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.
Read on for a comprehensive guide to:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
&nbp;
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
