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Sinclair Spectrum and how it kicked off many careers

So many of us in the IT/Cloud/Tech space started out with a Spectrum, a Commodore, or BBC computer. Even Marc Benioff started off writing games for Atari, so we are in good company. So thank you to those early pioneers, those we now call Trailblazers. People such as Sir Clive Sinclair, who sadly passed away yesterday. 

 

Sinclair Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer which was released in the UK in the early 1980s. It was one of the first mainstream home computers and captured many a child’s attention. 

I was recently visiting my parents house and happened to have brought my messenger bag that is styled to look like a ZX Spectrum. Upon seeing it my Dad went away and rummaged around upstairs, surprising me with the original ZX Spectrum he bought me many years ago to match.

It is the 48k ZX Spectrum that my father came home with in 1984. 

For those reading this of a younger vintage, the 48k stands for the 48 KB of RAM available to the entire computer, to give some perspective the first iPhone launched with 128 MB of RAM, or 131072 KB! 

Impressionable 8 year old me was soon bored of the three games that came with it and found out that by typing the programs in the manual, I could create my own games, and even better I could make the machine call my brothers names repeatedly with just 2 lines of code and a run command. 

Spectrum Books

More books were brought and magazines collected to allow my new found hobby to grow.

Instead of Stack Overflow and Trailhead, techniques and code were shared by the Spectrum Community in magazines and were typed in over many hours, in the hopes that the typo gods were kind, they often were not. 

A programmer was born, and like me thousands of children in the UK cut their teeth in development this way. Although I could not appreciate it at the time, lessons learned then still impact my work today.

This is the first program that I copied from the manual. 

Chapter 3 of the manual available here.

I agree it is very rudimentary and at first glance, does not appear to be related to how we should be coding today, but in only 7 lines of code we are covering the following. 

Documenting code

10 REM Guess the number

Tells us clearly what the code is doing

Using Variables

20 INPUT a: CLS

Tells us that a number that is entered is going to be stored in the variable ‘a’ (storage was a valuable resource and was not spent on meaningful variable names back then)
CLS just clears the screen to ensure that the guessing player can not see it. 

30 INPUT “Guess the Number”, b

Is requesting data from the user and storing that value into variable ‘b’ for testing. 

Conditions

40 IF b=a THEN PRINT “That is correct”: STOP

50 IF b<a THEN PRINT “That is too small, try again”
60 IF b>a THEN PRINT “That is too big, try again”

Here we are testing if the value stored in variable b is equal to , less than or more than a, and then displaying feedback to the user, as well as stopping the program if the correct value has been entered. 

Loops

70 GO TO 30
This completes the code by telling the program to go to line 30 and request a new number. 

This sort of loop is not available in salesforce, but the understanding of code coming back to a starting position is still relevant. 

Today the Raspberry Pi is the only computer that I can think of that fills this void, and the power of the machines and instant avenue of help available via the internet has changed the way people learn to code.

 

Thank you to those Trailblazers, and the fond memories they gave us!

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Dreamforce 2021: What we are looking forward to

If you’re part of the Salesforce eco-system, Dreamforce needs no introduction. But if you’re not, then Dreamforce is a ‘global family reunion for all [Salesforce] stakeholders… where we share innovation, customer success, and thought leadership.’ The event returns next week, Tuesday 21st to Thursday 23rd September 2021.

 

Salesforce+

Salesforce Plus

This year Dreamforce 2021 will be in-person in San Francisco (invite-only), and streamed free online via the all-new Salesforce+. Expect over 100+ hours of original content spread across four channels, covering every role, industry, and topic.

 

Dreamforce 2021 Highlights

As with previous Dreamforce event, there’s plenty for Trailblazers to keep busy over the three days. Expect over 100+ hours of original content spread across four channels, covering every role, industry, and topic. Here are some of the highlights from Dreamforce 2021 that some of us at Cloud Galacticos are looking forward to:

 

Ben Duong, Marketing Manager

“It’d be strange this year being virtual (unless you got an invite for the in-person event in San Francisco), but glad that more people can experience it. For me the keynote with Marc Benioff is always a highlight. It’s a good pep talk and you get the latest updates from the man himself. The special guests are always a nice surprise.

I will miss the buzz of being in San Francisco, but the show must go on. Fingers crossed again for Dreamforce 2022!“

 

Paul Battisson, COO

“Hearing more about the Slack acquisition and the vision for how it will enhance what you can already do on the platform. Salesforce has made a big investment by purchasing Slack and I’m sure they will have a ton of ideas on how to make the most out of combining the two.

The other thing for me is always the developer information – what new tech will we get to see and play with? I’m expecting Salesforce Functions/Evergreen will feature heavily, but the session being called “Innovation from Anywhere with Salesforce Developers” makes me hope there is some new announcement about Salesforce Code Builder.”

 

Phil Walton, CEO

“It is good to see that despite the much reduced amount of content at this virtual DF, there is still room for ‘True to the Core’. It is great to see the new stuff, the hype of new tools, clouds, things being launched ‘soon’…but for many of us there are also tweaks and improvements to existing features, and that is what is given the much needed TLC here.

Another session I will keep an eye out for is ‘Tapping into the Gold Medal Mindset’ on Day 3. I am totally guessing here, but with Salesforce’s partnership with TeamGB, I am hoping maybe we can get to hear from some of the heroes of the Olympics and Paralympics, and hear more about the partnership.  See info about the partnership here...”

 

Dreamforce 2021 Sign Up

Don’t forget to sign up – it’s free! And keep tabs on the latest updates on Twitter via #DF21.

How to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation

How to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation

The Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation is the latest exam success for Val Southern. The exam covers the likes of Process Builder, Approval Process, Workflow, and Einstein Next Best Action. We spoke to Val to find out more about how she approached the exam, as well as any tips she might have for other Salesforce professionals thinking of taking this exam. 

 

What made you decide to take the Process Automation Accreditation?

Val SouthernAs a self-confessed process automation fan (flow-natic??), I’m always on the lookout for ways to test my knowledge. I like to keep up with the latest automation features to recommend or implement for Cloud Galacticos customers.

When the Partner Learning Camp launched some new accreditation exams, I immediately searched for an automation exam to have a go at! 

 

 

 

 

 

How did you approach the prep?

I’m normally very methodical about the approach to any exam. Usually I’ll go through the exam guide carefully and make a list of the areas I need to prioritise for learning or need refreshing. Then I’ll search for resources, prepare my own notes for revision and make sure I’m ready before exam day. 

With this exam, I was feeling confident because, as part of my role, I work with all types of Salesforce automation tools regularly and I recently refreshed my knowledge through Trailhead and research. On stepping through the specific exam prep curriculum, I found I had already recently completed most of the modules, so I finished the rest, stepped out of character and signed up to take the exam on the same day!

 

Any tips on how to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation?

Salesforce Process Automation I’d say it was reasonably tough. As usual there were straight questions and scenario-based questions. I certainly didn’t attain a 100% score but managed to secure a pass! 

As always, I would not recommend a ‘flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants’ approach. But I did learn to relax a little in an area I know very well.

My advice would be to absorb as much information as possible. Cover all areas of Salesforce automation through researching release notes, completing the curriculum for the exam, and feel confident in your own experience!

 

 

 

What does passing the accreditation mean to you in terms of your daily work?

This accreditation confirms to me that I am on-track in keeping up to date with the automation tools available to do my job well and will hopefully provide customers with the confidence of my experience and knowledge in this area.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certifications you plan to take in the future?

I plan to complete Certified B2B Solution Architect as soon as time will allow. This follows on from the Certified Application Architect which I gained this earlier. It will help to re-cement my studies from that, plus hopefully hone my Architect skills further.

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce consultancy with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our company has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

 

Digital City Awards, Best Small Digital Company Finalist 2022

London’s Calling Platinum Sponsor 2022

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Salesforce User Experience Designer Certification

At Cloud Galacticos, we encourage our team to stay ahead of the curve. So we are proud to confirm that on of our consultants, Luke, has recently passed his Salesforce User Experience Designer certification. We spoke to him to get his thoughts on his latest exam success.

 

 

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification?

I’m passionate about design and user experience. The exam presented a great opportunity to formalise these interests. It’s a real positive to see how much work Salesforce have put into recognising and formalising the disciplines and professional practice of User Experience, Design Thinking, Inclusive/Accessible Design and Service Design in a systems setting.

 

How did you approach the prep for your exam?

I followed the Trailmix provided by Trailhead in the first instance which covers the core topics of the exam. In addition to this I did a lot of research into the Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS). This is a vast area which is a key part of the exam. I also widened my research to look at company examples of patterns. I also watched some helpful videos on YouTube, and generally refreshed my knowledge.

 

Was it a difficult exam? You have any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

I actually failed the exam the first time round. After I reviewed my performance using the Salesforce Certification Checker (by Sean Cuvanov) to identify where I needed to focus my efforts, I tried again five days later. 

Here are my tips:

  • Know your SLDS: Guidelines, Patterns, Blueprints, Tokens, Frameworks, LWC. There was a focus on Buttons, GRIDS, Branding & Themes.
  • Know when and where to use declarative tools. Sounds simple and is relatively straightforward but it links the tool to the impact on the user experience rather than just functionality of the tool.
  • Be confident on discovery, design thinking, inclusive design, accessible design, engaging with users, ideation, prototyping and iterative development.
  • Know what Heuristic testing is.
  • Anyone who has completed the Administrator or Platform App Builder Certification may recognise that they have covered a good deal of the Trailmix content when they first view it. Don’t underestimate that this may be old knowledge that needs a refresh. Make sure to look at the exam guide. Prioritise where you individually need to focus. It’s easy to chase down 50% of remaining modules to complete the Trailmix without going back over things you may have covered some time ago.

 

What does passing the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification mean to you in terms of your daily work?

Passing the certification reaffirmed a key intention that I use on a daily basis. Don’t sacrifice design to deliver a quick solution. Also, don’t create a solution before correctly understanding the requirement, and who you’re designing for.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certs you plan to take in the future?

Yes, I’m always looking for certifications that will help to further knowledge or improve performance on a live project so I will likely try to pick one more up in 2021. 

 

Anything else you want to add?

I just want to credit and thank Angela Conway for spreading the word about the User Experience Certification at the Newcastle Salesforce Community User Group which I co-lead. Angela, like myself, is based in Newcastle and she was part of the team that developed the certification which is a huge success story for the region. Connect with her to find out about her unique story! In addition to this, a shout out to Adam Doti and Melanie Wachs from Salesforce for engaging on Social Media and looking for ideas and suggestions to improve and receive feedback.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

 

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Salesforce Einstein Automate / Flow Orchestrator Review

Summer ‘21 seems to be a big release for automation (especially Einstein Automate). I’m like a kid on Christmas morning checking it all out!

One feature I’m impatient to unwrap and get my hands on is the new and shiny ‘Flow Orchestrator’ (Pilot). I can already tell that this is set to be my new favourite feature when it becomes generally available.

 

So what is it?

Salesforce has introduced Flow Orchestrator within its ‘Einstein Automate’ suite of features. It smooths the user and customer experience, through combining data from multiple sources with powerful automation and AI.

 

What are the Einstein Automate features?

Here’s the current summary from Salesforce which shows in a nutshell what sits within Einstein Automate:

"Features

 

The point of Einstein Automate is to make it simpler for businesses to ‘go digital’ quickly and smoothly. And offering the best possible experience for customers and users.

 

My understanding is that it is not a single product purchase to acquire these features but a set of features that have been designed to play nicely together. If you have an org that is on Enterprise Edition or above, you can play with most of these right now. The exceptions are Mulesoft Composer and OmniStudio. You’ll need to speak to your Account Executive to discuss pricing for these.

 

Flow Orchestrator

Back to (Midsummer) Christmas morning – the newest element in the list is Flow Orchestrator and it is currently still in pilot (so not available to those not on the pilot programme).

Don’t be deceived by its very short description in the list. I believe this could be a game-changer for admins out there who are working with multi-user interactions to get a process done.

Salesforce says:

“Built on Salesforce Flow, orchestrations can replace your existing approval processes and workflow-powered task chains. You can create multiple screen flows, one for each approval or task, and then create an orchestration that binds them together into an automated list customized to match your business processes.

Flow Orchestrator also simplifies your Lightning pages by only showing users the flow in the step that’s currently assigned to them. You don’t need multiple flow components on a single Lightning page. A single Flow Orchestrator Work Guide component displays the relevant flow to the correct user when it’s needed, no matter which orchestration it comes from.”

Image credit: https://admin.salesforce.com/blog/2021/introducing-flow-orchestrator-unify-your-complex-business-processes-without-code

I love the term ‘orchestrator’, it conjures up images of a conductor directing an orchestra of different instruments and players each contributing to the overall tune in their different and essential ways. Think of the customer (paying audience member), yourself (the admin/conductor), flow elements (the instruments), users (the players) all on the stage of Flow Orchestrator (The Albert Hall) contributing to the harmony of a beautifully constructed process!

 

Image credit: https://admin.salesforce.com/blog/2021/introducing-flow-orchestrator-unify-your-complex-business-processes-without-code

 

Possible Use Case For Flow Orchestrator:

Let’s say a customer has filled in a form on your website and this in turn has created a record in Salesforce with the basic information about their request. A record-triggered flow orchestration has determined that a customer service rep needs to call and clarify some details.

Lizzie is assigned a step within the orchestration. This guides her through a screenflow of questions which will fill in the required details for this part of the process. Lizzie receives a notification directing her to the work guide in the new record. Since Lizzie is assigned to this work step, it is not visible to any other user looking at that record.

Lizzie can get started immediately because the work guide displays the flow. She calls the customer, talks through and updates the record details within the flow and adds her own comments. This screenflow assigns Lizzie’s comments to an output variable ‘CustomerServiceCommentsOutputVar’ against the completed flow step that can be used later in the orchestration. The work on that record is done. There are no further tasks for her in the work guide at this point.

Now that Lizzie’s step is complete, the Orchestrator sees that it can resume and evaluate what needs to happen next. The details filled in by Lizzie revealed that the customer needs to return a product for refund. The orchestration flow determines that a return of this product requires authorisation from Finance. As a result, a new step is started which is an approval screen flow, and assigned to Danny. This flow has an input variable ‘CustomerServiceCommentsInputVar’ and we set up this step to pass the ‘CustomerServiceCommentsOutputVar’ into it. When Danny goes to the Salesforce record, he immediately sees what he needs to approve in the Work Guide component along with the customer service comments from Lizzie.

You probably got the picture by now. I know I have only scratched the surface so far. I can’t wait to dive deeper to really test what Flow Orchestrator can do…

 

[Written by Val Southern]
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Vetri Manoharan, Salesforce Developer – Meet the Galacticos

Welcome to the latest in our series of Meet the Galacticos blogs to learn more about our growing Cloud Galacticos team. Say ‘hello’ to Vetri, a Salesforce developer. We caught up with Vetri via Slack to ask him a few questions.

 

Vetri Manoharan, Salesforce Developer

Hi Vetri, can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your work history?

I started my career as a .net web developer.  I got a chance to work on Salesforce around ten months into my career. Working on Salesforce is awesome because of the configuration and low-code methodology. On my first deployment I didn’t know that we needed to write a unit test class – I was the only person with Salesforce experience…!  So I started learning things on my own.

My major career breakthrough in Salesforce was when I started working with Phil while I was at Dazeworks. I have worked with Phil and his team for almost 5 years before joining full-time with Cloud Galacticos. I recently got involved on various projects on Salesforce Field Service and CPQ – hoping to do my CPQ certification soon. 

 

What’s your story behind joining the Cloud Galacticos team?

I started working with Phil in 2015, I was part of various complex projects, even travelled to the UK for a project delivery. I always like the way things are handled at Cloud Galacticos and approached Phil around the start of 2021 to convey that I would like to join the team! My career recently was more into project management and leading the team, but I wanted to be on the development side of things. Also I wanted to be part of a team where I can learn and do things differently.

 

One of the main benefits with working at Cloud Galacticos is the remote working culture. This allows me to spend more time with my parents.

 

Vetri with Paul and Neel at India Dreaming

Vetri with Paul and Neel at India Dreaming

 

What is your role as a Salesforce Developer at Cloud Galacticos involve, and what do you enjoy about it?

My role here is more into Salesforce development – I really like to code! I’m also involved in projects writing APEX cods and have been part of the sprint planning and retrospectives in the projects.

 

Aside from Salesforce and working at Cloud Galacticos, what else do you enjoy doing?

I like to do yoga and meditation which I try and find time to do each day. Sport-wise, I like watching and playing cricket, and I enjoy trekking in the Himalayan mountains. If time allows, I would like to learn to play some musical instruments too 🙂

 

Cloud Galacticos is a remote working focussed company. What advice would you give people to make the most of working remotely and staying motivated?

I would say, don’t sit for hours, make sure you get up every hour and stretch yourself. Also, the pandemic has changed a lot of things, so spend time with your family and friends.

 

ABOUT CLOUD GALACTICOS

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our Salesforce consultancy has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Consultancy Dreamin is Here…

As the Salesforce trailblazer community continues to grow, the demand for events by ‘the people for the people’ is strong. And on Thursday 8th July 2021, Consultancy Dreamin will join an already awesome list of Salesforce community events. Normally these are location focussed such as London’s Calling, Singapore Dreamin, Down Under Dreamin, or Midwest Dreamin. Consultancy Dreamin will be 100% online and aimed at anyone who already is or wants to be a Salesforce Consultant.

 

Consultancy Dreamin

According to to the Consultancy Dreamin website: ’Every presentation will be tailored to help you understand more about this role, check out if consultancy is for you, how consultancy skills can benefit you in any Salesforce position and the importance in your day-to-day job , as well as plenty of tips and advice from experts about getting the most out of a career as a Salesforce Consultant.’

As per other Dreamin events, it’ll be a jam-packed day from 10.30am to 7pm. It’d be filled with keynote speakers, sessions, panels, and a Demo Jam. The sessions will be divided into topics, here are some of our highlights to look out for:

 

‘Skills’ 

Francis Pindar: ‘The Key ‘One-Pagers’ Every Consultant Should Use’

Houssam Saoudy: ‘How Salesforce Admins Should Think About the Code?’

Paul Battisson: ‘10 Things Every Salesforce Consultant Can Learn From Jurassic Park’ 

Consultancy Dreamin – Paul Battisson

“I love the idea of the event being focussed around consulting and less on the specific details of technology. As much as I love a deep dive into a specific tool, often the hardest problems we deal with day to day are those related to individuals and communication around the project. Hopefully this event can help everyone improve these skills to make delivering good outcomes easier.” Paul Battisson, Cloud Galacticos COO

 

‘Experience’

Paul Harris: ‘10 Things You Might Not Expect From Being a Consultant’ 

Vanessa Grant: ‘How to Fake It and Make It in Your First Salesforce Business Analyst Role’

Alastair Dinning: ‘How Making Beer Can Improve Your Salesforce Projects’

 

‘Careers’

Amy Oplinger: ‘Strategies From Seasoned Consultants for Dealing with Burnout’

Jonathan Fox: ‘Optimising Your CV to Make the Top of the Pile’

Bradley Rice: ‘Practice Makes Progress: How to Learn Consulting Skills in Any Position (Freelance)’ 

 

‘Solutions’ 

Barbara Clarkson: ‘Buying the Cow and Other Ways Salesforce Can Solve ANY Problem’

Natasha Gilani: ‘Careers in Salesforce Marketing Cloud’

Ankush Agarwal: ‘Power of Salesforce Flows’

 

‘Trailblazer’

Ashley Allen: ‘From Craigslist to Being a CEO Supermum’

Med Reed: ‘Transition to Salesforce from the Military’

Shobhit Aggarwal: ‘NonProfits During COVID19’

Consultancy Dreamin Skills Panel – Luke, Olivia & Mieszko

In addition to the above, one of our Salesforce Consultants, Luke Menzfeld will be on the Skills Panel ‘Three key skills for consultant success‘:

“Consultancy is a fantastic and engaging career path and i’m looking forward to the opportunity to share my thoughts regarding ‘Three Key Skills for Consultant Success’ on the skills speaker panel with Miesko Rozej & Olivia Omega. Sign up now and join the conversation in what is set to be a great event!” Luke Menzfeld, Salesforce Consultant, Cloud Galacticos

 

Get Your Consultancy Dreamin Tickets Now!

Now that you know more about Consultancy Dreamin and some of the great sessions on offer, why not get your tickets here?

Meet the Galacticos Adam Barnes

Adam Barnes, Salesforce Consultant – Meet the Galacticos

Welcome to the latest in our series of Meet the Galacticos blogs to learn more about our growing Cloud Galacticos team. Say ‘hello’ to Adam, a Salesforce consultant and one of our recent recruits. I caught up with Adam via Slack to ask him a few questions.

 

Adam Barnes, Salesforce Consultant

Hi Adam, thanks for finding a few minutes to help people learn a bit more about you. Can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your work history?

I’m quite a bubbly outgoing person.  I’ve also been involved in the IT world from secondary school – blowing up my first PC at the age of 13, overloading it with a new graphics card!  Moving into computing for college, learning the foundations of programming.  It was then onto university for a Computer Games and Software Development degree. It covered all areas of computing. It was quite challenging.

I got my first job as an IT engineer for a large UK based software company. They had 26 offices and I learned a great deal with all the different offices and setup.

It was then onto the start of my Salesforce career, and it was like “ooooooh, this is awesome and you can do so much with it!”. This was 10 years ago. I still enjoy its development, and the community is one of the best things about Salesforce. Everyone is so helpful and it’s a pleasure to meet others here in the UK and around the world.  It’s a true pleasure.

 

What’s your story behind joining the Cloud Galacticos team?

I was looking for my next step – I always avoided consultancies up to now to be honest.  But when I saw Phil was needing some help, I thought I’d reach out. After we spoke, I decided to explore working permanently for Cloud Galacticos. I wanted to get a feel of the company and how they work with its clients. I liked what I heard with the way they do things. So it felt like an awesome fit to join the team and also to learn from an established consultancy rather than being a cog and a big organisation.

 

What is your role as a Salesforce Consultant at Cloud Galacticos, and what do you enjoy about it?

I think the best part is being thrown in the deep end and learning how they do things – good and bad. You could have two identical businesses but each implement Salesforce in a different way which you can learn from. 

I enjoy learning new things, which is why I try to attend various User Groups. I could be attending the most basic presentation but I normally always come away from it. You can still learn something as the person presenting will have a different perspective which you might not have thought of.  So it’s always worthwhile going and joining the events to feel part of the community.

 

Aside from Salesforce and working as a Salesforce Consultant at Cloud Galacticos, what else do you enjoy doing?

None of us have been doing much over the current pandemic and my thoughts are with all that have been badly affected by it.  But when things go back to ‘normal’ I’d like to get back to my holidays; going Snowboarding in the winter, beaches in the summer, and generally travelling is my aim from now on!

Over the pandemic I got myself a puppy which has been an absolute joy. He’s a husky and is called Storm. He’s growing pretty fast already!

 

Storm

 

What tips would you have on working remotely during the current Covid-19 situation?

I’d say, make sure you have that separate space of an ‘office’ from the rest of your living space.  Also, make sure you have breaks away from the screen.  For me over the pandemic, I found myself just not leaving the flat at all, which can get quite depressing and not help your mood at all.  So the one major change I did was getting a puppy (Storm).  Had always wanted one but now it gave me the time to actually be here for them.  It also gives me a routine and gets me out of the flat.  

Mentally, having a puppy has been fantastic. It’s awesome company and gives you a reason to go for a walk – instead of just having to. Storm gets me up in the morning. It has really helped me keep a steady routine, as well as keeps things interesting and different each day.  

When walking with a dog, everyone wants to talk to you (or realistically, the dog). But you end up meeting some awesome people you probably would never speak to normally.  I’m very grateful the lockdown hasn’t affected me in an awful way as it has many around the world. Maybe if I didn’t have my friends, family and doggo support, it probably wouldn’t have been good for me either.  

Best wishes to everyone over this horrible period. We are almost out of it so we can get back to some sort of normality and let’s help others where they need it…

 

ABOUT CLOUD GALACTICOS

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

 

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Salesforce Developer Podcast – Weird Apex and Being Inquisitive

Recently Josh Birk interviewed my for the Salesforce Developer Podcast on “Weird Apex”. You can find the full recording here. I’m going to share some additional thoughts about the background to the discussion and how the simple act of being inquisitive has lead me to some of the weird and wonderful things I discussed on the podcast.

 

Weird Apex Salesforce Developer Podcast

Image taken of https://developer.salesforce.com/podcast/2021/05/episode-82-weird-apex-with-paul-battisson.html

Love What You Do

When we meet clients for the first time, we tell them that at Cloud Galacticos we are 100% Salesforce nerds. We have team members who are MVPs, user and developer group leaders, and authors. We also have speakers, CTAs, and a number who tick multiple of these boxes. When hiring, one of the things we focus on is how much people enjoy working with the platform. I always ask “Why Salesforce?” Of course, sometimes working your way through a big set of profiles and permissions to figure out what the gaps are is not the most riveting work. I find that it is important to ensure I take time to do things I enjoy within my work to stay inquisitive.

A prime example of this is the VR setup I built with Vincent Reeder for a Dreamforce talk. Virtual Reality is cool and still fairly new tech, however it is not really enterprise friendly (as we discuss in the podcast). Still, Vincent and I took it as a technical challenge to see how we could get different pieces of the Salesforce Platform to play together to deliver something cool. Is this a completely practical exercise that we will reuse? No, but the learnings on how to use the different bits of technology will definitely help me in the future. It’s a much more fun way of learning.

 

Build a Career You’re Interested In

I’d highly encourage anyone who is looking to learn more about a particular topic to approach it in this way. By trying to keep this in mind I have built my career on Salesforce and have had a great time doing so. It has helped me learn enough to be able to write two books on Apex as well as given me the opportunity to speak at events all over the globe. I would recommend listening to other episodes of the Salesforce Developer Podcast. You will notice this is a common theme.

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Ali Najefi, Salesforce CTA – Meet the Galacticos

Welcome to the latest in our series of Meet the Galacticos blogs to learn more about our growing Cloud Galacticos team. Say ‘hello’ to Ali, one of our Salesforce Certified Technical Architects at our Salesforce consultancy. I caught up with Ali via email to ask him a few questions.

 

Ali Najefi, Salesforce CTA

 

Ali Najefi, Salesforce Certified Technical Architect

Hi Ali, thanks for finding a few minutes to help people learn a bit more about you. Can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your work history?

I started working in Salesforce back in 2008. There were not many Salesforce consultants around back then. The community was not as big, so sometimes it was difficult to get help. However, it has been a great journey for all of us to see how Salesforce has grown so much!  I started as a developer and progressed to an architect. The greatest accomplishment in my Salesforce journey has to be becoming a Salesforce CTA in early 2019. That’s something I am really proud of.

 

What’s your story behind joining the Cloud Galacticos team?

I knew Phil for a while and we wanted to work together for sometime. Luckily, the opportunity came and I am very happy to be part of the team.

 

How is your role as Salesforce CTA at Cloud Galacticos. What do you enjoy about it?

I work as an architect on multiple projects where I advise the clients on Salesforce best practices from design, architecture and development perspectives. That is what I love doing.

 

Aside from Salesforce and working as a CTA at Cloud Galacticos, what else do you enjoy doing?

I am a football fan and support Liverpool, so that is what I follow when I am not working!

 

What tips would you have on working remotely during the current Covid-19 situation?

It had been different at the start, but I guess we have also learned how to manage it. I think as long as we can create a work-life balance at home so we don’t end up sitting at home-office working longer hours, working remotely is a good thing. I found working remotely great because I do less travelling and spending more time with my family!

 

ABOUT CLOUD GALACTICOS

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?