Try searching online for the phrase “Salesforce Managed Services” and see how many listings come up. There are thousands of SI Partners competing for the very same business. What makes your managed services company stand out? How can you provide better services? This white paper talks about various misconceptions that prevent SI Partners from succeeding in the crowded managed services marketplace.
Myth 1) Everybody Is Using the Same APIs
Salesforce has a comprehensive stack of API services including the Metadata API, Data API, Bulk Data API, and Tooling API to name a few. But did you know that many of these APIs are inconsistent, incomplete, and contain errors? For example, the Salesforce Metadata Dependency API supports 80 connections between 50 metadata types. But in fact, there are over 300 metadata types available, and there are 1400 different connections between them.
At Metazoa, we have developed custom APIs that bypass many of the problems in the Salesforce API stack. In some cases, we have developed our own custom APIs that solve completely new problems. In other cases, we leverage years of research to augment or virtualize existing APIs and extend their functionality. Here are some of the custom APIs we have developed:
- Virtualized Metadata API Makes All 300 Metadata Types Consistent
- Custom Dependency API Supports All 1400 Metadata Dependencies
- Custom Documentation API Provides Descriptions Of 14,000 Elements
- Metadata Type Element Ranking & Compression for Prompt Engineering
- Permission Error Analysis & Reconstruction for Merging Similar Profiles
- Complete Metadata Schema Envelope Information for Org Dictionary
- Custom SOQL Enhancements for Field & Picklist Usage Analysis
- Custom Data Mapping API for Monarch Relational Data Mover
As you can see, everyone is NOT using the same APIs. The SI Partners using Snapshot are getting better results and solving important problems because they have fundamentally better information than their competitors.
Myth 2) We Can Do It with Free Stuff
There are a variety of free and/or cheap administrative products available on the AppExchange. These applications must be installed separately in the org where you want to use them, and each one carries different security concerns. The quality of these applications varies widely, and there is no integration or automation between them.
About 30% of the functionality in our Snapshot product has some free analog on the AppExchange. The other 70% of Snapshot is entirely unique or there are paid alternatives. But there are some big differences that you should be aware of. First, Snapshot applications are supported with a superior API stack, discussed above. Second, Snapshot reports are entirely consistent and have the same nomenclature. They can all be branded with your corporate logo. Snapshot applications do not need to be installed in each customer org. Snapshot has a zero-trust security model suitable for healthcare, financial, and government customers. Lastly, all the Snapshot applications and reports are beautifully integrated and can be used for org monitoring with workflow alerts.
There is also a big quality difference between what we offer and the alternatives. Consider the Snapshot Field and Picklist Usage Reports compared to Field Trip on the AppExchange. Unlike Field Trip, Snapshot covers long text areas and multi-select picklists. Snapshot displays when fields were created and last modified. We call out fields that are hidden from the API. We can display picklist values by record type. The number of distinct and default values are displayed, as well as the date the field was last edited. You can edit field compliance information right from the report. These reports can be scheduled with workflow alerts for low usage. Lastly, the Snapshot Field and Picklist Usage Reports are directly integrated with our release management tools inside the reporting interface.
SI Partners who want superior quality in service delivery need a better strategy than using free products on the AppExchange. Are you running Salesforce Optimizer for the pre-sales audit? That’s what your competitors do. Using Snapshot for the pre-sales audit will win that new customer over with comprehensive org intelligence.
Myth 3) We Don’t Have to Adopt AI Yet
At Metazoa, we believe that software automation and artificial intelligence are the wave of the future for progressive SI Partners. The competitors willing to make these adjustments now will be the winners moving forward. Some development teams will be resistant to better process and advanced tooling that replaces the old way of doing things. We recommend automating everything possible and shifting development work into hard problems that require real brainpower. This transition is happening faster than many realize.
Our Snapshot product provides extensive tooling that makes this shift to automation possible. SI Partners can customize the Snapshot prompt engineering platform for their unique competitive advantage. This platform can apply sophisticated prompts to all the data and metadata assets in an org for global transformation. Start with our 100 pre-built prompts and customize from there. These prompts will be shared by all your consultants. If you haven’t seen how prompt automation can revolutionize org management, please spend some time with us, we are happy to show you. Here is a list of some pre-built prompts, below.
Myth 4) Advanced Projects Require Large Teams
Org splits, clones, and merges traditionally require large teams of developers and many months of effort. These projects end up over budget and behind schedule. The results are not usually good, either. If the developer team can’t create a true metadata clone these projects require lots of extra testing and additional development work. SI Partners equipped with Snapshot can complete the same work in weeks with a small team. They can produce true metadata clones with precise data and metadata changes. These tools make a big difference for mission critical customer transitions where org splits, clones, and merges are required.
Another example of advanced tooling is for technical debt removal. Sometimes technical debt problems are so severe that customer orgs are effectively dead in the water. Some customers even contemplate a full org reboot to save their investment in Salesforce. Running the Snapshot suite of reports and remediation tools can bring agility back to these orgs. Again, this does not require giant teams or months of work.
The Metazoa prompt engineering platform offers additional examples of powerful org transformations that can be conducted on time and under budget. Add descriptions to all your Accounts. Document any desired characteristics about Apex Classes. Create Account Contact Roles automatically. Discover and correct poorly written Email Templates. Add descriptions to all your Flows. Create Solutions from technical support Cases. Use prompt engineering to automate time consuming manual activities and perform previously impossible tasks.
Conclusion
Snapshot can help SI Partners differentiate their company in the highly competitive marketplace for managed services and customer projects. You already have the best people, now give them the best tools for the job. Use automation to focus your developers on solving important problems instead of repetitive manual tasks. Snapshot has the right platform to turn AI into a competitive advantage for your company. Find more information about the Metazoa SI Program here:
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