Who Is A Salesforce ISV Partner?

When it comes to optimizing Salesforce, simply implementing the CRM platform is never enough. It is always advisable for Salesforce users to make the most of the cloud-based platform by developing business-specific applications.

These applications allow you to use your database to provide personalized services to your customers and prospects. By getting these apps developed and deployed, you can reach out to a wider range of audiences and persuade them to engage with your business. If you are willing to develop a responsive and robust Salesforce application, make sure you take the help of a Salesforce ISV partner.

Who Is A Salesforce ISV Partner?

In simple words, a Salesforce ISV (independent software vendor) partner is a Salesforce partner who helps Salesforce users develop and deploy Salesforce applications. They take the responsibility of helping an organization develop business-specific software applications and get the same listed on Salesforce AppExchange. A Salesforce ISV partner can also be called a Salesforce AppExchange partner.

On partnering with a Salesforce ISV, they understand the objectives you are willing to achieve, the customers you are willing to cater to, the datasets you are willing to use for the applications, and all relevant details about your organization before building your applications. In essence, the role of a Salesforce ISV is similar to that of a custom software developer, the major difference being that a Salesforce ISV develops apps using the Salesforce environment and gets them listed on AppExchange.

These Salesforce partners aim at helping businesses optimize their Salesforce CRM and use their database in the best way possible. Their services revolve around taking the customizable platform of Salesforce and creating unique software applications that are not provided out-of-the-box with Salesforce. Salesforce ISV partners can develop applications with a wide range of complexity. Whether you are willing to create a simple calculator that can be used along with your Salesforce data or a complicated data visualization platform, you can partner with a reliable ISV to get your work done.

Before you get associated with a Salesforce ISV partner, it is important to note that these partners do not work for Salesforce. As their name suggests, they are independent service providers that help you optimize the CRM platform based on your specific requirements.

What Is The Difference Between ISV And SI Partners?

It is common for organizations to get confused between Salesforce ISV partners and SI partners. Although both parties help you optimize Salesforce and tailor their services based on your specific business needs, it is important to understand the difference between the two.

A Salesforce ISV partner is a partner who helps you use the Salesforce environment for building business-specific applications. On the other hand, the SI partners of System Integrators are the partners who provide you with end-to-end Salesforce consultancy. SI partners are also known as Salesforce consulting partners.

While Salesforce ISV partners are responsible for building, listing, and selling applications, SI partners deliver consulting services that revolve around Salesforce implementation, integration, customization, configuration, and more.

Benefits Of Working With An Salesforce ISV Partner

Here are some of the major benefits of working with a dedicated Salesforce ISV partner:

Efficient Execution Of Events

The increasing digitization of processes calls for keeping an efficient track of events taking place on a daily basis. Irrespective of the scale of your organization, scheduling your events and monitoring them in an organization makes things easier for you and your team. A Salesforce ISV partner helps you use your Salesforce data for creating apps dedicated to scheduling and managing your business events.

Instead of maintaining multiple spreadsheets and hiring more employees to help you manage your events manually, a simple Salesforce application helps you incorporate your Salesforce database within a centralized application.

Seamless Creation Of Quotes And Contracts

One of the biggest reasons behind companies failing to achieve their sales target is delays in generating and sharing quotes. This increases the sales cycle for every client, limiting the sales conducted over a specific period of time.

By partnering with a reliable Salesforce ISV, you can streamline the process of generating quotes with the help of responsive applications. They help you build applications that use the contacts and accounts stored within your CRM for creating and sharing personalized quotes. This allows you to reach out to your clients and close sales deals in the best way possible.

Salesforce ISV partners also help you develop and deploy applications for drawing out contracts and sharing them with your customers and prospects. This allows you to expedite your sales processes and reduce the overall turnover time.

Reaching Out To More Prospects

A Salesforce ISV partner takes up the responsibility of getting your application listed on Salesforce AppExchange. This helps you put your business-specific applications on the digital marketplace for the users to discover and install. As your organization and application get listed on AppExchange, you can reach out to more prospects looking for your services. Also, getting listed on Salesforce AppExchange officially puts you on the map and provides your company with the desired recognition.

Improved Lead Management

Salesforce is known for its automated and streamlined lead management features. Being associated with ISV partners helps you leverage this feature and manage your sales leads effectively. From the moment you capture a lead and add it to your CRM until the lead is converted into a loyal customer, Salesforce ISV partners help you build applications nurturing all your leads in the best way possible.

Encouraging Process Automation

In 2022, manual processes can rarely be proven effective in carrying out most business processes. Business-specific Salesforce applications help you increase the accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness of your tasks through process automation.

A Salesforce ISV would understand the process that needs to be automated and build applications that help you streamline the same. Moreover, these Salesforce partners relieve your team members from spending more time and effort than required in getting their work done. In order to stay ahead of the curve and survive amidst intense competition across industries, it is always important to ride the bandwagon of process automation.

Challenges Faced By A Salesforce ISV Partner

Along with being well-versed with the benefits of partnering with a Salesforce ISV partner, it is important to understand the common challenges faced by them. Here are some of the major challenges encountered by a Salesforce ISV partner while providing their services:

High Time To Market

The Salesforce ecosystem allows ISV partners to build and deploy applications at a faster rate. However, they still face the challenge of higher time to market in most cases. This is commonly due to the reluctance of the clients to switch to newer platforms, time is taken for user adoption, and the tendency to hold on to legacy application architecture. As the transition from traditional platforms to cloud-based applications often takes time, Salesforce ISV partners often find themselves stuck for a long between conceptualization and final execution.

As a Salesforce user, this issue can be resolved by bringing Salesforce experts on board that help you and your team get used to the new and evolving technology. Also, make sure that the partners you work with help you blend into the Salesforce ecosystem without having to compromise with the core value of the application to be built.

Tackling Competition

As more and more businesses are switching to digital and cloud-based platforms, the number of Salesforce ISV partners has significantly increased. This makes it challenging for the ISVs to market their offerings and get organizations to work with them. It becomes important for the service providers to stand out from the clutter, think out of the box, and carve their own niche in the market. Not every Salesforce ISV partner is able to break out from the clutter of competitors and get the desired traction.

Strict Review Process

Once an application is built and set to be listed on Salesforce AppExchange, the marketplace conducts a thorough review process for the concerned application. This process is fairly strict as Salesforce is extremely quality-conscious about the applications listed on the marketplace. Even if the application built by a Salesforce ISV partner falls short of a single parameter, AppExchange may not get it listed on the marketplace.

This often makes the deployment process fairly long. It often takes 4 to 6 weeks for the review AppExchange review to be completed. If the app is rejected by Salesforce, it would take another 2 to 3 weeks for the follow-up review to be completed. This often makes the job of Salesforce ISV partners tedious and risky.

However, once the app is listed on  Salesforce AppExchange, it certainly adds to the credibility of an ISV partner as it implies that their application passed through a stringent review process successfully.

The Final Word

If you need to develop and deploy a business-specific application using the Salesforce environment, always look for a Salesforce ISV partner who is in sync with all your requirements. Being associated with a reliable ISV partner helps you make the most of the CRM platform and achieve all your business goals effectively.