CloudMasonry

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Graduate Recruitment Manager of Lehigh University, College of Arts & Sciences

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Lehigh University is an institution of higher learning at the bachelors, master's, and doctoral levels. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CloudMasonry to accomplish?

• Build a communications strategy to nurture prospective graduate students who have not yet applied to the College of Arts & Sciences at Lehigh.
• Ensure that inquiry forms and other data align with the new communications strategy.
• Create email templates that provide accurate information, a visibly appealing design, and a combination of both standard and dynamic content.

SOLUTION

How did you find CloudMasonry?

We have worked with them in the past.

Why did you select CloudMasonry over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Their expert knowledge of the CRM and ability to meet deadlines.

How many teammates from CloudMasonry were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The CloudMasonry team provided recommendations for developing an email communication strategy for prospective graduate students, which included design, structure, cadence, and flow. Once the email templates were developed, the team built and implemented the email journey, which is intended to guide prospective students to the point of starting an application. The team also rebuilt our online inquiry form and tested other forms the ensure that data would flow into the campaign. They provided expert knowledge and guidance on structuring the communication strategy. The project produced a series of 7 emails with click-thru links, dynamic content, branding, and visual images. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The most significant measurable outcome is tracking the conversion of prospective students to applicants, which will be attributed to the information they receive throughout the nurture campaign.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The CloudMasonry team was fantastic to work with! They not only responded to our needs, they helped us understand our needs! They worked with us to develop this project from a vague concept to a detailed plan & implementation. They kept us on schedule and work flexible when we encountered delays. 

What was your primary form of communication with CloudMasonry?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The CloudMasonry team was able to deliver this project within a short timeframe that exceeded our expectations. We have been stalled in trying to build this ourselves for years! And, we now have a fully functioning email campaign within a few weeks. We are already seeing and measuring the outcomes--our application numbers have increased significantly over the last few months. We are grateful for the team's guidance, systemic approach, consideration of our needs, and project management. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something CloudMasonry could have done differently?

Nothing that comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Chieft Growth Officer of an insurance company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Global Travel Insurance provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CloudMasonry to accomplish?

• Optimize Marketing Cloud email acquisition and nurture journeys
• Develop email attribution reporting

SOLUTION

How did you find CloudMasonry?

Referral

Why did you select CloudMasonry over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from CloudMasonry were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Optimization of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud environment to enhance email nurture journeys and acquisition emails. Also enable enhanced email attribution reporting.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Enhanced Data Schema and Contact Data Model: Improvements in the SFMC platform's data structure for better customer insights.
• Optimized Customer Journeys: Development and refinement of personalized customer journeys for onboarding, engagement, retention, and win-back, including A/B testing and send time optimization.
• Improved KPIs: Increased quote submissions, lead engagement, policy renewals, and reduced cancellations.
• Email and Journey Reporting: Detailed tracking of email campaigns, journey effectiveness, and dynamic content engagement based on customer segments.
• Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Integration: Regular updates to customer LTV data to inform targeted marketing efforts

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

CloudMasonry demonstrated exceptional project management throughout our engagement. They delivered key project milestones on time and maintained clear communication at every stage. Their team was highly responsive to our needs, quickly addressing any questions or adjustments we requested. The level of professionalism and attention to detail exceeded our expectations, ensuring that our Salesforce Marketing Cloud enhancements were implemented smoothly and efficiently. We highly recommend CloudMasonry for their expertise and dedication to delivering high-quality results within the agreed-upon timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with CloudMasonry?

Virtual Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What impressed us most about CloudMasonry was their ability to deeply understand our needs and translate them into actionable solutions. Their expertise in Salesforce Marketing Cloud was evident, but it was their proactive approach, attention to detail, and commitment to delivering value that truly stood out. They consistently went above and beyond to ensure that we were not only meeting our immediate goals but also set up for long-term success. Their responsiveness and flexibility in adjusting to evolving project requirements made the entire process seamless.

Are there any areas for improvement or something CloudMasonry could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Client Services of a financial services company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Asset management services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CloudMasonry to accomplish?

• System audit
• Enhancements to reporting
• Process automation
• Integration optimization and support

SOLUTION

How did you find CloudMasonry?

Online Search

Why did you select CloudMasonry over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Training

How many teammates from CloudMasonry were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

CloudMasonry first helped us do a general audit and clean-up of our organization, which included small changes to improve UX and bigger changes to our user types and permissions that were crucial to org security. They then helped us automate multiple processes through Flows, enhance our reporting capabilities, and build helpful dashboards with detailed data visualizations.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Reorganization of our users and permissions
• Multiple automated processes and notifications
• New reporting capabilities through Snapshot
• Data visualization dashboard with 17 chart widgets
• Countless resources and documentation to reference after the relationship

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Our consultant always delivered items on time, even if there were delays on our end of the partnership. She was extremely efficient, thorough, and flexible as we tried to keep up with her!

What was your primary form of communication with CloudMasonry?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Our experience with CloudMasonry has been impressive, primarily due to the consultant's knowledge and expertise in Salesforce. She answered questions quickly and gave clear explanations that we were able to understand as beginners to the system- and kindly repeated herself if we didn’t. 
She was also very accommodating whenever the schedule or scope had to change a bit. Not only did CloudMasonry solve countless requests during our time working together, we also feel more educated and prepared to take on new projects.

Are there any areas for improvement or something CloudMasonry could have done differently?

We underestimated the time and involvement that would be required on our end of the partnership. We learned quickly that the more attention we were able to dedicate to the projects, the more efficient our consultant could be with her work. In the end, our engagement working alongside our consultant only benefited our own knowledge of the system. However, it would have been helpful to have a better understanding of the expectations from the start.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Foundation & Community Benefit program manager for Illinois's leading dental benefits carrier.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CloudMasonry, and what were your goals?

We hired CloudMasonry to design and deploy our new Grants Management platform in Salesforce for our RFP processes for the Foundation

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our IT organization connected us to CloudMasonry when it became evident they were not able to complete the work we neede.d

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They customized the Grant Program object to support current grant programming, customized Grant Request object to capture the same information as captured in the current Grants Management tool, basic branding and Navigation enhancements for Grantee Users, setup of requirements object to support Grantee submission process, User onboarding and training for Grants Management team

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 people, a delivery manager and managing director

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Program and first grant application process launched.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The team at CloudMasonry was excellent to work with. Emails were answered promptly and they followed through on all tasks

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The ability of the staff to take the vision I had for our program and execute it. Additionally, as a non IT person, the CloudMasonry team was able to explain to me everything in ways in which I understood.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Our timeline was delayed slightly, but I believe that was because of internal IT iissues

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

NorthWinds is an IT company offering product solutions and managed services. My position is Project Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CloudMasonry, and what were your goals?

NorthWinds hired them to work on a project called Multi-Line Processing, providing front end development to add an additional line of insurance for our client.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I was not involved in the vendor selection process but I believe part of the decision was made because of the company's previous experience working with this vendor.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Key deliverables included Dev/QA to allow:

1. Dental and Vision Plans to be rated differently
2. Prospects to Purchase Dental and Vision together
3. Policyholders to drop one line of insurance at a time
4. Assurance that policyholders are notified of total billing amounts
5. Client understanding of when a policyholder has dental and vision
6. Integration with Client Vision Vendors to ensure they can complete other vision administration tasks
7. Service of client and manage performance of contracted relationship

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 4 people from the vendor's team that I worked with:

• Engagement Manager
• Technical Architect
• Business Analyst
• Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Cloud Masonry has always been quick to pivot with the NorthWinds team when requirements and deadlines changed. They wasted zero time in regrouping on their end to be very accommodating to us and the our client.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The person in the PM role, Hunter, attended each of our stand-up meetings, never hesitating to provide additional help when we needed and was very proactive looking toward potential future needs. He was great at communicating back to his team and getting answers back to us in a timely fashion. We were always in touch concerning the project using email, calls or text. He was always available.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

It has been an absolute pleasure working with the Cloud Masonry team as they are easy to work with, approachable, patient with us when we've had to regroup and they've been very accommodating and quick to pivot when changes are requested of them. They quickly provided estimates and new plans for next steps and resources needed to move forward.

They also offered solutions for other resource needs when the team had a gap. They are great with providing weekly status and budget updates as well as forecasts for the future work and hour estimates. They have great people working their company, including the BA, Lily who has an awesome attitude and was very accommodating to the team's and client's needs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There are no areas of improvement I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior project manager and scrum master for a financial institution. We custody accounts, mostly retirement ones.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CloudMasonry?

We’ve worked with them on multiple projects. We primarily need help with Salesforce development, but they do web development for different products, making changes to existing functionality and building new functionality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our last project was a portal for the Emergency Savings Fund. We engaged with CloudMasonry to make changes to the portal, upload documents, update participants, and more. It was a series of enhancements to our existing product.

There were two separate portals. CloudMasonry worked on the employer’s portal, which allowed administrators to sign up employees, set up the amount of money that can be taken out, and more. They changed the UI and added functionality, including the ability to upload documents.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with three people: a SCRUM master, a tech architect, and a developer. There could’ve been a fourth team member, but I don’t recall it.

How did you come to work with CloudMasonry?

I didn’t engage with them initially, so I don’t have that information.

What is the status of this engagement?

This particular project was completed between April–August 2021. We’ll continue to work with them on other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They did a great job. They provided budget and status reports.

How did CloudMasonry perform from a project management standpoint?

The SCRUM master led the project and made sure the work was done. We mainly communicated through video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was their working style. The collaboration between our developers was great, and communication was clear. Overall, they were very easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We found many bugs in their work. They attributed it to a lack of clear requirements from our end, but I’d say they could make sure that they do additional QA testing before passing it on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you provide thorough and detailed requirements. If we’d done that, we would’ve had fewer bugs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of Easton Events a destination wedding planning company and Easton Porter a hospitality group that owns and manages restaurants, winery, and hotels.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CloudMasonry?

We plan and execute weddings with budgets typically 1M and up. For any given event we have about 50 vendors who need to be paid by the client and each will have multiple deposits.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a turnkey system for our clients so that we could track vendor payments.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

CouldMasonry was recommended to us by SalesForce.

Describe the project in detail.

How do we make this process as streamlined as possible for the client? How do we seamlessly share contracts with clients, collect signatures, and outline deposit schedules? How do we track payments and help our clients to be accountable for these payments? Cloud Masonry built the solution for us.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Hunter.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The system is humming and our clients are happy. We have taken a part of our business that was stressful for our clients and streamlined it for both us and them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent! They were flexible with our schedule and extremely efficient every time we worked together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our project was accomplished in the predicted timeline and on budget. The deliverables met our expectations. CM felt truly engaged in our process. They provided insight into best-practices. Thoughtful training made ease of adoption positively painless!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Marketing Manager for a company specializing in desktop and mobile device accessories.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CloudMasonry?

We use both SF and Pardot. We purchased the B2B Analytics Tool after a demo at Dreamforce last year and found the instructions for implementation were confusing at best; wrong, and incomplete at worst. We spoke with the team at CloudMasonry about our concerns. Before we even agreed to work together, they offered to help me get over a few initial hurdles. I was very impressed with that.

What were your goals for this project?

Get the analytics tool integrated with our existing instances of SF and Pardot. Then, to help build out needed dashboards to take a deeper dive into the data.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had been working with 2 agencies previously but felt we needed a team with more implementation experience where they did the work. My team met Robert at Dreamforce and a few subsequent followups post-Dreamforce led to our first call.

They helped solve a problem I was having for free on the spot. I was impressed, and after reviewing the materials they provided and seeing that their pricing was very reasonable we reached an agreement on a scope of work.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope of the project was to take our existing instances of SF and Pardot and implement them into the Einstein B2B Analytics platform. This required a working knowledge of all three tools and being able to figure out what was missing from the provided instructions.

Once fully integrated, we needed custom dashboards created in order to get the details we were interested in reviewing. I served as Project Manager, working with the CloudMasonry team to get access set up in each instance and provide support where needed.

Also, to communicate the needs of the greater organization. CloudMasonry was responsible for the implementation and deployment of the tool, as well as building out custom dashboards to track items that are important to us.

What was the team composition?

I worked with 2 great people. Robert the Co-Founder, and Hunter the Delivery Manager. It was not complicated!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our tool is set up, some additional work is still underway, but I like what I have seen. I have seen some eye-opening stats, and I am not pulling my hair out trying to implement the tool.

I can easily share out my findings with my team in a visual way that I couldn't necessarily do before. I can also track statistics I care about in a concise way.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I like that the team was small. In an initial call, I believe there were 4, maybe 5 people from the agency on the call. I ended up working with just 2. Sometimes when dealing with an agency there can be too many cooks in the kitchen and you are asking one person to answer this question, and another to answer others. Here it was easy.

We never ran into a bottleneck, they worked around my schedule, they communicated frequently, and I never had to chase them down. I never waited more than a few hours for a response, and I felt they understood my challenge and made me feel at ease with them taking over.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are agile, personable, and easy to work with. We felt like we were in good hands when working with CloudMasonry. Great communication, never had to wait for anything. Always kept me in the loop, and I never had to worry about my hours.

Also, if they didn't know something they took it upon themselves to go figure it out, this included working with the SF Support desk. It was easy to rely on them to get the info they needed without having to do the legwork for them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, I really don't have anything negative to say.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the commercial counsel for Eaze, a legal cannabis company. I handle commercial legal matters and contracts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CloudMasonry?

CloudMasonry developed a custom Salesforce build out for us. They also did some backend data mappings and integrations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with a comprehensive review of our business. This included all of our contracting, our customer workflows, and immature learns of our inventory and tracking systems.

They started building Salesforce on the basis of that so that it would work with all of our different business units. It helped to clean up our database, getting everything in one place and tied together our backend with Salesforce.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with a few people and then there was a team of three Salesforce solution architects.

How did you come to work with CloudMasonry?

They were referred to us by their Salesforce representative. They did a great pitch with competitive pricing. They got permission to show us a build they did for a competitor in our industry, which was important to us because cannabis is a highly regulated new industry.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is between $15,000-$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work in October 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s hard to give statistics because the system isn’t fully built out yet. However, we’ve had full buy-in from all of our different teams. They balanced the competing interests of our business, legal, and compliance teams quite well.

How did CloudMasonry perform from a project management standpoint?

They hit all of their self-imposed deadlines and the development process was much faster than we expected. I’ve never worked with somebody as on top of a project like they were. They get an A+ for their work.

We mostly communicated via videoconferencing, some in-person meetings, and we emailed them. Also, we used Trello.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re relatively small, so you get a lot of attention. You work with their top level people who are really good. Any time we had a question they jumped on a videoconference and explained themselves. They made the whole process look easy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an in-person scoping meeting to lay out your whole plan. They’re really impressive. Also, take advantage of their availability. They’re incredibly willing to go the extra mile to help.