Turning It Off And On Again – Stas Daszkiewicz – RevOps Rockstars
Technology is at the heart of every SaaS company. You must have an integrated, streamlined, and optimized tech stack to be competitive. For this reason, business operations take an increasingly prominent role. As an essential growth lever, it’s critical you’re nurturing this function and providing adequate resources. Let’s hear from an industry veteran about how he finds success leading such an important team.
On this episode of the RevOps Rockstars podcast, Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense, discusses how he overcomes RevOps challenges. Hear from Stas and our hosts Jarin Chu, VP of Marketing, and David Carnes, Founder & Chief Evangelist at OpFocus, about how to reach your growth goals!
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What is something in RevOps you had to learn the hard way?
Stas has learned many RevOps lessons. One stands out as the most important: nothing is irreversible, but the time to reverse it depends on how much preparation you’ve done. One lesson learned came from Stas’ time at Angie’s List when he downloaded large data files and made changes without separately saving the initial data. After making a mistake editing the download, he realized the importance of regularly backing up data.
What does your Senior Director of Information Technology title entail at Sisense?
Stas structures his team into three units, traditional IT, IT infrastructure, and business systems. Team members in the traditional IT category manage software, ticket management, and ensure the wider team has what they need to operate effectively. The IT infrastructure team manages the data sets, and the business systems team is responsible for the go-to-market tech stack, including Salesforce, Outreach, and Marketo.
“We talk about process first and technology second.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
Stas likes to take a step back and understand the issues the company faces first. Once they’ve identified this, he finds the best way to overcome these challenges and reach their operational goals. Problems often don’t require new technology; Stas advises to consider training or updating processes first.
What’s the relationship between IT and Business Operations in a modern business?
The overlap between IT and Business Operations grows every year, and the measurements for success are beginning to bleed into each other. When implementing new technology, the first people Stas goes to are the stakeholders using the systems and the RevOps leaders who manage the wider revenue strategy. With tech stacks increasingly integrated, the IT team must understand the business as a whole to see success.
“IT and Business Operations need a business mindset now more than ever.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
How does IT move the needle and drive revenue in a modern tech stack?
IT is often still considered a cost center and is difficult to tie directly to revenue. Stas explains how his team’s actions reduce the time and effort sales spend inputting data. This reduction in time empowers them to spend more time doing what matters: supporting customers and selling. His team works to make the system so simple and straightforward that sales reps only need to focus on the customer.
“Every click I can take away from a sales rep, every last field they don’t have to fill in, is another minute they can be on the phone with a prospect or customer.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
One member of Stas’s team is an enablement director. Their role is to keep a pulse on the pulse on feedback from the sales team. Stas leverages them to understand problem areas and what the operations team should focus on to better enable sales reps.
“I tell my team: your focus is to allow our reps to not have to think about the systems.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
How do you determine the right balance of in-house resources and external partners?
There are three things Stas considers when determining what to keep in-house and when to leverage internal resources. The first is how quickly his team needs the work done. When internal bandwidth is stretched thin, he’ll call on external resources to assist in the project.
“When I bring an external resource to help work a project, there always has to be an internal resource hip to hip with those resources.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
Another factor is the level of internal knowledge on the team. If the project requires specialized skillsets the Sisense team doesn’t have, Stas will bring in external consultants to fill these knowledge gaps. In this case, Stas always has an internal resource working with external consultants to learn during the project. Having worked with the partner, internal resources are empowered to take over once the consultant leaves. Stas notes they’re currently hiring – if you have the RevOps chops, check out the Sisense career page.
“It’s always good to learn from experts who have seen many different features and know how other people have implemented them.”
Stas Daszkiewicz, Senior Director of Information Technology at Sisense
What type of cross-functional RevOps initiatives have you led?
One large cross-functional RevOps initiative Stas led that does not typically fall under business operations is license management. What people don’t often think about is that the source of truth for many organizations lives in the CRM. Since the source of truth is within the CRM, the business operations team is well-equipped to streamline and reduce friction for cross-system processes like license management. Stas wants to help customers onto their platform using their product as quickly as possible, and the success of their effort is reflected in a high NPS score.
Is there a tool in your tech stack you could not live without?
One tool in Stas’ arsenal that’s showcased healthy ROI is Copado. This DevOps tool allows his team to move code and APEX data between sandboxes and track this movement. He notes the time it saves by searching metadata and moving change sets has been a game-changer.
What excites you about the future of RevOps?
The most exciting trend emerging for Stas is the idea of Business Operations becoming a more established organizational role. Stas believes this group plays a critical role in the business and is happy with its continued growth. The rise of new platforms is another exciting area. There are now new tools that perform many of the tasks IT teams historically managed manually. These technologies save time for his team, enabling them to focus on more meaningful work.
How did you get into RevOps?
Out of college, Stas worked in the call center at Angie’s List. When he first joined, they had a homegrown CRM but transitioned to Salesforce during his second year. Having an innate fascination with technology, he kept in contact with the person leading the Salesforce implementation, offering QA support. Eventually, he moved into an enablement role, helping make people’s jobs more efficient. They gave him an admin role in the system and started suggesting and eventually making updates. Having built an understanding of Salesforce, he eventually moved to Conga, where he led an operations team.
Expanding your professional career
This has been another fantastic episode with a RevOps trailblazer. It’s incredibly valuable to hear from a leader who can scale operations and drive growth! Connect with Stas on LinkedIn or check out his company, Sisense.
We’ll continue the 2023 learning with our next episode featuring Megan Heinz, Director of Revenue Operations at Mainsail Partners. Watch all our past recordings on the RevOps Rockstars Youtube channel!
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