100 days at SF

Today is my “Day 100” in the beautiful 'Belgium Ohana' of Salesforce.

Full focus on customers?and their industries

My first week?

My onboarding did?not?start?behind a grey computer screen?(sorry shiny MacBook Pro)?in some Zoom or GoogleMeet call, but right in the middle of the action, amongst thousands of customers?at an Industry Event. At MWC in sunny Barcelona, we had not the biggest booth -?however definitely the most relevant business demo’s?- showcasing our?Industry Plays?for any Line-of-Business. My enthusiasm for our?unique business capabilities?became even bigger when seeing the reactions from our prospects and customers, who reacted with “you understand exactly what we need” or “incredible end-to-end capabilities, I have all trust you can deliver this innovation”. Our Account Director for Telco (thanks Latifa) had very well prepared around 15 meetings and demo’s with a couple of CEO’s, Executives, Technical Architects, Directors, Domain Experts. Needless to say, I returned home with a solid understanding of their ambitions and challenges, including the Industry Drivers and how Salesforce can contribute to achieving the customer goals. Already back in 2020, Salesforce brought to market?12 Industry Clouds?(building on top of the?8 years?of experience of the Vlocity engineers and customers), continuously advancing to meet specific new industry needs of our customers.?

My first month

After the industry event, I continued my virtual onboarding trainings in combination with customer meetings (TGTLAO-?thanks God these lockdowns are over) at their offices or in their local Coffeeshop to understand their business challenges and ambitions. Another?focus?was hiring, so my key objective was to?have a complete team?of Account Directors, who will be focussing on key industries Travel & Transportation, Logistics, Media and Healthcare and Life Sciences (welcome Laurence, Günther and Frank to Ohana, nice to work with you Saskia?) asap. I got acquainted with our?Trailblazer Community?of?3,5 Million Trailblazers, whose entrepreneurial vibes are very contagious. Salesforce has been listening, very?pro-actively?and?programmatically, to customers since 2007 with?IdeaExchange. This explains how we continue to delivering innovation, as we get?one continuous loop of customer-led ideas. While our Stock Ticker is still “CRM”, we are?no longer the One Trick Pony, as our?Business Platform?has grown and matured immensely with 1000’s of capabilities in Service Cloud, Marketing & Commerce Cloud, Tableau Analytics Cloud, Mulesoft Integration Cloud. Finally, we’ll?Slack-ify the world.

A unique Ohana Culture, walking the talk on our values of Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality and Sustainability

My first quarter

So far, I’ve never experienced a dull moment and?our Digital HQ?(thanks Slack) enables us not only to do our best work?“success from anywhere”?but also to integrate work and life as we see fit. Worldwide, we have been Net Zero since September 2021 (a project we initiated back in 2012, we’re sharing our own experiences with you in?our Net Zero Cloud) and also locally?we walk?(no pun intended)?the sustainability talk. Hence, one of the biggest changes is?not?having a company car?in my 15+ years in the software industry. So far the?NMBS, STIB, De Lijn and Uber?have gotten me everywhere I need to be. We have a beautiful co-working and Salesforce-dedicated?Silversquare offices, next to Brussels Central Station (pls do visit us, coffee is on me, we also have great Italian and Lebanese food, Sushi,...) and we have the most stunning rooftop terrace of Brussels (come see for yourself ). Locally, our?Salesforce Women’s Network?(thanks Ilse & Manon) is very vibrant, many events being organized and inside Salesforce Belgium we have amazing female Leaders blazing Trails (thank you Angélique, Lien, Caroline, Ann, Carmina, Ilse, Cécile, San, Patricia, and of course in my own team: Latifa, Saskia & Laurence).

All is well that ends well

At the end of my 1st quarter, the very last day of May, my -?extended?- team announced me that we’ve?signed up a new customer?in a (for us locally)?new industry (thank you Mariya and Wim). You can also become very excited about?our Health Cloud, not only do we have a great vision (no slide-ware here), we also deliver on it. This Health Cloud is for Life Sciences companies, HealthCare Providers, Payers/Mutualités/Mutualiteiten, Hospitals, Pharmaceutical & Medical Devices companies.

Perhaps no better expression of our unique culture are the?flowers?that?I got from our Country Leader, Lien Ceulemans, to celebrate my first 100 days with Salesforce Belgium, my complete team, the business and trust of a new customer. Lien is driving a unique culture of appreciation, trust, inclusion, customer intimacy & success, data-driven performance and work-life integration. On a daily basis, my fellow leaders coach me, help me grow in the SF Universe, and they encourage me to continue to challenge them with ‘dummy questions' on why we are doing certain things in a certain way. From my end, I've helped raising awareness about the importance of?HyperForce?and Slack for the local market in Belgium & Luxembourg.

To conclude and summarize for you: I am soooo happy I accepted Lien's invitation to join the BeLux Ohana :-)?

Thank you Ohana and see you all next week at Salesforce Live!

KR/Falke