Ahead of the Curve

Transformation @ Work Trailer by Gerent

The operational benefits Salesforce delivers are undeniable. But in the Financial Services sector, implementation also has its pitfalls — especially when it comes to compliance. Falling short can pose a catastrophic cost and even jeopardize a business’s long-term well-being. So, what’s a tech-minded team leader to do? The answer, as those of us at Gerent often say, is to think about how you’re managing your people. In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, we look at how team leaders can guide...

In the face of changing customer expectations, rapidly evolving technology, and shifting compliance and regulatory standards, there’s no escaping the fact that the banking industry needs to embrace digital transformation. And with the rise of Fintech disruptors threatening to steal away unhappy customers, banks need to make the transition to digital solutions sooner than later. But while it’s easy to talk about the need for digital transformation in banking, making it a reality is a MUCH...

Businesses in virtually every industry are finding tremendous value in deploying Salesforce within their organization. But with any new platform, software, or toolset, comes one major question for managers and team leaders: “How do I get my team to actually USE it?” An effective implementation can be the difference between a widely adopted solution and one that goes largely unused and eventually gets quietly shuffled off. In this episode of Ahead of the Curve, we take a deep dive into...

In theory, embracing digital transformation is one of the biggest steps a business can take to differentiate itself and adapt to a rapidly changing world. But in practice, digital transformation can often be a daunting proposition; one that requires leaders to rework processes, get team members in alignment, and bring in new technologies that, without careful management, might not be adequately adopted long-term. That’s where effective team leadership comes in. On this episode of Ahead of...

Companies, organizations, and industries are waking up to the critical value and importance of data. It drives everything today. But data comes from different sources which means that companies have to find a way to bring it all together. That’s what breaking down silos is about. However, data comes in different forms which can create roadblocks to bringing the data together in one “place”. Enter MuleSoft. In this edition of Ahead of the Curve, we discover the capabilities of this powerful...

It’s surprising to find a digital agency these days that was founded before the word ‘digital’ was in anyone’s vocabulary. Gerent Experience (formerly Gerent Digital) is just such an agency. The principals – Mike Simon and Gordon Forsyth – began their agency work 20 years ago. Not surprisingly, their company has evolved as technology has evolved to the point where, today, Mike and Gordon along with their 50 employees can offer Gerent customers a full-service agency built around customer DX....

Sales teams have been churning out customer quotes for as long as there have been salespeople in the field. Before the advent of quoting software, prices and quotes were generated manually on spreadsheets. As virtually all companies across all industries have come to realize, spreadsheets are slow, cumbersome, and prone to human error. In fact, the more complex the quote, the more the odds rise of errors creeping in to disrupt the selling process. And if a customer wants a quote immediately,...

There is plenty of technology available for marketing teams that can help generate leads. But when you begin to examine which technology generates quality leads, scored on their likely convertibility, and powered by AI, the choices narrow down dramatically. Pardot is one such technology that is a standout, head and shoulders above the others. Pardot is no Marketing Cloud, which is the pinnacle in marketing technology for tracking the customer journey but it’s not trying to be. Pardot makes...

There is likely no more all-encompassing and muscular marketing tool available to marketers than Marketing Cloud from Salesforce. More than a dozen fully integrated applications reside under the Marketing Cloud umbrella. Taken together, the combination can deliver expansive yet precise marketing campaigns, driven by AI and automation. But it takes a substantial learning curve in order to fully grasp its capabilities. That’s why Gerent takes a unique approach to designing implementations. In...

In 2020, consumers spent 375 billion dollars in the U.S. shopping online – give or take a few million. Much of that was driven by the pandemic and major online companies like Amazon and one or two others absolutely killed it. Because of the pandemic, more and more brick and mortar retailers were forced to the online marketplace – with great results. Today, ecommerce is so routine that the vast majority of consumers use it every day. There is now a shift into the business realm as companies...

In this episode, we’ll talk to one of Gerent’s solution architects to learn how he works with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, adapting it to create implementations that give our customers the solutions they’re looking for and, often, more than they’re looking for. Potential Salesforce customers will also gain a greater appreciation of why it’s so important to choose an experienced implementation partner – one that will take the time to fully understand how a client’s business works, be able to...

By the time digital technology ushered in Industry 4.0 at the start of the century, lean thinking was a highly mature and proven approach. But history has taught us over and over that when something new and game-changing meets the tried-and-true, there will be conflict. For proponents of lean methodologies, the arrival of digital technology was oftentimes dismissed as perhaps trendy, a flash-in-the-pan, a shortcut that wouldn’t work in the long run. And for the proponents of digital, lean...

Nearly 20 million American students were registered in college or university in the fall of 2020. All of them went through some sort of process to get there, meaning that the schools they applied to, guided each one through an admissions procedure. The admission process is a school’s chance to make a good first impression. After all, students represent revenue. So, the business case for having an efficient admissions department revolves around how students judge their admissions experience....

What does customer service mean today? It means being proactive and reaching out to the customer. It means making it easy for the customer to do business with you. The insurance industry has not been a leader in adopting this kind of customer outreach platform. In fact, the industry has been a laggard. But that’s changing quickly, as more insurance-specific digital platforms become available and technology solutions providers guide insurance carriers along their digital pathway. In this...

Many industries have benefited from the rapidly growing movement to digitalize over the past half dozen years or so. Wherever you look, there is an ever increasing level of IT and operational technology at work behind the scenes, putting mountains of data to use. So, it may seem odd to realize that the healthcare industry, which has perhaps more potential data than any other industry, has not yet fully grasped how to gather it and how to put it to its best use. That has resulted in...

On March 15th, 2020 – the Ides of March – the management team at Florida Tours.com, a large transportation company in Miami, began to shut down its operations in the early days of the global pandemic. Florida Tours plays a large role shuttling passengers and crew members from airports to cruise ships but when the ships stopped sailing, Florida Tours’ buses stopped as well. But, in the true spirit of entrepreneurship, the team buckled down, went into survival mode, and rode out the storm....

In a world where the customer is more important than ever and competition is greater than ever, a company’s brand promise is everything. It goes to reputation, customer retention, product value and, ultimately, corporate growth. So, if that brand promise is broken in any way, a company could be in peril. After all, they are offering a product and a service and they’re promising satisfaction at the end of the day. Perhaps nowhere else will a customer turn away faster than from a company...

The manufacturing industry in the US is in the midst of a silver tsunami: aging workers who are retiring at the rate of 10 thousand a DAY, a rate projected to continue until 2030. The industry employs nearly 9 percent of the American workforce, so such a loss of talent, knowledge and experience will have a severe impact on the economy unless something is done. Raising wages in the short term may help but it can trigger its own negative consequences like inflation. In this episode of Ahead of...

The hotel and lodging industry suffered enormously last year as a result of the pandemic. For the first time ever, over a billion room nights went unsold. Revenue per available room was just 48% and the industry barely turned a profit. For all intents and purposes, hotels were just as badly off as the financially crushed cruise lines. But whereas cruise ships spent all of 2020 in port, where many are still stuck, the hotel industry in the US began to recover in the summer of 2020 as Covid...