<\/a><\/p>\nKhalda de Souza, Principal Analyst and report co-author (click for bio)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The biggest trend we see impacting service providers going forward is the ever-increasing reach across processes of the Salesforce offering. Enterprise clients are expecting service providers to be able to support across Sales, Service, Marketing, Analytics and now the world of IoT as well through Salesforce solutions. This means that service providers need to be investing in the recruiting (and retention) of Salesforce certified staff and then their on-going training across the offering set. The leading service providers will continue to invest in differentiating skills and solutions to meet the growing client demand for business focused Salesforce deployment and support services.<\/p>\n
The next major trend we see is the increasing opportunities to offer value added services across the Salesforce service value chain, with the most obvious being in the Implement phase. Here service providers have opportunities to create differentiators by developing proprietary tools and technologies that facilitate faster and more effective implementations. Notably these would include automation technologies, and the leading offerings would have industry specific focus to deliver relevant business benefits to clients. The ultimate aim should be to achieve the coveted Salesforce Fullforce industry solution certification, a stamp that is clearly presented on the service provider\u2019s profile on the Salesforce Appexchange web site for potential clients to see.<\/p>\n
The third major trend of note is the continued push towards the realization of the 8 Ideals of the As-a-Service Economy in this Salesforce environment. In particular, HfS expects to see service providers invest in Design Thinking skills to maximize the benefits of new Salesforce environments and for investments by Salesforce themselves, third parties and the service providers in capabilities to drive through greater levels of Intelligent Automation in Salesforce solutions as well.<\/p>\n
What recommendations do you have for enterprise buyers who want to get the best out of their Salesforce service providers today?<\/span><\/p>\nHfS believes that enterprises that want to make the most out of investments in Salesforce services going forward should:<\/p>\n
\n- Use the Salesforce Success Community for information and to collaborate with experts.<\/li>\n
- Use the Salesforce Appexchange web site to browse the latest solutions and consultant partners. There are top level profiles of the latter to facilitate provider selection short lists but beware that the statistics presented are not always up-to-date.<\/li>\n
- Use the HfS Salesforce services value chain to identify which skills you have in-house and for which you require assistance from an external service provider.<\/li>\n
- Push the service providers to go beyond the RFI and prove real differentiation, and demand access to other clients before selecting the service provider and during the engagement to compare best practice and experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And finally, what recommendations do we have for service providers through 2015 and 2016?<\/span><\/p>\nHfS believes that service providers that want to have the greatest impact on enterprise clients and lead the Salesforce services market should:<\/p>\n