SF Society Magazine | Autumn 2019

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SFSociety MAGAZINE

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CoderDojo: Changing Lives

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The Conga Suite

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Nadio Granata James Collett Rex Langton Dr John Lever Dan Springer Heather Black Christine Marshall Tracy Ryan Scott Hemmeter David Sumner Smith Ciaran McCullagh Katharine Janisch Peter Fells Emily Malone Phil Young Miriam Bryne Kate Russo Gemma (Emmett) Blezard Stephanie Herrera Guillermo Pedroni Raika Finley Matt Hill Nicola Brookes John Pickles Emile Van Den Berg

COMPANIES Accounting Seed Accenture BrightGen CloudSmiths Coder Dojo Conga DocuSign Expleo Group Geopointe Namintern Natterbox Oe:gen Partner Event Promotions Salesforce Stimulus Consulting Supermums Tax Innovations Third Republic Vanguard Cloud Consulting Vonage/NewVoiceMedia PWC

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FOREWORD

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SALESFORCE NEWS: THE $1 TRILLION ECONOMY

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SALESFORCE NEWS: SUSTAINABILITY

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DOCUSIGN FOR FORESTS

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RESPECTING PLANETARY BOUNDARIES

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SALESFORCE NEWS: CONSTRUCTION

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MVP STEPHANIE HERRERA

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

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MVP RAIKA FINLEY

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SALESFORCE NEWS: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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ACCESS TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

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MVP GUILLERMO PEDRONI

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NATTERBOX: A 360 VIEW OF VOICE INTERACTIONS

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GEOLOCATION: THE PERFECT COMPLEMENT TO YOUR TECH STACK

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CONGA CONTRACTS

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VONAGE: ALL EYES ON SALESFORCE

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VANGUARD: LIGHTNING QUICK TO SILVER

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CODER DOJO: TURNING MILK BOTTLES INTO ROBOTS

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STIMULUS CONSULTING: WHY PEOPLE ARE KEY TO SALESFORCE SUCCESS

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OE:GEN: THE SALESFORCE TRAINING ACADEMY FOR LEADING UX COMMUNITIES

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: TRAVEL AND TECH

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MIND THE GAP: SALESFORCE SKILLS REPORT

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GEMMA (EMMETT) BLEZARD: WHY I’M BUILDING THE ARCHITECH CLUB

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SUPERMUMS: MUMS ON CLOUD NINE

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PARTNER NEWS FROM AROUND THE ECOSYSTEM

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CLIMBING KILIMANJARO

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HIKING FOR CHARITY

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NATTERBOX SUMMER EXPERIENCE

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DREAMFORCE PARTIES

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Contents

CONTRIBUTORS

S O C I E T Y

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FOREWORD Welcome to the 3rd edition of what is now becoming an ecosystem staple of news, views, opinions and the latest in technology from the amazing salesforce Ecosystem.

As SF Society is without doubt one of the biggest fans of the amazing Salesforce world, may we take this opportunity to congratulate Marc Benioff on the recent publication of his bestselling book: Trailblazer. A theme we run with throughout this edition of the magazine.

As usual there have been so many people doing good for others as we try to hold fast to the principle of using our businesses for doing good for others and these are the real trailblazers ... the ones who day in, day out do their best for the vulnerable and less fortunate.

We are proud to support them and by featuring some of them, we are doing our small part to help. Please do engage with their stories and help if you can!

One charity James has seen grow from his time as a Salesforce AE in Dublin, was Coder Dojo with the support of Cyril Tracey, VP Salesforce.

Discover how he helped take a small-time charity with an amazing idea and transform it with passion, drive, technology and help from

Salesforce and partners. We think you’ll agree, Coder Dojo are truly changing lives and that’s why we made them the centerfold of this, our Dreamforce edition. Wall Street Journal journalist David Sumner Smith brilliantly captures what Coder Dojo are achieving through the help of Cyril, Salesforce and Accenture with a particular focus on engaging the next generation of girls getting into tech.

Not for profit organizations Partner Event Promotions and Supermum’s are back in the news for outstanding accomplishments.

Partner Event Promotions for being the only organization in the ecosystem that brings Salesforce, partners and customers together to raise funds for charity with their latest events (all run on the Salesforce platform!).

And the amazing Heather Black and her team who are taking over the world one mum and occasional dad at a time, providing life changing opportunities to parents and companies alike.

Regular contributors Conga continue with their thought leadership content giving readers the very best on digital transformation based on thousands of customers and years of experience.

Expanding all over the world, look out here come Natterbox! Their CTI technology is making companies sit up and pay attention.

We also feature CloudSmiths from South Africa and cover the epic Kilimanjaro climb led by Simon Capel of Salesforce.

Look out for content from our newest contributors including GeoPointe, Accounting Seed, DocuSign, oe:gen, Stimulus and intern specialists, Namintern from Namibia.

For all the Ladies Be Architects fans, yes, they are featured with some new and amazing news From Gemma as she breaks out to set up her new practice The Architech Club.

Last word goes to the one of the best and long-standing partners who were acquired earlier in the year. Say farewell to New Voice Media … VONAGE has arrived and they will be outstanding in their class, no doubt.

We hope you enjoy the magazine.

James & Nadio

SOCIETY MAGAZINE Publisher Statement-The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those held by the publishers or collaborators and therefore no responsibility can be held by SF Media Partners Limited for misinterpretation. Reproduction of this magazine without the express permission of the publisher is prohibited. Whilst every care is taken in the production of this magazine, the publisher/editor and staff cannot accept any responsibility for errors in articles, advertisements or programme schedules. To subscribe to this magazine, in the first instance email: info@sfmediapartners.com. Published by SF Media Partners Limited, Registered Office: Abacus House, Pennine Business Park, HD2 1GQ SF Society: Searching for Society is a publication by SF Media Partners Limited.

Front Cover Photo: Marc Benioff at the Dreamforce Keynote

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SALESFORCE NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE:

$1 TRILLION

NEW RESEARCH FINDS THE SALESFORCE ECONOMY WILL CREATE MORE THAN $1.2 TRILLION IN NEW BUSINESS REVENUES AND 4.2 MILLION JOBS BETWEEN 2019 AND 2024 Salesforce ecosystem is on track to become nearly six times larger than Salesforce itself by 2024, earning $5.80 for every dollar Salesforce makes.

Financial services, manufacturing and retail industries will lead the way, creating $224 billion, $212 billion and $134 billion in new business revenue respectively by 2024

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced new research from IDC that finds Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners will create 4.2 million new jobs and $1.2 trillion in new business revenues worldwide between 2019 and 2024.

Cloud computing is driving this growth and giving rise to a host of new technologies, including mobile, social, IoT and AI, that are creating new revenue streams and jobs that further fuel the growth of the cloud — creating an ongoing virtuous cycle of innovation and growth. According to IDC, by 2024 nearly 50 percent of cloud computing software spend will be tied to digital transformation and will account for nearly half of all software sales.

Worldwide spending on cloud computing between now and 2024 will grow 19 percent annually, from $179 billion in 2019 to $418 billion in 2024.

“The Salesforce ecosystem is made possible by the amazing work of our customers and partners around the world, and because of our collaboration we’re able to generate the business and job growth that we see today,” said Tyler Prince, EVP, Industries and Partners at Salesforce. “Whether it’s through

industry-specific extensions or businessaligned apps, the Salesforce Customer 360 platform helps accelerate the growth of our partner ecosystem, and most importantly, the growth of our customers.”

Because organizations that spend on cloud computing subscriptions also spend on ancillary products and services, the Salesforce ecosystem in 2019 is more than four times larger than Salesforce itself and will grow to almost six times larger by 2024. IDC estimates that from 2019 through 2024, Salesforce will drive the creation of 6.6 million indirect jobs, which are created from spending in the general economy by those people filling

the 4.2 million jobs previously mentioned.

“The tech skills gap will become a major roadblock for economic growth if we don’t empower everyone - regardless of class, race or gender - to skill up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Sarah Franklin, EVP and GM of Platform, Developers and Trailhead at Salesforce. “With Trailhead, our free online learning platform, people don’t need to carry six figures in debt to land a top job; instead, anyone with an Internet connection can now have an equal pathway to landing a job in the Salesforce Economy.”

Source: Salesforce newsroom

Image Credit: IDC Report

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SALESFORCE NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE:

SUSTAINABILITY CALIFORNIA, USA SALESFORCE INTRODUCES SALESFORCE SUSTAINABILITY CLOUD, EMPOWERING EVERY BUSINESS TO DRIVE IMPACTFUL CLIMATE ACTION SAN FRANCISCO—September 18, 2019— Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, a carbon accounting product for businesses to drive climate action that will accelerate the world’s efforts towards carbon neutrality. With Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, businesses now have a trusted sustainability platform that gives them a 360-degree view of their environmental impact and provides data-driven insights to make change the planet will notice.

Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges businesses are facing today, and when it comes to protecting the planet, all stakeholders have a key role to play. Global sustainable investing grew to more than $30 trillion in 2018, a 34 percent increase in two years,1 and this year CEOs cited climate change as the top risk to their organization’s growth.2

Introducing Salesforce Sustainability Cloud Salesforce is committed to delivering a sustainable, low-carbon future and supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which help frame the company’s global strategy and technology innovations. Since its founding, Salesforce has harnessed the

company’s culture of innovation to drive positive social impact through serving the interests of all its stakeholders — including the environment. Salesforce’s vision is for customers to use the entire Customer 360 Platform for environmental good.

Salesforce Sustainability Cloud enables businesses to quickly track, analyze and report reliable environmental data to help them reduce their carbon emissions.

A company’s carbon data is easily surfaced in Salesforce Einstein Analytics, which creates dynamic reports and dashboards—both for audit purposes and for executive engagement—with insights that empower businesses to drive climate action programs at scale.

Comments on the News: “At Salesforce, we’ve always believed business is the greatest platform for change. Addressing climate change with speed and at scale is critical to see a turning point by 2020,” said Suzanne DiBianca, chief impact officer and EVP of corporate relations at Salesforce.

“Businesses must work together to be the greatest force for climate transformation the world has ever seen.”

“We created Salesforce Sustainability Cloud to help our customers easily generate trusted investor-grade data to inform their climate action programs,” said Patrick Flynn, vice president of sustainability at Salesforce.“Climate change is the biggest, most important and most complex challenge humans have ever faced, and we all have a

role to play based on our resources to deliver a healthier planet for future generations.”

“As a company whose core offering is inherently forest-friendly, we are helping our more than 535,000 customers save millions of trees every year and decrease their use of paper,” explained Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign. “This focus on sustainability is why we’re excited about Salesforce’s launch of Sustainability Cloud—it has great potential to help businesses tackle climate change more effectively by providing an easy solution for tracking, evaluating and ultimately reducing their impact on the environment.”

“We care about the environment and are conscious of our ecological footprint, while striving to minimize it,” explains Isabelle Leung-Tack, Vice President of Global Communications at Criteo. “The opportunity to work with Salesforce has been a tremendous one. Sustainability Cloud allows us to gather our entire carbon footprint, look at the data and start making a change. Our vision is that by having access to the data around our efforts, we will be able to reduce our environmental impact by identifying potential risks and taking action sooner than ever before.”

What headlines are catching your attention?

Share your news with us. Email editor@ sfmediapartners.com.

Source: Salesforce newsroom

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DOCUSIGN

FOR FORESTS this year by unveiling the DocuSign for Forests initiative at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

DAN SPRINGER As the CEO of DocuSign, Dan leads more than 3000 employees on a mission to help companies connect, automate and modernize their systems of agreement. Dan has almost 30 years of executive leadership and experience driving innovation and hyper-growth across the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry.

As we head towards this year’s Dreamforce and all eyes are on the latest developments in technology and productivity, we’ve been thinking more about the broader issue of sustainability—what we as a technology industry can do, and how we can have a truly meaningful impact on the environment.

Announced alongside Dr Jane Goodall DBE, the program is a broad commitment to help protect the world’s forests. This includes financial donations, broad scale support of non-profit organizations and a commitment to donate a percentage of our expanded revenues earned from customers that also pledge to improve their paper-use practices.

And importantly, we have made two significant financial grants.

The first was to the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation—a non-profit that Dr Goodall founded to fund the fight to protect our planet’s resources. This commitment includes $500,000 from the DocuSign IMPACT Foundation - and a personal contribution from me to total $1 million.

As part of DocuSign for Forests, we have added an environmental impact calculator directly into our core offering. This allows people to see just how they are reducing waste and positively impacting the environment by choosing electronic signatures over traditional paper and ink.

The second was to The Wilderness Society, announced in June alongside Dave Matthews, environmentalist, member of The Wilderness Society’s Governing Council, and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter. Over the next two years, that investment will support the Society’s scientific research efforts, advocacy and policy development, to ensure that wild forests stay healthy and intact for generations to come.

We are also offering pro bono support of the Rainforest Trust, by sending a group of employees to help the organization and its community NGO partners in Latin America to improve their technology, HR and finance practices.

The forests serve as the earth’s lungs, cleaning the air and providing us with the oxygen we all need. We believe we have a unique role to play in preserving these resources, and we remain committed to this cause now and for the future.

At DocuSign, we start with sustainability at one of its most fundamental levels—that of the planet’s natural resources. Given that our core solutions inherently help to reduce the volumes of paper used by hundreds of millions of individuals—and more than 530,000 small, medium and large companies—worldwide, we consider ourselves ‘naturally forest-friendly’.

But we are always looking for ways to improve, and ways to help others improve too.

That’s why we took a more deliberate approach

Above: (L-R): Suzanne DiBianca, Chief Impact Officer and EVP Corporate Relations, Salesforce, Paul Polman, CoFounder, IMAGINE, and former CEO, Unilever, Dr Jane Goodall, DBE, Dan Springer, CEO DocuSign

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RESPECTING PLANETARY BOUNDARIES SALESFORCE LEADS IN THE SHIFT TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY DR JOHN LEVER John Lever is Reader in the Department of Management at the University of Huddersfield in the UK. His research revolves around many aspects of the food system, including transitions towards place-based and circular systems.

Mainstream economic thinking has been leading us down a degenerative path, undermining the living world on which humanity depends while enriching the 1 per cent. Kate Raworth’s doughnut of social and planetary boundaries offers an alternative economic model based on creative and regenerative circular thinking. The hole in the middle of the doughnut exposes the extent to which many people around the world are falling short of the social priorities set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including food and water, healthcare, housing, gender equality and political voice. The Doughnut’s outer ring reveals the limits the prevailing linear economic model is transcending to bring about climate breakdown, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. (https://www.kateraworth. com)

linear economics. A contribution to this objective can be made, she argues, by taking a ‘mission zero’ approach to the design of products, services and buildings.

Salesforce is committed to working in this way to harness its culture of innovation to fight climate change and reduce inequality. Salesforce is a leading exponent of integrating sustainable practices into its design, construction and business operations. Over 60% percent of the company’s global office space is based on the highest levels of energy and environmental design, and Salesforce has achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions more than three decades ahead of its original commitment.

More recently, the company has announced that Salesforce Tower in San Francisco is

to be installed with a state-of-the-art water blackwater treatment and filtration system based on mechanisms for establishing a decentralised circular economic system.

Wastewater from rooftop rainwater collection, cooling towers, showers, sinks, toilets and urinals will be collected and treated before being recycled and recirculated through a separate piping system for nondrinkable uses such as drip irrigation and toilet flushing, thus reducing the building’s drinkable water consumption and saving more than 150,000 gallons of fresh water weekly. These developments at Salesforce, in partnership with the City of San Francisco, are significant in that they use circular economic thinking to move humanity into the doughnut without compromising public health and environmental sustainability.

Between the two boundaries is a space where it is feasible to meet the needs of humanity, not just the 1 per cent, within the means of the planet. Raworth suggests a regenerative circular economy can move us into this safe space to counter the impacts of degenerative Model by: Kate Raworth

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SALESFORCE NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE:

CONSTRUCTION

EXPANSION PLANS FOR AUSTRALIA AND IRELAND REVEALED AUSTRALIA Salesforce expands in Ireland and Australia and create amazing structures to build on their success.

MATT HILL Matt is an influencer within the Salesforce Ohana. He is currently working as a volunteer for Partner Event Promotions and SF Media Partners.

Salesforce is growing rapidly and this growth is seeing landmark and iconic buildings that are not only ecologically at the cutting edge but provide employees and customers the very best in working conditions. Here are two recent announcements!

Salesforce announced this week that it’s building another tower in Sydney. The

company has also committed to adding 1,000 new jobs in the next five years and to building the tower in a sustainable fashion.

In fact, Salesforce is pledging the new tower will be one of the greenest buildings in the country when they are finished. “The building has achieved Sydney’s first-ever WELL core and shell Platinum pre-certification, the highest obtainable pre-certification, and will achieve a 6 Star Green Star Design and AsBuilt rating, representing world excellence in sustainable design,” Salesforce’s Elizabeth Pinkham wrote in a blog post announcing the project.

Image Source: SMH.com.au

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As is Salesforce’s way, it’s going to be the tallest building in the city when it’s done, and will sit in the Circular Quay, part of the central business district in the city, and will house shops and restaurants on the main floor. As with all of its modern towers, it’s going to dedicate the top floor to allow for flexible use for employees, customers and partners. The building will also boast a variety of spaces including a Salesforce Innovation Center for customers along with social lounges, mindfulness areas and a variety of spaces for employees to collaborate.

Salesforce have said : Salesforce Tower Sydney will be one of the most sustainable office campuses in Australia. The building has achieved Sydney’s first-ever WELL core and shell Platinum precertification, the highest obtainable pre-certification, and will achieve a 6 Star Green Star Design and As Built rating, representing world excellence in sustainable design.

Consistent with our global design standards, Salesforce Tower Sydney will feature sweeping views of the cityscape, a Salesforce Innovation Center to welcome customers, social lounges, mindfulness zones as well as numerous seating options for our employees to gather and collaborate.

What makes our real estate truly unique is that in our named global Towers instead of dedicating the top floors for executive offices, we took a different approach. Known as the Ohana Floor, these flexible, open spaces are designed for our employees, customers, and partners to enjoy. On weeknights and weekends, local nonprofits and education groups can use the floor for their own events at no cost.

Today, we have Ohana Floors open in San Francisco, Indianapolis, New York, and London, with more coming soon in Chicago, Atlanta, Dublin, Tokyo and now, Sydney. Events on our Ohana Floors have raised over $5.6M for charity.

The announcement comes on the heels of the one earlier this year that the company was building a similarly grand project in Dublin to centralize operations in that city where it has had a presence since 2001.

Do you have news to share? Send your news to editorial@ sfmediapartners.com

Image Source: techcentral.ie

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MVP SPOTLIGHT #1 STEPHANIE HERRERA

Hi Steph, thanks for giving up the time to be interviewed for SF Society Magazine.

Tell us about the journey you have been on so far …

My first job out of high school was working in the cotton fields with my grandparents from 7am to 7pm. I can vividly remember walking up and down the fields in the sweltering heat, questioning how this was my grandparent’s only option? Crazy thing is, they were two of the happiest, smiley people I knew! From that day on, I knew I wanted to not only embody their work ethic, but also their positive spirits!

After that I worked in retail, and found I was really good with people, or maybe I was just grateful to work in an air conditioned, dirt free environment! After retail, I worked at Dell Computer, despite not having a college degree or knowing how to use a computer and worked there for almost 9yrs. Then I worked at small startups and then at Apple for a year and a half. In 2012, I left Apple, to get a job as a Salesforce Admin! In the 7yrs

since then, I’ve gone from a solo admin, to a Sr Admin, to Manager, to Sr Manager, to a Director of Technology, and now a Global VP at Computer Futures. I leveled up 6 times in a 7yr time period. The combination of the Salesforce ecosystem and dedicated mentors along the way empowered me to thrive!

And what would you say have been the highpoints in your career?

And what are your aspirations for the future?

Volunteered with https://merivis.org/ and became Board member in 2017.

That technology will truly level the playing field to drive equality and inclusion for ALL. So everyone has access, and options. That anyone, regardless of their background, has an opportunity to define what Success and Happiness looks like for them, and that they have the resources and network to help them!

I want to continue to use my personal and professional journey to show that it CAN be done. The community that came before me, helped me, so I want to help those that are coming up with me and those coming up behind me.

Stephanie Herrera meets Marc Benioff at Dreamforce 2017

2014 - Started first Salesforce WIT Chapter in Austin.

2015 - Founded Salesforce Saturday - has over 60 chapters globally.

2016 -Co-Founded https://www.pepuptech. org/ 2017 -TrailheaDX Equality Trailblazer Award presented by Parker Harris, to me, Selina Suarez & Rebe De La Paz. Salesforce Saturday Film & Keynote w/Marc Benioff at Dreamforce 2018 - PepUp Tech Film & Keynote w/Marc Benioff at Dreamforce.

2019 -National Latino Leadership Award.

And finally Steph, what unique fact about you can you share with our readers?

I want people to embrace their privilege.

Society looks at privilege as a bad thing. I don’t. It took a long time for me to acquire privilege, and now that I have it, I love sharing it! Why? I know how ugly and dark the world can be without it. Regardless if you were born with privilege or acquired it along your journey, share the power that comes with it!

I call this #DepleteYourPrivilegeBank. I plan to leave this world with as much privilege as I came into it with, which is ZERO, because I want to work everyday, to give it away! I hope you will too!

Thanks Steph … see you at Dreamforce!

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MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

towards them. Technological upgradations on the Salesforce platform are required by any Salesforce consulting company for retaining, as well as, attracting customers towards adopting Salesforce for their business.The key challenge that comes across for Salesforce is to make welldefined integrations between the technologies which have been acquired.

REX LANGTON Rex is a business specialist who has worked from Wall St to Woop Woop Rex continually reviews and delivers opinion on global issues and the most important business activities

REX TAKES A LOOK AT JUST A FEW OF THE HEADLINE-HITTING MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS TAKING PLACE ACROSS THE SALESFORCE ECOSYSTEM. Salesforce has made many acquisitions in recent years. A few of them have even reached up to billions of dollars. The company’s main aim towards these acquisitions is still undisclosed but analysts predict that there are clear strategies associated with each one of them.

Being a constant player in the acquisition game, Salesforce has taken definite steps for increasing its stake in the market by making a more technologically advanced CRM solution for its numerous clients. Since the beginning of 2019, Salesforce has acquired nearly 6 companies belonging to diverse segments like service software, AI start-ups, etc. The price tags also differ for each one of these acquisitions.

These acquisitions made by Salesforce come across as good news to various Salesforce consulting companies since an increase in their service offerings will attract more clients

GRIDDABLE: When Salesforce was founded in 1999, the Salesforce acquired Griddable on 28th January 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

Griddable, a startup that provides a platform for synchronizing enterprise data in the cloud for its customers, is based in San Jose, CA. With this acquisition, Salesforce is definitely in plans of expanding the CRM platform for its customers by way of offering cutting edge technology. This will surely help Salesforce in becoming the market leader in CRM solutions.

SALESFORCE FOUNDATION Salesforce, with an aim of working with non-profit organizations like charities and educational institutions, announced its integration with Salesforce foundation, also known as Salesforce.org (a reseller of Salesforce software and services to nonprofit organizations) on 16th August 2019.

All shares of Salesforce foundation were paid in cash for an amount of $300 million, thereby, turning it into a California based business corporation.

BONOBO AI Salesforce acquired Israel-based conversational AI startup, Bonobo, for a sum of $45 million on 6th May 2019. Bonobo AI, found in 2017, develops Artificial Intelligencebased software which helps companies in getting deeper insights into customers with

the help of texts, support calls, and other sorts of communication methods. Its acquisition is part of the Salesforce product, Einstein Assistant, that has not yet been launched for general use.

TABLEAU The Tableau acquisition by Salesforce on 10th June 2019, for a staggering enterprise value of $15.7 billion, is touted to be the biggest acquisitions ever that has been made

by Salesforce to date. There are two gaps that will be filled by Salesforce acquisition of Tableau. One is that data analytics will be at the core of the offerings made by Salesforce in the future, and the other one is the current absence of data visualization as a technology stack in its analytics portfolio for which Tableau integration is the perfect solution.

CLICKSOFTWARE Salesforce announced the ClickSoftware Technologies acquisition on 8th August 2019 for $1.35 billion. ClickSoftware Technologies is a field service software company and this acquisition will broaden the field service offering coming under the Service Cloud Category of Salesforce. This acquisition has been done mainly for the purpose of increasing the revenue of Salesforce Service Cloud which crossed $1 billion as per its June 2019 earnings report. In addition to this, Salesforce aims to further meet the needs of its customers by encouraging innovation with Field Service Lightning.

Salesforce is on the lookout for transforming itself from being a niche CRM software provider to one that is more automated, as well as, technologically upgraded, all for ensuring ease of use of the software by its diverse set of customers.

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MVP SPOTLIGHT #2 RAIKA FINLEY

professional journey to show that it CAN be done. The community that came before me, helped me, so I want to help those that are coming up with me and those coming up behind me.

In 2007 I was asked by a client if I had heard about Salesforce (of course I didn’t).

I said, “Yes!” and walked out of that office and straight to my computer to learn how to build my client’s system on this thing called Salesforce. I would go on to implement over 100 Salesforce databases before I was 25 years old.

Hi Raika, can you tell us about your journey so far including some of the challenges you have faced …

I built my first database when I was 16 years old. It was a hobby I picked up as computers and problems have always been my favorite things. I took my love of data and went to college where, for the first time, I started to make money building databases for other people. I created my development agency when I was 19 years old and a freshman in college. I spent 2003-2006 creating custom Access or SQL solutions for nonprofits and small government entities throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia.

That technology will truly level the playing field to drive equality and inclusion for ALL. So everyone has access and options. That anyone, regardless of their background, has an opportunity to define what Success and Happiness looks like for them, and that they have the resources and network to help them!

I want to continue to use my personal and

A lot of my work now is in assisting senior corporations with moving to the platform or enhancing their initial outdated implementation. I like to think I’m the old wise success consultant, there’s no implementation I haven’t seen.

I understand first-hand the difficulty of rising in your career as a woman and person of color; it’s been my entire Salesforce journey.

I’m also an example of what happens when you master a tool like Salesforce and provide excellent service and decisive leadership.

When I’m not architecting, I am the CoLeader of Washington DC’s Women in Tech User Group (WITDC). I also speak at many events within the Salesforce community with a mission to be an MVP speaker at every Community Dreamin’ event in the world. I enjoy the opportunity to provide dialogue around the power of empathic implementations, diversity in leadership, and inclusion in innovation.

And what are your aspirations for the future TO BUILD COOL THINGS FOR AMAZING PEOPLE! My next chapter is to be a fearless leader in innovation and technology. My

love for nonprofits and government entities remains strong. We cannot leave them out of the conversation of innovation. Copper & Vine aspires to always be a resource to the public sector, making sure that they can align with the advancements of technology as well.

Most importantly, I want to advance the conversation around women in leadership positions. There is still a need to enhance the numbers around equal pay and equal advancement in companies. I hope my work within Salesforce, a company that understands these values, will get us to seeing diversity on every floor of every building.

What are the highpoints in your career?

Keynoting at WIT: I was the closing Keynote for the Salesforce Women in Tech conference in Nashville. I got an opportunity to connect and be a resource to over 300 women, and it was glorious!

Building a proprietary AI product: I was a part of a fantastic team that developed and launched a custom enterprise artificial intelligence technology to the medical industry in the UK. It was the hardest project I’ve ever worked on and the most successful.

First Big Client: My first colossal client was Starwood hotels. I spent over a month stalking the VP at the hotel bar and pitched my company! It was the first time they had opened their technology up to a female consultant.

27 Hours of Natural Labor: I spent my labor in bed, finishing up a 500 user Salesforce implementation, watching Netflix, and planning my son’s first-month wardrobe.

On that day, I became a superhero!

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SALESFORCE NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HOW SALESFORCE EINSTEIN IS HELPING TRACK (AND PROTECT) GREAT WHITE SHARKS IN THE WILD In the last few years, the combination of increasing compute power, big data and improved algorithms have catapulted artificial intelligence from research labs to enabling a multitude of innovative, practical applications. Robotic surgery, for example.

A hurricane forecasting system for the Caribbean. Personalizing classroom lessons so kids can get the best education. Predicting what are the best leads for salespeople.

Using AI to visually identify the presence of great white sharks near popular beaches might not immediately come to mind, but a few members of the Salesforce Einstein team — in partnership with UC Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Initiative — are doing that off the coast of Southern California. This handful of AI experts and oceanographers is using AI to analyze drone footage in near real-time to track an apparent recent uptick in great white sightings close to shore. They hope this application of AI can help keep beaches safer, encourage a more informed public, and help people learn how to share the waves with wildlife.

And perhaps most importantly, they can protect the rebounding populations of great white sharks, top predators that are a healthy part of the California ocean ecosystem, according to Benioff Ocean Initiative Director and UCSB professor Douglas McCauley.

Over the past four years, scientists have noted an increase in great white sightings off the California coast — particularly 5- to 10-foot-long juveniles. There are many theories as to why this is: climate change; the effects of 25 years of protected species status in California; banning gill nets in nearshore waters that indiscriminately kill marine life, including sharks; an increase

in the population of seals and sea lions, which are a key food source for adult sharks, to name a few potential factors.

The Salesforce Research team theorized they could train the Einstein Vision algorithm — ordinarily used for visual search, brand detection, and product identification — to process drone video and recognize the unique attributes of sharks, thereby identifying them without the need of physically tagging them. Working with McCauley’s team, they devised an innovative workflow for video capture and processing, all without ever touching the water. They dubbed it “Project SharkEye.” “The benefit of drones is that you’ve got an eye in the sky to see more of the ocean,” explains McCauley. “It’s super cheap to fly up and down the beach. That’s the easy part. But what comes after is where AI becomes really valuable. Every hour of video footage requires an hour of a video analyst’s time. If you’re trying to gain insights in real time, that’s not efficient. That’s where computer vision really comes into play.” It’s also about understanding a traditionally misunderstood species — where they’re swimming and why, their behavior and feeding patterns. If we’re able to give these creatures their space and predict when they might come into contact with people, McCauley says, we’ll be better prepared to keep beaches

safe, too. Not to mention the sharks, who are still a “vulnerable” species — one step up from “endangered” status. The end use case of such technology isn’t just a practical use of AI — although it is that, and an undeniably cool one. It’s also a way to bring technology to a place it hasn’t traditionally been: the beach.

“Lifeguards do a superb job of protecting all of us when we head to the beach,” says McCauley.

“But they are constantly on the lookout for nextgen tools and technologies to help them better assess the situation at their beaches. AI could very well be one of those new tools.” Perhaps in the near future, McCauley suggests, lifeguards could be aided by AI-powered autonomous drones installed at every tower, and those drones could make regular flights and deliver data back to the tower. That opens up a whole universe of knowledge — for instance, what is the status report is on the day for shark sightings? Are the waters pollution free? Are there any dangerous riptides forming?

“AI is doing amazing, audacious things and inspiring customers to take that leap,” says Jones. “But there’s lots of reluctance to actually dream when it comes to AI. Realworld applications like this one can help drive actual impact in the world.”

Source: Salesforce newsroom

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A D V E R T O R I A L

ACCESS TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE BECOMING THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON IN THE ROOM WITH SALESFORCE adventurous approach to internship, research and volunteer experiences. Our carefully selected and coordinated programs ensure a sustainable long-term impact and changing the perception of internship programs in Africa.

Universities are partnering with NamIntern to improve their curriculums and gain a competitive edge.

MIRIAM BRYNE Miriam Bryne is a Norwegian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of NamIntern. She discovered Namibia as an intern a decade ago, and has since then established herself as a serial entrepreneur in the start-up scene of Windhoek.

Climbing the career ladder, travelling the world, connecting with tomorrow’s leaders, making an impact. NamIntern believes that we have found the recipe for it all. In a global society where experience and soft-skills are taking over the spotlight from polished degrees, both individuals and institutions are searching for access to real-life exposure. Higher education is transforming the traditional classroom model and incorporating compulsory internships into their curriculums.

The need to stand out has become critical as more than 300 million students are estimated to be enrolled in higher education by 2020.

NamIntern is providing a platform for participants to gain a global perspective and cultural awareness to differentiate themselves from their peers.

The Namibian start-up NamIntern is disrupting the intern abroad market with our personal and

One of our current NamIntern experiences is a research opportunity for a Fintech Start-up with the potential of shaping the unregulated lending industry in developing countries.

Namibia’s small population of only 2.5 million people enables our participants to make a big impact while experiencing the wonders of Africa in a safe environment; Africa for beginners. As the undiscovered intern hub of Africa, Windhoek is filled with young expats enhancing their resumes and enjoying the travel adventures and amazing food that Namibia has to offer.

made NamIntern scalable, automated and uniquely customized to our business’s needs.

I have full visibility of sales pipelines across multiple regions, which allows me to make key decisions driven by real time data.

S a l e s f o r c e ’ s g r e a te s t s t r e n g t h i s i t s customizability. We selected Vanguard Cloud Consulting to partner with us and guide us through this transition. We experienced first hand how selecting the right partner is the key to success, and the implementation experience with Vanguard has been absolutely excellent. Thanks to their knowledge we have fully customized software that helps us achieve optimal output. Their service and communication has been great at all times.

We are especially grateful that they took the time, and had the patience (thanks Andy), to understand our business’ needs to the finest detail and translated that into a uniquely customized Salesforce product.

As the CEO of NamIntern, travel forms a large part of my job. It is essential for the success of my business to understand what is happening at NamIntern in real-time, enabling me to support my team in Windhoek. Our growth was limited by a lack of data visibility and time consuming processes. We wanted to scale our product offerings, cultivate new relationships and track numerous lines of enquiries. In order for us to streamline our organisation and provide a world class experience for our customers and staff, we identified Salesforce as the best platform to deliver digital transformation in a fashion that was easily adaptable. Salesforce is empowering NamIntern with an application that allows me to work from anywhere in the world without compromising the quality of our service. The Salesforce solution has Image courtesy of: Namintern

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MVP SPOTLIGHT #3 GUILLERMO PEDRONI

Guillermo is a Salesforce MVP. we caught up with him to learn about his Journey.

Tell our readers how you got started I started out my Salesforce career completely by accident. 13 years ago, my best friend had died in a car accident. During the funeral events, I met my now wife. After a couple of months of what started as a grieving process to reflect on the life of my best friend, love blossomed.

At the time I had a dual role of being a Pricing Analyst and IT Administrator. After that first couple of months and recent life events, I knew I couldn’t just sit idly by and wait for life. I decided to resign from my position and just move to southern California to see what would happen. I figured I could just go work at Walmart or Home Depot until I got settled in. Within a few days of resigning, a recruiter called me up saying they liked my mixed resume and thought I’d make a good fit for this tech company using some database called Salesforce.com!

I figured what could I lose, so I applied. After a few interviews, and expressing my passion to learn and grow my career, they flew me out to meet their Sales Ops team and then they offered me a full-time role as their Salesforce Administrator. What the heck was Salesforce I thought, my only experience with databases at that time was excel and AccessDB. It was all dumb luck honestly because I had no idea what I was getting into.

Months went by and I was able to take the old Admin 1 and 2 classes. I feverishly needed to learn more about the force. com platform (that’s what it was called it at the time). I was reading blogs and trying to figure out how I could get more practice and ideas to expand the footprint within the company.

I then heard about the Orange County user group within a year. I started attending every meetup and by 2 years in I was asking Barbara Kuntz, the leader at that time, if I could help them with anything. I must have pestered her so much she later asked me and Chris Raskulinecz if we wanted to just take over the whole thing. So we did!

Years go by and in 2016 I started my own consulting practice. Somewhere in here, I got inducted into the MVP program! In 2017 I joined as a leader and master instructor of PepUp Tech and later joined the Board of Directors. I have also spent 5 years at forceacademyla, 2 years at TahoeDreamin and helped start NorCalDreamin.

I’d love to ultimately expand my consulting practice and really drive the 1:1:1 model around it as it scales up. I’d love to also scale up PepUp Tech to have a global presence and reach thousands of underrepresented peoples and give people a chance at success even if prior doors weren’t open to them. My wife and I are thinking of starting a Non-Profit to help under-service areas of Mexico to help improve family lives down there by teaching them technical skills and more.

Guillermo, what unique facts about you can you share with our readers?

I am an Aikidoist. It’s a martial art focused on deflection and letting things go. I’ve actually almost died a couple of times, once climbing a volcano in Mexico, and another time in the jungles of Mexico up in the mountains.

I literally fell off the side of a cliff but my uncle saved me!

And finally …I’ve been helping roughly 17 total family members learn Salesforce, including my 10-year-old daughter. 8 of which actually have paying jobs in this industry!

More recently my wife, Gabriela Pedroni and I started running BAM workshops in SoCal and Mexico. The last 13 years has been an amazingly beautiful experience!

And what are your aspirations going forward?

Images courtesy of: Guillermo Pedroni

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GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

A 360 VIEW OF VOICE INTERACTIONS O

basic transactions.

Receiving a personalised service means customers are more inclined to trust a brand.

A smart telephony platform can be a great place to start – offering contact centre agents a 360∞ view into all the customers they speak to, from their previous interactions with the brand, down to their personal preferences.

TRACY RYAN Tracy is the Global Marketing Director for Natterbox.

Nowadays, brand loyalty is one of the hardest assets for businesses to gain and retain. Competition is rife in all industries and customers have access to a myriad of options at their fingertips meaning they do not hesitate to change providers if they’re unhappy with a service.

This means businesses are under pressure to deliver better customer service than ever before – which starts by taking every opportunity to get to know your customer.

Despite all the communication channels available, the phone continues to be one of the most used and loved. It is also the best platform to communicate on a personal level and build relationships with customers beyond

Natterbox’s new Freedom interface, which is fully embedded within Salesforce®, enables

‘Despite all the communication channels available, the phone continues to be one of the most used and loved.’

contact centre agents to take their customer interactions to the next level. More work can now be done within a single window, and functionalities such as Listen In, Voicemail Drop and deferring wrap-ups can be easily managed within the interface. This can have a significant increase in efficiency.

In addition, Freedom gives sales agents on the move, the power to work from anywhere, on any device they choose – the data they gather from phone calls will still be immediately pushed within Salesforce®. Thanks to Freedom, agents will have 24/7 access to up to date CRM information on any potential or existing

Natterbox is a global, cloud-based telecommunications company with offices in London, Chicago & Sydney. The world’s 1st global business phone system, 100% embedded and managed with Salesforce.

Our technology can help you make and receive calls, retreive records & automatically log calls within the relevant objerct in salesforce

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customer, furthermore it eliminates admin time when they get home or back to the office freeing up more time to focus on the customer.

The human touch Not everyone has time for a chit chat, but it’s important to ensure that customers feel comfortable on the other end of the line.

Companies should scrap the script and get to know who they’re talking to. When a customer contacts your business, you should instantly know if they have an open issue. You should offer up a personalised menu, address them by name and direct their call faster to an informed agent who is ready to help – ultimately avoiding that awkward and slow initial conversation where a frustrated customer has to repeat their issue time and time again.

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Going above and beyond Always try to get in touch with the customer before an issue arises, and within limits that have previously been agreed on. Where possible, pick up the phone and check if the customer has any feedback on your product or service. Consumers hate not knowing if a problem can be solved, or how long it is going to take to resolve – so avoid this by proactively engaging with them. Own up to any problems and get in touch with customers before they have a chance to complain.

The tools and technology exist to deliver impeccable customer service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and companies must take advantage of it. One bad interaction can put a consumer off a brand for life, whereas one positive, personal, interaction is a great way to turn a basic transaction into a long term,

Screenshots of Natterbox Interface

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loyal, relationship.

Natterbox are demoing their product at Dreamforce.

Visit them at: Booth #1910 OR www.natterbox.com

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GEOLOCATION THE PERFECT COMPLEMENT TO YOUR TECH STACK

has become part of a modern business model and is now a critical component of the tech stack for companies that want to stay competitive. Businesses are not only using geolocation to complete crucial operational functions, they are also beginning to build their operational functions around it.

SCOTT HEMMETER Scott Hemmeter founded Geopointe, the premier geolocation solution on AppExchange. He earned an Accounting degree from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign and spent the first seven years of his career delivering large-scale CRM solutions. He discovered Salesforce in 2002 and delivered more than 30 Salesforce implementations over the following several years. He launched Geopointe on AppExchange in 2010. Geopointe has grown to over 50 employees and is among the Top 3 highestrated applications on the Salesforce AppExchange. Scott works out of Geopointe’s headquarters in Irvine, CA and serves as the company’s Chief Product Officer.

Geolocation has quite an interesting backstory.

Its foundational component, the Global Positioning System (“GPS”), was initially established for governmental use. Geolocation quickly became a multi-billion dollar industry when commercial restrictions were lifted from GPS. Thanks to its current public status and advances in Internet technologies, geolocation

A CRM system is widely known as the pivotal piece of nearly any company’s tech stack.

Since CRM data generally has geographical information attached to it, geolocation has made it easy to map location data and show related information to provide users with greater insights. For this reason, businesses both large and small can organize their data and create better processes by adding geolocation to their tech stack.

Salesforce is excellent for capturing and helping users understand the “who, what, and when” but insights about “where” are unlocked through location data. Geolocation can be integrated into almost any business process to increase its efficiency, bringing new data to light and improving the outcomes of each process. Here are some examples of common business practices that geolocation can accelerate.

Scheduling for Mobile Sales and Service Teams Mobile sales and service are very demanding professions that tend to be costly and require intensive management and coordination.

With so many resources channeled towards sales and service efforts, individual reps must yield high returns. Every mobile rep has a calendar, and geolocation apps such as Geopointe can be used to manage their

appointments, schedules and routes so they spend less time planning or driving and more time with prospects and customers.

“Salesforce is excellent for capturing and helping users understand the “who, what, and when” but insights about “where” are unlocked through location data.”

Think about the following use case: Bruce, a mobile service rep for a gas company has recurring customer visits to service gas monitors, ensuring they work properly.

Failure to service these monitors could be a huge liability to the company. Bruce can use geolocation to view the accounts he is servicing on a map alongside the current calendar, and schedule his appointments for the week ahead, all while optimizing his daily routes by travel time, filling his time in the most optimal way.

Bruce can then view his updated CRM calendar, built with geolocation, through his primary calendar. While on the road executing appointments, Bruce can take advantage of checking into his appointments to confirm his arrival and take notes, capturing additional information related to the appointment. This combines the benefits of geolocation with the benefits of CRM, adding tremendous value for the rep, management, and the company.

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Sales Prospecting Often the responsibility of the sales team, finding new prospects is paramount to any organization. Sales reps can not only use prospecting tools to locate relevant new accounts and contacts, but also use geolocation to strategically enhance their message to those prospects. Shelly takes her new leads and visualizes them on the map by her territory and location. She begins to create heatmaps to view the concentrations of her largest accounts based upon revenue and decides to specifically target large enterprises, planning and optimizing her schedule using location insights to visit other nearby targeted prospects on the same trip.

MARKETING AUTOMATION Geolocation and marketing are a natural complement to each other because the vast majority of businesses run email marketing campaigns that rely heavily on segmentation.

The rise of geolocation gives marketers a multitude of tools that provide actionable insights and streamline marketing automation processes.

Let’s talk about Molly, a marketing guru at a small tech company, who is creating an email campaign. Geolocation data paired with other segmentation data gives her the ability to view concentrations of prospects on the map filtered by any fields in CRM. She can then use the information generated to create a messaging strategy for her prospects and geographically segment them into marketing lists. Using geolocation insights,

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she sees where the highest concentration of prospects reside that have a high lead score in her CRM system (or have interacted with previous marketing campaigns). She decides to schedule a happy hour event in that high-concentration area, then segment the invitation lists by nearby cities, refining her messaging for each list and changing the image on the email to reflect each city.

Executive Reporting & Analytics

Service Fleet Management

For example, Meghan, an outside sales leader, has an executive quarterly meeting where she must quickly present her team’s quarterly pipeline to the C-Level executive team.

She decides to use geolocation to present a map depicting each of her rep’s territories, automatically dropping pins on the map to show each account in the pipeline, and color coding the pins by the pipeline stage of each prospect account. This gives the executives a very quick but in-depth overview of each rep’s activity level and success for the quarter, as well as what opportunities are bound to close shortly.

Another invaluable geolocation tool that companies utilize with increasing frequency is the live tracking of vehicles and assets.

Commonly found in sales, service, and delivery, insights from live tracking allow businesses to directly control assets, make better decisions, and improve customer service. Live tracking allows devices to communicate their location and other important information back to a source such as a CRM solution.

For example, a construction equipment rental company has a fleet of trucks ready to be dispatched to a construction site to maintain the high value equipment that is located there. This equipment communicates its location and other important information to the maintenance crew so it can be located and serviced. Using a mobile app, or even the company’s CRM solution, this information can be viewed in real-time by the drivers and technicians. The company can now effectively manage its assets and provide high quality service for all equipment.

Unsurprisingly, as technology changes the sales process, so does geolocation. The main advantage of geo-reporting is that many individuals digest visual information best, and reports can be easily understood on a map.

This is just one example of reporting that Meghan builds with geolocation. Not only can she share important information in a split second, but she can also derive valuable insights for her business strategy, such as areas that need more activity, reps that need more coaching, and more. The use cases for geolocation in reporting are extensive.

Geolocation’s rise to stardom is due to the fact that businesses everywhere recognize its value. As consumers, we use location data every day to remain efficient. How do we get to where we’re going quickly? Where is the closest ATM? How can I get this item shipped to me by a certain date?

Location intelligence has also been shown to drive efficient processes in business, and as geolocation improves, it will further transform the way organizations operate for years to come.

Images courtesy of: Geopointe

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CONGA CONTRACTS THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT The in-depth Total Economic Impact (TEI) study, commissioned by Conga, found that a composite organization based on interviews with Conga customers saw an astonishing 282% return on their investment, and were able to increase revenue by up to 14%, ultimately saving nearly $2.2 million over three years.

CIARAN McCULLAGH

AVP Alliances EMEA at Conga.

Ciaran has over 20 years leadership experience in Alliances & Channels, partner marketing, sales, business development, sales operations and technical support environments.

Testing and showcasing the value of your product can be difficult. It’s easy to fall back on “soft” metrics or implied value.

But in today’s world where customer success must be at the heart of every company, real, quantifiable metrics are a non-negotiable.

That’s why Conga set out to incontrovertibly confirm — and quantify — the benefits of Conga to our customers by commissioning a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study conducted

by Forrester Consulting.

Forrester validated what we’ve always known: Conga provides a massive value to our customers. Now, we aren’t typically an “over-confident, in-your-face” type of company, but we believe we’re earning our customer’s trust at every interaction and we can’t be successful without them.

So I’m proud to share what we found:

Before the composite organization implemented Conga Contracts, contract administrators spent much of their time waiting for the next steps after contract review or signature process. The company estimated that an average of 12 hours was spent on each contract, with additional legal review time also required.

After bringing on Conga Contracts, though, contracts that once took weeks or months to execute can now be completed in a few days — some in even just one day.

Today that time is just 2 hours, on average, and most contracts don’t require legal review.

This has allowed organizations to move several

“Contract creation time is faster because of Conga Contracts’ features, such as the clause library, drag-anddrop Microsoft Word plugin, eSignature integration, easy access to preconfigured contract templates, quick contract setup, and options for Salesforce integration.”

contract management resources to more valuable roles, and the composite organization realized a staggering three-year present value contract creation management costs savings of $492,000.

Conga asked Forrester to study CLM

BENEFITS COSTS FLEXIBILITY

RISKS

TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT (TEI)

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Forrester’s approach START

Due diligence

To create the composite organization, Forrester Consulting interviewed three Conga customers — A government agency, a financial services organization and a pharmaceutical researcher — to glean the above results about Contracts’ effectiveness.

Customer interviews

Create composite

Create financial model

composite organization. Instead of spending up to 12 hours to create a contract, customers we able to cut that time down to just two hours.

•

•

What they found was an incredible time and cost savings, including the fact that Conga Contract customers achieved a 282% return on investment with a payback in less than six months.

O verall revenue associated with contracts managed in Conga’s solution improvement increased from 6% to 14% annual growth. Finally, the contract request and delivery times dropped from two and a half hours to less than an hour.

•

Contract creation time dropped from 12 hours to two, resulting in a threeyear cost savings of $492,000 for the

We’re grateful we’re now able to share what we’ve always known with you, and we’re even more grateful you can take more than

Conga delivers massive value.

A recent Forrester study found that Conga customers saw an astonishing 282% return on their investment, and were able to increase revenue by up to 14%.

This ultimately led to savings of nearly $2.2 million over three years.

Creation

12 hours to 2 hours

Renewal 1 week to 1 day

Requests 2.5 hours to 1 hour

ROI Calculator: go.conga.com/ROI TEI Study: go.conga.com/TEI

Write case study

Review and finalize

our word for it — the numbers tell the story themselves.

To learn more, visit Conga at Booth #812 at Dreamforce.

Conga are also running a full programme of events at the Thirsty Bear, San Francisco.

For more details, visit conga.com/ dreamforce-2019

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VONAGE ALL EYES ON SALESFORCE For one week in November, the focus of the entire business software world will be Dreamforce, Salesforce’s enormous annual event in San Francisco. Promising to “change the way you think about business,” the event is devoted to all things customer experience and was attended by over 150,000 people last year.

And this year, once again, NewVoiceMedia (NVM), a Vonage company, is looking forward to showcasing its contact centre solutions designed for Service Cloud and Sales Cloud.

The company is just as excited today as it was 11 years ago when it became Salesforce’s first CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) partner.

Today NewVoiceMedia is one of the leading CTI providers on the Salesforce AppExchange with nearly 500 5-star reviews. It continues to enhance its product offerings with ongoing investments in omni-channel, speech analytics, and AI to provide seamless customer and agent experiences for its customers.

Visit NewVoiceMedia during Dreamforce, and you’ll learn to: •

Deliver a seamless CX for your customers and agents with NVM’s deep integration with Salesforce by leveraging your Salesforce implementation for calling, routing, reporting, and analytics.

•

Empower your sales teams and elevate y o u r pr o c esses thr o ugh N VM ’s integration with Salesforce High-Velocity sales.

•

Uncover hidden insights with Conversation Analyzer, NVM’s speech analytics and call transcription solution.

•

Experience demos of AI-driven customer interactions, contact centre AI built specifically for Service Cloud and conversational bots.

Where to meet us Visit NewVoiceMedia at Booth #1610 on the expo show floor Stop by the Vonage Hub located in the Virgin Hotel - just steps from the Moscone Center.

The Vonage Hub will be the place to check out NVM’s Demo Den, meet with its product and executive teams, as well as network with your peers away from the chaos of Dreamforce.

The company also has some exciting special events planned for the Everdene Rooftop bar, one of the hottest party spots in San Francisco.

Check out all our activities today.

Schedule time with our team Book a meeting now with NVM’s product team to get an expert tour of its contact centre solutions. The demo will be tailored to your specific needs so you can make the most of your time.

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VANGUARD CLOUD CONSULTING

LIGHTNING QUICK TO SILVER Many across the Salesforce ecosystem are familiar with James Collett, a former Salesforce Strategic Account Executive, SVP Marketing & Alliances, creator of those amazing charity events at Partner Event Promotions and now CEO and founder of Vanguard Cloud Consulting.

NADIO GRANATA Nadio is managing director of SF Media Partners and co-founder of Partner Event Promotions and is a former teaching fellow. He was former brand director at a multiaward winning platinum salesforce consultancy

But few could have imagined that James and business partner, COO Ricky Mortimer, would arrive with such an impact! In less than 10 weeks from their official launch as a registered Salesforce partner, Vanguard Cloud Consulting have far surpassed their first partner milestone from a registered partner to Silver. As many in the partner management team of Salesforce have commented, sometimes this can take a year or two for a partner to achieve Silver status, so this is indeed an awesome performance!

What does Collett put this down to? We asked him at the Conga Business Awards in London where he was there to receive Vanguard Cloud Consulting’s first business award.

Years of experience are already paying dividends as Vanguard Cloud Consulting become the fastest Salesforce partner to get to Silver status … and win their first Business award!!!

Collett offers a formula for success achieved from the rare perspective of being a highly successful Salesforce employee and likewise his time at award-wining Platinum partner, makepositive. He has a deep knowledge of both environments that only a handful truly have.

do. This resonates with Salesforce and the customer, which means they are supremely confident when they introduce us that we will

‘In less than 10 weeks from their official launch as a registered Salesforce partner, Vanguard Cloud Consulting have far surpassed their first partner milestone from a registered partner to Silver’

consult in a best practice fashion and provide the customer with a solution that delivers value based on their objectives in the most efficient time & budget.”

Collett continues, “After many years and hundreds of projects of experience, we know the best people in our ecosystem and handpick our team as we grow. Being a Vanguard means being at the forefront, being part of the best and most trusted force. Our name has purpose and our people do too.

Here’s what he said…

“I know what is takes to be a successful AE and the team required to ensure you can deliver absolute success for the customer. Internally in Salesforce, the resources must be excellent and the same goes for the Implementation Partner as they are an extension of the Salesforce team and trusted advisors to Salesforce and customers. Ricky and I developed a philosophy of ensuring this is at the forefront of what we

Vanguard (noun): a group of people who lead the development of new ideas

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“ I have had the privilege to work with this man both in Salesforce and in the partner ecosystem.

He is a gentleman, a true trailblazer and consummate professional. His latest company have developed an end to end strategy that we can all benefit from … especially our customers.”

Certifications are key to moving through the Partner tiers and we are expert in multiple Salesforce disciplines and ultra-focused on customer success. A deep focus like this leads

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to impeccable customer satisfaction results, a priority KPI we are measured on as a partner.

Our CSAT score is a true reflection of our business at 9.96 against a minimum target of 8.5.”

Collett was called to the stage to accept the

Generating business for Salesforce is also a key metric and there are few to compete with Collett is this space, having been highly recognised for his business and charity events.

Vanguard received the award for executing on their strategy, which has been generating leads and opportunities for Salesforce and ISV partners from the get-go.

What next for Vanguard Cloud Consulting?

Presenting a Champion Award to Vanguard Cloud Consulting was Conga VP Northern Europe, Mark Dunn and AVP Strategic Alliances EMEA, Ciaran McCullagh.

McCullagh while presenting the award the award said, “ I have had the privilege to work with this man both in Salesforce and in the partner ecosystem. He is a gentleman, a true trailblazer and consummate professional.

His latest company have developed an end to end strategy that we can all benefit from … especially our customers.”

award for Vanguard to resounding applause and clearly a popular result for the audience.

Collett explains, “Well, we will take stock, enjoy the new partner status and this important award. Then it’s back to doing what we do best and helping customers get the most from their investment. We can implement pretty much any Salesforce solution at this stage with our core focus on Sales, Service & Marketing. With our deep knowledge of CPQ, we offer managed services and training across the ecosystem and because our rates are aligned to the level of a Silver Partner our customers really do get a Platinum Partner experience at a Silver Partner Price!”

Above (L-R) Ciaran McCullagh - AVP EMEA Alliances Conga, James Collett - Founder & CEO Vangaurd Cloud Consulting & Brad Mirkovich - Chief Revenue Officer, Conga

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CODERDOJO

R E P O R T

TURNING MILK BOTTLES INTO ROBOTS

Such work is part of the CoderDojo programme on which Accenture and Salesforce collaborate to help children learn about programming.

It now involves 12,000 volunteers in 107 countries helping 58,000 children to discover the joy of coding.

DAVE SUMNER SMITH Having originally started as a motoring journalist, editor and magazine publisher, Dave went on to run business networks for The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph plus multiple LinkedIn groups for Oracle and The Wall Street Journal.

TURNING A MILK CARTON INTO A ROBOT IS NOT THE SORT OF WORK ONE WOULD EXPECT TO FIND AT ACCENTURE’S OFFICES AT THE DOCK IN DUBLIN. SEEING MECHANICAL HANDS BEING BUILT FROM STRAWS COMES AS A SURPRISE TOO. BUT THIS IS NOT IDLE TIMEWASTING: QUITE THE OPPOSITE.

It was just a ‘scrappy start-up’ with seven staff when Cyril Treacy came across the Irish not-for-profit organisation. CoderDojo had been set up by James Whelton and Bill Liao in Cork in July 2011. It caught the attention of the Salesforce VP of Industry and Solution Architects because Treacy wanted his two daughters to get interested in technology.

“I.T is the best career in the market right now,” he explains, “but nobody was explaining that to children or encouraging their enthusiasm.” Treacy recognised CoderDojo’s approach offered something new by making learning fun. Instead of calling it a coding club, they used the Japanese word Dojo more commonly applied to martial arts clubs and referred to the young participants as Ninjas.

But the fun terms couldn’t disguise the fact CoderDojo was burning through the funds provided from VCs. So Treacy helped CoderDojo use the not-for-profit version of Salesforce to track donations. He also tested the principles by recruiting 10 ‘mentors’ to run early evening Dojos for employees’ children in Salesforce offices.

Having then attracted ninjas from disadvantaged homes in the surrounding area, the Salesforce team created an FAQ section and made other improvements to the coderdojo.com website. With ever growing demand for computing skills, he believes

it’s essential to encourage children from all backgrounds to learn about computing.

“This is particularly true for girls,” he says.

“Many girls are good at maths, so they will probably be good at coding. But their schools encourage them to pursue careers in finance or accountancy – despite the fact such professions will soon be done by bots.

Instead they should be focused on the plethora of new jobs like ‘data scientist’

“Most of the girls’ parents would aspire for them to be a hairdresser or a beautician or to work in a supermarket,” he says with excitement. “ But we’re mentoring them in robotics!”

Treacy’s passionate campaigning for the ethos of making coding fun for boys and girls helped to secure $300,000 of early stage funding for CoderDojo, making Salesforce one of the leading sponsors. Even more important, Treacy believes, is the amount of time and effort invested by Salesforce staff, which amounts to more than 8000 hours in 16 countries.

Salesforce brought CoderDojo to the World Economic Forum at Davos and also took the CoderDojo ‘Digital Girl of the Year’ to Dreamforce in 2014, attracting the attention of Marc Benioff and helping to secure further

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funding. Treacy’s passion is infectious. “Most of the girls’ parents would aspire for them to be a hairdresser or a beautician or to work in a supermarket,” he says with excitement. “ But we’re mentoring them in robotics!”

His passion is shared by Julie Spillane, Managing Director of Commercial Management at Accenture, who met in Dublin to explore their shared vision. “The pace of change in technology is incredible,” she says. “My children of 10 and 12 will be

“My children of 10 and 12 will be studying things at university I’ve never heard of. Coding is part of the language of the future.”

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study things at university I’ve never heard of.

Coding is part of the language of the future.”

CoderDojo fits neatly with Accenture strategy in three key ways, she explains.

Firstly it aligns neatly with Accenture’s $200 million Skills to Succeed programme.

“This aims to equip 3 million people around the world with digital skills for the workplace by the end of 2020. We truly believe it is critical to build these skills early so that future generations can thrive in the workplace of the future and CoderDojo shares that vision.”

Secondly it fitted with Accenture’s ability to scale very quickly. “So when we have an idea,” says Spillane, “we have a huge global community that we can partner with to develop and expand it out globally – that’s what we did with CoderDojo. We started the first Accenture Dojo in 2016 at The Dock, our flagship R&D and Global Innovation Centre in Dublin, Ireland. Since then we’ve grown to a network of 40 Dojos around the world including in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, India, South Africa, the United States and Spain.”

Clockwise, from top left: Cyril Treacy - VP Industry & Solution Architects, Salesforce, Julie Spillane - MD Commercial management Accenture, Coder Dojo Class

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“We’ve worked with our own clients and partners,” says Spillane, “to help CoderDojo to grow by establishing relationships with new Growth Partners – a global network of organisations working to grow the CoderDojo movement of free coding clubs for young people around the world. We also developed a toolkit for CoderDojo of our learnings and best practices, so others can get up and running quickly.”

Like Salesforce, Accenture also recognised the importance of not only running Dojos for children around the world, but also working with the CoderDojo organisation to build its capabilities. We’ve worked with our own clients and partners,” says Spillane, “to help CoderDojo to grow by establishing relationships with new Growth Partners – a global network of organisations working to grow the CoderDojo movement of free coding clubs for young people around the world. We also developed a toolkit for CoderDojo of our learnings and best practices, so others can get up and running quickly.” Already new organisations have come on board thanks to the Accenture-developed toolkits.

Spillane and Treacy have been ‘slingshotting’ each other to build on each others’ ideas and experiences. The two companies now work together as ‘growth partners’ to attract further support from other corporations and drive CoderDojo forward toward its target of 5000 Dojos by the end of 2020.

Key to this growth was the Raspberry Pi Foundation becoming a corporate member of the CoderDojo Foundation in May 2017, building on the organisation’s impressive credentials. But equally important has been the Dojo’s popularity amongst volunteers within Salesforce, Accenture and elsewhere.

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In the year to August 2019, for example, the number of Accenture mentors grew from 240 to 400, undertaking more than 9000 hours of tuition for 1,100 ninjas in more than 40 Dojos across the world.

Dojos are for girls only, but in most other nations the target is for an equal gender balance. Children aged from 7-17 are split into different age groups to ensure a suitable menu of content and activities.

CoderDojo works in multiple languages, explains global community manager Nicola Lyons, and operates in 107 countries including Columbia, Yemen and Iraq. “There are 30 Dojos in Sri Lanka, for example”, she says, “run by 300 volunteers there.” Many of the Dojos operate from Salesforce and Accenture offices, but the majority are run from the offices of smaller local businesses and public buildings such as libraries.

“My dad brought me to my first Dojo when I was 9,” says 16-year old Aaron Groome. “I loved using logic to solve challenges and problems.”

“But CoderDojo helps you become super smart for the rest of your life.”

His determination paid off, when he won Best App in the recent ‘Coolest Project’ Awards.

“My project was a ‘Load of Rubbish’,” he says with a giggle. “I wanted to develop an App that allowed you to know which bin you should use for recycling.”

that shape our world are all done by humans: Why not you or me?”

In some countries such as Chile and Mexico,

CoderDojo works in multiple languages, explains global community manager Nicola Lyons, and operates in 107 countries including Columbia, Yemen and Iraq.

He wanted to cross-reference product identifiers from Google’s Cloud Vision API with Dublin City Council’s recycling guidelines. “I made multiple attempts and had many sleepless nights in the final week before the submission deadline. But I got there just in time.”

Having access to CoderDojo mentors with a wealth of knowledge about diverse subjects is invaluable, explains Groome. “Working with CoderDojo has helped me believe in myself,” he adds. “Greta Thunberg is my inspiration. Now I can see the things she’s achieved and other really amazing things

“It seems like you’re just having fun,” she says with a giggle.

It has had a similar impact on 11-year old Zara Ilyas, who recently travelled from Dublin to Belgium to collect another Coolest Project Award for website she created and now dreams of a career in science or engineering. “We loved our instructor,” she says. “She was really nice and taught us about robotics and how to make circuits to put real lights in the tracing paper windows of a model Christmas house we built.”

“It seems like you’re just having fun,” she says with a giggle. “But CoderDojo helps you become super smart for the rest of your life.”

To get involved in CoderDojo as an employer, sponsor, volunteer or trainee visit: www. coderdojo.com

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Images courtesy of: Coder Dojo

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WHY PEOPLE ARE KEY TO SALESFORCE SUCCESS: AN OPINION PIECE BY PHIL YOUNG about the change that is to come.

PHIL YOUNG Phil Young is a director of Stimulus Consulting, a Consulting Partner of Salesforce who specialise in adoption-focused implementation.

Phil has been working on Salesforce for 10+ years and also spent 10 years in management consultancy prior to this working with numerous businesses across different industries.

Ask any implementation consultant what the most important aspect of an implementation is, and you will get a variety of answers – data security, automation to make funky things happen, an intuitive user interface, etc. All of these are great responses but, at Stimulus, we believe that the key difference is managing change.

it’s very clear – people don’t like change and will resist unless they are given good reason to change. Unless you have your own change management team, your implementation partner should engage stakeholders early in the process and understand the impact of the change on all users and current pain points.

Your implementation partner should then address these through the build of Salesforce but that is only half of what we need to do during that phase of the project; we should be already communicating to our customer base

Communications should be concise, informational and full of positive (but truthful!) messaging. This should be an ongoing process to build awareness, interest and ultimately excitement about the coming change. Develop a change network to trickle this change throughout your organisation. The ultimate test of this is when your users turn up to training excited for what they are going to see and ready to absorb all the Salesforce-y goodness that you are about to put in front of them. If you crack this, you crack your adoption, and this enables you to harness the full return on investment that the business needs.

Onto the HOW, this is simple right? A quick demo and job done! If only it were that simple…

For training to ‘land’, we believe there are five key principles that it should address: So, any implementation partner should be able to convince you of their technical ability but talk to them about how they can support you with the focus on your people, and whether they understand what good adoption looks like.

What do we mean by managing change? Ensure that you are putting the same level of focus on the people as the product. Whilst ensuring Salesforce has all the bells and whistles is great, all your investment and the hard work of your development team will be for nothing if you haven’t done two things: Once you start talking about these two items, then we can start to talk seriously about having an adoption-focused approach to your implementation.

So, what about this WHY business? Well,

Images courtesy of: Phil Young

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Put Your People First Drive your success with adoption-led Salesforce services and embrace the change!

CHANGE &

Get in touch: + 44 (0)1793 915150 info@stimulusconsulting.co.uk

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THE SALESFORCE TRAINING ACADEMY FOR LEADING

UX COMMUNITIES oe:gen’s Salesforce Developers sharing knowledge

Hey Pete, tell us how oe:gen began When we started off, we were just four people doing web development. Specifically, internal systems. There was me doing all the development work, 2 UX design guys, and Paul on sales and marketing. That was primarily where we began our journey.

PETE FELLS Pete is the Managing Director for UK Salesforce Partner, oe:gen. Day-today, he makes sure his team have the environment, direction, and motivation to fulfill their potential.

He’s also a marathon runner in aid of Mind the mental health charity, and a passionate advocate for accessible learning and equality.

OE:GEN IS THE LEADING UK SALESFORCE PARTNER IN UX COMMUNITIES. WE CAUGHT UP WITH MANAGING DIRECTOR PETER FELLS TO TALK ABOUT THEIR SALESFORCE-TRAINING ACADEMY THAT DEFIES CONVENTIONAL EDUCATION PATHWAYS.

When did Salesforce come into the picture?

We were all about classic Microsoft web-server architecture, SQL server, and .NET— but then one customer bought a Community for their business and asked us if we had any experience with it. We said we didn’t, but we have developers and designers that’ll try anything.

We ended up being able to really tailor their Community for them. But it wasn’t until we were then contacted about designing a system for the BBC that it all started to become a bit more real.

Could you tell me about the impact that’s had?

Well, we’ve grown organically over several years. We’ve had some ups and downs, and it plateaued a couple of years ago. Then we decided to fully-embrace Salesforce. What helped us, especially around Communities, was our background in UX web design. We had a re-boot of the company, started working closely with partner managers and AEs, and that’s when the growth started — and the oe:gen academy came about.

What’s the oe:gen academy?

It’s for people who have never had experience in Salesforce before who want to learn

— across all kinds of backgrounds, ages, and abilities — not just those fresh out of university.

“We love that level of self-determination where people can take control of their own careers and development and push themselves forward.”

So, they don’t have to have a degree?

No ! T h e i n i t i a l f o c u s w a s to c re a te apprenticeships to bring in young people who wanted a different pathway after school.

Instead of going to university and spending so many years getting in lots of debt and then coming to train in Salesforce, we thought: ‘let’s get them in, introduce them to Salesforce and get them excited from day one’.

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oe:gen’s Head of Salesforce Development working alongside a Salesforce Consultant

How would someone apply to something like this?

There’s a great careers page on our website which has a contact form to apply. Another way is to come along to our quarterly Nottingham Salesforce Administrator’s Group and Salesforce Women in Tech events.

We started to get people from completely different backgrounds and ages as well, so it’s not just about bringing young people in. It’s for anyone who wants a career in Salesforce.

So that’s the premise of the academy really, a different education pathway and a chance to be trained in Salesforce, get that real-world experience, and love it.

What career options would someone have with the oe:gen academy?

They can do config stuff, or they can become consultants or developers. We’ve covered all of those now, so we have people currently doing different pathways with that. It entirely depends where they want to go with their career.

Blazing trails the oe:gen way

So, what’s the training like?

One of the first things we do is get them set up on our myTrailhead and pick trails out depending on the pathway they want to take. And along the way we’re helping them in the real-world scenarios of working with Salesforce as a platform. Plus, the whole oe:gen team give support, so they have experience working with other developers, consultants and configs. They sit together and get that real-world insight and perspective.

We allow people to work at their own speed, as well. We set a minimum requirement, but we try and encourage people to exceed and push themselves. We love that level of selfdetermination where people can take control of their own careers and development and push themselves forward.

You’ll meet the people who work here, and you’ll get to learn some great stuff too. The Salesforce Women in Tech events always have inspiring speakers, and the Salesforce Admin one covers a lot of Salesforce topics, so you get to understand the key things about Salesforce. You can come and talk to the people who do it, day in and day out, and get an insight into what it’s like working with Salesforce.

If you’re looking to join the oe:gen team or want a stunning UX Salesforce Community, get in touch with Pete via the oe:gen website: www.oegen.co.uk

Images courtesy of: oe:gen

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AN INDUSTRY POV

TRAVEL & TECH JOHN PICKLES Jon has delivered travel technology and CRM consultancy to enterprise level travel businesses, advising them on Digital Transformation, Software acquisition and implementation, and specifically CRM, eMarketing, Social and Big Data strategies. Most recent achievement implementing a Global Salesforce roll out for the Travel Corporation.

CSR and the responsible traveller with a social conscience There’s been a perennial problem with travel that rears it’s head every year but in recent years has become a key focus for many tour operators. Not least because of over-tourism in the European Waterways (River cruises on the Rhine) and in our European cities (think coaches in Paris and Rome). We also see much waste across tourism such as plastic bottles, soap containers etc. And of course pollution from air travel.

Many tour operators have Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes (CSR) but there are other things that can be done to reduce waste and the by-products of travel.

Thinking back now to 1998 when I was a young entrepreneur just starting out on my travel technology journey. One of my first consulting jobs was to look into the huge effort and cost a large Tour Operator put into stuffing envelopes with travel itineraries, printed docs and worst of all, brochures.

The Tour Operator I was working with has recently “failed” but the issues remain today across many tour ops and don’t seem to be going away.

This is where new Travel Technology can play a big part in supporting a paperless travel journey from enquiry through to booking, on trip and on return. With the addition of digital and online assets, we can also set a “default” to not print itineraries but to have them in an app and then use links to websites such as https://onetreeplanted.org/ so that the sustainable conscious traveller chooses paperless first whilst also planting trees in areas of mass deforestation to help offset some of the footprint created from their travels.

Personalisation In the late 90’s and through to 2000 I ran a successful Travel CRM business. My product at the time (TravelCRM) demonstrated how collecting data at every touch point of the customer’s journey could be stored and used

to identify customer preferences, likes and dislikes and how this information could help to reduce waste by focusing postal marketing on a more targeted focus and sending the customers a brochure that was tailored to what the customer might book rather than sending a generic brochure to everyone.

Intelligent marketing?

The Travel selling process With large travel companies (and smaller ones) it is often the ease of booking complex trips that meet the demands of the customer that matters. Of course, it’s a fabulous trip that the customer is buying but if you make the buying process too complex, they are unlikely to book. We are not talking about a simple “fly and flop” type of holiday here

Whilst we don’t want to stop travel or even reduce it, we need to think about how we can put back or replace what we are taking away or leaving behind us.

(flight, beach hotel, flight), I’m talking here about the discerning customer wanting a complex multi destination trip of a lifetime or a back to back river cruise. Making that process easy and responding with a quote to the customer using seamless omni-channel (social, email, voice) comms and making the path to booking as frictionless as the wonderful trip being offered.

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Legacy Travel Technology We hear a lot about legacy travel technology, long lead times, failed projects and the eventual outcomes not meeting customers expectations. Minor changes, like adding fields, getting lost in a backlog and taking ages to deliver, at great cost, even for minor change requests. To top it all, multiple code branches of software that never end up in one core codebase, despite all the promises, and from which no other customer benefits.

What is needed is a “modern” SaaS based travel solution, that encompasses every aspect of the customer journey, is relatively straight forward to deploy, has multiple updates per year and delivers to customer expectations. Sound familiar?

A travel platform on the worlds best CRM Moving on some years we are still thinking

Images courtesy of: unsplash.com

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about large scale personalisation, Artificial Intelligence, CSR, a 360 degree view of our customers, Omnichannel to communicate to every customer on the platform of their choice, and much more.

Imagine a SaaS based travel platform that combined with Salesforce could give you all of this. This is exactly what Kaptio is now doing in the travel technology space.

This is really ground breaking and what encouraged me to join Kaptio just over a year ago.

With a travel platform on Salesforce we actively encourage our customers to have their own Salesforce admins and build their own processes, add fields and take control of their own end to end customer journey. All this without having to ask Kaptio. Making the time to change and time to market incredibly fast.

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“Together with smarter, more personalized support delivered by Service Cloud, you’ll be able to create experiences that delight travelers. And by curating content from expert travelers with Salesforce Communities, you can build loyalty and keep them coming back.”

- Salesforce

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Map What Matters

Salesforce data is easier to understand when it’s visual.

Visit us on the AppExchange 750 + reviews

Contact us to Learn More! info@geopointe.com | Call (714) 475-3837

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MIND THE GAP REPORT ON THE SALESFORCE SKILLS GAP (EXTRACT)

NADIO GRANATA Nadio is managing director of SF Media Partners and co-founder of Partner Event Promotions and is a former teaching fellow. He was former brand director at a multiaward winning platinum salesforce consultancy.

vocational skills our students are being taught. All too often do we find gaps in what we are delivering in the classroom (because we can) and what we actually require in the workplace (because we cannot).

your journey. To thrive and survive in a digital age, you will need to commit to a mindset of lifelong learning in continuous improvement to both your personal and professional development.”

And so, to the Tech Skills Gap …

But, hope is not far away …he goes on to say: “Salesforce has created a global community of lifelong learners via its own free online learning platform called Trailhead. Specially curated courses are removing the barrier of entry and enabling all to learn, regardless of their skill level.”

“This Tech Skills Gap isn’t just an economic issue, it needs a cultural shift”.

In a recent article by Ian Brown he makes some insightful comments about the cultural needs of the 21st century workforce: “From a young age, we are told to get a good education. We were promised that it would help pave the way to success in our chosen career and secure a more satisfying job. However, this is just the beginning of

Access to skilled workers is already a key factor that sets successful companies apart from failing ones. The European Commission believes there could be as many as 756,000 unfilled jobs in the European ICT sector by 2020.

Before entering into the exciting world of the Salesforce ecosystem, I spent nearly 15 years as a Senior Academic teaching Marketing to some of the top MBA students in the UK. My last position involved working closely with the ‘Academic Skills Tutors’ on programmes tailored towards increasing employability for the next generation of our MBA graduates.

I have to say, it saddened me greatly to see the chasm between even some of the most gifted graduates and the real and very urgent needs of industry. Soft skills such as leadership, communications and time management were oftentimes woefully short of what we expect in industry, and this is a serious and long-term failure of the (UK?) education system.

However, the greatest failure of the education system, and I understand this to be a worldwide issue, is around the actual

Image source: World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2018

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Skills gaps across all industries are poised to grow in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other emerging technologies are happening in ever shorter cycles, changing the very nature of the jobs that need to be done - and the skills needed to do them faster than ever before.

At least 133 million new roles generated as a result of the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms may emerge globally by 2022, according to the World Economic Forum. There will also be strong demand for technical skills like programming and app development, along with skills that computers can’t easily master such as creative thinking, problem-solving and negotiating.

“The good news is, Salesforce provides a way out of the darkness.”

In its recent report: Industry Economic Benefits of the Salesforce Economy the IDC looked at how the Salesforce Economy will impact revenue and job growth for six specific industries.

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Financial Services industry will gain $224.3 billion in new revenues and 730,900 new jobs will be created by 2024.

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Manufacturing industry will gain $211.7 billion in new revenues and 765,800 new jobs will be created by 2024.

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Retail industry will gain $134.8 billion in new revenues and 539,700 new jobs will be created by 2024.

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Comms and Media industry will gain $129.7 billion in new revenues and 473,800 new jobs will be created by 2024.

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Healthcare and Life Sciences industry will gain $68.5 billion in new revenues and 222,600 new jobs will be created by 2024.

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Government industry will gain $64.7 billion in new revenues and 254,400

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And here’s just some ways in which you can stay ahead of the curve with Salesforce …

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Salesforce is launching a dedicated campaign to build awareness of Trailhead, proving its accessibility for everyone through a network of partners and curated courses developed to make learning easier, no matter your skill level.

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Salesforce is supporting the campaign with a pledge to increase the number of credentialed Salesforce learners to 250,000 by 2022 across Europe.

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Salesforce is throwing its support behind initiatives such as Coder Dojo, VetForce, SuperMums, WIT, Salesforce Saturday, PepUp Tech and a host of other initiatives.

We decided to carry out our own poll into the Skills Gap along with the help of recruitment specialists, Third Republic.

Analysis Clearly there’s a significant concern about the extent to which there is a Skills Gap within the Salesforce ecosystem. Neary 75% of respondents are in agreement with the statement: There’s a significant skills gap in the Salesforce eco-system Perhaps what is particularly concerning is the relatively small percentage of respondents seeking to plug the skills gap through upskilling their junior workforce.

This implies an urgent need … or a lack of belief in the capabilities of the emerging workforce.

Our survey clearly supports the claims made in this magazine from Gemma (Emmett) Blezard and others that the need for more Solution Architects and Developers is real.

Or is the role of the Solution Architect misplaced given the log jam that can be caused by a lack of resource here?

Universities take note! Industry needs you to deliver more programmes that get our graduates fit to work sooner and

more in tune with the demands of the emerging new companies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. If they do not come from the Higher Education sector, then future employers are likely to bypass the indebted graduate and instead employ the less academic but perhaps more careerfocused apprentice and trainee.

Nearly 40% of our respondents demonstrate a lack of confidence in the current education providers. Clearly there is a gap in the expectations of the current employer and the supply of students/graduates entering into the workplace.

Conclusion: The results of our poll are clearly in keeping with the findings of our secondary research.

Further research is required to look deeper into cultural, gender, locational and other characteristics that may shed more light on the source of the next Trailblazers. In the meantime, we salute those who are working tirelessly to address the challenges of the skills gap and are especially encouraged by the executive support offered by Trailblazers such as Tyler Prince and of course, Marc Benioff and Keith Block.

If you would like to take part in this survey or would like to collaborate on future surveys, then please get in touch: nadio@ sfmediapartners.com

Sources: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/ the-digital-skills-gap-is-widening-fast-hereshow-to-bridge-it/ https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/ understanding-the-tech-skills-gap/ https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2019/05/ tackling-the-skills-gap-head-on-withtraining-for-all.html https://medium.com/trailhead/huge-demandfor-salesforce-talent-3bb30c597b39 https://www.opusrecruitmentsolutions. com/news-blogs-and-social/how-salesforceis-addressing-the-digital-skills-shortage https://www.salesforce.com/company/ news-press/press-releases/2019/10/192410IDCSalesforce/

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WHY I’M BUILDING THE

ARCHITECH CLUB GEMMA (EMMETT) BLEZARD Gemma started Ladies Be Architects, a global movement that encourages and celebrates the achievements of IT architects, in October 2017. An award-winning Solution Architect at Bluewolf, Gemma recently became a Salesforce MVP and loves hanging out with her Ohana buddies across the world.

Architecture is a hot topic in the Salesforce world right now. As Salesforce has matured over the years, those of us who were consultants, specialising in Salesforce projects back in the day, now find ourselves consulting at an entirely different level: holistically.

Our mastery of the Salesforce platform, experiences in implementing it and knowledge of the many ways it can interact with other systems means we can share the good, the bad and the ugly with our customers. We’re key contributors to the success of a Salesforce project because we aren’t just designing a system, we are designing a way for our customers to get the very best from their wider landscape and their teams, too. Which oftentimes includes designing a project, giving advice, leading delivery workstreams of our own and coaching / mentoring along the way.

That’s not to say that all Salesforce architects are client facing. There are many companies around the world who have Salesforce in the centre of their customer strategy and have made investments in doing the job well; hiring architects to work permanently on keeping their solutions performant and well-governed.

It’s because we bring so much to the table that we aren’t cheap resources.

As an architect I see my role as pivotal in defining the strategy, quality and future care of Salesforce for my customers, and assuring it on an ongoing basis. What I’m seeing is the deployment of architects during presales (not a bad thing at all) and in the early stages of an implementation; their involvement tapering off after a short while once the devops is in place, the consultants are aligned with the vision and getting on with the build.

Salesforce, after 20 years, is the number 1 CRM in the world. With so much implementation work coming in at the enterprise level, consultancies now have to deploy their resources carefully to maximise the profit margin and handle the workload. Sadly, for architects, I’ve seen that we aren’t always used in the best way we can be. We scuttle from one project or RFP to the next. Once the customer is live, they may be handed off to a Managed Service; or left to get on with it.

In presales, we are trying to navigate bigger, older and more complex customer environments, with limited budget, many moving parts or little interest, and we can’t necessarily spend too much time trying to untangle the complexity because we are expensive resources and we might not even sell the project. Or we are “just doing an MVP”

because it’s a “really simple implementation”, so we watch as our customers create technical debt.

“A club, where they don’t have to fret about bonuses, hours, utilisation or who’s going to fund their community conference expenses.”

For those of us in consultancies, we don’t always have the time or inclination to explore the benefits of the appexchange,

“Success also comes from thinking about HOW to deliver quality”

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as our KPIs mean we have to be utilised as much as possible, yet we can’t always be sold to clients because of limited budget. Our utilisation suffers, having a knock-on effect on remuneration and career advancement.

And sometimes we have to cut corners. Maybe we are working for ISVs and have to design solutions that can maximise licence revenue

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those customers. We also have a responsibility to make space for new Salesforce practitioners to gain more knowledge and experience.

I also want to build a home for Salesforce architects like me. Somewhere they can build their own customer relationships, tell customers the truth, make time to learn more, give and receive great advice and to grow their personal brand. A club, where they don’t have to fret about bonuses, hours, utilisation or who’s going to fund their community conference expenses.

I am building The Architech Club for customers to get the assurance they need exactly when they need it; helping them get ready for Salesforce and to continue to innovate at a cost they have control of.

I am building the Architech Club for the enablement of AppExchange partners,

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bringing in leads who’s architectural and business environment fits the offering they provide. I am building the Architech Club for consultancies, helping them navigate the complex environments they are expected to deliver in and enabling them to build high quality apps. I am building the Architech Club for Salesforce, to increase the success of its customers. And I’m building the Architech Club for YOU - a role you want to grow to, a home where you feel valued and empowered to focus on what’s right for your customer.

Gemma will be taking part in Strictly Tech on the 4th December. To Support her fundraising, please visit, https://uk.virginmoneygiving. com/GemmaBlezard

Architects with inspiring personal brands. “Trust is easy to build with customers when you give back unconditionally.”

“Its not just about the tech, its what goes around it”

Of course, we do some awesome things too, given the opportunity.

Designing cutting-edge solutions and exploring new features and products. We are problem-solvers, fixers, diplomats, and we consider the bigger picture in whatever we do. We get the opportunity to work with rising talent that can break a few of our own bad habits and open up our minds. We can feel pride in the achievements of the architects of tomorrow.

Ultimately, we do our best work when we build trust with our customers.

I want to spend my time adding real value to an implementation by focusing on my customer’s needs before, during and after the project. Whether it’s helping to shape a company’s RFP, reviewing someone’s code, challenging a solution design, being a second pair of eyes for an AppExchange partner, running agile retrospectives or even acting as a customer’s product owner, the truth of it is that architects are needed to guide and advise Images Courtesy of: Gemma (Emmett) Blezard

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Accelerate your business with CloudSmiths – a multi award winning Salesforce Partner.

As a Platinum Partner we use Salesforce and complementary products to shape and mould your business to its optimal form.

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Service Cloud

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With over 200 CRM projects spanning 20 countries for multi-national clients, there is no better qualified team to help you succeed with Salesforce.

Fixed Fee Projects

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Whether you require a rapid deployment with fixed costs or a larger integrated and customised solution we have you covered from Business Analysis to User-End Training.

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Nairobi info@cloudsmiths.co.ke +254 724960006

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DO MORE EVENTS! spelling, especially of customers’ names on invitations and badges, is non-negotiable. But equally, expecting customers to recapture their information when they RSVP or check-in, or queues that are moving too slowly, sends the wrong message to customers about how you value their time.

“In a world of digital overload and virtual engagements, you need to build better, more personal, connections with your clients to stand out from the crowd.” 3. Use technology KATHARINE JANISCH Katharine Janisch is Managing Director of SparkSmiths, a Salesforce ISV partner. Their flagship solution, EventSpark, provides inhouse event managers with a comprehensive event management application, 100% native to Salesforce. Visit www. sparksmiths.com to find out more.

It’s no surprise organisations spend more on marketing than ever before, and that digital marketing is getting the lion’s share of this spend. What may surprise you is that onsite events are also getting more budget allocated.

SF SOCIETY REACHED OUT TO KATHARINE OF SPARKSMITHS TO GIVE US HER VIEWS ON THE CHANGING WORLD OF THE EVENTS INDUSTRY. HERES WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY:

1. Clear role definition and communication

Images courtesy of: CloudSmiths

Having hosted, attended and spoken at hundreds of events, these are some of the skills I look for in an Event Manager.

An event needs to run like a well-oiled machine.

When every service provider, speaker and staff member know where they need be, what their role is, what is expected of them and what their deadline is, things work better.

2. Attention to Detail I admit it - I am pedantic. Grammar and

Event managers must use technology to create a slick, seamless experience for customers, speakers and even internal stakeholders from beginning to end. There is no room for spreadsheets, printed lists or hand-written badges when you are trying to differentiate yourselves from your competitors.

4. Stress resilience and a bias for action Lastly, despite the best laid plans, things go wrong. An event manager needs nerves of steel and remain calm while having an unwavering bias for action. Bottom line? Fix the problem, fix it now and keep a poker face throughout.

Panic is contagious.

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MUMS ON CLOUD

NINE

CHAMPIONING INCLUSION AND FLEXIBILITY retrained in Salesforce to achieve a flexible career as a parent, and when she wanted to grow the consultancy, she realised it was a challenge to hire new talent due to the shortage in the sector.

HEATHER BLACK Heather is also launching a podcast series called Mums on Cloud Nine in December, sharing stories of mums and companies who have achieved great things by championing inclusion and flexibility in their workplace.

Get connected with Supermums Newsletter to hear more.

When you become a parent everything changes, you must re-prioritise and learn to juggle life, work and friends. It’s never the same. It’s an experience close to many people’s hearts, particularly those who have been through it themselves, as one parent may have put their career on hold or struggle to find the flexible well-paid work-life balance they need to make work pay.

It’s the reason why volunteers, trainees and companies have gathered from around the globe to support mums to upskill and secure jobs within the Salesforce eco-system.

‘Supermums’, is a social enterprise that has won the hearts and minds of a growing force of parents to solve the workforce challenges facing mums. Let’s face it, Salesforce professionals are solution people. So, we tend to flock to help solve problems.

Supermums was launched by Supermum Heather Black, founder of a Salesforce Consultancy called Economic Change. She

She came up with the idea for Supermums, and it seemed like a no-brainer. Collectively we could help to retrain mums (and dads) with new skills, whilst also tackling the shortage of salesforce talent in the industry…it was a win-win solution. There is demand and market need and we all know it.

Supermums launched in Nov 16 and has since

‘Lets face it, Salesforce professionals are solution people. So, we tend to flock to help solve problems’

attracted a following far and wide. As of Sept 19, it has attracted over 90 volunteers from nine countries, 145 trainees from 5 countries and 100 plus companies who are recruiting or partnering with them. Alongside training and mentoring, the students also benefit from work experience, and to date over 90 charities have benefited from 3500 pro-bono hours where the trainee works alongside a professional consultant to implement solutions. Supermums is delighted to work with a range of Salesforce consultancy partners to provide the work experience to trainees. The success of the programme was acknowledged by Salesforce directly when Heather became a Golden Hoodie Winner in the Keynote Speech at London World Tour in May 19.

Following a successful three years in EMEA Supermums is now expanding their programme

in the USA in 2019 and Australia in 2020, with expressions of interest also coming from India, Japan, South America amongst other locations to carve the way for the future. Locally they are working with local consultancy firms, volunteer ambassadors, Salesforce and other partners/customers to replicate their success.

Alongside geographical expansion they are also diversifying their programmes to include Developer, Marketing Cloud and Consultancy Certifications.

The key to our mission’s success is something which everyone can help with however, and that is encouraging employers in the sector to champion diversity and inclusion, gender equality and flexibility in the workplace.

Supermums is being supported by strategic sponsors including Accenture, Deloitte Digital, Validity, St James Wealth Management and Dyson in different regions who are passionate being inclusive.

The Salesforce sector needs to attract more professionals, so acknowledging and applying these best practice principles is important.

There is a need to challenge perceptions and support mums back into work. Flexibility means different things to different people, mums are looking for full-time or part-time roles, flexible hours, remote plus office working etc. Flexibility isn’t unique to mums, it’s the same for any parent or carer, and should be considered in workplaces, especially when we work with Salesforce, a cloud-based product.

So, what can you do to support parents into the sector?

Diversity and Inclusion – Consider the ways you advertise for candidates and look to be inclusive. Work with specialist and mainstream recruitment agencies or job boards that can provide you with a diverse range of candidates

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‘Flexibility isn’t unique to mums, it’s the same for any parent or carer, and should be considered in workplaces, especially when we work with Salesforce, a cloud-based product’

to ensure you are inclusive. Consider what flexibility you can offer on roles and how you create an inclusive team culture for your employees, especially if you have remote and/ or office- based workers.

Gender Equality – Aim for a 50/50 split within

Images courtesy of: Heather Black

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your company and consider how to achieve this at all stages of recruitment from CV’s, Interviews to Placements at all salary/job levels. This is the goal for Accenture, one of the leading Salesforce Practices.

Flexibility – Have a look at what flexibility you can offer all staff that suits their needs alongside the company, whether it’s accommodating different start/finish times, remote v office working, flexi time, part-time v full-time.

To get involved in Supermums as an employer, sponsor, volunteer or trainee visit www.supermums.org

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PARTNER NEWS FROM AROUND THE

ECOSYSTEM LONDON BRIGHTGEN WINS TOP REGIONAL SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR OF THE YEAR 2019 The annual Salesforce Partner awards saw BrightGen, Salesforce Platinum Partner, pick up the Systems Integrator of the Year Award 2019. This follows on from their industry innovation win in 2016 and Regional Systems Integrator win in 2017.

BrightGen received the award in recognition of their commitment to Salesforce over the past 12 years.

“Not only have we successfully completed more than 1000 Salesforce projects but we also have more certifications than ever before. Our experience spans a number of industries across the entire Salesforce product suite and our continued innovation and commitment helps our customers realise the value of Salesforce every day,” spokesperson for BrightGen. Rob Stevens and Martin Tyte founded BrightGen because they knew cloud technology would be instrumental in transforming businesses and enable them to make leaps forward against competitors in servicing their own customers.

“A very special thank you to our customers and our teams – without you this recognition as industry leaders in this highly complex field would not be possible. We could not have received a greater accolade this year and will continue to invest in our people, our customers and innovation in the years to come.”

Image (L-R): Rob Stevens - CEO & co-founder BrightGen, Jemma Byrne - RVP UKI Alliances Salesforce & Martin Tyte - COO & co-founder, BrightGen

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AMSTERDAM YEURDREAMIN LAUNCHES IN AMSTERDAM

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Image courtesy of: YeurDreamin

On Friday 14th June 2019, in a slightly soggy Amsterdam, the Ohana gathered for the inaugural YeurDreamin’. They met in the stunning central atrium of Het Sieraad where coffee and pastries awaited them.

YeurDreamin’ was the first Salesforce community conference in the Benelux region, a region already well known for its amazing user groups and Salesforce Saturdays. The core team of organizers was made up of a “who’s who” of community influencers; their aim “to bring people together to develop relationships, learn as much as possible about Salesforce, and share knowledge whilst having fun at the same time!”

YeurDreamin Team

So, did it live up to expectations? Yes, and then some!

YeurDreamin’ attracted some of the top speakers from the global community, including David Liu from Google who gave an incredibly motivating talk: “Admins – You Can Code Too”. With 36 sessions ranging from 20 – 40 minute talks and workshops, there were tracks for everyone including Admin, Developer, General and Non-Profit.

As delegates wandered between Blaze’s Short Sessions and Cloudy’s Workshop, the hardest part of the day was choosing which sessions to go to.

At 12pm, Joshua Hoskins led the demo jam, with Aircall coming out on top, despite tough competition from the other sponsors. A special prize was also awarded to Jean Michel Mougeolle, founder of SharinPix and organizer of French Touch Dreamin’, for both his inspiration and support in making YeurDreamin’ a reality.

Following lunch, delegates continued their epic day of learning, finishing with a key note from Ladies Be Architects. Gemma (Emmett)

Jean Michel

Blezard et al, reminding us that we all have the power to design our own journey.

The fun didn’t stop there as the sun came out in time for drinks, nibbles and networking on the terrace overlooking Amsterdam’s canals. It was the perfect end to a phenomenal day.

It’s clear the YeurDreamin’ team are dedicated to encouraging equality, inspiring kindness and paying it forward; their dedication and enthusiasm meant Ohana from around the world turned out in force to support them. A massive congratulations to the entire team on the success of your first YeurDreamin’ and we’ll definitely be back to support you next year.

Ladies be architects

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CLIMBING KILIMANJARO RAISING MONEY FOR WORLDREADER CHARITY corporate donors, FinancialForce, Appirio, BrightGen, Cloudshift, PWC and Capgemini, we can really make an impact.

KATE RUSSO Kate Russo is the Salesforce Alliance Director for the EMEA Region at Vlocity.

In August, I was fortunate enough to be part of an incredible team comprised of Simon Capel (Salesforce), Mike Green (Salesforce), Rob Alsos (Salesforce), Tim Cutts (Salesforce), Chris Thomas (Salesforce), Brad Newton, Anne and Neil Capel who collectively represented three continents; to take on the challenge of climbing Africa’s highest mountain and the highest free-standing mountain in the world, Kilimanjaro, over eight days for the charity, Worldreader. Our objective was to raise enough money to populate three libraries in Kenya with blue box starter kits which would contain 50 e-reader devices and thousands of books.

Worldreader was founded by David Risher and Colin McElwee who are championing digital reading in communities worldwide with the vision of everyone becoming a reader. To date, worldwide, 617 million children are not at a minimum reading level and the power of literacy has seen a 50% increase in childhood survival past the age of five for children born to literate mothers. With figures like these, it’s an obvious cause to get behind and with all the generous support we have had from our individual and

We departed for our flights to Kilimanjaro fresh-faced and filled with a range of emotions from excitement to trepidation, with frantic conversations regarding if we had packed the right equipment and if stormproof matches were really required. Before long we were in Tanzania, being introduced to an incredible support team who would guide us for the next eight days with words of encouragement “this is how we do it!” and somewhat ambiguous but humorous answers when we asked if there were any animals en-route that we should be cautious of...

We took the Lemosho route which is considered to be the most scenic of routes; with lush rainforest, alpine desert and a glacial ascent to Uhuru point which is 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level. The challenge itself, whilst physically and mentally demanding, was an incredible experience that evoked so many emotions as we banded together to support one another to push forward and positively impact so many lives.

Following Kilimanjaro, Simon Capel travelled to the Webb Memorial Library and Resource Centre in Malindi, Kenya where he got to experience first hand the impact of our cause where we launched the e-reader devices. On behalf of the team, I would like to thank Ruth Sorby from Worldreader for all of her support throughout our preparation for this challenge.

If you are attending Dreamforce and would like to learn more about our challenge, there will be a session on at 9am on Thursday 21st at the Partner Lodge as part of a panel session on ‘Partnering for good’.

“The challenge itself, whilst physically and mentally demanding, was an incredible experience that evoked so many emotions as we banded together to support”

Donations: We have raised over $35K and we are very close to our target of $50K! So if you would like to donate to our cause, please do follow the link enclosed below. A very, very generous individual has said if we raise the $50K, that they will personally donate 4X that value imagine how many lives that will impact!

To donate to the cause, go to www. virginmoneygiving. com and search for ‘Kilimanjaro Challenge for Worldreader’

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1. Kilimanjaro team in Worldreader T Shirts 2. Kilimanjaro team at the start of the Lemosho gate trail 3. Simon Capel in at the opening in Kenya 4. At the top 5. Camping with the clouds 6. The Views Images courtesy of: Kate Russo

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HIKING

FOR CANCER RESEARCH FUN FACTS

In what was their biggest VTO event so far this year, a 150 strong team from the Dublin Ohana hiked 18km across the most scenic stretch of the Wicklow Way to raise money for Breakthrough Cancer Research.

THE COMMON THREAD Organiser Ed Hurrell says: “I chose to support Breakthrough Cancer Research with this event because in recent years cancer has taken two people in my wider family. Also from organising this event the past two years,

Images Courtesy of: Ed Hurrell

I learned that so many of my colleagues families’ had been affected too”.

“Sadly, most families are affected by cancer in some way. Current statistics say that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer at some point in our lives.

By helping this charity to research innovative ways to increase cancer survival rates, we can play our part in ensuring a brighter outlook for ourselves and our loved ones”.

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They hiked 18km.

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Climbed 2,411 feet above sea level, or the equivalent of 188 floors.

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Took 27,000 steps.

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Burned 1,300+ calories

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Logged 1,200 VTO hours

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With 150 Salesforce hikers.

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On 1 amazing day for Breakthrough Cancer Research

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And to date they have raised €13,500.

HELP US RAISE MORE MONEY This year the event has already raised €13,500 before matching, if you’d like to help us boost that number, please donate here: https://give. everydayhero.com/ie/salesforce-hike Ed Hurrell, Senior AE, Salesforce

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NATTERBOX SUMMER EXPERIENCE SF SOCIETY JOINS THE ADVENTURE! One of the highlights of the year for me was the Natterbox Summer Experience Day which took place in the heat of the great British summertime! Yes, we actually had a superhot day in some of the most idyllic English countryside hosted by our friends at Natterbox in aid of The Chartwell Cancer Trust Appeal.

It really was a fun-packed day filled with thrilling activities, from microlighting, flying light aeroplanes and helicopters and paragliding, to water zorbing and quad biking.

“We wanted to give our staff, partners and customers a day they would never forget, whilst raising money for a fantastic cause that will ultimately help save children’s lives and support them during treatment so they can hopefully go on to have similarly brilliant and unforgettable experiences,” Neil Hammerton, CEO Natterbox.

were onsite during the day to speak with guests and educate all of us on why their work is so vitally important to so many people’s lives.

Joe Marano, Strategic Account Manager at Salesforce said: “I think it’s vital that all businesses have a commitment to supporting charitable causes and giving something back to society. Natterbox’s Summer Experience day was filled with thrilling activities both in the air and on the ground and what a fantastic amount of money it helped to raise.

Neil Hammerton, CEO and Co-founder, Natterbox said: “I believe businesses have a duty to support, provide care for and champion their entire communities. We put a lot of work into making sure our Summer Experience days

are unforgettable for everyone who joins us and into ensuring we raise lots of money for charitable causes that we truly care about.

It’s all about having fun, raising money and giving back, and we can’t wait to see the finalised oncology unit in the knowledge that we have played an important role in its development.”

Can we come back again next year please!!

Nadio Granata If you have an event you would like to be featured in the next issue of SF Society Magazine then send details to: editorial@ sfmediapartners.com

Luke Walker, Head of Project Management at Dennis Publishing said: “I don’t think I’ve ever been offered the chance to fly a plane in my life and I’m not sure I will get the opportunity again! The whole day was very well organised and Natterbox thought of everything. We can’t think of a better way to support such a great cause. Hats off to them!”

Alex Grear, Head of Operations at Natwest APtimise said: “It was a hugely memorable day bringing together a great group of people to champion a truly fantastic cause.”

The event raised over £7,000 both through online donations and a charity auction on the day. Helicopter and microlight flying lessons were amongst the prizes, along with a 90-minute yoga session and VIP Tickets to Biggin Hill Air Show. And The Lily Pad Appeal Images Courtesy of: Natterbox

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A D V E R T

TAX CREDITS ARE YOU CLAIMING YOUR FULL ENTITLEMENT? INNOVATION TAX LOOKS AT WHY COMPANIES ARE MISSING OUT ON THEIR ENTITLEMENT TO GOVERNMENT FUNDING. R&D Tax Relief is not simply an opportunity for UK businesses to get funding; it’s an entitlement for any innovative UK business satisfying the definition of R&D for tax purposes. However, a large number are not still taking advantage.

Some are simply unaware of the scheme and that they are undertaking eligible ‘qualifying’ activities; worse still, others are specifically being told that they DO NOT qualify. On many occasions, Innovation Tax have found this not only to be untrue but have then engaged with these businesses and gone on to identify a significant benefit for them.

Others opt to claim internally (using their own staff or their accountant) and, as a result, often under-claim significantly, due in part to a lack of understanding of the legislation and to a lack of the relevant

industrial experience to fully identify all qualifying expenditure; responsibility for claim outcome is therefore placed firmly on the clients’ shoulders.

If your business is investing time and incurring costs in the following areas, then you are very likely to qualify for R&D Tax Credits.

Examples of Qualifying Activities •

Designing and making new products

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Changing or enhancing existing products / processes

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Carrying out software development work

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Integrating of third-party technology

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Overcoming uncertainty in achieving an outcome (whether successful or not), often after multiple attempts

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CASE STUDY The main area of compliance related to software platforms implemented by the company to improve their internal sales and accounting process. Large data and modern platforms strongly rely on real-time data stream manipulation to deliver unprecedented levels of content generation. In addition, they demand a direct link of all heterogeneous IT systems both software and hardware which resulted in significant integration issues. The company had to invest substantial time and money to overcome these challenges to achieve a reliable, fully functioning system, which qualified for R&D Tax Credits.

Result: £280,000 cash benefit over 3 claims.

Carrying out testing, sampling and prototyping activities Innovation Tax Specialists can qualify your business quickly and easily and provide an estimated value for a viable claim, simply by having a 15-minute consultation with one of our experts. Scan the QR code to find out more.

Contact us on 0203 813 4601 or email info@ innovationtax.co.uk to discuss whether your business is eligible to make a claim or make use of our free review service if you have already made a claim.

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DREAMFORCE PARTIES DREAMFORCE 2019 IS UPON US. WITH EACH DAY CRAMMED OF VALUABLE LEARNING, HOW SHOULD YOU UNWIND IN THE EVENING? Monday 18th November

Chili Piper – AE of the year

Time – 21:00

Ladies Be Architects Fundraiser

Join us at Lao Table for Chili Piper’s, AE of the Year Awards Bash! Don’t miss the only party of the year celebrating Account Executives.

We’re awarding the #1 AE $10,000 in cash!

Location - Temple Nightclub, 540 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Grab your sunflowers - we’d love to see you at our annual happy hour! At our second annual Dreamforce party, we celebrate our recent non-profit status, the growth of the Salesforce architect ohana, and YOUR success on the Salesforce architect path. As well as making sure you’re all fed and watered, we’ve got exclusive LBA swag and a real live CTA to share their story with us before we all head over to the PepUpTech karaoke night!

Time - 18:30 Location - Spaces Mission and 3rd, 95 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Pepup Tech – Karaoke for a Cause We are back for the third year in a row with Karaoke for a Cause! Come out and meet PepUP Tech supporter Bret Taylor. Bret Taylor is the President and CPO at Salesforce.com and co-Founder of Quipx. Bret was also cocreator of Google Maps, CTO of Facebook, and is responsible for Facebook’s “like” button.

Time - 7.30pm Location - Pandora Karaoke & Bar, 50 Mason St, San Francisco CA, 94102

TUESDAY 19th November Welcome Party UK & Ireland We’re looking forward to seeing you in San Francisco for Dreamforce 2019! We would like to invite you to register for the UK & Ireland Dreamforce Welcome Party, where you can relax and network with other Dreamforce attendees in the fantastic showcase venue of the Hibernia Bank.

Time – 19:00 Location - 1, Jones St, San Francisco, CA 94102

THURSDAY 21st November

Time – 17:30 Location - Lao Table, 149 2nd St, San Francisco, CA 94105

Equality Festival

Join us across the street from Moscone where we’ll transform ThirstyBear Brewing Company into a one-of-a-kind dance party you won’t want to miss. Enjoy sets from multiple DJs, complimentary food and drink, and an all around unforgettable night.

Join us as we host our first-ever Equality Festival experience during Dreamforce brought to you by Deloitte Digital — giving a platform, space, and time to each employee resource group for an inspiring night to share on the top floors of the Salesforce Tower. This is an opportunity for us to be allies and help support all our communities in the spirit of our core value of Equality.

Time - 19:00

Time – 18:00

Conga’s Silent Disco

Location - ThirstyBear Brewing Company, 661 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94105

WEDNESDAY 20th November Dreamfest Dreamfest is by far the biggest party of the week. Hosted by Salesforce, you can expect to see tens of thousands of Salesforce revellers to see what is always a massive artist performing live. Previous Dreamfest headliners include U2, Foo Fighters, The Killers & Green Day. This years artist will be the stadium-filling Fleetwood Mac! Time – 18:00 Location - Oracle Park, San Francisco

Salesloft After Party After a busy week it’s time to celebrate! Let loose at THE Dreamforce after party on November 20 at Temple Nightclub. We’ll have music, dancing, entertainment… and tasty food and beverages to revive you!

Location - Salesforce Tower, 415 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94105

B2B Marketing Bash: Into The Blue Come make a splash with a popular live band known for yacht rock, a flowing premium bar featuring themed drinks, and late night snacks complete with an oyster bar. We hope to sea you there!

Time – 19:00 Location - City Nights, 715 Harrison St , San Francisco, CA 94107

The Engagement Party The biggest party of the year for progressives and nonprofits at Dreamforce.

Time – 21:00 Location - Monarch, 101 6th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

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Proudly Presents...

Calling Ladies and Gentlemen!

Sign up now for the greatest charity boxing event of the year

Registrations are open to sign up and begin your journey to the ring and a once in a lifetime experience at the Partner Boxing event on

19th March 2020 Training starts January 9th but places are limited so be quick and be part of the largest Salesforce partner sporting event of the year!

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