Willow Saves $380k with Salesforce Fractional Team

Willow Innovations was struggling with high costs and low-quality outcomes from their Salesforce implementation. They employed an in-house Salesforce administrator along with a three-person consulting team. This model led to missed deadlines nearly 80% of the time, frequent rework, and significant post-launch triage. The high costs were limiting their ability to invest in revenue-generating areas and teams of the business.

The combined costs of in-house administration and third-party consulting were astronomical, impacting Willow Innovations’ ability to invest in other critical areas. There was a need to reorganize the Salesforce development team to reduce costs and improve project delivery accuracy.

I took ownership of the Salesforce development team, beginning with a search for an outsourced team capable of providing both administrative and development support. After creating an RFP and vetting vendors, I selected a partner that could support the fractional team model I was after. This approach provided ongoing administration, as well as flexible support for architecture design and system development. I onboarded the new team and managed the project as both developer and project manager.

Under my leadership, the new fractional team achieved a 74% reduction in costs compared to the previous in-house and consulting model. The improved quality of work led to a 90% on-time and on-spec delivery rate. This transition allowed us to eliminate the in-house admin and consultant roles, resulting in annual savings of nearly $380k in admin and development costs for Willow Innovations.