Introduction

The process of choosing and implementing a CRM system is a really long-term project, which influences the company’s management, growth and scalability. It should be noted that Salesforce has become a virtuoso in the CRM industry by providing features and functionality, addressing security concerns, enabling customization and scalability and much more for small and medium sized companies. But if choosing Salesforce as the core CRM system was a simple decision, then the implementation team staffing should be carefully considered.

Choosing the right contractor to make your future Salesforce implementation is a difficult pill to swallow, considering your security concerns, limited budget and timelines.

Thus, you will have to make your choice between passing your development project to a freelancer or hiring an established Salesforce agency, who has a really good Salesforce expertise. Both freelance developers and agencies for software implementation and custom development have their pros and cons, and you need a clear understanding of each point before making a decision.

Top-10 reasons to hire a Salesforce development company instead of Salesforce freelance developers
 

1. Risk management

Working with an agency can carry less risk than working with a freelance developer. Agencies can handle vacation, illness or other personal circumstances much more efficiently. 

The Salesforce Implementation company is often more financially stable and more likely to have established legal and contractual frameworks, providing businesses with better protection in a dispute or disagreement. This gives clients and firms peace of mind, knowing the engagement won’t crumble during development projects.

2. Experience over responsibility trade

Expert freelancers, industry experts tend to do creative and complex tasks which can be done quickly using experience, while simple and time-consuming (although often required for the project) tasks are either not done or unacceptable “shortcut” decisions are made. 

A Salesforce Consulting company will more likely to have different resources skilled to do both creative and support tasks equally efficiently. Specific work on the project may require low amounts of special skills which will be critical for the project success, e.g. UX design, Information Security Audit or Technical Architecture design. As you grow you have the ability to also demand more help from the company without significant change in the processes.

3. Compliance and Security

In the 2022 Gartner Board of Directors Survey, 88% of board members classified cybersecurity as a business risk. The human element remains a critical vulnerability for both businesses and individuals. According to Verizon’s annual data breach investigations 82% of breaches against businesses involved a human element, through issues like error and social engineering.

A freelancer may have less time to care about the information security, including infrastructure and software setup which requires time, money and knowledge. 

The consulting company has much higher chances to have best practices and security policies to bring your project execution process into compliance with industry regulations (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA), using strong data encryption for the information at rest and in transit, managing strict access controls, organizing personnel training and so on.

4. Management 

Hiring a freelancer means less ability to control quality, time and budgets. Project planning, escalations handling, due-diligence will unlikely be covered by freelance developers or even consultants. The result could be not less than significantly missed dead-lines and budget constraints as well as reduced ability to recover. And this is in addition to significant time spent on management by you or your team. 

The Salesforce consulting company can provide professional project managers, so you will not be responsible for management and can focus on your main tasks: strategy, marketing, and growth.

5. In-depth assessment of your business

Freelancers are unlikely to have the mindset of a growing business owner. They do not often analyze your business to offer process enhancements. They will execute the list of tasks that you provide. This might be the side effect of them having no ability to scale or no desire to scale. Freelancers may be limited in time and thus reluctant to stop generating the ideas.

A consulting agency, as a business in itself, has higher chances to have people who understand your business processes, key performance indicators, goals and business models. They can evaluate every aspect of your business, assess your problems and identify possible areas of improvement.

6. Team work

In case of a more complex project it is unlikely that one person will fit all your needs. You will add experts part time to get you covered with specific tasks, like UX design, marketing strategy or solution architecture advice and it is far from a fact that they will work together efficiently, which will affect the time to deliver, cost and the final result.

A Salesforce Implementation company provides a team where people have different specializations, and have experience working together, sharing the same values, and this can also save thousands of dollars and speed up the development process.

7. Maintenance

A common practice is for a freelancer to move to a new project for another client after completing the previous one, which entails difficulty in correcting errors or making additional changes to your project, as well as additional fees for each edit.

With a company, you may expect product maintenance, which means bug fixes and updates, development of additional functionality, and constant product’s support.

8. Boosting Strategies to Drive Customer Satisfaction

Freelancers often do not strive for long-term relationships; they work in the moment and are often only interested in performing certain jobs; they do not have the opportunity to work to satisfy the client on all points of service.

A Salesforce consulting company provides a team that is technical and strategic and ensures that this approach will solve your problems, also companies can understand their customers, improve customer service and optimize marketing and sales processes, which can improve customer satisfaction.

9. Accountability

Freelancers rarely provide truly complete reporting of the entire scope of their work in proper quality. Typically this is the final report upon completion of the project.

A Salesforce development company accountability provides a level of assurance through contractual agreements and service level agreements (SLAs). This means clear commitments, measurable results, and consequences for not meeting expectations. This ensures that your Salesforce project is delivered on time and to agreed standards, increasing trust and transparency in the partnership.

10. Increases return on investment

To attract freelancers, you need to spend a large amount of time and money to find suitable experienced specialists in certain areas, and it is far from a fact that they will work together, which will affect the speed and final result.

A Salesforce consulting company provides a team where people have different experiences and are qualified in specific areas to see deeper into problems and find solutions, and this can also save thousands of dollars and speed up the development process.
 

5 additional reasons from JET BI co-founder Andrey Bosak
 

1. Partnership opportunity

A Salesforce Implementation company could become your long term partner, helping you to sell or promote your services to other customers. Hiring a company, you get a partner to share your ideas and get valuable feedback.

2. Vendor ecosystem membership

There are certain vendor partnership levels, which are available for business entities larger than 1-man-company. For example, Salesforce partners get different levels of Salesforce consulting partnership, including the Salesforce Navigator program for different industries and products. The benefits from being a partner with the platform vendor includes access to infrastructure, guides, best-practices, experts community and in some cases can help you to get discounts for the software licenses. 

3. Time flexibility

With Salesforce consulting company you have higher chances to get the team flexible for your working hours. This is one of the important advantages when it comes to being located in different time zones. Whether you are on the East Coast of the United States or another continent, you can be provided with a team that works according to your working hours.

4. Resources and scalability

Team-work and diversity is sometimes crucial for brainstorming complex ideas. Lack of the team to share the problem with may lead to faster burnout and lower productivity as it happens sometimes with freelancers.

5. Lower Risk

Working with a company can carry less risk than working with a freelance developer. Companies can handle vacation, illness or other personal circumstances much more efficiently. The agencies are often more financially stable and more likely to have established legal and contractual frameworks, providing businesses with better protection in a dispute or disagreement. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, hiring a Salesforce Implementation partner can offer various benefits for your organization compared to using a freelancer. Custom development can also be done to meet specific business needs, including custom objects, fields, workflows, and other Salesforce solutions to the Salesforce platform.

Researching a company’s technical expertise, qualifications and customer feedback is essential to ensure that you are getting the best value for your investment. After choosing the right Salesforce development company, you can confidently count on good and quality of services that will help take your business to the next level.

JET BI is ready to go with you through the whole journey of your business transformation leveraging Salesforce products, starting from the discovery and data migration to support and enhancements implementations! Our Salesforce consultants have multiple Industries experience and can help improve your business processes and drive growth for your organization. In addition,see our Appexchange profile, where we provide product and custom development with a focus on delivering intelligent innovation to your business.

We take great pride in the feedback our clients have provided on Clutch. Contact us today and get the best price-to-value for Salesforce consulting services. Also, for the convenience of our clients, we work and conclude contracts via Upwork, go to our profile and feel free to write there too!