GPA Nets Benchmark Partnership

In less than two years, Adam Arroyos has led his startup company into a partnership with one of the most state-of-the-art corporations in the world.

On June 18, Fayetteville leadership consulting firm Grandslam Performance Associates LLC announced the launch of its online tool serve2perform.com on the Salesforce1 AppExchange, a cloud computing marketplace where users can access, download and install software applications.

GPA is the first Arkansas-based independent software provider (ISV) to integrate with San Francisco-based Salesforce.com Inc., the leading provider of customer relationship management software, and one of the most innovative companies in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

The months-long process was arduous. GPA had to submit to an extensive security review, have its business model approved and verify there wasn’t a similar application existing on the Salesforce platform.

But by announcing the product integration, there should be little doubt GPA, which opened in 2012, is now an established player, and not a fly-by-night startup.

“It’s a team effort,” Arroyos said. “We’ve been able to bring people together that share the passion of what we want to do, but I give a lot of the credit of where we are [as a company] to where we are. [Northwest Arkansas] is a special place for folks who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are willing to work hard to collaborate with those around you.”

Jeff Amerine, director of technology ventures at the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office, said the partnership is a tremendous checkmark of credibility for GPA, an organizational development firm specializing in helping individuals and companies grow and sustain their performance.

“It’s like the old saying, ‘Nobody ever got fired for buying anything from IBM,’” said Amerine, who has held senior leadership positions in seven startup ventures and three Fortune 500 companies over the past 20-plus years. “The same is true with Salesforce.com. Nobody ever got in trouble in a major account from doing business with Salesforce. When Salesforce partners with the smaller guy, it just adds to their capabilities. Adam and his team should have no problems gaining entry into other large accounts by virtue of that relationship with Salesforce.”

Talent Tool

Serve2perform.com promotes professional development through peer-to-peer learning. The approach has existed for many years, but was never seriously considered by companies as a talent development solution until recently.

The online platform is designed to leverage the popularity of social media and the scalability of technology to help individuals connect to skills, learn new skills and improve existing skills.

“Most of the time people learn what they are told they need to learn and what the company provides for them,” said Tyrel Denison, GPA’s chief technology officer. “With serve2perform, we allow you to go in and search a broad range of real-world practitioners. If you have a real need and you want to learn something, you can go to serve2perform and learn it.”

And for companies, it helps them achieve an important goal — developing, growing and retaining their most talented employees.

Users can access serve2perform.com in two ways: as an individual user or as a member of a company that has already paid for a staff license.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Softtek, Tyson Foods Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are among the companies who use the tool, and its global community of members represent more than 115 companies in 30 states and 12 countries.

At the AppExchange website, companies can subscribe to the application for $12,500 annually, giving their employees access to the serve2perform site.

Individual users can pay $125, which includes a one-time set up fee.

The benefit for GPA — other than selling its product to an untapped pool of Salesforce customers — is adding additional value to existing clients who already use the AppExchange.

As of March, according to the company, the AppExchange features 2,213 applications which have driven a total of 2,268,253 installs.

“We pursued the partnership because our clients wanted to be able to access serve2perform through Salesforce,” Denison said. “People don’t want to log on to five different sites to use things. If a company has their people signing into Salesforce, they can sign in and still use our products.

“This will give us exposure to new clients and add credibility to those clients and other clients that don’t use Salesforce but are aware of it.”