Transformation @ Work

The prior authorization process, in theory, is designed to help payers get their members the care they need while keeping premiums down and preventing unnecessary procedures. However, due to long response times, complicated processes for filing, and a lack of transparency, providers, regulators, and members are looking for a change. These problems prompted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to propose CMS-0057, new guidelines which task payers with overhauling their authorization process to make it quicker and more transparent. But this is no small feat, given the volume of requests that come in from members and sheer complexity of administrative systems.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we examine how payers can begin to lay the groundwork to address these changes, and get ahead of requirements by digitalizing the prior authorization process.

Key Insights

03:25: Examining the current prior authorization process from the payer’s perspective

05:45: Flipping the script: examining prior authorizations – and their pitfalls – from the member’s point of view

08:04: Pain points in the authorization process for payers, members, and providers

10:13: Breaking down the proposed changes within CMS-0057 and how they impact payers

13:21: Potential challenges in implementation for payers seeking to comply with CMS-0057

16:06: How digital tools can help payers lay the groundwork for a better prior authorization process

18:54: The role a qualified technology partner can play in helping payers get ahead of proposed guidelines and stay compliant

Guest Bio

Cheryl Gibson

Senior Director, 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.

Cars are complicated, and technical conversations around vehicles can pose a challenge for dealerships and customers alike. It can be a real struggle to explain which of the thousands of integral, intricate pieces of a car needs to be serviced — and how it relates to the whole of the vehicle — to the average consumer. But what if, at a moment's notice, you had a diagram you could pull up of every car you serviced? What if you could view a 3D model of a car, highlight a specific part, and pull up inventory numbers and Salesforce data for an immediate order? That’s exactly what RenderDraw offers automotive organizations. With this tool at hand, employees can build, save, and access full 3D renderings of vehicles on the lot, alongside existing Salesforce records for one-touch access to every single car’s history.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we examine how dealers and original equipment manufacturers (also called OEMs) can leverage RenderDraw’s Salesforce-native solution to supercharge the experience of customizing and servicing vehicles for their customers.

Key Insights

04:18: Challenges automotive dealers and OEMs face when it comes to building and retaining customer trust

06:39: How 2D and 3D visualizations help customers research vehicles from anywhere, via their preferred channel

08:17: What is RenderDraw, and how can it help dealers and OEMs reduce friction in the car buying and servicing process?

11:21: How RenderDraw connects to Salesforce and uses existing customer data to enhance its intuitive visualizations

13:10: Potential use cases for RenderDraw: how RenderDraw can transform warranty checks, spare parts ordering, and accessory customization

18:13: How Salesforce Automotive Cloud and RenderDraw remove the barriers associated with 3D visualizations, putting the power back in dealers’ and OEMs’ hands

Guest Bios

Erik Pilgrim, CEO, RenderDraw

Erik brings over a decade of experience in the Salesforce ecosystem to his current role, with the past five years focused exclusively on bringing RenderDraw to market. His work has a major focus in helping manufacturers and automotive organizations unlock the potential of RenderDraw’s 2D and 3D visualizations to deliver a better customer experience from beginning to end.

Nikhil Bhatia, Automotive Practice Lead, Gerent

Nikhil has over 10 years of experience in the automotive industry and has worked with OEMs and dealer groups worldwide, including Mazda Canada, BMW Canada, BMW Group India & Audi India. He specializes in consulting with clients to streamline the digital sales process and enable sustainable growth across both sales and aftersales verticals.

Transitioning into Salesforce consulting is a natural career move for many professionals, particularly those who have worked with the platform within their previous organizations. But while it can be an exciting prospect, actually making the transition comes with no shortages of unique challenges. After all, when you’re on the customer’s side of the table, you don’t need to worry about addressing specific pain points or solving difficult questions. But what happens when the answers to those questions rest squarely on your shoulders?

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we examine what goes into the transition from Salesforce customer to consultant, and hear the stories of some established Gerent leaders who made the switch successfully.

Key Insights

02:48: Why April and Cheryl decided to transition into Salesforce consulting

07:09: Advice on positioning your industry-specific skills when interviewing for Salesforce-centric positions

10:45: Leveraging Trailhead to develop necessary technical skills for success in the Salesforce ecosystem

12:06: Examining the mindshift necessary to shift your perspective from “customer” to “consultant”

12:58: How previous experience as a customer can prove to be a powerful differentiator when it comes to consulting

17:27: Advice for professionals who might want to make the leap into Salesforce consulting

Guest Bios

April Bollwage

Senior Director, Education (Recruiting, Admissions, & International), Gerent

April Bollwage is an impassioned education leader with 20+ years operational and admissions experience in for-profit education, higher education and state-funded nonprofit training programs. April prides herself on creating collaborative team environments that use technology to unite and empower people of varying perspectives. She specializes in enrollment management, strategic operations, mentorship, data analysis, and Student 360 experience. April is a certified Salesforce Administrator, Education Cloud Consultant, and Business Analyst.

Cheryl Gibson

Senior Director, 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.

When considering a Salesforce implementation, identifying where to start can be a distinct challenge. For growing organizations, endless possibilities can lead to scope creep and unclear priorities. Conversely, older, more established businesses often have workflows in place that lead to information silos and added resistance towards new solutions. Either way, the challenge is the same: put effort into the wrong areas once, and you risk wasting time, money, and employee effort, and lowering adoption long-term. So, how can businesses confidently map out a successful implementation? For two Gerent clients, the answer was to develop an implementation strategy prior to deployment.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we kick off a multi-part deep-dive on our team’s strategic approaches to Salesforce implementation — how different implementation styles helped real Gerent clients achieve their business goals. Specifically, we’re looking at the Innovation Blueprint: an initiative that occurs before Salesforce deployment, with a focus on outlining an achievable strategy that diagnoses key pain points and maps where Salesforce will offer the most impact for an organization.

Key Insights

03:36: At a high level, what is an Innovation Blueprint engagement?

01:51: Why Solugen & Victaulic chose to pursue an Innovation Blueprint implementation

04:39: Signs that a business might benefit from an Innovation Blueprint engagement

06:14: What makes an Innovation Blueprint implementation special, and how can businesses benefit from it?

10:25: What steps go into an Innovation Blueprint implementation?

16:30: Outlining the benefits Solugen & Victaulic experienced after going through the Innovation Blueprint engagement

Guest Speakers

Anandhi Narayanan

SVP, Business Transformation & Strategy, Gerent

Anandhi Narayanan has 17 years of experience in manufacturing both in the business and in IT. For the past 4 years, as a consultant, she has been leading cross cloud implementations, driving strategy and thought leadership for supply chain organizations in the Salesforce ecosystem.

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.

Victaulic

Victaulic is a leading global producer and distributor of mechanical pipe joining solutions and the originator of the grooved pipe couplings joining system. Victaulic prides itself on providing safe, reliable solutions to the complex piping issues its clients face.

Andrew Winker

Associate Director Business Development & Strategy, Solugen

As associate director of commercial operations, 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.

Mario D'Ambrosio, Chief Information Officer, Victaulic

Mario brings over 14 years of experience with Victaulic to his current role as chief information officer at Victaulic. Prior to his current position, he served as chief financial officer for the company’s Canadian business unit, and global director of IT and business services.

You only get one chance at a first impression — and for higher ed institutions, that initial assessment often comes in the form of student communications. When institutions take the time to deliver personalized and welcoming communications, students feel comfortable; and from there, they’re positioned to excel in their new environment.

However, all too often, inconsistent outreach standards between departments can lead to massive variations in the frequency, consistency, and tone of their messaging. Emails from recruitment may be warm and welcoming, but once a student is admitted, those messages may become stilted and brusque. If institutions want to maintain relationships with students long after they become alumni, they need to deliver consistent, personalized communication throughout the entire student journey.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we explore how institutions can develop better end-to-end communication strategies — and how those strategies translate to deeper long-term relationships with students.

Key Insights

03:34: How an institution’s communications strategy can impact its relationship with students at every stage of their journey

06:50: The importance of personalization in an institution’s student communications

09:22: Major considerations for institutions as they develop an end-to-end student communication strategy

10:40: First steps for institutions as they begin to implement their communications strategy (e.g., how do I get started?)

12:56: Leveraging automation and marketing templates to take student communications from “good” to “great”

15:43: How well-designed, automated communications can unlock internal teams’ productivity and efficiency

Guest Bios

Shirin Khosravian, D.B.A

Senior Director of Education (Retention & Student Success), Gerent

Shirin Khosravian, D.B.A., is a data-driven strategy and innovation leader with over 18 years of experience in higher education and business transformation. Shirin is also an adjunct professor who teaches graduate-level courses on business, communications and digital marketing. She excels in forging constructive partnerships and empowering organizations to drive growth through people-process-systems strategies and solutions. During transformation initiatives, Shirin leverages her extensive marketing, technical, customer experience, and analytical skills to develop creative, high-value solutions for clients.

Rachelle Pantaleon

Sales Director, Nonprofit & Marketing Automation, Gerent

Rachelle brings 17 years of experience to her current role as Gerent’s sales director of nonprofit and marketing automation. In her current capacity, she helps institutions of all sizes develop and implement their marketing communications strategies. She has a passion for working with higher education institutions that are passionate about the success of their students.

Digital tools such as Salesforce provide the transformational functionality that healthcare payers need to deliver next-level member experiences. But the cost and time expenditure of deploying those digital tools can pose a real roadblock for implementation, leading payers to rely on their existing legacy tools — often at the expense of their members’ experiences. To overcome this implementation hurdle,, payers need specialized solutions that can help them get to market as quickly as possible, so they can focus their efforts on better serving their members.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we take a look at Gerent’s latest offering, Salesforce Smart Starts, and examine how they can help payers streamline the implementation process and accelerate their time to value.

Key Insights

03:38: Challenges faced by healthcare payers when it comes to Salesforce implementation

04:52: What exactly is a Smart Start, and how can it help payers take advantage of what Salesforce has to offer?

07:53: Exploring Gerent’s first Smart Start offering: an improved member service center

11:04: How can the member service center Smart Start improve first call resolution and reduce call abandonment rates?

13:28: How Smart Starts can help payers elevate their entire service experience over time

Guest Bios

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.

Jill Winegar, Senior Director of Healthcare & Life Sciences (Technology), Gerent

Jill is a multifaceted leader with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare, advertising, and marketing industries. She specializes in providing strategic guidance during implementations, developing winning lead engagement strategies, and cultivating strong teams and partnerships. As a results-minded professional, Jill is committed to building exceptional user- and patient-focused experiences.

Thanks to an abundance of patients, complicated cases, and ever-shifting compliance guidelines, most healthcare providers are stretched thin. Oftentimes they’re limited to just a few minutes per interaction – just enough time to address any pressing patient concerns and move on. That may be enough to handle immediate crises, but what gets lost in these cases is the personal touch: the daily interactions that reveal major factors in a patients’ health. Issues such as food security, ease of travel, or work stress can be the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to patient care…but without time to dig in and ask the right questions, providers might miss them entirely.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we examine how providers can use Salesforce Health Cloud to automate processes, collect and share key patient data, and better address key social determinants of health.

Key Talking Points

03:18: What are social determinants of health and how do they impact patient care?

05:19: The challenges providers face in collecting, storing, and sharing data on social determinants of health

07:24: How Salesforce can help providers get a better understanding of their patients’ social determinants of health

9:58: Creating better relationships with outside partner organizations through the use of data and digital tools

12:14: Ensuring the right data is being collected and stored: how to assess and utilize incoming information on social determinants of health

Guest Bio

Jim Rogers, Senior Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Gerent

A registered nurse by training, Jim Rogers has been in healthcare for over 27 years, with 23 years of those spent as an RN and over 15 years running healthcare operations and service lines. He also brings 12 years of experience as a Salesforce customer and partner and, prior to joining Gerent, dedicated 7 years to helping payers and providers create engaging patient experiences with Salesforce Health Cloud.

For decades, automotive dealers and OEMs have relied on the same toolkit for their needs: a whiteboard, individual file folders for sales reps, and sticky notes on computer screens and cubicle walls. Each of those tools serve a purpose; but the undeniable fact is, there’s a ceiling to their effectiveness – especially when dealing with larger customer households, multiple locations, and remote interactions. If organizations truly want to take the experience of buying and servicing a car to the next level, they need better digital tools.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we virtually “unbox” Salesforce Automotive Cloud, and examine how its feature-set helps dealers and OEMs reimagine what’s possible when it comes to customer experience.

Key Talking Points

03:16: Why automotive dealers, dealer networks, and OEMs need to shift from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach

09:30: How Salesforce Automotive Cloud allows organizations to prioritize a better experience at every opportunity

12:18: What does “Household Management” mean, and how can it help auto dealers gain new insight into their customers’ needs?

16:06: How Gerent’s Automotive Cloud Accelerator allows organizations to unlock the value of Automotive Cloud “right out of the box”

22:24: Reimagining what’s possible: how businesses can use Automotive Cloud to transform the car-buying experience

Guest Bios

Nikhil Bhatia, Automotive Practice Lead, Gerent

Nikhil brings over 11 years of experience in mechanical engineering, business consulting, digital strategy, and a lifelong passion for cars to his role as Gerent’s Automotive Practice Lead. This background gives him a firsthand perspective on how teams within the automotive industry can redefine “possible” with the right digital tools at their disposal.

Ryan Bjorgaard, Industries Product Lead, Manufacturing & Distribution, Auto, Energy

Ryan has nine years of experience in IT consulting, systems implementation, and solution design. With 14 Salesforce Solution Architect certifications, he was one of the first 100 Solution Architects in the Salesforce ecosystem. Ryan is also a Manufacturing Cloud accredited professional and has led CRM strategy for a number of digital transformations across the sales operations and supply chain industries.

Pricing should be a straightforward proposition: the seller sets a price, the customer pays that price, and everyone walks away happy. But in manufacturing, the process is anything but simple. Between discounts based on volume and customer loyalty, location-based pricing, and ongoing supply chain disruptions, pricing can become an ongoing struggle for manufacturers. Sales teams’ existing methods of capturing pricing information — such as post-it notes and spreadsheets — simply cannot keep up with the fluctuations.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work, we look at how Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud can manage the complexities of pricing on the back-end, so sales teams in manufacturing can get back to what matters: building relationships with their customers.

Key Insights

03:13: Identifying what makes the pricing process so complicated for manufacturers

08:20: The impact supply chain disruptions can have on the pricing process

12:12: How Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud can automate back-end pricing changes to simplify pricing quotes

15:58: How manufacturers can integrate Manufacturing Cloud into their existing processes to maximize productivity and eliminate administrative hassle

22:24: Putting the pieces together: What a simplified pricing process can look like with Salesforce

Guest Bios

Anandhi Narayanan

SVP of Strategy & Business Transformation and Manufacturing Practice Lead, Gerent

Anandhi has 17 years of experience in manufacturing and distribution in both the business and IT sector. She has led digital transformations across a variety of industries, from finance to sales operations. For the past five years as a consultant, Anandhi has led cross-cloud implementations, driving strategy and thought leadership for supply chain organizations in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Ryan Bjorgaard

Industries Product Lead, Manufacturing, Distribution, Auto, & Energy, Gerent

Ryan has nine years of experience in IT consulting, systems implementation, and solution design. With fourteen Salesforce Solution Architect certifications, he was one of the first 100 Solution Architects in the Salesforce ecosystem. Ryan is also a Manufacturing Cloud Accredited Professional and has led CRM strategy for a number of digital transformations across the sales operations and supply chain industries.

Education and nonprofit sectors are facing serious challenges when it comes to staffing and retention. Simply put: employees are exhausted, burnt out, and struggling to overcome the challenges posed by a global pandemic, sudden transition to online learning, and ever-increasing responsibilities. Many teachers have left the field entirely — and as absences and resignations pile up, the stress on current employees increases, creating a feedback loop that wreaks havoc on faculty well-being. Teachers and staff members want to regain control of their lives and get back to the communities they serve — and to do so, they’ll need supportive digital infrastructure.

In this episode of Transformation @ Work we’re looking at the short-staffing crisis in education and nonprofit, and asking the question: Can digital tools help educators achieve some much-needed peace of mind?

Key Insights

03:10: Key causes of the staffing crisis in the education and nonprofit sectors

04:45: How staffing shortages lead to a damaging loss of institutional knowledge

06:54: How a scant technology investments and a lack of effective backup plans exacerbated the current staffing crisis

07:44: The stressful cycle: how a lack of backup plans adds stress for teachers, which in turn adds to absences and resignations

09:32: How digital tools can be used to ensure staff coverage and put backup plans in place

12:08: Unique challenges in education and nonprofit when it comes to addressing employee burnout

13:34: Leveraging digital tools to identify pain points and stressors for employees to build a more supportive academic environment

16:22: How digital technology can help educators and nonprofits put the focus back on the communities they serve

22:42: How stakeholder feedback helps to build employee satisfaction

Guest Bios

April Bollwage, Senior Director of Education (Recruiting, Admissions, & International), Gerent

April brings over 20 years of education experience in both the private and non-profit sectors to her role at Gerent. She’s designed processes to support over 60 domestic learning centers and 650 colleges and universities, and has seen firsthand the way organizations can use Salesforce to help employees get back to what matters: helping the communities they serve.

Richard Carter

Director of Education (K-12), Gerent

Richard comes to Gerent with years of educational administration experience across all levels: from his primary experience as a middle school principal, to time spent in higher education institutions such as Rider and Princeton, to a year spent as an elementary school principal. His current focus is helping institutions use digitalized data to give their students the resources and personal connections they need to succeed.