Transformation @ Work

Nothing kills productivity like “swivel chair” moments, when employees have to pivot between multiple platforms and programs just to get their job done. But what if you could condense all of your daily tasks into the same platform you already use for daily communication, and work seamlessly in one place throughout the day– no pivoting required?

Whether you’re brand-new to the solution or you’ve been messaging coworkers on Slack for years, there are likely still some game-changing features you might not know about. From approvals to integrations, check out the latest Transformation @ Work to learn how to transform Slack into a superpowered collaboration station.

Key Insights

02:01: Understanding Slack’s transformation from a communications platform to an all-in-one collaboration solution

02:40: How switching between programs and solutions can add up to significant time costs for employees– and how Slack can help

04:36: Exploring Slack’s template library, and what its out-of-the-box automations have to offer

06:01: How employees can leverage Slack’s workflow builder to create custom third-party automations

08:15: Slack automation in action: real-world use cases for how teams are streamlining processes via automation

10:35: Leveraging Slack apps to strengthen company culture and deepen employee relationships

Guest Bios

Krishna Patel, Partner Engineer, Slack

Krish has spent the past several years working deeply with Slack as a solution, which gives him an in-depth understanding of the product and its capabilities. In his current role as Partner Engineer for the solution, he works closely with partners and developers to drive product integrations and deliver technical solutions to address needs across the Slack ecosystem.

Kishan Patel, Senior Solution Consultant, Gerent

An 18X Salesforce-certified product expert, Kish brings years of experience and a wealth of technical expertise to his current role as Senior Solution Consultant. He specializes in building strong relationships with internal and external partners to identify pain points and develop winning solutions that drive customer success.

Employees only have so many hours in the day. They can either spend that time fighting with manual processes and repetitive tasks, or they can focus on building relationships with customers and growing the business. This is especially true in automotive dealerships, where that personalized experience is more important than ever, and time-consuming, repetitive tasks cause major frustration for employees and customers alike. How can dealers free up that precious employee time, so they can focus on what matters?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, our experts uncover how Salesforce Automotive Cloud can automate and streamline processes and workflows, setting up dealership employees for success.

Key Talking Points

03:15: Benchmarks and habits of truly enabled employees, and how those employees add value back to the dealership

04:38: Why workarounds and manual solutions are a red flag when it comes to employee enablement

06:51: How Salesforce Automotive Cloud can automate daily tasks and help dealership employees reclaim their daily capacity

08:03: The importance of bringing employees onboard and soliciting feedback during every step of the Salesforce implementation

11:11: Setting benchmarks for success: key metrics and goals for managers to watch for during implementation

13:24: What dealerships can achieve by enabling employee success with process and workflow automation

Guest Bios

Brian Schumacher, President, ResultsGuru.com

Brian is a long-time technical consultant, having worked with Harley Davidson Canada’s network performance team for 15+ years. He brings 40+ years of experience in technical and business consulting in automotive to his current role, as well as keen insights into how dealerships can leverage technology to get better, more accurate results.

Jennifer Thompson, Automotive Practice & Pre-sales Leader, Gerent

Jeni is a tenured consultant with 20+ years of experience analyzing the technology needs of Automotive and Manufacturing companies. During that time, she spent 16 years working directly with dealer management system tech companies and 7 as a consultant, heavily engaged within the Dealer & OEM space. Prior to her role at Gerent, she served as a Pre-sales Engagement Manager in Salesforce’s Manufacturing practice.

The sales process is the lifeblood of any manufacturing organization – and yet, despite its importance, it remains a source of frustration for many organizations. Blue sheets, log books, cumbersome spreadsheets; these hallmarks of a manual sales process bring with them headaches, siloed processes, and often missed opportunities.

Faced with trying to overhaul their sales process, PTR Group turned to Salesforce. In this episode of Transformation @ Work, find out how Gerent was able to help PTR group achieve this goal, unlocking valuable new cross-selling opportunities along the way.

Key Takeaways

01:30: How PTR Group’s manual sales process impacted collaboration and cross-selling opportunities

04:57: How Gerent worked to overcome PTR Group’s hesitance in learning new technology, and helped them embrace Salesforce

06:45: Choosing the right Salesforce administrator, and why that is an essential step in the implementation process

08:40: The importance of relationship building: How Gerent and PTR group worked together to build a better sales process

11:27: Unlocking greater visibility and cross-collaboration with Salesforce Sales Cloud

14:50: The impact that Sales Cloud has had on PTR group’s sales process and ability to cross-sell to existing customers

Guest Bios

Philip Moroco, Chief Commercial Officer, PTR Group

Philip brings over 19 years of experience to his current role as Chief Commercial Officer for PTR Group, a manufacturer of metal and plastic components that create sub assemblies for OEMs and suppliers across a range of industries.

Roger Yeager, Supply Chain Manager, PTR Group

Roger has acted as Supply Chain Manager for American Cap, a subsidiary of PTR Group, for over 23 years. In addition to his current role, he acts as Salesforce administrator for PTR Group, and worked alongside Gerent throughout the implementation process.

Zohaib Noorani, Senior Solution Consultant, Gerent

In his current role as Senior Solution Consultant, Zohaib combines over a decade of manufacturing experience with four years spent in the Salesforce ecosystem to help clients solve complex business problems using agile & hybrid methodologies.

Indubala Kachhawa, Project Manager, Gerent

Prior to joining Gerent, Indubala has worked in the technology and consulting space for over 15 years. That extensive experience provides her with valuable insights in how clients can build better processes and digital workflows through technology.

Delivering a personalized car buying experience is a “holy grail” for any automotive dealership. After all, by meeting the customer where they are and anticipating their needs, employees are truly empowered to turn incoming leads into high-value opportunities. But how do you unlock those experiences when customers might only visit your dealership once a year at most?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at how better data structuring and predictive AI capabilities can overhaul customer-dealer interactions and transform the car buying experience.

Key Insights

02:36: Imagining an ideal, personalized dealership experience, and how technology can help facilitate that

03:52: Current barriers keeping dealers from delivering personalized experiences to customers

06:00: How dealerships can leverage technology to capture, structure, and action customer data— regardless of where it comes from

09:04: How Salesforce Automotive Cloud can enable employees to convert leads into opportunities and build real relationships with customers

12:31: Adding AI to the mix: leveraging predictive AI to anticipate customer interactions and enable employee success

15:57: The crucial role of high-quality data in maximizing employee readiness and personalizing customer experiences

Guest Bios

Jennifer Thompson

Director, Automotive Practice & Presales, Gerent

Jeni is a tenured consultant with 20+ years of experience analyzing the technology needs of Automotive and Manufacturing companies. During that time, she spent 16 years working directly with dealer management system tech companies and 7 years as a consultant, heavily engaged within the Dealer & OEM space. Prior to her role at Gerent, she served as a Presales Engagement Manager in Salesforce’s Manufacturing practice.

Nathan Wilton

Delivery Director, J.D. Power

Nathan brings over 10 years of automotive experience, as well as a background in financial services, to his role as delivery director with J.D. Power. In his current role, he works directly alongside dealers and OEMs to help them unlock the power of technology and data to transform their sales and operations.

Travel agencies take pride in offering customers a relaxing, simplified alternative to the chaos of booking flights, hotels, and vacation destinations. But what is simple for the traveler is often anything but for the professionals responsible for coordinating vacation logistics. Too often, agents are overwhelmed by data and left to navigate unsupportive, user-unfriendly booking and CRM systems.

This is precisely the problem Cruise & Vacation Desk was dealing with — and why the agency’s leaders reached out to Gerent to help them find a better solution. In this episode on Transformation @ Work, we break down the end result of that partnership: Travel Essentials, a bespoke Salesforce solution purpose-built for the needs of the travel industry.

Key Insights

01:40: Challenges faced by travel agents when booking vacations for customers: complicated data streams, managing multiple relationships, and more

03:41: The complexities of managing customer data and relationships without a comprehensive CRM

04:47: The current state of how travel agencies manage data: complicated, costly house-built CRM solutions

06:34: Why Cruise & Vacation Desk sought out a better option for managing customer data

07:20: Key features Cruise & Vacation Desk needed in their CRM to truly simplify the booking process

09:45: How Travel Essentials helped Cruise & Vacation Desk transform the booking experience

10:45: Business outcomes Cruise & Vacation Desk were able to unlock with Travel Essentials

11:24: Exploring the scalability that Travel Essentials offers Cruise & Vacation Desk and similar travel agencies

12:38: How Travel Essentials supercharges Cruise & Vacation Desk’s marketing capabilities

14:55: How Cruise & Vacation Desk plans to leverage Travel Essentials for future growth

16:58: Looking ahead: what Travel Essentials offers to the travel industry at large

Guest Bios

George A. Barnett, Jr., President and General Manager, Cruise & Vacation Desk

George has been part of the Cruise & Vacation Desk team for over 20 years, eventually taking over the company from his father and stepping into the role of president and general manager.

Andrew Bonichi, Vice President and COO, Cruise & Vacation Desk

Andrew has worked in the travel industry for over 30 years, the past 21 of which has been with Cruise & Vacation Desk. As Vice President and COO, Andrew leads his team in delivering industry-leading vacation packages and rewards programs to their customer base.

Ketta Riley, Practice Leader, Travel, Tourism, and Entertainment, Gerent

Ketta has over 35 years of travel and hospitality leadership experience, 10 of which have been spent working on Salesforce implementations. She leverages her experience combined with extensive knowledge of industry market trends to support our customers’ businesses.

Valentine Christopher, Director of Delivery, Gerent

Valentine brings over 25 years of experience in IT consulting to his current role, with over 8 years specifically in the Salesforce ecosystem. In his current role, he leverages that experience to help set up businesses in the travel, tourism, and entertainment industries for success with Salesforce.

A new year means new trends and priorities for virtually every industry under the sun. And for healthcare payers, several of the most prominent developments of the past few years– such as prior authorization, concerns around member experience, compliance, and the ever-rising role of AI– are projected to become unavoidable in 2024. So how can payers leverage technology to get ahead of these rapidly developing trends? That’s where Salesforce Health Cloud comes in. In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at how payers can leverage digital tools to stay one step ahead of 2024’s fastest-developing trends and priorities.

Key Talking Points

02:49: Outlining the major trends set to impact the payer industry in 2024

04:10: How payers can leverage Salesforce Health Cloud to deliver the best-in-class experience to their members

06:50: Steps payers can take to streamline the prior authorization process through technology

10:45: The critical importance of building relationships with outside community organizations, and how Salesforce can help facilitate them

13:55: How Salesforce Health Cloud can help payers stay compliant and on top of legislative changes

16:32: Why the payer industry is relatively cautious to build AI into their workflows

19:47: Low-hanging fruit: steps payers can take right now to get ahead of 2024’s developing industry trends

Guest Bio

Cheryl Gibson

Senior Director of Healthcare & Life Sciences (Payers), Gerent

Cheryl Gibson is a tenured healthcare professional and Salesforce solution leader who excels in translating business processes into high-value technical solutions. With nearly three decades of industry experience — 10 of which were dedicated to directing the strategy, design, and implementation of complex projects in the Salesforce ecosystem — Cheryl is well-equipped to help Gerent’s payer clients overcome hurdles and achieve their ideal future state.

How does a community lift itself out of poverty? One increasingly popular method is through microfinance: small loans, provided by a mix of donors and financial institutions, are given to those without access to traditional capital to help kickstart business ventures. These loans have a tangible impact on members of struggling communities, often causing a ripple effect that lifts up more and more people over time. This life-changing impact sits at the heart of Care Australia’s mission: delivering targeted microfinance support to women in underserved communities to help make their ambitions a reality.

But setting up the infrastructure to facilitate these loans comes with its own set of challenges, from security and compliance to balancing the needs of individual lenders and larger institutions. In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we recount how Gerent ANZ helped Care Australia bring its microfinance portal to life and provide communities with unprecedented access to entrepreneurial opportunities.

Key Talking Points

02:21: Introducing Care Australia’s mission: helping to provide capital and financial support to members of underprivileged communities

03:30: What is microfinance, and how can it help individuals without access to capital achieve their business goals?

04:36: Exploring the ripple effect of microfinance; what really happens when one woman is enabled to achieve her long-term business goals?

06:30: How Care Australia’s microfinance portal works, and how individuals and financial institutions can contribute

08:39: Understanding the project: what did Care Australia need to bring their microfinance portal to fruition?

10:00: Unpacking Gerent ANZ’s transformation planning process; how do you build a first-of-its-kind microfinance portal?

11:02: Addressing common nonprofit budgetary challenges through out-of-the-box Salesforce functionality

13:12: The challenges of building two separate digital experiences for different user audiences

15:24: How Gerent ANZ ensured that operating costs were minimal so that as much money as possible could go towards Care Australia’s mission

16:16: Maintaining compliance, security, and governance throughout the transaction process

18:17: Taking a “divide and conquer” approach towards implementation to ensure maximum efficiency from beginning to end

21:11: Putting it all together: the impact that Care Australia’s microfinance portal has on individuals and communities in need

Guest Speakers

Arnaud Charlier, Head of Data and Platforms Performance, Care Australia

Arnaud brings over 18 years of experience in the nonprofit and automotive consulting sectors to his current role as head of data and platform performance with Care Australia. For over 20 years, Care Australia has provided direct financial support to women in underprivileged communities through managed loans and microfinance. Their goal is to uplift not just the women themselves, but family members, loved ones, and the communities at large through successful business ventures.

Pradeep Laxminarayana, Managing Director, Gerent ANZ

As Managing Director, Pradeep Laxminarayana is responsible for directing Gerent’s business strategy, growth initiatives, and Salesforce consulting staff in Australia and New Zealand. Over the course of his 20-year career, Pradeep has successfully executed transformation programs across the utilities, telecom, retail, insurance, and public sector ecosystems.

Amit Kumar, Salesforce Principal Consultant, Gerent ANZ

As Program Delivery Director, Amit Kumar oversees all of Gerent ANZ’s Salesforce work programs. A veteran IT leader, Amit has over 17 years of experience in the professional services sector and has successfully led digital transformation initiatives in the utilities, NFP, and public sectors. He is well-versed in Scrum Agile, Scaled Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid methodologies.

A Salesforce implementation is a major undertaking that constitutes thousands of dollars and weeks to months of training time. Ensuring that deployment is a success — and that your investment doesn’t go to waste — is imperative. So, how do you make sure that teams stay aligned, objectives are hit, and adoption happens long-term?

To find the answer, you need to go back: before the first training is held, and before a developer ever sits down with a given project. In this episode of Transformation @ Work, our experts look at the pre-deployment meetings between team leaders and their technology partners, when they work together to develop a plan that answers not only the “what” of a Salesforce implementation, but the “how” as well.

Key Insights

02:35: Understanding the impact an effective implementation plan can have on an organization’s adoption rate and success with Salesforce

04:25: The “what” vs. the “how”: why organizations often fail to clearly map out their implementation journey

07:59: The first step in an effective deployment plan: defining what success looks like for your organization

11:21: Key considerations when assessing new technology, and building a plan for how to use it effectively

12:36: Visualizing what success looks like post-implementation, and identifying how your team can work towards that end-state

15:19: Key questions for team leaders to ask their technology partners to ensure a comprehensive implementation plan

18:01: The importance of regular check-ins to ensure your team is trending towards your stated implementation goals

20:23: Putting it all together: how building an effective implementation plan prepares organizations to embrace change and anticipate the unexpected

Guest Bios

Nicole Guerra, Sales Director, Consumer Business Services, Gerent

Nicole's experience in the Salesforce ecosystem covers all aspects of the digitalization journey, from starting as a Salesforce super-user within a customer organization, to working as an account director at Salesforce, then transitioning into the world of consulting. That range of perspectives gives her keen insight into the process of implementation, and how organizations can best ready themselves for Salesforce success.

Eric Saxton, Sales Director, Consumer Business Services, Gerent

Eric brings a wealth of experience to his current role, having worked with manufacturers, nonprofits, educational institutions, and travel and hospitality groups, and having been on both sides of the implementation process as a customer and consultant. Having seen the ups and downs of the tech deployment process, he is able to confidently lead different kinds of organizations through their digitalization and Salesforce journey.

In the Nonprofit sector, investment in cutting-edge technology is often a luxury. After all, most nonprofits aim to funnel as much income as possible directly into the communities they serve – meaning there’s little left over to spend on nice-to-have tech. But as an ironic result of this impact focus, many organizations are left to manage tight budgets, razor-thin margins, and overworked employees and volunteers.

But what if nonprofits could not only take advantage of the best-in-class tools developed for other industries — but also have those tools contextualized for industry use cases? In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we look at the newly-enhanced Nonprofit Cloud, how it compares with Nonprofit Success Pack, and how the novel product can serve the needs of nonprofit organizations, employees, and constituents.

Key Insights

03:19: A brief history of Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), and how it led to the creation of Nonprofit Cloud

05:39: The challenges of customizing “out-of-the-box” solutions to suit specific needs, and how those hurdles impact nonprofit organizations

06:51: The “why” of Nonprofit Cloud: how it serves the specific needs of organizations and addresses their most relevant pain points

08:26: The make-or-break importance of personalized experiences, and how Nonprofit Cloud helps organizations deliver them to donors and constituents

10:27: How OmniStudio transforms the way employees build experiences within Salesforce

12:42: Noteworthy features of Nonprofit Cloud: how actionable lists and interest tags allow new avenues for personalization

16:37: Migrating from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud: what organizations need to consider before making the leap

19:00: How a qualified technology partner can help organizations make the most of the new Nonprofit Cloud

Guest Speakers

Regine Benchetrit

Director, Nonprofit Growth & Marketing, Gerent

Regine Benchetrit is a highly adaptable consultant with a diverse professional background and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. With a career spanning two decades, of which more than half was spent in the nonprofit sector, she has held various leadership positions within digital consultancies and prominent Canadian nonprofit organizations. In 2022, she was invited by Salesforce to speak about NFTs and Cryptocurrency at the Nonprofit Summit. Her professional expertise has spanned a wide range of industries, including sports & entertainment, insurance, CPG and Telco, to mention a few. She excels at empathizing with and uncovering her clients’ pain points, forging strong connections, and crafting innovative solutions to intricate challenges through constructive teamwork. Regine is fervent about giving back, building communities, and helping nonprofits drive their missions.

James Gardner Gregory, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Industry Solutions - Education and Nonprofit Services, Gerent

James is a 17x certified Solution Engineering Leader with 15 years of firsthand experience in higher education. Starting his career as a Special Educator and Counsellor, James now comes to us straight from Salesforce as an industry-leading expert with a proven track record of success in his field. He specializes in creating cutting-edge solutions that address top-of-mind issues for Education and Nonprofit organizations.

Richard Smyth

Consulting Senior Director, Education & Nonprofit, Gerent

Richard Smyth is an experienced senior leader with over 20 years of IT leadership relevant to digital strategy, enterprise applications, operational excellence and executive oversight. Richard has a proven record of spearheading successful transformation initiatives for complex, multi-disciplinary organizations. He excels at delivering superior results by demonstrating the business value of technology implementations.

Anyone with a background in the humanities has probably been told they’re pigeonholing themselves from a career perspective at least once. It’s a pervasive misconception — especially in a field as STEM-driven as the Salesforce ecosystem. But the reality is, having a background in building relationships and connecting with people sets you up for tremendous success in a range of Salesforce-related roles. You just need to find those opportunities and take advantage of them.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re sitting down with a Gerent employee who did just that. Jayda Roberts successfully made the transition from social work to change management consulting, and her story is a clear example of just how transferable many of those skills are to the Salesforce ecosystem.

Key Insights

02:28: Exploring Jayda’s background in social work and what brought her to the Salesforce ecosystem

04:35: How Jayda made the transition from Salesforce consulting to change management

07:29: The unexpected similarities between change management and social work

11:09: Setting yourself up for success when entering the Salesforce ecosystem from a humanities background

12:38: Must-have skills for prospective employees making the transition into Salesforce consulting

14:37: The critical role of empathy in change management

15:36: Tips on building your technical skill-set when coming from a non-technical background

17:36: The importance of trusting the process and taking the leap into the Salesforce ecosystem

Guest Bio

Jayda Roberts, Senior Change Management Consultant, Gerent

Jayda brings years of technical and interpersonal experience into her current role, with a background ranging from social work to sales to Salesforce consulting. She uses her wide range of expertise to create and execute change management strategies on enterprise level projects, maximizing employee engagement and adoption through the implementation of structured methodology and processes.