How many Salesforce Administrators does your company need to employ? How do you make that decision? These are common questions I hear from friends and colleagues that are using or evaluating Salesforce. So let’s take a look at the two most important things your company should consider: staffing and capacity considerations.
Staffing Considerations
Your business needs to determine how many and what type of Salesforce Administrators to employ. You have several choices. The following examples explain some of the options you can consider for your company.
Full- or Part-Time Administrator
Depending on the needs of the business, you can either invest in a full- or part-time administrator to fulfill day-to-day change requests, manage your Salesforce environment and ensure that you are maximizing your Salesforce implementation.
Separate Administrators
If you have several business units that use Salesforce — such as Sales, Marketing, Support, and Professional Services — consider using separate administrators for each group who will spend their time supporting their assigned business units.
Delegated Administrators
Another common practice for large implementations is to use delegated administrators for specific tasks such as managing users, customizing objects and building reports.
Regional Administrators
If you operate in several geographic regions, consider using one administrator for each major region, such as North America, EMEA, and APAC. To decide how to classify regions, consider whether they have distinct currencies, languages, or business processes, and then train the administrators in Salesforce CRM’s multi-currency and multi-language features. Also appoint a lead analyst or administrator who will coordinate the various regions.
Developer(s)
Consider using a certified Salesforce developer if your needs for customization go beyond the metadata capabilities of Salesforce, custom applications, or to create and implement custom code.
Backup Administrator(s)
Identify backup administrators and encourage them to keep their skills current. Consider scheduling one backup administrator’s time at approximately 10–25 percent of one full-time employee’s time.
Outsourced Administrators
Lastly, consider outsourcing your administration needs to a reputable, Salesforce certified consulting partner.
Capacity Considerations
It’s very easy for a Salesforce Administrator to become inundated with requests from throughout the business. So how do you know when you should increase or decrease the number of staff your company employs? You can use the following matrix as a guideline to help you make staffing decisions:
| Recommended Salesforce Administrators per Number of Users | |
|---|---|
|
Number of Users
|
Administration Resources
|
| 1–30 users | 1 full- or part-time administrator |
| 31–74 users | 1+ full-time administrator |
| 75–149 users | 1 senior administrator; 1 junior administrator |
| 140–499 users | 1 business analyst, 2–4 administrators |
| 500–750 users | 1–2 business analysts, 2–4 administrators |
| > 750 | Varies, depending on a variety of factors |
Drop me a comment below to let me know if you found this information helpful or have used a different ratio.
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