Australian Salesforce partner AFDigital appointed to partner advisory board

Australian Salesforce partner AFDigital has been appointed to the SaaS giant’s marketing cloud partner advisory board.

“I feel great, it’s really cool,” AFDigital co-founder Robin Leonard told CRN, adding that he sees the company’s selection as an endorsement of the skills it possesses and success working with brands including QANTAS and Fonterra.

“It’s definitely recognition that we are doing something right” Leonard said.

The co-founder said he expects to sit alongside global system integrators such as Accenture, IBM and Deloitte, and offer the voice of a smaller partner (AFDigital has around 50 staff).

He’s therefore looking forward to the twice-yearly board meetings in the USA, and feels membership will be very good for business because it will afford a better view of how Salesforce is evolving.

“The product is evolving rapidly,” Leonard told CRN. “Being on the board will help us to understand how it evolves, which will let us offer better advice to customers.”

“Our clients need to know what is coming next so they can understand the technology and their choices.”

Leonard feels that improved understanding is good for both AFDigital and Salesforce:

“A customer could hold off buying something different” based on learnings at the board that he brings back into consultations with clients. Another hoped-for benefit is better implementations. Leonard said some of AFDigital’s work involves tidying up after less-than-entirely-successful Salesforce implementations that quickly incur technical debt. Working more closely with Salesforce on product directions, he hopes, will let AFDigital offer advice to avoid such scenarios."