As CCG IQ recently celebrated it’s 8^th anniversary, we reflect on how much we’ve grown and the path that lies ahead. Scaling our technology with our growth wouldn’t be possible without our outstanding Salesforce development team. We sat down with our Salesforce Architect, Kelly Bentubo, to learn more about her lessons learned and what excites her about growing with CCG IQ.

Kelly grew up in Medway, Massachusetts before pursuing a degree at Boston University. At BU, Kelly majored in Communications and minored in Visual Arts with a concentration in Chinese and Japanese Art History and landed in Charlotte after her and her husband sought respite from the New England winters. At a previous company, Kelly was initially hired for a business strategy role before being asked to manage Salesforce.com for the company. From there, Kelly fell into the Salesforce community and discovered the amazing functionality of the platform. Finding a thrill in pushing a system to its limits, Kelly found a turning point where she could turn Salesforce from a job into a career, and joined CCG IQ in 2018 as a seasoned Salesforce Architect and recognized leader in the Salesforce community.

What drew you to CCG IQ?

While I initially wasn’t familiar with the company, I had a colleague and common that had recommended me to CCG IQ. Management reached out to me based on my skillset and reputation in the Salesforce community and told me about the trajectory of the company, the growth here, and how quickly the company was scaling. The direction and type of development work CCG IQ was looking to implement was exactly the kind of projects I had working on. I was excited that my personal goals aligned with CCG IQ’s goals, and also the core values and benefits CCG IQ extends to employees to make this a fun work environment and bring teams together really appealed to me.

What were your initial thoughts on your first few weeks at CCG IQ?

One of the biggest pieces that stood out to me was the onboarding. I’ve never seen a company that gives so much well thought out and planned training. You come in the doors and we talk through, not only our values and process, but we reviewed scripts and had the opportunity to shadow someone doing the job. You rarely get that full look at the process and then to have the opportunity to be in the driver’s seat and have that person you were shadowing, shadow you and give you feedback in return. I think that really goes a long way to have someone that’s thought about that strategically and guide you each step of the way. You just don’t find that everywhere.

What is a typical day in the life as a Salesforce Architect?

Working with Salesforce, no two days are fully alike. I always start the day early so I can catch up on new requests and outline my priorities for the day. That’s critical as a new error or issue could come up at any moment, so the team needs to have flexibility to shift with that change to assist team members, but also complete our priority tasks. My day is usually very scheduled, and I always have a running list of tasks that I categorize as “want to do” so I can tackle those during down time from the “need to do” tasks. A huge part of why our team is successful is in the care and planning of looking for process gaps. We create the functionality in a test sandbox, and we test, test, test! Once I am sure the enhancement is functioning correctly, I create a change set to move the work to our production environment. The hardest part is waiting for the job to complete validation and be ready for deployment. Once the changes are deployed into the production environment, then I go and validate that everything moved over correctly. That’s the best part!

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

I really enjoy finding a solution to a pain point for a team member. If you have a process that is cumbersome or requires a great deal of manual data entry, and then you can automate that process to increase efficiency it is a wonderful feeling. It creates buy-in and adoption for our team members and it allows me to start to fully understand their needs and processes which then enables me to start developing enhancements proactively. If I can identify pain points before someone even realizes it’s a problem, that is a huge win and what makes my role exciting.

Kelly is a four-time Salesforce Dreamforce speaker

What are some career lessons you have learned so far?

Ask lots of questions. Understand the full process and see it in action. That has always led me to improve architecture – solve for the current need, but also design for the future. Ask yourself does this process grow and scale with the company over time?

I would also say to invest in yourself and challenge yourself to continue your own personal learning and education. I currently hold eight Salesforce certifications and am identifying additional certifications that I would like to work toward this year. Just because I’m not using a certain aspect of Salesforce doesn’t mean I shouldn’t pursue learning about it, becoming knowledgeable about it because at some point, you know, in my future self, I’m going to need that. These tools are always evolving, so the need to be knowledgeable and up to date on functionality will always be an asset to yourself as well as the organization that you code for. That acumen empowers you to make the best decisions when it comes to system architecture and how you plan to solution a particular pain point.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, try new things and see where it takes you. If you’re not missing, you’re not trying hard enough. Don’t be afraid to try something and if it doesn’t work out okay, you’re still learning from it. There’s always going to be something that comes out of that, that’s going to help you improve in your role.

What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?

We are leading into a big project to implement Salesforce’s Lightning experience.  We are currently on the classic version, and Lightning is sleeker with more functionality that we can take advantage of in terms of how the data is displayed to us and how we can customize that data. We’re currently working through that transition, but I think this is the biggest shift that we will all look back on at the end of this year and say, wow, remember when we were on classic? We’ve got so many cool bells and whistles now under Lightning so that’s the next thing that I’m excited for.

Kelly is the Co-Leader of the Salesforce Women in Technology group

What three words would you use to describe CCG IQ?

Innovative, rewarding, and exhilarating.

Where can we catch you on the weekend?

Cardio kickboxing on Saturday morning and then I usually like to do something crafty on the weekends – drawing, painting, I always have supplies for some new project I’ve dreamed up! On Sunday morning I usually spend time making a really good breakfast – brioche French toast, pumpkin waffles, bacon everything!

Kelly’s Favorites

Favorite TV Show: The Magicians
Favorite Book: A Tale of Two Cities
Desk Must-Have: Charger for my Ringly! It’s a bracelet tied to my devices where the indicator will glow based on my settings or buzz for an incoming call. That way I know right away if I have a missed call, received a text or have a new calendar invitation. I can even set it to glow green when a claim is closed out in our system.
Favorite Charlotte Spots: I really enjoy craft beer and Charlotte has no shortage. My current favorites are Old Mecklenburg Brewery, Noda Brewing, and Brewers at 4001 Yancey. I also love Good Food on Montford and recently tried out Barcelona Wine Bar. I highly recommend their croquetas and the El Mestizo cocktail!