22 Feb Introducing the Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model
At Fast Slow Motion, we are big fans of following a “crawl – walk – run” approach to adopting and implementing Salesforce. We emphasize establishing a firm foundation before trying to do too much on the platform. This post introduces a Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model that elaborates on the “crawl – walk – run” approach. The model gives you a framework to adopt Salesforce successfully so you receive immediate benefits while setting up the platform for future growth and increased value. Progressing through this model enables you to receive the long-term benefits of Salesforce while maximizing your initial investment. This model is useful for both people that are considering a Salesforce implementation and people that are struggling adopting Salesforce.
In a post last year, we talked about how to minimize the pain associated with implementing new software or process changes. The Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model builds on the concepts we introduced on how to implement systems and processes the right way.
The Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model is broken down into the three stages – Basic Adoption, Leveraging the Platform, and Complete Adoption.
Basic Adoption is focused on getting the fundamentals in place and developing discipline within the organization to use the solution. In this stage, you are starting to get a return on your investment, but the benefits are hard to quantify. The second stage is called Leveraging the Platform. Leveraging the Platform is an intermediate level of adoption where Salesforce is an important component in your business operation and you are reaping more measurable benefits of implementing Salesforce. The highest level, Complete Adoption, is reached when most, if not all, of your business processes are impacted by Salesforce. At this point, your team is all-in on the platform and many of our core processes are managed within Salesforce. Salesforce is the central hub of all business data and processes when Complete Adoption is achieved.
This model is useful in two ways:
- To give you a guideline for what it looks like to make progress toward optimizing your investment in Salesforce.
- To provide a measuring stick to help you assess where you are with your usage of the platform.
What stage is your organization currently in? Are you stuck in a stage and having trouble progressing? Not getting the most out of Salesforce? We’ll go into more detail about each stage of the Salesforce Adoption Maturity Model in upcoming posts to help you increase adoption to get the most out of Salesforce and make the platform a winning investment.