CloudMasonry

Please describe your company and your position there.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Direct Energy is an energy retailer company. I’m the senior manager of sales technology, specifically overseeing two Salesforce orgs.

What challenge were you trying to address with CloudMasonry?

When I started my role, all of our sales channels (e.g., door-to-door sales, retail, inbound/outbound calling) were managed by 10 teams on different platforms. Supporting each platform was tough because nothing was consistent. We also didn’t have the infrastructure nor the team in place to act.

I turned to CloudMasonry to create an omnichannel sales experience using Salesforce as our central platform. Our goal was to automate and enhance our existing functionality within Salesforce to better serve our end users.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

For this project specifically, CloudMasonry took a strategic approach to have all of our sales channels come in through Salesforce. They created a vision for an omnichannel sales experience, starting with a roadmap for each year of development. We started our first phase of work at the end of Q3 2020, and have completed one channel. They’re now moving on to the next phase.

Beyond that, CloudMasonry has been working on a variety of projects, both small and large. We have a contract in place for them to provide us with services, meaning I have a block of dedicated hours throughout the year that I can use for whatever I need. That could be resolving product defects, helping with a dashboard, or even simple triaging.

Sometimes we bring forward an idea that we want to flesh out, and they’ll advise us on which direction we should take and why. Not only will they create visionary slides that I can present to stakeholders who are higher up in my organization, but they’ll also provide a detailed project plan that’s useful for project management. The plan breaks down all of the work by functionality, weekly deliverables, and cost estimates.

What is the team composition? 

We work with about seven people directly. There’s a weekly check-in with the CEO who makes sure that all of our projects are executing properly. He’s actually the technical architect and lead on our big project.

I also worked with their project manager, a solutions architect, and a couple of business analysts. Behind them is an off-shore team of developers.

How did you come to work with CloudMasonry?

I’d previously worked with the founders of CloudMasonry while at a Salesforce consulting firm, so I knew about the quality of their work. We had the same expectations around work, and I felt comfortable collaborating with them. Once I joined my role in Direct Energy, I immediately knew I wanted to bring CloudMasonry on to help. I actually bumped into their CEO at Dreamforce and discussed this project with him. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent a little over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

CloudMasonry is always true to their word about what they’re going to deliver, and they’re consistently on time, sticking to or coming in under the budget. Right now, we’re wrapping up a project with about 160 hours leftover, so we’re pulling in more items into the scope. It’s really wonderful to work with a partner who’s that transparent and visionary. 

How did CloudMasonry perform from a project management standpoint?

I use a tool called Agile Accelerator within Salesforce, which allows me to track our user stories, backlog, and deliveries each sprint. Their team is flexible enough to work with my tool and also use their own solutions to keep organized on their side. At the end of each week, they deliver a clear report that details all of those logistics along with how many billable hours we have remaining.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The main thing that comes to mind is their partnership. It’s not like I’m asking them to execute a specific task. Rather, they hear what we’re asking for and pose probing questions to get a better sense of our needs. It just evolves into a strategic collaboration from there. We use them to better assist our business and think ahead.

In addition, they’re transparent and diligent in their testing. Instead of deploying roll-outs and moving on, they undergo rigorous testing periods to ensure that our changes will be smooth. If they catch an issue, they’ll bring it to the forefront immediately. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, anything we need to improve upon always happens because we give each other constant feedback at the end of each sprint or so. They do an incredible job of training our Direct Energy team, too.

Please describe your company and your position there.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the compliance counsel at Ease Technologies, a technology services marketplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with CloudMasonry?

We were addressing the challenge of onboarding Salesforce and making sure that it fits our business model and needs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

From start to finish, we used CloudMasonry as Salesforce consultants. We had brainstorming sessions about our business model and growing pains. Then we worked on designing and building a sandbox version of Salesforce. Over a number of weeks, they helped us test that out while we providing them feedback. After making a few changes, they wrapped it up and delivered the final product.

What is the team composition?

Overall, there were three people involved. Hunter (Delivery Director) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with CloudMasonry?

I believe Salesforce recommended them to us. We have debated between a few companies, and I don’t remember who made the final decision in choosing CloudMasonry. But I believe our project lead researched their background and references.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we invested $50,000–$80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CloudMasonry in September 2019.

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

The dashboard is fully built, but we’ve retained CloudMasonry as consultants. They provide feedback and develop other tools for us, as needed. We’ve pivoted our business models since we engaged with them, so we’re working on how to change the dashboard to fit our new needs.

The original dashboard was the perfect fit, and we’ve used it to onboard all of our partners. It’s also helped our sales team track deals. Our partnership with CloudMasonry is evolving, and I think it will continue for a long time.

How did CloudMasonry perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re fantastic. I can’t say enough nice things about them. From a professional and creative perspective, Hunter stands out. He has over seven years of experience with Salesforce, and as someone with none, he was an amazing resource to me. He consulted me on how to use it and how it could work with our business model.

We had a couple of in-person meetings, but mostly we communicated through email because that was our preference.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is the first time I’ve been through this type of build-out, but I would say that their team is full of effective communicators. It’s a massive undertaking to build out a Salesforce system for businesses. Their team was also great at listening to our feedback and implementing it incredibly quickly.

The team at CloudMasonry is full of active workers. Each week, we met to test and discuss the feedback, and then within the next week, they made the changes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend working with Hunter. He’s a pleasure to work with.

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.

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.

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.

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!