How The Architech Club helped against COVID-19

Who expected the unexpected? We have had the misfortune to live through one of the black swans that will end up in the history books, for sure. How will the definition of ‘normal’ change, compared to what we used to call normal? How will this financial break affect the economy in the near future, and what can you do in order to push your business back into the market? For many of the businesses out there, this was a fatal blow. Especially so for the ‘brick and mortar’ ones, or those that haven’t implemented a customer-relationship-management software (CRM).

Why? Because in order to flatten the curve of the Coronavirus spread, all governments took measures to support work-from-home environments. So, many businesses had to make a choice, in order to move their entire activity into the online space.

Those companies that managed to implement a CRM had a great advantage over their competitors, as their activity hasn’t been entirely disrupted by COVID-19, and the necessary measures that followed. So how was the CRM a ‘lifeline’ for businesses?

CRM COMPANIES DIDN’T STAND BY

Every CRM company in the industry took a strong position against this situation. They also made available important resources for their clients, such as: CRM Consultants, generous discounts, and the overall advantage of using this tech solution during the COVID crisis.

SALESFORCE DIDN’T STAND BY EITHER

Salesforce is one of the top CRMs out there, giving their clients a really big advantage over their competitors. How, you may ask? Simple, with its top tech solution, which helped many owners manage their businesses, regardless of where their employees were. Also, the well-trained architects helped, using their expertise to establish measures and provide solutions for their Salesforce users, in order to perfectly manage and overcome this crisis situation.

Where Salesforce really shone during this pandemic was with its two services:

One of them is ‘Trailhead’, which is a free-learning platform, for people who want to learn or maximise their Salesforce set of skills. We’re talking skills that might be required for your next job, regardless of the position you’ll have. As a member of the Trailhead team, you become a ‘Trailblazer’. Being a Trailblazer, by definition, means that you are an innovator in your field, so this service is for any innovators out there: developers, administrators, architects, sales leaders, marketers, and CEOs. Through this program, we provided work for people who wanted to become part of the customers’ Salesforce team. This brought us some amazing feedback from them.

The second service was meant for retailers. We offered free services around our clients’ Marketing Cloud side of things. Because we are quite strong in the Marketing Cloud, that’s been used a lot over the last few weeks.

MEET, GREET, DEEDS (Actions against COVID)

The team at The Architech Club decided to support their own community with some implementations. So, by using our thought leadership-oriented team, our expertise, and by valuing human touch when engaging with our clients, our top architects managed to put together a series of projects that helped people get an edge during the pandemic.

The actions taken were not just at the company level. Our top architects took the battle against COVID on a personal level, too.

Gemma is the founder and CEO of Architech Club, a Salesforce MVP, and the founder of Ladies Be Architects.

Being a selfless and kind person, Gemma saw the difficulties that challenged her local community, so she started to connect more with the locals through various social media platforms. There, many people from Gemma’s community were looking for jobs, so she came up with the idea of offering free training, in order to help everyone learn Salesforce. This training was first announced on the local Facebook page.

She mentioned that all the work she is doing right now “…is just in the spirit of helping people to emerge strong after things get back to normal”.

“People are making progress… there are people already plowing ahead” – said Gemma, in the Trailblazer Talk Show.

Gemma also taught her students how to improve their CVs, and how to get more opportunities in the future.

As proof of its success, people have joined this training from all over the world.

Last but not least, our CEO also wanted to do something for the local Women’s Centre. So, Gemma taught them how to use ZOOM, in order to run their training program during the quarantine period.

Chris is another member of the team who took some action against COVID.

He started his technology career in 2005 as a Junior Developer and worked his way up until he became a Development Manager in 2014, where he was responsible for a team of 16. In 2016  Chris decided to focus on Salesforce.com, and since then he has worked at two consultancies: first, as a Technical Consultant, and then as a Senior Technical Architect. He has decided to start this new decade by taking the leap into the contracting world, to ensure he has control over his personal development, in order to achieve his long-term aspiration of becoming a Salesforce CTA (Certified Technical Architect).

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Chris has spent a great deal of time building up his portfolio of Certifications and Superbadges, and has been volunteering for the local NHS as a community first responder.

Amnon is a 14x certified Salesforce Architect, with 15 years of experience with CRMs. A Salesforce MVP and community leader, this year, he has started mentoring for ‘Supermums’, helping people prepare for certifications, and assisting people with getting work during the crisis. As the owner of an ISV product, he has also built tools for monitoring capacity and reporting wellness for shift workers.

Richard is a Business Development Director at Architech Club, and also one of the Salesforce Experts. The actions that Richard took against COVID were mostly related to helping elderly people. Coronavirus has hit older people particularly badly, and this has stretched charities in the sector to the limit. Not only do they have to find the staff to help older people who are self-isolating, but because of restrictions, their normal sources of funds have dried up. Here are his efforts, in his own words: initially as a volunteer, and now professionally with Age UK, in order to help them design and rapidly implement a new rostering and CRM system. “It’s a cause close to home, as my mother-in-law passed away in March as a result of COVID. We miss her very much, so it’s great to be doing something to make sure older people get the care they deserve”.

Siobhan is an Enterprise Architect with 8 years in Salesforce, ranging from Global enterprise clients to start-ups. She has over 10 years’ experience with technology change projects in the Education, Recruitment, Advertising, and Health sectors. Siobhan has been working as a Product Manager, with teams building custom applications that support the Coronavirus response.

THE FUTURE OF NORMAL

So, those were some actions our team took in order to help others overcome the reality we’re living in right now. This is something we advise you to also do for your community, but if you find yourself still struggling with major decisions for your business, we would completely understand.

We are all waiting for things to get back to normal, but what if things come ‘forward to normal?’  What if the new normal will be something so new that it will rewrite the whole of society, and the entire workforce environment? Everything is turning towards online and work-from-home approaches right now. So, in order to maximise and grow your business, a wise thing would be to move a big part of your company online.

Maybe you’re asking yourself: How am I going to manage everything? There are lots of administrative things that have to be done, and I don’t have the infrastructure yet to move my activity into the online sphere. Or, if you already are online and using a CRM, you might be asking yourself how to overcome the economic problems brought on by COVID? Salesforce is one of the best solutions out there for managing your business and diving straight into the online space. You can book our team of experts any time, to help you navigate through any challenges you might have, and to maximise your business with our CRM consulting skills.

About the Author

Gemma Blezard

CEO and Salesforce MVP

Gemma is Founder and CEO of The Architech Club and a great inspiration to anyone dealing with life’s challenges. Gemma is also co-founder of Ladies Be Architects and an Award-winning advocate for diversity.
She is in demand as a conference speaker at Dreamforce, World Tour and Community events. She is open about living and working with breast cancer, and balances being a mother, with her roles as a Salesforce MVP, 18 x Salesforce Certified Solution Architect and leading The Architech Club.

The Architech Club Ltd is a limited company registered in the UK, under Companies House registration number 12248208.
Registered at 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX. VAT number GB 334188303.

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