bluewolf | the state of salesforce 2012

the state

salesforce

of

2012-2013annual review

data&Methodology

Bluewolf has been delivering on the promise of cloud technology, bringing agility and innovation to companies around the world. Our work spans a wide variety of industries, company sizes, and geographies. As a salesforce.com Platinum Consulting Partner we have completed thousands of projects globally and innovate on hundreds of live Salesforce instances every day.

Data SourcesBluewolf sourced data from two locations. The first was a survey directed at Salesforce users and the second was data from Bluewolf’s proprietary knowledge database.

RespondentsOur first survey included the insight from 300 global Salesforce customers. A wide variety of roles, titles, and companies from SME to enterprise were represented.

MethodologyUsing Bluewolf’s proprietary knowledge database we focused on distilling insights from project managers, as well as data from projects completed in 2011 and 2012.

Salesforce, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, AppExchange, Force.com, Chatter, Site.com and Radian6 are all registered trademarks of salesforce.com Inc.

for over a decade

Table of contents

o2The Rise of Social

Salesforce.com’s Growth and Budget Trends

o4Current Priorities

Bluewolf’s Perspective

o6Current and Planned Integrations

Salesforce Customers React to the Social Enterprise

o8The True Cost of Cloud

How Much Value Are You Getting from Salesforce?

10The Case for Cloud Governance

8 Key Elements of Cloud Governance

125 Post-Launch Mistakes

How to Measure Adoption

14Staffing for Salesforce Innovation

The Elastic Workforce

16Bluewolf Solutions

2 The State of Salesforce

Since Dreamforce 2009, salesforce.com has been focused on driving a new market: social. What does social mean? A social organization embraces change and supports collaboration, understanding that its most valuable assets are people and human interaction. Becoming social involves leveraging technology to unlock the collective brainpower of people in order to drive productivity.

Before becoming social an organization must first become agile. An agile enterprise establishes processes that promote continuous innovation, leaves room for a little chaos, trains on an ongoing basis, leverages elastic resources, and embraces flexible technology.

Many of the companies with which Bluewolf interacts aspire to become more social. Beyond this aspiration, we also see clients challenged with: keeping Salesforce aligned with their changing business needs, understanding how to budget and staff resources dedicated to innovating Salesforce, and how to best serve diverse constituents. The rate of change that Salesforce enables requires a new and continuously evolving strategy.

Bluewolf has built a fast growing global consulting organization and we believe in the promise of social. But creating a new market is different than measuring success within the current market. This report aims to separate the two, and bring grounding to the current state of Salesforce.

The rise of social

l o u f o x • c t o • B l u e w o l f

B l u e w o l f. c o M / p e o p l e / l o u - f o x

2012-2013 Annual Review 3

salesforce.com’s growth

Companies are struggling with who owns the budget for ongoing Salesforce innovation: the business or IT? They also are increasing experimentation with resources that can be turned on as needed rather than hiring or training full time staff.

The True Cost of the Cloud

Are you resourcing for innovation or stagnation? page 8.

B u d g e t

no change increase not sure decrease

29%31% 29% 11%

e x p e c t e d B u d g e t t r e n d s f o r s a l e s f o r c e i n 2 0 1 3

Despite a strong launch, Chatter adoption has yet to explode. Given the potential business value that cross-enterprise collaboration offers, and recent growing interest from Salesforce users, we predict Chatter use to rapidly accelerate as companies iterate on their employee engagement strategies.

app-exchange force.coM sales

cloudservicecloud

on fire steady


e f f i c i e n c y

c u s t o M e r s e r v i c e

a d a p t i n g t o g r o w t h

i n t e r n a l c o l l a B o r a t i o n

c o s t r e d u c t i o n

t r a n s pa r e n c y

s o c i a l M e d i a

M o B i l e

currenT priorities

w h e r e a r e r e s o u r c e s B e i n g d e d i c a t e d ?

Dedicating only a small amount of resources to data cleaning and adoption often results in diminishing Salesforce ROI. To maximize Salesforce’s value, employers need to provide incentives to drive adoption and executives must trust that their dashboards reflect accurate data.

OngOing COnfiguratiOn

force.comdevelopment

business process

data cleaning, adoption,third-party integrations,

customer portals/site.com

5%5%5%5%15% 25% 40%

c u r r e n t f u t u r e

on fire steady cooling off


Bluewolf custoMer storyERM, a leading global provider of sustainability consulting with over 4,500 employees, leveraged Salesforce to provide insight into key global accounts. Collaboration and centralized account information helps ERM deliver seamless solutions across geographies to their clients.

Social media and mobile are coming together to help deliver on the productivity promise of cloud technology. Companies have realized that their workforces are not at their desks, and tools to support field sales and service are planned.

M o B i l e

e f f i c i e n c y


c u s t o M e r s e r v i c e


i n t e r n a lc o l l a B o r a t i o n

bluewolf’s perspective

c u r r e n t

f u t u r e

Companies are gaining on their efficiency challenges due to the dedication of ongoing resources. The next big opportunity includes the transformation of customer service desks to the cloud, which should include a social media strategy.


currenT&Pl anned integrationsMany companies are moving toward becoming social by integrating their custoMer service applications with Salesforce.

Master data management strategies are still maturing and need to find a home within a large number of enterprises, however, data ManageMent and cleaning tools (such as those available on the salesforce.com AppExchange) will continue to rise in popularity and have become essential to successful integrations.

data cleaning tools

call center systeM

collaBoration tools

expense ManageMent

inforMation & Business intelligence tools

custoMer satisfaction survey/Monitoring

coMpensation ManageMent

15%

13%

20%

30%

31%

36%

36%

c u r r e n t f u t u r e

on fire steady cooling off


Social means leveraging Twitter to some and using profits for social good to others. No siNgle defiNitioN has riseN above the rest.

Salesforce.com’s social message is largely geared to a C-level audience. More work needs to be done at a department level to get executives to understand that, at its core, social really is about helping their teams sell more, engage customers, and drive demand. Technology is an enabler, but more importantly companies must shift their business culture to encourage opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

SaleSforce.com cuStomerS react to Social

We are currently working on becoming social

We think social is a fad

76% of Salesforce customers need help bringing social to life in their organizations.

We aren’t there yet, but we believe that it represents an important shift

We believe social is important for some businesses, but not for us

We believe that social is important, but aren’t sure how to proceed

We aren’t familiar with social

4%10%13%18%24% 31%

w h a t d o e s s o c i a l M e a n ?

LICENSING FEES

IMPLEMENTATION, CUSTOMIZATION & TRAINING

ONGOING INNOVATION

TRUECOST


true cost of cloud

As long as executive time is reserved to align program vision to prioritizing new feature adoption, Salesforce will propel the company toward becoming social.

An important strategy for success includes budgeting for ongoing costs around innovation, resourcing, and training. There are different models to choose from, and companies need to individually evaluate the right approach for themselves.

The Elastic Workforce

Find the right strategy for ongoing innovation. page 14.

The

two dynaMic factors iMpact the true cost of success:

Salesforce.com has done its customers a huge favor: removing the burden of paying up to ten times the amount of self-hosted CRM license fees in hardware and staffing costs. The innovation conversation is no longer focused on IT resources, but instead on executive vision and how an enterprise CRM program enables growth.

Still, it is a big mistake to think that there are no costs beyond the purchase of licenses and consulting services to an enterprise achieving success with Salesforce.

#1

#2

salesforce releases

the pace of organiZational change

LICENSING FEES

IMPLEMENTATION, CUSTOMIZATION & TRAINING

ONGOING INNOVATION

TRUECOST


Over the past decade we have seen clients fall into three typical Salesforce profiles—reactive, steady, or agile. The three key elements of each are:

vision: Executive leadership has defined the role of Salesforce.process: What is the level of business process maturity?aBility: Is there a resourcing strategy for executing ongoing innovation?

how much value

froM salesforce?are you geTTing

�Focused on core CRM �Huge backlogs �Limited or no resources �Adoption is a challenge �Not integrating new features �Not using Force.com

�Building cross-department CRM �Has a backlog management process �Access to diverse resources �Internal collaboration a focus

�CRM program is a core business strategy �Agile backlog management process �Innovation through cloud governance � Engaging the elastic workforce

vis

ion

& p

ro

ces

s

Method to execute & sustain


The case for cloud governance

Put simply, cloud governance is the policies, processes, and framework for continuing to innovate Salesforce. The objective is to establish system stability and ensure changes with clear business benefits are rapidly made. Without cloud governance, the organization will strain to keep pace with user requests, adoption, market shifts, and new releases—all of which remove focus and resources from the original goals of Salesforce.

Up to 80% of Salesforce customers are not achieving maximum ROI and 15% of those customers are experiencing diminishing ROI by failing to keep their application in step with business changes. The crux of Salesforce’s flexibility is the need for real-time evaluation of the infinite changes possible in terms of business value. In order to fully utilize Salesforce’s benefits, prioritization is absolutely necessary.

Without the means to measure the value of change on an organization, and a method to execute change in a planned manner, there is the potential for the system to either stagnate (too little innovation) or break down (too much innovation). Cloud governance is critical—enabling a strategy for ongoing innovation is essential to delivering on the promises of Salesforce.

Bluewolf custoMer storyThe Standard, a leading provider of financial products and services to 7.5 million customers, worked with Bluewolf on a cloud governance strategy prior to implementing Salesforce. Having it in place during the initial rollout made the transition to ongoing agile innovation much easier.

“Our cloud governance strategy enables us to deliver change as

fast as users can absorb it, faster than we ever have before, without

sacrificing controls and quality.”

–James Hindes • Director, Enterprise CRM • The Standard


The board is comprised of both executive and departmental stakeholders. Executive stakeholders work on high level innovation and strategy, while departmental stakeholders ensure enhancements add value.

#1

#2

#8

#3

#4

#6

#5

#7

Maintain strict quality standards when updating and configuring Salesforce. For clients, Bluewolf uses a system called BUTR (build, upload, test, and report), a cyclical iteration process that ensures quality standards are met.

The ticketing system collects inputs from across the organization. This process determines how user requests are brought in, organized, and prioritized. It is essential that this system be scalable to fit the changing needs of the organization.

The cloud governance board should hold roundtables with power users and top team players to decide how changes will be communicated, including management tactics such as classroom training, videos, newsletters, and monthly meetings.

The cloud governance board dictates what mixed resourcing strategy the organization would benefit from. Most importantly what key skills will come from managed service providers, consulting firms, staff augmentation, and permanent hires.

Choosing what data to collect, who owns it, and the process for adding fields requires consistent rules. Each business unit should have its own requirements but they must be consolidated into an enterprise wide plan.

Continuously innovating on the Salesforce platform is key to ensuring that the business is getting the maximum ROI. A business development strategy should take into consideration business unit needs, resource allocation, and growth projections.

Owned by the cloud governance board and an individual release manager, this is the process in which releases are introduced to both the business and Salesforce.

8 key eleMents of cloud governance

designing a cloud governance Board

ticketing systeMs

releaseprocess

Master dataManageMent

developMent rules

change ManageMent

testing

talent


It’s not enough to simply address users’ requests; users must be convinced of the value the Salesforce application brings to the organization. Take the time to explain new features and use game mechanics to influence behavior.

Embrace user driven innovation. Make sure users have an easy way to share what they like and want next.

Composed of leaders across business units, the board must meet regularly to discuss the overall strategic direction of Salesforce. Members of the board may bring specific feature requests from their teams, but should work closely with IT staff to prioritize enhancements.

As Salesforce’s appearance and functionality change, it is important that training continues so that individual users understand how the changes benefit them.

Salesforce is a sophisticated enterprise application requiring ongoing resources to stay aligned with your business goals. Treating it like another software application will result in accelerating negative returns that correlate to the speed of an organization’s growth.

not gaMifying ongoing adoption

not giving users a way to provide feedBack

not creating a governance Board

training that ends

thinking salesforce is siMple

5 post-launchMistakes


Bluewolf custoMer storyAs part of a global adoption initiative at TE Connectivity, an organization with over 100,000 employees in 50 countries, Bluewolf interviewed end users to understand how Salesforce was supporting them in their daily work. The results were then used to prioritize Salesforce innovations and define smart objectives to end users.

What is the objective when implementing or innovating on Salesforce? Hint: the answer is never get more employees to login daily. All too often, tracking logins is the default metric, when in reality the number of logins is merely a superficial benchmark. What businesses really need to track, and what drives organizational change, is eMployee engageMent.

Successful adoption is achieved by providing meaningful objectives to individual employees that tie back to the enterprise’s Salesforce goals.

how To measure adoption

3 questions to ask when iMpleMenting innovations

know

can

will

Know what’s expected. Do employees know what’s expected of them?

Can complete. Do employees have the skills or knowledge to meet expectations?

Will complete. Are there positive benefits to the individual, which incentivize them to use Salesforce?

k a t e h a g e M a n n • director of change strategy

B l u e w o l f. c o M / p e o p l e / k a t e - h a g e M a n n


staffing for salesforce innovationHow do you innovate your Salesforce instance at the speed of business? It starts with having the right team. Whether you are five days or five years post-implementation, you need access to a variety of skill sets that can be scaled to meet demand.

outsourcing and the elastic workforce Welcome to the new outsourcing. CIOs, directors, and managers are shifting away from traditional staffing methodologies and looking towards the elastic workforce—the broader community of independent experts, external services providers, and salesforce.com partners—to access not only more talent, but also a specialized pool of workers at the top of their game that can offer an outsider’s perspective.

Multi-sourcing is the strategyWhen sourcing talent for Salesforce projects and initiatives, leadership must not only think about what activities to outsource, but also HOW to outsource. Consider the overall cost to the organization, the measurable impact the resource strategy can bring, and the ability to control/customize resources quickly to the tasks at hand.

key: level of iMpact on your organiZation


Managed service providersFree up internal resources or outsource ongoing innovation— all at a predictable monthly cost.In this outsourcing model companies engage with partners on a clearly defined set of IT services. Most managed service providers bill an upfront set-up fee and an ongoing flat or near-fixed monthly fee, which benefits their clients by providing them with predictable IT costs and a fair amount of control.

partial outsourcingTurn over a specific IT operation, rather than the entire IT function.Instead of outsourcing an entire IT function, organizations that prefer to retain a certain level of expertise in-house can identify skill gaps that can be easily separated into smaller processes. These “parts of projects” are outsourced, and the chosen partner has direct responsibilities and obligations to the company.

staff augMentationGain access to a full range of highly skilled local experts on demand.Using this sourcing model, companies can add contractors to increase their output at pace with demand. This is the least expensive and most flexible approach to outsourcing that allows you to add expertise to your team without increasing overall headcount. With this set-up, organizations maintain control of all resources.

consulting firMsNeed to transform, how do you get started?Sometimes the best solution for companies is to outsource entire projects to consulting firms with proven methodologies. In this set-up the consulting firm becomes a partner to the company and has all the necessary competencies to complete the project. Not all consulting firms are created equal: make sure the firm has domain experience and deep business process and technology expertise.

offshore providersAccess a highly skilled low-cost global workforce.Decades ago, companies began relocating IT infrastructures from the US to India, China and Eastern Europe. The business model seemed simple. Take advantage of the best and the brightest in developing nations for a fraction of the cost. As the offshore outsourcing market matured, mixed results have CIOs re-evaluating the IT services and functions they choose to outsource this way.

Sources: 1. 2012-2013 Bluewolf IT Outsourcing Benchmark Survey, May 2012 2. 2011-2012 Bluewolf Technology Outlook 3. 2012 Bluewolf IT Salary Guide

12 The State of IT Outsourcing

Outsourcing shares by IT function

17%

DisasterRecovery

15%

IT Security

application services it infrastructure services

23%

Data CenterOperations

16%

Network Operations

12%

Help Desk

17%

DatabaseAdministration

26%

Application Maintenance

46%

Application Development

39%

Web Development

28%

Application Hosting

Share of Application Development

2012-2013

the elastic workforce

For Bluewolf’s complete guide to the elastic workforce visit bluewolf.com/StateOfOutsourcing


Managed servicesBluewolf Beyond is focused on post-implementation consulting, matching ongoing technology innovation to the pace of your business. With access to Beyond’s in-house team of cloud application, marketing automation, adoption, and database management experts, you stay ahead of change and extract the maximum value from your technology.

consultingBluewolf is your guide to Agile Business Transformation. We partner with clients to sync business and IT to achieve new levels of business performance with cloud computing technologies. Our agile consulting solutions include: business process & strategy, cloud implementation, customer lifecycle consulting (marketing, sales, service), change management, and technology adoption.

In today’s competitive business environment, it is essential that a company remain agile and iterative. Bluewolf has built the strongest training and change management organization in the industry. User adoption is a key success metric for technology implementations, and Bluewolf can help prepare your employees by providing them with a foundation for professional development.

technology staffingBluewolf provides staff augmentation to companies with immediate needs for deep expertise in specific technologies and software development processes. We cut placement times in half, delivering the resumes of the top three candidates within 24 hours. We can staff any project, for any technology position—contract, contract-to-hire, or permanent placement.

change strategy & training

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