Recently, we acquired CassaCloud, a consulting company based in Košice that focuses on providing implementation and integration services to the Salesforce business-technology platform. Thanks to the years of experience of CassaCloud’s experts, we are able to provide our clients with extensive knowledge in the field of business process implementation, custom development in the e-cloud, integration and data management.

Today, we bring you an interview with Erik Pavlovič, our Senior Key Account Manager, who takes care of clients and oversees Salesforce’s business support.

Erik, Ness has taken over the local Salesforce administration from CassaCloud through the acquisition. Can you tell us more about this platform and introduce it to those who may not have heard of it?

Salesforce is the best-known cloud platform for front-end solutions. The flagship of Salesforce is CRM – the customer relationship management solution (Sales Cloud). Of course, the whole company is constantly evolving, not just regarding CRM. Today it has a complete offering for customer service and marketing in the portfolio. Salesforce tries to capture the overall “customer journey” to satisfy it in a single platform.

With additional acquisitions, Salesforce provides complete e-commerce for both B2B and B2C. They invest considerable amounts in acquisitions of companies from the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through the acquisition of Mulesoft, an integration platform, they solved the interconnection of the cloud world with complex company architectures. Thanks to its last major acquisition, the company has also strengthened its position in Business Intelligence (BI) and Big Data. The Tableau platform is now a vital part of the Salesforce platform, ready to provide clients with top services also in this area.

What specifically can we help clients with? In what ways have we expanded our portfolio of services?

We focus on Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud, CPQ and Pardot. In other words, we try to focus on companies that work in the B2B business model. As a part of the field, we are ready to address clients’ processes and challenges and deliver solutions that are relevant to their needs and bring added value.

How are we different from other Salesforce consulting and development service providers?

We are a strategic partner for complex digital transformation. We understand our clients’ processes and help them set up to work for them. We design, implement and integrate the Salesforce platform to enable companies to naturally connect with customers and respond flexibly.

What companies is the Salesforce platform suitable for?

In general, the Salesforce customer base is very broad – from start-ups, small non-profit organisations, to multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola, Adidas, General Electric, T-Mobile, AXA, AWS ENGIE or Aston Martin. Of course, we are talking about global Salesforce references. Also, local businesses are beginning to see the added value of the Salesforce platform. For example, I could name companies from the distribution industry, or power automotive and IT companies.

What are our Salesforce plans and prospects?

At a global level, we are joining the previous acquisition of Sovereign CRM to form a very strong team that will support clients globally – creating a unique Salesforce center. At the local level, we will continue to assist our existing customers in Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. At the same time, we want to grow and expand our client portfolio.

Erik, will you share with us your professional experience? How did you end up in Salesforce and what are your goals in this area?

I gained my first professional experience with IT as a trader in a global IT corporation, where I was in charge of selling an SW portfolio in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary within the Digital Sales Department. It was a great opportunity to get acquainted with the SW portfolio and gain experience from the operation of the traditional IT model. I worked in the company for four years, when I was approached by one cloud platform offering me a trading position – Salesforce, of course. After studying the basic information about the company and their product portfolio, I was excited. I saw and still see a huge opportunity in Salesforce. What appealed to me? Certainly the simplicity of the overall concept. Salesforce offers Out of the Box cloud-based solutions that are easy to implement, configure and integrate with existing systems. Within a few weeks or months, every client has a full-featured and functional solution available, accessible from any device. I do not need to remind you of the advantages of the cloud.

In the case of Salesforce solutions, we communicate primarily with the “line of business”, discuss the challenges they have to face and deal with in order to achieve better results in business, customer service or marketing. We advise our clients how to become truly customer-oriented companies. Regarding my goals, I have the ambition (together with the whole team) to build a local Salesforce Practice under the auspices of Ness Slovakia and help solve digital challenges of SMB companies and the Enterprise Segment.