Cirrius Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We were a leading-edge SaaS provider of law enforcement solutions, and I was the COO and CIO of the company at that time. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cirrius Solutions?

We were in a high-growth market, and we wanted to triple our size over a five-year period. To do that, we needed a strategic partner to assist us not only in terms of tools but also in terms of the processes and people components of that goal. 

We didn’t only go to Cirrius Solutions to use Salesforce as a CRM solution; we also looked at how we had to reimagine ourselves in terms of our processes and what capabilities we needed from our people. Then, we figured out how we could implement the best CRM solution. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cirrius Solutions served as our strategic consulting partner. We first needed them to take a high-level view of our business and counsel us on what they saw. They had to understand our challenges and tell us what we weren’t seeing and how we could be more proactive. We also spent a lot of time talking about forward-thinking predictive indicators. 

After that, Cirrius designed our next-gen platform, which was a significant step toward our lofty goal — to propagate the platform into multiple industries. Given that, system architecture and design were important, and we couldn’t simply repurpose what we had. We had to envision what the future looked like and design the platform accordingly. As the CIO, I helped design the business and IT structure around this strategy. Then, we worked on the execution and tactical delivery of the project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least seven people from their team. We didn’t consider some things upfront, and the competitive landscape changed, so Cirrius bulked up and scaled-down the team as needed. 

How did you come to work with Cirrius Solutions?

I led the effort to interview five service providers, and Cirrius ultimately checked all of our boxes from cultural fitness to experience. I also checked all of their references and heard great testimonies. It was a rigorous process that went for about 4–5 months. In the end, we felt good about Cirrius. 

I also met with their CEO and had a conversation with him and his lead architect. We were absolutely aligned in terms of the company’s vision and where we wanted to go. They had the right experience, and they were realistic about our business — they didn’t have a cookie-cutter approach. 

That kind of balance was important to us because our business changed a lot. Cirrius had the technical strength I needed, and they were visionaries. They were a culturally great fit for us, and they understood the importance of business processes. That was the ultimate reason I chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $250,000–$500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January 2018–December 2019. However, we continued to receive consulting services from them after the execution of this project. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

In terms of success metrics, we checked Cirrius Solutions’ performance against the results we were looking for. We also checked the quality of the MVP, and we could tell they worked hard on it. 

We invested in their experience, but they also helped us mature as an organization. That was the reason I selected them in the first place: I told them I needed to transform my group and that I’d love them to lead. I also asked them to guide us in the knowledge transfer process as we transformed, and they worked greatly through that process.

I also appreciated being able to work with their CEO. When we had conflicting priorities or couldn’t get a consensus, we were happy to have him sitting beside us in conversations. We felt comfortable in doing that because they were honest about the project’s delivery or when they needed more clarification. Overall, the Cirrius team was strong in terms of continuous improvement. 

On the whole, they served as an extension of my team. They were mature and professional, and they took full ownership of the project. 

How did Cirrius Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Cirrius Solutions was always on point when it came to working in the Agile framework. Their CEO and the chief architect managed the project excellently. We worked in two-week sprints, and we had calls every other day when we were in delivery mode. Whenever they needed to demonstrate any prototype, we did iterations. On top of that, they knew when to escalate, and they handled the project in a truly Agile fashion, where we only talked about obstacles and upcoming tasks.

Cirrius knew how to navigate professionally through challenges and conflicts in priorities, and they discussed them respectfully. This was a stressful project, and we had challenging deliverables. However, they stayed committed, responsive, and able to speak to each other. They stuck with facts and not their emotions.

Moreover, it was great for us that they worked around the clock and across different coasts — they always delivered on time. The team worked on the weekend and at night time. There were Sundays when their CEO led project deliveries. Over the course of three months, he set up status reports and board updates, enabling us to work as a whole team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We felt that we were in the same foxhole with them. We trusted Cirrius implicitly because they earned that trust. Working as an extension of our team, they had the attributes that I was looking for that weren’t in my own team. They provided not only tactical but also strategic consulting services, and that was very powerful. 

Finally, even though we weren’t being billed for their consulting services after the execution of the project, Cirrius were still invested in our transformation. They always checked in on us. If we had questions, especially about skilling up our team members on administration, they were always there. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. We always had reflections for continuous improvement, and I was very satisfied with the team’s performance. Sometimes, we had to course correct, but that only shows that we had a healthy team. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be extremely clear around the capabilities that you want from Cirrius versus what you have internally. The clearer you are on the capabilities or competencies you need, the stronger your collaboration will be. Apart from that, be in it to win it. Communicate well, trust them, and be open; the more open you are, the stronger the project will go.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a PR agency, specifically in the development and technology team. Our role is to implement technology on behalf of our third-party clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cirrius Solutions?

Typically, we have third-party clients who need counsel and technical support in implementing various Salesforce technologies. We brought on Cirrius to support us in implementing that. They were our preferred partner for that kind of work. We were involved in the strategic perspective and the team was in charge of making things happen. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a third-party stakeholder in the energy sector that came to us for support and asked us to set up their Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Essentially, the beginning process was a discovery phase about what our third-party stakeholder really needed and what could help them the most. After that, we came back with a recommendation of the deliverables and it almost always included a business requirements document. We relied pretty heavily on the Cirrius team to produce that. 

The team also looked at our client’s marketing setup including what their marketing program looked like. As the partnership progressed, their service evolved into a strategic consultation on how to run the marketing program, how to structure it, how to segregate customer segments, and how to set up user journeys that could engage. Ultimately, that resulted in us recommending a change in the marketing technology app that our client had chosen. We advised them to use Pardot instead. 

After that, we focused on working closely with the client and their internal technical team to navigate which products needed to be procured. At the same time, we also identified how to configure those products with both the marketing and technical team. From there, we conducted user training. We worked side by side with Cirrius and relied heavily on their involvement and input. Furthermore, we also had them do the walkthrough during the training sessions. We started engaging with them around February 2015, we’ve been involved with them ever since in similar projects.  

What is the team composition?

Frank (Senior Salesforce Solutions Consultant) was our primary resource in this project.

How did you come to work with Cirrius Solutions?

We found them when we were searching for Salesforce development support. At that time, we needed something pretty small for a particular client. However, I couldn’t recall if we found them online. 

How much have you invested with them?

For this particular project, we spent approximately $67,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project that I shared here happened in December 2019–December 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I don’t have direct metrics for this project because the main challenge was to get Pardot configured for our third-party client, and we successfully implemented it within the timeline we initially established. The team met the requirements that we had set for the project. They were able to achieve those requirements in a very challenging environment and were able to adapt despite constantly changing deliverables. 

They spent a lot of energy with us defining the project most of the way through the year, and they exceeded expectations in that respect. Our third-party stakeholders’ feedback had also been extremely positive.

I also saw a clear case of reliance on Frank as a resource of our third-party client’s team. They valued his counsel greatly more so even than their own technical team. From a quality perspective, everything was positive. 

How did Cirrius Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We often communicated regularly through calls using Skype and Microsoft Teams. We tried to reduce the reliance on email, so we used Microsoft Teams for direct communication and tried to use it as much as possible.

We had them work through our process, so there was not a specific approach that they brought. However, we had another project with them with a structured project management process where we used tools such as Jira. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and willingness to help us figure out what needs to be done were probably the two things that distinguish them most. I have a sense that if I were to hire a larger “expert” in Salesforce implementation, I would have to do more work to get the project going. I would have to fill out their requirements form or jump through all hoops to keep the project moving, but with Cirrius I know that I could get them engaged. 

We aren’t working with sales teams using Salesforce for what it is designed for. Instead, we’re using that platform to track engagement with nonprofit members or we’re using it for clients looking to track media engagement. Overall, their flexibility was really valuable because we could bring them a strange use case and they would always help us figure it out. They never say that they couldn’t do our requirements. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

A little more rigor around project management processes could be helpful, especially if we would be engaged in a larger-scale project. I could see that as a concern that we would need more effort from their site to ensure that deliverables would come on time and that time would be tracked exactly to other workstreams. The project that I spoke about was very fluid in nature. That's why it was better to have a less structured approach, but in other contexts, a structured approach could be more helpful. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear and upfront with what you want to achieve, as opposed to what you think you want them to do. Don’t say you need X, Y, Z. Instead, tell what you’re trying to accomplish, and they’ll help you figure out your main goals. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a radio broadcaster operating at a national and local level, through various stations.

I am a senior CRM [customer relationship management] project manager for the company. My responsibilities include determining what Salesforce functionalities should be implemented for the company, based on how they would benefit us. I manage a team of people and serve as both a product and project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cirrius Solutions?

We were working on a project measuring the impact we had on the listing community.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cirrius Solutions was tasked with everything from requirements gathering, to development and roll-out. I made decisions from the position of project manager, but Cirrius Solutions did all of the work.

Before working with our own Apex developer, Cirrius Solutions' team was used for all work related to the language. We worked on many small projects; I was able to give Cirrius Solutions non-technical indications for the work and have them figure it out, without a lot of handholding. The work involved UI/UX [user interface/user experience] considerations, which Cirrius Solutions also handled.

I usually only interacted with the person actually performing the work, and don't think that Cirrius Solutions assigned other resources in the background. In total, I've worked with three people from Cirrius Solutions at my current company.

How did you come to work with Cirrius Solutions?

I was working for a different company that brought Cirrius Solutions in for a Salesforce migration, following an acquisition. I chose Cirrius Solutions for my current company because of our past experience. Cirrius Solutions' principal has an incredible work ethic, and I knew that it was important for him to hire the best people. He works with each one of his employees, in order to make sure that things are done up to a standard and that customers are happy.

How much have you invested with Cirrius Solutions?

I don't manage the financial aspects of our projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Cirrius Solutions for a year and a half in total, but each of our engagements has had different durations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We've been able to use the data resulting from our previous project in order to measure how we're performing in terms of content: how people are perceiving us, what their concerns are, and on which areas we need to make changes. This has had a material impact on our business processes and daily activities. 

How did Cirrius Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We initially used a tool called Smartsheet. The project was more complex at the time, involving more dependencies. The other work we've done with Cirrius Solutions centers more on requirements gathering. I simply provide a document describing what the software is currently doing, and what I want it to do. Cirrius Solutions augments the document with additional technical elements, and checks with me before starting any development, which is another point being strongly pushed by Cirrius Solutions' principal.

What did you find most impressive about Cirrius Solutions?

I work with a few different vendors for various types of work. I use Cirrius Solutions for projects in which I don't want to closely manage decisions, set expectations, and so on. Most of Cirrius Solutions' team is able to work independently, with no handholding.

Another area for which I use Cirrius Solutions is Apex source code changes. I don't have to worry one single bit that Cirrius Solutions will make a mistake. The code impacts our security model, which is something to be scared of when making changes. I know that Cirrius Solutions employs the best coders, who will be able to figure out exactly what's happening.

Having developers test their own work was an important topic of discussion for us, initially. Cirrius Solutions excels on this front.

Are there any areas Cirrius Solutions could improve?

Cirrius Solutions is at a turning point in terms of growth, which is making it hard for them to find good people based on the strong demand. This is true for the industry in general. There are many Salesforce developers on the market, but not all of them are solid. I know Cirrius Solutions' staff well enough to request a particular person for a few hours of work, but the company's main challenge is obtaining work on a consistent basis, and making sure that clients can work with the same people time and again. Cirrius Solutions works with a few smaller clients, who may not require support on an ongoing basis, but they may come back 2 months after a project ends, asking for additional changes. If the person who initially made the work is not available, there will be a bit of a learning curve for the new resource. This is true for any company: smaller clients will end up being assigned different staff more frequently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We enable professionals in the financial, risk, legal, tax and accounting, and media markets to make the decisions that matter most. We're are a global organization with over 50,000 employees. We're highly matrixed and very complex.

I am a senior CRM [customer relationship management] analyst working in the global growth organization of the company, focusing on the Latin America part of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cirrius Solutions?

We had a very large project that was being broken down into various phases. We work with internal business analysts and technologists but needed a hands-up in getting our work done. We needed people who could get up-to-speed quickly, and who could help us drive out requirements and get to the testing and post-release phases.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cirrius Solutions worked on the Salesforce side of our project. It was related to back-office processes aimed at improving our sales team's operations. It was highly integrated, with SAP components and integration points in-between. We made customizations for our particular business requirements for the Latin America region.

Cirrius Solutions provided a technical resource with an architecture background, a highly-skilled tech lead, as well as business analysts for driving the requirements piece. The size of our team varied depending on what we were doing, but we generally worked with 3 people from Cirrius Solutions and brought in others as needed.

How did you come to work with Cirrius Solutions?

We were looking for a partner which had worked with larger companies and was fluid enough in order to address the unpredictable challenges we were facing. Cirrius Solutions met all expectations in this regard. They had worked on a consolidation of multiple Salesforce instances for another part of our business. As their business grew, we've continued to utilize Cirrius Solutions. We had a good experience the first time around, and Cirrius Solutions worked within our business effectively.

We work with a few remote teams, including ones in Argentina, Brazil, and Eagan, Minnesota (which is our main technical base). We outsource development and work with many people in Bangalore, India. Cirrius Solutions is effective in working with people from multiple locations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had a kick-off in October 2015. The main release of our project was done in May 2016, and we had another one in October. Cirrius Solutions was also involved in smaller work which hinged on the main project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The Cirrius Solutions' team has been extremely flexible and creative in finding solutions for our problems, providing both temporary and permanent fixes, and trying to understand our processes. In my mind, Cirrius Solutions is a colleague, rather than just a consultant.

As we went into the user acceptance phase, Cirrius Solutions was good at helping us build test plans and get the work done. This is a big piece, which people often forget.

How did Cirrius Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Our projects were delivered on the set dates, which is a major consideration. We use SharePoint heavily, as well as Microsoft Word documents with very particular setups for requirements. Google spreadsheets are used for test plans, at Cirrius Solutions' suggestion. It enables our teams to get to the information easily. We also use Slack and Trello for internal team synchronization. We may not have used them normally, but they've been great tools for us, especially when working with smaller teams. We use VPNs for the work and Cirrius Solutions has the infrastructure to handle them. 

What did you find most impressive about Cirrius Solutions?

A part of the confines in working with a larger organization is the administration overhead. We work with requirements documents that may not be the industry standard, but Cirrius Solutions has been willing to handle them instead of bringing in their own approach. Cirrius Solutions has been good at reaching out on the technical and business side, which is important for Salesforce. Cirrius Solutions needed to understand what the users are doing, and what we need to obtain from this on the backend.

Are there any areas Cirrius Solutions could improve?

We have an internal technology group with project managers who maintain our relationship with external vendors, as well as various business people. As we were working through the first phase, we reached a crunch time and encountered a number of defects. We started having daily meetings with a larger group of people and concluded that we needed to start talking to each other, instead of just relaying messages. This led to much quicker results, and Cirrius Solutions helped us facilitate this. They're all very good at taking meeting notes, which matters much more than just keeping recordings. Cirrius Solutions didn't pretend that they knew everything, but were willing to work with us and brought up tough topics.

Improving the communication piece and getting the right people at the right time was key for us. We started doing this for the next part of our project, and it helped turn things around tremendously. Cirrius Solutions brought an Agile component to our work, allowing us to react quickly to issues which came up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is rolling out a CPQ [configure price quote] application across the globe. We've covered the North American region, and are moving into the United Kingdom. I am a Salesforce CPQ and CRM [customer relationship management] business analyst for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cirrius Solutions?

We needed to supplement our available resources while rolling out a Salesforce CRM. We were using an implementation partner but had other specialized projects, including one for a CPQ.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cirrius Solutions led the project for the first North American implementation of the Salesforce solution. Cirrius Solutions was also involved in a follow-up CPQ project for another region and has implemented our global Salesforce platform for a smaller business unit, replacing their local one. There have been a few other projects rolling out Salesforce communities for our business and Cirrius Solutions was involved with those, too.

We generally worked with 2–3 people from Cirrius Solutions, using the most resources on our first project. It involved data export, import, and cleansing elements. Cirrius Solutions' principal acted as project manager.

Cirrius Solutions has been fairly involved in our projects. We tend to let them run the work as they see fit, from requirements gathering to design, development and implementation. Cirrius Solutions is working within the parameters of what we have within the business, fitting into a global template.

How did you come to work with Cirrius Solutions?

I was not involved in this phase.

How much have you invested with Cirrius Solutions?

The cost of Cirrius Solutions' services has been around $125,000 for our current project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Cirrius Solutions on and off for 18 months [as of November 2016]. We plan to finalize our current projects with Cirrius Solutions in April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Cirrius Solutions' project manager has had his mind set on tracking deadlines and achieving as much as possible. Every project he's been involved in has been a success.

How did Cirrius Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

The projects ran with Cirrius Solutions have been pretty much on time, running over by 1–2 weeks at most. These things happen and are not necessarily the fault of Cirrius Solutions. Our project manager has been structured in how he likes to do things and has worked continuously with our business in order to deliver requirements. He has been supportive, but there is only so much he can do from his position, given the guidelines we've provided from our global organization.

We use a couple of internal tools, including Agile Accelerator, which Cirrius Solutions has been asked to leverage. We have internal requirements and need our own team using them.

What did you find most impressive about Cirrius Solutions?

I haven't worked with other partners in this way, but I have a very good working relationship with Cirrius Solutions' team. They're cognizant of what we're trying to achieve, and we've been able to bounce ideas off each other, trying to keep a good vision of our goals with no internal communication struggles. This is a positive thing, in my opinion.

Are there any areas Cirrius Solutions could improve?

Not off the top of my head.