How ISVs can accelerate product delivery with a Salesforce PDO Expert

If you are an established Salesforce ISV partner and are looking to improve your productivity, reach new customers and upgrade the performance of your products on the AppExchange Market, using a Salesforce PDO Expert could be a real game-changer. You might be convinced that because of your experience, resources, and stable market position you are fully self-sufficient, however partnering with a PDO can be a strategic move that will help you distinguish yourself from your competitors by becoming more agile and responsive to the market, accelerating your product delivery. In this article, we will present all the transformative advantages that PDOs can bring even if you are an already proven and longstanding ISV.

Agility without sacrificing your roadmap

Once you have an app in your user’s hands, sticking to your core product roadmap to deliver increasing value is impeded by user needs, as well as market disruptions. Even with a large in-house bench of developers who can tackle ad-hoc needs, these issues can still distract from core development plans. The alternative is to use a Product Development Outsourcer (PDO) to supplement your development resources.

When you team up with a Salesforce PDO company you are working side by side with the best in the field. This does not mean that you are losing control over your application or risk exposing your IP. On the contrary, you gain exceptional advice, freedom, and resources to concentrate on your roadmap goals, long term strategy, boosted by a partner that appreciates the nuances of product development. This may include helping with the troublesome bug fixes, building user-requested features and highly advanced architectural design for high performance and scale.

Overall, it will accelerate your time to market and elevate the product. A PDO can also be a lifesaver when it comes to working on complex projects. Instead of going through the process of hiring a brand new internal development team, outsourcing with an already accomplished Salesforce certified expert is much more efficient.

Leverage a PDO’s deep experience

Choosing to work with a PDO will give you a competitive edge, especially if you wish for the product to reach end-users quickly. You can count on their valuable advice at every stage, as their deep understanding and knowledge of all the complexities involved in getting an app to market quickly can save you valuable time, resources and costs.

Product Development Outsourcers are seasoned experts who have worked with many ISVs in the past and understand the dynamics of the process. Previous product deliveries provide a sound knowledge base of key elements required, such as security, scalable architecture and user adoption, to name a few. Their experience is unparalleled, as they can deal with any challenges since they most likely faced something similar in their past projects.

Additionally, a PDO partner is a professional, when it comes to staying on top of any new functionalities and additions to the Salesforce platform. A PDO who also specializes in core Salesforce implementations is brilliantly placed to understand how customers use the platform and where your app fits in.

Salesforce PDO companies are also well versed in the capability, scalability, and limitations of the platform and have a deep bench to develop and configure apps to meet them. They have experts specializing in different Clouds and industries offering knowledge in narrow fields and can adjust their resources to your particular domain, business needs and product.

Pass through the Salesforce security review

Unfortunately, Salesforce’s strict approval process (the infamous Salesforce security review) isn’t something you only have to pass once. If you are planning a significant update to your app, you will likely have to navigate through the security review again. This can be a make-it-or-break-it moment for your App.

This process is scrutinous, complex, and can be confusing, PDOs know all its ins and outs, navigating it with success numerous times. They keep it in mind at every stage of development to ensure apps will pass it without any complications. This is especially important because if an App is rejected by the AppExchange it needs to be modified, (which sometimes can even affect the roadmap) and resubmitted which significantly increases its time to market and results in further costs.

A practical example – Bullhorn

One of our partners – Bullhorn – an industry-leading provider of staffing and recruitment software, needed to accelerate its product development after the strategic acquisition of three Salesforce Apps. Bullhorn turned to VRP to help redevelop them on the Lightning Platform. We swiftly conducted deep analysis and adapted the product accordingly. Due to the substantial update, the new apps needed to undergo another security review which could have severely prolonged the go-live date. Due to our expertise and meticulous approach, they were easily approved and successfully implemented.

Enhance your product development and AppExchange marketing.

PDO’s support isn’t limited to the technical aspects of development. Even if your App is approved by Salesforce it’s only a part of the process and it doesn’t automatically mean that it will gain commercial success. The AppExchange is home to over 4,000 solutions and knowing how to market your product in this specific environment is crucial if you want to distinguish yourself from other similar products.

This is where PDO’s priceless experience comes to play. As experienced partners of the AppExchange, they have deep knowledge of what apps work well in the ecosystem. Knowing the unique marketing opportunities available on the Appexchange, they can help you find the best strategy for your product, advise you on how to present yourself to the customer, how to price your App, etc.

Remember, the earlier in the development cycle you engage a PDO, the better it will be for your App. Building with a clear product strategy and marketing vision will increase your chances of succeeding, as a PDO will steer you in the right direction or prevent you from making a strategic mistake from the get-go.

The benefit of choosing a Salesforce PDO partner that is also a core Salesforce implementation partner

In a few rare cases, there are Salesforce partners who are not only Product Development Outsourcers but also Systems Integrators (SIs). VRP is one of the top Salesforce consulting firms both for PDO and core Salesforce consulting. Finding a company whose level of expertise is the highest in both areas is like hitting the jackpot because they have exclusive insights and an in-depth understanding of challenges companies face today, either when implementing a Salesforce solution or those bringing innovations to the market.

Their experience through numerous project deliveries across wide-ranging industries, locations, and businesses of all sizes, ideally places them to advise best practice solutions, bringing extra value to your projects. Seeing how customers actually use the platform, knowing their struggles, expectations, and needs they can translate this knowledge into product development which is a huge advantage in this competitive environment.

VRP Consulting has a long history as a Salesforce PDO. During this time VRP has helped ISVs design, build, publish and support more than 100 apps on the AppExchange. In 2020, our role in bringing market disruptive apps has been recognized and we made it to the elite group of only 9 companies globally with the highest Salesforce PDO Expert status.

VRP is also recognized for its work in the SI area, being an award-winning Salesforce Platinum Partner – the highest status of the Salesforce Partner Program. With over 1000 diverse Salesforce projects across the industries, we have a profound knowledge of both the Salesforce platform and user needs.

Conclusion

Even established Salesforce ISVs with in-house development teams can benefit from partnering with an experienced Salesforce PDO. Leveraging their industry knowledge and resources can help improve your product offering, performance and scalability.

Although there is a multitude of well-established ISV companies, there are only 9 companies globally with the highest Salesforce PDO Expert status. Their experience will not only strengthen your position but also help you be more agile and responsive to any unpredictable market disruptions and will enable finding niche marketable opportunities.

Since VRP is one of the top Salesforce consulting firms both for PDO and SI, we know both sides of the story. Over the past 10 years, we have been 100% focused on the Salesforce ecosystem and have successfully delivered projects of all shapes and sizes.

We would be delighted to assist you with all of your Salesforce needs.

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About the Author

Roman Medvedev

Founder and CEO, VRP Consulting

Roman Medvedev is the Founder & CEO of VRP Consulting. He has led VRP Consulting since its inception in 1998 as a general IT outsourcing company. In 2010, Roman started to transition VRP Consulting into a global full-service Salesforce Platinum consulting, development and outsourcing partner which has successfully completed over 1,000 Salesforce projects, with an average customer satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5.