The situation
The client came to us mid-budget-cycle: aggressive IT budget cuts had just landed, and their existing Salesforce investment was already underperforming before the cuts even hit. The mandate was blunt — do more with less, starting now. That's a very different brief from a greenfield implementation, and it changes almost every decision that follows.
Why we didn't propose a rebuild
The instinct with an underperforming org is often to start over. We didn't, for a specific reason: a rebuild is the most expensive and slowest path to "working," and this client had neither the budget nor the runway for that. Instead we worked directly with executive stakeholders to align on outcomes first — what actually needed to be true for the business, not what the org needed to look like architecturally in the abstract.
The approach: redesign around business functions, not around the existing structure
The org's architecture was redesigned around real business-function objectives rather than patched in place. Two constraints shaped every decision: everything had to stay inside Salesforce governor limits, and it had to be simple enough for the client's own team to maintain without us in the room. That second constraint is easy to state and genuinely hard to deliver against — it means resisting the urge to build the cleverest solution in favor of the one a smaller internal team can actually own.
What we'd do differently
With hindsight, the biggest lesson wasn't technical — it was sequencing. Getting executive alignment on outcomes before touching architecture is the right order, but we'd push even earlier to lock down which metrics would define "success" for the engagement, in writing, before design work started. It's the difference between a case study with a rich qualitative outcome and one with a number attached to it.
The outcome
Delivered within the specified timeframe, with an architecture the client's own team could maintain going forward — which, given the starting constraint of "do more with less," was the actual goal, not a consolation prize.
"Setlerz successfully completed the project within the specified timeframe and with excellent quality. What we appreciated the most was their adaptability, openness, diligent work, and sincerity in managing project challenges."