Overview
Following MediaLink's acquisition, the parent organisation faced a critical integration challenge: bringing a newly onboarded business unit onto a unified Salesforce platform while preserving operational continuity and enabling long-term scalability. As the business analysis lead for the Salesforce rollout, this engagement spanned the full project lifecycle — from business process discovery through to technical implementation, user enablement, and documentation — across a complex, multi-product Salesforce environment.
The Challenge
Post-acquisition, MediaLink operated with legacy workflows and disconnected tooling that did not align with the acquiring organisation's technology standards or reporting requirements. Key challenges included:
- Process fragmentation: Existing "as-is" business processes were undocumented and inconsistent across teams, making it difficult to design a coherent target state.
- Stakeholder complexity: Multiple internal stakeholders across sales, operations, and finance held competing priorities, requiring careful alignment before any technical decisions could be made.
- Multi-product scope: The implementation required coordinating across several Salesforce products simultaneously — Sales Cloud Lightning, Inbox Einstein, Wave Analytics, Salesforce Lightning for Outlook, and FinancialForce — each with distinct configuration requirements and user audiences.
- Change management risk: A newly acquired workforce unfamiliar with Salesforce represented a significant adoption risk, requiring structured training and communication to minimise disruption.
- Financial systems integration: A proof of concept was needed for FinancialForce PSA to assess its viability as a professional services automation layer, adding complexity to an already broad scope.
The Solution
A structured, agile-led transformation programme was established to systematically address both the technical and organisational dimensions of the rollout. The approach balanced rigorous requirements definition with iterative delivery, ensuring stakeholder input was embedded throughout rather than front-loaded or assumed.
The programme was structured around four interlocking workstreams: business process redesign, functional requirements definition, technical implementation, and user enablement — each feeding into the next while running in parallel where possible.
Implementation
Business Process Analysis & Design
Conducted thorough "as-is" analysis of MediaLink's existing workflows across sales and client management functions. Through structured stakeholder workshops and collaborative discovery sessions, current-state pain points were mapped and a "to-be" process model was co-designed with key business owners — ensuring buy-in before any configuration work commenced.
Requirements & Agile Delivery
Led functional requirements gathering and definition across all product areas. User stories were authored to a consistent standard and organised into an agile project board, providing the project team with clear, prioritised development tasks and enabling transparent progress tracking for senior stakeholders.
Technical Implementation
Worked alongside the project team to design and deliver solutions across the full platform stack:
- Sales Cloud (Lightning): Core CRM build including pipeline management, account and opportunity structures, and Lightning page layouts aligned to the new process design.
- Inbox Einstein: Configured to surface AI-driven sales insights and activity capture directly within sales reps' workflows.
- Wave Analytics: Designed and implemented reporting dashboards to give sales leadership real-time visibility into pipeline and performance metrics.
- Salesforce Lightning for Outlook: Deployed to bridge email activity with CRM records, reducing manual data entry and improving data quality.
- FinancialForce: Implemented as the professional services and financial management layer, with a separate proof of concept scoped and delivered for FinancialForce PSA to evaluate its fit for project-based billing and resource management.
Training & Documentation
Designed and delivered a Super User training programme to create internal champions capable of supporting their teams post-go-live. Produced comprehensive end-user training documentation and maintained full project documentation throughout, providing an auditable record of decisions, configurations, and processes.
Outcomes
- Unified CRM platform: MediaLink was successfully onboarded onto Salesforce, replacing fragmented legacy processes with a consistent, scalable operating model aligned to the wider organisation's standards.
- Improved sales visibility: Wave Analytics dashboards gave leadership on-demand access to pipeline data and performance metrics, replacing manual reporting and reducing time-to-insight.
- Higher CRM adoption: The structured Super User programme and tailored training materials drove strong initial adoption, reducing the typical post-go-live drop-off associated with acquisitions and system changes.
- Productivity gains: Salesforce Lightning for Outlook and Inbox Einstein reduced administrative burden on the sales team, with email activity automatically synced to CRM records and AI-driven prompts surfacing next-best actions.
- FinancialForce PSA validated: The proof of concept provided the business with a clear evidence base for evaluating FinancialForce PSA as a professional services automation solution, supporting an informed go/no-go decision on full deployment.
- Scalable foundation: The documented processes, user stories, and configuration decisions established a reusable knowledge base, reducing onboarding time for future administrators and enabling the platform to scale as the business grows.