Salesforce implementation guide: phases, timeline and checklist
The five phases of a Salesforce implementation, what happens in each, what drives the timeline, and a checklist to use before you sign a statement of work.
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Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA
Salesforce consulting in Des Moines.
Des Moines runs on insurance and financial services, and we help carriers, brokers, lenders and the manufacturers and agribusinesses around them build Salesforce that fits regulated, relationship-heavy work.
Photo: Niko Vassios / Unsplash
Salesforce consulting for Des Moines companies
Abstrakt Solutions is a Salesforce Consulting Partner that serves companies across Greater Des Moines, remotely and on site. Des Moines is one of our focus markets.
Des Moines is about a five-and-a-half-hour drive from our St. Louis office, or a short flight, and we share Central Time, so on-site workshops and go-live support are straightforward to schedule.
The Des Moines Market
The Des Moines business landscape.
- Metro population, 2025
- 758,539 U.S. Census Bureau
- Metro GDP, 2024
- $80 billion U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Business establishments, 2023
- 18,946 Census County Business Patterns
Figures cover the Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA Metro Area (IA).
Finance and insurance is by far the largest private sector in the Des Moines–West Des Moines metro, well ahead of manufacturing in second place. The Greater Des Moines Partnership reports more than 80 insurance companies headquartered in the region and, citing 2024 BLS data, the fourth-highest concentration of insurance underwriters in the country. A national bank, a large retirement and asset management company and an Iowa health insurance plan appear on the Partnership’s list of the region’s largest non-government employers, alongside the local businesses of a major farm-equipment maker, which span agricultural machinery, equipment software and financial services.
The same list includes a supermarket chain with its corporate headquarters in West Des Moines, a convenience-store chain, and two of central Iowa’s hospital systems. The Partnership also highlights a data center cluster, with hyperscale campuses from three global technology companies in Altoona, Waukee and West Des Moines, where one of them opened its first facility in 2012. For startups, it points to insurtech accelerators, a broker-backed venture program, a local scale-up initiative, an equipment maker’s startup collaboration effort and a global ag innovation program, a mix that ties technology to the region’s insurance and agriculture base.
Industries
Where Salesforce fits in Des Moines’s economy.
Largest private sectors, 2024 GDP share.
Finance and insurance
30.8% of metro GDPWith dozens of carriers, a large benefits and retirement presence and brokerage-backed insurtech programs, Des Moines firms need agent and broker management, policyholder service and compliant marketing in one system.
Manufacturing
7.6% of metro GDPEquipment and advanced manufacturers in the region, including the ag machinery side of the economy, rely on dealer networks and service contracts that work best when Salesforce connects to ERP.
Wholesale trade
at least 6.8% of metro GDPDistributors serving grocery, convenience retail and agriculture across Iowa need account-level pricing, reorder visibility and territory planning for field reps.
Health care and social assistance
at least 5.6% of metro GDPHealth systems and health insurers here work side by side, so member and patient engagement, referral tracking and service need privacy-aware Salesforce design.
Regional target sectors: Insurance and Financial Services, Advanced Manufacturing, Ag Innovation, Digital Infrastructure & Data Centers, Technology, Logistics (Greater Des Moines Partnership)
Common Challenges
Common Salesforce challenges in these industries.
Agent and broker channels
Insurers that sell through independent agents and brokers commonly struggle to give those partners self-service access while keeping each agent’s book private.
Compliance in customer communications
Financial services marketing and follow-up must satisfy regulators, so automation, consent and record retention have to be designed in rather than added later.
Legacy systems of record
Long-established carriers and financial firms often hold policy and account data in older core systems, and Salesforce only helps when that data flows in reliably.
Services
Salesforce consulting services for Des Moines.
Salesforce ImplementationSalesforce IntegrationSalesforce MigrationSalesforce Health CheckSalesforce Managed ServicesSalesforce OptimizationSalesforce Implementation Rescue
Salesforce products
Salesforce Financial Services CloudSalesforce Sales CloudSalesforce Service CloudSalesforce Experience CloudSalesforce Marketing CloudSalesforce Data Cloud
Industry solutions
Proof
Our work in these industries.
Client names are anonymized and these projects are not specific to Des Moines. All case studies →
Manufacturing
A building-products manufacturer grew new accounts 203% after replacing mailed-in paper forms with Salesforce
203% · Growth in new accounts Wealth ManagementA fee-only RIA automated post-meeting client surveys while staying SEC-compliant
35+ · Surveys auto-sent in months InsuranceAn insurance agency replaced Google Sheets with Sales Cloud and strict per-agent record privacy
Featured Insight
Salesforce guides from our team.
Written by the consultants delivering the work.
Implementation
FAQ
Salesforce consulting in Des Moines: questions.
What does a Salesforce rollout look like for one of the many insurance carriers headquartered in Greater Des Moines that relies on broker submissions?
Most carrier projects center on submission intake. Brokers send applications in many formats, so a Financial Services Cloud process that logs each submission, assigns it to an underwriter and tracks quote, bind and decline outcomes gives leadership real turnaround data. Keep rating and policy issuance in core systems and sync the decision back. Broker scorecards built from that data help distribution teams focus their time. Abstrakt usually pilots with one line of business before expanding.
How should an ag tech startup coming out of one of Greater Des Moines' agriculture innovation programs track dealer and grower relationships?
Ag tech sales often run through equipment dealers, co-ops and agronomists before reaching the grower, so model those as partner accounts related to the farm operations they influence. Seasonality matters: set close dates and stages around planting and harvest windows, and report pipeline by season. If field data comes from connected equipment, keep it in your data platform and surface summaries in Salesforce. A simple Sales Cloud build with partner relationships usually comes first.
How can a colocation or connectivity provider in the Altoona, Waukee and West Des Moines data center corridor use Salesforce?
Colocation deals depend on capacity: rack space, power density and cross-connects at a specific facility. Model sites and available capacity as custom objects so sellers see what they can commit before quoting, and use Revenue Cloud to configure bundles of space, power and bandwidth. Service Cloud handles remote hands requests and maintenance notices. Integration with DCIM or provisioning tools keeps capacity accurate. Abstrakt typically starts by agreeing on one definition of available capacity across sales and operations.
Other markets we serve
Salesforce consulting in Kansas CitySalesforce consulting in Minneapolis–St. PaulSalesforce consulting in St. Louis All locations
Sources for the figures on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025 (cbsa-est2025-alldata), July 1, 2025 estimate (accessed 2026-09-25)
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CAGDP2 GDP by county (line 1, All industry total, current dollars), 2024; summed over the CBSA's component counties per Census Vintage 2025 delineation (accessed 2026-09-25; metro total summed from county figures)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, MSA file (NAICS total '------', ESTAB) (accessed 2026-09-25)
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
- Greater Des Moines Partnership; Hy-Vee
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
Last reviewed September 26, 2026.