With tech-integrated personalized and adaptive solutions becoming the norm across businesses, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve. Salesforce is one such platform that is constantly evolving — simplifying business practices and shortening work cycles. To keep up with system innovations, data architecture, workflows, and changing business needs, firms need experienced Salesforce architects and admins.
But hiring and retaining Salesforce experts require a huge monetary investment that may not be feasible for businesses with constrained budgets or limited resource requirements. For such businesses, Salesforce-managed services are the way forward. Under managed service, firms outsource Salesforce administration to a remote partner who maintains and monitors the system ensuring there is minimum downtime.
Over the years, businesses have shown increased reliance on managed services which can be understood by the recent forecast. While the market was valued at USD 152 billion in 2020, it is anticipated to reach USD 274 billion by 2026 showing a great 11 percent CAGR.
While there are ample benefits of Salesforce managed services, there are certain limitations as well. In this blog, we will dive deep and try to understand the pros and cons of this model and see how it suits your business ecosystem:
Pros of Salesforce Managed Services
1 . Reduced Operational Cost
In managed services, contracts are structured in a way that businesses can maximize their investments. Instead of hiring experts full-time, you can hire experts on a fixed hourly basis and pay for the actual work hours eliminating any delays/downtime. This flexibility in agreement makes it a go-to model for businesses and certainly helps in reducing operational costs.
2 . No Ramp-up Time
While in-house professionals take time to get onboard, off-shore professionals do not require any significant ramp-up time. They start off work as soon as they join which boosts the morale of the team. If your business wants swift on-demand support with early value realization, Salesforce managed services are the key.
3 . Diversely Skilled Experts
Managed service model allows firms to have easy access to diversely skilled experts who are continuously training and have better platform knowledge. A Salesforce team includes the following experts, you can hire them as per your project requirement.
i) Project Manager – A remote project manager works collaboratively with team members ensuring your business achieves the most out of managed service arrangement.
ii) System Administrator – A system administrator in managed services works the same way as an in-house administrator. They perform various day-to-day and periodic tasks such as report generation, data validation, account management, data management, dashboard customization, etc — ensuring the system remains error-free and updated.
iii) Salesforce Developer – Developers create and edit triggers, workflows, Visualforce pages, third-party apps, and lightning components in Salesforce solutions. You can hire developers on an hourly basis, preventing higher costs of maintaining full-time professionals.
Besides these, you can also hire specialized resources like architects, consultants, and cloud-specific experts with managed services.
4 . Fewer Chances of Critical Failure
Small-medium-sized businesses have limited resources to manage and optimize the whole Salesforce ecosystem. Due to huge work responsibilities, often professionals get preoccupied with day-to-day activities, making the system prone to single-point failure (server crash, network failure, disk crash, etc). In managed services, businesses have access to multiple experts at the cost of one— decreasing chances of single-point failure.
5 . Reduced Hiring Challenges
While hiring in-house professionals is a costly affair, it is also a difficult task. The recruitment process often takes months to finalize a candidate. Even when someone is hired, they will take time to get accustomed to the system. Managed services for Salesforce allow you to hire experts under flexible contracts literally from any part of the world. You can make use of AppExchange to find prospective companies in your specific region.
Cons of Salesforce Managed Services
1 . Communication Gap
In-house professionals have a deep understanding of business processes and workflows that help in faster goal accomplishment. Remote professionals however need more communication overhead especially during the initial phases of project management. Additionally, there are timezone and language barriers that add to the communication gap. This communication problem however is short-term and most likely won’t happen if you align your team with reliable Salesforce managed service providers.
2 . Security and Business Risks
When you hire an external partner to manage your Salesforce ecosystem, there are chances of security breaches and unethical data sharing. However, by following the right security protocols, tools, and settings, data risks can be reduced largely. By hiring industry leaders with a proven track record in Salesforce management and conducting periodic audits on Salesforce, you can reduce major data authentication and security concerns.
Bottomline
Salesforce managed services for Salesforce are the best solution for businesses irrespective of their size and scope. It empowers organizations to reduce operational costs while aligning more specialized experts for implementation, training, administration, and support. While this model offers various advantages, there are data security and communication challenges as well. To overcome such challenges and ensure better utilization of the Salesforce platform and features, you should look for remote Salesforce partners that specialize in accommodating businesses in your industry, provide uninterrupted service, and ensure strict data compliance for your Salesforce ecosystem.
Source: Is Salesforce Managed Services a Fit for You? Pros & Cons to Consider
