Salesforce and programme leadership
Senior technical and programme leadership, embedded in your delivery, for organisations that have the budget for the work but not for the person who should be directing it.
Most Salesforce programmes do not fail on build quality. They fail because nobody senior owned the decisions: what to configure and what to build, what to say no to, what order things happen in, and when to stop. That is the seat we fill, and we fill it with someone who has done it before rather than someone learning on your programme.
It is not Salesforce-only. Where the programme touches ERP, finance, integration or the wider estate, our senior team has run those too.
Vision, strategy, delivery
Successful technology change is not just about tools. It is about direction, decisions and execution, and the three need to be held together by the same person.
Vision
Where the technology is going
IT and digital strategy aligned to business goals, emerging technology assessed honestly rather than enthusiastically, architectural roadmaps that survive contact with a budget, and risk and security considered before they become someone else’s problem.
Strategy
Turning vision into something you can hold someone to
Programme structure, sequencing, governance and the trade-offs written down at the point they are made. Architecture decisions recorded with the reasoning, so the next person inherits judgement rather than mystery.
Delivery
Making it land and stick
Project and change management, with one person accountable for the thing being finished, adopted and handed over. Delivery leadership is where most of the value is created and most of the cost is lost.
What a C24 lead does
The job title varies. The work does not.
What programme leadership covers
These are different jobs and people often want the wrong one. The question is scope, not seniority.
Leadership
You have a programme, or a defined piece of the estate, and it needs someone senior directing it. Bounded by the work. Ends when the work does.
Fractional
You need a technology function led, across the whole estate, not one project. Bounded by the organisation. Ends when you hire, or does not end.
What you get that you would not from a contractor
Salesforce first, but not Salesforce-only
We lead Salesforce programmes because that is where our depth is, but our leads have run ERP, finance, integration and full estate programmes. Where a best-of-breed system serves you better, you will be told.
Flexible, adaptive methodology
Waterfall, iterative and agile applied to fit the work rather than forced onto it. The Cognition Way is how we decide which is which.
Consultative, outcome-driven
Measured on whether the thing landed and got used, not on whether the plan was followed. Plans are a means.
A partner, not a provider
A firm behind the individual: certified specialists to call on, cover when someone is away, and a second opinion available on anything contentious. You are not buying one person’s availability.
Tell us about the programme
Whether it is starting, mid-flight or in trouble, a short conversation is usually enough for us to say what kind of leadership it needs and for how long.
Salesforce and programme leadership: frequently asked questions
A project manager runs the plan. A programme lead decides what the plan should be, holds the architecture, and has the authority to refuse things. Plenty of programmes have excellent project management and no technical leadership, which is why they deliver exactly what was asked for and not what was needed.
No. Our depth is in Salesforce, so that is where most engagements sit, but our leads have run ERP, finance, integration and whole-estate programmes. Where a programme reaches past Salesforce, so does the leadership.
Scope. Leadership is bounded by a programme and ends when the programme does. Fractional is bounded by the organisation: we hold the senior technology seat across the whole estate on an ongoing basis.
Either. Most engagements lead an existing internal team, sometimes alongside a partner delivering the build. Where you need delivery capacity as well, C24 can provide both, and we will be explicit about which hat we are wearing.
As long as the programme needs and no longer. We scope an end point at the start, including who takes the seat afterwards, because an engagement that cannot end has not worked.
Yes, and it is a common starting point. The first two weeks are usually a candid assessment of where it actually is, which is not always where the reporting says it is. Expect the recommendation to include stopping some things.
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