Who this is for
You have the product idea. We have the platform scars.
The ISVs who come to us usually fit one of three shapes.
PDO
Building an app for one Salesforce org and building a product for thousands of them are two different jobs.
Most ISVs find that out during the AppExchange security review. The smart ones find out before they start.
8Squad is Australia’s longest-running certified Salesforce PDO. We take products from whiteboard to AppExchange, and we’ve been doing it longer than anyone else in the country.
What a PDO actually is
A Product Development Outsourcer is a Salesforce partner certified to build commercial products on the platform. Not internal apps. Not custom builds for a single client. Products: packaged, versioned, security-reviewed software that other companies install and pay for.
It’s a different discipline. Your code has to behave inside orgs you’ve never seen, alongside configurations you can’t predict. Your licensing has to work. Your upgrades can’t break a paying customer’s setup. And before any of that, you have to pass a Salesforce security review that rejects a large share of first attempts.
Salesforce certifies very few partners to do this work. In Australia, you can count them on one hand. 8Squad was one of the first, and we’ve held the certification longer than anyone here.
What we do
From idea to AppExchange, without the rework
Our PDO services cover the full product lifecycle. You can engage us end to end or bring us in at the stage where you're stuck.
1
Product strategy and architecture.
We pressure-test the idea against the platform before you spend serious money. Licensing model, org strategy, packaging approach, and the architectural decisions that are cheap to make now and brutal to unwind later.
2
Build and packaging.
Managed package development by engineers who work with ISV technologies every week: License Management App (LMA), Channel Order App (COA), and Feature Management App (FMA). We build for the org we can’t see, because that’s the org your customers will install into.
3
Security review preparation.
The Salesforce security review is where AppExchange ambitions go to stall. We design for it from day one rather than retrofitting for it at the end, which is the single biggest schedule risk we remove.
4
Launch and beyond.
AppExchange listing, trial experience, demo orgs, and the operational side of running a product business on the platform. After launch, our Centre of Excellence team can carry ongoing support and releases so your roadmap doesn’t compete with your maintenance.
We helped a financial services client turn a product idea into a live, revenue-ready Salesforce app in six months, with no infrastructure team and no hosting bills to scale. By building on the platform, the product inherited Salesforce's security and compliance from day one, so customers could trust it the moment it launched.
Idea to market in six months
Solution HighlightIdea to market in six months
A financial services client came to us with a product vision and a clear constraint: they didn’t want to manage load balancers, autoscaling groups, and an army of DevOps engineers. They wanted a clean, unified system a small team could run, with low operating costs and room to scale securely.
We built it on the Salesforce platform and took it to market in six months. No infrastructure team. No hosting bills that scale faster than revenue. A product their customers could trust from day one because it inherited the platform’s security and compliance posture.
That’s the quiet advantage of building on Salesforce with a PDO who knows the terrain: most of the hard problems are already solved. The skill is knowing which ones aren’t.
FAQ's
What is a Salesforce PDO?
A Product Development Outsourcer is a Salesforce partner certified to design, build, and launch commercial products on the Salesforce platform, including managed packages distributed through the AppExchange. PDO certification signals expertise in ISV-specific technologies like the License Management App (LMA), Channel Order App (COA), and Feature Management App (FMA), plus the Salesforce security review process.
Why do I need a PDO instead of a regular Salesforce consultancy?
Standard Salesforce consultancies build solutions for a single, known org. Product development means building for thousands of unknown orgs, passing Salesforce’s security review, managing licensing and billing, and shipping upgrades that don’t break customer environments. It’s a distinct skill set, and very few Australian partners are certified for it.
How long does it take to get a product onto the AppExchange?
It depends on product complexity, but we’ve taken a financial services product from idea to market in six months. The biggest schedule risk is usually the Salesforce security review, which is why we design for it from the start rather than treating it as a final hurdle.
What is the Salesforce security review?
Every AppExchange product must pass a mandatory security assessment covering code quality, data handling, and platform security standards. A significant share of first submissions fail. Building with review requirements in mind from day one is the most reliable way to avoid months of rework.
Do you work with ISVs outside Australia?
Yes. Our delivery team is 100% onshore in Australia, which many international ISVs choose deliberately for IP security and timezone coverage across APAC.
Can you support the product after launch?
Yes. Our Centre of Excellence provides ongoing managed services, so the same organisation that built your product can run support, maintenance, and release cycles while your team focuses on the roadmap.
Make Your Idea a Reality
From idea to AppExchange, let's map the path.