Taking a business-first IT mindset 6 As vice president of IT Global Applications SYMANTEC at Symantec, Sheri Rhodes is responsible for leading application services. She has Sheri Rhodes grown her team, which sits within the VP of IT Global Applications company’s IT department, from 40 to 300 employees in two years. Before Rhodes arrived, 95% of development at Symantec was SYMANTEC’S Founded: 1983 outsourced. That changed when development, design, and the related roles DISCOUNT APPROVAL HQ: Mountain View, CA and functions were brought back in house. Workforce: 18,500+ “Our goal was to be more agile and add REQUEST APP Industry: Software more business value, as well as stay better connected to our stakeholders,” says Rhodes. “Being aligned with the business WHAT IS IT? is extremely important as IT evolves its Mobile app that streamlines services.” the employee discount request Building applications from scratch can be process by letting the sales daunting, from both a systems and user team request – and managers perspective. “The reason I like platform- approve – discounts quickly as-a-service (PaaS) — and Salesforce from anywhere. specifically — is because the foundational aspects of the application stack already WHAT DOES IT DO? exist,” says Rhodes. “You have standard Gives employees a single, structures and flows out of the box. When engaging place to work, you’re developing custom apps, you must collaborate, share content, have your end process nailed to a very and easily access granular level to be successful. Otherwise company information. you’ll spin on topics.” The speed of building on Salesforce allows HOW WAS IT BUILT? Rhodes’ team to explore more options Visualforce page on Apex as part of the development process. “We designed for enhanced mobile- always come to the table with options. friendly layout plugging into We’ve found that it is received more pre-existing approval workflows. positively that way. We build a lot of proof of concepts that we test in our Salesforce sandboxes,” she says. How fast can you build Rhodes’ team has developed several apps with lightning? employee applications on Salesforce, including a custom app to manage their WATCH DEMO discounting strategy, an app to track the types of inquiries they’re resolving in IT to allow for improved on-site ticket management, and an app for rebate payment tracking and processing. Mobile has been a key feature for driving adoption of these new apps — employees value Our goal was to be more agile and add more business value, access from anywhere just as much as features and functions. as well as stay better connected to our stakeholders. Being aligned with the business is extremely important as IT evolves its services. Sheri Rhodes, VP of IT Global Applications