Salesforce AppExchange is home to more than 5,000 solutions that allow you to extend the power of Salesforce. It is one of the largest business applications marketplace and apps available to solve customers’ specific problems.
To give a context of how big is the Salesforce Appexchange,
- It has more than 9 million installs
- 90% of Salesforce customers have 1+ app installed
- 100% of the Fortune 100 have 1+ app installed
Some of the Apps are free, but the cost for few apps can go in millions. Some of the apps are Salesforce native, and some of them are nicely integrated with Salesforce; some are new, and some are pretty old.
With so many options available for specific business needs, what should you consider as you evaluate the best choice for your business?
Let’s dive into few critical tips in this article on the selection of the AppExchange product.
Software selection should be made transparently. I would strongly recommend having a software selection policy established in the organization to ensure that business and IT requirements are evaluated based on principles that are agreed upon upfront.
Before diving into the AppExchange software selection process, make sure that business capabilities get translated into IT system capabilities and evaluate if a substitute is already available in the current IT system. As per Enterprise Architecture guidelines, preference should be to reuse existing architecture or solution building blocks rather than inducting a new solution. Sometimes minor customization could be the answer to solve the business challenge.
Business Capabilities
First, start with stating the business challenges that you are trying to solve. Be specific with the business objective and the goals that the business would like to achieve. Enlist all the business capabilities that businesses wish to have.
- Is it productivity improvement or cost reduction to the business?
- Does it help in Sales or Service Operations improvement?
- How is it going to affect the existing business process?
- How is it going to be beneficial to the customers or employees?
- What is there need to make a change now?
- What if we do not undertake the project?
- What is your business case to support the project?
Without a clear understanding, you will not be in a great position to search for the solution available in AppExchange. Perform ROI investigation to make sure that how much money that you are willing to spend on this project, CAPEX (Project cost) + OPEX (Salesforce Appexchange licensing cost)
Evaluation
There are few important considerations while evaluation the AppExchange product that you should not miss.
Business Capability Mapping
- Map out the solution options based on crystal clear business requirements
- For each business, capabilities enlisted as part of business requirements map the product’s features and functionality
- Use MoSCoW terminology to prioritize the capabilities and distinguish between a must-have compared to nice-to-have.
- Narrow down the search if you have access to Gartner (Magic Quadrants), Forrester, or G2 Crowd
Cost Model -Pricing
- Licensing structure – user-based or org level
- Weight effort and cost related to upgrade
- The flexibility of increase or decrease licensing
- Free Trials
Compliance – GDPR
- Data residency
- Master Service Level Agreements
Supportability – Support Model
- Service Levels – Gold/Silver/Bronze etc.
- Support Response time
- Upgrade support
- Lightning Ready
- Training readiness
- Trainer Support
- Product Induction support
- End-User Product Documentation
- Admin Product Documentation
Mobile Affinity
- Accessibility of the app anywhere and anytime from phone
- Validate compatibility with mobile applications
Language Considerations
- e.g. Multi-lingual support in the EU
Ease of implementation
- Outsourcing possibility
- Plug and Play integrations
- Upgrade path
- Bing bang approach or staggered
Architecture
- Assessment of the fitment of the AppExchange product into the overall IT landscape
- Request a demo from the vendor
- Integration aspect of the solution
- API ready
- Upgrade cycle
- Solution Fitment – Standard/Configuration/Extension
- NFR: Data Archival, Performance, etc.
- Future Roadmap of the product – Address current and future needs
- Managed package or unmanaged package
- Evaluate package size: Package Contents and Lighting Components
- Verify if any additional system requirements
- Eligible Salesforce Editions
- Tactical app vs. Strategic app selection
Resource Availability
- In house experience vs. partner implementation
- Any scarcity of the resources
Customer Reviews and References
- The financial position of the supplier
- Leverage Reviews available on AppExchange
- Scrutinizing the most negative reviews
- Last release date
Infrastructure
- Network-level change
- IP whitelisting
- High availability (if there is a dependency on the third party or data processed by a third party)
- File, Email exchange integration
Security
- Validate if data stored or processed by a third party
- Check if data leaving Salesforce
- Securing integrations
- Adhering to the Salesforce security model
Conclusion
Irrespective of the choice of AppExchange based on the evaluation, you must justify choosing the AppExchange app. Make sure you document the entire evaluation journey, including scoring, to defend your answer why this particular Salesforce app is the right solution in the future.
