If you’re finding it hard to find qualified Salesforce admins and business analysts you’re not alone. Whether you’re willing to pay top dollar or not, the Salesforce talent pool is getting smaller and as more companies adopt Salesforce as their ERP of choice, demand is only set to increase without a sustainable stream of talent to meet the demands of the industry.
There are several contributing factors to the tightening Salesforce labor market that you can read about here but ultimately as Madonna would say “love doesn’t live here no more”.
This is where remote teams come in.
Despite its checkered history, remote software development teams have come a long way since the early days. More and more leading Salesforce agencies are finding rich veins of Salesforce talent in emerging markets where strong STEM university programs and robust infrastructure are producing technology hubs to rival Tel Aviv and Stockholm. Here is why an remote or hybrid talent strategy is a good idea for your Salesforce team:
Rich Talent Pool
Emerging digital economies like the Philippines, Argentina, Poland, and Chile are fast becoming viable alternatives to established offshore locations like India. Investment in communications infrastructure and digital-friendly government policies have nurtured a new wave of tech natives and private sector investment to build world-class offshore development houses.
A key area for Salesforce talent is Cebu, Philippines where private sector businesses are partnering with universities to develop programs that grow and nurture Salesforce talent to meet the growing global demand.
Cost-effective….to a degree
Remote development teams aren't as cost-effective as they used to be and that's a good thing. Contrary to popular belief, higher salaries mean better talent that is more skilled with better real-world experience equating to more effective resources and talent.
If you are considering building a hybrid team, it's worth exploring multiple geographic locations and assessing wage costs against elements like infrastructure, mobility, government policies, and other factors that will impact the ease of doing business and increase or reduce hidden costs.
Wage costs are definitely lower for remote solutions but it's worthy of paying a little more for fewer headaches in the long run.
Suitable for blending with an onshore team
Moving to a 100% remote model can be daunting and introduce a high level of risk to your business. If you are new to hybrid or remote development, it's suggested to start small and consider how you might blend your onshore and remote teams.
Introducing diversity into your squads creates a sort of superpower. Organic knowledge transfer between teams means that local techniques and skills are shared, enhancing both the onshore and remote team members and creating a level of resiliency in the event that team members leave the business.
Use of agile makes is a great foundation for team trust and transparency
It's easy to overlook the power of agile in modern software organizations, however getting back to basics with disciplined backlog grooming, well-written tickets, regular live standups, and honest retrospectives ensures a hybrid team is set up for success. Most remote teams live and breathe standard agile practices and are trained in how to go the extra mile in communicating updates and providing transparency into progress.
A shared, curated and well-managed Jira or Trello board ensure teams to know where each individual is and can become resilient if someone is on vacation or sick and give your DevOps confidence of completing sprints and epics according to schedule.
The Verdict
Remote Salesforce administration and development is a viable alternative to direct “in office” hires that reduce costs without reducing the quality of talent and capability.
If you’re new to remote teams or looking to diversify your teams, InspireX is a software development collective with over 10 years of experience in curating and managing great software teams including UI/UX design, and Salesforce admins and business analysis, and QA.
