Long-running orgs accumulate complexity and tech debt. Optimisation is about reducing both while preserving functionality.
Assessment:
- Salesforce Optimizer — Salesforce's free analysis tool; identifies issues.
- Health Check — security posture.
- PMD — code quality on Apex.
- Inventory: count of custom fields per object, active vs unused; flow count; trigger count; managed packages installed.
- Field utilisation — fields rarely populated.
- Report / dashboard usage — which are actually viewed.
- User adoption — login frequency, feature usage.
- Support ticket trends — repeat issues signal underlying problems.
Optimisation areas:
1. Tech debt cleanup:
- Remove unused fields, flows, triggers.
- Migrate Process Builder to Flow.
- Migrate Workflow Rules to Flow.
- Migrate Aura to LWC.
- Remove legacy reports nobody uses.
2. Performance:
- Identify slow flows, slow Lightning pages.
- Bulkify triggers that aren't.
- Add Custom Indexes if needed.
- Convert sync logic to async where appropriate.
3. Security:
- Permission audit; enforce least-privilege.
- Reduce profile sprawl; consolidate to permission set groups.
- Enable MFA, tighten session policies.
- Health Check items addressed.
4. UX:
- Dynamic Forms for cleaner Lightning pages.
- Compact layouts revisited.
- Quick Actions for common tasks.
- Path Settings for guided processes.
5. Reports & Dashboards:
- Archive unused reports.
- Consolidate redundant ones.
- Standardise naming.
- Folder permissions audit.
6. Adoption:
- Re-survey users for pain points.
- Re-training where adoption thin.
- New features adoption (Lightning Sales Engagement, Einstein, etc.).
Process:
- Quarterly optimisation sprints — dedicated time.
- Tech debt budget — 10-20% of team capacity reserved.
- Quick wins prioritised — visible improvements maintain stakeholder buy-in.
- Measure before/after — quantify improvement to justify continued investment.
Senior consultants treat optimisation as ongoing, not a one-time event. Orgs that don't optimise drift toward unmanageable.
The discipline of saying "we're not going to add more until we clean up" is rarely popular but always right.