With stats like that, it’s clear that many organizations need maintenance, optimization, and regular updates to keep their Salesforce instances running alongside their developments and changes. 

Managed Services is not just a minimum viable solution for these organizations, but is frequently the most ideal solution because it’s significantly less costly and yields more scalable results. But many organizations don’t understand just how valuable a Managed Services Provider (MSP) can be for the organization due to a bad experience with a previous partner or confusion about what a true MSP should entail.  

In this blog, we’ll be debunking those misconceptions and covering each of the following Managed Services features in-depth: service framework, flexibility, application management framework. These are the essentials that make Managed Services not just some extra warm bodies, but a true partner helping to optimize your Salesforce instance. Not sure what these Managed Services features are or how to identify them in your MSP? This blog is the place to start. 

Let’s introduce the basics behind each of these three key features:

Personalized Service Framework

With many MSPs, the customer walks away with a sour taste because the team assigned to them wasn’t really assigned at all. There was no dedicated, named team on their account; instead, just a round-robin of resources keeping up with the maintenance needs based on who has availability at that moment. Understandably, this is frustrating for many Salesforce users who want to see more tailored attention paid to their instance.

Managed Services shouldn’t just be idle project delivery resources taking tickets when they have hours to burn. Ideally, Managed Services is a completely separate unit that focuses on the delivery of high-quality tailored enhancements and maintenance on an ongoing basis. It should be a seamless integration with your team, with named resources that you trust and build rapport with over time.

Maximum Flexibility and Predictability

An MSP should expand your Salesforce capabilities and evolve with your needs, and not be a time sink distracting from your primary mission. Maintaining a Salesforce environment has seasonal variability in both the volume and scope of enhancements. An MSP should be ready to adapt to those changes with both flexible hours and skillsets, ready to add new talent to your team when needed. Maybe it’s taking on a new Cloud or adding a new business unit to your Salesforce instance, or even setting up new points of integration within your internal ecosystem.

While you will always have a named team associated with your account, you can also have a variety of resources with different backgrounds and expertise on hand. This is a clear advantage versus relying on internal talent that may need to upskill before supporting critical business needs. When a particular need or project arises that requires more insight, there is a team full of Salesforce ecosystem professionals ready to be pulled in and join your team. Additionally, you can rest assured that you will never waste or use too many hours from Managed Services—the Flex Utilization Model means that hours are only used when you need them. In times of need, hours go up, and when things are smooth-sailing, only the basic maintenance hours are used. There is no “use it or lose it” with our team. When usage is low, those hours carry forward.

Application Management Framework

A great Managed Services experience should enhance your approach to governance of your Salesforce instance. At Simplus, we do this with our Application Management Framework, a model for operations. 

This framework provides integration with each of the customer’s business unit reps in order to prioritize and release an agreed-upon process. The Application Management Framework is also set up to align with tech capabilities and best practices for the best in solutioning and design work. Additionally, this includes our QA team which validates all work before sending it to the customer. The ultimate purpose of the Application Management Framework is to set up a long-term engagement and relationship with you—not just guidelines for a one-time project.

There are many great MSPs for Salesforce maintenance available. Among them, Simplus Managed Services is a trusted partner for many Salesforce users, complete with a full point of view on best practices and org maintenance. To learn more about how our managed services model works, stay tuned for the next installment (where we’ll dive into the Service Framework in more detail), or reach out to us today!