Managed services equip users with data management. This helps with better data analysis and comprehensive reports which ultimately allows businesses in making better management decisions. For example, they are able to design targeted and relevant marketing campaigns. All this results in better user engagement. 

Deploy New Updates and Functionalities

Managed services of Salesforce ensure that businesses do not have to be concerned with new features, critical updates, or security patches. Salesforce managed service providers identify vulnerabilities, evaluate security, and also implement any protocols vital for preventing downtime. 

The managed services team is just a call away for businesses having any questions about a new Salesforce update or rollout. Thus, employees don’t face any issues while utilizing Salesforce and become skilled. The security and constant updations of the system also ensure that it is compliant with industry standards. 

More Cost-saving

Maintenance and ongoing improvement in Salesforce require technical expertise in its distinct modules like Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Sales Cloud. It also requires knowledge of various integration capabilities. This is why one Salesforce administrator is not sufficient. A business should be equipped with an entire team but that can prove to be a costly affair. Managed services provide businesses with the required expertise of a team at a reasonable price. Also, as the annual or monthly fee is fixed, businesses get to plan accordingly 

Make the Most of Salesforce Investment

Managed services play a key role in monitoring Salesforce administration and configuration. They quickly resolve any technical issue when it occurs. This way the business team is able to focus on its job of meeting sales targets and boosting customer relationships. When employees invest more time in customers, deals get closed faster and regularly and sales cycles become shorter. Also, an effectively configured Salesforce org comes with a simpler workflow which allows quick quote delivery and numerous other advantages. 

Salesforce managed services also prove to be an effective option in the following cases:

  • A business needs to drive Salesforce ROI with new ideas and better user adoption
  • Business processes need to be improved as business requirements have become complex
  • It is important to respond to environmental changes in a business and make it scalable

Considerations of Salesforce Managed Services

Salesforce is a powerful platform that needs professional assistance for its upkeep and maintenance. This ensures that the system stays relevant to the evolving needs of a business. It is vital to have a well-defined plan of managed services in Salesforce that includes integrations, customizations, and recurring maintenance and support

The complexity of the org, the number of users, and the system adoption throughout your company decide whether your managed services team needs a part-time Salesforce administrator or a full managed services team. Depending on factors like ongoing costs, you need to decide whether to outsource the Salesforce tasks to a certified partner or to support your Salesforce instance internally. No matter what you go for, you need to consider the below-mentioned factors: 

Org Management and Optimization

Optimizer reports and regular health checks help reveal your Salesforce org aspects that require attention. This is the basic requirement for any Salesforce instance and the tools are easy and free to use. The next thing is to stay informed about out-of-date technologies and features. As the Salesforce platform is evolving continuously, this leads to features becoming outdated and slow. Salesforce sends advance notice to organizations when such changes happen and it’s vital to address the impact of the updates on your Salesforce org on time. Custom-developed components, packages, and features, and regular review of processes ensure that they are relevant and not about to expire or become obsolete. 

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Security Audits

Every organization needs to have a properly defined policy of Information Technology Security. The Salesforce platform offers top-notch security features that include multiple settings for configuring your instance so that it complies with the best practices of the industry and the specific policies of your organization. Your plan of managed services needs to include periodic reviews of your Salesforce security configuration so that it complies with the best practices and policies. 

Release Management

Salesforce has 3 chief releases in a year in Spring, Summer, and Winter. It is important for a managed Salesforce org to have a process in place to review all releases, update, or create the impact and dependency plan to comprehend the impact the update will have on the systems. Salesforce releases do not have an adverse impact on an organization immediately after their release but there can be certain announcements in the release that might impact the org in a future release. 

There are generally changes to features that might impact how they perform or in certain cases, there are performance or security implications. Some instances will also be there wherein new functionality and features might be added to the products you are using. This can result in improvement in productivity but will require some work for implementation and training the users. In case, there is a custom code in your org that utilizes certain functions and/or methods that won’t be supported in the future, you’ll need to ensure these get addressed on time to avoid any last-minute rush. 

Planning and Monitoring

IT systems require planning and monitoring to ensure they are working as expected. The same goes for Salesforce. It needs to be monitored by professionals or Salesforce-managed service providers and the level of monitoring relies on the customization levels of your org. The monitoring plan should include monthly, weekly, and daily SOPs and checklists to address the possible scenarios and your team needs to be trained to effectively handle these. 

Adoption and utilization are other vital aspects. You need to have an extensive adoption plan that ensures users log in and use Salesforce. Administering user adoption and offering feedback is vital. Getting users to re-engage can become tougher when adoption after implementation becomes slow. This needs to be paired with an ongoing improvement process to ensure that the grievances of users and change requests are taken into consideration. 

ROI Goals

When deciding to invest in a Salesforce platform, there needs to be a particular set of goals established by the leadership team. You need to understand the KPIs of distinct business processes and units, and the state of internal processes prior to Salesforce implementation. Set a standard and define what a successful implementation looks like. Create a dashboard or report with the required metrics and begin measuring. Set up a feedback mechanism to gather information from users to increase adoption and improve the user experience, and thus, improve overall productivity. 

It is vital to define ROI dashboards and reports clearly and review them frequently. The reports and dashboards need to be created in Salesforce and adequate time needs to be allocated by stakeholders for reviewing these and taking corrective measures when required to meet the ROI goals. 

Professional Expertise

It is vital to have your Salesforce org reviewed regularly by Salesforce managed service providers. This becomes all the more important for organizations that have a long-term plan for using Salesforce as their chief platform for running their business. When you hire professionals to manage your Salesforce org, you don’t have to bear any cost of learning your system whenever you require a consultation. You need to regularly review the goals of your organization, your business requirements and how they’ll be implemented, and how the proposed plan of implementation compares with best practices. 

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In Conclusion

Not many organizations have certified Salesforce professionals on staff to address their Salesforce org issues. When organizations have someone on their staff trained as a Salesforce admin, they don’t have the required capacity or expertise to manage the Salesforce instance at a level that’s needed. Hiring Salesforce managed service providers ensures proper maintenance and upkeep of the Salesforce platform and allows a business to focus on its core products/services and boost sales. 

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