Case Study

Salesforce Optimization:

Overview

A mid-sized U.S. law firm with seven regional offices had grown rapidly through lateral hires and acquisitions, but its business development and client relationship processes lagged behind. The firm had adopted Salesforce three years earlier to unify BD efforts across practice groups — but usage had collapsed.

Fewer than 20% of licensed users were logging in monthly, while most attorneys and BD staff had reverted to spreadsheets and email threads to track prospects and referrals. The firm was paying for 180 Salesforce Enterprise licenses (at ~$1,300 per user annually) and was approaching a three-year renewal.

Facing escalating costs, fragmented data, and frustrated partners, the firm engaged Sphere to right-size its Salesforce footprint, streamline BD workflows, and restore confidence in the platform.

Challenges

BD staff maintained shadow pipelines in Excel…

BD staff maintained shadow pipelines in Excel because the Salesforce UI was slow and confusing.

Attorneys resisted logging activities, fearing it “added…

Attorneys resisted logging activities, fearing it “added no value” to their billable time.

No automated reminders for follow

ups or renewals existed.

180 Salesforce Enterprise licenses were active, but…

180 Salesforce Enterprise licenses were active, but only 32 had logged in in the past month.

Many seats were still assigned to former…

Many seats were still assigned to former attorneys, paralegals, and contractors.

Renewal would lock the firm into a…

Renewal would lock the firm into a $230K+ annual spend.

Our Solution

Sphere led a 12-week engagement, focusing first on cost savings before tackling adoption and reporting.

Impact: $250K+ in savings over the next 3 years, achieved before contract renewal.

Impact: Active weekly users tripled within 6 weeks; attorneys began logging client touches directly.

1. Analyzed Salesforce and SSO login data to…
Analyzed Salesforce and SSO login data to identify inactive accounts.
2. Cross
checked license assignments with HR rosters to remove departed users.
3. Reduced active licenses from 180 to 78, reassigning 20 light
use roles (finance, marketing) to lower-cost Salesforce Platform licenses.
4. Interviewed 15 BD coordinators, attorneys, and practice…
Interviewed 15 BD coordinators, attorneys, and practice group leaders to map friction points.
5. Implemented
Automated creation of follow-up tasks for new prospects
6. Email-to
Salesforce logging for Outlook users

Why We Chose This Approach

Savings before change

Immediate cost reduction built partner trust before asking for workflow changes.

Incremental adoption

Focused on BD staff and coordinators first, then brought attorneys onboard once workflows were simplified.

No rip-and-replace

Preserved Salesforce investment and focused on practical UX fixes, not major system change.

Governance from the start

Introduced rules and training to stop data decay and prevent a return to spreadsheets.

Key Achievements

in saved license costs over 3 years

increase in weekly active users

improved forecast accuracy.

cut quarterly reporting time.

Result

Within three months, the firm turned Salesforce from a costly underused tool into a core part of its business development process. BD teams abandoned spreadsheets, attorneys began logging client interactions, and practice leaders could finally see a unified pipeline.

By recovering wasted licenses and rebuilding adoption from the ground up, Sphere helped the firm save hundreds of thousands of dollars while unlocking the visibility it needed to grow.

Organizations around the world trust us

Hear from

our clients

Hear from our clients

Lee Ebreo

VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja

These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.

Selah Ben-Haim

VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors

Our experience with Sphere and their team has been and continues to be fantastic. We keep throwing new projects at them, and they keep knocking them out of the park (including the rescue of a project that was previously bungled by another vendor).

Ben Crawford

Senior Product Manager at Enova Financial

I would expect to be delighted. It's been a really positive experience, working with Sphere, and I would expect you to have the same.

Mark Friedgan

CEO at CreditNinja

Sphere consistently prioritizes the needs of their clients, demonstrating both agility and teamwork. As an offshore team, they have been an integral part of our organization and we plan to continue growing with them.

René Pfitzner

Co-Founder at Experify

Sphere provided excellent full-stack development manpower to augment our team and help push our product forward. They are easy to work with, tech-savvy and proactive.

Bruce Burdick

Chief Information Officer at Integra Credit

We've been working with Sphere and its excellent consultants since our founding. I've found that they are true partners in the success of our business.

Jemal Swoboda

CEO at Dabble

The resources and developers that Sphere Software provides are skilled and have the required technical expertise, but more importantly, they have helped us build a culture of excellence within our team.

Arthur Tretyak

Founder and CEO at IntegraCredit

With Sphere, we were able to migrate in half the time it would take to train an additional FTE… and for a fraction of the cost. Our experience with Sphere has been exceptional.

Lee Ebreo

VP of Engineering at Credit Ninja

These things would not have been achievable if we did not build our own in-house system and if we did not partner with Sphere to help us achieve our goals.

Selah Ben-Haim

VP of Engineering at Prominence Advisors