5 benefits of Managed Service in Salesforce

Managed Service – it pays off

You may still be confused about what you benefit from this service and whether it is a good solution for your company’s system. In this article, I want to convince you that it is!

The Managed Service is a service so universal that it operates in different technologies. We described what it is and how it can be implemented in our previous article Managed Service – for a starter, what is worth knowing about it? In this article, we outlined, in our opinion, the most important benefits of this service for the customer. Let us remind them:

• delegation of responsibility to an external provider – this is the Managed Service’s essence and the main benefit,
• saving – of both resources and time,
• cost optimization.

These are universal benefits, just like the service itself. They are worth keeping in mind when considering the Managed Service implementation, regardless of the technology used in the company. For Salesforce, there are even more benefits. There are areas where the Managed Service positive impact is particularly visible. This is confirmed by our customers, for whom we have been providing services in this area for several years. Based on this cooperation and our experience, we have selected the most important reasons why Managed Service in Salesforce pays off.

Managed Service – with what will it help you in Salesforce?

1. Salesforce Technology and Platform Specifics

As a platform user, you already know how many possibilities it offers in various business areas. Not only are there modules for specific departments (Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, or Service Cloud, for example), but within those modules, you can choose from dozens of features and functionalities. The Salesforce platform streamlines many company processes – this is one of its main strengths. As the system grows, more and more additional functionalities arrive, and we reach a point where help is needed. The system becomes so extensive and complex that its maintenance requires advanced and highly varied skills. At this point, a specialized Managed Service team of professionals can assist.

One may say: one Salesforce developer is enough, they will take care of everything. One of our Managed Service teams (in just one of the projects that we carry out for the customer) consists of almost twenty people: analysts, testers, and, of course, developers. Each of them has a different specialization and is responsible for their part of the system. But first of all, competencies are important, not the number of people in the team. The team does not have to be big, but it has to represent different areas of expertise (not only programming, but also QA, management, and others).

2. Customized solutions created on the Salesforce Platform

Salesforce offers out-of-the-box solutions – the aforementioned Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud modules. This shortens system implementation time, as a company can use it even a few weeks after launching the project. Sometimes small modifications are enough to adjust the system to the customer’s needs. Of course, it is also possible to make advanced customizations and even to build your solutions on the platform from scratch. Salesforce gives a lot of flexibility in this regard, and many companies take advantage of it.

In the case of maintaining a highly customized system, as well as its further expansion (and the IT system development is usually inevitable), the support of an experienced partner in the area of Managed Service comes in handy. You need solid knowledge of specialists (analysts, for example), who, to put it colloquially, will help you control the tailor-made system and indicate further development possibilities.

3. Salesforce Platform Lifecycle

The system implemented in your company operates in a specific technology and business environment. Regardless of this environment, the Salesforce platform operates on its own and develops very dynamically. Three times a year, we have new releases that are updated versions of the application with new features and improvements. The changes come into effect on the same day for all Salesforce users around the world and, by definition, should not affect the functioning of customized systems.

But the system is just a system. You cannot exclude the possibility that something works worse after a release because the functionality was written a long time ago. Managed Service can help avoid such surprises. The service agreement may include an assessment of releases implemented by Salesforce (regardless of regular maintenance of the system, of course).

4. Platform’s Continuous Improvement

What is included in the Managed Service agreement depends on the arrangement between the customer and the vendor. Typically, it includes system maintenance and development. In the case of Salesforce, it makes sense to include the development aspect in the contract, for the simple reason already mentioned: because the Salesforce platform is growing rapidly.

One of the best sources of knowledge are regularly organized conferences that gather enthusiasts of this technology. There, you can pick up some real gems from practitioners. General Salesforce users are not likely to attend these events, but Salesforce specialists are. The Managed Service team supporting the system in your company will also have a passionate person who will come back from such a conference with lots of ideas. You can even include the role of a Continuous Improvement consultant in your service agreement, meaning a specialist who keeps an eye on all the new developments. Perhaps a problem that your team would have agonized over for weeks will be solved in an instant with the consultant’s support.

5. Salesforce License Management

The Salesforce platform is available in a licensing model. License management, to optimize license usage, is one of the benefits of a Managed Service for a Salesforce-based system.

What does this involve? For example, watching over a fixed number of licenses (a fixed number of users, free licenses) so you can add new users, if necessary. It is worth remembering that active users are included in the license costs. A user who has not logged in to the system for a certain period blocks the license unnecessarily. A Managed Service consultant can be responsible for checking actual license usage and closing accounts of inactive users.

Managed Service from Craftware – more than ITIL

Provide what the customer perceives as a value. This is the principle which we follow every day at Craftware. Of course, we take care of the standards and best practices described in ITIL, but above all, we listen to the customer’s needs and try our best to understand their service expectations.

Some customers value quick responses from our side and smooth, ongoing communication, while others do not like to be frequently bothered. Some ask for detailed reports to know about every incident; others just want to measure KPIs. Just as there are different service expectations, there is no single right answer as to what constitutes that single, most important benefit.

At Craftware, we can help you find it. How will we do it? How many people will be on the Managed Service team of your Salesforce platform? Who will be responsible for what? It is our job to take the burden of worrying about how it will all work off of you!