20 Challenges in Salesforce You Can’t Ignore — And How Managed Services Solve Them

If your organisation uses Salesforce, chances are you're not getting the full value out of it. Many companies invest heavily in Salesforce licenses and customisations, only to find themselves stuck with poor adoption, broken processes, and underwhelming ROI.

The Salesforce environment looks good on the surface. But behind the scenes? User resistance, performance problems, and disconnected data pose threats to everything. A managed services partner can change things drastically.

Here are 20 critical Salesforce challenges every organisation faces and how managed services help overcome each one.

1. Data Silos Block Customer Insight

Customer data lives in silos—Salesforce, ERP, marketing automation tools and you have no unified customer view. This can make personalisation impossible and team collaboration difficult.

Solution: Managed services connect all systems using APIs and integration tools like MuleSoft. This creates a full view of your customers, leading to more targeted campaigns and better service delivery.

2. Painful Integration Issues That Hold You Back

Building and maintaining integrations is time-consuming. Internal teams struggle with sync issues and unreliable workflows.

Solution: MSPs specialise in Salesforce integrations. They handle APIs, data flows, UI connections, and processes. You get a seamless connection between systems with no data loss or errors.

3. Your Growth is Being Limited By Scalability Issues

As the business expands, Salesforce's performance degrades. New users and more data cause longer load times and errors.

Solution: Managed services optimise configurations, refactored code, and ensure the instance is scalable, future-proofing it for ongoing growth.

4. Lack of Real-Time Data Hurting Your Agility

Your teams rely on weekly exports or outdated dashboards. It's too late by the time decision-makers receive the data.

Solution: Real-time analytics through CRM Analytics replaces delayed reports, driving timely, informed decisions across departments.

5. Legacy Systems Holding You Hostage

Older systems often don’t work well with Salesforce. Integrating them becomes difficult, and they slow down your modernisation plans.

Solution: Experts in managed services can extract valuable data from legacy systems and connect them with Salesforce. This improves your processes without the need for full replacements.

6. Your Decisions Are Undermined By Data Inaccuracy

Bad data leads to bad decisions. Your reports lose their credibility if your data is inconsistent or disorganised.

Solution: Managed services handle data mapping and transformations. They clean and standardise data across systems, so reports are accurate and helpful.

7. Security Risks Threatening Your Business

Default profiles, poor access controls, and a lack of monitoring open the door to potential breaches.

Solution: Security audits, encryption, and proper role hierarchies protect your data—and align you with compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA.

8. Performance Bottlenecks Killing Productivity

If your Salesforce is slow, employees get frustrated. Errors increase, and productivity drops.

Solution: Managed services keep your system running smoothly. They do regular performance checks, tune settings, and remove bottlenecks to keep users productive.

9. Lack of Testing Leading to Costly Mistakes

If you don’t test changes before deploying, you risk breaking your system. This can corrupt data and stop operations.

Solution: The managed services provider enforces sandbox testing, regression checks, and change control processes. This avoids issues and keeps everything running smoothly.

10. Poor User Adoption: Wasting Your Investment

Despite investing in licenses and customisations, many users avoid Salesforce or rely on manual workarounds.

Solution: Managed services help train your staff and improve the user experience. They also make Salesforce easier to use, which increases user adoption and ROI.

11. Inefficient Workflows Slowing You Down

Manual labor slows down your teams and wastes time. If your workflows aren’t automated, productivity takes a hit.

Solution: Managed Services streamline and automate workflows. This lets your team concentrate on strategic work rather than tedious jobs. Reps can concentrate on selling rather than on administrative tasks.

12. Limited Visibility Obscuring Key Insights

Without proper reports and dashboards, you can’t track KPIs. Making well-informed decisions becomes more challenging as a result.

Solution: Custom dashboards and CRM Analytics visualisations give each team access to real-time KPIs tailored to your needs.

13. High Costs from Rework and Downtime

Errors due to misconfigured automation or failed updates lead to hours of rework and downtime.

Solution: A proactive maintenance schedule and performance monitoring help you identify issues early—and fix them fast.

14. Inadequate Planning Causing Project Failures

Poorly planned Salesforce projects often fail. They miss deadlines, go over budget, or fall short of goals.

Solution: Managed services use proven frameworks for planning and execution. They manage risks, timelines, and resources for successful outcomes.

15. Compatibility Issues Blocking Integration

You can lose time trying to force-fit integrations between incompatible apps and plugins.

Solution: Provider evaluates your entire tech stack and recommends solutions that align with Salesforce standards—reducing friction and costs.

16. Tool Selection Mistakes Increase Costs

It can be costly and time-consuming to use the wrong tools. Without expert advice, many businesses pick tools that don’t integrate well.

Solution: With guidance from experienced consultants, you select the right tools that match our use cases and avoid unnecessary expenses.

17. Design Flaws Limiting Scalability

If your Salesforce setup isn’t well-designed, it won’t scale with your business. You’ll face performance and maintenance issues.

Solution: Managed services team re-designs your Salesforce org using best practices. This ensures your system supports long-term growth.

18. Deployment Disruptions Can Impact Your Business Operations

You may lose a day of productivity due to a failed update. Deploying changes without proper planning can lead to downtime and data loss. This interrupts operations.

Solution: MSPs do every deployment through a version-controlled, sandbox-tested pipeline, with zero downtime.

19. Lack of Ongoing Support Increases Risks

Without ongoing support, your Salesforce system becomes outdated and risky. Bugs go unpatched, and security weakens.

Solution: Managed support services partners give continuous support. They monitor systems, fix issues, and make improvements to keep everything secure and efficient.

20. AI Integration Complexity

Adding AI features to Salesforce can be complicated. Without expertise, you risk wasting time and money.

Solution: Managed services provider activates relevant AI features, trains your team to use them, and helps you make smarter decisions using predictive insights and Salesforce AI tools like Einstein.

Final Thoughts

Salesforce is powerful, but only if used correctly. Many businesses struggle with the same issues—data silos, poor integration, low adoption, performance problems, and more. A dedicated managed services team can unlock the true potential of Salesforce.

If you’re facing even a few of these 20 challenges, it might be time to consider a Salesforce Managed Services provider.

Ready to get more out of Salesforce? Get in touch with us to find out more about how our managed services may help your business expand.