What are the benefits of a “centralized” Salesforce team?
Let’s talk in terms every CFO will understand: Economies of scale.
There are two sides to the debate of how a company should structure their in-house Salesforce / Business Systems team:
-> Which structure leads to improved business performance?
-> Which structure is more cost effective to operate?
The reality is that a centralized Salesforce team leads to better outcomes across both dimensions… but let’s focus on the financial side of the argument.
First, what do we mean by a ‘centralized Business Systems team’?
A single team within the organization that manages every piece of internal technology infrastructure across Sales, Marketing, Support, Finance, HR, and Legal.
It’s what you find at companies like Snowflake, who has a Salesforce team that includes 7 Business Analysts and 7 Product Owners but only 6 Salesforce Administrators.
How can make this work?
Because they are CRAZY efficient in how work gets prioritized and planned.
The alternative is siloed Internal Tools teams, where Sales owns Salesforce, Finance owns Netsuite etc. Not nearly as efficient.
What are the benefits of a centralized team?
• Decreases the number of disparate systems leading to inefficient SaaS spend
• Simplifies the process of administering the tools you do need, thus lowering the cost to do so
• Increases the output of your business teams by removing the burden of managing tech stacks
• Provides greater purchasing power in negotiations with vendors
You don't often see SMBs with centralized Business Systems teams but we firmly believe this strategy should be adopted by companies at every stage of growth.
It allows you to staff the group with a more holistic view of organizational needs.
Rather than the business reactively allocating resources toward the most urgent tickets or break-fixes, the centralized team can be a proactive partner to business stakeholders.
By centralizing business systems operations, you can effectively invest in headcount that functions as ‘shared services’.
This typically comes in the form of dedicated Business Analysts and Product Owners that serve the business as a dedicated liaison addressing their needs.
It's not a matter of company size, it's a matter of priorities.
