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 ...