Interview with Benedikt, DIA and tmrrw Cloud Solutions

In the last years Vigience has managed to grow our partner community around the world. Today we want to talk to Benedikt Hofmeister, Head of GTM, Strategic Partnerships & Alliances, from our partner DIA Digital Consulting to get his perspective on the Salesforce ecosystem in general and specifically about our partnership.

Hello Benedikt, thank you for your time today. Can you briefly introduce yourself and describe your role at DIA?

Thank you for inviting me to the interview! What describes me best is my passion for innovations and for connecting with people. At DIA I am responsible for the GTM team and strategy. Therefore I also manage our technological and strategic partnerships and alliances. I coordinate all activities relating to our strategic and technical partners, our GTM activities and make sure that we as DIA can deliver the best holistic solutions for our customers on the Salesforce platform.

How did you get started in the Salesforce ecosystem?

I was on the customer side myself for over 3 years and got to know Salesforce as the leading CRM tool that it is. At the beginning, I was an end user and admin, but we used the Salesforce Classic interface. Today I am more than happy to use the Lightning experience. Nowadays, I see Salesforce as a much larger platform that offers exciting opportunities for a wide range of use cases and industries.

How have you seen the Salesforce ecosystem evolve over the years?

Over time, the Salesforce ecosystem has transformed significantly. It expanded beyond CRM, offering diverse cloud solutions. The acquisitions like Tableau and MuleSoft also enhanced its capabilities. The integration of AI with Einstein brought predictive analytics and nowadays also generative possibilities, providing users with deeper insights, more informed decision-making and an assisted working process. Simultaneously, customer experience became a key focus with the implementation of engagement tools, significantly enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction. Platform upgrades, such as the Lightning Experience, improved usability, making the software more intuitive and efficient. The growth of the community also fostered collaboration and led to the development of numerous third-party apps on the AppExchange, further enriching and expanding the platform.

Overall, Salesforce evolved into a diverse platform with expanded offerings, AI integration, a focus on customer experience and a thriving community fostering collaboration and innovation.

Are there any emerging trends in the Salesforce space that you’re excited about?

I’m not a developer myself. That’s why I find the platform’s approach to no-code and low-code particularly exciting. Salesforce creates great opportunities for broad access to new talent, including career changers. In terms of emerging trends, I find it interesting to see how the platform will develop over the next few years under the north star of AI topics and the emerging relevance of data.

Why did you decide to partner with Vigience and introduce Overcast to your customers and prospects?

It is becoming increasingly important not to connect systems with each other, but to think about processes holistically, across systems. The end user, who carries out these processes operationally, is an important stakeholder. It was crucial for us to guarantee our customers a user experience in Salesforce without disruptions from other systems. To achieve this, data must be displayed in real time within the right processes in Salesforce. Vigience is one of the best solutions on the market for this!

What feedback have you received from clients about Overcast?

The greatest thing for us as a trusted advisor to the customer is the “wow effect” that the solution generates with every demo. ERP integrations are considered tedious and cumbersome. We break this image with the Overcast solution and show how integrations can be implemented in a simple and process-oriented way without sacrificing scalability.

What values or goals do our companies share that make this partnership successful?

We can keep this very clear: honesty, transparency, excellence, customer focus.

DIA has a track record of successful Salesforce implementations for customers in the DACH region. When implementing Salesforce for a customer, what are the common hurdles or challenges, and how does your team overcome them?

Sure! We typically do not work solely for a customer, but with them, emphasizing co-creation for successful collaboration. Therefore, tailoring Salesforce to specific business needs can be challenging, but we have great methods and procedures that make this process easier. Overcoming this involves detailed requirement analysis and agile methodologies for alignment. Migrating and integrating data from various sources requires a robust strategy, data mapping, and extensive testing for accuracy. Ensuring user buy-in through comprehensive training and change management strategies is crucial for a successful implementation. Designing for scalability and monitoring system performance to handle growth is essential. Adhering to strict data protection laws in the DACH region, like GDPR, requires implementing robust security measures and staying updated on compliance. However, Salesforce helps us a lot here, as security is a foundation of the platform by design. Clear communication channels and managing expectations throughout the process are vital for success. To overcome these challenges, DIA likely focuses on realistic planning, agile methodologies, robust data strategies, user-centric approaches, compliance adherence, and effective communication.

How do you ensure that a customer’s unique business needs are addressed during implementation?

To ensure a customer’s unique business needs are met during implementation, we are focusing on the following aspects. We make sure that we gain a thorough understanding of the customer and their needs. It is crucial to gather detailed requirements through customer engagement. Customization plays a key role, as Salesforce should be tailored using its features to match specific needs. We work on the basis of industry-specific architecture references and best practices so that we are as close as possible to the Salesforce standard and the solution still meets the customer’s requirements.

Collaboration is essential; involving clients in the process and seeking their feedback and validation ensures alignment with their expectations. Adopting an agile approach allows for flexibility, enabling iterative adjustments as needs evolve. Rigorous testing and comprehensive user training are vital to ensure functionality and adoption. Post-implementation support is also necessary, offering ongoing assistance and adapting to new requirements after the initial implementation. In short, these are the most important points, which may sound complex depending on your previous knowledge, but with an experienced partner at your side, it’s not rocket science!

With tmrrw Cloud Solutions, you now offer Salesforce add-ons. Can you provide an overview of your offering?

tmrrw Cloud Solutions offers products that have their root in our Salesforce implementation expertise we gained over the past decades. They all solve very specific problems our customers face when working with Salesforce or in digitalization in general. For example, managing documents in a structured way in Salesforce (One Document), streamlining your workflow by dynamically linking information and content with just one component in Salesforce (Link Anything) or combining marketing and sales information in one UI (One Profile), which are great addons to a customer’s Salesforce Org. Or even offering Salesforce to non Salesforce customers as a full SaaS solution to manage HR topics from onboarding to strategy to employee motivation.

What are the key challenges that your add-ons address for Salesforce users?

Our products all serve the main cause of providing the right stakeholder with the right information/documents/data at the right time. We are basically enabling a “connected company” and work hard every day to make Salesforce even better and more user-friendly.

How do your add-ons differentiate from similar solutions available in the market?

Our solutions really stem from the real world and from our customers. We saw that there is a problem to be solved, so we dug deeper to holistically solve the matter for not just one, but all potential Salesforce customers. Our solutions increase productivity, create transparency and offer security at scale.

How do our solutions complement each other when implemented together?

Integration scenarios can be found in various use cases so that we can benefit from process integration via Vigience Overcast within our solutions. In addition, our joint solutions create a more user-friendly Salesforce environment that helps users organise their day-to-day work in Salesforce holistically and efficiently.

Are there any upcoming collaborative projects or offerings between our companies that you can share?

DIA as implementation partner. We are constantly working on joint offerings by combining our expertise. e.g. in manufacturing. We also have many joint event presences this year.

How do you envision the growth of our partnership in the coming years?

In the coming years, I envision our partnership thriving through collaborative innovation, deeper integration of our strengths, and an expansion of our solutions to meet evolving needs. Our journey will also involve exploring new strategies, providing enhanced support, and celebrating shared successes. Together, we’ll continue to foster a robust, mutually beneficial relationship, driving positive impact and growth for all parties involved. So it’s a win-win-win partnership!

For businesses considering Salesforce, what advice would you give them?

Prior to adopting Salesforce, ensure a clear understanding of your business needs, involve stakeholders in the planning process, and prioritize training for seamless user adoption. Consider engaging experienced consultants for tailored implementation aligned with your goals.

How can our readers stay updated with news and updates from DIA and tmrrw Cloud Solutions?

The best way to keep up to date with our activities, events, partnerships and relevant company developments is to follow our LinkedIn channels for both companies. This is where we share any relevant updates about our companies with our team, customers, partners and other followers.

Thank you very much for the insights and your time Benedikt!