Upgrading your business systems with Salesforce can be a real game-changer in terms of increased efficiency and productivity across the organization. However, the key to a successful integration lies in finding the right Salesforce Integration Partner.  Salesforce Integration Specialists can help you navigate the many offerings of Salesforce CRM to formulate a solution that aligns with your business needs.

Today, we will discuss

• What to ask a Salesforce Integration Partner?
• How to Find Salesforce Integration Partners?
• Key Factors to Consider when Choosing Salesforce Integration Partner?

Let’s get started –

What to ask a Salesforce Integration Partner?

The process of finding the right Salesforce Integration Partner can be daunting. There are certain questions and key considerations that can help make filtering some of the potential Salesforce partners easier –

Do they understand my business and industry?

Make sure the Salesforce Integration Partner understands the unique complexity and demand of your industry and your organization’s specific requirements.

Is their past experience relevant to my project?

Focus on finding out if the Salesforce Partner has relevant past experience to your industry or project requirements.

Are they certified Salesforce Partners?

For enterprise grade projects, you can find certified Salesforce Partners on findpartners.salesforce.com or Salesforce AppExchange. Alternatively, look for experienced Salesforce Integration Partners if you want reasonable rates with ample experience.

Have they provided relevant references?

Check the potential Salesforce Partner’s references or previous work portfolio. Talk to their previous clients to get an idea of their skills, professionalism and behaviour.

Do they specialize in my industry or type of Salesforce integration I am looking for?

Determine their flexibility and expertise in terms of relevant industry experience to your project and the type of Salesforce integration you are looking for. Popular Salesforce Integrations to look for include –

Do I have a clear understanding of their disaster recovery and data backup procedures?

Make sure to ask them for a detailed presentation and documents discussing their disaster recovery and data backup procedures. This is very important to ensure data safety and for incident response management.

How to Find the Right Salesforce Implementation Partners for Your Business?

When implementing Salesforce for a company, it needs to be tailored to their exact requirements to get the most value for their investment.

So, is my only option to hire Salesforce Certified Partners?

Not necessarily, for most SMEs, mid-scale and even enterprise grade projects, there are many credible Salesforce Implementation Partners that may not necessarily be certified with Salesforce.

How to find and select the right Salesforce Integration Partner then?

Let’s find out –

Start by Outlining Your Project Goals & Requirements

First and foremost, before even starting your search for Salesforce Integration Partners it is important to have a proper understanding of your project’s objectives. You should have a clear idea of the purpose behind implementing Salesforce in your business systems.

Why do I need Salesforce? Is it for –

Assess your Salesforce Project Budget and Time

Consider your budget room, constraints and project timeline flexibility.

Salesforce implementation costs can vary significantly with changing requirements and scope of your project. Having a clear understanding of such constraints will help narrow down your efforts of finding the right Salesforce integration specialist.

Identify your Industry and Regulatory Requirements

Get proper understanding of the regulations and compliances that applies to your industry and possibly your business. Find Salesforce Integration Specialists that know how to set up such compliances and keep your project regulated and efficient.

Search for Salesforce Integration Partners

Next thing to do is to begin the hunt of finding the right Salesforce Partner. The Salesforce AppExchange Partners Platform is a good starting point, you can search for certified ISV (independent software vendors) as per your target integrations.

You can also rely on word of mouth or Google SERP results to find and hire Salesforce integration partners from any managed IT service companies with reliable Salesforce integration experience under their belt.

Evaluate Salesforce Integrator’s Experience and Skills

When it comes to selecting a Salesforce Integration Specialist, it’s crucial to evaluate their skillset and experience in connecting systems similar to yours with Salesforce. In addition to their technical expertise, consider the best practices for Salesforce development to ensure that your integration is both seamless and aligned with industry standards. The right specialist can make a significant difference in how effectively Salesforce supports your business processes.

Make sure your Salesforce partner has all necessary skills to take your Salesforce project to the success you envision for it.

What should I be looking for?

• Proficiency in Apex and Lightning Programming
• Experience working with Visualforce for UI Development
• Integrating Salesforce Security Standards
• Expertise in SQQL and SOSL for data retrieval and manipulation
• Proper knowledge of Salesforce Administration
• Applying Salesforce security best practices like identity management, access controls & others.

Evaluate Cost, Timing Estimation and Approach

One of the best ways to filter through the Salesforce Implementation Partners can be comparing cost estimates. Extremely low costs could raise question on the quality of the services while extremely priced partners won’t guarantee success.

So, what do I do then?

Well, the best thing to do is – ask for a cost estimation chart and better understand their pricing strategy. Moreover, get a good idea of their developer strength in numbers to get a better idea about their ability to deliver the project in the given time frame you expect them to.

Review Sample Projects and Request References

Ask potential Salesforce implementation partners to showcase their previous Salesforce Integration Projects that are similar to yours. Request for at least two to three client references whom you can contact to ask about their experience.

However, if it is against the company’s privacy policy or agreement with their partners, ask them to run a pilot project or just work on a singular module of your system to show their merit before being trusted for the complete Salesforce integration project.

Shortlist Potential Salesforce Implementation Partners

Shortlist few of the Salesforce Integration Partners that seem like a good fit based on your evaluation on cost, expertise and previous work sample. We are not done screening them just yet, so allow room for some who just make the cut.

Request Consultation Calls

Most Salesforce Implementation Partners would be actively ready for attending your call and answering your queries in hope of closing you as a customer for availing their services.

Why is this beneficial for you?

You can book a consultation call with the shortlisted Salesforce vendors to study them in greater detail. Focus on how they communicate on the call when discussing project budget and timeline. This will give you a good idea of their problem-solving skills and composure.

Review Contract Term and Final Pricing

After filtering the Salesforce Partners that didn’t impress you in the consultation call, initiate a discussion on project contract terms and pricing structure with the remaining potential top Salesforce Partners.

Check if they mention any additional cost and how they break down the costing structure. Compare and contrast these terms and pricing plans. Make sure to pick the one’s that aligns closest to your budget and project timeline.

Select the Right Partner

After considering all these factors and discussing with your team members, make a final call on choosing the right Salesforce Integration Partner that best aligns with your objectives, budget and other such factors.

Key Factors to Consider when Choosing Salesforce Integration Partner

Apart from all the important review steps mentioned in the earlier section, there are still some important considerations to keep in mind before finalizing your Salesforce Integration Partner. These are more like guidelines that can further improvise your Salesforce integration partner selection experience. Let’s dive right into it –

1. Select a Partner that shows true interest in Salesforce

Just because a service provider offers Salesforce Integration Services doesn’t mean they are necessarily experts in the field.

Many IT companies provide a wide array of managed IT services that cover various technologies, but their proficiency can vary. Some technologies may be well within their expertise, while others might not receive the same level of attention and knowledge.

Their active interest in the platform makes a lot of difference in their efficiency, adaptability and ability to implement the best Salesforce integration solutions in your business systems.

2. ‘The Bigger, The Better’ Doesn’t Always Apply

Choosing the top Salesforce Integration Partner like Accenture, Deloitte, Capgemini is not always going to the best choice for most businesses. Firstly, the budget estimations will be off the charts. Moreover, you probably won’t get last mile access to the team working on your project or be able to get as involved as you’d like.

Salesforce is a huge platform with many reliable Salesforce Consulting Service Providers like Aglowid, that can provide you with dedicated Salesforce developers for hire. Working with such teams will enable you to be more included, provide suggestions and raise queries more openly.

3. Choose Top Salesforce Partners with Active Strategic Inputs

Most Salesforce Integration Partners or any service providers often are too afraid to point out the problems or possible downfalls of suggestions made by client.

Why is that concerning?

They would try and achieve anything you ask them to, even if it is detrimental to your project success.

Hence it is important to find Salesforce Implementation Partners that studies your organization thoroughly, and raises concerns or questions regarding your business systems.

How do I find a genuine Salesforce Partner then?

Any experienced Salesforce Partner would not only help you integrate Salesforce in your business systems but help you achieve the change in mindset and business practices needed to adapt to this platform better.

4. Knowledge Transfer and Cultural Fit

KT or Knowledge Transfer refers to the method of sharing information, abilities and skills across cross-platform teams in an organization.

Why worry about Knowledge Transfer?

You want to find and recruit Salesforce Integration Partners since your organization lacks those skills and you need to leverage the platform.

This creates an external dependency.

How to curb this issue then?

We are glad you asked! To reduce the impact of such dependency, your Salesforce Partner should be willing and capable of disseminating their knowledge and skills about the Salesforce Platform to your team.

Their ability to do this also depends on the Salesforce Partner’s cultural fit with your core team. Their willingness to learn from Salesforce experts would depend on the expert’s way of communication, believes and approach aligning with that of your team.

Hence, you should always check the Salesforce Partner’s website for their mission, vision and other such aspects to gain more clarity about their work culture.

Wrapping Up!

This is your ultimate guide on Finding Salesforce Integration Partners for guaranteeing successful Salesforce Implementation. Make sure to get proper Salesforce consulting before looking for Salesforce services so you know the platform enough to know what to expect from your partner. If you have any Salesforce requirement you want to discuss, drop us a line at [email protected].