A sophisticated or straightforward Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool enables companies to stay connected with their customers. It ensures a smooth process, beginning from a business’s first interaction with the market to the point of purchase by its customer and even beyond.
There are a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to cloud-based CRM tools. However, Salesforce Solutions has topped the charts and has served several businesses faithfully.
In 2013, a research paper published in the International Journal of Information Management by Prashant Gupta highlighted the five main reasons that should determine the adoption of a cloud computing solution by businesses:
- Cost Reduction
- Ease of Use
- Reliability and Stability
- Sharing and Collaboration
- Security and Privacy
Hence, choosing the right CRM tool that meets all the aforementioned business needs while delivering excellence is a challenge.
Choosing Salesforce for your CRM needs is just the first step. The next is selecting a Salesforce System Integrator or Consulting Partner to help you gain the maximum value from the most vital and valuable investment for your business.
Five Critical Attributes of Salesforce System Integrators
Salesforce System Integrators, a.k.a Consulting Partners, work on building, configuring, and optimizing your Salesforce environment to help you reap the CRM tool’s maximum value and drive revenue.
The following are key attributes of Salesforce System Integrators.
1. Process Driven
CRM solutions are going to stay relevant in a business’s journey for a very long time. An efficient CRM solution may go through changes as your business’s needs grow and evolve. Therefore, investing in a partner who can design and build a solution to meet current needs and develop to meet emerging markets is necessary.
An essential attribute of a Salesforce System Integrator is a long-term commitment to process-driven solutions. A CRM Solution with maximum clarity of requirements, communication, and cost-effective deliveries is adopted and retained by a business for at least ten years.
Salesforce Partners who can commit for the long term and architect their products to suit emerging business automation needs must be a deciding factor for Businesses.
2. Security and Privacy
Salesforce enforces safety measures for multi-tenancy to prevent mismatched access.
Salesforce complies with several rigorous guidelines required for certifications like:
- ISO 27001/27018
- SOC 2
- SOC 3
- PCI-DSS
- Safe Harbor
- FedRAMP (Salesforce Government Cloud- Force.com, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Analytics Cloud, Chatter)
The Salesforce Health Check provides security scores for specific settings to help Salesforce Administrators understand the security strength of their configuration. The security score includes:
- Minimum password length (Salesforce recommends eight characters)
- Maximum invalid login attempts (Salesforce recommends 3)
- Forced logout on session timeout (Salesforce recommends enabling this)
- Forced re-login after an administrator logs in as another user (Salesforce recommends allowing this)
Salesforce enforces other security features and the Salesforce Shield, which provides three additional layers of security, including event monitoring, audit trails, and platform encryption.
A Salesforce Integrator must make sure the security features are implemented according to the needs of the business and the nature of the solution to protect data and information.
3. Compatibility and Stability
Consulting Partners who align with the goals and visions of your business can help you ace the race. When the IT team understands and shares similar goals with your business, they will simultaneously work towards the success of your business.
When business goals and visions fail to align, it can cause unnecessary communication gaps, lag in operations, and delays in deliveries. As a result, IT teams can work more comfortably in a familiar environment and avoid time and capital loss. This also ensures long-term commitments from the Salesforce Integrator to your necessary business.
Aligning goals with your IT team is especially important in the case of outsourcing. Outsourcing comes with its challenges about communication gaps, and time delays. This can be considerably reduced by choosing a compatible Salesforce integrator for better stability.
4. Experience and Credibility
Salesforce System Integrators work in several fields and areas of expertise. Experience of Salesforce Integrators with similar fields as yours is a bonus. They can throw light on solutions that have benefited others in the same field and craft ideas that suit your business as they are experienced in projects similar to yours.
Relevant experience also makes deliveries faster and easier to build solutions. Working with an IT team familiar with your field and equipped to deliver your business requirements can help you gain the maximum value out of the CRM solution.
In addition, trailblazer ratings, reviews, and other online ratings and testimonials can add to a Salesforce Integrator’s credibility.
Please read up on the Salesforce Integrator, case studies, resources, and testimonials to understand their experience and field of expertise. Demos and live sessions can also give you an insight into their processes and their mode of operations.
5. Cost Value
Most decisions for small and medium-sized businesses and startups revolve around cost value. Therefore, understanding the requirements for your CRM and fixing a budget is a vital step in the decision-making process.
Pull out a reasonable budget for your Salesforce System Integrator. Remember, the cheap solution does not imply reduced quality, neither does an expensive solution guarantee excellence.
Solutions that cater to your needs and an IT team that aids in the design, implementation, and after-support can come at a high price (or might look like a high price initially) but will show a significant increase in ROI and pay off in the long run.
Cost-benefit analysis favors outsourcing IT teams despite challenges with communication and time zone differences. However, opting for an onshore IT team and hiring offshore developers and using collaboration tools to bridge communication gaps can help tackle these issues.
What Makes Cloudiate a Top Salesforce System Integrator?
Cloudiate has worked with many versatile clients to help meet their CRM challenges. Non-profits, Startups, and businesses have used Cloudiate for Salesforce Development, Implementation, and Support.
Cloudiate helps businesses migrate from legacy applications to the cloud platform to enhance CRM operations and build customized solutions based on requirements. With timely deliveries and mission-critical solutions, Cloudiate has upped ROI for its clients effortlessly with its client-focused Salesforce Integrations and IT support, keeping its clients focussed on core operations.
Get in touch with us to know more.