About a year and a half ago, I made the decision to join Groundswell Cloud Solutions as the Vice President of Professional Services.  

Having been in and around the Salesforce ecosystem for a little over a decade and having previously worked with another Salesforce SI during its start-up years, I had several preconceived thoughts about Groundswell. When I first heard of them, Groundswell was a team of roughly 20 consultants that focused on large projects within a specific Salesforce retail sub-vertical. While small in size, their reputation of quality, technical excellence and platform innovation preceded them. The choice to build an organization laser-focused on its core values and only work on technically complex projects were deliberate and quite compelling from other consultancies I had interacted with over the years. Groundswell’s founder, Brian Wiebe, had spent a good part of his career working in Salesforce’s Professional Services team in a technical architecture role. This background and understanding of the inner-workings of Salesforce have and continue to play a critical role in everything that Groundswell does.  

Today, while Groundswell Cloud Solutions continues to be a premier pure play Salesforce systems integrator, it is no longer the small, niche firm of 2017. With a growing team of 80+ people, and located in a new, modern Downtown Vancouver office, it continues to push the boundaries of cloud technology to solve the most complex business problems. In addition to our firm’s growth in size, the last few years have allowed us to build out our internal processes, refine our project delivery methodology, diversify our customer base, and round out our skill sets to better serve the Salesforce customers. In addition, we doubled down on our strategic focus of technically challenging projects by becoming a fully certified MuleSoft partner in March of 2019.  

The Groundswell Cloud Solutions team consists of four distinct practice areas:

Consulting Services:

Led by Salesforce and consulting veterans, our Consulting Services team sets the pace of customer engagement and is ultimately accountable for customer success.  

Technical Assurance:

We have assembled a team of technical architects that truly understand the power of the Salesforce ecosystem.  A highly accredited team with PhDs and multiple architecture certifications. 

Technical Development:

This is Groundswell’s largest team, comprised of a talented group of developers who are passionate about pushing the limits of what’s possible with the cloud.

Innovation:

Given our team’s deep understanding of the Salesforce platform, an innovation team was formed early this year. Led by Groundswell’s CTO, its goal is to develop commercial applications for sale on Salesforce’s AppExchange as well as project accelerators to increase time to value for our customers.

Having this structure fuelled by the right kind of growth has been a key focus for Groundswell’s leadership team. We are not fixated on team size or revenue targets. Instead, quality remains the backbone of what Groundswell is all about. This is reflected throughout the organization, and is illustrated in the company’s core values:

Trust – Partnering for long-term success

• We are committed to partnering with our customers from the outset, working together towards long-term success
• We aim to earn and build trust in every interaction. This mindset guides all of our decisions and actions 
• We do what we commit to,  consistently delivering high quality and best-in-class results 
• Integrity comes first in all of the work that we do
• We aim to empower and elevate everyone that we work with, both internally and externally, to fulfill their own potential through our support

Passion – Technology and People

• We get fired up about leveraging technology to empower others
• We stay motivated by seeing our customers overcome challenges using the technology we’ve built for them
• We are inquisitive and look for creative solutions to real-life problems because we are hungry to learn with every experience
• We are committed to continuous learning and are determined to become masters of our craft

Teamwork – Better, Together

• Our people define who we are – we work as one unified yet agile team
• We are partners, not vendors, to our customers
• Creativity, originality and deep dedication are what drives our team’s success and draws in top talents from across the globe
• We achieve greater than the sum of our parts

The Salesforce partner ecosystem is a crowded arena and one filled with organizations that make fairly bold claims. There are very few that pick a focus, stay true to their roots, and partner with Salesforce and their customers to enable true and sustainable success. Looking back, while it was a difficult decision moving from running my own consulting company to joining forces with another, I can say with confidence that I took the right leap of faith.

While we are no longer the small team we used to be, some things do stay the same. Since its inception, the purpose of Groundswell Cloud Solutions remains unchanged – we are here to serve as enablers of success. As consultants, we are the ones who make others successful.  When we help further our core customers in their mission, we succeed in ours. Our values of trust, passion, and teamwork will guide us as we partner with our customers to bring about positive change. If our values align, reach out to learn more about how we can help you transform your business, we’d love to talk to you.

If you’re interested in joining our ever-growing team,  Apply online and a member of our People and Culture team will get in touch.