Taking a business-first IT mindset 5 When the company appointed Toby Lester BROWN- as VP of Technology, Architecture and Innovation five years ago, he was charged with bringing in new technology that would FORMAN better support Brown-Forman’s global workforce of 4,400 employees. Toby Lester “We needed a platform that could go VP of Technology, anywhere and work everywhere in any Architecture and Innovation language,” says Lester. When Lester started, BROWN-FORMAN’S developers at Brown-Forman were using a MY BF APP range of toolsets that weren’t integrated. So Lester tasked his team to come up with Founded: 1870 a single solution. They chose Force.com WHAT IS IT? HQ: Louisville, KY because it was easy to use, and because it Mobile, social intranet that Workforce: 4,400 easily integrates with everything else. connects employees across Industry: Beverage Lester credits Force.com with giving his team the globe. Manufacturer the power to move from infrastructure to innovation, getting closer to the business in WHAT DOES IT DO? the process. “We used to have server rooms My B-F is a personalized hub and three-tier architecture, and we had to for collaboration for Brown- make sure a lot of infrastructure was working,” Forman’s 4,400 employees says Lester. around the world. The role of IT at Brown-Forman has quickly evolved since they adopted Salesforce. “We’re HOW WAS IT BUILT? gluers now, we’re puzzle builders, working With Force.com and Salesforce alongside the business,” says Lester. “If you’re Chatter in just three months going to continue to help your company grow, and integrated into SAP. you need to be agile. Force.com allows us to quickly build something and get it in front of somebody, and then iterate on it rapidly.” See the full Brown-Forman story. In the past few years, Brown-Forman has replaced more than 50 applications. They WATCH FILM have consistency on the way things are viewed, as well as the way people access and create information. “There is also a consistency to the applications,” says Lester. “And we can modify them. If we need to do something different, it doesn’t take two weeks to update. It takes 20 minutes.” The way you get a seat at any table is showing your value in helping the company move forward. And by using Salesforce, we’ve shown that IT can help the company reach its goals. Toby Lester, VP of Technology, Architecture and Innovation