“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus
When you see a Salesforce.com system which has been over-engineered and unusable, it typically stems from a lack of clear leadership around process and strategy. It is easy to make what is simple complex as Mingus states. A lack of clear thinking and articulation of how a team moves through the sales, marketing or service process they are seeking to execute exacerbates the issue.
A well-designed Salesforce.com system works with complete buy-in from all of the users and managers of the system. Real-time information is valuable towards a feedback and action loop to drive a result:
– Increase revenue
– Increase customer loyalty
– Increase awareness
– Increase productivity
Many times, the goal is forgotten or drowned in the IT work in Salesforce.com. Users end up becoming data-oriented rather than results-oriented. Too many fields or data which is not related correctly can create more wasted energy than useful results. Thus, complexity can creep easily without a clear structure, strategy and focus. Doing less with clarity is much more valuable than adding features, forms, fields, or data because they are nice to have. Over-engineering Salesforce.com can cost you the success you desire and becomes even more costly to undo. Focus on success which is enabled by simplicity from creativity.
If you want to learn how to stay away from complexity, connect with me for Salesforce consulting help.