41% of Salesforce Projects Face Go-Live Delays

According to a recent Salesforce survey by Mason Frank , 41% of organizations reported delays in their Salesforce go-live date, with over 50% of those delayed 4 months or more.

Respondents cited the following reasons for these delays:

• Poor planning prior to migration- 51%
• Data migration issues- 49%
• Issues with testing- 46%
• Staff shortage- 31%
• Delay in training staff- 29%
• Budget shortage 13%
• Other (including scope changes, technical challenges, additional customization, COVID-19 and delays with internal sign-off)- 17%

From my 11 years' experience working with Salesforce partners and customers, these schedule delays ring true. In addition to the impact on the project itself, these delays also can cause increased stress among the project team, client frustration, staff turnover, cost overruns, and in the worst cases, complete project failure.

While delays may be common, they are not inevitable. There is so much that you, as a Salesforce vendor or client can do to ensure that your project stays on track. With a well-designed and carefully implemented delivery framework, project delays can become exceedingly rare.

A successful Salesforce delivery framework provides the processes, tools, and information the team needs to stay on task, on time, and on budget throughout the project. This work begins from before the contract is even signed and flows through every stage of the project. Teams that are serious about successful delivery will want to spend time up front articulating their delivery framework, training and coaching the team and client, and consistently executing their framework throughout the project.

For more information on setting up a delivery framework for your team, click here.