February 2020 - Sandyx

Celebrating 10 years of Sandyx

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As we celebrate a decade of company success this month, we thought it’d be nice to look back on how far Sandyx has come over the last 10 years.

From our biggest projects to the changes in our team, our blog covers everything you need to know about the Sandyx journey so far.

Why did we become a Salesforce partner?

By the time we officially sought Salesforce partner status in 2010, the now-giant CRM platform had already began to take great strides.

Salesforce immediately became so attractive to us because it’s such an incredibly flexible platform with the potential to do more than most users realise.

We identified that, with the right development team, Salesforce can do literally anything in regards to CRM. It was swiftly decided then that our mission would be to help more businesses understand the power of CRM by delivering custom Salesforce solutions to organisations in a wide variety of sectors.

Our director went about assembling a team of Salesforce developers and consultants with the right experience and soon after, Sandyx was officially born. Thanks to tools like Salesforce Trailhead, even our newer developers who hadn’t previously used the platform have been able to pick it up in no time and play a huge role in delivering some of our most complex projects.

So, now we had the team of adept developers and enthusiasm for a challenge – all we needed was a big project to really get the ball rolling.

How do you obtain Salesforce partner level status?

If you’re a company looking to become a registered Salesforce partner, you need to have at least 2 Salesforce consultant level certifications under your belt – whether that is one person with two certifications or two people with one each as a minimum.

Registered status partners (like us) tend to be more niche and focus on particular industries or have smaller development teams, making them ideal for implementations in SMEs.

Silver, Gold and Platinum status partners achieve such titles by accumulating points based on 3 factors summarised below.

Global strategic partners, like PwC, exceed Platinum status and snap up the largest Salesforce projects – usually involving 100 licenses or more.

Introducing Salesforce to some of the UK's biggest names

We’ve been incredibly lucky to work with some huge brands over the years.

Some of our clients are UK-based and some are international. Some were completely new to Salesforce and some have been using the platform for years, however every team we have worked with has always received the same no-nonsense, personable and dedicated Sandyx approach.

Check out our infographic detailing everything you need to know about our clients here

Every one of our clients has received a solution tailored just for them and no two results have been the same, whether it was a three year long project or just three months. For example, Hermes came to us needing support with their courier management, whereas Sainsbury’s wanted a flexible solution that would allow them to manage new store implementations.

All of our clients have received ongoing support from the Sandyx development team after their projects are complete, meaning that we never lose touch and have built unceasing loyalty as a result.

What else has Sandyx been up to over the years?

The growth of our marketing department has led to attendance at several events relating to the technology industry, such as the marketingSHOWCASE and the Tech Show North in 2019. We have also released our own custom-built application called AnyCal, which is an interactive calendar booking system developed on the Salesforce platform and is integration friendly for all of our clients. Insight Healthcare are one client in particular who we identified as in need of AnyCal and we were right – the app is still being used by them to this day to book appointments online whilst simultaneously displaying a customisable filter.

Our plans for the future

With a variety of projects in the pipeline, the future’s looking bright and busy for Sandyx. We plan to focus on delivering Salesforce to organisations in the public sector in 2020.

You can follow us on social media to keep updated with our news, events and activities.

How we can help

If you would like to discuss any aspects of the topics discussed in this article, or understand how Salesforce can help your business, then please get in touch. You can also ring us directly, on 0161 710 3250

Delivering Salesforce success to HM Prison and Probation Service

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Sandyx recently had the pleasure of delivering a bespoke Salesforce solution to HM Prison and Probation Service (Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service).

HMPPS is an executive agency under the Ministry of Justice, responsible for correctional services across England and Wales. They provide offender management services for all 104 of the UK’s public sector prisons – which consequently means a lot of data to handle.

What business challenge was Salesforce employed to address?

The most vexing issue facing HMPPS was the lack of data tracking. Given the number of organisations they work with, including local police, courts and councils, it’s unsurprising that they were struggling to keep tabs on everyone. It was swiftly decided that developing a central system to store this information was the most important outcome of this project.

What benefits has HMPPS seen since deploying the solution?

Since deploying our solution, HMPPS has shown enthusiasm about being able to track employment opportunities with other organisations. This includes being able to identify how many individuals need employment and how many employers have opportunities available, alongside more detailed specifics like how long opportunities take to deliver an outcome.

The new process enables HMPPS to see a more detailed overview of how effective or ineffective their methods are as well an overall more unified vision for their regional teams.

Why did HM Prison and Probation Service choose Sandyx?

Sandyx was recommended to HM Prison and Probation Service by Salesforce.

This recommendation partially came from the AppExchange partner portal but also partially through Salesforce recognising our focus on nonprofits.

We are also featured on the Digital Marketplace, an online platform designed to showcase the best in digital services for the public sector. HMPPS expressed how confident they were in our capabilities from the get-go after we pitched our tutorial to them detailing the capabilities of our team. In fact, the HMPPS team were particularly complimentary of our quick response time and the ongoing support they received from Stuart, our principal consultant.

We pride ourselves on always accommodating any changes for our clients as we understand how confusing the implementation process can seem.

Interview with HM Prison and Probation Service

Our principal consultant, Stuart Greig, sat down with Caitlin Perry, the head of strategy and innovation to discuss the service they received from Sandyx. We have summarised the interview into a short Q&A below:

Q: How well did Sandyx communicate with you before, during and after the project?

A: Extremely well – Stuart has been incredibly responsive to all our queries and has always found time to talk through queries, even when they come in at the last minute.

Q: How well did Sandyx adhere to the project times?

A: Perfectly – we pushed back a little but Sandyx were accommodating of that.

Q: How would you summarise the experience of working with Sandyx?

A: I would say that working with Sandyx has been a very positive experience, and continues to be so. Sandyx have been understanding of the different levels of capability amongst the team and pitched their tutorial to match that. They have always been responsive to queries and accommodated the changes we have made to the system.

Q: If you could leave a message for future Sandyx customers, what would it be?

A: Sandyx have made the process of tailoring and understanding Salesforce incredibly simple. I would highly recommend using Sandyx, particularly if you get the benefit of being supported by Stuart!

Contact Sandyx for more information

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