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Elastic expands its ability to onboard Salesforce talent on schedule

Find out how Elastic augmented its Salesforce program with the expertise to deliver meaningful performance gains in a dynamic and fast-paced environment

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Case-Study-Client-Industry Industry

Software

Case-Study-Relationship-Start-Date Relationship Start Date

July 2020 - Present

Case Study Total Hires To Date Total Hires To Date
17

 

Case-Study-Number-of-Employees Current # of Employees
3,000

 

Case-Study-Head-Office-Location Head Office
Mountain View, California

 

Case-Study-Solution-Deployed Solution Deployed
Talent Finder

 
Completed Assignments at Elastic

5 QA Leads | 2 Senior Salesforce Administrators  | 2 Junior Administrators/Consultants | 3 Mid-Level Salesforce/CPQ Developers | 4 Senior CPQ Developers | 1 QA Engineer

THE CLIENT

About Elastic

Founded in 2012, Elastic is the leading platform for search-powered solutions, helping organizations, their employees, and their customers find what they need faster while keeping applications running smoothly and protecting against cyber threats.

Among the company's main products is Elasticsearch, an open, free, fast, and relevant search and analytics solution transforming how people use data worldwide. The tool is used across the globe by a host of powerful brands, including Microsoft, Netflix, and Uber.

The company employs 3,000 people worldwide. Just like its products, Elastic finds strength in distribution with a fully remote workforce and aims to recruit and retain ambitious people who create and imagine together.

THE CHALLENGE

Resourcing a CRM strategy to usher in a new way of working

2022 has been an exciting year for Elastic, as the company continues enhancing its Salesforce program to future-proof a seamless and accessible customer experience. The business has been focused on making its services available in the cloud; Elastic’s products can now be purchased through platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Acquiring and retaining high-quality Salesforce expertise has been a key strategic priority throughout this pivotal transformation. But finding the right talent at a pace to match the company’s ambitious projects made generating a suitable candidate pipeline challenging. 

“In today’s market, candidates have a lot more options. Experienced talent isn’t as available as it used to be - and we needed to move really quickly.” Says Hector Perez, Head of CRM Strategy and Engineering. “The biggest challenge when scaling a Salesforce program is ensuring we onboard the right talent and maintain the culture to ensure we don't lose who we are in the process.” While Elastic ramped up its recruitment efforts, finding the right talent, particularly in niche areas like Configure Price Quote (CPQ), became time-consuming. “Internally, our main recruitment challenge was timing. We had projects ready for kick-off and needed to get the right resources onboarded quickly.” 

“We needed to find developers that could code, testers that would ensure we weren't pushing bugs out to users, and admins to take care of configuration. It was challenging for us to find these individuals and find them fast,” Perez explained.

“In today’s market, candidates have a lot more options. Experienced talent isn’t as available as it used to be - and we needed to move really quickly.”

Hector Perez, Head of CRM Strategy and Engineering, Elastic

THE BUSINESS DRIVER

Delivering the talent to underpin business-critical processes

As Head of CRM Strategy and Engineering, Hector’s team is responsible for implementing changes around Salesforce that are pivotal to the success of the sales process. Currently, the team has 92 employees in the CRM function.

“Our number one priority is cloud acceleration, and bringing on talent is instrumental in that project. Finding good Salesforce talent is difficult, especially in the CPQ area, which is critical to how we transact with customers and ultimately report our revenue,” Hector explains.  

In the backdrop of business-critical projects and high-priority deadlines, it was essential for Hector to find a talent partner that could respond to challenging briefs and deliver a higher degree of predictability to search assignments. “Getting the right talent that can come into the culture, blend in with the team, start vocalizing solutions, deliver on time, and really lean in was the most critical thing for us.”

THE ONBOARDING

Working as an extended member of the team

As a result of seeing great outputs and receiving positive internal feedback on two hires made by Stott and May prior to his arrival, Hector engaged with Stott and May. “When I needed additional talent, it made sense to reach out to Stott and May and brainstorm ideas. They were easy to deal with commercially, and since getting involved with Elastic, they've developed that institutional knowledge of how we work, and that’s been important,” Hector explains.

When thinking about his initial impression of Stott and May, Hector notes, “I valued the industry experience and information they brought to the table. Market intelligence like that is helpful when managing expectations with the executive team. They asked questions out of curiosity to understand our business deeply. We then worked collaboratively, from that first briefing call through to executing our onboarding process, developing a familiarity that makes it easier to get stuff going.” 

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“I valued the industry experience and information Stott and May brought to the table."

Hector Perez, Head of CRM Strategy and Engineering, Elastic

THE SOLUTION

Uncovering a true Salesforce talent partner

Upon arriving at Elastic in August 2020, Hector learned that Stott and May were already an incumbent recruitment provider - but the relationship was fledgling and fairly tactical. “As with any new leader, you want to explore all options because ultimately, you want to get the best talent at the best rate with the right focus on the relationship.” So, Hector began looking into external options, focusing on finding a recruitment partner capable of listening to the brief, uncovering a high-quality candidate pipeline, and aligning tightly to Elastic’s hiring processes. 

“It’s difficult to find a good partner that will work within budgets and genuinely listen to your needs.” Says Hector. “Stott and May were very receptive and available when I needed to talk, making the relationship collaborative. They listened and got to know who we were and what we needed. I didn’t feel like a transaction, which I get a lot; I felt like a person. In parallel, I had a totally different experience with another partner. Stott and May were demonstrably credible from the start; they built trust by continuously hitting the mark. There was a clear differentiation in the talent and flexibility they brought to us compared with other recruitment suppliers. That was critical to me in evolving the relationship with Stott and May and how I thought of them as a partner,” Hector concluded.

THE RESULTS

A great relationship built on earned trust

Stott and May have placed 17 Salesforce professionals at Elastic to date, with two QA Developers progressing from contract positions into full-time employment. Over and above the numbers, partnering with Stott and May enabled Hector to continue adding diversity of thought to his team. “We want people who think about different things, challenge positively, and feel part of it. Stott and May have delivered on that front. The time-to-hire metrics have been impressive, and they’ve been hands-on in the way they’ve supported us. They gave us the flexibility to pick from the best talent at pace.”

“Stott and May have been foundational in helping us get to where we are,” Hector states. “I would summarize it as a great relationship built on earned trust and credibility. They’ve brought on talent that has been instrumental to our program. If I have critical attrition in my team, I know I can lean on Stott and May to deliver,” Hector reflects.

Feeling inspired to make better hires?

Find out more about our software engineering recruitment team.

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“I can lean on Stott and May to deliver”

It's a great relationship built on earned trust and credibility. They’ve brought on talent that has been instrumental to our program.

Hector Perez 

Head of CRM Strategy & Engineering, Elastic

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