Trisha’s Take: #DF18 Highlights from the Salesforce Ecosystem
Dreamforce truly is a conference like no other. For members of the Salesforce Partner Community, in particular, it’s more than a chance to network, attend sessions, and go to a Metallica concert. It’s also a time to see what other partners of all sizes are doing and learn how they’re leveraging the Salesforce platform.
For me, Dreamforce is also a chance to give back to our Ohana by sharing nCino’s perspective as one of the larger partners in the ecosystem. Below are some of my key takeaways from this year’s event.
Build a Strong, Diverse Team of Talented People
I was honored to be part of a lineup for an incredible Dreamforce session titled “What it Means to be a Trailblazing Partner.” The Trailblazing Partner program highlights the stories of Salesforce partners for the entire Ohana through storytelling and innovation, and the speakers on this panel included myself, Ashley Allen from ITequality, Dina Rulli from Classy, and Holly Rushton from Salesforce.
For me, being a Trailblazer means not being afraid to be different, to stand up for what you believe in, to take risks in business, and to change an industry. It means being thoughtful about equality and mentoring the next generation of leaders.
As I shared on the panel, the decisions that have the biggest impact on nCino and our success are our people. If you hire the right people and create a culture where those people feel empowered, anything can happen. Diversity is a huge part of that, and something I truly value. You can see this in our DNA, with 50% of my direct reports in Product Development and Engineering being women. Even with nCino’s track record, we can’t stop talking about the importance of more diversity, of raising the bar and doing better. I was grateful for the chance to keep that conversation going at Dreamforce.
Create a Culture of Learning and Empowerment
This year’s Dreamforce marked the inaugural Trailhead keynote. Trailhead is a fantastic way to learn Salesforce skills quickly and efficiently so they can become empowered members of their teams. During the keynote Cassidy Lamb, a Senior Engineering Manager at nCino took the stage to share how nCino used Trailhead to reduce developer onboarding from three months down to just six weeks while doubling the size of our team and fostering a culture of ongoing learning.
Cassidy shared how the curated Trailhead content gave time back to our teams, allowing management to focus on the development of soft-skills training and the delivery of coaching sessions. It’s also provided access to content that helps us be more thoughtful in our hiring processes, like the Cultivate Equality at Work trail. As Cassidy says, “Earning badges in Trailhead has had the added benefit of allowing me to build empathy for the work that our team does day-to-day, which is an important part of our culture at nCino.”
It’s an incredible case study and a great example of nCino’s commitment to helping our employees succeed from the very beginning. I’m proud that Cassidy could share this story on the stage at Dreamforce.
Leverage Other Partners to Create Stronger Products
Onfido, another AppExchange partner, is a software company that helps businesses verify identities using a photo-based identify document, a selfie, and artificial intelligence algorithms. nCino works with Onfido on KYC — when we onboard a customer, Onfido helps us verify that the person is who they say they are.
As all bankers know, compliance isn’t getting any easier, and governments are relying on financial institutions more and more to identify, report and stop money laundering and fraud. As fraud rates become more frequent, hackers grow savvier and fines get steeper, this is becoming a serious challenge. By working with Onfido to take care of KYC and enterprise onboarding, nCino is able to provide a stronger, safer and more secure product to our bank customers, so they can focus what they do best — providing excellent service to their customers. Seeing a joint presentation between our two companies and watching partnerships form within the financial services cloud was a great example of what’s possible within our ecosystem.
Embrace Artificial Intelligence as a Tool
As we enter what some are calling the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming more important and useful. When used strategically, these tools can enhance your products, giving them a competitive edge. Rather than replace a human workforce, AI can be leveraged to make jobs easier, freeing employees to use their higher-level skills, such as creativity, problem-solving and analysis, which is often more enjoyable and engaging work.
Nathan Snell, nCino’s Chief Innovation Officer, spoke at Dreamforce about some of the leaps and bounds we are making as we incorporate AI into the nCino Bank Operating System. Because nCino keeps all the bank’s data in a single, unified platform, nCino IQ (also known as nIQ) will be able to make timely, personalized and relevant recommendations. This allows the employee to always take the “next best action” and leads to higher productivity and customer satisfaction. Nathan did a great job sharing the road map for nIQ and our vision for the bank of the future.
As usual, Dreamforce was a great opportunity to share, learn and grow within the Salesforce Partner Community. We can’t wait to see what 2019 will bring.
