Rima Wandhekar believes in the power of technology to transform organisations.
As a budding technologist coming out of graduate school in the United States, it was this mindset that influenced the choice of her first job.
Wandhekar started out as an integration engineer with a multinational software firm. This was the initial step of a well-laid-out plan – to build a solid foundation in software development, and then climb the corporate ladder to shape company-wide technology mandates.
Destiny however had other ideas for Wandhekar. She and her spouse were considering moving back to India, to set up a green power company in Pune, Maharashtra.
Wandhekar was well-employed in the US at this point, and held on to her job, working remotely for a while. But as someone who could never resist a challenge, she quit and came on board to build Kalpa Power’s digital journey. The five years since have been a tremendous growth experience.
We asked Wandhekar what she has learnt from this decade-long journey, the role of technology in it, and her plans for the future.
What attracted you to a career in STEM?
RW: Technology always interested me. I wanted to start off as a UI developer, but took up a challenging campus offer as an integration engineer.
Ten years later, I have found my choice to be in this field beneficial. I sometimes hear that women hesitate to take up technology, but my experience has been different.
The last three years for instance, have been especially challenging, as I had to take care of our young son and steer Kalpa Power through an important part of its IT journey. Technology roles offer flexibility, which has helped me balance both these fronts.
Being in this profession has also given me the opportunity to be a part of the accelerated digitisation that is happening due to the pandemic. Exciting times indeed!
Tell us a bit about your Salesforce journey. How did you develop Salesforce skills and get started?
RW: A couple of years into my first role at a customer service platform, I was introduced to Salesforce. I worked on integrating existing internal systems with Salesforce through APIs, so we could capture and convert customer service calls to cases. While we worked on integrating other tools as well, the ease of working on Salesforce really caught my interest and I started looking at more opportunities around the solution.
Around this time, I received an offer to join another company as a Salesforce Developer. And the mentors at the new firm were among the first 500 Salesforce developers ever. So I have been fortunate enough to learn from pioneers and innovators on Salesforce. At this company, I saw first-hand how a large organisation could run completely on Salesforce and this experience has stood me in good stead in my current role.
Are there any memorable projects you would like to share from your earlier years of working on Salesforce?
RW: In one of my roles as a Salesforce Developer at an e-commerce marketplace, I was part of a team that built a custom Salesforce application that automated the end-to-end process from onboarding vendors to publishing deals online. Our solution enabled 500 salespeople to vet deals from nearly a million merchants before selecting and publishing the deals that were likely to get the best traction.
It was here that I learnt that technology does not just automate, but can transform how a company and its employees function. It was a challenging and fulfilling experience.
How did you build and implement Salesforce within Kalpa Power?
RW: As a founding team who believed in the power of technology, we wanted to automate the entire manual ERP process. We had to build the technology solution from scratch, and despite my Salesforce experience, I was looking at the biggest challenge of my career.
We started slow with about 10 licences and hired some implementation consultants. But while they set up a digital framework, they found it difficult to keep up with the rapidly evolving requirements of our growing company. At this point, a colleague and I decided to take over. I drew from my earlier experiences, and reached out to Kalpa Power teams on the ground to understand what pain points they needed fixed.
Based on these inputs, we began rolling out customised modules that addressed these needs. With the flexibility that Salesforce offers, we could continually experiment as well as incorporate employee suggestions. The first module was for the sales team and we saw tangible benefits – high rates of adoption and greater efficiency. This encouraged us to take automation to all the departments.
Today, we have been able to empower teams across Kalpa Power to do their work more easily and efficiently. With Salesforce, our inventory dropped by a factor of six, and at only 3% of topline, has boosted revenue growth by 3x. Project efficiency has also improved from 3x to 5x, boosting customer delight. This is an outstanding testimonial to the power of technology in driving business transformation.
Currently, we are a team of only three building on and implementing Salesforce, but hope to expand as the company scales.
What are you excited about the future with Salesforce at Kalpa Power?
RW: Transforming through technology has become part of our company’s DNA. All our processes are now on Salesforce except finance and HR. Migrating these is also underway and will hopefully be done by April 2022. Kalpa is going into new areas like electric power stations and we will eventually have the mammoth task of bringing these onto the system.
All my Salesforce skills, I learnt on the job. But I now want to go further and get certified on Salesforce as well.
Five years ago, I never thought I would be where I am today. Leading a team to set up an ERP from scratch in a new company has helped me move towards my career goals much faster. I have been lucky enough to acquire the techno-functional expertise I desired while also maturing as a leader. I want to build on this by adding some management training to my credentials so I can continue to help Kalpa Power transform its future through technology.
Find out more about how Kalpa Power is building tech solutions from the ground up to help employees serve customers better.
