You’ve put a lot of money and effort into Salesforce, so when an additional cost of “Managed Services” comes up, hesitation is natural. Shouldn’t a big investment like this just work?!
We know that after investing in Salesforce and perhaps struggling to see a return on your initial investment, you may be a little cynical when it comes to spending more money on your CRM platform.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help! In this blog, we’ll show you what ongoing support really means, why some businesses need it and others don’t, and how to decide if managed services are right for you.
Why Am I Struggling To See ROI From Salesforce?
Investing in Salesforce is not a decision you or any organization makes lightly. It’s a significant investment once you’ve added up the license and implementation fees, as well as the cost to maintain the system. But, if you need a CRM platform, it makes perfect sense to choose the system with the strongest reputation, the largest ecosystem, and incredible ROI stories. The expectation is not modest. Salesforce is sold, accurately, as a platform with near-limitless capability. It can automate, forecast, integrate, and all the other buzzwords you can think of.
In other words, you are unlikely to “outgrow” it and be forced to make a costly move to another CRM.
That promise is what justifies the price, but Salesforce doesn’t generate outcomes on its own. It doesn’t arrive pre-designed to work with your company’s workflows or teach your staff how to use it. There isn’t a magical alert that tells you that the way you’ve configured a process creates unintended consequences downstream. Salesforce provides their users with a configurable platform, where the burden of turning “capability” into “return” sits with the customer. And this is what many companies come to realize after the shiny new feeling of their implementation wears off, and it’s time to prove ROI.
If we look closely at how Salesforce functions inside a ‘typical’ business, including SMB organizations, the picture often doesn’t look like the promise that was sold anymore. Reports require hours of manual cleanup before they can be trusted, and sales reps enter the bare minimum of data, often inaccurately, because the system was potentially designed by stakeholders without valuable end user input. Teams end up relying on Excel or another tool because Salesforce confuses them and is just ‘more admin’.
These are not isolated frustrations, but solving them is easier than you think.
The capabilities that sold you on Salesforce are still there. The reason they feel out of reach is not that the platform failed, but that the structure around ongoing support could be the missing piece. Which leads us to the next question – how much ongoing support do I need to maintain consistent ROI from Salesforce?
Does Salesforce Require Ongoing Support?
No one buys Salesforce without understanding what it can do. But almost no one talks about what it takes to actually make that happen specifically for your business.
Whilst Salesforce is a highly configurable tool that doesn’t always require coding to work, that doesn’t mean anyone in your organization is capable of managing it. Salesforce is still a system and for it to be managed properly requires specialized knowledge of not only Salesforce configuration, but also an understanding of how to test and release new features properly.
Salesforce has built an entire ecosystem to compensate for these needs: numerous certifications, an online academy (Trailhead), thousands of partner firms, and an AppExchange marketplace full of native add-ons whose sole purpose is to fix, extend, or help you to maintain the platform in some way. These aren’t bolt-ons for fun. They exist because Salesforce requires deliberate, ongoing ownership.
It is well documented that it used to be enough to just have the technical skill, but knowing how to create a field or automation is one thing. Knowing how that new component impacts lead attribution models, or whether it distorts pipeline forecasting, or whether it’s going to negatively impact a concurrently running automation, is another. Running Salesforce properly requires both technical fluency and commercial judgment. We’ve seen evidence of this in the way the admin role is changing. That’s why large organizations staff full teams: admins, developers, architects, data specialists, business analysts, QA testers, and more. The ROI stories you hear from them reflect investment in continuous alignment.
The reality is that most businesses don’t have that luxury. They make the initial investment in licences and implementation, but hesitate to build a permanent in-house team.
The result is predictable: Salesforce gets assigned to someone internally – often operationally minded and technically capable, but usually that person is already overwhelmed with their existing tasks. So, what do they do? They keep it functional. They fix the urgent bugs and build the dashboards that executives demand. But nobody is scanning the system holistically. Nobody is asking whether the workflows still reflect the way the company actually sells or services today. No-one is aware of what else is going on in the ecosystem and how to take advantage of new features, or new marketplace tools.
This creates a subtle but costly form of operational and technical debt. It’s not a glaring single failure, but accumulations. Each by itself feels survivable. Together, they erode the return you get on Salesforce while the licence fees remain constant. Imagine you start building a mansion on the foundations meant for a 2 bedroomed house – it will not end well!
Salesforce Managed Services Explained
So, how can managed services help alleviate the pain we’ve described?
To start with, “managed services” is often misunderstood. It isn’t a helpdesk or an outsourced admin-on-call. At its best, it is the operating model that ensures Salesforce keeps producing clear ROI quarter after quarter, instead of slipping back into being a system nobody trusts or being bogged down with so much technical debt it becomes unusable.
When Salesforce is actively managed:
- Forecasts hold up under scrutiny so finance doesn’t need to rebuild numbers in Excel before meetings.
- Pipeline tells the truth and leadership sees reality, not inflated deals or sandbagged stages.
- Sales teams work inside the system because your CRM platform reflects how they actually sell, adoption is natural.
- Capacity isn’t wasted. Instead of paying for licences that deliver diminishing returns, you are compounding value over time.
That’s what “outsourcing Salesforce ownership” really buys: confidence that the system you invested in continues to serve as a source of truth, not a liability.
We believe the model is best understood as both insurance and leverage. Insurance, because it protects against a decaying Salesforce instance that nobody trusts and everyone works around. Leverage, because you gain instant access to a specialized team of experts without carrying the full-time cost of a team.
In practice, this means moving faster on capabilities that would otherwise sit on a backlog for months. It means proactively getting a higher ROI on your Salesforce investment.
A Decision Framework For Salesforce Managed Services
So, how do you make this decision?
Well, no COO is asking, “Should we outsource admin?” They’re asking, “How do we make sure Salesforce keeps producing value?” Managed Services is one credible answer.
To test whether it’s the right one for you, the questions are simple:
If just one of these resonates with you, then you already know the system is slipping away from what it was bought to be. The only decision left is whether to staff the capability internally, or bring in a partner who treats the system with the same seriousness as an internal team would.
It’s important to recognize that Managed Services aren’t universal. Some companies genuinely don’t need it: they’ve got a stable org, an experienced admin with capacity, and processes that rarely change. If that’s your position, internal ownership can be enough.
But most readers aren’t in that camp. What’s more common is this:
- You had a strong admin, and now they’ve left. Hiring again looks daunting. Salaries are high, retention is shaky, and you may not even have enough work to justify the role full time.
- Your “internal Salesforce person” already wears numerous hats. They keep things running but don’t have the space to think strategically or work closely with key stakeholders. Important changes sit on a backlog because survival tasks always come first.
- You know the system should be doing more, but the idea of building out a whole internal team feels disproportionate. The spend is already heavy on licences and another six-figure spend doesn’t stack up.
- Growth is stretching the system. New processes, new teams, new territories. Salesforce hasn’t collapsed, but it’s lagging behind reality, and the gaps are showing up in forecasts and adoption.
These are some conditions where ongoing support isn’t “nice to have.” It’s the practical way to make sure Salesforce keeps returning value without committing to a headcount you can’t justify or afford.
How A Salesforce Managed Services Engagement Works
Recognising the need for Διαχειριζόμενες Υπηρεσίες usually raises another concern: will this be another complex, disruptive engagement? Expensive to start, slow to deliver, full of red tape? Some partners operate this way and it can feel as daunting to work with them as it is to hire an entire internal team.
Το Appex methodology is deliberately the opposite. It’s fixed, predictable, and built to start immediately, especially if we’ve already handled your implementation. You won’t have to deal with handover delays or bureaucracy. The improvements you need are just a slack message away.
It’s simple, direct access to certified people who know both the platform and the commercial context it operates in.
Here’s what that may look like in practice:
- Fixed amount of hours per month at a discounted rate
- Option to add more hours ad-hoc at the same discounted rate
- Hours can be used for anything Salesforce-related
- Unused hours roll over into the following month
We operate fully remotely, with a team that combines its technical depth with commercial knowledge. Unlike traditional consultancies, you’re partnering with people who’ve worked inside Salesforce itself and know how to apply the platform beyond the obvious.
Salesforce ROI Without A Full-Time Hire
Most companies don’t abandon Salesforce, they just stop getting what they paid for. The admin leaves and isn’t replaced or ownership over the system gets handed to someone who isn’t qualified. Reports stop matching reality yet licences keep renewing.
That’s when leadership faces a lose-lose choice: hire a full-time specialist you don’t really need, or accept Salesforce as ‘just an expensive database’.
With our Managed Services, you’ll have access to the calibre of expertise you’d expect from an in-house team, without the cost or commitment of hiring one. Salesforce doesn’t just stay “running”; it stays accurate, relevant, and dependable. Your salespeople trust it enough to use it every day. Your leadership trusts it enough to make decisions from it. And that trust is built and maintained continuously.
For our customers, the value isn’t “hours” or “tickets.” It’s having someone who knows both Salesforce and the business context, someone who can see problems before they impact revenue.
If that’s the kind of support you’re missing, let’s talk. We’ll review where your org stands today and show you whether ongoing support would make Salesforce the asset you expected it to be.
