Introduction
PDO meaning Product Development Outsourcer is a Salesforce consulting partner that specializes in helping get a product to market.
Product Development Outsourcing mostly focuses on deploying applications in the AppExchange. To do this, the application must meet the market, be suitable for customer use, and pass the Salesforce security check. According to Salesforce, Product Development Outsourcers (PDOs) represent a broad spectrum of consulting partners and consulting vendors with expertise in building commercial apps and other valuable services like training, funding, marketing, or selling your app. In other words, PDO Salesforce is designed to handle technical issues, salesforce solutions, integrations with 3rd party services, technical implementation or configuration, or custom salesforce development.
Benefits of PDO
Companies have a choice whether to use the help of PDO or do everything on their own. There are some of the main benefits that a customer can receive with PDO:
- Reduced technical burden. Since PDOs mainly deal with custom development, integrations, and app deployments, an ISV can focus on the core business and product challenges.
- Decreased costs. Working with a PDO can mean decreased costs and increased profitability for a project compared to managing the entire process in-house.
- Faster security review process. Because PDOs have experience with helping other clients through Salesforce’s security process, they can assist clients through the process quicker than if they went at it alone.
- Specific skill set. Salesforce PDOs are able to handle the entire technical scope of any Salesforce project from the discovery phase all the way up to app deployment on the AppExchange. Partnering with one ensures that a customer’s ideas get executed as effectively as possible.
Types of PDO
Even if Salesforce PDO is a subcategory of the Salesforce Consulting Partner group, there are certain levels and clusters for these outsourced software product development companies. They are:
- Certified Specialist;
- Certified Navigator;
- Specialist Navigator;
- Masters Navigator.
Their significant differences showed in the search filtering of the AppExchange and some extra domain expertise in the Salesforce ecosystem. There are also different requirements for each level. The PDO program features specialization directories for the partners present for the prominent two PDO tiers, Masters Navigator and Specialist Navigator. The full list of possible specializations is provided below:
- PDO: Integration / Connects Apps / Lightning Connect;
- PDO: Security Review & AppExchange Listing;
- PDO: Namespaces / Managed Packages;
- PDO: LMA / COA / Environment Hub;
- Custom App Dev — Process;
- PDO: Trialforce;
- PDO: Lightning Components;
- PDO: Einstein Analytics;
- PDO: Shield;
- Salesforce Platform: Custom App Dev — Coding;
- Salesforce Platform: Large Data Volumes (over 5 Million Records in the org);
- Salesforce Platform: Heroku Application Development and Data Services;
- Salesforce Platform: Mobile Customer App Dev (Salesforce SDK/Force);
- Community Cloud: Self-Service Community (B2C/B2B).
Thus, PDO is the most optimal way for Salesforce applications to market. They enable salesforce development services that use AppExchange to facilitate integrations by getting your software onto the marketplace fast and at a low cost.
To recap, PDO can:
- drive customer adoption by providing a consistent Salesforce customer experience that expands as your company grows;
- create a profitable business with a bespoke product built on Salesforce and designed with results-oriented KPIs;
- expand your product into Salesforce AppExchange and enter a new market with a partner that can assist you in determining the best product-market fit.
Conclusion
Use PDO to achieve success for outsourced product development. Even veteran salesforce CRM and salesforce developers teams benefit from the unique expertise — gained by building Salesforce apps for many companies just like yours — that the right PDO provides. Choosing an Expert PDO ensures that your Salesforce partner has the knowledge and experience to guide you effectively.
