Evaluating Salesforce CRM Analytics (Tableau CRM) for Enterprise Analytics
Salesforce CRM Analytics – formerly known as Einstein Analytics and later Tableau CRM – is an advanced analytics platform native to the Salesforce ecosystem. It provides powerful data visualization, AI-driven insights, and the ability to embed dashboards directly into Salesforce workflows.
This section of the CIO playbook offers an advisory overview for decision-makers evaluating CRM Analytics. It covers when to use Salesforce’s native analytics versus standard dashboards or external BI tools, how its licensing works, and strategies to maximize value while controlling costs.
The tone and guidance here mirror a Gartner-style analysis, focusing on strategic considerations and best practices for CIOs.
Overview of Salesforce CRM Analytics
Salesforce CRM Analytics is a premium analytics add-on for the Salesforce platform, enabling users to explore data beyond what standard Salesforce reports can offer.
Key capabilities include:
- Advanced Dashboards and Visualizations: Users can create interactive dashboards that combine complex data from Salesforce objects or external sources and feature-rich visualizations, extending beyond native Salesforce reports.
- Embedded Insights in CRM Workflow: Dashboards and insights from CRM Analytics can be embedded in Salesforce pages (e.g., on a Sales Cloud opportunity view), allowing employees to view actionable analytics in context without needing to switch tools.
- AI-Powered Analytics: The platform incorporates Salesforce Einstein AI features. For example, Einstein Discovery (available in certain editions) can automatically detect patterns, make predictions (such as sales forecasts or churn likelihood), and suggest next steps, all within the analytics dashboards.
- Data Integration: While primarily used for Salesforce CRM data, CRM Analytics can also ingest external datasets. This allows you to blend Salesforce data with other sources, although this may require additional data connectors or integration work.
In essence, CRM Analytics is Salesforce’s answer for organizations that need more sophisticated business intelligence tightly integrated with their CRM. It goes beyond the out-of-the-box reports by offering a full analytics suite within the Salesforce environment.
However, these capabilities come at additional cost and complexity, which CIOs must weigh against other options.
Native CRM Analytics vs. Standard Dashboards vs. External BI Tools
A core decision for any organization is whether to invest in Salesforce’s native analytics (CRM Analytics) or rely on the standard included dashboards and reports, or an external Business Intelligence (BI) platform.
Each approach has its merits and limitations:
- Standard Salesforce Reports and Dashboards (Included): Every Salesforce deployment comes with built-in reporting and dashboard features, included at no extra cost. These are suitable for basic operational reporting, such as a sales pipeline dashboard or case management reports that use data directly from Salesforce. They are relatively easy to use and require minimal setup. However, standard dashboards have limited capabilities: they can only report on Salesforce data (typically one object or a simple join of a few objects per report), offer a fixed set of chart types, and lack advanced analytics functions. For many day-to-day needs, such as tracking KPIs or listing records, these native reports suffice. The downside is that if you need complex data analysis (e.g., trend analyses across large data sets or data combined from multiple sources), the standard tools can be restrictive.
- Salesforce CRM Analytics (Add-On): CRM Analytics provides a comprehensive analytics layer on top of Salesforce. Because it’s built into the Salesforce platform, it inherits the Salesforce security model, where users see data according to their CRM permissions. It also updates in near real-time with your Salesforce transactions. This deep integration makes it ideal for teams that live in Salesforce and need immediate insights. For example, a sales manager can use a CRM Analytics dashboard to identify at-risk deals using predictive scores and directly drill down to the Salesforce records to take action. Compared to standard dashboards, CRM Analytics offers:The ability to handle larger data volumes and more complex calculations. Cross-object and cross-source analysis (e.g., combining CRM data with spreadsheets or database exports).Custom interactivity (filtering, drilling, what-if analyses) in dashboards.AI-driven insights (in the Plus edition) for predictive modelling. The trade-off is between cost and complexity: it requires purchasing licenses (discussed below) and developing the necessary skills for analytics apps. Building dashboards in CRM Analytics may require specialized knowledge, such as using Salesforce’s Analytics Studio and data preparation with datasets, which could necessitate additional training or hiring expert resources. It’s a powerful tool, but one that needs investment to set up and maintain.
- External BI Tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Qlik): Many organizations already use external BI platforms for enterprise reporting. Tools like Tableau (a standalone BI software), Microsoft Power BI, or Qlik Sense can connect to Salesforce data (through APIs or exported data) and combine it with data from other systems, such as finance, ERP, and marketing platforms. These external tools often provide rich visualization libraries and advanced analytics features comparable to CRM Analytics. Advantages of external BI:
- They serve broader use cases beyond CRM. A single platform can serve as the analytics hub for the entire enterprise, incorporating Salesforce data alongside other data sources. They can leverage existing skill sets; many companies have BI developers or analysts already proficient in tools like Tableau or Power BI. Depending on the licensing, external BI might be more cost-effective at scale, for example, if you have enterprise-wide licenses or a server-based model rather than a per-user model.
In summary,
If your analytics needs are highly CRM-centric and you value real-time, in-context insights for Salesforce users, CRM Analytics is attractive. It effectively supercharges Salesforce with a built-in analytics brain.
On the other hand, if your needs are broader than Salesforce or you already have a capable business intelligence (BI) environment, an external tool might deliver similar insights without requiring additional Salesforce-specific licensing.
Many organizations strike a balance – using Salesforce’s standard reports for basic needs and an enterprise BI tool for complex multi-source analytics, only considering CRM Analytics if there’s a clear requirement for its unique benefits (like embedded AI insights within Salesforce).
Example: A midsize company considered CRM Analytics when looking to improve its sales dashboards. They found that standard Salesforce reports could provide basic pipeline tracking for sales reps, while deeper analysis of win rates and forecasting was already handled by their Power BI system pulling data nightly from Salesforce. In this case, the CIO decided that investing in CRM Analytics licenses for all sales managers would be duplicative. Instead, they embedded a Power BI iframe in Salesforce for those who wanted a quick view, and saved the cost. Conversely, another organization in the financial services sector, where advisors work entirely inside Salesforce, chose CRM Analytics for its wealth management app so that advisors get AI-driven recommendations in real time on their client pages – a capability difficult to replicate with an external BI without significant integration work.
Licensing Model and Cost Considerations
One of the most important factors in evaluating CRM Analytics is its licensing and cost structure. Unlike standard Salesforce reports, which are included in your base Salesforce subscription, CRM Analytics is a paid add-on licensed per user.
Key points regarding licensing:
- Per-user licensing: Each individual who needs access to CRM Analytics, whether to build dashboards or view them, typically requires a license. Salesforce offers CRM Analytics in different tiers or editions, but they are generally user-based licenses. There is no “concurrent user” or “server” license – it’s tied to named users. This means costs scale linearly with the number of people given access.
- License Editions (Features vs. Price): Salesforce’s packaging for analytics often includes a couple of options: CRM Analytics Growth – a baseline version that provides the core analytics platform, including visualizations, data integration, etc. CRM Analytics Plus – a more advanced package that includes Einstein Discovery (AI features) and possibly additional connectors or pre-built templates. (In the past, Salesforce offered Einstein Predictions or other a la carte analytics features at lower price points, but as of recent packaging, the above bundles are common). The exact naming and features may evolve, but generally, higher-tier licenses include more advanced analytics, such as AI and predictive modeling. Higher tiers cost more per user than the base tier.
- Cost Level: CRM Analytics licenses are a significant extra cost on top of standard CRM user fees. While actual pricing depends on your Salesforce contract and negotiations, list prices have been cited in the range of $125–$150 per user per month for the full-featured Analytics licenses (billed annually). Even a pared-down version or a legacy “Einstein Predictions’ license was around $75 per user per month. For an organization with 100 users, a $125 per user per month add-on translates to an additional $ 12,500 per year in licensing spend. CIOs should ensure this outlay is justified by equally significant business value. It’s worth noting that these costs are in addition to the base Salesforce licenses, which can range from $75 to $ 300 per user per month, depending on your CRM edition. The additive effect can substantially raise the total cost of ownership of the Salesforce platform.
- Selective Deployment to Control Costs: A best practice is to limit CRM Analytics licenses to users who truly need advanced analytics. Not every Salesforce user in your org requires the ability to slice and dice data in Analytics Studio. Commonly, organizations will license a subset of users, such as Business analysts or operations analysts, who create dashboards and datasets. Departmental leaders or power users who rely on interactive data insights (e.g., sales managers reviewing team performance or a support director analyzing case trends). Executives, if they want personalized analytic dashboards within Salesforce. Other users, such as front-line sales reps or service agents, may not need direct access to CRM Analytics if standard reports meet their needs or if a manager can distribute insights in other ways. By targeting licenses to 15-30% of the user base— the ones that need advanced analytics — companies can dramatically reduce costs compared to licensing everyone. For example, a firm with 500 Salesforce users might decide that only 50 need CRM Analytics. This focused approach ensures the cost is contained to those 50 users, rather than all 500.
- License Reassignment and Flexibility: Salesforce licenses are typically named-user and annual contracts, but you do have the ability to reassign a CRM Analytics license from one user to another (for instance, if an employee leaves or changes roles, you can revoke their license and give it to someone else). CIOs should enforce regular processes to reclaim and reallocate licenses, ensuring that only active, needed users consume the license counts. This avoids “shelfware” – licenses paid for but not being used.
- Contract Negotiation and Volume Discounts: When negotiating your Salesforce agreement, there may be opportunities for discounts on CRM Analytics, especially if you are purchasing a large number of licenses or as part of a larger deal (e.g., bundling with a Salesforce renewal or other products). It’s advisable to:
- Engage independent licensing experts (such as Redress Compliance or other Salesforce licensing advisors) to get an unbiased view of what you truly need and what discounts are achievable. These experts can analyze your usage and contracts to identify cost-saving opportunities and ensure you’re not over-buying. They have experience in how Salesforce prices these add-ons and can often suggest negotiation levers.
- Consider negotiating a pilot or short-term license for CRM Analytics if you’re trying it out, rather than signing a large, long-term commitment upfront. Salesforce might offer a trial for a few users or a reduced price for the first year to prove value – take advantage of that to gather data on usage and outcomes.
- Be aware of contract terms, such as true-ups, or that you might be locked into a specific number of licenses for the term. Plan for the renewal: if you anticipate needing fewer Analytics users in the future, communicate and negotiate that before the renewal period.
In summary, treat CRM Analytics licensing like any major software investment: scrutinize who needs it, seek the best price and terms, and avoid blanket deployment without a clear use case.
The goal is to align licensing with value. Every dollar spent on an Analytics license should ideally correspond to a user who leverages insights that drive business improvements, such as sales growth, efficiency, or better decisions.
Ensuring Utilization and Value from CRM Analytics
For organizations that have invested in CRM Analytics, the focus shifts to maximizing its utilization and ensuring the investment pays off. Simply buying licenses doesn’t guarantee people will use the tool effectively.
CIOs should proactively drive adoption and measure value through the following practices:
- User Training and Enablement: Unlike standard Salesforce features that many users can pick up intuitively, CRM Analytics may be new to your team. Invest in training programs to build user proficiency. This may involve:
- Training power users on how to create and edit dashboards in Analytics Studio (e.g., using Salesforce’s Trailhead modules or third-party training).
- Training general end-users on how to interpret and interact with the dashboards (filtering data, drilling down, subscribing to updates, etc.).
- Establishing an internal Analytics Center of Excellence or identifying “Analytics Champions” in each department who can help others and continuously find new use cases for CRM Analytics.
- Align Dashboards to Business Goals: Ensure that the analytics content being built directly ties to business objectives and user needs. If users find the dashboards relevant and insightful for their daily jobs or strategic decisions, they will use them regularly. For example, if a key goal is improving customer retention, build an interactive dashboard in CRM Analytics that surfaces at-risk customers and the factors influencing churn, and have account managers incorporate that into their weekly workflow. Dashboards that are merely “nice to have” or overly complex may get ignored. CIOs should work with business stakeholders to prioritize analytics use cases that matter and then deliver those via CRM Analytics.
- Measure Adoption and Usage: Salesforce provides usage metrics for CRM Analytics, such as the number of logins to Analytics and dashboard views. Regularly track these KPIs:
- How many users with a license logged into CRM Analytics this month? What are the top dashboards or lenses being used, and by whom? Are some licenses never or rarely used? (Perhaps indicating those users don’t need it or need a nudge.)
- Success Stories and Value Capture: Collect anecdotal and quantitative evidence of CRM Analytics’ impact. For instance, did the sales analytics dashboard help the team close deals more quickly or identify new opportunities? Did a service analytics dashboard reduce case resolution times by highlighting bottlenecks? Sharing such success stories within the organization builds momentum and justifies the cost. Moreover, try to quantify the value – e.g., “By using CRM Analytics, we identified a process change that led to $X in savings” or “The predictive lead scoring dashboard helped increase conversion by Y%.” As a CIO, having these value metrics at hand is crucial when defending the budget for the tool or when evaluating its ROI at renewal time.
- Continuous Improvement: Treat the analytics initiative as an ongoing process. Solicit feedback from users about what additional data or reports they wish to see. CRM Analytics enables the rapid development of new dashboards and employs an agile approach to refine and expand the analytics content. Also, keep an eye on Salesforce’s updates to the CRM Analytics platform – new features, such as improved visualizations or integration capabilities, are rolled out periodically. Leverage new features if they can increase adoption or value (for example, if Salesforce introduces a simpler dashboard builder or better mobile support, ensure your users know about it).
By driving strong utilization, the organization is more likely to realize the full benefits of CRM Analytics. High adoption means better data-driven decisions across the board, which is ultimately what justifies the expense.
Optimizing or Reducing CRM Analytics Licensing
Despite best efforts, some organizations may find that CRM Analytics is underutilized or not delivering sufficient value relative to its cost. In such cases, CIOs need to make pragmatic decisions about optimizing, downsizing, or even eliminating these licenses.
Here’s how to approach it:
- Reassess the Need vs. Alternatives: If usage metrics and user feedback indicate that CRM Analytics isn’t widely adopted, revisit the earlier decision between native and external analytics. Perhaps users find the standard Salesforce reports adequate, or they prefer using an external BI tool with which they are more familiar. It’s possible that the initial use case for CRM Analytics (e.g., a specific AI-driven insight) didn’t pan out, and no new use cases have justified the platform. In these scenarios, it could be wise to scale back reliance on CRM Analytics. For example, one company realized that its marketing team got more value by exporting data to Tableau Desktop, where its analysts had deep expertise, rather than retraining on CRM Analytics. They reduced their CRM Analytics licenses and funneled that budget into expanding the Tableau deployment.
- Gradual Downsizing: If you decide to reduce licenses, do it methodically. Identify which users or departments use the tool the least, possibly by reviewing the usage tracking mentioned earlier. Open a dialogue with those teams: sometimes, low usage can be reversed with a bit more training or tweaking the dashboards to make them more relevant. If not, plan to revoke licenses for those users at the next renewal cycle (or if on flexible terms, even mid-term). Ensure you archive or migrate any critical dashboards that users might have created, so no important data is lost when their access is removed. By phasing out unused licenses, you can cut costs without disrupting those who depend on the tool.
- License Reallocation: In some cases, you may not want to eliminate the licenses but rather reallocate them to new users who can extract better value. For instance, perhaps the sales operations team wasn’t using the licenses. Still, the finance analytics team now needs deeper Salesforce data analysis – you could transfer licenses to them. Always aim to have the licenses in the hands of people who will make use of them.
- Exit Strategy and Data Preservation: If choosing to discontinue CRM Analytics (eliminate all licenses), have an exit strategy:
- Export any valuable datasets or reports that were created in CRM Analytics. Some data may only reside in the Analytics data store, especially if you have blended external data into it. Ensure you back that up or move it to another repository.
- Recreate essential dashboards in an alternate tool or as standard Salesforce reports, if possible, so that users aren’t left with a blind spot. There might be a drop in fancy functionality, but covering the basic informational needs is important.
- Communicate to stakeholders why the decision is being made (e.g., cost savings, low usage, or an available alternative solution) to manage their expectations.
- Contractual Considerations: Be mindful of your Salesforce contract terms. If you are in the middle of a subscription term for CRM Analytics, you might have to wait until the contract is up for renewal to reduce the count without penalty. Plan so that you give Salesforce account managers notice of non-renewal or reduction before the automatic renewal happens. Independent licensing consultants can also assist here, helping to navigate the conversation and avoid pitfalls (for example, Salesforce might offer a discount to keep the licenses – weigh that offer against your actual needs).
The overarching principle is optimization – ensure you are paying only for what you truly need and use. Just as importantly, if you keep the investment, optimize how it’s used so that it drives business value.
A CIO should periodically ask: “Is CRM Analytics still the right tool for us, and are we getting our money’s worth?” Depending on the answer, adjust the course accordingly.
CIO Recommendations
In conclusion, CIOs must take a strategic approach when evaluating and managing Salesforce CRM Analytics.
Below is a summary of key actions and considerations for decision-makers:
- Thoroughly Assess Analytics Needs: Evaluate the organization’s reporting and analytics requirements. Determine if Salesforce’s built-in reports are sufficient or if there’s a clear value added by advanced analytics. Use this assessment to decide between native CRM Analytics and other business intelligence (BI) options. (For instance, if real-time CRM-embedded insights are critical for users, CRM Analytics may be justified; if not, a cheaper existing BI tool might do the job.)
- Balance Native vs External Solutions: Avoid assuming that one size fits all. It’s often beneficial to use a mix of tools. Leverage standard Salesforce dashboards for basic operational reporting (zero extra cost) and reserve CRM Analytics for specific high-value use cases that need its advanced capabilities. In parallel, continue to use external BI platforms for cross-departmental analytics or where they are already entrenched. As CIO, aim for a cohesive analytics strategy where each tool has a well-defined purpose.
- Optimize Licensing and Contain Costs: If you opt for CRM Analytics, be deliberate about your licensing. Limit the number of licensed users to those who truly need it. Start with a small group of power users, if possible, and expand only if demand grows. Work with independent licensing experts to negotiate favourable terms and ensure you’re not overpaying or overlicensing. Regularly review license assignments and remove or reassign licenses that aren’t actively used.
- Drive Adoption and Skills: Treat the deployment of CRM Analytics as a project that includes user enablement. Train and empower users to use the tool effectively. Encourage the development of insightful dashboards aligned with business goals and promote success stories to demonstrate ROI. High adoption is key to turning a costly license into actual business outcomes.
- Monitor Value and Adjust: Continuously measure utilization and business impact. Require periodic reports on CRM Analytics usage and achievements (e.g., decisions influenced by analytics). If the results are underwhelming, be ready to course-correct: this could mean additional training, engaging a consultant to help build better dashboards, or, if necessary, scaling back the investment. Do not let the software “exist” without scrutiny – make it earn its keep.
- Plan for Renewal or Exit: Before contract renewal, conduct a formal review of CRM Analytics’ performance and cost-benefit. If you plan to keep it, use your data on usage and value to negotiate pricing (or possibly increase adoption to justify renewal). If you decide to reduce or discontinue, communicate these plans to Salesforce and your users in advance and ensure that alternative solutions are in place for any critical analytics needs. Always have an exit strategy in place for any major tech investment, in case it no longer aligns with the company’s needs or budget.
By following these recommendations, CIOs can make an informed decision about Salesforce CRM Analytics and manage it in a way that maximizes benefits while controlling costs. The goal is to enable strategic data-driven decision-making within the organization, using the right tools for the right jobs and continuously aligning the analytics approach with business value.
