An Interview with Ryan Westwood, Simplus CEO: ‘We Use Leading Cloud Solutions to Help Companies Achieve a Strategic Vision, Improve Performance, and Increase Value to Stakeholders’

“We are confident in our ability to keep up with an ever-changing digital landscape and provide exemplary services to our wide array of clients.”

Simplus is a Platinum Salesforce partner specializing in quote-to-cash implementations. It provides enterprise-wide digital transformation through advisory, implementation, change management, custom configuration, and managed services.

As the global leader in Salesforce quote-to-cash, Simplus represents 17 nationalities and 20 languages on four continents.

The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ryan Westwood, Simplus CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt:

Q. Explain your services in brief.

Our services include customer experience and program strategy, platform implementation, organizational change management, data and systems integration, business platforms and accelerators, and managed services.

Q. Digital transformation must provide a competitive edge to the customers. How do you gain insights to keep your clients ahead of the curve?

We keep up with our clients and stay on the cutting edge of industry trends, thanks in large part to our constantly learning team members. We have an extensive team of professionals who are expanding their knowledge with more certifications in a variety of technologies and products. To date, we have over 2,000 developers, 1,300 certified consultants, and 1,500 admins in our Salesforce practice. Each of these team members brings additional specialties from MuleSoft and Tableau to Vlocity, Pardot, and Einstein.

Q. What are the different sectors that your company is focusing on with Salesforce implementation?

Simplus has verticalized our Salesforce and digital transformation services into a number of different industries. Some of our biggest markets include manufacturing, healthcare, and communications/media. We also have experience in financial services, the public sector, retail, and consumer goods.

Q. How do you manage to understand a company’s culture before strategizing a change management/transformation plan?

We believe the best digital transformation projects start with a solid foundation: cross-department alignment, KPI identification, and executive sponsorship. During this initial stage, known as strategy and design, we take the time with each client to work through executive visioning, process harmonization goals, user stories, and the overall program roadmap. This lays the groundwork for effective and successful change management and adoption later on.

Q. Internal inefficiencies in an organization undermine security analytics and operations. Do you help your clients patch their internal processes?

Improving operational efficiency is one of our three target goals for our clients. We aim to streamline and make day-to-day tasks easier for each user by renewing existing technology with a digital maturity model that future-proofs processes for long-term growth and iterative development.

Q. Bigger the network, the bigger the issue. Do you think your services are ready to cater to the needs of never-ending digital transformation?

Yes. We are confident in our ability to keep up with an ever-changing digital landscape and provide exemplary services to our wide array of clients. By leveraging our conversation-to-creation methodology, we leverage design thinking practices to deliver rapid results and a clean working solution to build off of for further enhancements and changes.

Q. To help modern organizations face modern challenges, you need a team of dedicated and extremely talented individuals. How did you manage to form your dream team?

Our team is always growing and expanding, and we welcome newcomers of all experience levels to come to be a part of our family. Our current team is the product of organic and inorganic growth—recruiting efforts and strategic acquisitions. However, whether they come from a standard interview process or one of our M&A moves, each member of our team is here for a reason: the way they support our core Simplus values of stewardship, underdog spirit, and critical thinking. We seek people who will live those values in and out of work, bringing their technical expertise and caring corporate culture every day.

Q. Do you have any new services ready and launching soon?

This year Simplus has launched a number of different ‘FastTrack’ offerings geared towards helping our customers ramp up their technology landscape and address urgent needs with minimal disruption and cost, particularly during this trying economic year. These FastTracks include short-term engagements to identify pain points, secure low-effort wins, and accelerate deployments of value-add technologies such as Manufacturing Cloud or CLM.

Additionally, Simplus has been proud to partner with our parent company, Infosys, and Salesforce on a comprehensive, end-to-end vaccine management solution. The Infosys COVID-19 Vaccine Management (IVM) offering is prepared to address all of the logistical, administrative, and messaging challenges associated with the coming COVID-19 vaccine and immunization efforts.

Q. What does the future hold for Simplus and its employees? Are exciting things on the way?

We are always looking for strategic growth opportunities at Simplus, and we anticipate continuing our unprecedented growth in the years to come. In particular, we plan to become the most respected Salesforce partner globally by increasing revenue, securing customer and employee validation, attaining analyst recognition, and achieving Salesforce product and industry specializations. All of our investments are focused on driving towards these goals.

The Leader at the Helm of Simplus

Ryan Westwood is the CEO of Simplus and a thought leader on entrepreneurship and corporate culture. He is the author of the best-selling book ‘The Five Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur’ and has regular thought leadership articles published in Forbes. He is known as a ‘serial entrepreneur’ and emphasizes the importance of company culture in all he does.

“We aim to streamline and make day-to-day tasks easier for each user by renewing existing technology with a digital maturity model that future-proofs processes for long-term growth and iterative development.”