Outsourcing Salesforce Administration Services Can Improve Data Management

For some nonprofits and foundations, hiring an outside consultant to handle Salesforce Administration is an important step towards better data management. In this blog post we explore what it looks like to bring in a consultant to provide administrative services, and discuss some of the steps that organizations can take to prepare for this important addition to their team.

When Should I Consider Hiring a Salesforce Administration Consultant?

The first step in deciding if your organization will benefit from the expertise of a Salesforce administration (admin) consultant is to assess your current CRM technology and consult with system users within your organization. Do people feel that they can trust the information in the database to be true and accurate? Does it generally run smoothly, or are there recurring issues that are hard to troubleshoot? Do users feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the database? These kinds of questions will help provide clarity around bringing in some outside help. Additionally, you may benefit from the services of an admin consultant if any of the following are true:

• Your System is New. If you’re just finishing up a Salesforce implementation and are brand new to the platform, it may be wise to stay a little bit longer with someone who knows your system and who can help you with any issues that come up. At North Peak, we have a team of consultants that can help you with your system after the implementation phase is complete.
• Your Users Value a Flexible System that can Evolve Based on Needs. In this case the consultant is there as a resource for questions or to troubleshoot problems, and to work with your team to customize or expand system capabilities to meet workflow needs.
• You Need System Maintenance and Data Management. In this scenario, you may have an in-house Salesforce Admin, but the system as a whole needs maintenance beyond the capabilities or time availability of the person in that role.
• Your Organization is in a State of Transition. If your organization is going through changes and/or is deciding whether to fill the Admin role in-house, a consultant can step in to fill the gap.

What are the Benefits of Hiring a Salesforce Consultant?

There are lots of different reasons why you might choose to hire an admin consultant. Maybe your organization is new to Salesforce and needs the wide-ranging expertise that a consultant can provide. Or it’s possible that someone on your team is ready to upskill to the role of admin, but needs some initial training and support from an experienced professional. Whatever the reason, hiring a consultant can bring a variety of benefits to your team and organization as a whole. These benefits include:

• Expertise. A Salesforce consultant provides a high level of technical expertise that can help nonprofits and foundations find the solutions that best address their needs.
• Training and Strategic Guidance. A Salesforce consultant can provide valuable training and share different perspectives and best practices resulting from experience with diverse organizations.
• Cost Effectiveness. Investing in a consultant brings savings in the long term by improving processes that have a long-lasting impact on the organization’s data management.
• Continuity. A firm is likely better able to weather staff transitions, whereas it can be highly disruptive for an organization should the in-house Salesforce admin leave.
• Scale. Hiring a firm often means you are hiring a team that can scale up or out when more capacity or skills are required.

Preparing for the New Addition to Your Team

Congratulations! You decided to level up your CRM database capacity by hiring a Salesforce admin consultant. With that important decision out of the way, it’s now time to prepare your organization for the new addition to the team. Your consultant will have taken care of all the contract items, and should have provided you with some details on necessary information they need in order to get started. In addition, you’ll want to make sure you the following tasks are completed:

• Define Clear Objectives. Whether Salesforce is new to your organization or you’ve been using it for years, it is important to define clear objectives and outcomes. Identifying specific goals and scope of work will help the Consultant know the areas they’re going to be providing support to, and will ensure you are clear on the kinds of help the Consultant is contracted to provide.
• Define Requirements and Priorities. Once the objectives have been set, define what the priorities are and how the Consultant should handle the different tasks and needs that will come up.
• Assign a Point of Contact. Select one person from your team that will act as the point of contact. This is important not only so that the consultant knows who to go to with questions, but also so that people at your organization know who to address their Salesforce questions to. This helps ensure streamlined and efficient communication.
• Set up Recurring Meetings. These meetings should happen regularly between the consultant and the point of contact. This may be especially helpful at first, when the consultant and your team are getting used to working styles and expectations. Initially a weekly or bi-weekly meeting is recommended, but with time, you will find a cadence that reflects the workload and needs of your organization.
• Gather all Available Documentation. Provide your consultant with the most up-to-date documentation you have on your system and processes. Make sure you all reach an agreement on what the documentation should look like moving forward.

Working with Your Salesforce Administration Consultant

Once you’re working with your new administration consultant, you’ll need to regularly communicate with them and your team around how changes and updates are getting made to the system, and ensure everyone involved is clear on roles and responsibilities. This includes:

• Define a Process Around Requests. Staff will have requests for system changes or enhancements, and you’ll need to define a clear process for how those needs are communicated to the consultant. This could happen via regular check-ins, a weekly email, or with project management tools like Asana, Smartsheets, or Case Management in Salesforce.
• Engage System Users. If a database is new, or if it’s recently been overhauled, users may need some training time to familiarize themselves with the system. If users have become disengaged and/or don’t see the value of the new system, you’ll need to come up with some ways to increase their active engagement.
• Clarify What Success Looks Like. Referring back to your project scope will help you identify the metrics to use to gauge success, as well as what areas might still need attention.
• Keep an Eye on the Project Budget. Your consultant should provide regular budget updates, but it’s always a good idea to track this internally too. This helps ensure that you have enough money allocated for the work, and allows for time to process change orders if the project needs to go over the maximum budget originally set.

Next Steps

Salesforce is a valuable tool that helps organizations streamline workflows, manage programs and track constituent data. Its flexibility as a CRM platform means it can do pretty much anything, and because of that flexibility it also requires expertise to set up and maintain. For some nonprofits and foundations, hiring an outside consultant to provide Salesforce administration is an important step that gets them better at maintaining, monitoring, and evolving their CRM, which is critical for strategic data management. Contact us today to learn more about our Managed Administrative services for nonprofits and foundations.