One of the most expensive mistakes in enterprise Salesforce programmes is choosing an org topology before understanding the business. This session tackles that problem head-on.

We will walk through why your operating model — not your data model — must be the starting point for every architecture decision. Drawing on the Ross, Weill, and Robertson Enterprise Architecture framework, we map four distinct operating models (Unification, Replication, Coordination, and Diversification) to their correct Salesforce topologies, and show what it costs when those choices are misaligned.

You will learn to recognise the four accumulating signals of premature unification: release coordination debt, data model conflict, permission complexity, and governance friction. We will introduce the Executive Diagnostic Scorecard — a four-question tool you can use with business leadership to accurately plot your operating model quadrant before any architecture decision is made.

Finally, we explore how Salesforce Data Cloud acts as a coordination layer, enabling a unified customer view across federated orgs without forcing consolidation — giving teams the integration the business needs without the overhead it would reject.

Attendees will leave with practical frameworks, a diagnostic tool, and a clear evidence-based path for making the right topology decision for their organisation.