VENDORiQ: Salesforce Releases Self-Service Onboarding – What’s the Hidden Danger?

The Latest

27 September 2022: Salesforce launched Salesforce Easy to allow new subscribers to implement its Cloud-based enterprise solution without the need for in-house or (expensive) Salesforce solution engineers. With Salesforce Easy, customers implement Salesforce with non- or semi-technical staff, through a software-guided onboarding process upon subscription. The guided process allows customers to optimise and configure Salesforce to fit their needs. 

Why it’s Important

Obviously, self-service onboarding and configuration tools can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) without deep ICT resources to fast-track the implementation of modules to align with operational goals. Self-service onboarding capabilities are already key to expanding enterprise SaaS products down into the SME market.

In the case of Salesforce users, it can be time-consuming to work with engineers who will introduce the solution and guide the user to maximise the features relevant to their business. Aside from offering a more agile service, SaaS vendors can reduce their human resources and consulting costs.

However, the more significant impact of self-service onboarding for senior ICT executives inside larger organisations is that they enable line-of-business executives to procure and implement enterprise grade solutions with little, or no, input from the ICT group. The age of ‘enterprise shadow IT is here.  

There are many immediate positives to this type of implementation for business stakeholders: faster time to value, greater satisfaction with the deployed system, administrative ownership, reporting, etc. 

However, there are often longer-term negative impacts that need to be addressed: functional silos of both data and processes, increased subscription costs for the organisation, added complexity for integration, fragmented architecture, privacy and security policies not being adhered to, and so on.

In summary, self-service onboarding will definitely be a trend, but it comes with a dire need for ICT groups to educate line-of-business stakeholders as to the deeper role of ICT, especially around the importance and benefits of governance and architecture. 

Who’s impacted

• CEO
• Procurement teams
• IT teams

What’s Next?

• Put in place training programs to address the concerns around ICT governance and architecture, and turn them from resistors to champions of change.
• Ensure security and risk policies are in place and understood by all staff. Since they will be looking for ways to innovate their working environment, they also need to consider the risks associated with their ideas.