Introducing Talhah Jeewa: Senior Solution Sales Professional at The CRM Team

Meet Talhah, a young, passionate individual hailing from the vibrant city of Johannesburg, South Africa. Born with an adventurous spirit, Talhah embraces life with enthusiasm and energy. Whether casting a line on a serene fishing trip, cheering for his favorite football team, or indulging in the sizzling delights of a traditional braai, he finds joy in the simple pleasures of life. Armed with an Honours degree in Bcom Marketing Management from the University of Johannesburg, Talhah channels his creativity into every endeavor he pursues. Balancing professionalism with a touch of artistic flair, he effortlessly expresses his innovative ideas in all aspects of life. With a strong focus on family and friends, he cherishes the moments spent together, creating memories that last a lifetime.

Talhah Jeewa, is a Senior Solution Sales Professional at The CRM Team, specialising in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Power Platform. With his expertise and passion for customer-centricity, Talhah has been instrumental in transforming industries such as manufacturing, tertiary education, corporate training, real estate, non-profits, and transportation.

At the heart of Talhah’s work lies the powerful Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications suite. This comprehensive platform offers a wide range of solutions to meet the unique needs of businesses, enabling them to manage and optimise their operations effectively.

His background in marketing management, with a BCom Honours degree, has fuelled his passion for Dynamics 365 Marketing, Customer Insights, Sales, and Customer Service. He understands that these components are the key drivers of customer centricity and play a crucial role in building long-lasting relationships.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Microsoft Dynamics 365 is its ability to automate manual and time-consuming processes with just a click of a button. This automation not only saves organisations countless hours but also aligns efforts towards a common goal. Imagine the impact of eliminating tedious administrative tasks and redirecting resources towards value-added activities that truly benefit customers. With Dynamics 365, businesses can achieve this efficiency while significantly reducing costs from an IT perspective.

The transition to the cloud has been a game-changer for many organisations, and Talhah has witnessed first-hand the transformative power it brings. Customers who have migrated to the cloud using Dynamics 365 have experienced remarkable cost reductions, freeing up thousands of hours and millions of rands. The elimination of hardware costs and the reduced security risks associated with cloud-based solutions have made the platform even more appealing to businesses of all sizes.

In an industry that constantly evolves, Talhah stays ahead of the curve by embracing every release wave of Microsoft Dynamics 365. With each update comes a host of new and revolutionary features that customers love. The power of the platform knows no bounds, and Talhah’s expertise lies in helping businesses leverage these capabilities to their fullest potential.

However, the question remains: Can we keep up? The rapidly evolving nature of the Power Platform presents a challenge for businesses to stay up to date with the latest advancements. Talhah’s commitment to continuous learning and innovation ensures that he remains at the forefront of industry trends and can guide his clients towards sustainable growth.

Beyond his expertise, Talhah’s true passion lies in the people he meets and the diverse challenges he encounters on a daily basis. Every day brings new opportunities to connect with individuals from different walks of life and find exciting ways to solve their unique business problems. It’s a career that he finds fulfilling, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

With his deep knowledge of the platform and its potential to revolutionise industries, Talhah has helped businesses achieve remarkable results. His dedication to customer-centricity, automation, and continuous learning ensures that he stays ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Talhah’s commitment to solving complex business challenges and his passion for helping organisations succeed make him an invaluable asset to any team.

Introducing Paul Mulder: Senior Solution Sales Professional at The CRM Team

Meet Paul Mulder, a seasoned sales professional with a passion for technology, outdoor activities, and making a positive impact on the world. Born and raised in South Africa, Paul has a deep appreciation for the natural beauty, great weather, and the simple pleasures of life that his home country offers.

As a “born-and-bred” South African, he has a love for the seaside and enjoys activities such as snorkelling, swimming, catch-and-release fishing, and scuba diving. When he’s not near the coast, Paul keeps himself active by playing tennis, skateboarding, hitting the gym, and attempting to play the guitar (although he modestly claims to play it “very badly”). He also has plans to learn to play the piano in the near future, showcasing his love for music and continuous pursuit of personal growth.

Paul’s passion for making a difference extends beyond his personal interests, as he is deeply committed to the humane and just treatment of all inhabitants and environments of our planet. He is particularly passionate about marine conservation and children’s rights, which reflect his caring and empathetic nature. With a heart for making a positive impact on the world, Paul strives to contribute towards creating a better future for all.

Professionally, Paul has an extensive background in the IT Software Industry, with a focus on software sales. He has held various roles throughout his career, ranging from sales executive to business unit manager, and has even started his own business that implements sales effectiveness solutions.

Paul is known for his innovative mindset and his belief in the power of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, to help businesses and individuals achieve more than they thought possible. He brings a unique perspective to his work, driven by his divergent way of viewing the world and his unwavering enthusiasm for staying up-to-date with the latest advancements in his field.

Currently, Paul is a Senior Solutions Sales Professional at The CRM Team, where he brings his wealth of experience, passion for technology, and commitment to making a positive impact to the team. With his expertise in sales and his forward-thinking mindset, Paul is well-equipped to help clients navigate the ever-changing landscape of customer relationship management and drive meaningful results.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Paul is an active member of his community and strives to make a difference wherever he can. He is constantly seeking opportunities to contribute to charitable causes and give back to society, aligning with his values of compassion, fairness, and social responsibility.

Microsoft Envision South Africa 2022

 Microsoft Envision South Africa 2022 was no ordinary event! It was a terrific opportunity for Microsoft Partners and customers to get a first look at new features, enhancements, and innovations to transform your business into a more agile, customer-centric organisations specific to all industries.

Upon arrival guests were given a warm welcome with arrival refreshments and a moment to network with various attendees.

The CRM Team was proudly represented by Wynand Roos (Johannesburg) and Rynhardt Grobler (Cape Town) who were part of the panel at the industry breakout session: Retail – Reimagine Customer-Driven Retail.

To kick off the session, Lidia Ngengebula – the Retail, Transportation & Logistics Director at Microsoft South Africa welcomed everyone. “I just want to firstly say thank you so much for the support that you have given us as the Microsoft team. I must tell you we have a lot of fun working with you as our customers and you as our partners. There has never been a more exciting time than today to be in retail right because speed of retail just continues keep accelerating retailers are looking for change, they are looking for ways to monetize the digital economy.”

Lolo Scrumpton, the Retail Executive at Microsoft South Africa, introduced the panelists which included, Wynand Roos – Managing Director of The CRM Team, Richard Swart – Chief Operating Officer at Ignition Group and Rami Sultan Microsoft UAE Government Director.

Lolo Scrumpton asked Wynand Roos, how retailers can get a centralised 360-degree view of who their customers are, where their customers purchase, how often they purchase and what they buy.

In which Wynand responded, “I’d like to start by saying that data and capturing data is not a substitute to strategy and to give a simple example, I recently had an urge to purchase some equipment and went on to Google to find the equipment that I was looking for and I found two retailers that sold what I was looking for. One retailer site stated that they were out of stock and asked for me to provide my e-mail address to notify me when new stock arrives. The other retailer side that they were also out of stock on the item that I was looking for. So, I sent an email to their email address asking to be notified when there will be stock again. Two days later I had no response, so I followed up in which they responded, and they said that they placed an order, but they do not know when it is going to arrive. I followed up with them week after week.

I received a notification from the first retailer to say that they received new stock. So, the next morning before work I popped into the store, and they said they were just about to phone me. They went on to say that they had received stock the previous evening and notified me and that was a wonderful experience for me even though I had to wait for the stock. With the other retailer I kept on following up and I had to initiate that conversation.

There is no substitute for strategy, so how do we make this real for customers? First, we implement a customer data platform in Microsoft world that is known as Customer Insights. Our customer insights allow us to connect to all different data and we must consolidate that data and go through a process that matches and merges that data in order to get a single view of a customer. Not just a single view of the attributes, but also a single view of their behaviour, what their customer lifetime value is, their loyalty points, the money that they spend online versus spend in store. That gives us a consolidated understanding of who those customers are, so once we have that understanding we then let AI (Artificial Intelligence) play its part and AI determines insights on top of that data.”

After the industry breakout sessions, all attendees were treated to a lovely lunch and dessert which everyone seemingly enjoyed.

After the delicious lunch, we all gathered to listen to Michael Jordaan who was the guest speaker at Microsoft Envision 2022.

Michael Jordaan is known as a legend in South African entrepreneurship, ex-CEO of FNB (First National Bank) and the founder of Bank Zero.

Jordaan took us on a journey of how technology and the business landscape has evolved over the past couple of years. He took us back to the 2002 Windows XP, the first consumer version of Windows, came out and all the incredible features it had.  He went on to say that everyone thought it was right and no one thought it would evolve to the way that it has today.

Overall, Microsoft Envision South Africa 2022 was a treat to all those who attended. The different sessions left everyone excited to see what more Microsoft is going to do in the next year.

Resilient Women

Women’s month serves as a lovely reminder of how courageous women are. It is important for today’s young girls to know and understand that a woman can accomplish things that go beyond what they think is possible.

Throughout history, it has been evident that women can achieve anything that they put their minds to, despite their struggles, traumas, circumstances, or whatever the world has against them. Think of the 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 to protest against the pass laws that were passed on to women in South Africa. Think of women like Oprah, who grew up in extreme poverty and went through childhood trauma to become one of the most well-known TV hosts worldwide. Think of J.K. Rowling, the woman behind the popular Harry Potter series, who was a single mother living on welfare when she wrote the first book of the series. All those women did not just become overnight sensations. They fought hard to rise above their circumstances. And that is what inspired me to thrive in life, no matter how unkind life was towards me.

My story dates back to when I was a pregnant 15-year-old and my world felt like it was crumbling down. You can imagine how brutal society was towards me, labelling me with all sorts of names and basically painting me as the girl who would not go anywhere in life. As a 15-year-old, the first thing that comes to mind when you are going through that is that life is not worth living. However, there was no way I was going to give up, no matter how hard it got.

Years go by, and the girl they said would not get anywhere in life passes her matric very well, and the shock on their faces was evident. Now imagine how they looked when they found out that I was accepted into one of the top universities in the country. I knew from the moment I started university that my reality was not the same as everyone else in varsity. I had to stay focused. I could not afford to mess up or have moments of recklessness because I was not just living for myself but for the little boy who was back home waiting for his mommy to finish school so she could take him and give him a better future.

My story is not about how I am some resilient woman who is determined to make it no matter what. My story is about how, in my times of weakness and misery, I still managed to pick myself up and work towards achieving my goals. I have become a woman that 15-year-old me is extremely proud of. A young mom who is raising her 10-year-old son and providing the best possible life for him.

One thing I can tell all women out there, especially the young women who feel like the world is against them, is that you have a fighting spirit inside of you. You are courageous, deserving, and a force to be reckoned with. Whatever you are going through, whatever challenges you will face, always make sure you pick yourself up and try again. Even if you fall a thousand times, you can get up a thousand times more.

Yolani Williams – Content Writer

Yolani Williams is the Content Writer at The CRM Team, with the role to produce relevant content such as blogs, articles, and social media copy. Yolani holds a qualification in Strategic Corporate Communication and has 3 years of relevant experience in the marketing field.

Women and Work: Then, Now and
What The Future Holds

When I was eighteen years old, I majored in English Literature in my Senior high school year.  As we read the poems, plays and novels I was often struck by how the world has been unfair towards women.  I was often left shocked angry and sad for the female leads in the novels, plays and poems we studied. From their inability to choose who they love, when to have children, access to education, access to certain professions like studying medicine or law….Oh, the scandal to want to be educated! They were born in a wrong time.  It is this reflection that makes me sober when I think of how far we have come.   Is there still much to be done? Yes, but this does not cloud my perception of whether we are better of or worse. 

In the 21st century, our society has made significant progress with regard to gender discrimination, we can vote, go to school and choose our professions among many other freedoms.  Granted, some professions are still male-dominated, and settling in those spaces can be quite difficult, we still acknowledge and are happy that the doors are open to women now. We are way better of than women in earlier years. We still do have a gender pay gap to consider, friendlier maternity leave policies to be implemented, ending child marriage, socialising our society to not accept domestic violence as a norm amongst some of the hurdles we need to jump.

Women are now given the opportunity to sit at the table in boardrooms, in parliament, etc. And it is now our responsibility to take up space. We must show up when given the baton in this relay. Women before us were ostracised and ridiculed for wanting this opportunity and so we must not take it for granted.

It is now our responsibility to be the torch bearers for the next generation. We owe it to ourselves to empower young girls, to teach them how to speak up, and to teach them to take up their own space in whatever field they want to be in.

Over the last 10 years, in particular, a significant amount of research has been conducted on gender diversity in leadership. We are now living at a time when women leaders are on the rise, especially in the political space.  I love this because representation at the top is the best way to get your challenges considered. Being in the IT world I do believe that we need more women in IT.  There is a noticeable lack of Snr Software Engineers. I am confident that this will change with time as more young women take up IT studies.

This is a great time for women to surround themselves with women who are powerful – you have to step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in spaces where you will be inspired. Things like resilience, courage, and leadership are like muscles that you have to build and strengthen, so do whatever you must to ensure that you are constantly working those muscles and learning from various leaders.

“Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you” Marianne Williamson. I love this quote because it implies that women can do great things.

Be courageous.

Bertha has been with The CRM Team for 5 years overseeing Delivery Operations, she is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing Functional Consultant Associate and she holds a BCOM in Marketing Degree. She is currently busy with an Advanced Project Management Certification and is equipped to deliver projects using Agile Principles. Her Favorite workplace Moto is  “When our Customers Win, We win! ”

Women Who Do It All: Family, Home, and Career.

South Africa will celebrate this year’s Women’s Month under the theme: “Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience”. As part of The CRM Team’s August monthlong theme, we aim to inspire women from all walks of life.

Among the most admirable qualities of women is their ability to juggle many roles. For example, wives, mothers, and career women. The ability to play all those roles at once is admirable, but also quite challenging.

There is no one-way formula to handle a career, being a wife, and motherhood – no clear instruction on how to “have it all.” But one thing is for sure, you can do it, and you can do it well.

A woman’s career ambitions and her responsibilities as a mother are in constant conflict from what I have heard, but as a woman, you should be able to thrive in both. As a Marketing Manager, a wife, and a mother of three beautiful girls, it is only by grace and my support structure that I have managed to juggle all of the roles.

There is no doubt that there is difficulty in managing to be a wife to my husband and making sure that we spend as much time together as we can, then giving individual attention to all three of my daughters, and then making sure I give my utmost best in the role I am in at work.

So how do I do it? Firstly, having a supportive and active partner makes a huge difference. We do everything together, we raise our children together, and we succeed in our careers together. Having a strict routine works wonders for me.  A routine that gives equal attention to my family and career – because it requires a lot of attention. Someone once said that there is no such thing as “work-life balance” just life and I fully live by that motto. It is quite important to work with people that understand that you have a life outside of your work and once that is clear it gives time for your personal life to thrive as well.

A lot of young people currently feel like they have to choose between having a career and a family – but what if I told you that you can do both? I hope to inspire women to see that you can have both! With a bit of hard work in between it is very much possible to excel at home as a spouse, a parent, and at work. It all comes down to the environment you choose to be in, having a child or a family shouldn’t limit your career goals.

I was 17 years old, stepping into my matric year, when I left my parent’s home and started my own life. At that point, I was not sure how I would have the financial resources to study further since I did not have any support structure at that point in my life. My circumstances did not determine my future, so I decided to give it my most determined shot, and to do my best to pay for my studies and become an independent person. I made it a life goal to have a partner that would be supportive and to give my children a support structure. I had that same mindset with my career as well, to give my all and go above and beyond to excel. I am also not saying there aren’t tough times, but it is how you as a person react to it and how you decide to approach it that makes a difference.

Of course, there are things I have had to push aside in order to have work-life harmony, like having a hobby. However, I still set aside time monthly to go do my nails and spend time alone with my husband. Times like those are very important.

My story is not a guide on how to be a career woman, wife, and mother. It is simply to inspire all women out there to know that it is possible to balance it all, it might not be easy but you can do it! Your personal goals are as important as your career goals. Never feel like you have to choose.

You are a phenomenal woman and there is nothing you cannot achieve if you put your mind to it.

Bianca Kruger – Marketing Manager

Bianca Kruger is the Marketing Manager at The CRM Team, with responsibility for marketing programs, brand management, strategic marketing campaigns that drive business objectives. Bianca has over 10 years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing and holds a qualification in Business Management.

Innovative, Dynamic, and Passionate is what best describes Bianca.