Now, you may be thinking "of course you are going to say that; it's what you do," and, yes, while that is true, we aren't making the case for us but, rather, what an experienced partner can mean for your business and the success of your technology investment.

We have engaged with more clients than we care to admit that come to us after the fact, after having gone the less expensive route with an under-qualified implementation partner or DIY-ing their implementation internally only to realize the solution wasn't living up to their expectations.

It's easy to get sticker shock when looking at the project proposal and trying to cut costs here and there, but in listening to our clients' experiences over the years and knowing industry trends first-hand, we are here to share seven of the value-adds an experienced, strategic partner can bring to your technology implementation.

Understanding the terminology and semantics of a technology is absolutely vital to correctly implementing and utilizing the solution within your business. A distinguished solution partner has been confirmed "proficient" in the technology by the publisher. They'll know the difference between a Lead and an Opportunity in Salesforce; the hierarchy of an Account, Contact, Activity, and Campaign and what it means for your processes; how your internal approach, whether you are more agile or traditional waterfall in your project management, affects if you adapt Case or Project functionality in your CRM, and so on.

You may look and think Ideas, Knowledgebase, and Libraries are all describing the same feature, but a knowledgeable Salesforce advisor will be able to explain the terminology and functionality nuances and then translate it to your business.

Along with talking the tool's talk, the right implementation partner will dive into your business and really get to the root of your processes and objectives. At the end of the day, the tool is only one piece of the puzzle; aligning your business' people, process, and technology creates a completely optimized solution that will accelerate your organization. Today's technologies are highly customizable, so just as important as understanding the functionality is knowing how to adapt the solution's capabilities to fit your business.

What a Lead in Salesforce means for one organization could mean something completely different for another; that is the beauty and the overwhelming power of technology today. Lead scoring and custom dashboarding create a solution that is uniquely your own, but if you don't know how to align it to your people and processes, you will never realize the return your business needs to validate the initial technology investment.