Growing Your Salesforce Team. Hire or Outsource?
After an organization implements Salesforce they commonly face the question of whether to hire full-time Salesforce Admins and Developers or outsource ongoing support and development to Salesforce Partners or Consultants.
It can take months to hire, onboard, and retain a full-time employee with benefits. Yet the costs of time and materials (T&M) contracts can be costly.
The best solution turns out to be a hybrid approach that hires for day-to-day Ops roles that Administer Salesforce, and outsource the ongoing implementation, customization, and development for a fixed-fee monthly subscription.
You run your business using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products for it's predictable costs, reliable uptime, and ongoing updates. So why not do the same for SaaS Professional Services?
Cubic Compass offers month-to-month, fixed-fee Salesforce service plans that utilize a combination of our Navigator framework, that automates recurring DevOps tasks, and in-person Zoom meetings plus email support.
Problems We Solve
Salary and Benefit Costs
The average salary for an experienced Salesforce Administrator is $97,000 per year[1], and Salesforce Developers start around $120K per year [2]. Add-in the overhead of employee benefits, healthcare, and variable compensation, and the costs are well into the six-figures.
Employee Ramp Time
It can take up to 6 months before a hired SaaS expert becomes productive. Most small businesses do not have the Management time or capability to successfully train a Salesforce resource.
Turnover
Couple the ramp time challenges with the fact that turnover for cloud employees with in-demand skills is 40%, and this puts small to medium businesses in a constant state of onboarding new employees every 18 months.
Salesforce Best Practices
There are varying best practices and styles amongst Salesforce professionals. People with a long-term outlook tend to focus on reducing maintenance costs with high attention to details; like naming conventions, documentation, unit test coverage, sandbox refreshes, and data quality.
Breadth of Team Skills
Architects and Product Owners are needed to lead requirements gathering and determining which resources are required for implementation.
Some days an Admin is required for basic reporting and dashboard needs, or onboarding new Sales users.
Occasionally a Developer is needed to implement Flows, or develop a custom Lightning component with Apex controller.
But rarely does a small-to-medium business require all roles at once. An outsourced services subscription offers a blended team for a flat rate.
It can take months to hire, onboard, and retain a full-time employee with benefits. Yet the costs of time and materials (T&M) contracts can be costly.
The best solution turns out to be a hybrid approach that hires for day-to-day Ops roles that Administer Salesforce, and outsource the ongoing implementation, customization, and development for a fixed-fee monthly subscription.
You run your business using Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products for it's predictable costs, reliable uptime, and ongoing updates. So why not do the same for SaaS Professional Services?
Cubic Compass offers month-to-month, fixed-fee Salesforce service plans that utilize a combination of our Navigator framework, that automates recurring DevOps tasks, and in-person Zoom meetings plus email support.
Problems We Solve
Salary and Benefit Costs
The average salary for an experienced Salesforce Administrator is $97,000 per year[1], and Salesforce Developers start around $120K per year [2]. Add-in the overhead of employee benefits, healthcare, and variable compensation, and the costs are well into the six-figures.
Employee Ramp Time
It can take up to 6 months before a hired SaaS expert becomes productive. Most small businesses do not have the Management time or capability to successfully train a Salesforce resource.
Turnover
Couple the ramp time challenges with the fact that turnover for cloud employees with in-demand skills is 40%, and this puts small to medium businesses in a constant state of onboarding new employees every 18 months.
Salesforce Best Practices
There are varying best practices and styles amongst Salesforce professionals. People with a long-term outlook tend to focus on reducing maintenance costs with high attention to details; like naming conventions, documentation, unit test coverage, sandbox refreshes, and data quality.
Breadth of Team Skills
Architects and Product Owners are needed to lead requirements gathering and determining which resources are required for implementation.
Some days an Admin is required for basic reporting and dashboard needs, or onboarding new Sales users.
Occasionally a Developer is needed to implement Flows, or develop a custom Lightning component with Apex controller.
But rarely does a small-to-medium business require all roles at once. An outsourced services subscription offers a blended team for a flat rate.
Enter Salesforce Service Subscriptions
A Salesforce support and development subscription has immediate benefits at a fixed monthly cost. Cubic Compass handles the hiring, staffing, and training of certified resources. Businesses operate as usual and simply contact their Account Manager with Salesforce related requests.
Subscription Service Levels
4 service subscription tiers are provided:
Starter
Ideal for small Salesforce orgs that require ongoing data quality support (dedupe / merge), training, on-call support, and basic customizations. Train and support your internal Salesforce Admins.
Maintain
Ideal for post-implementation support. Monitor orgs after going live with an implementation. Provide ongoing training and enhancements. Develop custom reports, flows, email templates, rules, and customer experiences.
Growth
Augment your Salesforce team with a part-time Architect and Developers to implement customizations with the explicit goal of using Salesforce to drive operational efficiencies and growth. Adopt new features and capabilities. Integrate with other web services and systems. Define customer journeys and automate customer experiences. Setup recurring data pipelines and migrations.
Enterprise
Tailored to your specific needs. Staff augmentation that includes a combination of Account Manager, Architect, Developers (Apex, Flow, or Front End) , Administrators, and Revenue Ops. Design and build custom applications. Integrate with internal or 3rd party systems. Setup data pipelines and recurring imports/exports.
A Salesforce support and development subscription has immediate benefits at a fixed monthly cost. Cubic Compass handles the hiring, staffing, and training of certified resources. Businesses operate as usual and simply contact their Account Manager with Salesforce related requests.
Subscription Service Levels
4 service subscription tiers are provided:
Starter
Ideal for small Salesforce orgs that require ongoing data quality support (dedupe / merge), training, on-call support, and basic customizations. Train and support your internal Salesforce Admins.
Maintain
Ideal for post-implementation support. Monitor orgs after going live with an implementation. Provide ongoing training and enhancements. Develop custom reports, flows, email templates, rules, and customer experiences.
Growth
Augment your Salesforce team with a part-time Architect and Developers to implement customizations with the explicit goal of using Salesforce to drive operational efficiencies and growth. Adopt new features and capabilities. Integrate with other web services and systems. Define customer journeys and automate customer experiences. Setup recurring data pipelines and migrations.
Enterprise
Tailored to your specific needs. Staff augmentation that includes a combination of Account Manager, Architect, Developers (Apex, Flow, or Front End) , Administrators, and Revenue Ops. Design and build custom applications. Integrate with internal or 3rd party systems. Setup data pipelines and recurring imports/exports.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I start at one tier the move to another?
Yes. Generally a growing business will have infrequent spikes for certain tasks, that we anticipate and allow. When these "spikes" become the new normal (defined as 2-3 months of sustained new service level requests), then we help companies migrate to the new SLA.
Do all plans includes all resources?
Yes. All plans include Architect, PM, Admin, Developer roles and support.
Do service plans cover initial implementations?
In some cases, yes. We've developed a sales methodology around the iDialogue platform, and when that platform is utilized, we offer implementation services at the Growth or Enterprise tiers.
Can we augment our existing Salesforce team with yours?
Yes. Actually the best working relationships are those where an organization hires an internal Sales or Revenue Ops role that handles day-to-day Admin and revenue tasks, and outsources the more advanced features and development to us.
Do we need to purchase an additional Salesforce license for outsourced services?
iDialogue Sales Enablement subscribers do not need to purchase an additional license seat, as that managed package provides support access. Otherwise, yes, an additional license is required.
For security purposes, who has access to our org?
Only your Account Manager has access. All other development is done in a sandbox or development org.
How does the CCS plan compare to Salesforce premier support?
We rarely, if ever, need to escalate to Salesforce for case support. And when we do, the root cause is generally the result of a new feature or release; which we document thoroughly in a case and resolve with Salesforce.
Can I start at one tier the move to another?
Yes. Generally a growing business will have infrequent spikes for certain tasks, that we anticipate and allow. When these "spikes" become the new normal (defined as 2-3 months of sustained new service level requests), then we help companies migrate to the new SLA.
Do all plans includes all resources?
Yes. All plans include Architect, PM, Admin, Developer roles and support.
Do service plans cover initial implementations?
In some cases, yes. We've developed a sales methodology around the iDialogue platform, and when that platform is utilized, we offer implementation services at the Growth or Enterprise tiers.
Can we augment our existing Salesforce team with yours?
Yes. Actually the best working relationships are those where an organization hires an internal Sales or Revenue Ops role that handles day-to-day Admin and revenue tasks, and outsources the more advanced features and development to us.
Do we need to purchase an additional Salesforce license for outsourced services?
iDialogue Sales Enablement subscribers do not need to purchase an additional license seat, as that managed package provides support access. Otherwise, yes, an additional license is required.
For security purposes, who has access to our org?
Only your Account Manager has access. All other development is done in a sandbox or development org.
How does the CCS plan compare to Salesforce premier support?
We rarely, if ever, need to escalate to Salesforce for case support. And when we do, the root cause is generally the result of a new feature or release; which we document thoroughly in a case and resolve with Salesforce.
References
[1] Glassdoor Salesforce Administrator Salary https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/salesforce-administrator-salary-SRCH_KO0,24.htm
[2] Indeed.com Salesforce Developer Salary https://www.indeed.com/career/salesforce-developer/salaries
[3] Cloud skills turnover https://www.cbre.us/real-estate-services/occupier/labor-analytics/labor-analytics-insights/articles/tech-skills-now-cloud-computing
[1] Glassdoor Salesforce Administrator Salary https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/salesforce-administrator-salary-SRCH_KO0,24.htm
[2] Indeed.com Salesforce Developer Salary https://www.indeed.com/career/salesforce-developer/salaries
[3] Cloud skills turnover https://www.cbre.us/real-estate-services/occupier/labor-analytics/labor-analytics-insights/articles/tech-skills-now-cloud-computing