Now is a great time to implement Salesforce. With over 150,000 companies already on the platform, it’s not surprising that it’s your top choice. Not only can you customize Salesforce for your exact business needs with its point-and-click interface, there’s also a huge community of admins and developers with a wealth of knowledge and industry experience out there to help you.
Starting out on your implementation journey with all of this knowledge at your disposal means you can hit the ground running with best practices and streamlined processes embedded from the start. But all of this information can be overwhelming.
In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know to begin your Salesforce journey, including best practices to set you up for success.
How to prepare for a Salesforce implementation project
Before your implementation begins, you’ll want to make sure you’ve laid a good foundation for long-term success. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare your strategy.
Align the implementation project with your organization’s overall goal: Ensure that your goals for adopting Salesforce support your organization’s broader business objectives. To maintain focus and prevent scope creep, keep these objectives at the forefront of your project planning and decision-making processes.
Define clear objectives and identify stakeholders: It pays to know what success will look like for your project. Establish a clear vision by defining measurable outcomes and identifying key stakeholders early in the process. Listening carefully to your team at this stage can lead to better uptake when you start using the platform.
Identify workflows and processes that can be optimized with Salesforce: Look for areas where automation, enhanced collaboration, or improved visibility could drive efficiency and deliver greater value. Engage stakeholders from different teams to gather insights on bottlenecks and identify where Salesforce’s capabilities could address pain points and streamline operations.
Set clear success metrics: With clear goals in place, you’ll also need to know how these will be measured. Tracking metrics like user adoption, positive ROI, and increased productivity will help you to demonstrate the benefits of Salesforce down the road.
Develop a change management strategy: Effective change management is critical when implementing and maintaining Salesforce. Your project plan will be your roadmap through the process, detailing the timeline, budget, necessary resources, and strategies to mitigate potential risks. It should also include a timeline for user training, and any learning methods and tools, as well as a clear outline of key stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities, ensuring everyone is aligned and on the same page.
Audit your source data: Before you start your data mapping process, take a really good look at the existing data you’re planning to migrate to Salesforce. It’s vital to think about this early, as good-quality data that’s compatible with your new Salesforce instance will help you go live faster.
Embed DevOps from day one
Although Salesforce offers extensive customization opportunities, developers and admins can sometimes struggle to access the tools they need to deliver changes as quickly as their teams need them. But by adopting a scalable DevOps process from the beginning your team can avoid wasting time on slow and failure-prone release cycles.
Despite being relatively new to the Salesforce ecosystem, DevOps has already become the go-to approach for developing on Salesforce. Our State of Salesforce DevOps 2024 report shows that teams with the most effective Salesforce releases have a mature DevOps process in place.
As you prepare for your Salesforce implementation it’s good to consider how your team can make the best start, with DevOps principles and processes embedded from the beginning, and avoiding technical debt in the long-run.
A strategy that’s built to scale
A DevOps strategy is essential for organizations looking to maximize the value of their Salesforce implementation. Thankfully, adopting DevOps doesn’t have to mean lots of big changes upfront. It’s much better to take a step-by-step approach that builds on each success and constantly iterate for continuous improvement.
A successful DevOps approach for Salesforce leverages the core principles of collaboration, automation, source control, and continuous integration while addressing the platform’s specific challenges, such as managing metadata, handling complex environments, establishing standardized processes, and maintaining compliance.
By integrating the right tools, prioritizing collaboration and continuously optimizing processes, your team can ensure your Salesforce platform scales effectively with your business needs.
How long does a Salesforce implementation usually take?
The time it takes to implement Salesforce will depend on the complexity of your business process and the degree of customization your Salesforce instance will require.
Salesforce operates on the concept of organizations (orgs). There are two broad categories of org: production and development. Production orgs are used to house live customer data and actively run your business. They come in four different editions (Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited) each with different features.
The speed of your implementation will depend largely on the complexity of your org structure. It can range anywhere from a few months, for basic setup of customized standard objects (leads, accounts, contacts) and simple workflows, to a year or even longer for extensive custom development involving Apex code or integrations with other apps. You’ll also want to account time for data migration and user training, especially if your data needs a lot of cleaning or if you have a large team with little Salesforce experience.
Why do Salesforce implementations fail?
It’s no secret that Salesforce implementation projects can fail, but the good news is that we’re not in the dark about why this happens. Often failures are the result of a mismatch between the new system and existing business processes, leading to a solution that doesn’t meet the needs of end users.
Implementation can also fail if some users aren’t bought into the project, or don’t understand the value. Poor take-up, resulting from a lack of training or complicated workflows, can be avoided by making sure the right people are involved from the beginning.
The challenges of implementing Salesforce
Let’s take a closer look at some of the challenges your team may face as you start your implementation.
Data migration: The first hurdle before you migrate will be identifying what business data is essential as you build your Salesforce instance and then cleansing, organizing and preparing it for migration. One of the biggest challenges in data management is dealing with unknown issues in your data, such as missing information, typos, or duplicate records, but a thorough pre-migration analysis will avoid more work down the line.
Some aspects of your current data set up might not easily translate into Salesforce. For a smooth transition, you’ll need to map your existing data structure to Salesforce’s object model to ensure data relationships are preserved. And you might find you have issues when importing large volumes of data, either because of the Salesforce edition you’re using or the data storage limits of your org.
User adoption: You can do everything right to perfectly customize your Salesforce instance, but still find your project fails if your team doesn’t want to or can’t use it. Focusing on the CRM, rather than the people using it, can cause you problems if users aren’t involved early in the process or don’t feel the system meets their needs. Demonstrating how Salesforce can directly address some of their biggest pain points will help your team members buy-in to the implementation.
Lack of training and support: Whatever your approach to implementation, user training is a challenge you’ll need to plan for. If you take a Big Bang approach, fully switching to your new Salesforce CRM on a go-live date, an intense period of initial onboarding and support will be vital for a smooth rollout.
For a phased or “parallel” implementation, onboarding can be done in smaller groups with the new system being used for training sessions as the team gets used to it. If you take this route, keep an eye out for inconsistencies in uptake between teams or misaligned workflows. In either case, establishing a culture of continuous learning during your Salesforce adoption will ensure your team doesn’t feel left behind during your implementation.
Integration issues with other systems: Integrating a new CRM with an existing tech stack or legacy systems like SAP or Oracle can be a tricky balancing act. Make sure that your development and release processes can integrate with any existing apps and platforms you use, including Git hosting providers, project tracking software, testing solutions, and messaging tools.
When implementing Salesforce CPQ, it’s really important to ensure seamless integration with ERP, billing, and other business-critical systems to streamline the entire quote-to-cash process. Without a well-integrated CPQ solution you could experience pricing inconsistencies and disrupted workflows between sales, finance, and operations teams.
Security and compliance: Salesforce comes with tools to secure your data, but these need to be correctly configured to avoid vulnerabilities — especially as your orgs will contain sensitive customer data. You’ll need to define user roles, set field-level security, and control access through profiles and permission sets. Making sure you meet compliance standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA also requires careful planning around data access, audit logs, and data retention.
Cost considerations: Depending on the development methodology you choose for Salesforce, the cost of your system architecture can creep up if you don’t get a handle on it early on. You should be aware that different types of environments come with varying costs, especially when it comes to sandboxes for development, testing, and staging.
Should you implement Salesforce yourself, or use an implementation partner?
Working with a Salesforce implementation partner can be a great way to bring expertise onside as you set up and optimize the platform. Not only are they in a great position to assess your existing systems and business processes, but they can also configure the platform to fit your workflows, manage integrations with other software, and train your team to use Salesforce effectively.
The upfront investment in an implementation partner can be cost effective in the long run as their involvement can increase user adoption rates. They can also help with ongoing support and optimization as you roll out your system to the wider business.
On the other hand, using an implementation partner can be expensive. While they can save you time overall, you’ll need a solid handover strategy and should be prepared for the extra effort required to modify third-party customizations and settings later. If you do go with an implementation partner, you’ll need to make sure they understand the skill level of your team and can build you a Salesforce instance that’s sustainable.
It’s also worth considering whether your team already has the technical expertise and resources to handle the implementation internally. Doing the work yourself will give you a deeper in-house knowledge of your Salesforce instance and means your team has more control over the implementation process. It can also reduce upfront costs and time spent getting an implementation partner up-to-speed with your company and processes.
Salesforce implementation best practices
Every company is different and there will be some elements of your implementation that are unique to your business. But there are some things that all companies should consider as they start the planning process. With that in mind, we’ve put together these Salesforce implementation best practices.
Assemble a skilled implementation team
Collaboration is key, so include team members with knowledge from development, operations, project management, and business processes. This cross-functional expertise will help your team to align technical needs, business goals, and project timelines. Regular meetings to check-in on progress will also help to keep everyone connected. Prioritizing communication among these stakeholders will also help address challenges proactively and ensure a smoother rollout.
Find tools that empower your developers
Choosing the right project management methodology will equip your team with a structure and tools to plan, execute, and monitor their work as it progresses. For sequential project management methods like Waterfall development, it’s important to lay a good foundation — late stage changes can be expensive. And if you’re using an Agile methodology, you’ll need to make sure you have consistent input from stakeholders to avoid misaligned expectations and feature requests that aren’t correctly prioritized.
Ensuring your developers have the right tools is crucial for maximizing Salesforce’s potential. By planning for a DevOps-ready process upfront, you can save your team the headache of managing releases through change sets. With a DevOps solution like Gearset, you can compare orgs, deploy changes reliably, and automate repetitive tasks — empowering your developers to focus on building high-quality solutions rather than wrestling with manual processes.
Define a clear org strategy
When starting with Salesforce, it’s essential to define your data model and decide on an org strategy early on. Whether you choose a single-org or multi-org setup, ensure the approach is scalable to support your business as it grows. A well-planned strategy will save time and unnecessary complexity, especially if your processes expand or require multiple Salesforce instances. Later down the line, as you adopt and embrace automation through version control, your org strategy will be complemented by the right Git branching strategy.
Customize Salesforce for your preferred workflow
When setting up your orgs, you’ll want to make sure you tailor them to your team’s preferred workflow. This means configuring dedicated environments for development, testing, and production — as well as any other orgs you need, like hotfix or staging. If you plan to use a version control system like Git to support source-driven development and a single source of truth, it’s important to carefully choose your branching strategy.
Promote a culture of continuous improvement and learning
Building a culture that emphasizes continuous improvement is essential for a successful Salesforce implementation. Putting processes in place for effective knowledge sharing, using tools like Confluence or wikis for user guides and technical documentation, and GitHub for versioning, ensures that new team members can get up to speed quickly.
Alongside internal training and knowledge sharing, there’s a wealth of resources to help your team get to grips with Salesforce. Salesforce’s Trailhead platform can help team members build both technical and soft skills, and for dedicated DevOps learning, you can take advantage of free courses on DevOps Launchpad.
Adopt DevOps for Salesforce
The key to a successful Salesforce implementation lies in a strategy that’s built to scale. By integrating DevOps principles from the start, you can hit the ground running and set your team up for long-term success.
With its intuitive UI and first-class support, Gearset makes adopting Salesforce DevOps simple — even for teams new to Salesforce.
By embracing DevOps with Gearset, your team will see:
- Fast, reliable delivery: Release small, frequent changes quickly and reliably without sacrificing quality.
- Enhanced collaboration: Unite developers, admins, and release managers with tools that make the release process accessible to everyone.
- Scalable growth: Build processes that evolve alongside your team and match the pace of business growth.
Equipped with the Salesforce ecosystem’s most comprehensive DevOps toolkit, your team will deliver better solutions in less time — with complete confidence in the process.
Kickstart your DevOps journey
There’s no better time to learn more about DevOps and what it can do for your team as you implement Salesforce. Why not book a consultation with our DevOps experts to talk through your implementation and how Gearset can help?
