Market Alert! Salesforce.com Pricing Change: Is Salesforce.com’s “Lightening” About to Zap Your CRM Budget?

Michael Welsh
May. 4,2016 |
Salesforce.com recently announced a major change in its Sales Cloud subscription programs that requires customers to act before Salesforce Q2 starts (which was May 1st) to lock in with old pricing model or automatically move to their new plan, and there are some potentially major implications for our clients. It’s imperative that you know how these changes impact your budget in the near future, and more importantly – what you can do about it.

The most interesting part of this announcement and change seems to be the creative use of the word ‘Lightening’, which appears to be not much more than a significant increase in price, coupled with some bundled features you probably don’t need (or already had anyway). In our view, most Salesforce.com customers will experience a 20% increase in overall pricing for those main functions that are critical to their business. For example, the partial use of ‘Sandbox’ in the various tiers of ‘Lightening’ service. Every one of our clients that have a need for Sandbox capability already have it and really don’t need it as a new ‘benefit’ in a ‘bundled’ package.

If you missed the Salesforce.com imposed deadline for start of Q2 (May 1 for Salesforce.com) to ‘Lock In’ to the old pricing model, here are a few recommendations:
1) Plan Ahead – Don’t wait for your agreement termination date to roll around before you start planning: Review platform levels, review subscription titles, metrics, and quantities, review subscription access privileges, review consumption of features, and analyze what contractual levers exist for modification.
2) Analyze your user environment – Most Salesforce.com customers are paying for more named users than actually access and use the services. These new bundles may force some of that on you, but don’t take any more than you have to by ensuring you’re in the right platform tier (Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited, or Performance).
3) Know the Market – Understand what companies your size and scale are paying in comparison, and leverage the market intelligence available to you. Benchmark your agreement with NET(net)’s Federated Market Intelligence engine – the world’s most precise and complete pricing benchmark available for Salesforce.com.
Your safest bet is to call us to chat about your specific situation… Don’t let the tail wag the dog on this – it’s your business and your budget and a 20% cost increase without a significant increase in value is an erosion of your business case. Complete the form HERE, and or sign up for our Premium Content page to read more insights on Salesforce.com.

About NET(net) - NET(net) is a global disruptive industry force for good and has the experience you want, the expertise you need, and delivers the performance you demand to help you save money and improve value. NET(net) is the world’s only fully technology-enabled consultancy exclusively specializing in full service optimization of the technology supply chain, bringing clients and suppliers together to create winning markets and winning relationships. We help clients:

Find Value in their professional supply chain through strategic sourcing efforts designed to align client need to supplier capabilities while leveraging our objective, evidenced based processes to deliver optimized supplier proposals.

Get Value in a custom marketplace created through bespoke supplier negotiation assistance, leveraging our federated market intelligence, resulting in strengthened contractual agreements and improved commercial arrangements.

Keep Value in their organization through proactive industry best strategic supplier performance management of the agreement, the investment and the relationship, resulting in more sustainable business partnerships designed to deliver long term sustainable business value.

With clients around the world in nearly all industries and geographies, and with the experience of tens of thousands of field engagements, we have helped our clients capture hundreds of billions of dollars of incremental value. Contact your NET(net) representative, email us at info@netnetweb.com, visit us online at www.netnetweb.com, call us at +1-866-2-NET-net, or complete an online form today to see if we can help you capture more value.

NET(net)’s Website/Blogs/Articles and other content is subject to NET(net)’s legal terms offered for general information purposes only, and while NET(net) may offer views and opinions regarding the subject matter, such views and opinions are not intended to malign or disparage any other company or other individual or group.

Read similar posts below