Mike Backhouse , Birmingham, United Kingdom

My Offerings

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- Solutions in my core technology specialisms: Salesforce & MuleSoft.

- Cross-functional engagements in any related area where I can add value.

- I have a broad range of certificates and credentials to my name - see LinkedIn for the full list.



CRM Consultant

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I have worked extensively throughout Salesforce project domains, including

- Service Cloud & Sales Cloud,

- Communities

- Security Modelling

- Apex, LWC, Visualforce

- Workflow, Process Builder, Flow

- Reports & Dashboards

- DocuSign, Conga, WalkMe

- CTI (eg softphone integration),

- CPQ, FSL

- Heroku Connect, Salesforce Connect.


I also use Salesforce myself to manage my own activities.





Integration Consultant

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I have personally built integrations to

- Salesforce

- Several databases including Microsoft SQL Server, Postgres, Amazon Aurora

- Message Systems including AMQ

- Rules Engines including JBoss BRMS & Drools

- AWS products including Amazon Connect, Amazon SageMaker

- Microsoft Dynamics (365),

- Various Identity providers for single sign-on (Google, Okta, Custom SAML apps)

- And many more "web apps" / SaaS applications over various projects



In addition to Salesforce and Mule, I have experience with Jitterbit, which is often a good fit for a strategic middleware component for customers where minimising cost whilst maximising ROI is a key factor/constraint.





Data, BI, ML

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- Most of my experience in this area is in working with relational databases (that use SQL/SOQL).

- For Business Intelligence with Salesforce, I have significant experience here, including giving custom report type training to end-users in Mumbai, India

- I am also proficient in R and Python for low-level control, including use cases around working with data in Microsoft Excel.

- Some experience of AWS Machine Learning offerings with SageMaker

- Worked on Big Data projects in Salesforce





Tools & Techniques to Deliver Quality

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I enjoy paying particular attention to the quality of my delivery and there are two key goals here:

1) Build the thing right

2) Build the right thing



I have many tools in my arsenal to maximise the quality of delivery including:

- Agile, with a focus on Kanban & Scrum methodologies.

- Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD),

- Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery (CI/CD),

- Domain-Driven Design (DDD),

- Rapid Prototyping & Wireframing

- Automation frameworks



These enable me to achieve success in both relatively simple and more complex solution spaces.



Technical Solution Design

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I have owned/delivered many solution designs and reviewed many more. The review is a core part of any major design and I would encourage clients to engage in this best practice where relevant.







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... Notes on some pragmatic topics





On Preferred ways of working

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- Deliver quality solutions/outputs fast, get feedback, iterate

- Make a positive impact

- Build positive relationships





On Day Rates

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- Day rates are flexible. I'm really looking to price at the level of responsibility/value that is being delivered, in the holistic context of the work itself.

- "Good working relationships" > "Maximise income" :)

- Eg1: "Help build dashboards in Salesforce so we can get the most out of our data and understand our customers/their behaviour" -> towards £200/day

- Eg2: "Design our integration architecture across EMEA, for a large global company, and in a brownfield setting" -> towards £750/day

- Eg3: Join an agile scrum team, where there are shared responsibilities -> £350/day



Whatever the scenario, £350/day is a good baseline for discussion for non-fixed price offerings.





On Discounts

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Discovery and Alignment of the task at hand is a critical phase of any project and is an area which I can add significant value. However, it is also a phase which *enables* a quality output to be delivered, instead of actually delivering a quality output itself. Typically the ask is for working software to be delivered, so offering workshops for free here can encourage the overall success of the engagement, and help mitigate the risk of working with a new individual.





On IR35

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Opportunities both outside and inside IR35 will be considered.





On Travel

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- I have spent the last year working remotely with great success.

- Most teams I've worked with are based in the UK, in both onsite offices and remote teams. I have also worked extensively with teams in Romania and Italy as part of near-shore delivery models, and India with off-shore delivery models at various stages of my career.



Whilst I would prefer to work remotely, I'm open to travel and even staying overnight if necessary. I can understand that for some new clients it may be easier to establish trust in face-to-face communication.



I am based in Birmingham city centre, within 15 minutes walk of New Street/Grand Central Station, and will be expecting to use public transport / Uber to travel to any site which you request me to visit. This applies to international travel as well as throughout the UK.





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Anything else - Just Ask!

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