Salesforce Basecamp: the power of the ecosystem showcased in one event
Looking back at our customer event called Salesforce Basecamp, I can only feel extremely proud and pleased. Proud, because of what our team has managed to offer the attendees. And pleased, because we were able to showcase how our investments in the entire Salesforce ecosystem are paying off in Belgium.
Salesforce was the first in the cloud computing space to dream up a business model built on partnership. We recognised that our success hinged on building a vibrant ecosystem. From the beginning, Salesforce has been investing in the success of each customer, developer, and partner we work with. At the foundation of it all is our multi-tenant cloud, because when we innovate for one, everyone benefits.
This ecosystem does not only cover our partners, employees and customers, it also involves stakeholders sharing Salesforce’s ambitions. On one hand we want to offer the best possible technology and tools for organisations to realise their goals and on the other hand we also want to actively contribute to make our world a better place. This often brings us in contact with governments and other public organisations, as we frequently share this same vision.
Therefore we were very proud to welcome two public authorities to our event: Alexander De Croo, Deputy Prime Minister of the Belgian Federal Government, and Neelie Kroes, former European Commissioner for, among others, Digital Agenda. Both fabulous speakers joined our Equality debate to promote gender equality and diversity. We overheard Alexander De Croo offering food for thought such as: “As long as there are more incompetent men than incompetent women at management level, we still haven’t reached full equality. (he jokes)”
Our Deputy Prime Minister also joined me in meeting the fascinating Molengeek organization. This unique project provides opportunities for young talent in the Molenbeek area, which traditionally struggled with a high unemployment rate. It does so by offering them many training programs and by allowing them e.g. to participate in Salesforce Certification Programs. To this purpose, the Salesforce Belux team has already contributed in various ways: free availability of the certification modules and the Trailhead online training platform, and 415 hours of volunteering up to today.
This has resulted so far in some concrete success stories: 8 certified Salesforce administrators, 2 Trailhead Rangers and one student who has become Salesforce employee in the meantime. A splendid example of how we can combine our business objectives with volunteering initiatives to achieve a win-win result for all parties involved.
The above highlights were the icing on the cake of this wonderful event, which also featured compelling customer testimonials by Belgian organisations such as Extensa, Solvay, Attentia, Torfs and D’Ieteren. They convincingly demonstrated the power of Salesforce in many customer-oriented business transformation projects.
This intersection of innovation, giving back and customer success has created tremendous opportunity for everyone in the Salesforce ecosystem. It’s a virtuous cycle that keeps building on itself and giving back to itself.