Last month we discussed how managed services can add value to your business – from filling skills gaps to helping with bandwidth. This month, as part of our CRM managed services series, we are digging deeper into what you should look for in a managed services provider.
To maximise your Salesforce investment you need a team who understands all the complexities and details that come with a multi-cloud platform. And you also want a provider who doesn’t just throw your requests to the next available consultant.
These are the questions you should be asking to determine whether a CRM managed services team is right for your business.
How will your CRM managed services team work with my internal team?
There are many concerns when a new team starts using a new service, and Salesforce is no exception to the rule. Thankfully, you can tap into years of experience and avoid steep infrastructure costs by using managed services.
When outsourcing specialised skills and experience you want to know they will work efficiently with your internal team. What you don’t want is a partnership that feels like you’re logging a ticket that goes into a queue and whoever is available will deal with your request. Not only do you possibly get a different technical consultant every time, but they have limited context of your organisation and your business goals.
What you want to look for is a managed services provider who assigns named individuals to your contract that stay the same the entire length of service. Your managed services team should feel like an extension of your internal staff, building camaraderie and understanding of your business needs and initiatives over time.
What kind of operational guidance do your CRM managed services provide?
While teamwork is a key component to a successful partnership, organisations should also find a provider who can offer guidance beyond technical support.
One of the first things you want managed services teams to do is establish operational best practices. This involves helping organisations understand how they should document governance, whose authorised to make technical changes and decisions, how to internally communicate feature releases and many other operational practices.
A CRM managed services provider who is focused on making your organisation better at operating can add more value to your business than a provider whose model is based on supplying ‘X’ amount of hours. And being able to recognise a well-oiled machine is also important. Your chosen provider should be able to merge into any existing processes.
How flexible is your CRM managed services team?
Every business has peaks and troughs in demands that you can’t predict. Employee turnover can mean a sudden loss of experience from your team or there may be a critical incident where you need talent to help fix something. By having a flexible managed services provider who can respond to changes in business demands, means you can rest easy and not worry about how your technology will keep running or how it’s going to affect your bottom line.
At Simplus, the structure of our team allows us to be flexible with hours month by month and focus on the average number of hours consumed over the contract lifecycle. For example, we may have a contract for 100 hours a month but in the background, we have staff available to accommodate a surge of up to 300 hours. Our flexible utilisation model allows for unused hours to be banked or rolled over, along with the ability to decrease the next month so there’s no penalisation for a spike in need.
No matter at what point you’re at in your digital transformation journey, you want a managed services provider to offer a flexible model that also solves enough problems to add value to your business.
To take your Salesforce efforts to the next level, you need a managed services provider with a clear plan for success. One that is focused on end-user productivity, personalised and flexible service and a laser focus on operational excellence. And all of this is provided with predictable, fixed monthly fees. If you have a managed services provider that does all this, then you have found the right managed services provider for you.
To learn more register for our upcoming Simplus Sessions Webinar: How to stabilise and scale operations in a new world using Salesforce Managed Services or get in touch with one of our experienced team members.
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