SaaS Management

  • 9 min read

Salesforce License Management: Challenges & Best Practices

Chinmay Panda

8th January, 2024

SHARE ON:

Salesforce, a prominent cloud-based CRM solution, is favored by businesses of all sizes for its adeptness in tracking customer interactions and sales data. Despite its utility, many companies underestimate the complexities tied to managing Salesforce licenses. Consequently, organizations frequently encounter unforeseen challenges.

This article explores these challenges and offers established best practices for proficient Salesforce license management. These strategies promise to streamline operations and ensure seamless functionality by addressing critical issues.

Before we dive into challenges and best practices, let's first understand what is Salesforce license management is and what all types of licenses are there in Salesforce. 

What Is Salesforce License Management?

Salesforce license management constitutes a thorough process encompassing the management, allocation, monitoring, and optimization of Salesforce licenses. Its primary objective is to guarantee the efficient utilization of Salesforce licenses in compliance with regulations while capitalizing on cost-saving opportunities.

Furthermore, proficient Salesforce license management stands as a crucial element for organizations aiming to extract maximum value from their Salesforce investment. It addresses user access, security needs, and functional requirements essential for optimal operation.

Salesforce License Type And Cost

8 types of Salesforce licenses offer unique features that cater to different organizational needs:

• Salesforce User Licenses

Salesforce user licenses offer a set of fundamental features that users can utilize. These features include account, contact, lead, opportunity management, email integration with Gmail or Outlook, workflow and process automation, forecast management, and pipeline management.

• Salesforce Feature Licenses

These licenses provide users with additional features beyond those included in their original licenses. These include features such as marketing user, flow user, knowledge user, and service cloud user functionalities.

• Salesforce Platform Licenses

Enterprise and Unlimited editions offer these licenses, encompassing features such as accounts, contacts, reports, and automation tools like Process Builder, Flow, and Apex. Additionally, they come with standard capabilities for both individual and mass emailing.

• Salesforce Identity Licenses 

These licenses enable users to log in through Salesforce single sign-on (SSO) without the need for a complete CRM license.

• Salesforce Einstein Licenses

Salesforce Einstein constitutes a technological layer integrated into the Salesforce Lightning platform and various Salesforce Cloud products. It delivers AI-powered functionalities for predictive analytics, automation, and other capabilities.

• Salesforce Experience Cloud (Community) Licenses

These licenses provide external users, whether customers or partners, with a portal to access your Salesforce org. They come with features that facilitate the creation of personalized experiences for your partners.

• Marketing Cloud Licenses

These licenses provide the following:

• B2B marketing tools aimed at increasing pipeline generation.

• Closing more deals.

• Establishing personalized connections with customers.

• Pardot Licenses (Account Engagement)

These licenses provide B2B marketing automation tools designed to generate additional leads, facilitate more deal closures, and precisely measure the success of marketing efforts.

However, these licenses are further classified into starter, professional, enterprise, and unlimited plans. Here is a comparison table to provide a clearer understanding of these categories.

Comparison Table Of Salesforce Licenses’ Plan 

Now that you have gained the basic understanding of Salesforce license management, let’s proceed further and understand what are the benefits of managing Salesforce licenses. 

Advantages Of Salesforce Licenses Management

Ineffective management of Salesforce licenses can lead to several challenges for organizations. Some common issues include:

• Over or Underutilization: Organizations might end up purchasing more licenses than required (overutilization) or not utilizing all the licenses they have (underutilization), resulting in wasted resources or unmet user needs.

• Increased Costs: Inefficient license management can lead to unnecessary expenses due to unused or underused licenses, impacting the organization's budget and hindering cost optimization efforts.

• Security Risks: Inadequate management may result in improper access control, potentially leading to data breaches or unauthorized access to sensitive information.

• Lack of Alignment with Business Needs: Without proper license management, users might lack access to necessary features or tools, impacting productivity and hindering the achievement of organizational goals.

• Complexity in Governance: Managing a variety of licenses across different departments or business units can become complex, leading to difficulties in tracking usage, compliance, and governance.

• Difficulty in Scaling: Inconsistent or inadequate license management practices can create obstacles when scaling up or adapting to changing business requirements.

Addressing these challenges requires a strategic approach to Salesforce license management. Organizations must regularly assess usage, align licenses with actual needs, monitor for compliance, and implement policies that ensure effective utilization of licenses while maintaining security and cost-efficiency.

Unveiling Common Salesforce License Management Challenges 

Listed below are a few of the challenges that are often faced by organizations when licenses are not managed adequately: 

• Leads To License Over-provisioning

License over-provisioning occurs when there is an excess of purchased licenses compared to actual user requirements. This can result in unnecessary costs/expenses and the inefficient use of resources.

For instance, in an attempt to ensure all potential users have access, a large organization purchases more Salesforce licenses than needed. However, certain departments or teams may not utilize their allocated licenses, wasting financial resources. 

• Encounters Difficulty In Getting The Most Out Of The Salesforce License

Organizations may struggle to fully optimize their Salesforce licenses. This challenge could emerge from factors like inadequate training, lack of awareness about available features, or a mismatch between the organization's needs and the licensed features.

For example: 

A company invested in Salesforce licenses to enhance customer relationship management (CRM). However, due to a lack of comprehensive training for its sales team, the users may only use basic features and fail to explore the more advanced functionalities. This results in the underutilization of the Salesforce licenses. This scenario highlights the challenge of not fully extracting the value and capabilities inherent in the Salesforce license.

• Impacts Data Security

Ensuring data security involves protecting sensitive information stored in Salesforce, which is particularly crucial for industries with strict regulatory requirements. If failed to do so, organizations can face financial and reputational damage. 

For instance: 

A financial institution uses Salesforce to manage customer financial data. So, strict access controls and encryption measures must be in place to prevent unauthorized access. Failing to do so could lead to data breaches, compromising customer trust and legal compliance.

• Affects License Renewal Management

License renewal management involves the timely extension of licenses to ensure uninterrupted access to Salesforce services. But how can this be a challenge?

For example: 

Managing licenses for a workforce (employees) that undergoes frequent changes presents a significant challenge. If the renewal process is not automated or closely monitored, there's a risk of missing expiring licenses. This lapse or oversight can disrupt employee productivity as they lose access to essential tools and features. Moreover, timely renewal is crucial to maintaining seamless operations.

So, it's crucial to implement Salesforce license management strategies to address these challenges. Doing so allows you to optimize the Salesforce license to the fullest and ensure a smooth user experience while ensuring data security and compliance.

Now, let's go through some of the proven strategies you can consider implementing to manage Salesforce licenses effectively.

Salesforce License Management Best Practices Salesforce: 7 Proven Strategies

Given below are 7 best practices recommended by experts to streamline Salesforce license management:

1. Conduct Regular License Audits

Regularly conducting thorough license audits is essential for maintaining an efficient and cost-effective Salesforce environment. By routinely reviewing your licenses, your IT team can identify any instances of underutilized or unused licenses. This process allows your IT team to reallocate resources effectively, ensuring that users have access to the necessary tools and basic functionalities. Through these audits, organizations can optimize their spending, align their licenses with actual usage requirements, and enhance overall financial efficiency.

2. Create Documents For Future Use

Comprehensive documentation plays a pivotal role in effective Salesforce license management. Documenting the specifics of license allocations, user roles, and permission structures provides a valuable reference for the organization. This documentation acts as a centralized resource, helping your IT team understand the current licensing state within the Salesforce environment. It encompasses details such as the types of licenses in use, associated features, and user access levels. 

Furthermore, regularly updated documentation facilitates transparency, aids in conducting audits, and serves as a knowledge repository for maintaining a well-organized and efficiently managed Salesforce ecosystem.

3. Provide Targeted Training

Offering targeted training and support is a proactive approach to overcoming challenges associated with user adoption. Recognizing that some users may face difficulties in adapting to Salesforce, providing specialized training can bridge the knowledge gap. Tailored training modules addressing specific needs and roles within the organization contribute to increased user adoption. This, in turn, drives better results as users become more proficient in utilizing Salesforce features, ultimately contributing to the organization's success.

4. Automate Access Permission Management

Automation of access permission management processes is a key strategy for streamlining Salesforce License Management. Your IT team can efficiently assign and revoke permissions based on predefined criteria by leveraging automation tools. This reduces the likelihood of manual errors and ensures that users have the appropriate access levels aligned with their roles. 

Automation workflows can be implemented to handle permission assignments during onboarding and promptly revoke access when users no longer require specific permissions. This approach enhances the efficiency, security, and overall governance of the Salesforce platform.

5. Implement Role-Based Access

Implementing role-based access is a crucial step in ensuring that users have appropriate levels of access to Salesforce aligned with their responsibilities. By defining access levels based on roles, your IT team can strike a balance between enabling users to perform their job functions effectively and limiting access to sensitive Salesforce information. This granular control over access helps enhance data security while facilitating a streamlined workflow where individuals can access Salesforce and its relevant data to their roles.

6. Adhere To Contract Policies

Adhering to contract policies is fundamental to maintaining compliance and optimizing the utilization of Salesforce licenses. Salesforce provides:

• Specific terms and conditions within licensing agreements.

• Outlining usage limits.

• Contract renewal timelines.

• Any contractual obligations.

Organizations must stay informed about these policies and strictly adhere to contractual terms. This includes understanding the scope of usage, avoiding violations, and planning for license renewals in accordance with the agreed-upon terms. Moreover, contract policy compliance mitigates risks and fosters a healthy and transparent relationship between the organization and Salesforce, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted usage experience.

7. Renew Licenses Promptly

Timely renewal of licenses is crucial to maintain uninterrupted access to Salesforce services and prevent disruptions in business operations. Your team needs to plan for license renewals well in advance, understanding the renewal timelines and conditions specified in licensing agreements. 

Furthermore, setting up automated reminders is a practical strategy to ensure that critical renewal deadlines are not overlooked. By renewing licenses promptly, organizations safeguard against potential downtime, maintaining a seamless and continuous Salesforce experience for users. This proactive approach contributes to the overall stability and reliability of the Salesforce ecosystem.

By following these proven strategies, your IT team can effectively manage the Salesforce license, and in turn, organizations will be able to get the most out of their Salesforce investment. However, one more effective way to manage Salesforce licenses is by integrating Salesforce with an advanced SaaS management platform like Zluri. 

So, how does this integration help get the most out of your Salesforce license investment? Here's a quick read through 

Opt For Zluri To Get The Most Out Of Your Salesforce Investment

Organizations tend to spend dollars and dollars on applications like Salesforce to manage customer relationships. So it's evident they want to utilize the tool to its full potential and maximize their investment. 

But how do we achieve that? By integrating Zluri with Salesforce, your IT team can effectively manage the Salesforce license, understand the usage pattern, gain precise control, reclaim unused licenses, and more. This way, you can unlock the full potential of Salesforce. 

To help you understand better, let's dive into the details:

• Zluri Helps In Discovering All Salesforce Users

Integrating Salesforce with Zluri allows your IT team to gain complete visibility into Salesforce users and their usage data. How does it work?

Zluri uses five advanced discovery methods, which help accurately identify Salesforce license holders, track when the app was last accessed, identify which users are no longer using the licenses, and more. 

With this accurate visibility, your IT team can actively take measures to manage Salesforce licenses effectively. This further helps your IT team prevent over-allocation, unnecessary spending on underutilized licenses, and identifying those no longer needed.

• Helps In Optimizing Salesforce Licenses 

Zluri's SMP also offers detailed insights into user engagement with Salesforce, highlighting frequently used features. It does that by tracking the user's usage pattern effectively. This data further helps your IT team optimize your Salesforce license effectively or upgrade to a standard license plan. 

By doing so, your team can ensure you're only paying for the features your employees actively use. This optimization helps manage your subscription costs effectively and prevents SaaS wastage. 

Also, with such detailed insights into users' usage patterns, Zluri helps you, as an IT manager, make informed decisions when renewing renewals, which subscription/contracts to continue with, and which one needs to be eliminated. This ensures that you avoid overspending on unnecessary licenses.

• Reclaims Or Reallocates Salesforce Licenses Used By Ex-Employees 

By integrating Salesforce with Zluri, your IT team can manage the Salesforce licenses of former employees. They can strategically reclaim or relocate those licenses to new employees or employees who need them. This reduces the costs associated with acquiring new Salesforce licenses and maximizes the utilization of existing licenses, optimizing your Salesforce investment to its full potential.

You can get the best out of your Salesforce investment by integrating with Zluri. So why wait any longer? Book a demo now and explore Zluri's other exquisite automation capabilities. 

FAQs

How Does Salesforce Licensing Operate?

Think of Salesforce licensing as renting a space. Salesforce is like the landlord, and your company is the tenant. A Salesforce license is like a detailed list of what you can use in that space—like basic functionalities and cloud services. Furthermore, once you set up and activate these licenses, you can gain access to the complete array of features and services outlined in that specific license plan.

Does Salesforce Offer Enterprise Agreements?

Yes, Salesforce provides enterprise agreements known as SELA. Salesforce SELA stands for Salesforce Enterprise License Agreement, a distinct, long-term contract established between Salesforce and a large-scale enterprise customer tailored to address the specific requirements of bigger organizations.

What Is A License Management App In Salesforce?

The license management app (LMA) is a tool that assists developers and publishers in applying licensing for their apps on the Salesforce AppExchange platform. When a customer or potential customer installs the managed package, the LMA generates a lead record and a license record. These records further help track and manage the installed apps' usage and licensing information.

About the author

Chinmay Panda

Chinmay, an IIM Bangalore alum, leads Product Management at Zluri. Before Zluri, Chinmay has worked in the product team of Media.net, and in engineering roles in Bharat Heavey Electricals Limited & Tata Consultancy Services. He is a technology enthusiast.