Customer Experience: a conversation MARISKA BOGAARD FROM FLEETCOR®
We spoke with Mariska Bogaard - Rethans, Senior Vice President of Marketing at FLEETCOR, about the organization, her role within it, the complexity of their Salesforce environment, and the collaboration with IT-Consolidated. Mariska shares her experiences with Jos and the value he adds to consolidating and continually optimizing this environment.
Firstly, could you tell us something about Fleetcor and your role within the company?
Mariska: "Fleetcor is an international company that assists businesses with their business payments, mainly focusing on mobility services for fleets, including fuel cards and charging solutions for electric vehicles. Our proposition is unique because we offer an end-to-end solution, including home charging stations where we pay the costs directly to the electricity company. Within Fleetcor, I am responsible for the center of excellence for marketing. My team manages all digital and marketing activities for Europe and the UK, including paid media, website, social media, and PR."
How did you come into contact with IT-Consolidated?
"I approached Jos Vervoorn, the owner of IT-Consolidated, about 2.5 years ago via LinkedIn. Our Salesforce environment was very complex due to Fleetcor's many business acquisitions. Each acquired company had its own CRM system and Salesforce setup, making integration challenging. I wanted to consolidate the Salesforce environment for more synergy. Jos agreed to help. Although his original task was consolidation, his role has grown over the past 2.5 years to managing the entire Salesforce platform in our region, including overseeing Salesforce developers."
What do you appreciate about Jos?
Mariska enthusiastically explains: "What I really appreciate about Jos is that he adds real value. He understands perfectly how to bridge the gap between the needs of the business and its development in Salesforce. I'm not an IT person, but I know exactly what I want from the business, especially for sales and marketing. Jos can explain in understandable terms, in plain language, what this means technically for Salesforce. That's a truly rare skill. Some people speak fluent IT jargon, others understand the language of business, but Jos can do both. He seamlessly brings those two worlds together, and that's what makes our collaboration so enjoyable."
Are there any other things you can tell us about your collaboration?
"Our collaboration at Fleetcor mainly revolves around maximizing our Salesforce environment without unnecessary costs or complex developments. Jos continuously looks at how we can best utilize Salesforce's standard functionalities without immediately resorting to custom solutions. He always seeks simple and cost-effective solutions for the business, and I greatly appreciate that. Jos is reliable and keeps his promises, which creates a strong foundation of trust."
She continues: "Another aspect where Jos excels is his ability to communicate effectively at all levels. He can interact well with stakeholders as well as developers and business analysts. His flexibility is also remarkable, given the speed at which Fleetcor operates. We are a dynamic company that constantly acquires businesses, and Jos can easily adapt to changing situations and rapidly evolving needs. He has outlined a clear roadmap for Salesforce, considering both short-term changes and long-term visions. I trust that under his management, we are steering the right course as a company."
Customer Experience: a conversation with Frank de Haan from DEPT®
Why choose IT-consolidated as your Salesforce partner? Who better to ask than our own customers. That is why today, we give the floor to Frank de Haan of Dept:
What does DEPT® do?
DEPT® is a global digital agency that uses technology and marketing to help brands stay ahead. DEPT® creates end-to-end digital experiences on a global scale with a boutique culture. With a team of more than 2,500 digital specialists on more than 5 continents, DEPT® works for top brands such as Google, bol.com, Philips, Eneco, Univé insurance, Just Eat Takeaway, Otrium and more.
What is your function?
I am the head Salesforce administrator. This means that I am responsible for our Salesforce CRM. In this CRM, all our teams keep track of their customers and contacts and ensure that everything they sell is neatly tracked. My job is to make sure that all teams understand and use the system well. In addition, we are continuously looking at how we can improve our environment so that the teams can do their work faster and more efficiently. Think of links with other systems, new features within the environment and many reports and dashboards to give the teams the insights they need. Everything is tracked in a roadmap that I manage, together with our strategic sales team. In addition, DEPT® is growing fast and we regularly take over other agencies. It is my responsibility to ensure that these offices integrate well into our environment.
What does IT-consolidated do for you?
IT-consolidated has been helping us from the beginning (4 years ago) with setting up and rolling out Salesforce within DEPT®. All functionalities, the user interface and the links have been set up together with IT-consolidated.
How do you experience the collaboration with IT-consolidated?
I will be very honest about this. Without Jos, our Salesforce environment would not have been at the level it is now. His flexibility and commitment have ensured that our Salesforce environment is currently one of the most reliable systems within DEPT®. He has been my support from the very beginning and together we have been able to bring a lot of heavy projects to a good result. He knows a lot about all Salesforce facets and is always willing to think along or take a look. I am very grateful to him for everything he’s done!