| | June 20179CIOReviewshould be clean and up-to-date to deliver meaningful information allowing us to take fact-based decisions. Do not underestimate and plan the time and effort to clean-up the data before migrating it to Salesforce.com. This will help you to drive adoption and build trust in the system after go-live. It is a continuous and never ending effort after the go-live to keep the data clean and up-to-date. We established data steward network in the markets and developed "Data Quality Index" measuring data completeness, consistency and ensuring it is up to date.3. Learning, Coaching and CadenceAfter giving the sales people a great tool like salesforce.com, it is important to train them how to use it, but also to give guidance (cadence) when and how to review and discuss the performance and how managers should coach the sales people to win and close more deals. This ideally should tie up with the performance review and forecasting process in the organization and deliver fact based inputs that will help to have visibility on the current and future commercial performance and take actions early enough. We developed standard cadence of meetings along with recommended agenda and supporting reports and dashboards for the different levels in the organization and inspect on regular basis how it is been followed. This coaching helps sales people to close more deals and drives both adoption and business impact.4. Reporting and AnalyticsOver the time, we capture and accumulate more data. By keeping it clean and updated, we can start unlocking its true power by advanced analytics. For example, usually we consider the funnel stages to identify the probability and "weight" the sales funnel. This is still a subjective view, based on how well and up to date the sales people update their opportunities. We have established a Center of Excellence on Advanced Sales Analytics that is analyzing patterns and behaviors in the past and developed statistical models to deliver more objective predictability on the funnel in the future. For example, our "Propensity to Win" methodology based on over 20 parameters helped us to increase predictability of our business.5. Change ManagementThis is the most important and usually most underestimated area that can crucially impact how successful and sustainable the transformation will be on a long term. For the success in any transformation, it is very important for people to understand what it means for them, to be comfortable with and embrace the change. Designing the new ways of working, we need to understand the impacted groups of people, explain what is changing for them, and walk them through the change journey from awareness through acceptance towards ownership. We must measure the change adoption of the different stakeholder groups, starting with the leaders (change is leader-led) throughout the whole transformation and ensure that change "sticks" and is well embedded in the organization. Bear in mind that the change never ends; after go-live we will continue to enhance and develop further, our capabilities to follow the new and changing business realities, and ensure people follow them. For example, we deployed salesforce.com 3 years ago and still have a dedicated Change Manager and Sales Excellence Leads in the markets who are working closely with the sales teams to ensure they follow the standard ways of working and each new improvement is well embedded.Many organizations are considering or implementing Salesforce to strengthen commercial capabilities. It is a significant effort and change for each organization, I hope our learnings can help you to be more successful and yield the maximum benefits. Salesforce is a fantastic tool and great enabler to strengthen commercial capabilities in the organization, however to unlock its full potential you should also focus on harmonizing processes and data, on the people and change management
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