Before stepping into the world of Salesforce, ask yourself an important question. Should you hire a full-time Salesforce Partner Consultancy or proceed with an in-house development team?
Why hire a Salesforce Commerce Cloud Consultant?
If your company has outgrown its existing architecture and you want to make that next step with Salesforce to organise your sales team, streamline operational procedures, or expand your online presence, then you may quickly realise that an external helping hand is required.
Calculating factors such as how much assistance is necessary, the time to market, along with the cost of the whole operation are just a few of the important questions a Salesforce Partner Consultancy can help answer. Integrating and customising your new software can be a relatively simple process depending on the scale of the business, or alternatively, a continuous journey – it all boils down to budget and specific requirements of the operation.
Hiring a Salesforce Commerce Cloud consultant, especially if you've just started transiting to this solution, is essential if you want to set-up a robust infrastructure or substantially scale an existing one.
When Should You Hire a Salesforce Consultant?
When is it time to start looking for a Salesforce Commerce Cloud consultant?
In short, before your business starts stalling because you lack expert advice.
When you need to choose the best eCommerce solution for your business.
Modern eCommerce platforms and tools will streamline business operations, organise data management and analysis, grow better customer relationships, and more. Since your business has specific needs, choose which solution(s) will benefit your business the most immediately and facilitate growth for the future. SFCC consultants will guide you through the available options and help select the optimal solution to achieve your KPIs.
You need to integrate non-Salesforce solutions.
Salesforce permits integration with numerous platforms and tools, but requires a skilled engineer to execute them smoothly. Salesforce developers with a broad knowledge of cloud computing and possess backend development expertise are highly recommended.
Your current eCommerce solution has peaked and you want to switch platforms
Your existing platform might host only a limited number of users during peak business hours. For those planning to grow your business and explore alternative solutions, you need a solid functioning tech-base and an expert that can scale your existing solution or set-up a new one.
You want to migrate your customer management operations to the cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides many of the necessary cloud-based services and tools to effectively optimise your customer management methods, making your store management friction-less across any location, device, and touchpoint.
How much help with implementing Salesforce Commerce Cloud do you need?
Before hiring Salesforce support, ask yourself – how much customisation is needed, will you need any custom coding? Are there projects that you foresee that require ongoing support and maintenance? A benefit of hiring a certified Salesforce Partner consultancy, like Sherwen Studios is that you get access to a full team of experts, including consultants, developers, analysts, and project managers to provide you with all the help and knowledge you need.
Consider if assigning a full-time developer (or development team) unfamiliar with SFCC will be enough support for the workload. Will they have the capacity to complete all of the work needed, and within budget? Do they possess the knowhow to mitigate and manage integration and risk? Can you afford for the time to market to be delayed?
Do you need to pay dual-focus on maintaining the performance of an existing store whilst simultaneously developing plans for a new one?
Choosing to invest in a brand-new storefront, and especially within the parameters of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, requires a significant portion of time to focus on a new commerce strategy along with investment in resourcing.
A common dilemma for many retailers; many teams are tempted to devote all their attention on designing and developing a new website, frequently at the expense of their existing one.
Until that final transition to the new website, it’s vital businesses don’t neglect the maintenance and care of an existing site. Customers will be oblivious to any work going on behind the scenes, and if they have a poor online experience, it can be difficult to recover them.
From our perspective, thorough project management is essential. Running two separate website projects (maintenance and development) requires extensive communication between all involved parties. Insights gained from a maintenance project will drive a development team, so regular dialogue must be facilitated between those teams.
We take a two-step approach towards our website development projects. The first phase is about creating a prototype that thrives on new functionalities and technologies. It also considers the impact of data insights, stakeholder feedback and user testing. This is where we heavily depend on the work of the assigned specialist team to maintain the existing website.
Once this is all finalised, we integrate this into the final project which simplifies and optimises the user experience, ensuring the resulting website has adapted to the latest market conditions.
Do you need any other related IT Services?
Beyond assisting to create a strong eCommerce platform, Salesforce Commerce Cloud consultants can also help businesses to stand out in a crowded digital market through the integration of many other popular IT services.
A few examples of what SFCC consultants can also assist with:
Boosting conversion rates and making astute recommendations with artificial intelligence.
Creating better outcomes with predictive intelligence tools.
Automating processes for accurate, responsive delivery and payment.
Managing multiple storefronts from a single platform.
Implementing 24/7 support resources and services.
What are the benefits of hiring a Certified Salesforce Partner Consultancy?
In a word, cost. At about half the average monthly price of a full-time Consultant, a Salesforce Partner Consultancy grants access to a comprehensive team of experienced experts and a clearly defined number of hours to complete a project or implementation.
Think of a Salesforce Partner Consultancy as an extension of your team, supporting customisations and complex development work. They provide dedicated, ongoing support with a flexible amount of pre-determined hours that can always be increased when necessary.
Sherwen Studios provides flexible options for Salesforce Commerce Cloud implementations and continuous support (managed services), working as your exclusive Salesforce support team, or as an extension of your internal Salesforce team.
If you’re still unsure of how much help you need or whether Salesforce is the right fit for your business, feel free to contact us. With years of invaluable experience in helping Salesforce customers navigate implementation, providing support, and nurturing sustainable business growth, we’re happy to help answer any questions you may have.