Salesforce implementation timeline is often the first thing I’m asked. A company doing research for Salesforce implementation often tries to find out what are salesforce implementation costs, timeline, and overall complexity.
Salesforce implementation could take somewhere from three weeks for an out-of-the-box setup. And could take months for a more complex setup. Overall Salesforce implementation timeline depends on several factors:
- Your company scale
- Salesforce product you have chosen
- Complexity of your MVP
- Your company previous experience with simillar software
- Your consultant expertise
Before we jump into discovering the average time it takes, let me highlight key factors influencing the timeline.
Factors influencing Salesforce Implementation Timeline
Just as I mentioned before, several factors influence the Salesforce implementation timeline. These factors often are dictated by the requirements you create for your setup. Now let’s jump into more details on those factors.
You company scale
By company scale, I mean a few things. It’s the number of employees, number of transactions, and geographical distribution. Let me, deep-dive, a little into each of the aspects of the Salesforce implementation timeline one by one.
Number of employess
A number of employees can have a dramatic effect on Salesforce’s implementation timeline. I like to use one example to explain why the quantity of employees matters. Imagine you are willing to upgrade phones for all of your employees. Now imagine if there are only five employees sitting in the same room. What is going to happen? Most likely you will go online and buy five identical phones. Delivery service will deliver them to your doors. Afterward, you will unpack them. Most likely this is going to be an event in your office and you all together will create unpacking, first launch, etc. Fun and excitement. Rainbows and unicorns.
Now think of an identical task, but now your company has 1,000 employees. The first question is – where to get 1,000 identical phones? Secondly, how to distribute them across employees? How to communicate instructions on how to switch them on? In a batch of 1,000 pcs there are going to be faulty phones. For sure. How do we manage returns? The list goes on and on. Just like with the phones. The more employees there are in the company. The more complex the implementation process becomes.
Number of transactions
The second thing is the number of transactions. It also can impact the Salesforce implementation timeline. There are companies that sell high-value deals, but they have very few transactions. And there are companies who sell low-value deals and have tones of transactions. How many deals per day/month/year does your company close? Think of this before jumping to conclusions on your timeline. The more transaction you have, the more complicated your setup is going to be. You might hit data storage limits in Salesforce. If this happens, there are solutions available on the market. But they’ll take time to implement.
Gegraphical distribution
Are you a local company selling on the domestic market? Or do you trade internationally and you have offices all around the world? Time zones could be different. Basic tasks like user training might end up as multi-day events. User documentation will have to be translated into multiple languages. It could happen, that you may need consultants locally.
Geographical distribution could play also a very negative role from another perspective. Managers who work locally can resist change and it will take time to convince them about Salesforce reasonability. As a result, expect your Salesforce implementation timeline to be longer.
Salesforce product
Did you know that different products require different times to implement? Salesforce implementation timeline very much depends on the type of your implementation. For example, if you are looking to implement Sales Cloud, you should expect user onboarding. As a result, you will have to think about how to support them and provide training. In contrast with, say Marketing Cloud. A most likely product like Marketing Cloud will be used by a few users in the marketing department. Most likely these users are professionals and are familiar with using the software. The only time you will have to spend is customizing the product for your needs and your Salesforce implementation timeline will become shorter.
Complexity of your MVP
Oh, did I mention the fact, that salesforce implementation is actually a never-ending process? No worries, it doesn’t mean you will have a forever complex process of implementation. It just means, that there is a day X where you launch your Salesforce and onboard users. After day X (or the Launch Day) you will have your Salesforce implemented and will need to continue enhancing it. Salesforce implementation timeline is usually calculated for the process BEFORE day X.
That said, you have to think of what is your MVP. MVP stands for a minimum viable product. In simple terms, it means a list of mission-critical functionality. Think of things you can’t live without. Then take the list and cut in half. Then revise the list and try to remove another third from it. Ideally, this is how MVP should look like. Researches show that 75% of CRM projects fail due to the excessive scale of the project. The smaller is your initial setup, the shorter is your Salesforce implementation timeline. The fewer risks there are involved.
Company past experience
Depending on your company’s past experience Salesforce’s implementation timeline could differ. If your company has advanced software in place, then you already know what it takes to implement it. As a result – I have good news for you. You will adopt Salesforce faster. On the other hand, if you have complex solutions in place it could take longer to implement Salesforce. Just because of integrations between your existing software and the one you implement. Anyway, timelines with experienced companies are shorter.
Consultant expertise
There are great consultants and there are not-so-great consultants. Even top-tier Salesforce partners make mistakes. Every place where humanity is in charge, there is a place for a mistake. Your Salesforce implementation timeline is also very much dependent on your consultant. If you hire someone from the industry. Someone who has not only Salesforce knowledge, but also has an industry background could save you months if not years.
We have experienced Salesforce consultants and we can help you develop your Salesforce implementation timeline. Reach us and learn how we can help you. Let’s talk!
Typical Salesforce Implementation Timeline Infographics
To make things easier I have created a typical Salesforce implementation timeline infographics.
Hope this article helps. Have a great day/night whatever it is now when you are reading.
Jeff.