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Hidden Costs of Salesforce Legal Case Management

Hand holding magnifying glass to find hidden costs with Salesforce.

The Myth of Salesforce Legal Case Management

Don’t be fooled by the many hidden costs of Salesforce legal case management solutions. Biggest does not mean best. Salesforce touts itself on its homepage as the world’s #1 CRM platform. But what do they mean by #1? Is that a volume statistic or are they claiming superiority over other platforms in terms of quality, ability and usability?

Salesforce claims to provide a comprehensive set of tools integrating sales, marketing, commerce and engagement. These tools are said to work in concert with AI in the background to provide you with insights based on your data and patterns.

In today’s transparent world, we have the benefit of searching for online reviews by actual users to help us determine if the claims Salesforce makes are indeed true. Unfortunately for Salesforce, they have some pretty low stars. Reviews claim poor service, strong-arm marketing techniques and a very confusing, complex product. This one sums up the bulk of the online reviews pretty well:

Small businesses stay away!

Do not use this software.
1) They will give you a demo that will be exactly what you can imagine will be great for your company. (Bait and switch)
2) but after you sign up, you’ll realize it will take about 480 hrs of your time to learn this system because there are 10,000 components
3) So maybe you don’t learn to do it yourself, it will take about 100 hrs to 200 hrs to pay for someone to set up the basic at $175 (that’s the hourly rate for a Salesforce developer) which is the highest paid non-college degree job you can get

Which Brings Us To The Hidden Cost of Salesforce Legal Case Management.

Are you smaller than an enterprise client? If so, be prepared to be overwhelmed by the truly unimaginable hidden cost of the Salesforce platform. The low bait price of $25 per month provides very little functionality. Any functionality that you were expecting and hoping for in this system comes at a hefty, hidden price tag.

Hidden, in the sense that virtually everything you attempt to integrate or connect to it adds to the monthly fee. Many of the integrations or connections you will find necessary to meet your expectations of why you bought it in the first place. To complicate matters further, each Salesforce software update that occurs may disrupt the functionality of the integrated partner. This will require a significant amount of time for upkeep of your connections and ensuring workflows continue uninterrupted.

Hidden, in the sense that if your provider of SFDC has built an overlay on top of the application, expect it to be slow. The concept makes sense but the execution leaves many scratching their heads. Indeed, any update that SFDC does can crash the system.

Overlay Applications of Salesforce Legal Case Management

In some tools, the overlay application due to licensing mismatches between various apps will crash the overlay or the integrated tool. In one reported case, an integration with Quickbooks, the users were limited at first to dispersing only one check a day; if two people tried to disperse a check at the same time, the system would freeze. In another user’s case, after being sold a solution by a top legal overlay provider, the day the platform went live they were looking for their checks and the implementation team disappeared. This ultimately required the firm to hire a highly paid Salesforce administrator who was there a few weeks and quit working on it…because the app was overly complex and dysfunctional.

All of this is surprising since SFDC (salesforce.com) is a Platform and, if you are overlaying on top of it, then Salesforce should have completed 75% of the development for you. It is 1999 technology running in 2019 – that is twenty years of technological improvement while Salesforce is still foundationally the same in many ways.

no_software sign
Hidden Cost of SFDC Legal Case Management
no_salesforce sign
Do NOT Enter Salesforce – don’t fall for the hidden cost of SFDC

It makes you wonder why they stopped using this logo years ago. Because it really should be a “do not enter” over salesforce.

Look Close Before You Buy Salesforce Legal Case Management

Hidden, in the sense that setting up and configuring your new SFDC software system will require a highly skilled and trained individual to configure and customize all your workflows, as mentioned by the online reviewer above. You will need a Salesforce administrator if you want to use the tool beyond any basic functionality. Salesforce is overwhelmingly complex with many variations and components. It lacks an intuitive nature, making it difficult for the average person to set up, learn and use in any constructive and productive manner.

Con of Salesforce Legal Case Management: Training and implementation. I feel that there is an expectation that users automatically understand the terminology and how to use the functions of the software. There should be an approach of assume the user knows nothing about this type of software.

Hidden, in the sense that Salesforce with all its size, development, and supposed #1 world ranking has not fully quality-controlled its own product and evaluated it for user experience (UX) issues. For example, dropdowns exist where you cannot read the contents unless you click each one and go through the long lists or resize your browser quickly to make them work (a time killer).

Con of Salesforce search function: “The search function that was the backbone of our Salesforce use was completely ruined. Our campaigns are much harder to find – the lead information is not easy to see anymore – it requires way more click through to find things that were easily found before integrating Litify.”

Con A nightmare to work with: “[Salesforce legal case management] … caused many headaches that involved an unacceptable answer of ‘Sorry we cannot do anything about it, because of Salesforce’ … Many times, we would have to open tab after tab to get an answer.”

What to Look For in Choosing the Best Legal Case Management Software

When searching for a customer relationship manager (CRM) to manage your firm’s interactions with current and potential clients, consider the following:

  • Make sure the CRM platform uses data analysis from client records to improve your firm’s relationship with its clients.
  • Ensure it focuses on client retention strategies.
  • It should also be a tool that ultimately drives new business development and growth.
  • Ask how it measures both inbound channels of marketing and backend elements like intake.
  • The CRM should be cloud-based and provide easy remote access.
  • It should allow for easy, documented team-wide communication.
  • You should be able to create custom reports and gain insight into your firm’s data.
  • It should be cost-effective and stand on its own – providing you with a verifiable return on investment (ROI) and not, as in some legal case management solutions, offering an open promise for additional value-added benefits through a network of referrals.
  • And, finally, it should be easy to set up and get started on while providing superior and ongoing customer service.

It is not enough to claim to be the #1 trusted solution if it is unsubstantiated. If it still takes so much to make the solution optimized for your business, one should really wonder if it is the right solution at all. So, do your homework and make sure to find your own sources for how SFDC is really impacting law firms.

Do not fall for the bait and switch tactics online reviewers caution about with Salesforce. If you want a truly modern platform for your law firm that was created by lawyers for lawyers, then contact GrowPath for a quick demo. Additionally, if you are currently seeking the Best Legal Case Management for your team, consider downloading our Checklist and Guide for Choosing the Best Legal Case Management Software.

November 13, 2019