Salesforce Government Contracting – How You Can Benefit

Business models for government contracting differ quite a bit from those for commercial businesses, mainly due to stricter regulations governing the acquisition of goods and services by the federal government.

As a result, contract-related (and many other) systems and processes throughout government agencies have remained siloed and unfortunately become antiquated, not keeping up pace with the speed, intelligence, and customizability of their commercial counterparts.

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case. Salesforce has applications and tools specifically tailored to the needs of government contractors that can be easily integrated with the systems and processes required by their partner government agencies.

The Challenge

The set of regulations overseeing government contracting, called the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), is a complex set of rules dictating various elements of selection, competition, and contracting with the federal government.

Government contractors are also required to handle their accounting differently than commercial businesses. As a result, they have long been accustomed to adopting technology solutions built “for government contractors, by government contractors,” but those systems have not kept pace with commercial, consumer-centric technologies and experiences.

As a result, many (if not most) government contractors still have old, antiquated systems in place in at least some divisions of their businesses. These systems require ongoing maintenance investment, don’t keep pace with the times, and are widely disliked by their users.

People who work for government contractors also interact every day with commercial businesses to shop, pay bills, and carry out any number of things on the internet. The challenge that results is that those experiences have created a different set of expectations for how things should be done, and outdated government systems so far are not keeping up.

Enter Salesforce 

At Rainmaker, we’ve been working with government contractors for almost 20 years and they are always impressed by Salesforce for a number of reasons.

1. It works like the websites and applications they use in “real life.” In other words, it was designed to function like consumer applications, giving users a better experience.
   
2. It’s flexible, enabling them to evolve the system rapidly to meet their needs, ensuring that they don’t get stuck working with outdated processes simply because “that’s how the system has always worked.”
   
3. It provides intelligence in the form of reporting and a dashboard that can be tailored to meet customer needs without requiring a developer.
   
4. It can often support the way they do business as government contractors much better than their old systems. Rainmaker’s GovCon Accelerator is designed to enable government contractors to get up and running quickly so that their transition from the past to the future is as painless as possible.
   
5. It connects directly to the systems they already use, like Costpoint Accounting, Unison CLM, GovWinIQ, Sam.gov, and Bgov.

The Solution

At the end of the day, Salesforce government contracting solutions bring measurable, tangible results that improve everyday business processes and increase overall sales success.

Productivity

End users love Salesforce government contracting because it’s modern and intuitive to use. This enhances the worker experience, drives productivity and lessens friction between management and their reports.

In fact, Salesforce Lightning, launched by Salesforce five years ago with more modern, end-user friendly features and capabilities, has been reported to increase productivity by 41% and enables companies to close deals 23% faster.

Intelligence

The Salesforce system delivers more meaningful data enterprise-wide. Many Rainmaker clients say they’ve never had an accurate pipeline before they adopted Salesforce because business development representatives avoid entering deals until absolutely necessary. Now, that data is available and accessible start to finish.

Salesforce Lightning’s AI-powered Einstein Analytics tool has taken the platform’s reporting and analytics capabilities to the next level. Einstein performs real-time data tracking and uses predictive data analytics to provide companies with visualizations and recommendations that help them accomplish their business goals.

Flexibility

With Salesforce, IT departments long-saddled with legacy CRM systems can now say “yes” to new requests for functionality, enhancing the user experience and building business momentum. This is because Salesforce is so highly customizable and can be integrated with virtually any application.

Salesforce Lightning has increased this customizability in ways that allow end users to take charge of their customized experience, too. With a sleeker user interface, multiple workspace layout options, and drag-and-drop capabilities, Lightning users have the ability to tailor their Salesforce experience without having to consult a developer for every small change.

This capability goes deeper than personal visual preferences. When users are working with an interface that’s customized to their specific responsibilities and needs, they’re more productive and happier overall.

Find Your Solution

It’s true that government contractors must align with government processes and systems in order to keep their business. However, that doesn’t mean contractors can’t take charge of their own organizational experience.

Rainmaker offers solutions that can give you the best of both worlds — optimized internal processes and compliance with government processes, systems, and regulations.

Contact us today to learn more about how our solutions can enhance your organization!