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Find out all there is to know about the Salesforce audit process so as to make sure that you have all it takes to carry it out properly.
According to Future Market Insights, the Salesforce services market is expected to reach $33.5 billion by 2029, which is a major jump from its current value of $14 billion. Yet, to ensure that the Salesforce platform offers the benefits you expect, it is vital to ensure the technology works as a well-oiled machine.
Performing regular Salesforce solution health checks and audits is an essential element within the technology lifecycle. It refreshes respective needs and KPIs, unveils gaps, and suggests approaches for correction . Now, let’s take an in-depth look at how the Salesforce audit is carried out.
As with any process out there, the first essential step is preparation. The same is true with the Salesforce audit. So, to get the audit going, you’ll need to cover some key areas, such as objectives, scope, team, documentation, andtimelines.
Before you start a Salesforce audit, you must clearly define all the objectives and scope. For instance, the objectives can include compliance with regulations, security risk identification, and system performance evaluation. In terms of the audit’s scope, you can focus on particular Salesforce instance environment areas, including data security, customization, and workflows, just to name a few.
The next preparation step is about putting together a Salesforce audit team. Make sure you have both internal and external auditors on board. Internal Salesforce auditors are people familiar with an organization’s processes and systems. In turn, external Salesforce auditors might be independent Salesforce consultants and professionals.
Moreover, when assembling a Salesforce audit team, you need to take care of the Salesforce expertise. This means the people working on the audit must have an in-depth understanding of the Salesforce architecture, best practices, and functionality. To verify Salesforce expertise, people on the audit team should have Salesforce certification, prior audit experience, and hands-on experience working with a Salesforce platform.
Furthermore, preparation encompasses gathering all the necessary documentation. This might include the following:
The documentation above gives you a starting point for further carrying out the Salesforce audit process. By having the audit documentation together, it ensures a smooth audit process in the future.
The final preparation step is to think about the Salesforce audit timelines. Make certain you set a clear timeline and divide it into smaller segments. Next, make sure that all the parties involved in the audit are aware of their responsibilities. Have clear deadlines for document submission, meetings, and audit report completion.
After the preparation stage for the Salesforce organization is over, it is time to obtain some of the monitoring tools for a Salesforce audit. In most cases, these instruments help you deal with the Salesforce auditing tools:
The above mentioned tools help to run Salesforce audits smoothly. While the list doesn’t have every one of the monitoring instruments, we can say it is a good starting point for your Salesforce audit toolkit.
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With all the needed preparation done and the toolkit assembled, it is time to start the Salesforce audit process. Naturally, security is the first stop. According to this report, a Salesforce data breach can cost up to $4 million. That is why if you want to minimize the chance of any data breach, evaluate Salesforce’s security, which entails dealing with its security configuration, data protection, logging, and monitoring.
A security configuration review encompasses looking closely at all the Salesforce settings and configurations pertaining to the system’s security, which examines the following:
These aspects lie at the core of evaluating the security configuration as a part of a security-based audit. Next, you’ll need to take care of data protection.
When it comes to assessing the data protection measures in place, focus on these two key elements:
With data protection, it is important to test the system to make sure there are sufficient measures to have data encrypted and protected against loss.
The final aspect of the Salesforce security audit is the monitoring and logging assessment. This means focusing on one platform and on these factors:
Putting all these puzzle pieces together, you have completed the Salesforce security audit by looking at security configurations, data protection measures, and logging/monitoring tools. If something is still unclear, it is always best to double-check all the security settings.
Governance review is next on the list of Salesforce audits. This audit entails exploring project management practices, roles and responsibilities, training and support, and compliance. Remember that establishing good governance is a direct path to having a consistent framework that allows you to manage change and resolve conflicts effectively.
Within the scope of project management practices, you need to review project management methodology, change management approach, and Quality Assurance (QA).
Project management methodology determines whether the platform utilizes Agile or waterfall methods. The first one offers flexibility and collaboration, while the second one is more linear and suited for projects with well-defined requirements.
The change management approach shows how well organizations can manage and control changes done to the Salesforce environment. Take a look at the Salesforce Change Sets so as to minimize disruptions and make transitions smoother.
QA assessment encompasses making sure the Salesforce platform meets the desired quality standards. This means conducting code reviews and dealing with automated and user acceptance testing.
Next, the Salesforce governance audit entails checking the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in the platform’s governance. In most cases, there will be three parties involved:
As a part of the Salesforce governance audit, it is crucial to determine whether all the stakeholders involved have their respective roles and responsibilities properly assigned. Otherwise, you will face disruptions in the platform’s functionality.
Along with governance on the part of internal stakeholders, you’ll need to take care of the end users as well. This involves ensuring two key elements:
Having training and support tools in place is not the prerogative of a Salesforce audit. However, if your organization has these, it will make life and the end-user’s life much easier.
Last but not least, there is a matter of compliance. Noncompliance can be extremely costly. For instance, if your organization works with Personal Health Identifiers (PHIs), you must comply with HIPAA. Failing to do so may result in up to $1.5 million per year in fines. Therefore, ensure the platform complies with industry standards, such as ITIL, GDPR, and HIPAA.
After completing the Salesforce governance audit, you should know what party is responsible for a particular aspect of the platform’s management, what project management practices are being used, how end-users are training to use the platform effectively, and what measures are in place to ensure compliance.
Moving along the Salesforce audit path, there is the matter of performanceandscalabilityto take care of. To get an objective take on these two aspects, it is vital to focus on the Salesforce system performance, integrations/customizations, andscalability assessment.
When it comes to auditing the Salesforce system performance, there are three key factors to check:
The key factors noted above allow you to grasp the overall condition of the Salesforce system performance. Yet, regarding the overall platform performance, you cannot avoid looking at customization and integrations.
Integrations and customizations make the Salesforce platform functional while also offering a great user experience. However, issues with integrations and customization can also cause poor performance. Which is why, you need to audit these three aspects of integrations and customizations:
While integrations and customizations offer your platform better functionality and user experience, it is important to check whether these aspects thwart performance. Respectively, take proper care of integrations and customizations in order to avoid future performance-based pains.
As a final step in the Salesforce performance and scalability audit, you should evaluate how fast and how effectively a platform can scale and grow. To do that, you’ll need to focus on these factors:
Analyzing Salesforce’s performance and scalability is a crucial part of the Salesforce audit and ensures an organization can meet their growth objectives. Besides, it is important to set a balance between the great user experience offered by customizations and a sufficient performance that prevents user dissatisfaction when using the platform.
Up to this moment, we have spoken a great deal about the importance of preserving the user experience. And, that is why the next crucial part of the Salesforce audit is the one directly related to the user experience. Let’s have a closer look at how it is done.
In a nutshell, the user experience Salesforce audit focuses on two key aspects – user interface and feature usage. These portray how well the platform’s design meets users’ needs and how well its features address any user problems at hand.
Assessing the Salesforce platform user interface revolves around these elements:
With a consistent, efficient, and accessible user interface, comes a great user experience. Ensure the interface’s overall design is simple and easy to use. Otherwise, users will look for alternatives.
The second part of the user experience Salesforce audit is linked to assessing the features useful in understanding how users interact with the Salesforce ecosystem. This part includes checking three facets:
After dealing with user interface and feature usage, you have covered two major factors impacting the user experience. And in this situation, ending an audit with a user experience assessment is a great way to finish the entire evaluation process.
As you can see, we started with checking security, proceeded to governance, focused on performance and scalability, and ended with the user experience. Yet, going through the stages listed so far, they are not the final point in the overall Salesforce audit. You reach the end when you devise insights from the audit and ensure the next one will be more effective.
There are particular recommendations we can offer to make Salesforce audits more efficient and successful. There are four particular aspects that can make a Salesforce audit so much better:
When dealing with a Salesforce audit, you must prioritize between the different actions to take and the steps to make. Immediate or short-term actions include addressing high-priority issues such as security vulnerabilities, slow-performing customizations optimization, and additional training for underutilized features.
On the different parts of the spectrum, long-term actions are all about planning and implementing the broader chances to improve the health, performance, and user experience of the Salesforce environment. This entails re-evaluating system architecture, enhancing data management processes, and implementing a new governance framework.
A business processes-focused review is the next step in the tech audit process and normally includes:
This requires close interaction with the Salesforce project team, business analysts, and the client’s head of technology. As a result of this collaboration, you get a 360-degree view of the platform and its functionality.
Development process quality is where we investigate the fundamentals of the system. This technology-focused review primarily includes the following:
Solution Architects and technology managers investigate code coverage and quality, usage of Salesforce software functionality, data asset quality, inputs and outputs, integrations, and testing processes, with a special focus on UI and regression testing.
Security and access are other milestones of the technical audit. It is critical to complete a detailed investigation of the compliance and security reviews of the existing system and data, and multidimensional access rules. All of the aspects above are crucial parts of the code hygiene strategy.
Reporting is the finalization of all the work performed. Based on the documentation and interviews conducted, the client can evaluate the current state of the system along with future maintenance considerations. A tailored report presents a thorough gap analysis within key technical areas. A detailed report provides actionable insight and recommendations on prioritized improvements of Salesforce-based solutions, scoring it against industry best practices, time and cost estimates, and a detailed code review with annotations.
The Salesforce audit consists of several steps – preparation, security check, governance evaluation, a performance and scalability assessment, and a user experience audit. Following these phases grants valuable insights and reveals any particular aspects of the Salesforce ecosystem that should be optimized. Conducting regular audits is a great way to ensure top-notch performance, enhanced security, and a great user experience.
As you can see, conducting a Salesforce audit is a challenging process. Yet, someone who knows how to build decent Salesforce solutions from the ground up definitely knows how to identify the gaps within an existing Salesforce system. Avenga is an official Salesforce partner. Contact us to let our experienced experts ensure your Salesforce environment performs to its best ability.
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