The Story of Salesforce Joe: Leading Enterprise Adoption and Change Management

Salesforce Joe represents a journey of transformation—from technical analyst to enterprise Salesforce leader, specializing in change management, process automation, and strategic platform adoption at Fortune 50 companies. With over eight years of experience, Joe has led complex Salesforce implementations, driving organizational change and enabling businesses to achieve their strategic goals.

The Beginning: From Technical Analyst to OmniStudio Expert

The journey began as a technical analyst, working with data and seeking solutions to organizational challenges. Early exposure to Salesforce OmniStudio (then known as Vlocity) revealed the platform’s potential for creating end-to-end business solutions with enterprise-grade capabilities.

This discovery led to a deep dive into the Vlocity/OmniStudio ecosystem, mastering components like OmniScript, Integration Procedures, DataRaptors, FlexCards, and the Business Rules Engine. As expertise grew, so did recognition within the Vlocity community.

Meeting the Vlocity Co-Founder

A pivotal moment in this journey was meeting Craig Ramsey, co-founder of Vlocity, in his grand penthouse in the Millennium Tower in San Francisco. This meeting, held in one of the city’s most prestigious residential towers—the tallest residential building in San Francisco, located at 301 Mission Street—represented more than just a networking opportunity—it was a recognition of expertise and a validation of the work being done with Vlocity’s platform.

The conversation covered the future of industry-specific cloud solutions, the power of declarative development, and the potential for transforming enterprise business processes. This meeting solidified the commitment to becoming a leading expert in what would become Salesforce OmniStudio.

This discovery and expertise led to a deep dive into Salesforce’s ecosystem, learning how to integrate data sets, streamline processes, and enhance user experiences. As expertise grew, so did the ability to deliver solutions that increased productivity and drove business results.

Leading Enterprise Adoption at Anthem Inc

One of the most significant chapters in this journey involved leading Salesforce adoption and change management at Anthem Inc, a Fortune 50 healthcare company. This role required navigating complex organizational structures, managing stakeholder expectations, and driving platform adoption across diverse business units.

The Evolution: From Marketing Project to Enterprise Platform

The Salesforce journey at Anthem began as a marketing project focused on Over-65 (ACA) sales. This initial implementation demonstrated the platform’s value and set the foundation for broader enterprise adoption.

Phase 1: Lightning Migration - National Accounts

The first major enterprise initiative involved migrating National Accounts from Classic Salesforce to Salesforce Lightning. This new instance, known internally as “com2,” represented a significant modernization effort. The migration required:

• Comprehensive data migration from Classic to Lightning
• User training on the new Lightning interface
• Process redesign to leverage Lightning capabilities
• Change management to ensure smooth transition

The success of this migration established “com2” as the platform for future Salesforce implementations at Anthem.

Phase 2: Local Business (Large Group) Migration

Building on the success of the National Accounts migration, the next phase involved moving Local Business (Large Group) sales operations onto the “com2” platform. This expansion:

• Unified sales processes across different business segments
• Standardized data models and workflows
• Improved collaboration between National Accounts and Local Business teams
• Created a foundation for integrated business processes

Phase 3: Order Orchestration and Plan Installation

With the sales platform established, the focus shifted to operational processes. A comprehensive order orchestration and plan installation system was implemented, including:

• Order Management: Streamlined order processing workflows
• Plan Installation: Automated plan setup and configuration processes
• Case Management: Integrated case handling for implementation issues
• Process Automation: Reduced manual steps and improved efficiency

This phase transformed how Anthem managed the complex process of installing health insurance plans, from order receipt through final implementation.

Phase 4: End-to-End Quote-to-Order Processing

The final major phase involved implementing end-to-end processing from quote to order. This comprehensive solution included:

• Email-to-Case Integration: Implemented Email-to-Case functionality to automatically convert broker quote requests into Salesforce cases
• Automated Quote Generation: Streamlined the quoting process with automated workflows
• Order Creation: Seamless transition from approved quotes to orders
• Complete Process Visibility: End-to-end tracking from initial quote request through order fulfillment

This implementation created a fully integrated sales and operations workflow, reducing cycle times and improving accuracy. The Email-to-Case integration was particularly impactful, allowing brokers to submit quote requests via email, which were automatically converted into trackable Salesforce cases, assigned to appropriate queues, and processed through the entire sales cycle.

The Impact: From Anthem Implementation to Salesforce Acquisition

The comprehensive OmniStudio implementation at Anthem demonstrated the platform’s enterprise capabilities at scale. The success of this Fortune 50 implementation showcased how Vlocity’s industry-specific solutions could transform complex business processes in healthcare and other vertical markets.

The work at Anthem, implementing OmniStudio across multiple business units and creating end-to-end solutions, provided a compelling proof point for the platform’s value. This enterprise success story, combined with other implementations across industries, contributed to Salesforce’s decision to acquire Vlocity.

In February 2020, Salesforce announced its agreement to acquire Vlocity for approximately $1.33 billion, a transaction that was completed in June 2020. This acquisition brought Vlocity’s industry-specific capabilities directly into the Salesforce ecosystem, rebranding it as Salesforce Industries and making OmniStudio a core part of Salesforce’s platform.

The Anthem implementation demonstrated that OmniStudio could handle the complexity and scale required by Fortune 50 companies, validating the platform’s enterprise readiness and contributing to its strategic value for Salesforce.

Organizational Transformation

At Anthem, the Salesforce implementation occurred during a significant organizational transition. The company moved from a Salesforce Center of Excellence model to a streamlined IT-led development approach, with product managers and business users on the business side. This transition required careful change management to ensure successful platform adoption.

Key Challenges:

• Aligning IT development with business needs
• Training new users and product managers on Salesforce
• Creating a unified learning path for diverse roles
• Ensuring continuity during organizational restructuring

Building a Learning Foundation

To support this transition, a comprehensive Salesforce Trailhead Trailmix was created—a single, end-to-end learning journey that took users from beginner to proficient. This resource became the go-to training material for:

• New Salesforce administrators
• Product managers joining the SAFe agile workstream
• Business users needing platform knowledge
• IT developers requiring Salesforce expertise

The Trailmix was integrated into Anthem’s training org, tracking user progress and becoming the standard onboarding resource. This initiative demonstrated the importance of structured learning paths in enterprise Salesforce adoption.

Streamlining Complex Business Processes

Throughout these implementation phases, sophisticated Salesforce solutions were developed to streamline complex healthcare business processes. These solutions built upon each other, creating an integrated ecosystem that supported the entire sales and operations lifecycle.

Conga Composer for Plan Setup Documentation

One notable achievement was developing a Conga Composer solution for health insurance plan setup, which integrated with the order orchestration and plan installation processes.

The Challenge: When setting up new group health insurance plans, implementation teams needed comprehensive documents showing:

• Account details and plan information
• All related records (opportunities, products, pricing)
• Implementation timelines and requirements
• Complete ORDER object details with all relevant records

The Solution: A Conga Composer solution was built that automatically generated comprehensive PDF documents pulling data from multiple Salesforce objects simultaneously. This solution:

• Reduced manual document creation time from hours to minutes
• Ensured consistency and accuracy across all implementation documents
• Integrated seamlessly with existing Salesforce workflows
• Provided a complete view of all plan details in a single document

This implementation demonstrated how Salesforce automation tools, when properly configured, can transform complex, manual processes into streamlined, automated workflows. For more details on this solution, see our guide on Conga Composer document generation.

Change Management Principles

Leading enterprise Salesforce adoption requires more than technical expertise—it demands strong change management skills. Key principles that have proven effective include:

1. Start with Training and Enablement

Before rolling out new features or processes, ensure users have the knowledge they need. This means:

• Creating comprehensive training materials
• Providing hands-on learning opportunities
• Establishing clear learning paths for different roles
• Tracking progress and providing support

2. Align IT and Business Objectives

Successful enterprise adoption requires alignment between IT development and business needs. This involves:

• Regular communication between IT and business stakeholders
• Understanding business processes before building solutions
• Involving end users in the design process
• Ensuring solutions solve real business problems

3. Create Scalable Solutions

Enterprise solutions must be scalable and maintainable. This means:

• Using declarative development when possible
• Following Salesforce best practices
• Documenting solutions thoroughly
• Building for long-term sustainability

4. Measure Success

Track adoption metrics to understand what’s working and what needs improvement:

• User adoption rates
• Process efficiency improvements
• Time savings and productivity gains
• User satisfaction scores

Real-World Impact

The work at Anthem and other organizations has demonstrated measurable results across multiple implementation phases:

• Platform Modernization: Successfully migrated National Accounts and Local Business from Classic to Lightning, establishing “com2” as the enterprise Salesforce platform
• Process Integration: End-to-end quote-to-order processing streamlined the sales cycle, reducing manual steps and improving accuracy
• Email-to-Case Efficiency: Automated quote request processing through Email-to-Case reduced response times and improved broker satisfaction
• Order Orchestration: Automated order and plan installation processes reduced implementation cycle times
• Training Efficiency: The Trailhead Trailmix became the standard onboarding resource, reducing training time and improving knowledge retention
• Document Automation: Conga Composer solutions reduced document creation time by 80% or more
• User Adoption: Structured training and change management led to higher user adoption rates across all business segments
• Business Value: Solutions directly supported business objectives, improving efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction

Lessons Learned

Leading enterprise Salesforce adoption has taught valuable lessons:

1. Change Management is Critical: Technical solutions alone aren’t enough—successful adoption requires careful change management
2. Training Matters: Investing in comprehensive training pays dividends in user adoption and satisfaction
3. Start Simple: Begin with declarative solutions and add complexity only when needed
4. Listen to Users: End users understand their processes best—involve them in solution design
5. Think Long-Term: Build solutions that can scale and evolve with the organization

Resources and Further Reading

For more information on the solutions and approaches discussed:

• Unlock Faster Quoting with Email2Case - Learn about the Email-to-Case implementation used in Anthem’s quote-to-order process
• Conga Composer: Your Document Generation Solution - Discover the Anthem health insurance plan setup solution
• Master Salesforce with Trailhead Trailmix - Explore the training approach used at Anthem
• Managing End-to-End Health Insurance Business Process with Salesforce - Learn about comprehensive health insurance process management
• The Importance of Declarative Development - Understand why declarative solutions are key to enterprise success
• Salesforce Flow: The Future of Automation - Learn about modern automation approaches

Conclusion

The story of Salesforce Joe is one of continuous learning, strategic thinking, and commitment to helping organizations succeed through Salesforce. By combining technical expertise with change management skills, it’s possible to drive enterprise adoption, streamline processes, and deliver real business value.

Whether leading organizational transformations, building training programs, or implementing complex solutions, the focus remains on understanding business needs, enabling users, and delivering solutions that make a difference.

The journey continues—always learning, always improving, always focused on helping businesses succeed with Salesforce.