Salesforce, a cloud-based CRM platform, empowers businesses with tools for effective customer relationship management, streamlined processes, and heightened efficiency. Its renowned flexibility and scalability, coupled with seamless integration capabilities with third-party applications, make it a leader in the industry. Originally starting with Sales Cloud, Salesforce expanded its suite to include Service Cloud for customer service, a variety of marketing tech products (Marketing Cloud, MCP, Pardot), and community management through Community Cloud. It addresses data and reporting needs with Tableau, Einstein Analytics, Data Cloud, and Datorama, while also offering AI solutions with Einstein, delving into IoT with IoT Cloud, and contributing to e-commerce through Commerce Cloud. Industry-focused solutions like Financial Services Cloud and Comms Cloud demonstrate Salesforce's commitment to tailored solutions for diverse sectors.
The Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) designation is considered one of the most challenging and prestigious certifications within the Salesforce ecosystem as it is designed for professionals with extensive experience in Salesforce architecture, design, and implementation. Its level of difficulty could be understood with the fact that there are only 400 CTAs worldwide for an ecosystem that is expected to create a net gain of 11.6M jobs and $2.02T in business revenue between 2022 and 2028.
(Reference: https://www.salesforce.com/news/stories/idc-salesforce-economy-ai/).
Prajeet Gadekar is a Certified Technical Architect (CTA) and much sought after in his area of expertise. He brings over twenty years of experience in architecting within the Salesforce ecosystem. Describing the value and rigor of the CTA certification process, he explains, "The CTA certification process is known for its rigor. It involves multiple steps, including a review board presentation where candidates must defend a real-world solution they have designed. The process assesses not only technical knowledge but also problem-solving skills, communication abilities, and the ability to architect scalable and sustainable solutions. Only professionals who go through this rigorous process can truly understand the level of knowledge, hard work and commitment it requires."
To qualify for CTA certification, candidates typically need a substantial amount of hands-on experience with Salesforce. This involves designing and implementing complex solutions for real-world business scenarios, making it challenging for individuals to achieve CTA certification early in their careers.
Prajeet acquired a broad and profound understanding of the entire Salesforce platform, encompassing its various clouds (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, etc.), along with technical expertise in areas such as data modeling, security, integrations, and more. This demanded a diverse skill set that not every professional may possess. Prajeet has consistently stayed updated on the latest Salesforce features, best practices, and industry trends.
In addition to technical expertise, CTAs require strong leadership and communication skills. Prajeet exemplifies how effective communication of complex technical solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders played a crucial role in his success, showcasing a rare combination of technical proficiency and essential soft skills.
Salesforce CTAs are the elite few, who have successfully navigated the intricate and demanding CTA certification process. Professionals like Prajeet, who hold the CTA designation, play a pivotal role in guiding their clients through experience-driven digital transformation and business process re-engineering journeys, leveraging the Salesforce ecosystem. This results in a faster go-to-market and quicker realization of value for their investment through the rapid deployment of prebuilt, customizable solutions that can scale over time. Ultimately, this empowers organizations to thrive in today's dynamic digital landscape. Prajeet has contributed to the success of several Fortune 100 clients across industries, including an asset manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management, an insurance provider, a European insurance company launching a new business in the Americas, and a cutting-edge tech company designing silicon chips.
Prajeet's profound understanding of the platform led to groundbreaking innovation. He developed BrokerBolt, a solution tailored for the group insurance sector. BrokerBolt, a mobile-first application, utilizes Salesforce Experience Cloud to offer carriers, brokers, and employers a fully responsive mobile solution. Integrated with a quoting and underwriting platform, it dynamically adjusts rates in real-time, delivering proposals to brokers with unparalleled speed. Brokers can manage leads, opportunities, and receive notifications for commissions, claims, policy administration, and enrollments through this centralized solution. He also created OnboardWise, a versatile onboarding solution. OnboardWise, a workflow tool, orchestrates the entire client onboarding process. It enhances the experience for both clients and internal users through a fully configurable metadata model and decision engine built on the Salesforce platform.
Salesforce CTA’s like Prajeet go beyond excellence in architecture, innovate through their knowledge of the platform and the needs of the industry and become principal advisors to client stakeholders ensuring success for everyone.
