Salesforce managed services is a method of outsourcing in which critical Salesforce-related tasks are delegated to an external team of Salesforce experts, often referred to as a managed services provider, or an MSP. For instance, our OMI team is also considered an MSP, as we deliver Salesforce managed services to hundreds of clients across the globe.
But what do these services include? And why does this model even exist?
In this article, we’re sharing our experience and shedding some light on these questions and more – keep reading to learn all you need to know about managed services for Salesforce.
What Are Managed Services?
Managed services is a practice of outsourcing secondary, mostly operational duties to an outside team of specialists, enabling businesses to concentrate on their core tasks. Those duties typically cover aspects like cybersecurity, IT support, and maintenance.
Managed services are known to provide a number of strategic benefits – greater productivity, less downtime, improved security, and cost-effective access to specialised expertise. On top of that, they also enable proactive problem solving, and the capacity to better resources with more efficiency.
What Are Salesforce Managed Services?
Salesforce managed services is a practice of multiple critical Salesforce-related tasks being assumed by an outside team of experts. Those tasks usually include Salesforce consulting, implementation, product development, automation, integration and administration.
As we’ve mentioned in our “managed services vs. in-house team” debate, the former is often considered to be the superior option, because of its advantages in the aspects of expertise, experience, and costs. Not to mention, for smaller businesses a Salesforce managed service team means obtaining specialised knowledge that wouldn’t come from within. And as for corporations, the team would typically oversee numerous user groups, integrate different complex systems, and ensure efficient data flow across the company.
Why Use Salesforce Managed Services?
Regardless of whether you’re only planning to switch to Salesforce or you’re already using it, you should always consider managed services – and for a number of reasons.
As we’ve mentioned in our article about how managed services help your business grow, providers tend to have superior understanding of the platform’s technical details and complex architecture compared to individual in-house specialists. That is because they’ve been collectively gathering their expertise for many years, sharing it between the team members and improving each other – all of which they use to tailor the platform to the specific needs of your company. This entails developing new objects and fields, setting Salesforce workflows to reflect your precise procedures, and fusing data sources from several platforms to get a thorough picture of client interactions.
Managed service providers can also use their numbers to their advantage when creating customised Salesforce solutions. They can expertly make special apps built on top of the Salesforce platform to extend its capabilities, be it complex automations or interactive client portals.
Finally, expert teams are always very alert and quick to react to new Salesforce updates. New features, improvements, and security upgrades that are always being introduced into the platform are fully taken care of by the team. With that, not only do they reduce the workload for your internal staff, but also they respond to product upgrades better. They carry out thorough testing in a controlled environment, evaluate each update’s effects on your present configuration, and apply changes without delay.
Who Provides Managed Services For Salesforce?
Salesforce managed services are provided by specialised companies or consultants with extensive knowledge of the environment – unsurprisingly, they are often referred to as managed service providers, or MSPs. They usually consist of groups of qualified experts, including certified Salesforce consultants, administrators, and developers.
Regardless of what the nature of the core service is, the work always begins with the MSPs having in-depth discussions with their clients to understand their particular business environment. They carry out an in-depth analysis of their processes, problems, as well as future plans, and then provide a variety of customised services in light of this information – what happens next is up to the client. Some of the most common service examples are system implementation, the creation of unique applications, the administration of data, user training, security upgrades, and continuous technical support.
In our guide on how to choose the right MSP, we’ve already talked about some of the key factors to consider when interviewing different teams. In a nutshell, you want to get to know the provider’s experience in your sector, look at their track record with similar projects, and analyse customer reviews for unbiased feedback. On top of that, make sure that they’ll be able to adapt to your changing business needs as well as be very transparent about their pricing models, which are sometimes far from straightforward.
What Is Included In Salesforce Managed Services?
Most commonly provided Salesforce services can be broken down into the following categories:
- Salesforce Consulting
- Salesforce Implementation
- Salesforce Development
- Salesforce Integration
- Salesforce Automation
- Salesforce Administration
Salesforce Consulting
Salesforce managed service providers will become the main source of strategic insights into the platform and will extensively analyse the goals and pain points in your company’s operations. These insights usually include, but not limited to, formulating a roadmap for smooth product deployment or best practices for optimising your business processes. With this, you will then be able to make the most out of your Salesforce.
Salesforce Implementation
Beyond pure consulting, Salesforce managed service companies like OMI can also implement all the recommendations themselves. Especially if you’re new to Salesforce, they will guarantee a seamless switch to the platform based on your current workflows. They will enable Salesforce to quickly integrate into your operations thanks to their proficiency in transferring data from old systems, producing custom reports and dashboards, and setting up user roles, among other things.
Salesforce Development
Most managed services companies are also proficient at creating custom Salesforce solutions for your business’ special needs that can’t be covered with the main product. The improvement of your Salesforce capabilities usually comes in the form of solutions like automated lead tracking, data visualisation tools, or integrated customer support systems.
Salesforce Automation
Another popular Salesforce service is process automation that is set up by the managed services providers to eliminate human-related efficiency issues. They create workflows that automate record updates, simplify follow-up communications, and streamline approval processes. On top of that, they work on creating systems that don’t allow for any human errors.
Salesforce Integration
Managed service providers know that sometimes Salesforce works best when combined with other third-party software – and they make it happen. The team will not only seamlessly connect Salesforce with the products you’re already using, but they will also suggest and implement integrations with other powerful services, synchronising data across all points. And at the very least, it will give your staff full insights for informed decision-making – fusing client data, order history, and customer support interactions, just to name a few.
Salesforce Administration
Once the consulting and the implementation phases are over, you may want to consider keeping a managed services provider as part of your team to perform maintenance works. That is because the importance of high-quality Salesforce administration is hard to overestimate – it’s essential to maintain data hygiene, data security, end-user support as well as user management.
About OMI’s Salesforce Managed Services
The OMI team has been at the forefront of software implementation and business intelligence for more than two decades now, being founded in 1997. Even before Salesforce was introduced, our team had already made our reputation as one of the top IT consulting firms in the US.
And with the Salesforce launch, we took all of our experience and used it to become some of the best Salesforce managed service teams as well (you can learn more about our value proposition here). We’re an official Salesforce partner and our team members are certified, seasoned, well-trained professionals that have made possible many success stories.
And on top of our know-how, we also know how to be your people. We’ve always taken pride in our communication and how efficiently we deal with potential issues and problematic situations together with our clients. Don’t believe us? Get in touch with us and see for yourself!
Conclusion
Salesforce managed services are a great way of delegating vital Salesforce-related tasks such as implementation and maintenance to a team of professionals. What a Salesforce managed service provider can bring to the table is immense experience in the most complex technical details of the products as well as unique industry experience and proactive update monitoring.
And when choosing between many managed services for Salesforce like consulting, implementation, development, automation, integration and administration, remember that you can always start small and expand the scope of the tasks being outsourced little by little.