How Much will it cost? How long will it take? For turn-key implementation or integration projects, we get asked these questions every day. Because your needs are unique to your organization, the functionality, effort and cost of your project will be unique as well. To help you answer the cost and time questions, we will offer to hold a phone call we call the “Scope Call” at no cost to you, so we can better understand the project and get enough information to provide you good answers.
In most cases, a scope call lasts 60 to 90 minutes. Following the call, we typically provide you with a comprehensive report on the functionality to be deployed, effort, rates, and cost.
In preparation for your Scope Call, here are some questions for your consideration:
- Objective – What are the objective(s) of the project?
- Platform – What is the primary technology for your project (e.g., Salesforce, Conga, FormAssembly, CauseView, etc.)
- Systems/Technologies – What relevant software tools/systems are you using currently?
- Users – Who will be using the system? What are their job roles, functions and responsibilities at your organization? How many users in each role will need access to the system?
- Training – Where will the people who will be using the systems be located? We typically provide end-user training, so will we want to do in-person training, and if so where, or will we be doing web conference-based training (screen share and video from SIG’s side). We will also discuss the number of training sessions. Typically, we limit web conference-based trainings to 10 people and in-person trainings to 15 to ensure a successful outcome.
- Internationalization—Will the deployment be entirely in US dollars and English, or do we need to support multi-currencies or other languages?
- Reporting – what types of reports, measurements or analytics are you expecting (high level discuss only during our scope call; we will drill into great detail during the discovery portion of the project).
- Mobility – do your users have smartphones, tablets, or other mobile devices? If so, be prepared to discuss if you want users to have access from mobile devices and what type of devices they use.
- Email – what back-end email solution do you use? G-Suite, MS Office 365, Exchange Server, other? What front-end email clients are being used (Outlook, Mac Mail, Gmail, others)?
- Campaign Management – do you have at least one dedicated marketing person, and will you need to track marketing efforts like trade shows, email blasts, mailings, webinars, or other events? Do you do any level of mass emailing? If so, what tool do you use, and what are your expectations for what salesforce.com will handle in this regard?
- Marketing Automation – do you have a dedicated Marketing Automation system for drip marketing and form capture (e.g., Pardot, Marketing Cloud, Marketo, Hubspot, ConstantContact, MailChimp, etc.) Do you currently score your leads?
- Lead Management – do you purchase lead lists, get lists from trade shows or receive any meaningful volume of leads through your organization’s website? Be prepared to discuss where leads come from and how you qualify them. Also, be prepared to discuss your funnel and how you would like to more effectively manage it.
- Account/Contact Management – This is basic for most all deployments: keeping track of various companies and people. We will enhance the attributes for segmenting your relationships in the discovery meeting during the project.
- B2B or B2C – Is your organization a business-to-business (B2B) organization, business-to-consumer (B2C) organization, or both? B2C has special configuration considerations, so if you deal with individuals which may not be associated with a company (e.g., home owners, donors, volunteers, etc), then we should discuss.
- Opportunity Management: Do you expect to track opportunities (also known as deals) or other financial pursuits and develop a forecast? Do you have goals or quotas for your team to track?
- Quotes – if you sell a product or service, how do you generate quotes/proposals today? Will you continue to do it the way you have, or do you expect salesforce.com to generate these documents for you?
- Customer Service – Do you have a dedicated customer service or support team? What software do they use to manage tickets, cases or issues? Do you want Salesforce to take over this functionality?
- Communities or Portals—Do you need your customers, partners, or other constituents to have login access to portions of your data? We will also need to know what type of data they need to see to help you determine the best licensing strategy for your community.
- Data – do you have data to be loaded into the system (one-time initial data loads)? If so, what is the format of the data (e.g.,. excel) or where is it currently located? What type of data and how many files of each (e.g., lead lists, customer lists, pipeline deals, call logs, etc.).
- Merge Documents – do you have the need to automate the production of quotes, proposals, business agreements or contracts? What are your templates and how many do you have?
- Electronic Signature – Do you have business processes that would benefit from electronic signature? Do you have a current eSignature solution?
- Systems to be Replaced – Are we replacing existing system(s)? If so what system and discuss if data will be migrated to a new solution.
- Integration – do you expect to “connect” or integrate to any other software system or database? Examples include accounting and financial systems, human resource systems, student information systems, data warehouses, etc.
- Re-Deployments – If this is a redeployment or you already have users set-up, then we will want to know what is working for the current users and what isn’t.
- Edition of Your Platform or Other System – if you are already working with a Salesforce, Conga or other vendor account executive, you may be discussing a particular edition (e.g., Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, Conga Enterprise, Conga Contracts for Salesforce, Conga Contracts Off-Platform, or other special industry edition like the Education Data Architecture (EDA), Education Cloud, Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), Health Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, etc.). Let us know what you are discussing so we can confirm it is a good fit. We don’t make any money from the cost of the licenses, so we can be objective about determining if you are in the correct edition. If you have already purchased your licenses, let us know how many, when they start, and which edition so we can ensure you get them deployed as quickly as possible. SIG can answer questions about various license types and editions, but we will leave license pricing to the software vendor.
Have more questions or to schedule your Scope Call – contact us.
