Salesforce Solution Architects are crucial in ensuring a successful, high-quality Salesforce implementation. The ‘Solution’ to the specified business requirements is ultimately the responsibility of the Solution Architect. A Salesforce Solution Architect primarily focuses their energy on, you guessed it, Salesforce.
A Salesforce Architect is a dependable adviser and manager who collaborates with business executives and stakeholders to create the architecture and vision for a solution to an issue in business. They frequently serve as the professional team leader and aid in educating the group on industry best practices.
However, this will not necessarily imply that the role is more straightforward. What is required to become a “Solution Architect” on the Salesforce platform? What exactly does it include once you’re there?
What is a Salesforce Solution Architect?
Salesforce Solution Architect converts business requirements into a technological vision that groups of pro or low-code builders may implement. Additionally, architects create verification (POCs) which teams can develop further. It contrasts with Enterprise Architects, which would examine the entire system landscape and numerous technologies.
A Salesforce architect designs the participation in decision-making and data architecture for a Salesforce implementation. They will develop data and process linkages, develop technical solutions for identification and access, and create solutions considering high data volumes and data protection requirements.
Additionally, depending on the business use case, they suggest employing click, coding, or a combination of both to solve a problem. Architects are frequently the last line of defence for any production problems because they have extensive experience solving problems.
What Makes a Great Salesforce Solution Architect?
The most widely used customer experience platform worldwide is Salesforce. The number of customers the CRM handles at the $20 million price level has doubled over the past 12 months and has attracted countless new hires worldwide. Companies worldwide are now realizing what their teams can do when they have the correct Salesforce certification.
Companies need more than just the correct technology to take advantage of the best customer relationship management solutions; they also want staff members who can create custom solutions on the Salesforce platform.
The qualities required to be a great Salesforce Solution Architect are as follows:
1. Commitment to Salesforce
The most acceptable solution architects don’t take a simple Salesforce certification for granted. These experts are fervent believers in the technologies they employ to change industries. A person passionate about technology with a growth mentality will quickly adjust to the most recent Salesforce roadmap updates.
2. Problem-Solving mind
Interviewers concentrate on competency-based inquiries while creating the Salesforce solution architect questions in interviews because they will motivate candidates to demonstrate their problem-solving abilities. Solution architects must perceive the large picture in a commercial and CRM environment to develop long-term business support strategies.
3. Leadership Skills
You are one of the more experienced members of the project team because you are a solution architect. Eventually, your choices and solutions will determine whether or not that endeavour is a success. You have to be able to guide your group while also giving them the flexibility to carry out their duties and advance their careers.
4. Communication skills
The key to effective communication is clarity. Your project will fail if your team or client does not comprehend what you are attempting to accomplish. Understanding your audience is a part of the art of communication. Someone who has only recently started using Salesforce will look perplexed if you try to explain something technical to them.
5. Establish Trust
Again, building trust with your team and the client is crucial. Your client needs to know that if you have promised to supply something, it will be done promptly and to the specified standard. Projects can quickly change from good to awful if you lack this trust.
6. Keep Calm
Solution architects are under a lot of pressure to produce high-quality work. Your client, your staff, and your business are all watching you. There will be occasions when it feels overwhelming, but modelling good behaviour is essential. People are more inclined to become stressed if they witness you being stressed.
7. Be Personable
Solution architects without a sense of humour are uncommon. Building solid relationships with clients and teams is crucial to completing a project successfully. Sometimes we work in stressful circumstances; therefore, as you produce high-quality work, having fun while working is okay.
How Salesforce Solution Architects Guide Planning and Preparations
Solutions architects are primarily involved in the planning and preparation phase of the project. They perform three things to prepare for the implementation process:
1. Define The Data Model
Establish the data model. Consider them the landscapers of every piece of data you intend to add to your Salesforce organization. Technically, they decide how the data model’s objects should be associated with one another and how much each object must be arranged.
2. Determine how you will feed the data into your Salesforce organization
Solutions architects plan the mechanics of how data will move to and from your Salesforce organization after deciding how it will be categorized and stored.
3. Provide Solutions
They start outlining the business needs for the Salesforce deployment at this point. During this phase, Solutions Architects examine each user story the project’s business analyst has created and identify the broad categories of work that the Technological Architect will fill in later.
Salesforce Solution Architects’ Challenges
Even though being a Solution Architect has its hurdles, the job is gratifying. Here are some difficulties you can run into as a Solution Architect if this is your chosen career path:
1. Not building anything
You step back and perform less configuration as you go to more senior positions. This links in with difficulty mentioned above. Since most employees learn things much more quickly through experience, adjusting to a new working method has been challenging. Trailhead is an intelligent approach to staying current and keeping your setup skills functional.
2. There is a lot more pressure
Everyone is putting more and more pressure on you to perform well as you move into more senior responsibilities. The argument is not best suited for you if you struggle under pressure.
3. Confidence
For as long as you’re taking it all in, it’s straightforward to remain silent in less senior roles, but as a Solution Architect, the customer is paying a high price, and they expect to receive their money’s value. The goal is to sound assured by what you’re saying.
4. Time Management
You guarantee the client that projects will be completed while working under tight deadlines. To ensure you can meet your delivery deadlines, you must manage your teams’ and your own time. Whether your project is agile or waterfall can affect this, but your time management should always be on target.
5. Keeping Salesforce on top of everything
Technology is continuously changing, including Salesforce. With three-year releases, it is pretty simple to lose track of what is feasible and what isn’t. Especially if you spend all your time completing projects, reading the latest update, blogs, videos, and whatever else you need to stay current.
Conclusion
Although it is not simple, the path to being a Salesforce Solution Architect is tremendously rewarding, personally and financially. Salesforce Solutions Architects establish an implementation project’s scope and timetable before being turned over to the Technical Architect. However, the work, the entire team, conducts later depends on their advocacy for adhering to SaSalesforce’sest practices. It will provide you access to a wide range of possibilities that you never even knew existed.