When IT vendors lead you down the wrong path

Last Tuesday, I met with a new CEO client drowning in IT vendor chaos.

Two partners. Same goal. Wildly different results.

The problem that builds up over time

Because one partner was easy to work with, my client kept piling features into Salesforce. Forms, workflows, customer journeys; everything that should live in Sitecore ended up crammed into their CRM.

The result? A bloated Salesforce instance that's slow, confusing, and expensive to maintain. Changes that should take hours now take days. User experience suffers. Development costs soar.

This happens more often than you think

UK SMEs often work with more than one software development partner, normally one per platform. When one vendor relationship works well, business leaders naturally gravitate toward that partner for everything, even when it's the wrong technical solution.

It's human nature. We work with people we trust. But this creates "vendor drift"; using the wrong tool because you enjoy working with the provider.

The hidden cost is massive

Poor IT vendor selection costs UK SMEs in lost productivity and technical debt. When systems become bloated beyond their intended purpose, maintenance becomes a nightmare. Features pile up. Performance degrades. Your team, and customers, stop using the systems effectively.

According to research by Freshworks, 89% of IT professionals waste time weekly due to bloated applications; nearly a full workday each week at 7 hours. Additionally, 38% of desktop software and 33% of SaaS tools are either underutilised or wasted.

Here's what I told her to do

Find a Sitecore partner who speaks your language. Someone who can understand your business, not just their technology. Then incrementally migrate features back where they belong.

Yes, this means changing partners. Yes, it's disruptive short-term. But the alternative is worse; a Salesforce instance so overloaded it becomes unusable and painful to upgrade.

Why this matters now

The pressure to adopt new technology is intense. UK businesses feel rushed to implement emerging tech, especially AI. In this environment, it's tempting to stick with existing partners.

But the status quo isn't always right. The wrong partner in the right relationship will cost you more than the right partner in a difficult relationship.

What changes I am expecting for my new client

In six months I expect: Increased speed to market, lower development costs, better user experience. Her team actually enjoy using both Salesforce and Sitecore.

The lesson? Good vendor relationships matter. But they matter most when they're with the right vendors for the right jobs.