Picking the right Salesforce managed service provider can prove to be a real challenge. There are a lot of great teams on the market and a lot of factors to consider, potentially making the recruitment process very lengthy, and costing your company money every day.
Our OMI team has been interviewed as an MSP candidate many times and we know what businesses are usually interested in (transparent pricing, strong technical knowledge) – and we’d like to share our knowledge with you.
In this article, we’ll try to help you make your recruitment as smooth and efficient as possible – we’ll provide you with key points you should consider as well as advise you on how to make your final decision.
Things To Look For In A Salesforce Managed Service Provider
Through the lens of our experience in delivering Salesforce managed services, we would highlight the following qualities as the most important:
- Strong Technical Expertise
- Wide Service Range
- Transparent And Reasonable Pricing
- Proven Track Record
- Effective Communication
- High Flexibility
- Solid Security Practices
- Committed Support
Strong Technical Expertise
The most important thing about a Salesforce managed service provider is how their technical knowledge can help your business solve your issues. That’s why always ask them about their expertise in dealing with problems unique to your sector and request instances of how they have used their experience to solve comparable business problems. Also don’t hesitate to inquire about their certifications to confirm their tech expertise and, if you do a bit of research before the interviews, ask them about what they know about the latest Salesforce upgrades. This will show how well the team is keeping track of new features and how quickly they react to change.
Wide Service Range
This may be a controversial one, since some businesses choose to only outsource one specific service. However, it is still recommended to have a managed service provider with a variety of expertise areas – you may want to ramp up the volume of outsourced tasks at some point and your provider needs to be ready for that. Beyond the fundamentals, find out whether they provide any specialised service or whether they have some unique experience that sets them apart from competition.
Transparent And Reasonable Pricing
A reliable managed services provider will always be upfront about their prices and will provide you with the clearest picture of your future spendings. Don’t accept approximations and vague terms – request a thorough cost analysis that takes into account any potential variables and unforeseen circumstances. Also don’t forget to ask for clarification on how pricing could vary as your company grows or needs more services.
Proven Track Record
You’ll also be well advised to look for case studies or success stories of the managed service provider that you feel are relevant to your business. For a more unbiased view on the service quality, don’t limit yourself to only browsing through the team’s website. Instead, extend your search for testimonials and client feedback on reputable review platforms such as Clutch. If you can, feel free to reach out to the team’s clients and ask them directly about the provider’s capacity to manage unforeseen difficulties, adjust to changing demands, and maintain effective client communication.
Effective Communication
Speaking of communication, it’s an often overlooked, yet very important factor – ask the Salesforce MSP about their preferred project management tools, frequency of updates, and communication methods. Try to get as much detail about specific scenarios, for instance, how and how quickly they are going to respond in situations like urgent concerns or milestone updates.
High Flexibility
As your business requirements change, so should your Salesforce features – make sure that the Salesforce managed service provider understands how to deal with scenarios where quick up-or downscale may be necessary. Namely, how they handle unanticipated demands, new functionality, changes in user numbers, and increases in data volume.
Solid Security Practices
It’s obvious that your data protection needs more than just verbal guarantees – explore and scrutinise the Salesforce service providers’ security procedures, encryption techniques, and data backup plans. Also inquire about instances when they were able to retrieve data effectively in the event of unforeseen occurrences. And if you feel that your technical knowledge doesn’t allow for in-depth security conversations, ask the team to break the matter down as clearly as possible.
Committed Support
Finally, if you’re planning to work with the Salesforce MSP post-implementation, you must ask them about their maintenance and support policies. Ask them about their typical reaction times for various concerns, if they provide help around-the-clock, and how they manage serious emergencies. Also talk about unforeseen data loss or system failures – and make sure all of these points are clearly presented on paper in the service-level agreement (SLA).
Salesforce Managed Services Pricing
The most important thing to know about the Salesforce managed services pricing is that no experienced team will provide a precise estimate based on only the superficial knowledge of your business. Doing otherwise would likely mean that the team is rather inflexible or not very professional.
The pricing will depend on the number of factors such as the nature of the services in question, the complexity of the project, the timeline as well as the presence or absence of Salesforce experts in your internal team.
That’s why we strongly encourage you to get in touch with us for a free quote with finer pricing breakdowns.
Case Studies And Testimonials
OMI’s Salesforce managed services excellence has been noted by many companies across many industries. For instance, our team is very proud of the job we’ve done on the extremely complex Salesforce integration project of Global RADAR. Global RADAR works with multi-billion-dollar financial institutions in the sphere of transaction monitoring, and they needed our help in securing a big client. Their client needed to merge their Salesforce CRM with Global RADAR’s financial compliance and risk management platform, which we performed successfully. It was a tremendously difficult task, considering the size of the project; not to mention, great care was needed as any slight integration mistake could cause huge losses in revenue due to fines for non-compliance.
For smaller scale consulting cases with a touch of hands-on implementation, you should look no further than the GOOD360 case – a logistics company cooperating with 87,000 nonprofits to responsibly redistribute excess goods. The GOOD360’s issue with Salesforce was that they found it very hard to use immediately after switching to it from another CRM. In response to that, the OMI team provided Good360 consulting resources for business process improvements, as well as integrated and customised the Salesforce Stack including Sales, Service and Community Cloud focus.
And if you want to find out more about our great Salesforce managed services experience, don’t hesitate to contact us – we’ll be happy to help your Salesforce CRM work to its maximum potential.
OMI – Top Salesforce Managed Services Providers
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 services 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!