A complete guide to Salesforce Health Checks, explaining key types, business impact, and why comprehensive partner-led reviews deliver stronger security, adoption, and ROI than native tools alone.
Introduction: How Healthy Is Your Salesforce Org, Really?
Your Salesforce org might be running. But is it running well?
Dashboards load. Automations fire. Data mostly flows. Yet beneath the surface, issues often accumulate quietly: inefficient processes, declining data quality, security exposure, and unused capabilities that gradually erode ROI.
These problems rarely appear all at once. They build over time as Salesforce evolves alongside your business—through new users, new integrations, and changing priorities.
That’s where Salesforce Health Checks come in.
In this guide, we explain what Salesforce Health Checks are, break down the key types (including Salesforce’s native Security Health Check), explore the business benefits, and highlight why Salesforce partner-led evaluations can provide the most complete and actionable insights into your Salesforce org’s overall health and potential.
What Is a Salesforce Health Check?
A Salesforce Health Check is a proactive assessment designed to identify and address issues that limit performance, trust, and scalability before they become costly business problems.
It evaluates critical areas such as security configuration, data quality, system performance, automation, and user adoption—revealing risks, inefficiencies, and opportunities to improve how Salesforce supports the business.
Typical objectives include:
- Identifying security risks and misconfigurations
- Improving data accuracy and reporting reliability
- Streamlining automation and workflows
- Increasing user adoption and usability
- Strengthening compliance and governance
- Aligning Salesforce capabilities with business outcomes
Think of a Salesforce Health Check as an annual wellness visit for your CRM—essential for keeping it secure, scalable, and aligned with your strategic goals.
Why Salesforce Health Checks Matter for Your Business
The Hidden Costs of an Unhealthy Salesforce Org
Organizations evolve, so too do their Salesforce environments. New users, integrations, automations, and customizations are added, often without removing what’s no longer needed.
This growing complexity leads to significant risks:
- Security exposure from outdated permissions or inconsistent policies
- Slower performance caused by fragile automations and unused customizations
- Low data confidence, leading to contradictory reports and missed forecasts
- Fragmented customer insight across disconnected systems
- Productivity loss as users rely on spreadsheets and workarounds
- Low adoption, limiting ROI on licenses and features
A timely Salesforce Health Check prevents these issues from compounding and turning your CRM from an asset into a drag on your business.
What a Salesforce Health Check Reveals
A true Health Check goes beyond a technical scan. It evaluates how effectively Salesforce supports your business today and how well it’s positioned for what comes next.
It uncovers:
- Whether your security posture aligns with industry best practices
- How data quality impacts reporting and decision-making
- Where processes can be simplified or automated for efficiency
- Which apps, integrations, and customizations continue to add value—and which don’t
- Where newer Salesforce features could deliver measurable ROI
The final deliverable should be a prioritized, executive-ready roadmap that balances quick wins with long-term improvements.
The Business Impact of Regular Salesforce Health Checks
Minimize Security and Compliance Risks
Maintaining strict security compliance protects sensitive customer information and customer trust.
Salesforce’s native Security Health Check tool addresses key security configurations, while comprehensive health checks uncover deeper vulnerabilities related to permissions, data exposure, and governance before risks turn into incidents. (Salesforce Security Health Check).
Optimize System Performance and User Productivity
Over time, unchecked complex automations, stale workflows, and bloated integrations can degrade system responsiveness. Regular Health Checks identify bottlenecks that slow users down and reduce system reliability.
Salesforce admins benefit greatly by conducting org health checks as part of ongoing system management to uphold peak operational efficiency (Salesforce Admin Guide).
Improve Data Quality and Generate More Reliable Insights
Data naturally deteriorates without cleansing: duplicates accumulate, records become outdated, and validation rules loosen. Health Checks evaluate data integrity, strengthening report reliability and forecast accuracy, critical for decision-making.
Strong data governance also leads to better pipeline management and forecasting accuracy, vital for closing deals and planning strategy.
Enhance User Satisfaction and Boost Adoption Rates
A Salesforce org that isn't optimized risks user frustration and poor adoption, eroding overall CRM ROI. Health Checks identify feature adoption gaps and training needs, enabling tailored solutions that drive engagement and productivity.
Stronger Return on Your Salesforce Investment
Many organizations underutilize the Salesforce capabilities they already pay for. Health Checks expose untapped value and optimization opportunities across clouds, features, and integrations.
Future-Proof Your Salesforce Org with Scalability and Compliance
As you grow, maintaining a scalable, compliant Salesforce org is essential. Businesses should regularly audit their system health to avoid disruptions during periods of rapid change
Regular Health Checks help anticipate needs, streamline governance, and ensure your org is ready for future innovation.
Key Types of Salesforce Health Checks
Not every “health check” means the same thing. Understanding the main types helps you decide where to start and what gaps still exist.
1) Salesforce Native Security Health Check
Salesforce’s built-in Security Health Check is an automated tool focused solely on evaluating the org’s security configuration. This native tool is accessible within the Salesforce Setup menu and provides administrators with a focused assessment of their org's security posture.
What it does well:
- Benchmarks your Salesforce org’s security settings against the Salesforce Baseline Standard or a maximum of five customizable baselines aligned with industry or organizational policies.
- Produces a security score ranging from 0 to 100%, representing how closely your org meets recommended secure configurations.
- Highlights risks categorized by severity (high, medium, low, informational) in areas such as password policies, session management, and login access.
- Includes a “Fix Risks” button for automated remediation of common issues.
This tool is essential for ongoing security hygiene and monitoring configuration drift. (Salesforce official source)
What the Native Salesforce Security Health Check is not:
- A full org health check or performance review.
- An assessment of business processes, data quality, user adoption, or integrations
- A customizable, insight-driven evaluation
- A strategic guide to maximizing Salesforce ROI
Its scope is strictly security and compliance-focused. Recommendations are automated, not customized with human insights or business outcome prioritization.
It answers: "Are our security settings safe?"—but not "Is Salesforce working well for our business?"For that broader view, you need a comprehensive Salesforce health assessment.
2) Partner-Led Comprehensive Salesforce Health Check
A partner-led Health Check evaluates Salesforce as a business platform, not just a collection of settings. It offers a deeper, holistic review that includes:
- Business processes and automation
How sales, service, and marketing flows actually work—and where friction or gaps appear. - Data quality and governance
Duplicates, incomplete records, inconsistent picklists, and unclear data ownership. - Integrations and system health
Sync reliability, error handling, latency, and the impact of third-party apps. - User adoption and experience
Who is using which features, where they struggle, and why workarounds exist. - Platform roadmap alignment
Where Salesforce innovation (Lightning, AI, analytics, industry clouds) can support your strategy.
This approach delivers a prioritized plan tied directly to your business outcomes, not just technical scores.
Why a Partner-Led Salesforce Health Check Matters
Salesforce includes powerful native tools, especially for security. But automated checks only go so far.
A partner-led Salesforce Health Check adds what tools can’t:
- Business context
- Cross-functional perspective
- Prioritization based on real-world impact
A partner-led check translates Salesforce configurations into actionable strategies for improving data confidence, adoption, efficiency, and ROI.
This distinction becomes increasingly important as Salesforce expands across teams, integrates with more systems, or supports more advanced initiatives like analytics and AI.
Inside Summit’s Salesforce Health Check
At Summit, we define a healthy Salesforce org not by a single score but by how well the platform supports your actual business operations.
With over 1,200 Salesforce implementations, 60+ areas of certification, and experience across industries including education, healthcare, logistics, and financial services, our team has seen what works, and what quietly breaks Salesforce over time.
That experience shapes how we approach every Health Check: focused, practical, and grounded in real operating environments, not theory.
Summit's Salesforce Health Check combines deep technical expertise with practical business insight to uncover adoption barriers, data confidence gaps, and ROI inhibitors.
We deliver clear, prioritized guidance focused on actions that move the business forward.
What We Review and Why it Matters
1. Security Audit
Salesforce security settings establish the foundation for trust.
We review permissions, sharing rules, access controls, and security policies to confirm sensitive data remains protected. We also evaluate your native Salesforce Security Health Check results against Salesforce baseline standards and identify configuration risks that could impact compliance or data exposure.
2. Business Process Evaluation
Salesforce should support how work actually gets done.
We analyze sales, service, and marketing workflows to identify inefficiencies, unnecessary complexity, and manual workarounds. This review highlights where automation helps—and where it creates friction—so teams can execute more consistently and efficiently.
3. Salesforce Best Practices Review
Growth creates complexity. We help to reduce it.
Summit’s certified experts evaluate automation, reporting, dashboards, and Lightning components against Salesforce best practices. We identify opportunities to simplify configuration, standardize patterns, and position your org to scale without unnecessary technical debt.
4. Data Quality and Integrity Check
Reliable decisions require reliable data.
We evaluate data accuracy and consistency, identify duplicates, and recommend data hygiene strategies that improve reporting reliability and overall CRM performance.
5. App and Integration Review
Integrations should create visibility, not silos.
We assess all connected applications and integrations (whether native, AppExchange, or custom-built) to confirm they’re relevant, secure, and high-performing. Our team also reviews integration design and data flow between systems like ERP, marketing automation, and support platforms to eliminate silos and improve visibility.
6. User Adoption and Experience
Salesforce only delivers value when teams use it.
We analyze usage patterns and feature adoption to uncover where users struggle, disengage, or work outside the system. These insights inform practical recommendations that improve usability, increase engagement, and strengthen productivity across teams.
7. New Salesforce Features and Enhancements
Salesforce evolves quickly. Most orgs don’t keep up.
We review recent Salesforce releases and identify enhancements that align with your current business priorities. Our team helps you focus on what delivers value now and avoid introducing change simply because the features exist.
The Outcome: A Practical, Business-Aligned Roadmap
A Summit Salesforce Health Check ends with a clear, usable roadmap, including:
- A comprehensive findings report written in plain language
- A prioritized action plan mapped to business impact, effort, and risk
- Clear separation between quick wins and longer-term strategic initiatives
- Recommendations for Salesforce optimization, follow-up system audits, and managed services when ongoing support makes sense
The result is focus, momentum, and a clear path forward.
Salesforce Security Health Check vs. Summit Salesforce Health Check
Feature/Area |
Salesforce Security Health Check (Native Tool) |
Summit Salesforce Health Check Package |
| Official Name | Salesforce Security Health Check | Summit Salesforce Health Check |
| Scope | Security configuration compliance only | Holistic CRM health: security + business processes + data + adoption |
| Approach | Automated Scan | Expert-led assessment |
| Security Audit | Automated, technical security settings checklist | Deep, human-led security and sharing rules review |
| Config/Compliance Review | Yes, with risk categorization and score | Yes, with tailored recommendations |
| Business Process Review | No | Yes, evaluates sales, service, marketing workflows |
| Data Quality Review | No | Yes, checks duplicates, completeness, and integrity |
| User Adoption and Experience | No | Yes, analyzes user behavior and adoption gaps |
| App and Integration Health | No | Yes, reviews third-party and custom app performance |
| Lightning Readiness | No | Yes, offers migration and feature adoption strategy |
| Customization & Automation | No | Yes, evaluates workflows, triggers, and customizations |
| Output and Result Format | Security score + remediation suggestions | Executive-level report with prioritized initiatives |
| Remediation Support | Automated “Fix Risks” button for config fixes | Hands-on consultancy, guided action plan, ongoing managed services |
| Human Expertise | No, fully automated tool | Yes, Certified Salesforce experts with deep industry knowledge |
| Ongoing Support | No | Optional ongoing managed services and optimization |
Both have a place. The native Security Health Check keeps your configuration aligned with baseline security; a Summit Health Check ensures Salesforce as a whole is supporting your revenue, service, and operational goals.
When Is the Right Time for a Salesforce Health Check?
The best time to review Salesforce isn’t when something breaks. It’s before issues quietly impact performance, trust, and ROI.
Consider scheduling a comprehensive Salesforce Health Check if:
- It’s been 12 months or more since your last org review
- You’re preparing for—or recovering from—a major integration, migration, or org consolidation
- Salesforce is expanding into new teams, regions, or business units
- Data quality or report accuracy has declined
- Teams rebuild reports outside Salesforce or rely on spreadsheets
- You’re preparing for AI, advanced analytics, or a new cloud and need a stable foundation
A Health Check provides clarity, helping avoid surprises and build a prioritized plan for success.
A Quick Self-Check for Business Leaders
You don’t need technical expertise to recognize that the health of your system is at risk. Start with these questions:
- Data Quality: Can you trust the accuracy of your dashboards and reports?
- Security: Who has access to sensitive customer data—and should they?
- Automation: Are workflows actually saving time, or causing confusion and rework?
- User Adoption: Are your teams fully using Salesforce or defaulting to spreadsheets?
- Integrations: Are your systems sharing data seamlessly, or creating gaps and duplicates?
- Customization: Are legacy fields, flows, and triggers slowing down your system?
- Performance: Is Salesforce running as fast and reliably as it used to?
- Innovation: Are you leveraging Salesforce’s latest innovations to stay competitive—or are they going unused?
- ROI: Can you clearly explain Salesforce’s business impact today?
If several answers raise concerns, a Salesforce Health Check will bring the clarity your team needs.
Maximize Salesforce ROI with Comprehensive Health Checks
Acting on Health Check insights with expert guidance yields quick, tangible benefits:
- Cleaner, more reliable reporting
- Better user adoption and less reliance on spreadsheets
- Reduced access and security risk
- Streamlined workflows that remove manual steps
- A platform ready for analytics, automation, and AI
Ultimately, a health check drives a Salesforce platform that consistently supports how your business operates and evolves.
Ready for a Salesforce Reality Check?
Salesforce is one of your most powerful platforms when it reflects how your business works today, not how it worked years ago.
A Summit Salesforce Health Check provides the clarity to:
- Identify risks before they disrupt
- Improve performance without unnecessary upheaval
- Build a focused roadmap for future growth
If questions around adoption, data confidence, or ROI keep surfacing, the next step isn’t guessing. It’s clarity.
Schedule Your Salesforce Health Check Consultation →
Frequently Asked Questions About Salesforce Health Checks
What is a Salesforce Health Check?
A Salesforce Health Check is a structured review of your org’s configuration, security, data integrity, and performance, designed to ensure it’s aligned with best practices and business goals.
