In most companies today, IT services are a critical part of doing business. Their sphere extends from customer services, accounting, human resources and marketing to sales, production and distribution.
But beyond the network, desktop and mobile platforms, organisations using Salesforce as a key platform face an ongoing challenge: expertise in administering, updating and maintaining this system is a specialised skill and for many companies, even a full-time in-house specialist will leave many gaps.
Simplus (formerly SqwarePeg) is an experienced provider of Salesforce Managed Services, with long-term expertise in all aspects of the software.
That’s why many organisations are choosing to partner with Simplus to deliver reliable and expert services to their users.
Kyle Hanagarne is the Executive Vice President of Simplus in Australia.
He says that Simplus is not only a Salesforce implementation consulting firm, but also provides ongoing enterprise application maintenance and upgrades for companies across many industries and markets via their Managed Services offering.
“We have extensive technology implementation skills of course. But these are skills that are used primarily within our implementation teams,” he says.
“Unlike most providers, we staff our managed services team completely separately from our project and implementation teams, so there is no availability issues that could disrupt service,” he says.
“Companies with large Salesforce implementations might have to hire three or four different Salesforce admins with different skill sets in order to maintain their internal systems,” he says.
“Or they could have a managed services contract with us and tap into a team of 100 people and their skill sets.”
Skill-Sets Are Wide Ranging
Within Simplus there’s staff with wide-ranging expertise from business analysts to developers, operations experts and system administrators.
With over 7,000 clients, Simplus staff also have exposure to a varied and complex range of customers in Australia, the United States and Canada, and Europe.
“We offer advisory services for Salesforce and additional technologies ranging from CPQ to Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, we can help customers through their toughest, most complex business challenges,” Kyle says.
“We also have an Implementation Services Group, who run new installations of the technology, a Data Integrations Practice to integrate Salesforce with any other system, and a Change Management group which helps with rollout planning, change management, communication, user training and adoption,” Kyle says.
Managed services staff are separate from all of these areas, he says. “Our managed services team can draw on their expertise, but they are dedicated to ongoing support for client accounts.”
Dedicated Teams
As a modern global consulting firm that offers a full suite of consulting services around Salesforce, Simplus offers a clear alternative to the huge consulting firms that include Salesforce as an ‘add-on.’
“Salesforce is part of our DNA, our people know so much about getting the best out of the program and have so much experience across a big range of sectors,” says Kyle.
Simplus Managed Services dedicate a team to your account. “We don’t draw from our implementation team or pick someone from the bench – we have a model that works extremely well partially because of how we staff the engagements.”
Contracting Flexibility
Under a Managed Services contract, Simplus starts with a success plan, where the team assigned to a customer’s account covers administration, ‘break fix’, changes and enhancements, customer development and seasonal updates of Salesforce (which typically happen three times a year).
“We also help out with operational best practices and business best practices, including regular check-ups and even mini-projects.” says Kyle.
Unlike most managed services models, which are ‘use it or you lose it’, Simplus arrange a monthly log of hours which is co-ordinated by a customer success manager, who monitors your company’s usage.
“We set a safe range of hours that is designed to accommodate the peaks and the valleys of your business needs without it affecting the cost of your contract,” Kyle explains. The Simplus customer success manager reviews usage weekly with the customer and helps them predict their costs, make use of low-demand times with better utilisation, and call in different skill sets for small projects.
“We staff the managed services teams with the people with the right set of skills at the right time to make sure that all business needs are met. This helps manage changingpriorities within fast-paced organisations” Kyle says.
“In-house administrators typically have one skill set, but being able to call on a team within a wider consultancy can resolve problems fast,” he says.
If you think your organisation could benefit from the support our Managed Services can provide contact Kyle Hanagarne, EVP Simplus Australia to learn more.
