Innovation never stops with Salesforce Netherlands: how Project Supernova accelerates digital transformation

We are pleased to announce that Salesforce Netherlands has been awarded as the #1 Best Workplace in the Netherlands by Great Place to Work.

This is the fifth consecutive year we have been listed in the top four and it brings me great pride to know that our culture is being recognised by one of the largest surveys in the world for employee experience. Our performance is all due to our employee responses, and when I look back at what we have accomplished this year, one thing immediately comes to my mind: our unwavering commitment to innovation that drives customer success. There is a quote we use often at Salesforce: if you want to go fast, go alone… if you want to go far, go together. We choose to go together. Our customers had never-before-seen challenges to overcome, and we knew we could find never-before-made solutions, but it would require us to do what Salesforce Netherlands does best: think outside the box. And from this, project Supernova was born. A supernova is a powerful stellar explosion where extreme mass comes together in a short period of time, emitting energy and light into the rest of the galaxy. It is a symbol of newness and rebirth. This title felt fitting for our endeavour, which was all about bringing Trailblazers together in a short period of time to ideate, create, and ultimately solve the same problem. The Supernova project reinforced our sense of camaraderie and unity. When we come together, nothing can stand in our way. We are continuing to use the Supernova structure to innovate and empower our customers to achieve new solutions within the Salesforce ecosystem. Salesforce Netherlands’ Innovation Officer Patrick Willer expects the success of the program to continue: “Supernova is about experimenting with innovative and co-creative ways to engage with customers to reduce our cost of sale and their cost of purchase while delivering a tangible MVP that can help their organisations to transform.” Supernova is a program dedicated to helping customers accelerate their innovation development. For the initial launch of the program, Salesforce employees nominated their customers who were on board with collaborating- after all, nothing can be done right if the customer is not able to be a part of the conversation- and focusing on a specific project for twelve weeks. Once the customer’s challenge was identified, we brought together Trailblazers from every department- from solution engineers to sales, marketing, and professional services- for coaching, designing, building, and listening to customer feedback, until an innovative solution has been created. Our first Supernova project was to create an app for KWF, the Dutch Cancer Society, to help their supporters raise funds seamlessly. The app needed to give users— in this case, the volunteers wanting to fundraise— the ability to select the location where they wanted to fundraise and order their fundraising materials.The creation of the app allowed KWF and Salesforce to create a QR code that the fundraisers would share instead of asking for cash donations to be put in the historically used collection boxes, and the app then tracks each contribution. In the past, individual coordinators were assigned to specific locations and would receive collection boxes from volunteers. The QR code was a safer and easier way for collectors to receive donations, and allowed the coordinators at KWF more time to work on other important initiatives. The creation of this app and operationalizing of digital collecting is an opportunity for many other charities that fundraise as well.

Supernova brought individuals together from different teams, each with different strengths and experiences, for the sole purpose of CUSTOMER SUCCESS. The team also brought in associates who were working with completely different customers to get an outsider’s perspective, making sure we were looking at the problem from every angle. Possibilities were endless, and with the Salesforce ecosystem to support the team, we provided our customers with the best people, knowledge, and guidance. We left nothing off the table: hackathons, design thinking sessions, and product workshops were all leveraged to develop brand-new solutions. Esmeé To, Technical Consultant at Salesforce, was part of the team that brought the ideas to life: “This process was unique because it was practically backwards- instead of starting with a scope of work and specific Salesforce products purchased, we started by exploring the customer’s business challenges and out-of-the-box ideas to address them. From there we figured out what Salesforce products could help us turn those crazy ideas into a reality.” To ensure that collaboration came easily to the Supernova team, our Slack First Customer 360 product powered us the entire way. Slack and its integrations into the Salesforce ecosystem gave us the ultimate communication ability- including communicating with our clients who were on Slack, but outside of our organisation. We wanted to inspire our Trailblazers and let them bounce ideas off each other in person, so with safety in mind, we dedicated a co-creation space in the Edge office building in Amsterdam. Our achievement as the #1 GPTW in the Netherlands is a wonderful title to have, and the people at Salesforce Netherlands are what makes us truly great. I am so proud to be surrounded by folks who are passionately motivated to help our customers— and help each other— every day. Learn more about the customer success stories from our first round of Supernova here.