Thomas Bech hails from a small town in beautiful Northern Denmark called Aalborg. In 2011, he migrated to Copenhagen in order to study and complete his Master Thesis on ‘Implementing CRMs for small and medium sized companies.’ Little did Thomas know at the time how much that would set him up for his career. At the time he completed his thesis he had no idea it would eventuate to become what he did for a living.

After a seven month stint skiing and living in Whistler, Canada Thomas started his technology career managing CRM implementations for Agito Medical. Thomas has since held roles at MicroPartner and Capgemini as a consultant and implementation specialist of CRM, Cloud and business support solutions. Thomas then moved to New Zealand, fuelling his love of adventure and snow sports even further. Thomas joined Fronde in 2016 as a Salesforce business consultant and his funny, smart and problem-solving attitude has quickly become infamous around the office in Auckland.

We caught Tom for five minutes on his way out the door for a ski weekend to ask him life’s burning questions…

To start with, what five words would your friends use to describe you?Hmm, I can’t guarantee they would agree but let’s go with adventurous, inquisitive, dedicated, outgoing, and funny. I’m also known as ‘The Yes Man.’

What is your day-to-day role within the company?I’m a certified Salesforce.com consultant and implementation specialist. Every day I work with an awesome team to deliver Salesforce, marketing, CRM, and business solutions that are customised to each client’s specific needs.

Why did you decide to join Fronde? I was born and bred in Denmark, and love skiing. So it was definitely the well known ski slopes and beautiful NZ landscape that compelled me to move to New Zealand. After seven months living in Whistler I couldn’t get the bug out of my system. New Zealand has the perfect balance of adventure and snow sports, and when I was given the opportunity to join Fronde, how could I resist?

On the professional side, I took on the Salesforce role with Fronde as it offered a great chance to broaden my consultant skills. Back in Denmark, I worked for Capgemini as a Pardot, Salesforce and Marketing Cloud Consultant. I had also heard good things about Fronde and knew they had a heap of skilled people in the company that I could learn a lot from. It was also recommended by my little brother to move here (he lived in NZ for 4 months). He loved it!

What do you love about your job?The interesting people I get to meet and work with on a daily basis. I also love helping clients find solutions that deliver greater competitive advantage for their business. There’s a huge satisfaction in knowing you’ve contributed to something that will make a lasting difference. There’s lots of new experiences, no one day is ever the same, love the variety!

Inside Fronde’s Walls… A sneak peek behind the scenes at FrondeThomas Bech, Salesforce Business Consultant

“There’s a huge satisfaction in knowing you’ve contributed to something that will make a lasting difference.”

“Thomas has the ability to solve complex business problems by applying his extensive knowledge of the Salesforce platform. He instinctively looks for the most pragmatic solution which often involves innovating and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”Andrew Hargrave - Client Executive, Fronde

What is the most challenging project you have worked on to date, that really tested your skills, and how did you solve the business case?

Probably the biggest challenge to date was a Global implementation combining Sales, Service and Marketing Automation, where I was responsible for the marketing automation implementation. As part of the global implementation team, not only was it a challenge to implement a solution for so many end users across so many different countries and regions, but also collaborating with a large international implementation team, involving technical and functional consultants, change management teams, off shore resources, project managers, IT, Marketing and Sales Directors!! The project required a high level of planning, organisation and teamwork. Besides it being a very challenging task, it was also fun and a good learning experience which involved heavy traveling across Europe and US as being part of the flying squad implementation team. We got there in the end, and believe me we certainly celebrated with a few beers at the end of that project!

I have recently been involved in many interesting projects at Fronde, and I especially like when the implementation requires all our different skills and teams to be involved across the organisation. The goal is to develop customer solutions that utilizes the full platform potentials combing Sales, Service and Marketing solutions. Every new project is different and potentially requires new ways to solve the client’s needs and business cases, which in the end gives you really good and valuable insight to new branches, industries and complex business knowledge.

What gets you out of bed every morning?Coffee! A good Danish breakfast doesn’t go astray either.

What is your favourite work moment to date?It would have to be the global implementation of Pardot and Salesforce, which required us to travel across Europe and the USA with the Capgemini Flying squad. It really was life changing.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?Definitely working as a waiter and bartender on a Scandinavian cruise ship that sailed between Copenhagen and Oslo. I got to meet lots of…... interesting? people every cruise. You wouldn’t believe the things that goes on when on board a Scandinavian cruise ship, ha!

What’s the best experience you’ve ever had?Without a doubt the seven months I spent skiing and living in Whistler BC, Canada. The area is overrun with New Zealanders and Aussies, and we had the best fun. It’s probably why I thought moving to the other end of the world was a good idea! No regrets. Moving to New Zealand has been one of my best life decisions yet.

What do you love doing outside of work? I am pretty adventurous, and I love skiing, travelling, hiking, football and socialising with friends (and family). A few beers never goes astray either :)

What are you passionate about?In case you hadn’t realised yet … skiing and my Danish Football team, AaB! I also love adventure, travel, and football (the European kind). I’m also interested in growing my knowledge and finding ways to up-skill, explore and understand different cultures.

I’m also a bookworm when it comes to learning about sustainable competitive advantages, and knowledge

management. I even wrote an article on the topic, inspired by Jay Barney.

What’s your favourite book?So far, one of the best books I’ve read was definitely OPEN, Andre Agassi’s biography.

If you could change one major problem in the world, what would it be? Beside world peace and no religion to live or die for - I would add some mountains similar to the French Alps located in the northern part of Denmark, to avoid Denmark being so flat and not suited for skiing at all – that would be a great feature! But don’t expect that feature to be released before Winter 17’.

If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you would do?Definitely a round the world ski trip with family and friends.

Contact us at www.fronde.com or email Danielle.Chrystall@fronde.com

“Thomas has been an outstanding functional consultant to work with, not only because of his incredible knowledge and experience on the Salesforce platform to design and configure based on requirements but also making astute business decisions on smarter ways to achieve the best outcome for the client.” Shireen Chetty - Client Executive, Fronde