Varant Bomoushakian, co-founder of Australian Registered Training Organisation (RTO) Upskilled has created a successful company based on shortfalls in the existing career training industry. “The cookie cutter formula that’s repeated throughout the industry gives students little by way of flexibility.We thought we can definitely do it better.”

Upskilled started in a spare room of Bomoushakian’s parents’ home, with only a couple of laptops, one course and an intake of 18 students. Four years and ten thousand students later, Upskilled has grown to more than 70 locations all seamlessly managed in the Salesforce Sales Cloud.

Bomoushakian recalls how he and partner Joel Gage were caught unaware by how quickly the growth pains kicked in. In just three months the business had outgrown the makeshift office and the pair found themselves struggling to match courses to students in Excel spreadsheets. The company moved into new premises, but their staff was growing so quickly that they would sometimes run out of chairs for meetings. Bomoushakian made a snap decision to take control of the data before it posed a risk to customer relationships.

Today Upskilled operates from state-of-the art St Leonards offices with plenty of room for expansion. Equally important is Salesforce, underpinning the business and delivering a highly scalable platform for continued growth.

In Salesforce, every inbound enquiry automatically routes to a course advisor, who makes contact with the prospective student while still top of mind. A complete view of customer profiles and past interactions keep conversations relevant. A process that used to take 24 hours now typically happens within four. “Salesforce gives every lead the best possible chance of converting,” notes CEO Jon Lang.

The enrolment process, previously incorporating a painstaking paper form required for government regulatory compliance, is now automated through the website, and Salesforce prepopulates fields to reduce the whole process down to around three minutes.