Okta is the leading independent identity provider.
The Okta Identity Cloud enables organizations to securely connect the right people to the right technologies at the right time. With more than 7,000 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, Okta provides simple and secure access to people and organizations everywhere, giving them the confidence to reach their full potential.
More than 10,000 organizations, including JetBlue, Nordstrom, Siemens, Slack, T-Mobile, Takeda, Teach for America, and Twilio, trust Okta to help protect the identities of their workforces and customers.
Salesforce Stack
Leadership
Developers
Administrator
Business Analyst/Product Owner
Architects
Here is a quick look inside the Salesforce Center of Excellence at Okta.
This is an Enterprise SaaS player with 57% YOY headcount growth and $1.6B in revenue, meaning it's an organization that is operating at scale and still undergoing significant growth.
As a company of 8,000+, roughly 25% of total headcount is on the Sales side (2K+) with an in-house Salesforce team of 40+ driving the effort forward.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the core Salesforce / GTM Systems team.
A core group of 5 Business Technology Leaders are charged with Salesforce
- VP, Business Technology (ex-Salesforce)
- Sr. Engineering Manager, Biz Tech (ex-LinkedIn)
- Sr. Manager, Salesforce (ex-Workday)
- Sr. Manager, Business Technology/CPQ
- Director of Business Technology as the newest addition in January 2023
Under this group is an incredibly well structured layer of Individual Contributors across 5 primary functions.
- (3) Salesforce Architects
- (6) Salesforce Developers
- (9) Salesforce Business Analysts
- (6) Salesforce Administrators
- (12) Salesforce ‘Product Analysts’
A slightly unique aspect of Okta’s Salesforce team is the ratio of
Product Analyst : BSA : Administrator : Developer.
Most of these Product Analysts bring 6-10 years of Salesforce experience, some from Administrator backgrounds and others coming from top-tier Consulting Firms.
These individuals play an all-around role driving Salesforce product strategy forward as a ‘traditional Product Manager’, leading dedicated workstreams, directing the roadmap, and overseeing squads of Developers and Business Analysts handling execution.
How is a company with 2,000 Sales Reps able to function with only 6 internal Salesforce Admins?
Understandably, this is perhaps the first questions you'd ask when looking at a composition of this team. While this may demonstrate an underinvestment in Salesforce resources in some organizations, this actually speaks to the efficiency of Okta's team.
It's clear this is an organization willing to invest in their Salesforce team - the heavy hitters in the leadership group, (3) dedicated Salesforce Architects, and overall team size are evidence. And the critical piece of this resourcing model that allow them to function with only 6 Salesforce Administrators is the Product Analysts. These individuals are critical, stakeholder facing, and strategic members of any Business Technology team but it's not a role you find in a lot of companies. They allow for proactive IT planning, bridge the gap between business and technology teams, and create a layer that allows for thoughtful, intentional prioritization of inbound requests from the user base.
An org with 2,000 users that lacks this layer ends up being consumed by inbound tickets because differentiating between the urgent + important and the noise is nearly impossible. This function allows the Biz Tech group to be intentional about how resources are allocated, focusing on the highest impact areas at all stages of the journey.
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