I have a unique perspective from the past 14 years being part of a cloud communications startup during the birth of ‘cloud’ through two different acquisitions and changes of unified communications.

Startup Stage

In 2003, I was the first employee for Geckotech, a pioneer SaaS business phone service organization - designing business strategy, creating operational processes, and developing and implementing target product and service vision.

I managed staff across managed service delivery, help desk operations, and core infrastructure management. Playing an integral role in building the company, laid the operational and infrastructure groundwork that sold for $8M after just seven years. Executing operations in full our team earned a spot for several years on the Inc 5000 list for fastest-growing companies.

Growth Stage

In 2010, Geckotech was acquired by M5 Networks - a NY based SaaS business phone service provider. I spearheaded efforts at Geckotech LLC to integrate employees, core competencies, systems, and knowledge of the internal culture while doubling the service delivery team.

I directed 25+ employees from three teams across three locations responsible for onboarding all new clients. I worked cross-functionally to complete projects and design and implement cross-functional processes within Salesforce.com, leveraging ITIL best practices. Applying customer demand research and data, I influenced product and service offerings.

My teams helped improved initial recurring revenue install volumes by 50% and raised the new (Net Promoter Score) NPS— revamped install methodology to boost quality and speed, implemented automated campaigns for fewer customer-reactive interactions, and encouraged account teams to communicate and collaborate more productively.

Product Transformation Stage

In 2012, ShoreTel acquired M5 Networks in which I transitioned from business operations to focus on the core product - a Software as a Service voice platform.

I Worked as Agile product owner for the voice platform, consisting of 85% of the Cloud product’s recurring revenue. Led product team members, including the core ecosystem—premises, cloud and hybrid voice service, e-commerce platform, and service delivery infrastructure. My teams analyzed requirements to implement changes and create excellent customer experiences.

Presented unique service offerings, Expert Start and Jump Start, to improve quality and on-boarding speed of new clients. Launched the introductory product post-acquisition—the ShoreTel-branded phone series for the Cloud platform—which completed the end-to-end user experience.

Oversaw business requirements and worked with developers and cross-functionally from the design stage through execution for a client order management platform, serving as project lead.

Present Stage

After leaving ShoreTel, I started my entrepreneurial journey at Dreamforce and later obtained my certification. I applied Salesforce expertise to help Shake Shack improve the capabilities within the retail locations— store manager efficiency, customer interactions, and processes.

As part of the Salesforce Service Cloud implementation;

Reduced overhead and costs related to shipping gift cards by implementing email QR code integration to track issued cards better.
Replaced excessive email program that provided store information and news with a daily report dashboard using case automation rules, improving store manager efficiency and simplifying donation approval process.
Migrated all customers, case data, and information from Desk.com to Salesforce Service Cloud for comprehensive trend reporting.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my journey. Let me know how I can help your business. I can be reached at 646.634.2114 or a quick visit to the contact us page.

Best,

Randa Green

The Pukka Panda

"Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages. However, communication is effective only when the message is understood and when it stimulates action or encourages the receiver to think in new ways." (Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, and Barbara E. Schatzman, Business Communication Essentials. Pearson, 2004)

As we are buried in endless communication from every channel, we need to bypass information overload and help our audience capture and lock into their memory?

In the beginning, its simple…

Being the first employee for a startup, I designed and implemented the operational processes used with the systems to support the voice SaaS business. At Geckotech, I led the teams responsible for implementation, customer service, and the data center infrastructure. Since we were all located within one office, communicating change was simple - and it occurred frequently. A combination of email communication, weekly training sessions, and management of defined metrics was a great recipe for success.

Once business grow into more than one location, the recipe needs to adapt. In fact, using an application called RescueTime to understand productivity by application use, I noticed that my email usage went from 5 hours a week to 15 hours a week when managing teams across different locations!

When you grow, it becomes a challenge...

When M5 Networks acquired Geckotech, I transitioned to oversee business process and the service delivery teams which span across several locations. As a growing business implementing new technology and systems, it was a careful challenge to communicate change effectively and continue to maintain top NPS scores. Technology and systems will only have the expected impact when the people and change process are managed properly.

Emails, meetings, Powerpoint decks posted on Salesforce.com chatter, and knowledge base articles didn’t seem to be enough to effectively communicate the information required to both the impacted teams and the rest of the company. After all, everyone else is using the same communication channels. Rewind back to the comment about information overload... As a company, we adopted quarterly change sprints so make change consistent. Even with a corporate movement, there is room for creativity.

It’s time to disrupt the norm…

I can almost guarantee your message will be the only one in the restroom. Just like we need to take some time away from our smartphone and technology at times, we also need a ‘bio’ break!

I found the ‘sacred’ place a great way to capture everyone’s attention and generate some funny emails from those who were shocked by the placement. Here are some tips that I learned along the way through positive and constructive feedback which I used to iterate into the weekly posts.