Get Your Ducks in a Row and Secure Your Salesforce Licenses Up Front
So you want to become a Salesforce user. Welcome to the fold; there are roughly 3 million of us and counting! Before you kick off your implementation and book your tickets to Dreamforce, it’s a good idea to get your licensing ducks in a row.
One of the best ways to get started with Salesforce is to make sure you have all of your user licenses taken care of upfront. For companies, this is an outright purchase. For nonprofits, this is checking to see if you need additional licenses on top of the ten that are donated by Salesforce.og. This will save you time, money, and heartache. Here’s why.
The Right Way and the Long Way
There are two ways to square away your licenses: the right way and the long way. The long way is trying to defer costs by putting off additional licenses you actually need. When you’re setting up a system that coordinates multiple departments, exclusion can be dangerous and costly in the long-run. If your goal is to streamline efforts and provide internal transparency, cutting someone out of the process will hamstring your overall success.
It's important to note that there are organizations that are in more of a ramp up or testing mode with their deployment. In these cases it makes sense to pace or phase the purchase of licenses to avoid over investing in your deployment efforts. If you're working with a consultant to implement Salesforce at your organization, ask them if you believe yourself to be in this type of deployment experience. They will be able to suggest a plan that makes sense for you.
And we know that getting approval for user licenses can be a pain! Hours of precious time can be wasted going back and forth to get the contract created and approved, reviewed by the board and eventually signed off by the CEO or ED. Don’t do it more often than you have to; get it all taken care of at the start and you won’t regret it because you won’t have to think about it again.
Keep on Cruisin’
Our clients often need to implement or upgrade their Salesforce instance because they’re experiencing or anticipating growth. However, they often don’t extend this planning to the number of users they anticipate. Don’t forget to take potential growth into consideration when deciding how many user licenses you’ll need. While you can always add more, the process of requisitioning the extra cash can take time depending on your organization’s bureaucratic hoops. Make sure to take this into account before your implementation project kicks off and avoid any unexpected bumps on the road to CRM bliss.
As with any small or large scale project, being proactive and prepared for contingencies goes a long way. Getting your licenses in a row up front will save your organization the headache of not being able to make the most of your instance once it’s off the ground.
Are you currently looking into Salesforce implementation? Check out our whitepaper below on the other elements you should consider when you’re planning your budget.
