Tips for Salesforce Success: People vs Technology

In early July our principal consultant, Paul Harris joined the ‘Experience Tract’ line up at the first Supermums consultancy focussed event, Consultancy Dreamin’. With over 18 years worth of Salesforce ecosystem experience, Paul’s session focussed on the ten things that might not be expected when delivering consultancy services. 

In case you missed the event or if you want to learn more about each tip, we’ll be sharing each and every one of them over the coming weeks right here on our blog. This week, we talk about how important it is to recognise the balance between the people you are delivering a project for against the technology required. Read on to discover more…

Tip #3. 90% People, 10% Technology

Lucia Adams, former deputy head of digital at The Times newspaper asserts from her experience that “Digital is 10% technology and 90% human.”

As a Salesforce consultancy service, we understand that one of the biggest real world challenges in all projects are expectations. Expectations can take a variety of forms, and different stakeholders in a business may have different expectations depending on their role. Another crucial expectation challenge is that most organisations talk about digital transformation as if it is all about the technology – but it’s really not.

Reflecting on the Lucia Adams quote, whatever the percentage split, organisations who focus on the technology in itself are probably the single most important cause of the dashed expectations of projects. If more focus is given to the potential technology and less to the people who will be using it in their daily roles, then it could have an impact on the effectiveness of the implementation project.

Power to the people

This is something that we pay very close attention to as a registered Salesforce partner consultancy. When working with customers to develop a Salesforce integration, we strive to ensure that awareness and time is given to change management, user needs and expectations, training, and not just the customer experience – essentially giving the power to the people who will be utilising the system. 

The approach that we use is to architect, design and build for what the users need first and foremost. Process and technology are important but if the users are at odds with the process, the technology, and the system; the project is likely to be in trouble from the get go. Surprisingly, in our experience, technology is not often the cause of a project that does not meet its objectives.

Taking the time

One of the challenges with Salesforce.com can be that because it is so easy to adapt and change the system that sometimes proper project governance and best practice can be left behind. It is important to take the time to do things properly, sounds obvious right, but when something can be easily changed, it is easy to shortcut the project process to get what you want faster.  We’ve found that it is also important to consider the time that the customer needs to spend with you to input on the project process.  Defining what the digital transformation is and setting everyone’s expectations as to what input and time is needed can really help to set projects on the right track.  If people are prepared for change, they won’t fear the change or the unknowns that the introduction of new technology can bring into an organisation.

Need some help with your Salesforce.com implementation?

As a registered Salesforce consulting partner we practice focussing on a customer project with a 90% people and 10% technology view. It may appear as if it is all about the technology and implementation, but it is much more than that.  Our experience has taught us that focussing on what the requirements are and how the process needs to work, is much more beneficial than focussing on the technology solutions required to meet those requirements.

Book a conversation with us now so we can understand your processes first and determine what solutions could make it better second. Our registered Salesforce partner team is available to provide as much or as little support that you may need. Contact us on 033 0233 0229 or get in touch for a FREE Salesforce Consultation. – But be quick, there are limited spaces available!