Diary of a Saasy Girl

I hosted our LAUG meetup at the Tes office on Wednesday, mind you it nearly didn't happen. I had just got everything ready, the wine chilled, the food on the table when suddenly I was informed by our security team that the police had cordoned off the square due to a bomb scare and no one was allowed into the building. Tricky. And then, we were told to evacuate the building. Everyone out! I got everyone out and took some essentials, my bag and a couple bottles of wine - naturally.  As soon as we were out, we were given the all clear. Everyone back in again, let the show commence! Relax, have a glass of wine and listen to our great speakers. The night's theme was about 'from Admin to Architect'. Its funny, I'm am the owner of my company's Org, I control the destiny of its strategy and yet, I have never considered calling myself an Architect. Its a word that hasn't sat well with me in the past, but maybe now I shouldn't be so afraid of this term and gi...

This is my birthday weekend. My actual birthday was on Friday and I was due to be spending the day in Birmingham delivering refresher training on CPQ but it got canceled at the last minute. My diary was suddenly empty. I booked the day off.  I had great plans, a spot of chilling, some shopping, some geeking on Trailhead - I'm up to 89 badges and am still on track to hit 100 in time for Dreamforce, before cracking open the fizz ahead of dinner out in the evening.  That back-fired. A production issue grew louder and louder and I had to intercept and get on a conference call. Sadly its no way resolved but at least we have identified the problem. We'll be picking this up on Monday. Most of the time I work alongside really great suppliers. They are true partners and together we collaborate well. There's just one supplier that lets the side down and they are pretty consistent at these efforts. Its draining. I'd love to move away from them but I can't. I'm stuck....

I've been spending the past couple of weeks sitting in numerous workshops. They have conjured up a mixture of hilarity, smugness and utter torture, as well as information. One set of workshops have derived from a particular department demanding functionality. We continue to live, unfortunately, in a world of Hippos (highest paid person's opinion) and if they shout then we must jump.  And so here comes the mixture of feelings from these meetings. What's evident to me is the person(s) demanding actually have no real concept of what happens now in their department so when you are trying to capture processes that you can build into functionality it turns into a farce.  Its that moment that falls across their faces when they start to realise they have no idea of how their department works and how they actually need to do their homework. When it comes to translating this into a statement of work there will have to be a huge element of contingency to cover the "whatever t...

I want to talk about the last 7 consecutive days.  Day 1. Its a Friday. I wake up to over 80 WhatsApp messages from my team. The office has flooded over night. Its serious. We've invoked our business continuity plan. My team don't just look after Salesforce but all Business Systems. We need to ensure the business is up and running. It is. Part of my team have been up all night to ensure we're operational.  I go to the back up office to offer my help. I end up playing the Receptionist as soon as the phones are back up and field calls. Missed career opportunity. The business is functioning within a few hours of a major disaster. We did OK. The CEO mingles with the affected staff in the office in true Blitz spirit. We chatted and he asks if the CPQ project go live will be affected because of the flood. No, we're in the cloud. We can make this happen.  Day 2. Saturday. I go to a family event. Fabulous location, lovely people, except for one person. Out of nowhere he cal...

Remember when LeeAnne Rimel challenged us to create a talk from the Lightning in a Box content? Well the challenge was truly accepted and Tom and Mike delivered a cracker to us at tonights LAUG meet up.  It was a true Lightning night too. I produced a quiz all about Lightning and gave away swag to the winners of each round and the overall winner. Actually it was a swagtastic night for everyone. We had loads to give away and who here doesn't love an item of swag. We also had a large turnout of first timers tonight so to give them a warm welcome and something to take home is good feeling too. At the after show party at the local establishment it deemed only right to sport our new equality bracelets. With all the craziness going on in the world right now I want to associate with good, fairness and support for each other. The alternative is not comprehensible. 

OK, so July has been a slow month in the big scheme of things. Its holiday time and I have taken some time out to get away in the car and do a tour of the Loire and Cognac regions. We've been enjoying Chateaux and the lifestyle that is associated with them. I'm sure I should now embrace a bit of drying out time for my body's sake.  Work wise, the 2 very large projects that directly affect my Org are tickling away. We've had some bumps, but then that's the same with every project - theory of cake remember? For the business, having these 2 projects live in time for September, our new financial year, will be critical for us. No pressure then.  So, why is it that while the business really wants us to concentrate on these really big pieces do they also throw in 2 smaller projects at the same time that are also considered strategically valuable and in addition, expect BAU items covered off too? We are, of course, miracle workers, or so it feels. It is exhausting and n...

TrailheaDX conference rolled up and Salesforce Tower hosted the London party for the launch. We dutifully attended as they're ain't no party without some LAUGers in toe. Our remit was to make as much noise as possible at the right time while wearing plentiful Trailhead gear, waving flags and bunting, all the while trying not to spill your glass. It took skills.  In fact, it really was hard work. As the British, its not in our nature to be all enthusiastic and to keep up this effort for minutes. You try shouting and screaming for that long - its draining.  As you can see we did manage it and made our award winning party performance for the cameras as Parker waved back at us. After our 30 seconds of fame we then relaxed into the conference vibe with a little less yelling and more socialising.  And then it got messy. It just happened to be a special someone's 30th birthday and we started his celebrations off early, before he had to jump on a flight back home to ...

Dreamforce 2017 is starting to bubble away and I have taken the decision that I shall be going again this year. I am self funding as my company is being too dithery to make their decision on whether this is a strategic thing. I'm not going to enter into the argument. I'm going. Fortunately I can afford it and having already reserved my hotel and bought my flights I have taken advantage of good prices. I won't stand around for procrastination and lose the benefit. It also means that if a better opportunity comes my way there is nothing holding me back. I'm taking care of my career. Its important to me.  In other news we held the hottest LAUG this month. It wasn't just that the content was sizzling hot, of course, it was. We talked about the looming GDPR laws and how this will affect all of us - a hot topic if I ever did see. But, in addition, we held it in a venue with no aircon on the hottest day of the year. We decided to change the format this month and rat...

Salesforce London World Tour day! Its a day to be up and at 'em and headed over to Excel for a jam pack day of activities and then the after parties. First stop the keynote to hear all the big news on product developments and customer testimonials. Its a logistical feat to get the thousands of delegates into the one large room but the atmosphere is worth it. Especially as during the talks there are people you know and love that are mentioned, like our Louise Lockie - newest MVP and Julia Doctoroff, the winner of this year's Golden Hoodie. Julia also got a trophy so its not all bad.  And then onto the rest of the day to listen to talks and visit partners and suppliers to get ideas on how to continuously develop my Org. I popped over to Brightgen's zone and helped out with a CPQ demo and even met some other attendees from Tuesday dinner. A quick bite to eat and a sip of splosh and back out to the main hall.  The great thing about the World Tour is the constant bumpi...

Salesforce London World Tour week. OK, so officially its one day but there are so many events surrounding the actual day that it might as well be a week. Anyway, if you've also planned correctly then you would have booked Friday off to recover too.  I do get ridiculously excited about this week. There is a real buzz in the air.  The first event for me was on the Tuesday evening as a guest of the Brightgen Media dinner. They had also asked me to speak about the CPQ project that we are in the process of implementing for Tes Global.   The CPQ project is a defining one for Tes Global. It will act as a trigger point to move the business forward away from legacy systems. Its imperative to get this first stage right. As a company its about knowing our product portfolio and making a decision on what we go forward with. Then its the process, defining and sticking to a plan so it can be implemented and delivered. That's the tricky bit as the business can't quite get that b...

It was a late Easter this year and I spent the break in the depths of Wales, holed up in a converted barn overloading on good food, wine and possibly a touch of chocolate.  It was also a good time to do some writing. You see, there's been a couple more things that have come out from London's Calling this year for me and not just about cake. One item was a certain @radnip asking if I would consider building a training course all about project delivery. In the world of Salesforce we are getting to grips on what to build for a client, but its the how and in what way of a delivery that people want to know more on. How could I say no? What a great opportunity and so I've been spending my weekends compiling material. The Easter Sunday proved a good day to continue bashing this together. It will be exciting to see what the final result might be.  So, while I was possibly enjoying a glass or some of wine at the after show party at London's Calling one of my suppliers, Pro...

Tonight we were all at Salesforce Tower for a meet up special. Mike Rosenbaum was in the UK for a spot of holidaying and offered his time for us to ask everything we wanted to know about Lightning. As the Lightning Guru, Mike was more than happy to answer our questions.  With quite literally standing room at the back our Francis played host, fielding the questions that had been gathered over the meet up channels from both the Admin and Dev groups for Mike to help with.  Lightning is here and getting stronger with every release. As end users, we really should be eyeing up our Orgs and thinking hard about the transition over. The next few releases will see improvements to performance and parity with Classic. Classic is essentially dead so if you also want the new cool stuff then its time to make the move. 

Its 2 years today that I started with Tes Global and with no sense of irony I kicked off a new project to start the business moving away from legacy systems. I may have mentioned in the kick off meeting how it was my anniversary and how I had suggested this particular system 2 years ago and finally we are now doing something about it. (not that I've been counting or am bitter, nope). Its interesting getting a group of people in a room for a project kickoff. It was a large crowd, over 20 people and different levels from within the business, including 2 Execs. If this project is successful it will really open up the possibility of moving this business into a a more efficient way of working. This phase alone will provide visibility and control. The first workshops have already showed that the business users are incredibly disjoined. There is silo working everywhere in this department alone. Its almost like each team lobs a live grenade over the fence to the next one and doesn'...

Happy 18th Birthday Salesforce. You're all grown up. I celebrated this achievement with you in Amsterdam ahead of the World Tour where I volunteered to help on the booths.  It all felt very jet set. Dashing from the office, straight onto a plane to the Dam. Arriving and transferring to a Bar to meet other volunteers, speakers, User Group Leaders and MVP's. Up early the next morning to be on site for 07:30 ready to "woman" my booth and answer any questions the Salesforce public had for me. I have super respect for the Salesforce staff who do this on a regular basis (your energy is endless).  Best part of the day was helping out with the Quiz in the Admin theatre with John Stevenson. Give the girl a microphone and away she goes! So much swag was given away, but only if you had the correct answer.   The funniest part was right at the end when we gave away a giant Astro. I'm hoping the winner didn't have a flight to catch back home again.  Having be...

So, one thing that really came out of my talk at London's Calling was the Theory of Cake. It was the 4th "C". You see, my talk worked around the principle of the "4 C's" when you are trying to get through the build stage without losing your mind. The first 3 "C's" were; Communication, Control and Core. The last was Cake.  You're probably wondering what Cake has got to do with a Technology conference talk, well let me explain the Theory of Cake to you. Imagine you have a cake. Here's one I prepared earlier from Konditor and Cook, a Curly Whirly cake. My favourite.  https://konditorandcook.com/curly-whirly-regular.html Before I begin, this is about the Theory of Cake and not Cake Theory. That relates to Chinese economics and is completely different.  So, imagine that you are prepared to share this cake with others; I know, its tricky.  You start to cut the cake. You may cut the cake depending on its shape and cut even sli...

Tonight we hosted LAUG at my gaff, Tes Global. It takes some organising to put together a monthly show. You need content, decent speakers with the ability to hold a room and have the knowledge to answer the questions our audience will have. Once thats sorted then come the logistics, sponsor, venue and some items to put into gobs.  When I host I like to ensure we have plenty of food and drink for our audience. Our meet ups aren't just an opportunity to learn. Its social. People make friends and they relish the chance to catch up with people on a monthly basis and be able to just talk about life stuff. We recognise this and plan social time into our agendas. It also means that when I host, the evening can finish quite late as the wine flows along with the conversation. It can be midnight by the time I get home. Wouldn't change a thing. 

London's Calling! Its the second year of this event. I spoke at last years in the big room and totally loved it. I got the same room again this year, just wish the stage was larger as I do like to walk around a bit (dizzy the audience). I always get nervous before I talk, thats OK. It shows that its important to me and its the adrenaline kicking in. Its usually just minutes before I start and I have the microphone in my hand that I start singing "I'm gonna rock the mic" (confession), and pace the stage to get the feel of the space. And them I'm off. It begins.  You learn to pause and breathe, let the works flow. I've practised them so many times. I use the train journey to work. Its the perfect length for a 20 minute talk. I know the sentences to skip and dance through and the words to slow down and emphasise as I take my audience through a journey. I also like to play and even dropped the "C-bomb" into this talk. Don't panic, family show and a...

In the world of Salesforce the 31 January is their end of financial year deadline. Anyone making deals with them around this time can come away with some interesting options so its worth the negotiation. In my world of work we were doing just that, renewing our overall Salesforce contract and also taking CPQ as a new feature.  Thing is, it came really close to not happening and that was all due to internal work pressures and not that of Salesforce. There really was a moment when I wondered if, as a company, we were serious about Salesforce and if we were really going to move the business further forward. Its that moment when you start to consider life alternatives. I'm glad that the Execs made the right choice (in my opinion) and we got to sign the deal as the last minutes ticked away towards the deadline.  In other news, London's Calling is looming and I needed to get my presentation nailed. I'd been suffering from writer's block, entirely probable considering the ...

So, did I mention that I'm a User Group Leader? Well, I am, along with 5 other fabulous people. We run the London Admins and over the years its got a regular following of peers who like to come along and share their experiences. We just held the January meet up. Now, it might have been the location (Salesforce Tower), it could have been the amazing content, it may have been the food and drink, or the promise of seeing your friends, or maybe it was just a cold January evening and people wanted something better to do...anyway, last night was the largest meeting we'd ever had. 130, yes, 130 Salesforce Admins all together. Great night. Lets see if we can do that again.

Happy New Year folks. I'm giving this a go. Writing a bit about my life, as it happens. I may look back on this and wonder what am I doing, and if anyone will find it remotely interesting, or maybe the contents might get me sued. Here goes. Start gently... I've actually been spending the Xmas break playing with Trailhead. I had been a bit of a laggard on the whole experience but I've actually chomped my way through some badges and have caught some symptoms of gamification bug. I'm now an Adventurer and heading towards Mountaineer rank.  I did promise myself that I would start thinking about my London's Calling talk over the Xmas holidays and so far I have thought about the fact that I really should starting thinking about it. Its not really progressed very far. I need some inspiration. Ooh look, Trailhead. I'll just do another badge.