The head of financial services at Salesforce talks Santander partnerships and digital engagement with customers
Alan Donnelly has enjoyed a long and successful career in the IT and financial services industry . He has worked with banks , insurers , payments companies , fintechs and more in support of business transformation programmes for some of the biggest names in the business for the past 27 years .
" Technology is definitely much more connectable and effective than it was before "
Alan Donnelly , Head of Financial Services , Salesforce UK
Today , he ’ s head of financial services for Salesforce UK , the leading global , cloudbased CRM platform that integrates customers and companies . Donnelly is also currently leading the Salesforce operation that is digitally transforming the UK arm of the Madrid-based Santander Group .
“ I have had the pleasure of working with many financial institutions over many years ,” he says . “ Typically , it was involved in helping customers build big banking systems and banking platforms that ran what we would call systems of record . But now , as I ' ve moved into Salesforce and we ' re building our financial services business , we are really now helping our customers engage with their customers .”
The partnership withSantander is a multi channel operation that sees Salesforce helping the bank to engage better with corporate clients and retail customers via their branches and the internet , says Donnelly .
“ We ' re also helping them with customers , who maybe wish to acquire mortgages and mortgages for the life events . I guess it ' s a multi connectivity environment . But in every case , Santander needs to understand the customer ' s requirements and better serve those customers in the right time and the right fashion ,” Donnelly explains
He adds , “ I also think the ability to contact customers whenever they need help and support , as we ' ve seen in the recent pandemic , has proven critical - so I think technology is definitely much more connectable and effective than it was before .”