Salesforce for Tech Startups

As a Tech Start up, the thought of using someone else’s tech product to manage your day to day operations may seem counterproductive. But you want to be efficient so that you can market your product, sell your product and have the space to develop your product further.

A CRM system like Salesforce is not just suitable for large corporates looking to sell long established products, they can help you to remain nimble with a system that allows you to focus on your customer and grow.

About Salesforce

Salesforce.com is the world’s leading CRM software and enterprise cloud ecosystem, with security, scalability and innovation at the forefront. It is chosen by thousands of customers throughout the world, including 23,000 non-profit organisations and higher education institutions.

The Salesforce platform is provided as software as a service (SaaS) and being hosted in the cloud is always accessible and from any internet-enabled device including mobile devices. In addition to the core Salesforce CRM functionality then the Salesforce App exchange allows organisations to extend their Salesforce to suit every department and every industry. It has a proven ecosystem of applications built to integrate with the Salesforce platform and has had millions of app installs and thousands of customer reviews which help find the best solution to match business need.

How Salesforce can transform your organisation:

• Improved customer service – Maintain a 360° view of your contacts, by being able to view a contact record and seeing a summary of interaction with that person in just one place, with easy access to the detail if needed. Know your customers – their preferences and history.

• Improved team working – Utilise the CRM for real time management of day to day tasks and deliverables, to help co-ordinate team efforts, automate tasks, reduce administration and costs.

• Real-time analytics – With the daily input of data and tracking of activity, you will be able to view reports and graphs with accurate data, ready for reporting, performance management or business development. All input data can be manipulated or extracted to produce on analytical graphs on a dashboard or on demand reports that can be exported.

• Security and compliance – Create one secure central storage place for your organisations’ data, with the option to create tiered security so only certain visible to those who need to see it.

So how much does this cost and how do you get it up and running?

One of the great things about Salesforce is that you only need to buy the licenses you’re going to use. The system you access on one license is the same that you would access with 10 licenses and there are a range of licenses to fit a variety of budgets. At our Company, we can advise and recommend the license which will work for you and your budget. The most flexible licenses which has the most potential for growth is the Enterprise edition license which costs around £450 per user per year.

Once you have your license you have access to a full range of Salesforce functionality. 99% of the features that come out the box can then be customized to meet your organisation’s requirements but you can use everything as is.

If you do want to customize the system you have two options, firstly, you can make the changes yourself. A great deal of Salesforce functionality can be customized without the need for developers or code. Salesforce has an online learning tool called Trailhead which can give you the skills you need to do this.

Secondly, you can use an implementation partner who will work with you to identify your business requirements, advise and implement the changes which will make the system work for you. While you can learn Salesforce administration as you go, the Salesforce ecosystem is extensive and having a guide to show you around can give you a head start and direct you towards those areas of functionality which will be most useful to you.