Attain Partners was excited to visit St. Louis, MO, for the 2022 CACUBO Annual Meeting, joining business and finance professionals from higher education institutions across the Midwest.
Our industry experts Andy Campbell and Sean Davis spoke to attendees and identified two main themes important to conference-goers.
The need for qualified talent
The “Great Resignation” has been a highly discussed topic across the workforce for a while now. Virtually every industry has been impacted to some degree, and CACUBO was a reminder of just how prevalent the issue remains in higher education. The loss of talent is affecting most, if not all, colleges and universities, especially the back-office staff who handle the accounting and research administration operations. Loss of staff and hiring freezes are delaying work streams. Several college and university finance and business officers expressed their frustration with staff loss, and many credited these high turnover rates to the private sector, which has been offering significant pay increases. These developments are increasing strain on their already overextended resources.
Many attendees had a clear understanding of Andy and Sean’s focus on Equipment Inventory, Building Componentization, and Property Insurance Valuation, but expressed interest in ways to improve efficiency and maximize limited resources. Strategic Financial Performance ranked high for institutions to easily compare metrics against best practices in their peer group and areas of risk to get a better understanding of their financial health.
Additionally, adding library studies and Utility O&M Analysis to increase their F&A rates on sponsored projects was a consideration for many. Library costs are often overlooked when institutions are developing F&A cost proposals for indirect cost recovery—which is why Library Cost Analysis Studies exist! A Library Cost Analysis Study can help institutions increase their indirect cost rate by identifying, counting, and assigning a purpose of use to library expenses used for funded research, instruction, patient care, or other institutional uses that would otherwise fly under the radar. Learn more about our Library and Planning Services here.
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Compliance is critical to your organization’s ability to make an impact. Our team provides world-class expertise navigating the complex and dynamic regulatory environment, implementing industry best practices, and optimizing performance. Learn more about our compliance services here.
Interested in chatting with our experts directly? Contact us today!
https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Newsletter-Graphics_2022-10_October_CACUBO.png9671813Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-10-07 09:57:472023-03-14 13:13:27Higher Education Trends from CACUBO
There is no question that it can be difficult to find and retain good people. But this has become especially challenging in the current labor market as a result of the great post-covid resignation. This has severely impacted the higher education industry as it already suffered from high turnover rates. While the long-term goal of higher education is to hire and retain employees, external factors can influence change and create uncertainty for a period of time. Selecting to bring in interim team members is a great solution to avoid hindering or stalling operations, especially when it comes to potential compliance issues.
As many institutions experience recruiting times that are twice as long due to an extremely scarce applicant pool, it is often at the expense of the remaining employees who are shouldering the additional burden to make sure work gets out the door in a timely and accurate manner.
Attain Partners can help free up the time you need to recruit your next set of superstars. Our experienced consultants will plug the holes in your processes and bridge operational gaps throughout your research enterprise. This is how we make it happen:
Extensive Experience – Attain Partners hires employees with extensive higher education backgrounds—some with over 20 years in the field. Finding employees with this much experience and knowledge takes time, which is not a luxury institutions have when it comes to operations. Bringing in a skilled team of consultants can keep an institution up and running while leadership focuses on the hiring.
Easy Onboarding – Our consultants are relatively easy to onboard given their prior experience. They each come with a deep knowledge of research administration and only need to adapt to the institutions’ specific systems and processes. In many cases, they have prior experience in some of the more common pre- and post-award systems. This creates a smaller learning curve which leads to almost immediate productivity for the client.
Many Perspectives/One Culture – Attain Partners hires from a variety of institutions. Our consultants’ backgrounds span public and private, state and nonprofit, large and small. This wide range of perspectives creates a sizable company knowledge base for best management practices, streamlining workflow tasks, and effective training. Attain Partners unites these unique professionals into one culture—that of efficiency, effectiveness, and dedication to our clients. We hand-pick the go-getters and self-starters who know how to get things done.
Do not let your employees continue to shoulder the burden and burn out. Do not jeopardize compliance. Take your time to recruit the best—do not rush and settle. Attain Partners can buy you time by bridging the gap with our expert team that will require minimal training and deliver immediate results throughout your research enterprise.
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Drawing on our deep and talented pool of subject matter experts, Attain Partners helps place interim talent into your institution to ensure operations continue to run smoothly and that you receive optimal funding. We can help you fill staffing gaps with functional and technical experts who understand research administration and Federal compliance. Learn more about our services, read an interview with industry expert Mark Davis, and contact us here.
About the Authors
Amanda Seymour is a Manager at Attain Partners and has over 14 years of experience in Higher Education focusing on research administration, finance administration, and operations. Amanda is a Certified Research Administrator and was recently named a Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI) Future of the Field Honoree.
Nadia Kikilo is a Principal with Attain Partners with over 17 years of experience serving Higher Education clients within various research administration areas. She has extensive experience in major post-award reconciliation and cleanup engagements. Nadia holds an MBA and an MS in Business Technologies.
Courtney Swaney, MPA, CRA is a Principal for Attain Partners with 20 years of experience in research administration. She specializes in leadership and management of sponsored projects teams, pre-award, and electronic Research Administration (eRA).
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https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Graphics_Interim-Staffing.webp9671813Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-10-05 12:23:232024-05-21 14:26:28Interim Staffing and Why it Works in Higher Education
Salesforce.org Consulting Partner of the Year – Education, Attain Partners, shares expertise at Dreamforce
Our Salesforce Innovation team members love sharing their expertise and connecting with fellow trailblazers and digital transformation innovators. In September, some of our experts attended Dreamforce, which was back in person this year, to connect with trusted partners, share client successes, and say hello to their many friends and colleagues in the ecosystem.
At Attain Partners, we leverage expertise from more than 950 Salesforce projects across the higher education and nonprofit sectors to implement cost-effective, easy-to-manage, and highly impactful solutions. Learn more about our Salesforce Innovation services and hear what our experts had to say about Dreamforce 2022.
Chris Pifer, Salesforce MVP and Senior Solutions Architect at Attain Partners
“This year’s Dreamforce was primarily a chance for me to connect with Salesforce leadership, product staff, and the leadership of some of the product partners we work with regularly.
Some key highlights:
I had a detailed conversation with the product lead at AWS responsible for new Salesforce/AWS offerings for nonprofits, and I am excited to be able to offer it as an accelerator to our clients that need basic data warehouse and backup options. I look forward to future opportunities to collaborate with his team.
I had the chance to connect with the head of Higher Ed Product for Salesforce.org, Chris Clark, along with several other members of the Salesforce.org product team to discuss strategic product roadmaps and provide some feedback to further polish the products we work with every day.
Finally, and maybe most exciting, as a Salesforce MVP, I had the opportunity to converse directly with Salesforce senior leadership, including Co-CEO Bret Taylor, CMO Sarah Franklin, and SVP for Community Leah McGowen-Hare. There was a lot to be excited about in the updates they shared; it’s clear that the ideas and concerns the MVP community has expressed over the past year have been heard. It also provided an opportunity for me to share some real feedback on the challenges and needs I hear regularly from clients where Salesforce could do better. This is clearly just the beginning of a conversation. I look forward to seeing where it leads.”
Alanna Steffens, Sr. Principal and Practice Lead
“Having the ability to meet with clients whose projects kicked off during the pandemic made the moment that much more surreal to put a real person to a video conference face! We not only discussed project particulars, but we were able to share ideas on expanding the reach of the current solution and plans for new functionality. The announcement of Salesforce Genie provides the momentum for our clients to bring in data from every channel to ensure a true Customer 360 profile that provides excellent constituent experiences.
We additionally had the honor to continue to forge deeper relationships with Salesforce leadership with a focus on ‘Better Together,’ finding ways to make the partner program even more valuable and beneficial for our shared customer base.”
Kristi Phillips, Associate Business Development Director
“We have all learned how to work remotely effectively and productively. But, Dreamforce reminded me that there is no replacement for being able to engage with our community face-to-face. Being able to finally meet some of our Salesforce partners, Amp Impact partners, and clients in person was unparalleled. Those conversations—albeit, sometimes short and not at all about work—are instrumental in forging long-term, collaborative, successful engagements with our clients and the broader Salesforce ecosystem. The future is bright!”
Susan Tobes, Senior Director of Strategic Growth
“Dreamforce 2022 was a physical and energetic reminder that we are part of a large and vibrant community of vendors, customers, partners, and friends. Nothing can replace an in-person event for growing knowledge and building relationships, and that is exactly what we did. And, from the announcement of Genie to the Net Zero Cloud and the expansion of Hyperforce, Salesforce Innovation announcements did not disappoint. But, my favorite moment was when I was walking through the Trailblazer area listening to Benioff’s keynote and he raised the word shoshin (初心), a Japanese concept meaning ‘beginner’s mind.’ With all we’ve been through these last few years, how do we recultivate our beginner’s mind? What’s really important? Dreamforce left me inspired and ready to take on the future.”
Sean Speer, Associate Business Development Director
“Dreamforce, as usual, was a whirlwind of meetings, conversations, presentations, and great meals shared with clients and partners. For me, a key takeaway was Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
RPA tools allow you to automate just about any activity a human user can do on a computer, and do it with multiple applications, just like a human user. Have a tedious process where one of your staff exports data from one system, and then manually enters it into another system? There’s a good chance that can be automated with RPA tools. Or, maybe you have PDF documents that come in via email and then someone has to manually key the data into Salesforce? RPA it!
RPA tools are automation for knowledge workers. It’s going to fundamentally transform how people see working with systems and data. These tools will take away so much of the rote processes that are now managed in nonprofits and higher education institutions and free up time for staff to work on more complicated and sophisticated problems.
Salesforce is entering this space with MuleSoft RPA. I fully expect RPA to be the next big thing. I have the same feeling looking at RPA tools today that I did when I first saw Salesforce a decade and a half ago.”
Esteban Silva, Associate Business Development Director
“This was my first in-person Dreamforce, and it definitely delivered on being an opportunity to connect with valuable partners, champions, and clients. Taking the time to sit down with Salesforce’s Nonprofit Industry Advisor and discuss the needs and priorities of our mutual clients in the space will yield immeasurable benefits down the line. In addition, meeting with important partners, like Amp Impact and Salesforce account executives, face-to-face strengthened those relationships and opened the door for further collaboration in the future. In fact, we’re working on a webinar with Salesforce right now as a result of one of these discussions! The energy and enthusiasm of the attendees were palpable, and the insights gleaned from the keynotes—especially the nonprofit keynote—provided us with new resources and tools to share with our clients.”
Eric Magnuson, Associate Business Development Director
“At Dreamforce this year, I was able to reconnect with dozens of old friends, make many new connections, and learn a thing or two along the way. Some of the things I learned include:
Amazon Web Services and Salesforce are getting closer – besides the continued drip of information about an open-source AWS service for providing Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) users with data lake capabilities, I also saw their partnership expanding to include AI and machine learning in support of the biggest new technology announcement, Salesforce Genie.
Salesforce is all in on the Trillion Trees campaign. I commend them on their climate change corporate signaling.
While the nonprofit/education presence was strong at Dreamforce, there is growing consensus that the real action is at the more localized Dreamin’ and World Tour events.”
Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, we are here to help you achieve your goals. Contact Attain Partners today to learn how we can help you achieve your goals by harnessing the power of Salesforce.
Last week, Attain Partners had the privilege of attending Association of Advancement Services Professionals (aasp) Summit 2022 held in New Orleans, LA. It was a terrific gathering of professionals committed to the practice of their specialized craft in raising funds to allow their organizations to continue their impactful missions. As a certified implementation partner of Salesforce and ascend, Attain Partners was proud to have joined UC Innovation as a sponsor of this event.
One thing we know from our work in higher education is that there is a huge need for modern technology to replace the aging Advancement systems installed 20+ years ago. This was reinforced in almost every conversation during the conference. We believe the Salesforce platform coupled with the purpose-built ascend Advancement product from UC Innovation offer a terrific solution to this problem.
To address this need, this year’s conference had a full track dedicated to the value of leveraging a (new) CRM to support fundraising efforts. There was much discussion on how to select a product as well as an implementation partner. We are very excited to see that clients understand many of the key points we always discuss during the sales cycle as well as the implementation process. The key takeaways from the implementation discussions can be broken down into three main areas: people, process, and data.
People
The success or failure of an implementation all comes down to the people, and implementing a CRM is no different! It starts with executive support, which is critical to the success of the project. Well-trained system users are also critical. To quote several of the conference presenters, “Train, train, and then train some more!” The training effort should be started early in the project and continue well after deployment. Knowing your audience and how they learn is key to providing targeted training.
During implementation, it is also important to ensure you are managing expectations. Let people know complex implementations, including fundraising platforms, is not just a marathon—it’s a triathlon. It is important to plan breaks, celebrate wins, and be clear about how to define success.
Bring the entire team along with you. Have key stakeholders and users review our vendor’s statement of work so they are clear on what falls within the scope’s parameters. This will confirm understanding, gain buy-in, and, eventually, system acceptance.
In addition, don’t underestimate the importance of change management activities, including a solid communication plan that targets all levels of the organization. Having dedicated change management resources will let your users know they are being heard and their work is valued.
Process
While the people are incredibly important, so is the process. Consider your timeline carefully! Don’t try to rush the project, as this could lead to potentially missing key requirements and losing user buy-in along the way. Take into consideration any major campaigns, the year-end, holidays, and vacations. In addition, have a robust risk management process. The unexpected will happen—having a process in place for risk mitigation will allow you to deal with it in a way that is proactive.
When planning the implementation, consider your timelines carefully. Timelines are often set by the implementation partner, based on their capacity. It is important for an organization to understand its own internal capacity, which may require a longer timeline.
Testing the solution is important, but the people you have doing the testing are just as important. When it comes to User Acceptance Testing (UAT), bring in the power users of the system so they can confirm the solution fits their needs and address issues in this stage. This will also help with understanding and adoption later.
Data
A major activity in a migration from a legacy advancement system to a new platform is the migration of data. This can include millions of constituents and relationships and dozens of years of activities and giving history. Often, this data came in from a system pre-dating the current home, was subject to architecture changes over time, and was populated from a host of peripheral systems, such as online giving and event applications.
All this adds up to challenges in getting the data in a consistent format in its new home, coupled with the need to restructure the data to fit the new system, capabilities, and reporting needs, and not just recreate the old structure in a new platform.
To manage this, the presenters at aasp recommended always prepping your data—before and during the implementation. Keep a focus on making sure the past 10 years are as clean as possible, as that is the timeframe for the bulk of reporting and analysis. Rather than trying to boil the ocean, find areas that can be addressed and cleaned individually. Lastly, support the effort by forming a data governance committee with strong representation and decision-making authority to identify and act on issues appropriately.
While it is no small task to move to a new system for Advancement, the good news is that those making the move have peers at aasp who have gone before them and can offer excellent advice on the journey. The other good news is, Attain Partners, Salesforce, and ascend from UC Innovation have the products and services to enable your team to transform advancement operations by moving to a modern system of record and engagement.
Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, Attain Partners is here to help you achieve your goals. Contact our team today to learn how we can help you advance your mission by harnessing the power of Salesforce.
Virginia Berkenkotter is a Certified Salesforce Administrator and Project Manager at Attain Partners. She brings to her role experience in pre-sales, business analysis, re-engineering, and project management. Virginia is able to quickly understand customer pain points and design solutions to meet specific client requirements leveraging expertise from 20+ years of higher education background with technology specialization including 6+ years Salesforce solution expertise, and 18+ years of full life cycle development, business analysis, process design, project management, and pre-sales, with 13+ years Enterprise ERP (Oracle, PeopleSoft).
Leidy Smith is an Associate Business Development Director at Attain Partners. Leidy has spent his career providing innovative solutions within higher education and has been part of the Salesforce ecosystem since 2013. Leidy’s focus is on demonstrating the value of the Salesforce platform and Attain Partners’ services to higher education clients in the areas of student success, recruiting and admissions, corporate relations, and executive education.
https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/aasp.png9671834Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-09-28 10:41:552023-07-20 12:32:15Advancing Advancement at aasp 2022
Attain Partners was thrilled to attend the 2022 America’s SBDC Conference in San Diego, CA, to speak with chapters from around the country about Attain Partners’ Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) Salesforce accelerator and our work with the Michigan SBDC.
Jason Cook and Esteban Silva had the opportunity to have engaging discussions with attendees—many of whom expressed a desire for their organizations to explore switching to a better Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution than what they’re currently using.
Josh Billington and the team from Michigan SBDC led a breakout session in which they discussed their journey migrating off their prior CRM and onto Salesforce. Throughout the interactive session, they fielded many questions from their counterparts who were considering a similar path.
Trends suggest that in today’s rapidly evolving market, basic CRM solutions just don’t meet the changing and dynamic needs of the SBDC network. SBDCs require solutions that can support multiple locations, track impact, and report to the Small Business Association (SBA) with ease—and that’s where Attain Partners’ SBDC solution comes in.
Attain Partners’ SBDC Solution
Attain Partners knows SBDCs. We’ve leveraged our experience with SBDC clients to package our solutions into one streamlined accelerator designed to migrate an SBDC off legacy solutions, replace spreadsheets, and integrate with many data sources. The cloud-based solution enables a seamless Salesforce migration and allows users to manage counseling and events services with a flexible interface and customizable forms.
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We look forward to continuing to foster relationships with SBDC chapters through the collaboration of our great partners at Michigan SBDC. Our team would love to walk you through how this tool can benefit your SBDC. Learn more about Attain Partners’ SBDC Salesforce accelerator here.
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or decades into development, we are here to help you achieve your goals. Interested in discovering how we can help you achieve your goals by harnessing the power of Salesforce? Learn more about our Salesforce innovation services, read case studies about our work, or explore blog posts from our Salesforce team!
About the author
Esteban Silva is an Associate Business Development Director at Attain Partners who partners with nonprofit organizations to guide them to successful and impactful digital transformations. Esteban brings his perspective from 15 years of experience working for and consulting with nonprofit leaders and CEOs to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities facing them.
Salesforce Consulting and Product Partners of the Year for Education team up to create superior solutions
This is a weird time for event management, some of us are back to running events the old-fashioned way, while others are still living entirely in a virtual world. Whichever way you prefer to run your events, Blackthorn and Attain Partners can meet your needs. With Attain Partners’ solution design and implementation expertise and Blackthorn’s superior product capabilities, your organization can easily establish a system to plan and run events with efficiency and ease.
Attain Partners was thrilled to have the opportunity to co-host a partner-led webinar with Blackthorn championing this collaboration during Salesforce.org Week of Learning!
Every implementation expert at Attain Partners has seen more than a few event management apps that integrate with Salesforce, and all of us can tell you that not all integrations are created equal. With most event management tools, you are limited to the features included in the tool itself; there is no app store to extend your event management functionality. If you are lucky, your event integration may include enough data to pull together some basic analytics and tracking information within Salesforce, but there is no guarantee.
Since Blackthorn Events is installed directly into Salesforce, it automatically benefits from the robust set of features and apps that comes with the ever-growing Salesforce ecosystem. Whether you are looking for advanced analytics and reporting available with a Tableau integration or a full 360-degree view of your attendees and their interactions with your organization/institution, Blackthorn + Salesforce can make it happen, and Attain Partners can implement the solution for you.
Automating Event Check-In Process with Blackthorn Events
In-person events have a great edge when it comes to checking in your event attendees. Blackthorn mobile check-in allows anyone with a smartphone to check in attendees as they show up. That means you can log in your volunteers via the mobile check-in app and let them handle the check-in, badge printing, and QR code scanning process without worrying about data security since the only thing they can see is event information from within the app. Not only is mobile check-in effective and simple—it is also included with Blackthorn Events at no extra cost!
Blackthorn Events and Zoom for Virtual Simplicity
If you have ever tried to set up a virtual event using an event management app, chances are you were at least a little frustrated by the experience. With Blackthorn, you can streamline the process to the point where you almost don’t even need to think about setting up your virtual event. By integrating your Zoom account with Blackthorn Events, you can instantly make any Blackthorn event virtual. While building your event, simply enable your Zoom integration, and as your registrants sign up, they will automatically be added to the webinar list and receive the event attendance link in their confirmation email. It is just that easy! Blackthorn even offers integration options with several other webinar providers if you do not use Zoom.
Attain Partners can make Blackthorn work for you
Attain Partners has experience helping clients make Blackthorn Events work for all types of events, and we can do the same for you. To give you an idea of the types of events we have developed Blackthorn solutions for in the past:
College recruitment events for multiple universities, each with unique needs and event configurations. Using the Blackthorn mobile app, it is possible to register and check in walk-up attendees at your event with ease
Orientation weekends set up as multi-day events with breakout sessions and speakers. With Blackthorn, you can create complex, multi-day events without needing to pay for any expensive add-on features
Charity galas that include table reservations, guests, underwriters, and sponsors. The number of out-of-the-box features included in Blackthorn makes it possible to cover your event management needs.
Training webinar series designed to support hundreds of attendees at once. The Blackthorn webinar integration ensures that if you can find the audience, you will never be limited by a maximum number of attendees unless you want to.
Success at Hoag Hospital Foundation
Why is Attain Partners the best implementation partner for Blackthorn products? Because we know their product and its many use cases inside and out. Recently, Attain Partners encountered a specific need that could not be met by what Blackthorn offers out-of-the-box, so we put our skills to work to produce a solution. Hoag Hospital Foundation selected Blackthorn as part of their Salesforce implementation project with Attain Partners, but the only problem was that Hoag hosts multiple gala events a year and needs to be able to manage seating charts for those events. Although out-of-the-box Blackthorn supports the data behind seating charts, the user interface that goes with the seating chart data was not designed for making multiple seating updates quickly. This was going to result in considerable time invested in seating management. Attain Partners stepped in, designed, and created a drag-and-drop user interface for seating management using Lightning Web Components that install on top of Blackthorn Events to extend base functionality and improve the quality of life for Hoag team members. As a result of the custom solution we created for Hoag with Blackthorn, Hoag can now manage their seating assignments in a fast, effective, and modern way, saving their staff multiple hours per event and allowing them to shift their focus to other important tasks.
Events Innovation
We are always looking for the next big thing in events, so if you think you have a unique-use case, we would love to hear about it! Learn more about our Salesforce Innovation services here.
About the Author
Jason Cook is a Principal Consultant at Attain Partners. Jason has worked as a Salesforce implementation expert since shortly after he first discovered Salesforce in 2013. Jason’s passion for database design and creative problem-solving has proven to be an essential ingredient to success for dozens of organizations since he first got his start as an implementation expert.
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https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Blackthorn-Webinar.png9671813Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-09-23 15:44:552024-03-26 14:33:38No matter your event needs, Attain Partners and Blackthorn have you covered
Key Considerations After a Salesforce Implementation
Congratulations! After months of hard work, you and your team have completed a successful Salesforce implementation. Now what?
Many nonprofits don’t have the staff or resources to hire a dedicated Salesforce administrator, and in reality, many nonprofits don’t need one! Chances are, someone on your team has really taken to Salesforce and is interested in taking an active role in helping the team learn the ropes and solving problems that might come up. These people are often called Super Users or Accidental Admins and can be critical to the success of Salesforce at your organization.
Support for your admin
Accidental Admins know the ins and outs of your organization and processes, which is an invaluable aspect of being an effective Salesforce resource for your team. However, no one person knows every facet of Salesforce—and that’s where Managed Services for CRM (previously AttainPlus) from Attain Partners comes in. Having the managed services team in your admin’s corner can help your staff solve problems, provide training, and make improvements. Working with managed services doesn’t just mean getting the support of one more Salesforce expert; it’s a whole team with deep Salesforce knowledge.
Building relationships
Working with managed services means ongoing support from the same team, which allows you and your team to build relationships and trust. Having a team your Accidental Admin can trust provides a safety net and allows them the opportunity to outsource trickier questions rather than expending their time and resources. Chances are, the managed services team has encountered the same issue before and can help resolve it faster than a solo admin could do on their own. Forming relationships with people on the team can make it easier for your Accidental Admin to reach out for help—and to ask for guidance on problems they may want to solve themselves. In addition to making changes to help improve your Salesforce instance, they can also help your Accidental Admin gain confidence and develop a deeper understanding of Salesforce.
Protecting your investment
Salesforce is an ever-evolving ecosystem with multiple platform releases per year, plus app and updates that could make any solo admin’s head spin. The best way to protect your investment in Salesforce is to keep up with these changes and make updates in a thoughtful and intentional way. Teaming up with Attain Partners can help you stay on top of these updates to make sure your Salesforce instance continues to grow with you.
Attain Partners – Salesforce Experts
No matter if your organization is beginning its Salesforce journey or 10+ years into development, we are here to help you achieve your goals. To learn more, check out our Salesforce innovation services and read case studies about our work. Contact Attain Partners today to learn how we can help you achieve your goals by harnessing the power of Salesforce. Explore blog posts from Attain Partners’ Salesforce team.
About the Author
Beth Hintze is a Senior Specialist in the Salesforce Innovation Group. Prior to joining Attain Partners in 2022, she was the Director of Development Operations and Data Systems at the Innocence Project, where she specialized in strategic growth, operations management, and leading Salesforce integrations. She got her start in Salesforce at Patron Technology where she led hundreds of data migrations. She holds an M.A. from NYU in Educational Theater in Colleges and Communities. She spends her time going to punk shows.
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https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Salesforce-up-and-running.png9671813Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-09-21 12:02:322024-08-21 10:28:23Salesforce is up and running! What's next?
Change Management Techniques to Ensure Successful Adoption
It’s go-live day, and after months of design, development, testing, communications, and training, your organization has finally been onboarded to its new, shiny solution. This means your change journey stops here, right? Not quite…
According to Prosci®, a leading organization in change management capabilities and research, while making a change is hard, sustaining a change can be even more difficult. Over the course of the software delivery lifecycle, change managers sequentially build awareness, desire, knowledge, and ability around the organizational and systematic changes associated with a technology transformation. But, what about the “R” of the ADKAR® model? Reinforcement is the final building block of successful change adoption. Successful reinforcement is the result of each individual in the organization practicing, and gradually mastering, the new system and operational processes following go-live.
Post-Implementation Activities Your Change Management Plan Should Include to Support Reinforcement
User Adoption
One way to assess reinforcement needs is to develop visible performance metrics and accountability mechanisms. Implementing user-adoption dashboards is a way to achieve this. The insights gained with such dashboards will be helpful to understand what is working well, what areas may require additional training or communications, or if management direction and intervention may be necessary. Adoption statistics should always be tailored to the end users based on their role and use case for the new technical solution.
Post-Go-Live Change Management Activities
Performance metrics and user adoption dashboards often highlight the business processes where additional training is needed. Indicators that suggest a need for additional training include low engagement for a particular activity (e.g., submitting an expense report), or frequent errors in a business process (e.g., incorrect data or skipped steps). When these indicators arise, change management professionals must be prepared to distribute stakeholder communications urging users to access available training materials. As needed, holding office hours with subject matter experts (SMEs) is also a helpful tactic, providing a forum for end users to get hands-on guidance. When possible, change managers should work with people managers and other influential leaders (e.g., executive sponsors or change network representatives) to help direct colleagues to the available training materials, as well as support their learning through knowledge transfer.
User Feedback
While quantitative gaps in user adoption are often identified through performance metrics, there are qualitative aspects of the user experience that require gathering input directly from users. We encourage change managers to collect qualitative feedback from as many operational stakeholder groups as possible. Effective channels for collecting feedback include interviews, town halls, and surveys. Consistent, qualitative feedback helps change managers understand why certain performance metrics are lagging, allowing them to counteract these challenges with targeted communications, training, coaching, and resistance management.
Reinforcement Matters
Successful change adoption requires careful data collection and thoughtful engagement from change managers long after the new technology solution goes live. Reinforcement of the change begins with establishing key performance indicators that show where users are lagging, tracking, or exceeding organizational goals. Reinforcement succeeds when change managers respond to pain points of user adoption by ensuring that training materials are accessible and utilized. Simultaneously, an open feedback loop with stakeholders across the organization should be maintained.
No matter where your organization is in its organizational change management (OCM) journey, we are here to help you easily navigate through your transformation initiative. Attain Partners has successfully worked with institutions across the United States to conduct a wide array of OCM activities. For more information, or to speak with one of our experts, please contact us here.
Learn more about our Change Management services here.
About the Authors
Kyle Cadieux is a Senior Manager in the Attain Digital practice and an IDEA Board member and founder. Kyle has a demonstrated knowledge in Organizational Change Management, Organizational Design, and Human Capital Management. Prior to Attain Partners, Kyle supported Organizational Transformation work for the Federal Government at various Consultancies. Kyle is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner and holds an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.
Ellen Herd is a Senior Manager in the Attain Digital practice of Attain Partners. Since joining Attain Partners in August of 2021, Ellen has served as the Change Manager on Workday HCM and Financials implementation for a consortium of public universities. Ellen began her career at Accenture, serving in many roles across the software delivery lifecycle, including functional design, configuration, security, testing, and post-production support. Ellen is a Prosci® Certified Change Management Practitioner and holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Duke University.
Being back in-person at this year’s American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Annual Conference in Nashville was a refreshing experience as we continue to navigate the world coming out of the pandemic. There were handshakes, hugs, and smiles abound. Still there were stark reminders of the world we hoped to be leaving behind including masks, sanitizer, and social distancing.
We look at this new world and have to map out a future that keeps changing and adding new opportunities. As I reflect on my time at this event, I want to take a deeper dive into a couple of these items.
Membership Recruitment and Retention
First, we can look at how to find new members as well as keep current members happy and engaged. One thing that remains consistent despite the quickly evolving pandemic guidance is that people want to feel appreciated and a sense of belonging.
Using a multichannel approach for your digital engagement can help meet both of these member desires. When adding new members, find where they are and go after them there. Remember that hope is not a strategy. Doing the research and investing upfront to find your key audience will pay dividends on the backend. Don’t be afraid to experiment and challenge the status quo to find what works best for you and your organization.
While the messaging will be different, use the same approach to keeping your members engaged. Do the research, use a multichannel approach, and experiment.
Delivering a Worthwhile Hybrid Event
Second, perhaps the biggest challenge is how to handle events. The challenges here are numerous and tough to navigate. The key question is how to plan and execute a hybrid event that is successful on all fronts AND drives the revenue to cover the additional costs?
To accomplish this, you need to begin with data analysis and understand the audience that you are targeting. Use the experience of your online events from the last few years to evaluate what was successful and what wasn’t. Data is your friend and to reiterate a previous statement, hope is not a strategy. Perform a ROI calculation and discover the delta that needs to be filled with the additional expenses of making it into a hybrid event. Finally, remember that not all events need to be hybrid. It may not be the right path for your organization and that’s ok.
Partnering for Success
As keynote speaker Safi Bahcall said at the conference, “Every new idea has potential AND is full of flaws.” When we are forced to adapt the way we do business there will always be pains as we work our way through to the correct path forward. One way to shorten and ease this path to success is to find a partner that can help. Partners can help you navigate technology, streamline change, and provide business process reimaging to optimize the way your organization works. By making the work easier and more effective, it will allow your staff to easily collaborate and focus on improve your membership experience. In the end, isn’t that the opportunity that we all want?
Learn More
At Attain Partners, we acknowledge the importance of choosing the right implementation partner. We have the knowledge, experience, and technical expertise to provide you with advice and guide you to ensure you’re getting the most out of your systems and business processes. We have helped hundreds of nonprofit organizations successfully implement solutions tailored to their unique needs since our inception.
Chad Simmons is an Associate Business Development Director at Attain Partners. Since 2013, Chad has helped hundreds of organizations implement innovative technology solutions designed to meet their complex needs. Chad’s focus is demonstrating the value of the Salesforce Platform and Attain Partners’ services to association and healthcare clients.
https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/ASAE.png9671834Olivia PychaOlivia Pycha2022-09-12 13:10:432023-01-06 10:29:56ASAE Summit—Moving Forward with the New Normal
Why should you get Lean Six Sigma (LSS) certified?
Imagine if you had the skills to continuously improve your organization’s processes and report real financial results to leadership.
Tackling complex problems at any organization is difficult, especially if everyone is solving problems in a different way. Having a consistent approach and toolset to drive improvements will make you more effective at solving problems and give you a greater chance of achieving repeatable success in attaining your goals.
Our LSS certification programs help create the capacity for real change in your organization. We ensure the methodology and tools you learn are fully understood and tested in your business environment. By the end of your program, you will have the skills to identify and begin solving the challenges faced by your business.
Five benefits of getting LSS certified with Juran, an Attain Partners company:
1. Learn a new skill set and take your Lean and Six Sigma knowledge to the next level.
2. Grow your career and earn Continuing Education Credits (CEUs).
3. Earn an LSS Certification that is highly accredited and globally recognized.
4. Receive 1:1 project coaching from one of the best Master Black Belts in the industry with over 25+ years of experience.
5. Become a highly valuable and sought-after problem-solving expert at your company.
After a few short weeks of personalized project coaching and self-paced learning, you will have the knowledge and skills to help your organization improve business processes, elevate the customer experience, and drive real financial savings by becoming an Attain Partners | Juran Certified Lean Six Sigma Belt.
Student Testimonials
“Great program! It took a lot of information and made it relatable and understandable.”
“Program contents are very effective and easy to understand. It was very useful learning.”
“The training program is great material, detail, and insight. The content structure and explanation is excellent.”
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Register today!
Ready to drive change at your organization? Registration for our next round of certification programs will begin on May 16, 2023—register here.
Learn more about Juran, an Attain Partners company, here.
https://attainpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/Five-Benefits-of-Getting-LSS-Certified-graphic.png7091344Reach LocalReach Local2022-09-07 14:47:002023-06-16 12:08:14Five Benefits of Getting LSS Certified with Juran, an Attain Partners Company
