Unlock Better Business Operations Using Salesforce Development Consultants

Businesses all over the world rely on software to run their operations, train their staff, and connect with their customers. Undeniably cutting-edge, robust, and analytical systems are central to business in 2023. Therefore it’s no surprise that the global business software and services market holds a value of almost $475 billion USD. Furthermore, market size is forecast to reach a value of $1113.89 billion USD by 2030. Whether it’s growing industries and reliable on cloud platforms or blockchain technology and AI, enterprise software and services is irreplaceable.

So why exactly is Salesforce as the world’s number one business software so valuable to businesses? Concurrently, what core business areas does Salesforce target and how can leading development companies deliver measurable outcomes to businesses? With this in mind, in this A3logics blog we will explore why Salesforce development consultants help make business operations better.

Over the course of this article, the following points are covered:

• Understanding why business operations feed into profits, productivity, and strategic growth
• How Salesforce development consultants provide vital planning services to businesses
• The common business operational problems plaguing organizations
• How Salesforce and Salesforce development consultants help with these problems through platform design and deployment
• The major outcomes of better business operations
• How businesses should strategically plan and implement when working with Salesforce development consultants
• Focusing on staff support in business operations when working with Salesforce development consultants

Read on for a comprehensive guide to:

• How businesses can work Salesforce development consultants effectively
• Undertaking collaborative consultation processes with Salesforce development professions
• Using Salesforce development consultants expertise to choose features and maximize integration that meet the business’ operational needs.

Why Salesforce and software development consultants help businesses

Firstly let’s review the role of Salesforce as a business tool.

Unquestionably, Salesforce exists to help businesses in myriad areas operational, commercial, customer service, and sales areas:

• Data management, analysis, and reporting
• Cybersecurity
• Risk management
• Compliance
• Reliable automation

Almost all business software, not just Salesforce, offers these features. Despite this, Salesforce remains the market leader due its extensive range of features. All in all, experts say “Salesforce is cloud-based CRM software that can help businesses function efficiently and reduce operational costs by minimizing the management of hardware infrastructure.” Not only is the platform an easy-to-use to use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) but also it’s customizable.

Secondly, let’s look at the role of development experts in how businesses use Salesforce. Altogether Salesforce is both highly usable for all businesses as it is user-friendly and has low-code, configurable features. Equally these features are reliably powerful and businesses can utilize them for their operations. Nevertheless the nous of Salesforce development consultants is important in terms of their expertise, experience, qualifications, and technical skills. Moreover, Salesforce development skills leverage the powerful platform in a way that creates value for businesses and increases investment returns.

As per the below, these are the leading services available with experienced and knowledgeable Salesforce development companies:

• Web Development for Salesforce
• Application Development for Salesforce
• Salesforce Cloud
• Integration Services for Salesforce
• Salesforce Consulting Services
• Administration for Salesforce

Of this list, Salesforce Consulting Services is a business-to-business (B2B) practice. With this available as a strategic service, guidance is given to businesses as they utilize their Salesforce investment.

Understanding why Salesforce development consultants support business operations leading to profits, productivity, and strategic growth

Of course, every business is working towards achieving short-term and long-term outcomes while caring for customers and stakeholders. Without a doubt this is central to brand-building, innovation, and standing out in the business landscape. As a result, Salesforce is a tool that both helps businesses complete their functional essentials and achieve overarching goals.

In terms of actual functional essentials, top-line Salesforce functions are:

• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Sales management including outreach, lead generation and follow-up, and post-sales support
• Customer service
• Logistics management
• Administrative processes including communications and business organization
• Data management including security, analysis, and reporting

All in all, Salesforce leads the 21st century business landscape due to cohesively combining technical capabilities with operational standards. Both the robust, scalable architecture and user-friendly, customizations work in conjunction to meet business needs.

In summary, the core business operations that Salesforce covers and Salesforce development consultants help with planning for are:

• Administration — Equipping all team members to complete essential and non-essential administration. For example, this covers correspondence, follow-up, audits, and stock management.
• Customer service — Enabling rapid responses, outreach, interactions, and resolutions. Above all this covers both day-to-day processes and strategic service.
• Sales — Focusing team members on 360-degree sales processes. Whether it’s lead generation and follow-up or data analysis and completing sales.
• Ordering including logistics and dispatch — Incorporating all areas of ordering so team members can check on orders for customers, track inbound and outbound items, and more.
• Cybersecurity — Dedicating infrastructure resources to a secure system with inbuilt features that flag risks, manage users, and comprehensively integrate IT personnel.

Overall these business operations are part of Salesforce. Nevertheless, Salesforce development consultants are key to identifying precise needs and integrating functional components into a powerful platform. For this reason then, businesses can then have better operations through purpose-built functional solutions throughout the platform interface. When expert engineers apply their knowledge, experience, and qualifications as development consultants, the final platform design is a specialist solution for their business operations.

How Salesforce development consultants targeting business operations make specific end-to-end contributions to these business outcomes:

• Profitability — Improving sales operations (including lead generation and conversion) and customer service actively and passively drives profits.
• Productivity — Integrating systems that increase team productivity, internal collaboration, and individual workflows contributes to better resource use.
• Strategic growth — Tactically ideating and implementing a platform that targets known issues along with common business challenges enables businesses to grow consistently.

How Salesforce development consultants provide vital planning services to businesses

Now that we we have a clear overview of business operations, we’ll explore the relationship between planning and Salesforce development. Moreover, we’ll unpack exactly why Salesforce development consultants are crucial to developing a standout business platform.

Presently, and likely well into the 2020s, emerging markets and changed business landscapes show us that business competition is rife. Both within industries and for businesses by themselves, surviving and thriving is more difficult than ever. Although technology makes it easier to bring businesses to market, extensive and effective planning is more important than ever. Additionally, the type of technical tools chosen can also make or break a business. In that case, Salesforce is a priceless tool due to how comprehensive it is and how user-friendly it is. In particular Salesforce’s market value is demonstrable in terms of the skill value of technical experts. To illustrate, we can look at the ongoing demand for Salesforce trained personnel for various industries including e-commerce . Significantly John Moore reports for TechTarget that, “Salesforce partner skills are in high demand as customers flock to digital commerce”.

In reality, as Salesforce expands as a platform with additional features , integration options, and AI capabilities, expert demand will increase. Simultaneously so will consultancy demand as these professionals hold the knowledge, market insights, and skills to leverage features effectively.

So what exactly are the planning services areas experienced and qualified Salesforce development consultants assist with?

• Evaluating needs — Assessing the business as a standalone entity with extensive consultation and collaboration to clarify formal evaluations.
• Investment design — Advising businesses on what Salesforce products they need and integration requirements.
• Market research — Reviewing and analyzing the business market inclusive of the industry, competitors, and existing offerings.
• Ideation — Outlining a platform solution consistent with business needs, investment scope, and market research, and customization preferences.
• Preliminary development — Preparing an initial beta version to test and confer with the business client.
• Testing — Deploy a test version to a sample market and the business stakeholders before revising and finalizing.
• Deployment — Finalizing the platform for deployment including coordinating releasing to the App Store, Google Play, and AppExchange.
• Maintenance — Ongoing monitoring and resolving any issues or actioning any change requests.
• Scaling — Reviewing the platform in consultation with the business and its strategic objectives to maintain with the market or tactically upgrade.

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The common business operational problems plaguing organizations that Salesforce development consultants help with

The key to Salesforce as a platform is that it improves the business experience of all stakeholders. Explicitly, this differentiates that customers and employees are valuable to the business. Julie de Llyod et al echo this sentiment in an article for McKinsey. They say, “For top sales-force performance, treat your reps like customers”. What’s more, this means businesses choosing platforms designed to resolve stakeholder problems.

The most common problems in business operations and the role of Salesforce development consultants addressing them

Internal department silos

• Problem — An array of software platforms that don’t properly overlap with different teams resulting in miscommunication, disconnection, and missing business opportunities.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — Designing Salesforce platform features that properly enable cross-functional teams.

Misallocation of resources

• Problem — Business resources are continually allocated in line with practice rather than data. Consequently the business isn’t growing and issues persist.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — Evaluating the scale of resource allocation in order to then integrate UX/UI features that encourage productivity. Accordingly they can suggest technical components such as automation features and algorithmic functionalities.

Data management and security

• Problem — Data is mismanaged from disorganization to posing breach risks.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — Designing a system that stores, manages, and secures data in line with business operations. In time this improves operational productivity while maintaining cybersecurity frameworks to protect stakeholders.

Customer service

• Problem — Customers aren’t properly cared for, issues go unresolved, and the brand declines.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — End-to-end review of customer services processes in line with market, strategic goals, and value proposition. Then itemizing, designing, and deploying a platform that supports customer service; this could include the business system and a user-facing system such as a Salesforce mobile customer app.

Sales

• Problem — Failure to successfully fulfil sales targets and turn business profits.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — Following from Customer Service platform features, the Sales evaluation integrates with Customer Service. To that end, the Sales UI helps generate sales through a better value proposition in conjunction with data analysis. This overcomes missed leads, helps close sales, and follow-up on customer experience.

Resource management

• Problem — All resources aren’t managed through data so the business loses money.
• Role of Salesforce development consultants — This takes a data and analytics approach to result in better financial planning. Instead of maintaining spending as normal, this evaluates the return-on-investment of all business areas including logistics and productivity. Even though some data is qualitative, the Salesforce platform’s flexibility and customization options means resource management is capable of adjustments.

Despite this seemingly straightforward approach of investing in a platform that resolves issues, business problems of all kinds abound. In this situation, Salesforce professionals completing an objective assessment provides the external insights to devise tangible solutions. On the one hand, this addresses operational problems that may be a known ongoing issues. On the other hand, it can flag issues that are a blind spot to management or that employees couldn’t raise. In view of this, objective insights into needs from external experts practically and astutely starts the process of implementing solutions.

How Salesforce and Salesforce development consultants help with these problems through platform design and deployment

Due to how intelligent the Salesforce platform is, development consultants can design and deploy a business tool that is robust. Both scalability as the business grows and customizability as new technology launches is imperative to success in the digital age. In like fashion, it’s important to look at the three ways development consultants address the problems in the previous section.

Three ways Salesforce development consultants address core problems in the Salesforce business platform

1. Itemize elements — Firstly, consultants can help identify needs, ideate functional feature solutions, and then builds every single component into the platform. Then this creates a cohesive UX/UI that contributes to logical and productive userflow, effective operational language, and internal collaboration. Overall this manages organizational resources and makes concentrating on key tasks easier.
2. Communications functionalities — Secondly, consultants can understand the extent of communication barriers then recommend functionalities that resolve these. For instance, they can apply knowledge around Salesforce modules that are proven to help with communication needs. After this implementation, these features can help to ensure all team members can stay on top of current progress as well as the action audit trail. At the same time, there can be internal communication functions that keep everyone talking and receiving customer messages even remotely.
3. Making cutting-edge technology accessible — Thirdly, integrating features at all levels with AI, algorithmic, and smart functionalities addresses issues with technical functionalities. Furthermore the Salesforce suite offers a range of options that for integration with existing business software. Likewise businesses can choose a range of Salesforce products — including web and mobile — that connect with customers, and staff, anywhere and anytime. Thereafter consultants can advise businesses on scaling their platform as they achieve strategic goals and new technology becomes available.

The major outcomes of better business operations when working with Salesforce development consultants

Following this analysis of business operations and technical Salesforce components, we’ll now look at the major beneficial outcomes. In essence, these outcomes are the flow-on of better business operations. In fact, these actually demonstrate the extensive impact poor or unsatisfactory operations have on businesses with potentially lasting negative effects. Provided that Salesforce systems are properly implemented in line with development consultant’s guidance, there is great potential for beneficial outcomes.

The outcomes Salesforce development consultants guide with better business operations

Productivity

Project management is key to employee productivity. Both for how tasks are completed and how the team understands progress. Furthermore greater efficiency and more effective teams often ties in to customer satisfaction and experience as well as sales. Due to the Salesforce commerce and sales modules, this can feed into sales and profits continually growing.

Collaboration

Encouraging and equipping colleagues and departments to collaborate is qualitatively and quantitatively worthwhile. Undeniably many workplaces, irrespective of industry, suffer with teams not working together. Moreover this disharmony hinders progress and can baffle customers who often gain a poor impression of the business. With powerful collaboration tools, workers can share what’s happening, there are live updates, and everyone can properly test interactive tasks. Then Salesforce leads to innovation, seamless hand-offs, and ideating ways for departments to work together for the business’s benefit.

Accuracy

Increasing the likelihood of properly completing tasks, managing logistics, and liaising with stakeholders ties in with profits and productivity. In the long run, eliminating errors with systems that support accuracy and flag issues before they become costly is essential. Concurrently Salesforce’s accuracy dovetails in with compliance — both legal and industry — so that all business levels are operating smoothly. In the same fashion this can free team members to focus on other important tasks without stress around small details.

Streamlining tasks

Boosting workflow in practical and user-friendly ways is a pleasing Salesforce benefit. After all, this supports worker engagement, fulfils customer service responses or care, and can close sales. As per the adage, ‘work smarter, not harder’, custom Salesforce platforms hone in on the business for enhanced worker experiences.

Data security

Especially for businesses handling any private customer data, this compliance responsibility is an ongoing priority. At any rate, as data protection laws evolve this will only become more important. Notwithstanding data protection, actual security infrastructure makes this easier to maintain while being integratable with organizational IT cybersecurity. Undoubtedly, the way Salesforce integrates all these objectives in its features is ideal for business operations and security compliance.

Employee engagement

Of the extensive positive outcomes of better business operations, engaging employees is amongst the most imperative and Salesforce supports this. Presently employee disengagement costs businesses in myriad ways. In summary this includes recruiting costs, lost productivity (different to operational productivity though they can overlap), and even brand damage if this extends to customers. When an employee’s engagement is high this influences morale, their focus, how they collaborate, and even their own job fulfilment.

How businesses should strategically plan and implement when working with Salesforce development consultants

Though it may seem heavy-handed to do so, businesses should always establish clear objectives for working with development professionals. In that case, this ensures adequate internal preparation for both their investment and to productively contribute to the consultation process. Consequently in this section we explain areas for strategically planning and internal implementation when working with Salesforce development consultants

Five planning and implementation suggestions for businesses for working with Salesforce development consultants

1. Assess strategic objectives

Evaluate exactly how Salesforce will fit into existing business tools systems while considering how this meets existing strategic plans. Then situating these strategic objectives as actual tasks that a custom system or different modules can offer consultants internal insights. Owing to Salesforce’s cost, making strategy core to this on the business side gives Salesforce development consultants understanding of expectations.

2. Review operational challenges and goals

Because strategic objectives often exist as multi-year and macro frameworks, businesses should also assess challenges and goals. For example, this might be separately documented and perhaps not formalized in strategy documents. After this, the business can itemize these challenges and goals to present to consultants to see how Salesforce solutions help.

3. Establish a timeline for the consultation and any development and deployment

Clearly conveying to Salesforce development consultants the preferences around timeline will incorporate other business events and time-based objectives. As an illustration, the business may work to a seasonal calendar wherein having a Salesforce solution in place is of benefit. Additionally, internally discussing timelines also gives the development consultants an impartial sense of time metrics from the outset.

4. Discuss core features and desired customizations

While this may be more specific, businesses can discuss this themselves in advance. For instance, they may be aware that their CRM system is due for an overhaul and the features they need. Coupled with challenges assessments and goal reviews, it may help to identify what unique operational factors exist for the business.

5. Evaluate stakeholder impact

Finally businesses should keep their stakeholders front of mind. Regardless of the industry or operations, this prioritizes the key parties who will be using the system — employees and stakeholders. In either case of if it’s customer-facing or for internal use, this ensures businesses fruitful discussion. Both for best case and worst case scenarios, considering stakeholders will have considerable benefits in development and throughout deployment.

Focusing on staff support in business operations when working with Salesforce development consultants

For this final section, it’s key to mention that making staff support part of planning will help businesses and consultants. Presently many businesses are struggling with employee engagement, staff retention, and recruitment so taking care of these internal stakeholders matters. Emphatically, Kathryn Mayer identifies for HR Executive that Salesforce is a company that models this in their own operations. Explicity, Mayer says that businesses need to, “Ensure workers know the company cares”.
Areas for businesses to consider in their staff support initiatives that they can discuss with their Salesforce development consultants are:

• Training — To prepare all employees for using the new systems and adapting to restructuring.
• Reorganization of responsibilities and workflows — Take steps to identify if individual or departmental responsibilities will change. Following this assess how workflows might change.
• Review development timelines — Prioritize keeping team members in the loop on how development is going and encourage their input through constructive feedback.
• Set systematic support frameworks — Update all employees on how these frameworks will work and normalize support as part of using Salesforce.
• Complete risk management — Evaluate changes to business operations and consider how this affect all employees both in their departments and individual responsibilities.
• Cross-functional teams — Positively illustrate and clearly communicate the extensive team benefits of using Salesforce. In particular, emphasize how departments will work more effectively both in their roles and collaboratively with all colleagues.

Conclusion

In conclusion businesses are working in a digital era. This means using tools, designing operational frameworks, and implementing training that upholds business goals while continually delivering on the value proposition. All in all, Salesforce is a leading CRM that is heritage, robust, and established for businesses to confidently invest. Afterwards this is where they benefit from extensive features, API integration, and web and mobile options. Subsequently business operations can certainly be improved through Salesforce and development consultants will overhaul organizations for the better. Finally, it’s imperative to review Salesforce consultants against their qualifications to ensure their certifications match their service offering. In this case, companies offering a Salesforce consulting practice should include the desirable qualifications of Salesforce Technical Architecture and Consulting.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do Salesforce development consultants help businesses?

A Salesforce consulting practice helps businesses understand their software needs and how the CRM platform benefits their operations. For example, a consultation with a business involves extensive collaboration to evaluate the business needs and Salesforce features for this. Moreover Salesforce Partner consultants with expertise and qualifications in Salesforce Technical Architecture and Consulting help with platform advancements and features.

Does a business need to use a company’s Salesforce development consultants or services to use the platform?

Overall businesses do not need Salesforce development consultants to use the platform. Because Salesforce is still purchasable as a SaaS for all businesses, they can navigate the features in their own way. Nevertheless the expertise, qualifications, and professional scope of Salesforce partners is valuable as this helps with comprehensively using the software.

Will Salesforce development consultants help a business work out if they need a Salesforce mobile application?

All Salesforce development consultants should provide a 360-degree evaluation of business needs to advise on investing in the SaaS. Furthermore, in their evaluation and needs analysis they will analyze the business’s target market to establish product recommendations. Presently, mobile applications are an important and effective way to engage with customers and for CRM. Therefore Salesforce Development Consultants will make critical recommendations for Salesforce Mobile where appropriate along with other module integrations.

Can Salesforce development consultants help scale an existing Salesforce platform?

If a business is already using Salesforce then development consultants can advise on their current practice. In short, this might involve a practical audit and consultation to evaluate how the current iteration is working. Following this the Salesforce specialists can review the business’s needs and provide strategic guidance on scaling opportunities.