Transformation @ Work

No one wants to spend their precious time at work fighting with technology or inefficient processes. This is doubly true for the nonprofit sector, where people get into the field to help their communities and make a difference in the world. Unfortunately for team leaders, that often translates to understandable resistance to adopting new technology. That resistance presents a unique challenge for these leaders: how do you get employees excited about adoption, while recognizing that any training or transition is going to pull them away from the work they want to be doing?

That’s where effective training and change management come into play. A qualified change management partner can play a make-or-break role in overcoming resistance and helping team members recognize the value Salesforce provides to the organization and its mission. In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at how leaders can work with their technology partner to excite their employees about new technology to drive serious user adoption long-term.

Key Insights

02:44: Common causes of employee resistance to new technology within the nonprofit sector

05:50: The crucial role of readiness testing in understanding employee resistance and how to overcome it

07:05: Addressing the fear of change: how to help employees understand “What’s in it for me?”

10:22: How nonprofits can drive user adoption through better, more employee-focused training

13:26: Balancing the day-to-day operations of a nonprofit with the necessary time it takes to learn new technologies

18:21: Deployment is just the start: the importance of ongoing success tracking to monitor user adoption

20:21: The impact effective change management and training can have on user adoption

Guest Bios

Richard Smyth

Consulting Senior Director, Education & Nonprofit

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.

Antonia Moore

Senior Business Analyst, Gerent

Antonia brings over 15 years of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem to her current role as a Senior Business Analyst at Gerent. In that time, she’s led countless training sessions and helped employees at all levels understand what they can accomplish with Salesforce. Her love of training, mentorship, and education runs through everything she does. Case in point: in addition to her customer-facing training efforts, she provides mentorship to multiple coworkers at Gerent.

Emeka Elemamba

Senior Change Management Consultant, Gerent

Emeka is an experienced change management consultant with over 10 years of experience leading strategic organizational change efforts, and overseeing complex projects in diverse industries. He has a passion for stakeholder management, innovative communication, and achieving impactful results for organizations making the switch to Salesforce.

There’s an iceberg effect to a good experience. Underneath every seamless interaction lies a multitude of carefully-architected experiential flows. A single poorly-designed touchpoint could potentially derail an entire user experience (UX), customer experience (CX), or employee experience (EX). You might not notice when an experience is seamlessly designed – but if decisions are arbitrary, repetitive, or frustrating, those are the moments that you’re unlikely to forget.

How, exactly, can businesses go about designing top-tier experiences? In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at the ways in which Gerent Experience guides its customers through the experience design process — and how our team goes about designing robust experience architecture that supports delightful brand interactions for customers, employees, partners, and end-users alike.

Key Highlights

01:35: The many unseen decisions that factor into good experience design – and what happens when one of those decisions goes wrong

03:14: How the rise of hybrid digital/physical experiences has complicated the experience design process

04:11: Problem Space Envisioning: getting to the heart of what the end user needs before experience design gets underway

05:16: Leveraging 1-on-1 in-depth interviews to build experience personas and identify potential design challenges

06:32: Using competitive analysis to understand popular industry approaches to experience design and identify opportunities for innovation

07:46: Proxy Persona Research: a low-cost approach to building customer personas via internal stakeholder feedback

10:07: The importance of having cross-functional teams involved in the experience design process from the beginning

12:14: Understanding the crucial role of rapid iteration and experimentation in the prototyping process

13:32: Why it’s so crucial to have a qualified experience design partner involved in every step of the process

17:05: Test, measure, and learn: ensuring long-term success after an experience has been designed

Guest Speakers

Jim Corcoran, Experience Director, Gerent Experience

Jim has worked at Gerent Experience since 2011, bringing substantial expertise and proven insights to both internal and external clients alike. In his current capacity as Experience Director, he works side-by-side with customers and the design practice in developing personas, identifying areas of improvement, and delivering outstanding experiences of all kinds.

Marisa Holliday, Experience Architect, Gerent Experience

Marisa is a seasoned digital strategist with over nine years of service at Gerent Experience. In her current role as Experience Architect, she leverages her background in information architecture and experience design to create outstanding user, customer, partner, and employee experiences for clients.

Ask any tenured professional and they’ll tell you the same truth: the skills listed in a job description are just scratching the surface of what goes into any given role. Being a Salesforce solution architect is no exception; the position requires much more than the skills and competencies laid out on paper. So, if you’re just starting in your career — or looking to make a switch — how do you know what skills to focus on, or if you’ll be a good fit? The answer is simple: ask the people currently doing the work.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re sitting down with a trio of Gerent employees and seasoned solution architects to get a real, on-the-ground perspective on what makes someone a standout candidate for the job.

Key Insights

02:50: Outlining the essential skills that go into being a great solution architect

06:30: The crucial role interpersonal skills play in being a solution architect

12:46: Advice for prospective solution architects on how to develop those vital “soft skills”

17:36: The value of community in helping professionals grow their skills and thrive in new roles

20:22: Putting the pieces together: what being a great solution architect looks like in practice

Guest Bios

Elizabeth Bauer, Senior Consultant, Manufacturing, Energy, and Automotive, Gerent

Elizabeth brings over 15 years of Salesforce experience with multiple tech partners to her current role as senior consultant and acting solution architect. Currently, she leads consulting efforts within Gerent’s manufacturing practice, helping develop key solutions for companies large and small alike.

Adeolu Oyeyinka, Senior Solution Consultant, Manufacturing, Energy, and Automotive, Gerent

Ade’s combination of software implementation experience and a prior hands-on engineering background gives him a unique insight into the work that goes into making tech solutions happen. That expertise helps him work with clients in the manufacturing space as one of Gerent’s senior solution architects.

Kristin Eichers, Sr. Solution Architect / Consultant, Gerent

Kristin is an experienced leader, solution architect, and engagement manager with over 17 years experience leading Salesforce consulting practices and delivery teams. Her work has spanned a wide range of industries, including education, the public sector, healthcare, tech, manufacturing, and finance.

You might not notice a particularly good user experience (UX) – in fact, that’s often the point – but when done right, UX can inform nearly every user decision and shape brand perception. However, just as it’s easy to experience good UX design without realizing it, it can be easy to fall into pitfalls while taking a DIY approach. So, how can a business leverage the often “invisible” art of experience design to create delightful customer experiences and encourage long-term employee tech adoption?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re unpacking the realities of experience design: why it’s crucial for businesses, the impact it can have on customers and employees alike, and how the right design partner can elevate a business’s experience to the next level.

Key Insights:

03:22: What is user experience, and why is it so crucial for modern businesses to understand?

05:14: How UX directly impacts long-term customer perception of a brand – for better or worse

06:55: Introducing employee experience (EX), and how it guides long-term adoption for new digital technologies

08:46: How a qualified design partner can help organizations transform their experience for customers and employees alike

10:59: Common experience design use cases: How elevated UX design translates into better business outcomes for organizations

13:21: Potential pitfalls in experience design, and how the right technology partner can help teams navigate around them

Guest Bio

Gordon Forsyth

Practice Lead, Experience Innovation, Gerent

With two and a half decades of experience in the digital marketing sector, Gordon is a seasoned marketing leader and strategist. In his current role as Senior Practice Lead, Gordon brings expertise in digital business strategy, product management, digital marketing, content management and analytics, with implementation experience across the Salesforce platform.

There isn’t just one way to shop anymore – which presents a unique challenge for retailers. After all, how do you build a buying experience that offers the same level of personal care for a customer, regardless of whether they’re shopping in-store, online, or via an app? That’s where Salesforce comes in: by leveraging Salesforce’s data-driven capabilities, backed by the power of AI, retailers can overhaul every aspect of the order management experience, from buying to fulfillment to returns. The end result? Deeper relationships with customers, greater wallet share, and a true competitive advantage.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, our experts break down specific ways in which Salesforce can transform order management for retailers, and give advice on how to unlock that value within an organization.

Ready to dig deeper into Salesforce’s insights into what retailers should expect in the coming holiday season? Check out their latest blog on five key holiday shopping predictions!

Learn more: sfdc.co/bNeZli

Key Insights

02:29: How retailers can leverage Customer 360 to personalize the customer shopping experience

04:45: How Salesforce can bring the Customer 360 experience into a single pane of glass

05:42: Delivering better order support to delight and retain retail customers

07:44: Reimagining the fulfillment process with Salesforce’s inventory availability service

09:10: The vital role of omnichannel inventory management in facilitating hybrid shopping experiences

10:50: Adding the power of AI, backed by the Salesforce trust layer, into forecasting and analytics

13:07: Creating a more seamless returns experience with Salesforce and AI

15:43: Advice for retailers looking to implement Salesforce and overhaul their order management process

19:13: What does a truly overhauled order management process look like, and what can it offer to retailers and customers?

Guest Bios

John Cardaris

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce

John Cardaris brings over 3 and a half years of experience at Salesforce to his current role, on top of over 8 years within the broader tech ecosystem. In his current role as Senior Product Marketing Manager for Commerce Cloud, he oversees operations relating to order management, support, and fulfillment, helping retailers to transform their customer shopping experiences.

Liam Huston

B2B Commerce Practice Lead, Gerent

Liam Huston is a commerce expert who has dedicated 20+ years of his career to empowering clients in the ecommerce/B2B ecosystem. As a consultant, Liam specializes in Salesforce B2B Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and helps his customers tailor the solutions to suit their unique needs and goals. For Liam, the customer’s success is the ultimate project requirement — and to that end, he makes a point to help his clients bring complex systems into discrete pieces so they are better able to explore potential optimizations and improvements.

Retail shopping has changed dramatically in the past few years, and nowhere is that shift more apparent than during the holiday season. Trends and new buying models such as Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPIS) — which rolled out largely as a pandemic response — are here to stay, and the retail organizations that can’t maintain them are unfortunately falling behind. But make no mistake: innovating the retail shopping experience means going beyond playing catch-up to the latest retail trend and proactively anticipating how customers’ buying habits will change over time.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at just how the consumer shopping experience has changed, where it’s headed this holiday season, and how retailers and suppliers can anticipate the next major shift before it occurs.

Ready to dig deeper into Salesforce’s insights into what retailers should expect in the coming holiday season? Check out their latest blog on five key holiday shopping predictions!

Learn more: http://sfdc.co/bNeZli

Key Insights

03:20: Salesforce market analysis: how shopping has changed in the past few years

04:08: What does the average customer expect from retailers in 2023?

05:25: How “fast fashion” retail outlets gained market share by responding to growing demand for agile, omnichannel shopping experiences

06:25: The ripple effect: how changes in customer buying behavior led to massive shifts in supply chain operations

07:46: Looking back: understanding the major holiday shopping trends of the past three years

08:33: Looking ahead: predicting the major focus points for consumers heading into the 2023 holiday season

09:55: How Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) became a fixture of modern shopping

11:19: How retailers can leverage BOPIS to personalize the shopping experience and increase customer spending

13:16: Supporting frontline retail workers as they uphold BOPIS

14:19: How technology can facilitate seasonal worker training

16:40: How retailers can anticipate the next major shift in customer behavior and meet shoppers where they are

19:31: How Salesforce can help retailers streamline operations ahead of the holiday season

21:34: How the right implementation partner can unlock the value of Salesforce for retailers and suppliers

Guest Bios

Rob Garf, Vice President & General Manager, Retail, Salesforce

Rob brings over 25 years of retail experience as a practitioner, industry analyst, strategy consultant, and software leader to his current role at Salesforce. This experience has given him unique insight into the challenges retailers face within a rapidly shifting landscape, and how technology can help them overcome those issues. Rob is also a frequent industry speaker and a member of NRF’s Digital Council.

Rosa Campagna, Sales Director, Retail & Consumer Goods, Gerent

Rosa Campagna is a seasoned account executive with a deep understanding of the retail consumer goods sector and several years’ experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. As a charismatic sales leader, Rosa excels in forging connections with prospects and developing a quick, keen understanding of their concerns, goals, and needs. Her extensive skill set includes sales, account management, digital strategy-setting, media relations, event management, and more.

It’s a fact — the average prospective student entering into higher education in 2023 is more engaged with technology than any generation in history. This raises the critical question: why are so many higher education institutions still relying on outdated, manual processes for enrollment, communications, and ongoing engagement? Practices that have worked reliably in the past now risk feeling antiquated and obtuse to a new generation of digital-first students. Supporting the needs of this incoming class will require serious reimagining of the entire student experience – and an understanding of how digital tools can aid in that reimagining.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re looking at how Salesforce is equipping institutions to engage with tech-savvy students on their terms through the newly-enhanced Education Cloud offering.

Key Insights

03:33: A brief history lesson: what brought the education industry – and Salesforce – to this crucial moment

06:27: What does it mean that Education Cloud is a core Salesforce offering?

08:55: How Education Cloud’s new features help institutions meet digital-first students where they are

12:42: How institutions can personalize and tailor their experience with core Salesforce features such as OmniStudio

15:24: Leveraging Salesforce capabilities found in other industry clouds to create a better education experience

18:12: The role of a qualified technology partner in helping institutions get up and running with the new Education Cloud

Guest Bios

Julia Taylor

Director, Solution Architecture, Education and Nonprofit, Gerent

A 24x Salesforce-certified professional, Julia has been part of the Salesforce ecosystem nearly her entire career, focusing in Education for the last 11 years. She was one of the founding members of Salesforce.org Services prior to joining Gerent, and has led some of the most dynamic and innovative Salesforce Education customers through digital change. Julia maintains a relentless focus on customer ROI, ensuring every aspect of success is addressed, from technology to people to student experience. Her personal passion is the transformation of Student Recruitment and Admissions, helping bring a commercial-style experience to a digital native generation.

Matthew Horton

Senior Solution Consultant, Education, Gerent

Matthew brings over 15 years experience in the Salesforce ecosystem, as well as 15 certifications, to his current role as Gerent’s senior solution consultant for the education industry. His background in education and nonprofit gives him unique insight into the challenges institutions face as they work to engage with students throughout their journey.

Any change within an organization– whether it’s new technology, processes, staffing changes, or other shifts in the business – can be intimidating for employees. Without careful execution, team leaders will inevitably face uncertainty, resistance, and ultimately, even rejection of promising new initiatives. Managing a successful transition requires steady communication, hands-on training and support, and — most importantly — a comprehensive change management plan.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we take a deep dive into what makes a truly effective change management plan and how leaders can ensure high levels of employee engagement at every stage of their Salesforce implementation.

Key Insights

00:46: What is change management, and why is it so crucial in addressing employee resistance to new technology?

02:33: The first step in effective change management: pre-implementation research

04:12: Why effective and frequent communication is key to any successful change within an organization

07:42: The importance of identifying change champions when it comes to building employee enthusiasm

09:07: How good training can serve as a crucial component of a successful change management strategy

11:15: Strategies for maintaining employee engagement and adoption well after the change is complete

13:10: The role a qualified technology partner plays in an effective change management plan

14:21: How effective change management helped auto employees go from “ready to quit” to “embracing new technology”

Guest Bios

Keisha Ruggs

Director, Change Management, Gerent

Keisha Ruggs is an accomplished “change whisperer” who specializes in helping people understand, engage, and adopt change in their day-to-day work activities. She loves to guide clients through these transitions with minimal resistance by encouraging leadership alignment, understanding organizational impacts, and developing appropriate interventions.

References

Transformation @ Work episode 15: Saving Teams From Bad Training: Building Better Plans for Greater Adoption: https://www.gerent.com/podcasts/episode-15-saving-teams-from-bad-training-building-better-plans-for-greater-adoption

The nonprofit industry is vast, encompassing over 1.5 million organizations in the United States alone, each with their own unique mission, organizational structure, and needs. No two nonprofits are going to serve their communities in the same way– which makes planning a Salesforce implementation a distinct challenge for change-minded leaders. After all, how do you take one solution, even one as comprehensive as Salesforce, and deploy it equally well across such a range of organizations and use-case contexts?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, our experts share step-by-step guidance on how industry organizations can make the most of Salesforce at every stage of implementation.

Key Insights

01:52: The importance of understanding the needs of your nonprofit and the communities you serve before considering new technologies

05:05: How careful research into Salesforce and its capabilities can translate into a more successful implementation

07:14: Identifying resources available to help strengthen your understanding of Salesforce

08:33: Don’t boil the ocean: avoiding common implementation pitfalls through a steady, incremental approach

12:06: How team leaders can help encourage long-term employee adoption of new technologies

16:20: The role a qualified technology partner can play during every stage of implementation to ensure success

Guest Bios

Regine Benchetrit

Director, Nonprofit Growth and 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.

Kathy Zozos-Pliagos

Director, Education and Nonprofit, Gerent

Kathy Zozos-Pliagos is a multidisciplinary leader with over 15 years of experience in management, education, nonprofit, recruitment, and organizational change. For the last decade, she has dedicated herself to empowering organizations with well-designed CRM solutions. Kathy previously served as a customer success architect at Salesforce and, in an earlier role, spearheaded the implementation, adoption, and successful launch of Sales and Service Cloud for three large online international universities. She excels at leading collaborative teams, defining high-performance business processes, architecting supportive solutions, and driving user adoption through effective change management initiatives.

Julia Taylor

Director, Solution Architecture, Education and Nonprofit, Gerent

A 24x Salesforce-certified professional, Julia has been part of the Salesforce ecosystem nearly her entire career, focusing in Education for the last 11 years. She was one of the founding members of Salesforce.org Services prior to joining Gerent, and has led some of the most dynamic and innovative Salesforce Education customers through digital change. Julia maintains a relentless focus on customer ROI, ensuring every aspect of success is addressed, from technology to people to student experience. Her personal passion is the transformation of Student Recruitment and Admissions, helping bring a commercial-style experience to a digital native generation.

References

https://www.statista.com/topics/1390/nonprofit-organizations-in-the-us/

Deploying Salesforce within an organization is often a massive undertaking – which makes ensuring high levels of adoption absolutely essential. Attempt to overhaul too many processes at once, and you risk wasting valuable time and a considerable investment. But by aiming too small, or going for an “out-of-the-box” solution without the customizations necessary for your business, you run the risk of deploying a solution that doesn’t ultimately provide real value. For businesses in this position — who want to address specific pain points quickly, and with a high degree of employee confidence — a Strategic implementation might be the best option.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we’re continuing our multi-part deep-dive on our team’s approaches to Salesforce deployment, and unpacking Strategic implementations: Salesforce deployments that offer a tight turnaround time and target focused, achievable goals for a quick unlocking of value.

Key Insights

00:50: At a high level, what is a Strategic Implementation?

01:56: Why Crescent, Methods Machine Tools (MMT), and Solugen chose a Strategic Implementation

04:36: Signs a business might be the right fit for a Strategic Implementation

05:11: Why an “out-of-the-box” approach to Salesforce deployment might not work for many businesses

06:06: Breaking down the components and goals of a Strategic Implementation

07:31: What are the major benefits of going with a Strategic Implementation?

09:50: Client perspectives on what it’s like to work through the process

13:01: Outlining the benefits Crescent, MMT, and Solugen experienced from implementing Salesforce

17:55: Advice for teams considering a Strategic Implementation

Guest Bios

Crescent Electric

Crescent Electric is an electrical distributor that provides the inventory and expertise needed for industrial, residential, and construction projects. The company prides itself on its deep industry knowledge, job site efficiency, and leading-edge training and certifications.

Methods Machine Tools

Methods Machine Tools is a national distributor of machining equipment, automation, and engineering tools. They focus on providing best-in-class tools, backed by proven engineering expertise and a commitment to long-term customer relationships.

Solugen

Solugen is a specialty chemical company that creates safe, cost effective, and environmentally-friendly chemical formulations. The company designs its own formulations through bioforge operations; it also distributes common chemistries in full and dilute concentrations.

Nick Holbik-Siu, Director of Distribution, Gerent

Nicholas Holbik-Siu is an experienced leader with a strong track record in the wholesale distribution space. After graduating from McMaster University, he went on to work his way up the ladder at EMCO and Norwood Waterworks before joining the Gerent Family.

Andy Ramspott, VP, Sales Operations and Sales Enablement, Crescent Electric

Andy brings years of sales, marketing, strategy, and commercial operations experience to his current role as vice president of sales operations and enablement at Crescent Electric. In his current position, his focus is on guiding and overseeing the sales teams in their efforts to drive growth to new levels.

Andrew Winker

Associate Director of Business Development and Strategy, Solugen

As associate director of business development and strategy, Andrew works closely with Solugen’s commercial, sales, and business development teams to ensure business decisions are data-driven and successful. He brings over 3 years of experience in consulting and a strong marketing background to the role.

Tiffany A. Hess, Product Lifestyle Specialist, Methods Machine Tools

Tiffany has worked with MMT for over eight years in a variety of roles, from office management to sales to her current position as product lifestyle consultant. In her current role, she works with the sales and product management teams to ensure their systems are operating successfully and efficiently.