Our final factor for reducing unnecessary costs comes down to accelerators. These can take many forms, but provide a great deal of value to any digital transformation project. In this section, we will address two common types of accelerator and the benefits you gain.

Intellectual property

An experienced implementation partner will have completed hundreds or thousands of projects across many industries. In these projects, there are frequently common themes and problems. A good partner takes these common items and packages them for reuse.

As a Salesforce implementation partner, we are provided with a toolset to deploy items from our library of intellectual property, directly into a client’s Salesforce instance. This is accomplished through the Salesforce AppExchange, which facilitates this deployment network.

One of our most impactful packages is the CPQ Bolt. This is a pre-built set of components that facilitates channel partner quoting. We have a CPQ bolt focused on the manufacturing industry as well as the high-tech industry. Each was built to solve some of the common use cases and issues with a channel partner enablement project.

By using this package as the starting point for an engagement, the implementation time is reduced 30%-60% depending on the amount of customization required. This directly reduces the cost of implementation, making it a differentiator for Simplus.

When looking at potential partners, it is important to factor in their library of intellectual property as a way to accelerate timelines, decrease costs, or adopt best practices.

Applications and tools

Another great way to avoid unnecessary costs is to use applications and tools to speed up specific areas of an implementation. An example from Simplus is the use of Prodly in our CPQ implementations.

Salesforce CPQ relies on a heavily relational data model. All of the objects have relationships that have to be maintained when deploying from a development environment to a production environment. The traditional way to deploy this was to download all of the individual data objects and records and upload them in a specific order. This was then followed by manual steps to reconnect items, including more uploads. This meant that a CPQ deployment took a significant time investment from many consultants. This process was also prone to errors, which could cause delays.

Prodly is a deployment framework that allows for all of the relational data to move between a development and production environment without the need for the manual download/modify/upload steps. This means the deployments are done in a fraction of the time, without the risk of errors.

Because of the value we see from the tool, it is used in every CPQ deployment Simplus performs. This reduces the time spent in the deployment phase, which reduces the implementation cost. There are many other tools and applications that can save time, which directly impacts the budget of a project.

Key takeaway

When assessing a project, it is beneficial to find ways to accelerate the process. If there is existing intellectual property or time-saving tools, that can be a great way to reduce potential costs.

Final thoughts

A full digital transformation has many moving parts. If you are assessing a transformation like this, keep in mind these three important factors to avoid unnecessary costs: implementation methodology, expertise, and accelerator tools.

By choosing an implementation partner with a compatible methodology, good industry expertise, and a suite of tools and intellectual property, you decrease your potential investment. This will directly impact the ROI of your project and help bring your company to a new level of excellence.

If you have any questions or want to speak to a digital transformation expert, please reach out to Simplus at 855.SIMPLUS or online at www.simplus.com