Houda Zemouri, Salesforce functional lead & Project Manager at UpCRM shares her path in the setting of the “UpCRM Au Féminin” series. She expresses her thoughts about working within a consulting company, the difficulties of her position and gives some advices to those who would like to follow in her footsteps.
Hi Houda, can you introduce yourself in a few words?
My Name is Houda Zemouri, I’m a Salesforce functional lead and Project Manager at UpCRM. I have more than 11 years of experience in international marketing and CRM.
Besides that, I am a very passionate Mom and working women! 😊
What were your motivations to work within a consulting company?
My main motivation was about having the opportunity to work for different clients and projects. This is the best way, in the IT world, to develop a great experience, learn how to be efficient and improve your skills in a very rich and challenging context. UpCRM offers this evolving environment!
What type(s) of difficulties do you encounter in this position?
Most of difficulties are linked to the way of increasing efficiency and keeping a solid and trustful relationship with the client. Having various project portfolio means being able to face specific challenges on time management, crisis management, team management and client follow-up.
What is your academic and professional background in order to be able to work in this position?
I’m coming from a different background than IT. I’m a business school graduated, who started her career as a Brand Portfolio Manager on consumer products in an international environment. I was a CRM and BI user and started to find a huge interest on Salesforce, because it combines my business background to a very advanced IT skill.
It was the perfect combination for my expected career field.
What advice could you give to a student who would like to do this job?
First of all, a good consultant should be effective in what he’s doing, but at the same time very flexible and surely empathic in the context of client or team issues. Don’t think that being a Salesforce consultant means exclusively being a good developer. It’s also about understanding the business needs and the customer context. If you’re able to get both, that will be the Jackpot!
Also, if you’re a Project Manager, here’s one of my best advice: don’t forget to protect your team and work on improving their skills.
Check the other articles of the series and find out the words of Mirela, Léa, Laetitia, Darshini and Ivy.
To find out more about about Up CRM’s solutions : Salesforce
