Key Takeaways
We recently held our annual CloudShift and Salesforce Property Event at the IET London Savoy Place, with over 120 guests in attendance. It was an evening full of insights and excitement for digital transformation in the property space.
We had an amazing line up of speakers sharing their insights on their digital transformation journey along with practical multi-cloud Salesforce accelerators. The evening was kicked-off by CloudShift CEO Alastair Murray and Max Roberts Area VP at Salesforce with an introduction to the agenda and updates in the Salesforce ecosystem. We then heard from CloudShift leads and guest speakers including:
- Laura Cutler- Salesforce Customer & Product Owner at Tipi
- Simon Clarke – Senior Solutions Engineer at Salesforce
- Joey Kavanagh – Enterprise Account Director at MuleSoft
- Usman Hasan – Senior Solutions Engineer at Salesforce
- James Scerri – Salesforce Customer & Director of Technology and Innovation at Fora
- David Kurtanjek- Customer Solutions Director at CloudShift
It was an insightful evening with great content shared by our speakers so, in case you missed it or would like to refresh your memory, we have summarised the key takeaways from the panel.
Salesforce is changing business culture and bringing teams together
A common point from our speakers is that their Salesforce projects with CloudShift brought teams and people together in ways historical projects hadn’t. Salesforce has changed the culture of their businesses. James at Fora said; “The way we were doing things before to how we are doing things now is revolutionary.”
Here at CloudShift we certainly echo that. We always aim to get the right stakeholders engaged and involved to create a solid business strategy, those being internal Customer stakeholders or Salesforce partners such as MuleSoft, DocuSign and Data Dwell. This was echoed by our speakers, who highlighted the importance of this to help understand the business, objectives, Customers and people. Our Customers spoke about the project lifecycle, of how getting people in the room helped break down silos and build understanding across their businesses (to any of our clients that have sat in week-long discovery workshops – we told you it would be worth it!).
The conversation also included post project go-live and continuing this approach to future Salesforce enhancements projects or Managed Service add-ons. This approach allows businesses to stay connected and work together to improve the Customer experience, sales and provide a fantastic service. Whatever the aim, Salesforce and CloudShift can help your teams believe it is possible.
Salesforce enables businesses to focus on their Customers
Our Customer Tipi, is a perfect example of a business focusing on providing ‘best in class’ service and redefining Customer experience. The Salesforce platform has allowed Tipi to continue their focus on first class Customer experience while at the same time providing improved efficiency, visibility and scalability for the business and moving away from unscalable manually operated systems.
Thanks to Salesforce, Tipi report they have improved efficiency, sharing of data, critical reporting and now have a great Salesforce Community for all their tenants. They no longer need to hide behind the limitations of a system, they can focus on their Customers and with the flexibility of Salesforce, they can continue this great service as they scale.
Laura at Tipi stressed the importance of flexibility “We were growing and changing as a business when we went through this process, so we need the process to be flexible”.
At the event we saw fantastic Salesforce product demonstrations from Simon and Usman at Salesforce, highlighting how Salesforce can support a Customer-focused business at every step of the journey. From automation and segmentation to personalisation, Salesforce is allowing businesses to remove barriers for Customers. Property is personal, talk to us at CloudShift about how we can help you make the most of that.
Enriching the Customer journey with connected data
No longer is point to point integration up to standard for your Customers, or your business. Businesses need something robust, something centralised, scalable and future proof. Enter MuleSoft, which provides an in-cloud and on-premise integration platform for connecting SaaS and enterprise applications and pride themselves as being best of breed. Joey Kavanagh at MuleSoft stressed the importance of combining a powerful platform with data; “There’s no point in having a good tool without the data. Also, it doesn’t matter where your data comes from, what matter is the business outcome we want to deliver for you.”
With Customer journeys fundamentally changing, connected data is a crucial part of understanding your Customer. It allows for contextual and personalised conversations. From initial sales stages to ongoing Customer care, it isn’t possible to provide great service without connected data. As Laura discussed “It’s changed how we view good Customer service, it’s not that you know everyone by name, it’s that you can deliver a personalised service”. James as well stressed the importance of connected data saying “This is what Salesforce, with the help of CloudShift, have given us: the automation and the processes. What used to take one day now it’s all in front of you, in one stream.”
Think of the Foundations…and don’t forget them
As James Scerri at Fora, said “It’s like building a house, you must think of the foundations”. Here at CloudShift, we’re very glad to hear this. Not only because our new home is at Fora’s brand-new Southwark building, but also because this approach to projects and managing stakeholders has proven key to success.
CloudShift have supported many property and construction businesses in their Salesforce journeys – whether starting a brand-new implementation or recognizing the need to revisit those foundations with a Health Check. The message from Customers is clear – if you get the foundations right, the rest will follow.
Our guests heard our event speakers talk about the importance of identifying the minimum viable product & key success factors. We also heard how important it is to not lose those success factors by keeping stakeholders engaged throughout the project and beyond. James stated when talking about engaging with CloudShift team “they have been instrumental with the journey, met our stakeholders one by one, including CEO and co-founders to understand their critical needs.”
So, keeping your foundations in mind remember to revisit those key success factors at the end to show how you’ve met and, more than likely, excelled in them.
From blueprinting, to training, to change management, guests heard from our speakers how CloudShift can support in identifying the right foundations and achievable objectives for your business.
Engaging a Salesforce Platinum Partner for maximum success
As with many companies in the early stages of their growth, Fora struggled to find and consolidate tools to support them in achieving their Business Strategy. It can be a daunting task. They knew they wanted a partner that had experience in the property industry and with the support of CloudShift, Fora’s strategic vision is now coming alive as part of a multi-year, multi-phased relationship.
“Having a phased approach helps our Customers see the product come alive” said David Kurtanjek from CloudShift. “With stakeholders, including Customers, staff, investors and many others, to consider, partnering with a company such as CloudShift can give you the help you need to identify the right level and speed of change for your business, leaving you confident in the road map and blueprint to success”.
David continued; “ We work closely with our prospective Customers listening, understanding their businesses better, their objective and measure for success. It’s a two-way in-depth conversation”.
For many of our Customers, selecting the right partner is the first essential step. Tipi stated that “Having a partner that would go the extra mile was crucial for our success.”
In conclusion, here’s our key takeaways from our annual CloudShift and Salesforce Property Event:
- Get the right stakeholders involved in the process
- Create a process blueprint
- Enrich the Customer journey with connected data
- Engage a Salesforce partner for maximum success
- Set project go-live success metrics
- Focus on the Customer experience
- Never stop evolving
We hope you enjoyed our key takeaways from The CloudShift and Salesforce Property Event. We hope to see you soon at one of our next events! In the meantime, make sure to stay up to date with all CloudShift news by following our social media and blog.
