Monthly Archives: January 2017

I’m the (Kevin) Bacon of the Salesforce Community – Introducing Aldo Fernandez

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This is the forty-fifth post in my blog series in which I feature people I know from the community: Salesforce employees, MVPs, User Group Leaders, Partners, and honestly, anyone who I’m connected with who is willing to share with me the answers to five simple questions. I hoping that this blog series will help everyone out in the community get better connected to others who are either like them, can help them, are nothing like them, can’t help them, or are simply people they haven’t met yet! After all, a stranger is simply a friend you don’t know yet.

For me, one of the greatest strengths of the Salesforce Ecosystem is its people and the connections that are shared.

So, if you are brave enough, even if you’ve never met me in person, fill out this form and I’ll feature you in an upcoming post. (In case I have confused anyone, the questions on the form about our relationship refers to you, the reader, and me, the author, Eric Dreshfield, and not the featured person in this post.) Just beware, by completing the form, you are giving me permission to use that information in a future post, as well as allowing me to interject some of my own thoughts into your responses!

And now I introduce the brains behind the first-ever Punta Dreamin’, Aldo Fernandez.

aldofernandez-profile

What’s your job title? Technical Architect, Litify.com. (EFD – I had to look that company up. According to their website, Litify is the world’s best business management platform designed specifically for law firms. And it’s built on the world’s leading CRM platform…Salesforce, of course!)

What does that mean you do? I work as a Technical Architect for Litify.com, a Salesforce startup based in NY, where we are building end-to-end products for the Legal Industry like Referrals, Intakes and Practice Management tools. Daily, I’m back-to-back with multiple Product Managers and Development teams, helping to meet business requirement with the Platform’s best practices on development, automation, integration, security and customization scenarios. (EFD – That’s a pretty wild commute from Uruguay. I’m guessing you work remotely.)

How long have you been involved with Salesforce.com (as a customer and/or an employee)? I’ve been working with Salesforce since 2008. I started for a partner as a developer on a 3 month integration project with no big expectations. Then I started digging deeper on the platform and learned that Salesforce was much more than just a CRM. So yes, you can say I was seduced by the Force.  (EFD – You have a year more than I do on the platform. It’s very interesting to see how many different directions people can take their careers with the Salesforce platform.)

Bacon or sausage? Can’t I have both? Don’t make me decide!

What’s more important: Who you know, or what you know? What you know is very important but I think who you know (and learn from) wins. It’s amazing how you can learn things from the most unexpected people. (EFD – Score another victory for the “who”! I wonder just what that score is. For my next post in this series, I’ll review the stats!)

How did our relationship start, and when? I was studying for the CTA exam in the lounge area of a Hostel in San Francisco during Dreamforce, (2013, I think) and I noticed your Salesforce t-shirt and started talking about local Salesforce User Groups. You encouraged me with ideas to our Developer User Group in Uruguay which I really appreciated. In the name of our Community, Thanks Eric! (EFD – Yes! I remember that chance meeting in the hall of the Hostel. What a great conversation, and if memory serves me correctly, Zachary Jeans was there as well. How exciting it is to see that now you’ve taken the user group idea even further and launched Punta Dreamin’, the technical conference for Latin America’s Salesforce Community.)

And now the bonus question – What’s one fact about you that few people know, that will surprise me and my blog readers? I used to be a professional football(soccer) player in Uruguay. It didn’t worked; I was a better student on Engineering School than on the pitch. (EFD – Wow…now I know 2 people who were professional soccer players before starting a career that got them involved with Salesforce!)

You can find Aldo on Twitter.

5 Things You Might Not Know About Salesforce ISV Partner Vision-e

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Special guest post from Abbi Webb, Marketing Manager, Vision-e.

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Never heard of us? Well, here are 5 things you should know to get acquainted. (EFD – I had never heard of Vision-e…until I got an email from Abbi.)

One. Our company was founded to be and do everything Salesforce-related for Xerox. We created Salesforce solutions for Xerox agencies designed to improve employee quality of life by becoming more efficient and making more sales. Our solutions proved to be highly effective and successful for Xerox, which led us to a big idea. What if we started offering solutions to businesses of all sizes using Salesforce looking to boost productivity, increase sales, and create more opportunities to win for their business and their employees? And so we did… (EFD – I’ve certainly heard of Xerox…and I’m sure all of my readers know that name. I remember when I was a child hearing teachers say they needed to Xerox the test so everyone in the class could have a copy. At first I thought Xerox was a fancy way of saying copy. I suppose, in a way, I was right!)

Two. Today, we are in the top 25 most popular apps on the AppExchange with the no.1 scanning solution, Scan. Scan is a top-of-the-line business card scanning solution that gets data in Salesforce to be actionable with just the tap of a button. Scan is all about getting data into Salesforce in the most efficient and accurate way possible. With AI technology, our solution also uses voice to text translation to turn voice recordings into new tasks created in Salesforce; all that in addition to QR & Barcode Scanning. You can learn more about it here. (EFD – Check out the Apps by Vision-e on the AppExchange.)

Three. As a Salesforce Silver ISV Partner, we have developed several solutions and have over 300 clients around the world. The crazy part? We have less than 20 employees! We’re a small team, but a lean one. While we are growing significantly in 2017, our size allows us to be personal with our clients in getting them off to a fast and easy start using our solution, maintaining that relationship, and providing Salesforce expertise all the way through. (EFD – Great customer service with a personal touch…that’s the key to success!)

Four. For all of the ericforcefield readers, we are mostly bacon fans (minus the two vegetarians in the office). We are a close-knit group that takes the job very seriously. While we bear titles: Software Engineer, Sales Support, Account Executive, etc., what each of our jobs mean to us is that we get to empower other businesses by bringing sales into focus with automation and technology. And that is a powerful thing. (EFD – Let’s hear it for BACON! But in the spirit of equality for all, I do enjoy some vegetables now and then…I don’t think I could survive without my bacon, or other meats, though.)

Five. Something we love more than creating innovative Salesforce solutions is giving back. At Vision-e, we believe in supporting our local community by providing assistance through donations and charitable events. In the recent holiday season, our team started a fund to raise money and donations for a local family in need. Having met our goal, we were able to provide this family with an exceptional holiday experience full of joy and cheer! Check out our blog post about it here. We hope that this will inspire you to do something similar in your community! (EFD – Helping others is what it’s all about. Marc Benioff started the 1-1-1 model when he first launched Salesforce, and many companies have adopted Pledge 1 Percent as a way of doing business. Helping others isn’t just limited to companies. People all around the world are just a generous with time and talents. Check out the post I wrote for Apttus: Giving Back is Where It’s At, and then take the next step and start helping others too!)

EFD – Thanks, Abbi, for bringing the value of Vision-e to my attention and allowing me to share it with others.