General Resources
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Sep 12, 2022
What is Salesforce Resource Planning
Explore the resource strategy that makes sense for implementing, enhancing, maintaining, and supporting an internal Salesforce instance at companies of all sized.
Digital Transformation and the Changing Business Climate
The business world is changing. Digital technologies are now being used to create new experiences for customers, while allowing for more sophisticated and efficient process automation. The processes that were used before these technologies were developed are no longer enough to keep customers engaged. Companies are having to change the way they operate in order to remain competitive and meet the new expectations customers have set. This process is part of digital transformation, and every business needs to formulate digital transformation goals in order to update their processes, increase the sophistication of their systems, and optimize for efficiency to remain competitive.
Digital transformation is the process by which organizations modernize themselves to incorporate new technologies throughout their entire business, and digital transformation goals are used to help these customers implement new technologies.
Digital Transformation Goals
Customers have different expectations now than they did before because they are more connected, more informed, and are more knowledgeable and savvy with technology. This means your digital transformation goals requires a more strategic approach than ever, not only maximizing for process efficiency but scaling highly usable, intuitive systems for both internal and external users. First and foremost, you should focus on modernizing company wide enterprise applications and removing friction from user's lives to seamlessly drive adoption, a crucial benchmark in the digital transformation journey.
If this process seems overwhelming, don’t worry. You don’t need to make all of the changes at once. However, developing the goals to help you get there is a key starting place. As Salesforce lays out, goals of any business should focus on:
Having digital-savvy leaders: Who do you need to hire to make sure this is true about your company across both Enterprise Applications and Sales Operations / Revenue Operations?
Building capabilities for a future workforce: Is your business set up correctly for the workforce of the future? If not, what do you need to make sure you are prepared?
Fostering an environment that is focused on innovation: Do employees feel driven to innovate at your business, and is the working environment set up in a way that they can succeed?
Digitally upgrading the tools you use for administration: Are your out-dated administrative tools causing you to waste time? Research better ways to complete administrative tasks using the latest technology.
Strengthening communication between team members: There are a variety of internal collaboration and communication tools to facilitate better, faster, and more efficient dialogue across teams.
Salesforce and emerging technologies
Enterprise Business Systems are no longer reserved for back office operations - they are critical to achieving an omni-channel customer communication strategy that sits at the center of Digital Transformation. Sales, Support, Marketing, Analytics, Social are key components of the Salesforce offering. Salesforce helps companies more effectively communicate with their own customers, while also improving collaboration internally - not only providing significant productivity gains for users but delivering insights to leadership.
These insights help keep business leaders focused on the right digital transformation objectives by continuously providing feedback on how to improve the processes and systems they use.
Resource Planning Strategy
In order to achieve your digital transformation goals, you must develop the right resource planning and hiring strategy. A resource planning strategy outlines the framework a company uses to achieve the optimal use of their own or another organization's time and people. So, in this sense, digital transformation goals and resource planning strategy are connected. While the digital transformation goals will strengthen productivity, output, and collaboration amongst your team members, your resource planning strategy will ensure you have hired the correct skill sets and individuals to capitalize on those gains and continue extending it.
As mentioned before, the Salesforce portfolio of products has grown to encompass all of the technologies needed to achieve cohesive digital transformation - as the tool becomes more central to business operations, the Salesforce resource planning needs are key. However, within Salesforce there are three main resource planning options (Consulting Partner, Contractor, and FTE).
Define Hiring Strategy
Determining the correct Salesforce hiring strategy is the key to digital transformation.
Identifying new customers and building meaningful engagement opportunities across new and existing business is paramount in the digital era. Salesforce now offers a product portfolio with the breadth to address all of an organization's digital transformation needs, in addition to the best suite of tools to integrate your environment and keep your systems talking. Making the decision to invest in modernizing your application strategy is the first step and it's now time to focus on how best to get it done.
Salesforce Consulting Partners
Salesforce Consulting Partners are Professional Services organizations that are strategic partners to Salesforce, particularly in helping companies implement Salesforce for the first time. Consulting partners are given a Consulting Partner Trailblazer Score that is based on a 1000 point system. Points are determined based on the partner’s ratings on Customer Success, Innovation, and Engagement. This system is meant to ensure that all Salesforce Consulting Partners are held to a quantifiable standard and represent the Salesforce brand well.
It's worth noting that much of Consulting Partner's business comes from Salesforce directly, who also relies on them to help "co-sell" and acquire Customers to purchase additional Salesforce products.
Salesforce Contractors
A Salesforce Contractor (or Independent Salesforce Consultant) is a professional available for hire whose skills and experience focus on Salesforce. These are usually individuals who can assist with Salesforce projects, but they are not directly connected to the Salesforce organization the same way as a Consulting Partner. These individuals work independently and consult directly with end Customers, helping them to support, maintain, or enhance their Salesforce instance once it's already implemented. Often, Salesforce Customers will use a Contractor to help identify the right Consulting Partner, if needed, and then work as the Project Manager to oversee their work.
You can expect to hire a Salesforce Contractor for ~60% of the cost of utilizing a Consulting Partner.
Salesforce FTEs
The third resource planning option for achieving your digital transformation goals is hiring FTEs (Full-time Employees) with knowledge of Salesforce.
These individuals will bring a specific skill set that your organization has identified as a need on an ongoing basis - this is the most cost-effective way to execute on your Salesforce goals but requires a 12-15 month product roadmap to ensure you are hiring the right skill sets, which could includ
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