Shorter Implementation Savings

Evidence and data. Decision-makers reported that their organizations reached their project objectives more quickly with Salesforce Professional Services than they would have without it, reducing their implementation timelines between 24% to 50%. By shortening timelines, decision-makers avoided internal labor and incremental consulting costs. They shared the following experiences:

• Seventy-two percent of survey respondents reported that Salesforce Professional Services reduced the overall time required for their organizations’ implementations or projects. On average, respondents completed their Salesforce engagements in 13 months and estimated that, without support from Salesforce Professional Services, it would have taken an additional four months to complete. This represents a 24% reduction in implementation time.¹¹

• The director of technology and digital products at an insurance company noted that Salesforce Professional Services helped their company complete its enterprisewide core CRM implementation project in 12 months. Based on timelines from the organization’s previous failed deployments, the interviewee estimated that the project would have taken an additional six to eight months without Salesforce’s support. In addition to accelerating delivery, the organization was able to launch twice the number of capabilities. The interviewee said that Salesforce Professional Services accelerated the implementation by creating an outcomes-focused roadmap, applying deep product expertise, and using a tested playbook of best practices to avoid implementation risks and delays.

• The director of product management at an insurance company reported that their organization completed its Salesforce Health Cloud implementation in 12 months and estimated that it would have taken a year and a half longer without Salesforce Professional Services. This efficiency was driven by Salesforce Professional Services’ emphasis on leveraging core platform capabilities rather than building unnecessary customizations. The interviewee shared that Salesforce Professional Services guided the organization to use core features, clearly outlined where business processes needed to adapt, facilitated conversations with stakeholders to drive alignment, and supported change management efforts. These efforts enabled the organization to execute a lean, efficient project plan.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Without Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization’s implementation project would take 20 months to complete, ending eight months into Year 2.

• Salesforce Professional Services shortens the project duration by 40%, reducing the engagement to 12 months.

• The composite organization avoids eight months of implementation time in Year 2. Without Salesforce Professional Services, the average monthly costs of the composite’s internal labor and its consulting partner would be $271,000. This includes the cost of labor for 10 internal resources at an average fully burdened monthly cost of $13,750 per resource plus $133,000 in monthly consulting partner fees.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:

• The scope and complexity of an organization’s Salesforce engagement.

• The number of internal resources that would be required to support an implementation without Salesforce Professional Services.

• Variation in internal labor and systems integrator (SI) costs.

• Internal factors that may impact the length and progress of an engagement, such as organizational readiness and project risks.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.6 million.

Accelerated Business Value

Evidence and data. The decision-makers’ organizations realized business value faster than they would have without Salesforce Professional Services. With shorter project timelines and faster releases of MVPs, organizations improved time to value for business outcomes aligned with their respective Salesforce engagements. These MVPs provided users with access to core capabilities, creating a foundation for iterative enhancements as their engagements progressed. Decision-makers shared the following experiences:

• The majority of survey respondents indicated that Salesforce Professional Services reduced the overall time required for their organization’s implementation projects, with 83% reporting reduced time to MVP. On average, respondents estimated that Salesforce Professional Services reduced time to MVP by three months.¹² With this acceleration, these organizations achieved business outcomes, such as improved customer experience and improved employee productivity, faster.

• The chief technology officer at a nonprofit reported that their organization completed an MVP for its platform stabilization project in six months, estimating it would have taken twice as long without Salesforce Professional Services. To meet a critical deadline ahead of the organization’s busy season, Salesforce Professional Services developed an implementation plan aligned to key capabilities and structured the work into targeted sprints, leveraging out-of-the box features to ensure timely MVP delivery. The interviewee attributed this acceleration to Salesforce Professional Services’ project management expertise and engagement model, noting: “The project management is probably some of the best that I’ve seen in the industry. One thing that also sets Salesforce Professional Services apart is their full-time model. Their teams work exclusively on your project, which allows them to move at a velocity you typically wouldn’t see. Their project managers almost act as product owners and are deeply knowledgeable about the platform, which really sets them apart.”

• The head of CIO office at an electronics company noted that the organization achieved an MVP for its first AI agent built on Agentforce in just three weeks. They estimated that the process would have taken over two months longer without Salesforce Professional Services. The interviewee attributed this acceleration to the team’s product expertise and guidance on AI best practices and use cases, which helped the organization configure guardrails, optimize knowledge articles, test and refine outputs to ensure quality and trust, and launch efficiently. By shortening the time to MVP, the organization captured benefits earlier, including improved case deflection, increased capacity for customer service representatives, and enhanced customer experiences through 24/7 support.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Forrester referenced research from recent TEI studies commissioned by Salesforce to model the composite organization’s average net benefits. This is a representative measure of business outcomes that would be achieved by an organization using Salesforce without the help of Salesforce Professional Services. Without Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization would begin realizing platform benefits in Year 2 at a value of $1,911,000 and $4,803,000 in Year 3.¹³

• With Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization accelerates its implementation timeline. In Year 1, the composite builds an MVP three months earlier than it would have without Salesforce Professional Services’ support, unlocking three months of additional platform value that would otherwise be delayed until Year 2.

• In Year 2, the organization completes its full Salesforce implementation eight months faster than it would have without the help of Salesforce Professional Services. This acceleration enables it to realize eight months of platform value within Year 2 that it otherwise would have realized in Year 3.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:

• The actual business value realized by using the Salesforce over time.

• The degree to which an organization realizes platform value from an MVP.

• The scope and complexity of an organization’s Salesforce engagement.

• Internal factors that may impact the length and progress of an engagement outside of Salesforce Professional Services’ control, such as organizational readiness.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.8 million.

Reduced Risk Of Project Failure Savings

Evidence and data. Decision-makers reported that Salesforce Professional Services played an important role in guaranteeing project success. Survey respondents shared that engaging Salesforce Professional Services reduced the risk of project failure by an average of 51%, compared to other implementation approaches.¹⁴ Salesforce Professional Services reduced risk by:

• Providing deep product and implementation expertise. Several interviewees underscored the value of Salesforce’s deep product and implementation expertise in ensuring project success. The implementation director at a nonprofit said: “I felt like they not only understood our problems but also understood them through the lens of all the companies in our industry and what they are trying to do. The architects that we had access to understood the longer-term risks if we didn’t set something up right from the get-go. That knowledge was important because when you’re turning on a whole new application or system for the entire population of your company, you don’t really want to do trial and error.” The head of CIO office at an electronics company emphasized that Salesforce Professional Services’ expertise was particularly critical for the organization’s Agentforce implementation, helping it properly configure its agents with the right guardrails.

• Delivering end-to-end accountability. Because Salesforce was uniquely positioned as both the vendor and professional service provider, the decision-makers’ organizations had reassurance that Salesforce Professional Services was committed to their success. The technology and digital product director at an insurance company said: “The refreshing part about working with Salesforce Professional Services is that they had a vested interest in the success of our implementation.”

• Driving quality assurance and governance. The implementation director at a nonprofit said that Salesforce Professional Services structured its delivery teams to include critical roles such as a scrum master and a dedicated QA resource. These embedded roles helped enforce governance standards, align stakeholders, and ensure quality through rigorous testing throughout the engagement. This structure reduced the risk of misconfigurations, downstream rework, and security issues.

• Supporting change management. Interviewees said that Salesforce Professional Services helped reduce adoption risks by supporting change management throughout the engagement. The director of product management at an insurance company described how Salesforce Professional Services launched an ambassador program early during the implementation, engaging sales agents to gather direct feedback, build buy-in, and prepare users for the transition. The chief technology officer at a nonprofit said: “We went with a train-the-trainer model, which went really well. Salesforce’s change management resources worked hand in hand with people on our team, like our training lead, to ensure that we were successful and to make sure the train-the-trainer program ran smoothly.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Forrester referenced research from recent TEI studies to model the average value of risk tied to Salesforce platform benefits. This value represents the incremental benefit that an organization could realize if all implementation and impact risks were fully mitigated. The value of this risk is $449,000, $758,000, and $1,063,000 in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3, respectively.¹⁵

• The composite organization reduces its risk of project failure by 50% through engaging Salesforce Professional Services. The risk reduction enables the organization to effectively capture 50% of the platform benefits that might otherwise be lost due to implementation and impact risks.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and the benefit will vary. There will always be some level of implementation and impact risk in a technology investment. Therefore, Forrester has limited the risk reduction to 50%.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 0%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $917,000.

Faster Adoption Of Salesforce Innovation

Evidence and data. Salesforce releases software updates three times a year with new features and platform enhancements. In the survey, 85% of respondents reported that engaging Salesforce Professional Services enabled their organizations to adopt new Salesforce releases sooner. These survey respondents shared that their organizations reduced the time to adopt releases by 26%.¹⁶ Decision-makers noted that Salesforce Professional Services positioned their organizations to adopt Salesforce releases sooner by:

• Focusing on configuration over customization. Salesforce enabled the decision-makers’ organizations to build more flexible, secure platform foundations by limiting customization. In fact, 74% of survey respondents reported that Salesforce Professional Services helped their organizations architect their platforms using out-of-the box features and configuration over customization. On average, respondents reduced customization by about 10 percentage points, with the level of customization dropping from 42% before engaging Salesforce Professional Services to 33% after.¹⁷ Similarly, the chief technology officer at a nonprofit estimated that their prior implementation was built with nearly 100% custom code, limiting their agility in adopting new Salesforce releases. After engaging Salesforce Professional Services, the level of customization was reduced to an estimated 38%. This reduced the time to adopt new releases from three three-week sprints down to just one sprint. Similarly, the implementation director at a nonprofit cited that Salesforce Professional Services limited customization to 20%, reducing the time to adopt releases by up to a month.

• Improved internal skilling. Interviewees also noted that working alongside experts from Salesforce Professional Services helped upskill internal technical teams, enabling them to adopt agile practices, gain product knowledge, and drive innovation. The implementation director at a nonprofit said: “Salesforce took a ‘teach a man to fish’ approach. They were great at teaching my team agile practices and what it means to work in an agile way.” The technology and digital product director at an insurance company detailed how pairing internal resources with Salesforce experts enabled upskilling and improved release adoption: “We took a two-in-the-box approach, pairing people and having them upskill alongside experts who know their product so well. When these releases come out, our team is ready and understands what opportunities we have based on what we’ve built and what these enhancements are offering. I truly believe that if we had not paired with the Salesforce Professional Services resources, we would not have that depth of knowledge.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The composite organization adopts three Salesforce releases annually in Year 2 and Year 3.

• Without Salesforce Professional Services, each new release would take 25 weeks of effort to adopt.

• After the engagement, the composite adopts releases 26% more quickly, saving 20 weeks per release.

• The composite organization has two Salesforce administrator FTEs tasked with implementing new releases.

• The fully burdened annual salary of a Salesforce administrator is $126,000.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The impact of this benefit will vary depending on:

• The number of Salesforce releases an organization chooses to adopt.

• An organization’s level of customization before and after Salesforce Professional Services.

• The number of internal resources tasked with managing releases.

• The burdened cost of resources, which will vary by employee expertise, business and employee geography, and industry.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $138,000.

Long-Term Savings

Evidence and data. The decision-makers’ organizations realized long-term benefits after their engagement with Salesforce Professional Services. In fact, 86% of survey respondents reported that working with Salesforce Professional Services helped reduce their organizations’ long-term operations and management costs.¹⁸ Decision-makers said that Salesforce Professional Services helped them:

• Reduce technical debt. In the survey, 63% of respondents reported reduced technical debt following their Salesforce Professional Services engagements.¹⁹ The chief technology officer at a nonprofit shared that the Salesforce Professional Services team created a roadmap to embrace native Salesforce features and integrations that the organization had already licensed, enabling them to sunset custom integrations and redundant tools. They also noted that Salesforce Professional Services helped the organization optimize its data strategy and reduce excess storage use, eliminating overage fees of $15,000 per month. Additionally, the director of product management at an insurance company emphasized Salesforce Professional Services’ focus on leveraging out-of-the-box capabilities over customization to avoid accumulating technical debt that could become costly and difficult to manage as the business evolved. Similarly, the technology and digital product director at an insurance company said that Salesforce Professional Services advised their organization on decreasing technical debt by reducing redundant licenses, consolidating instances, and leveraging native Salesforce capabilities for multiple use cases, allowing the organization to retire overlapping solutions and associated costs.

• Avoid rework. Over half of survey respondents reported a reduced need for rework and refactoring of code as a result of their engagement with Salesforce Professional Services, with an average reduction of 28%.²⁰ The implementation director at a nonprofit estimated that working with Salesforce Professional Services saved their organization millions of dollars in long-term rework costs, based on prior experiences of unsuccessful implementations. They said: “The rough order of magnitude to rewrite code will cost you millions on top of what you’ve already invested. And we saw that happen in some cases before. By engaging with the right partner that can deliver results, I believe you’re going to save yourself the rework of that entire effort. In the context of our engagement, I put that as two to three million dollars.”

• Reduce ongoing systems management effort. On average, survey respondents reported a reduction in Salesforce operations and management costs of 10%. The chief technology officer at a nonprofit shared that their organization’s prior deployment approach left it with a highly unstable platform, requiring a team of 12 technical staff working overtime to keep the system running. After engaging Salesforce Professional Services to rework the deployment, the ongoing management burden was significantly reduced to nine people working standard schedules. The director of product management at an insurance company shared: “Right now, we’re looking at keeping our run budget, which is what we use for maintenance, to remain steady next year. But as we look into the following year, I see the opportunity to decrease that now that the system is more efficient.”

• Reduce training requirements. Survey respondents reported a measurable reduction in training-related effort and costs following deployment. Fifty-nine percent of organizations cited lower training costs and faster employee ramp-up times, with an average reduction of 11 hours in training time per employee. This impact may be driven by consolidation of disparate systems and tools, intuitive workflow and user experience design, and increased automation, which may simplify user training requirements and accelerate time to user effectiveness.

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• Each of the composite organization’s 7,500 Salesforce users participate in training starting in Year 2, once the implementation project is complete. In Year 3, an additional 1,875 new hires participate in user training, accounting for turnover.

• By engaging Salesforce Professional Services, training time per employee is decreased by 11 hours, as a result of reducing point solutions, incorporating intuitive workflow design, and automation.

• The hourly fully burdened cost of an average Salesforce user is $47.

• Half of the Salesforce training time savings are recaptured productively.

• Without Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization requires five technical FTEs for ongoing maintenance.

• By working with Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization reduces ongoing management costs by 30%, starting in Year 2, once the implementation project is complete.

• The average fully burdened annual cost of a Salesforce technical resource tasked with ongoing management is $165,000.

• Without Salesforce Professional Services, the composite organization’s annual rework and refactoring costs are $2 million in Year 2 and Year 3. Rework costs include expenses associated with fixing errors or issues that are not addressed during the initial Salesforce implementation. Refactoring costs include efforts to restructure existing code or architecture to improve quality and maintainability.

• Salesforce Professional Services reduces rework and refactoring needs by 28%, conservatively.

Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences and the benefit will vary depending on:

• The number of Salesforce users within an organization.

• The degree to which training time savings are recaptured productively.

• The complexity of an organization’s Salesforce deployment.

• Actual ongoing management requirements that would be required without Salesforce Professional Services.

• Actual rework and refactoring costs that would be incurred without Salesforce Professional Services.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.8 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees and survey respondents mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Increased platform value and better business outcomes. Salesforce Professional Services helped many decision-makers’ organizations realize more value from their Salesforce investments, which led to business outcomes including improved customer experience and enhanced employee productivity. Half of survey respondents’ organizations realized more value from the overall Salesforce investment after engaging with Salesforce Professional Services. These respondents estimated that their organizations realized 8.5x more platform value on average. Eighty-six percent of survey respondents indicated improved employee productivity and user experience as a result of their organization’s Salesforce Professional Services engagement. On average, respondents estimated that each Salesforce user within their organization saves two hours per week due to Salesforce Professional Services’ involvement. Furthermore, 84% of respondents reported improved customer experience as an engagement outcome.²¹

• Self-sufficiency. Decision-makers reported that Salesforce Professional Services empowered their teams to gain self-sufficiency, ensuring that their organizations could maintain and innovate on their Salesforce platforms after the engagement ended. Survey respondents noted that Salesforce Professional Services shared best practices, established operating models and governance structures, and set up Salesforce centers of excellence within their organizations.²² The chief technology officer at a nonprofit shared that Salesforce Professional Services taught internal teams agile methodology: “Working hand in hand with Salesforce transformed my team from an ad hoc deployment group into an agile team. That shift has delivered significant value. My team can now advance the platform iteratively and demonstrate ROI for each sprint, following the agile methodology that Salesforce helped establish.”

• Improved security and data strategy. In the survey, 73% of respondents reported improved security as an outcome of their organization’s Salesforce Professional Services engagements. The chief technology officer at a nonprofit emphasized that security was a top priority during the engagement and noted that Salesforce Professional Services helped the organization redesign its Salesforce security model to align with best practices. Additionally, over half of survey respondents reported that creating or maturing their organization’s data strategies and building comprehensive data architecture and integration strategies were areas where Salesforce Professional Services provided support.²³

• Partner collaboration. Several interviewees and most of the survey respondents used Salesforce Professional Services as a complement to a consulting partner. In fact, 97% of respondents indicated that a partner was involved in their organization’s engagement with Salesforce Professional Services. In the majority of these cases, Salesforce Professional Services and the partner worked side by side while owning different workstreams. The director of product management at an insurance company explained that their organization engaged Salesforce Professional Services as the engagement lead while retaining their incumbent consultancy for its institutional knowledge. This collaboration allowed the incumbent consultancy to contribute historical context from prior projects while Salesforce Professional Services provided strategic guidance and hands-on implementation support, driving project efficiency and alignment with business needs and processes. The chief technology officer at a nonprofit described a “divide and conquer” approach, with Salesforce Professional Services and the consulting partner managing separate workstreams while collaborating on critical areas such as security.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Salesforce Professional Services and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Flexibility to meet evolving business needs. The technology and digital product director at an insurance company highlighted that Salesforce Professional Services positioned their organization to address rapidly changing customer expectations in their industry. They said that engaging Salesforce Professional Services enabled the organization to implement a scalable platform foundation with flexibility to adapt to future needs and use cases. They shared: “We needed the capability to keep up with the changing landscape of how customers are interacting with insurance companies. By working with Salesforce Professional Services, we’ve built a platform that we can innovate upon to meet those experiences in the future.”

• Positioning for AI. Decision-makers were at varying stages of AI adoption, with 60% of survey respondents reporting that their organization had already implemented AI solutions and another 28% reporting that their organization planned to do so within the next 12 months. Many decision-makers shared that working with Salesforce Professional Services helped position their organizations for future innovation with Salesforce AI capabilities. In fact, 68% of survey respondents indicated that Salesforce Professional Services positioned their organizations to more quickly adopt Salesforce AI capabilities, including Agentforce. For example, the chief technology officer at an insurance company said that Salesforce Professional Services helped prepare their organization for future innovation by minimizing customization and designing an architecture aligned with Salesforce’s roadmap, enabling smoother adoption of emerging capabilities like Agentforce.²⁴

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).