One of the simple truths of Salesforce is that while it is undoubtedly one of the most powerful (and popular) CRM solutions in the world, it still requires a significant support infrastructure to keep it properly maintained and updated at all times.
For organizations still trying to accomplish all of this in-house, it can lead to things becoming a bit more reactive and reactionary than they’d often like. If internal IT teams are focusing a lot of their time on the problem-solving nature of Salesforce administration, that leaves fewer hours in a day to devote their attention to those tasks that genuinely need them.
With that in mind, Salesforce Managed Services was born. This is an opportunity to outsource the administration of your Salesforce administration to a team of people who are devoted exclusively to that goal. In particular, small and mid-sized companies get a chance to not only replace their own IT people but to support and empower them. They can give more of their attention not only to the routine administration of Salesforce but to creatively using IT assets to propel their businesses forward.
Indeed, for many organizations, Salesforce Managed Services is a unique opportunity to both reduce and control their operating expenses at the same time. This is true in a wide array of different ways, all of which are certainly worth a closer look.
5 Ways Salesforce Managed Services Can Reduce Expenses
Fixed Monthly Cost
Maybe the most immediate way that Salesforce Managed Services can reduce a business’ expenses will also be, for many organizations, among the most important. Rather than paying employees on an hourly basis to handle all your Salesforce needs, absolutely everything is covered via one fixed monthly fee.
This means that all routine tasks are provided as a part of the fee, regardless of how long they take. If something goes wrong or if a problem needs to be solved, that is covered as well. You’re no longer dealing with ballooning costs if things don’t go exactly as you planned, and a critical part of your IT budget is now totally predictable in a way that it hadn’t been in the past.
Save Hiring Costs
Along the same lines, Salesforce Managed Services is also ideal for taking care of some of the costs that are typically associated with the hiring process. As a concept, it puts you in a far better position to scale incrementally, for example, all without the need to hire an additional employee. The support you need is available exactly when you need it by the very nature of what you’re talking about.
Likewise, you don’t need to conduct a lengthy (and expensive) hiring process to find people for specialized positions, or to meet your needs in terms of immediate expert-level support. Again – all of this is covered via your fixed monthly fee by design. You also don’t have to worry about factors like training which are not only unpredictable but ongoing.
Eliminate Payroll And Training Costs
Of course, not having to hire internal employees also means that you have no payroll taxes to deal with and no employee benefits to provide – thus creating cost savings in other areas of your operations, too. You don’t have to pay to train people or onboard them, and you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to do if this “employee” suddenly leaves their position (creating a skills gap at the worst possible moment).
There is no actual need (or cost) to hire additional team members or freelancers via a provider like Upwork. Everything you need is a part of Salesforce Managed Services by design.
Reduce Productivity Costs
It’s also important to remember the cost that a break-fix model of support can have on your employees in terms of productivity losses alone.
If problems are always cropping up and your employees are being forced to come up with workaround solutions on their own, they lack access to the tools they need to do their jobs effectively. They’re not following leads. They’re not closing deals. They’re not developing essential relationships with your clients. They’re acting as their own IT support when it comes to Salesforce, and through no fault of their own, they’re likely leaving a lot of money on the table as a result.
Cut Equipment Budget
Along the same lines, most businesses love the fact that they also don’t have to invest in the type of equipment that their in-house employees would need to manage their Salesforce administration effectively. You don’t need to worry about buying laptops or renting office space, for example. The majority of all work performed will be done remotely by a partner who has already accounted for all of these needs.
Benefits Of Salesforce Managed Services
Overall, Salesforce Managed Services is also an ideal way to proactively solve issues with a focus on cost-savings by design. With Salesforce Managed Services, you can:
- More easily audit your licenses, for example, to make sure that you’re not paying for something you don’t need or aren’t actively utilizing.
- Have processes in place to guarantee that leads and opportunities are not dropped when personnel changes occur, thus avoiding placing too much of an emphasis on the performance of one or even a few key employees.
- Maximize the use of Salesforce automation to enforce your existing business processes better.
- Create validation rules to enforce data integrity, thus improving the quality of the insight and actionable information you’re able to glean from it.
- And much, much more.
But the most significant advantage that Salesforce Managed Services brings to the table is that you have access to a team of Salesforce professionals when you need them, whenever you need them, at absolutely no additional cost beyond your fixed monthly fee.
For most businesses, the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing that all of their basic Salesforce administration needs are taken care of is even more of a reason to switch to Salesforce Managed Services than the substantial cost savings alone.
Example Savings: Breaking Things Down
Thanks to the flexible and highly versatile nature of Salesforce Managed Services, it’s difficult to pinpoint precisely how much you’ll save without first knowing more about your unique use case. Consider the fact that the current pricing structure breaks down as follows for 30 Sales Cloud users:
- $1,200 per month, or
- $14,400 per year, with
- NO limit on the number of support tickets you can create.
Compare that with the cost of bringing in just one internal administrator once all factors like salary, benefits, taxes, and even training are considered. According to one recent study, the average salary for a Salesforce administrator is about $90,701.00 per year. The amount you’ll pay that person in benefits on top of that base salary will vary depending on the organization.
Keep in mind that this is just a baseline. Not only will that number vary (sometimes significantly so) based on the cost of living in your area, but you also need to remember that the average annual salary for a Salesforce Administrator is higher than that of a traditional IT admin. Meaning, of course, that you can’t expect to save any money by assuming a traditional IT admin can do the job.
You should also consider the fact that according to another study, it costs employers roughly 33% of a worker’s annual salary to hire a replacement if that person leaves. Generally speaking, this works out to be an average of about $15,000 per person – although in the specific case of a Salesforce administrator, that number climbs to over $29,000. This is on top of all the costs that will be associated with the sudden disruption you’ll experience as a result of the vacated position.
Then, when you begin to multiply these costs by the total number of people you would need to bring in to run your operations effectively, you start to get an idea of just how much you can save by embracing the full power of Salesforce Managed Services with open arms.
Most businesses will see a savings of at least 50% and, in some cases, over 75% when switching to a Managed Services solution.
In the End
It’s important to understand that virtually no managed services provider does absolutely EVERYTHING for the fixed monthly fee. Depending on the nature of the agreement, there will always be unexpected issues that fall outside of the scope. To that end, Salesforce Managed Services isn’t necessarily a “silver bullet” solution because, to be honest, one doesn’t exist.
The most significant benefit here is that you ARE getting access to a team of dedicated, passionate professionals when you need them to resolve all issues that are a part of that outlined scope – all without paying anything extra on top of it.
No, Salesforce Managed Services isn’t necessarily for everyone – but then again, nothing is. If you’re on an enterprise or professional edition with at least 20 users, if you need better reporting than you currently have access to, and if you’re looking for newer and innovative ways to streamline your existing processes, it’s absolutely a move worth making for all of the reasons outlined above.