For business leaders in 2018, it should come as no surprise that SaaS applications are dominating the landscape. On average, companies are using 33% more SaaS applications (this is around 16 more applications) while end-users have reported a 29% increase (from 51% to 89%) in preference for using SaaS applications to communicate and stay organized.* Plus, 87% of Salesforce customers and 89% of the Fortune 100 use AppExchange apps.

Additionally, we see that the total cost of ownership for on-premises software is more than double of that of a SaaS application.**

From startups to enterprise, the investment in developing for the cloud continues to increase.

The Intrinsic Value of Your Application

In our conversations with prospects and customers, the direct route to value through the AppExchange is typically very clear — you have a product that addresses a need and there is a market large enough to support it, or you have an existing application you are hoping to expand by acquiring new audiences and increasing lifetime value through the Salesforce AppExchange.

However, one area that is not as well understood as others is the value of building the best application you can while simultaneously getting it to market fast enough.

We see it all the time, companies choose to undervalue the investment it takes to build a world-class application and place the burden on an already bootstrapped development team, or offshore much of the work for a fraction of the price. While you get an application, it is often riddled with bugs, doesn’t function as expected, needs a UX overhaul — or even worse, you fell in love with the solution and ended up with a product that solves for the wrong problem.

We’ve had more than one customer who came to us from a botched build and are now faced with the burden of overcoming the sunk-cost while losing market share.

Business leaders must understand that there is an intrinsic value to your application. It is a reflection of the quality of your company. When the best companies build the best applications, they win.

MailChimp

Take MailChimp for example. When MailChimp came to CodeScience, they were already a leading email marketing platform and realized there was an untapped opportunity for building a native Force.com application — but they weren’t able to take advantage of this opportunity prior.

Having worked with two other Salesforce-approved companies, they spent 3 years only to receive a product that failed to meet their standards. During that time, support was overwhelmed and the team had to focus on putting out fires rather than innovating and developing for the future.

When they brought us onboard, we were able to truly understand their problems, their values, and ultimately what their end-users wanted (read the full case study here). The result? We delivered a now leading application on Force.com, which remains in the AppExchange top 5 to this day.

Lattice Engines

Lattice Engines developed a great platform that synthesized large data sets to provide predictive analytics and recommendations for lead generation and business development. Their customers liked the idea of the platform, but the interface was dated and to actually use Lattice’s data in Salesforce required users to export it and plug it back in.

Lattice Engines knew there was a better way to optimize usability and deliver a better experience for its customers. When Lattice Engines came to CodeScience, we devised a plan to leverage what was already built and take advantage of the innate power of Salesforce. Ultimately, we were able to build an app that was a seamless experience for users and efficiently handled the massive amounts of data being passed across the systems. Within just three months, one of the most complex apps that exists on the AppExchange was born.

Once the app went live, Lattice Engines saw impressive user adoption. Within six months, they had over 10,000 users.

“2017 was far-and-away the best year ever for Lattice – we booked more new business than ever, retained more customers than ever, and generated more advocacy and customer enthusiasm than at any point in our company history.”

             –   Michael McCarroll, President at Lattice Engines

Build Only the Best

Your business deserves the best possible application for competitive advantage, minimizing attrition, and driving revenue while lowering your opportunity cost. However, developing a world-class AppExchange app isn’t easy and many organizations lack either the expertise or resources to do so. By working with a PDO like CodeScience, you are able to leverage our expertise gained from launching 220+ products. From standing up development teams to supporting your sales and marketing teams, a PDO is your partner and advisor to help you every step of the way.


Want to know more about how CodeScience drives innovation and success? Check out our planning page to get an idea of what the first step of our process is.

Or are you ready to start building the application your customers deserve? Drop us a line — as the only Salesforce PDO Master, we know what it takes to build the best.

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*   FinancesOnline
** The SaaS Report