Salesforce Updates
Since November 2022, Salesforce has had two major releases, which John Stobie – Public Sector Leader for Ireland, Scotland, NI, and Wales at Salesforce – was keen to update attendees on. John specifically focused on updates to Salesforce’s Public Sector Solutions (PSS) framework, which has matured significantly, and been tweaked to be even more relevant to public sector bodies within the UK.
Scottish public sector leaders are embracing Salesforce technology for a multitude of purposes, including: survey design, service desk/ticketing management, regulated licence application management, employment position design, automating business solutions, and much more. Some public sector organisations are also making use of sales and tracing systems – utilising Sales Cloud and adjacent technologies, in unexpected ways. The Scottish National Investment Bank is a great example of this, you can read the case study here.
To round of his presentation, John highlighted some of Salesforce’s 2022 achievements, which included large and local-scale charity contributions and projects, as well as a commitment to sustainability and net zero technology. In particular, Salesforce Tower Dublin was given a spotlight as the most sustainable building in Dublin, with a biodiverse rooftop and over 60,000 bees. We look forward to our first official visit!
Guest Speakers
At both of our public sector events, we’ve been lucky enough to have two guest speakers who are willing to share their positive experiences with Bluewave. This time, we were joined by Dragos Leonte of Education Scotland and Ian Hepburn of Marine Scotland – two Scottish Public Sector organisations that we’ve worked closely with and have a solid, ongoing relationship with now.
Dragos Leonte – Head of Corporate Digital Services at Education Scotland discussed how Bluewave successfully delivered a project for his team within a tight timeframe, specifically giving thanks to Gopal Dixit – Senior Business Analyst at Bluewave – for his contribution to the project. His talk was followed with a lively Q&A session, as attendees were keen to hear about Dragos and his team’s experiences. As part of the talk, Dragos explained why he feels it’s so beneficial for public sector entities to work together, and his belief that collaboration can help organisations “cushion the blow” of a new technology stack. This approach was welcomed at today’s event. Jokes, recommendations, and expertise were all shared – in equal measure.
Ian Hepburn – Future Marine Funding Delivery Lead at Marine Scotland was our second customer to take to the stage to share his experiences with Bluewave. Ian joined the Scottish office in 1982 as an Assistant Fishery Officer and has been involved in the Scottish Public Sector ever since. He has worked closely with Liz Craig, as DTS supported the modernisation of Marine Scotland’s systems. It was Liz that suggested Ian contacted Bluewave to see if our bespoke Salesforce solutions could help his organisation. Needless to say, the collaboration was a success, and has resulted in a successful deployment.
Ian detailed Marine Scotland’s digital transformation journey, as well as why he chose Salesforce technology in the first place – the out-of-the-box cloud-based functionality, it’s positive reputation within the Scottish Public Sector, etc. Ian also highlighted several members of the Bluewave team, including David Weatherspoon, Muriel Almeida, Adam O’Keeffe-Smyth, and Simon O’Leary for their communication, technical expertise, and contributions to the project. When discussing how well Bluewave and Marine Scotland worked together, Ian described that “It felt like a family affair.”
Net Zero Cloud Updates
Finian Quinn – Business Development Director and Net Zero Practice Lead at Bluewave – refused to let the flu stop him from delivering his scheduled presentation on the day. Despite being unwell, he showcased the new upgraded version of Salesforce Net Zero Cloud remotely, via the COSLA Centre’s AV equipment, and thankfully, the presentation went without a single technical hitch!
Net Zero Cloud provides essential carbon reporting functionality, but it also goes beyond that. The innovative solution allows forward-thinking organisations to account for Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions, from stationary assets, employee travel, commuter emissions, to suppliers – this data is all collated within Net Zero Cloud, providing a single source of truth that allows business leaders to calculate a comprehensive carbon footprint, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. One key update to the solution is that this tool can now be used for diversity, equity, and inclusion tracking also, providing help to improve the wellbeing of a business overall, from carbon emissions to equality measures. Find out more about Net Zero Cloud here.
Public Sector Solutions
John Stobie took to the stage a second time to deliver a comprehensive overview of Salesforce’s Public Sector Solutions suite. This toolkit consists of solutions that are purpose built for large-scale government bodies. Rather than building solutions from scratch, PSS consists of templates and apps that are easy to use, built with a “clicks not code” principle that means you don’t have to be a tech expert to use them. Think of PSS as “government in a box” – a series of easy to use solutions with simplified UX that organisations can hit the ground running with.
Public Sector Roundtable
Our Scottish Public Sector events are designed to facilitate collaboration between different departments within Scotland’s public sector. The roundtable session was a great opportunity to open the floor to our attendees so that they can share experiences, knowledge, and advice. We created an environment where leaders within this space can ask questions, share issues they’ve been having, and reach out to their counterparts in neighbouring organisations to see what works for them. While we keep the details of those conversations private, what we can say is that this, like last year’s session, was extremely productive. It has been great to get everybody together to discuss the different ways in which leaders within this space are facing and overcoming key challenges, in order to deliver for the citizens of Scotland.
Networking
While serious discussions and technical demonstrations are par for the course at our user group sessions, we’d like to stress that our events are far from a classroom environment. This event, like last year’s was mostly an informal gathering of like-minded people. Many laughs were had throughout the event, and there was also time between presentations to network, grab some food, and have a couple of drinks in the recreation areas provided by COSLA. The event also ended with a lively drinks reception, where the atmosphere was informal and friendly. It’s safe to say that it was a great event, and we’d like to thank all of our attendees and speakers for making the session such a success.
We’re looking forward to hosting our next one soon; please stay tuned for more updates from this event, plus an update on the next Scottish Public Sector User Group towards the end of this year.
If you’d like to know more about Bluewave and the work we do, please contact our experts today.
