Unlocking business transformation through Bell's acquisition of CloudKettle
By Guillaume Bazinet, CEO FX Innovation, a Bell Canada company
The acquisition of CloudKettle completes a pivotal chapter in Bell's evolution, marking a transformative shift from a traditional telecommunications provider to a technology service provider. With CloudKettle, we now have the final piece of the puzzle required to seamlessly connect Salesforce, ServiceNow, and the hyperscalers within the cloud. This integration is a culmination of years of dedication. I am so proud to witness this moment.
To honour this partnership, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Greg Poirier, President of CloudKettle, to explore his journey and discuss what’s next.
CloudKettle: A journey of excellence
Guillaume: Greg, welcome to the team! Can you share the inspiration behind CloudKettle and the gap you saw in the marketplace?
Greg: CloudKettle was born out of my passion for empowering businesses with innovative cloud solutions. Over years of building Sales and Marketing engines at companies, I recognized the untapped potential of seamlessly integrating the Salesforce and Google ecosystems. In particular, I observed that businesses craved expertise in Revenue Operations, but had concerns about compliance and security, a niche that aligns well with Bell's highly regulated and security-driven industry focus.
My vision was to bridge this gap and provide clients with a comprehensive suite of services that would drive revenue growth and efficiency. It was this vision that inspired the creation of CloudKettle, a company that specializes in helping organizations leverage the Salesforce ecosystem across the entire customer lifecycle, from awareness, to sale, then support and renewals.
A perfect match
Guillaume: Why was Bell/FXi the ideal fit for CloudKettle?
Greg: My journey with Bell dates back to my first teenage job, delivering phone books. Little did I know that this early connection would pave the way for future collaborations!
Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of working closely with Bell. This experience instilled a deep understanding of the industry's challenges and opportunities. Bell's customer-centric approach mirrors our own, making this a great partnership to accelerate our growth.
Equally important in my evaluation process was to carefully assess the visions of all potential partners, ensuring that they would align and complement our own entrepreneurial vision and mindset. I was looking for a partner who shared our values, and had a proven track record. FXi’s reputation in cloud technologies and ServiceNow, coupled with an unwavering dedication to customer success, made this partnership an ideal choice.
Guillaume: What motivated CloudKettle to seek this partnership now?
Greg: When we began the company, we had a 10-year plan for CloudKettle, and as we entered our 10th year, the time came to move to our next phase. We were looking for a partner that could accelerate our business growth, provide career opportunities for our team, and share our cultural values.
While hosting a Salesforce event for Bell in November, I had the opportunity to meet you, Guillaume. You were transparent and insightful about your experience with FXi’s acquisition. I saw that you shared my entrepreneurial spirit and had the backing of Bell, a technology company that values preserving the unique identities across its group of companies.
It's a full-circle moment for me, considering my early days with Bell Aliant. My long history with Bell has been very rewarding. I’m also extremely proud of the accomplishments within our team at CloudKettle. Combining our capabilities together simply makes sense and opens the door to so many new opportunities.
Unleashing the future
Guillaume: Now that CloudKettle is part of the Bell group of companies, what exciting opportunities lie ahead?
Greg: We already know that our client base has extensive Salesforce and ServiceNow footprints. By integrating our team’s capabilities, we can expand the support we provide both our existing customers and help future ones.
And as you and I have discussed in the past, the value creation that AI promises enterprises is dependent on the quality of data they can tap into. Our joint ability to help them leverage that data in their Salesforce, ServiceNow, AWS, GCP and Azure ecosystems is why CloudKettle and FXi will be able to assume a leadership role in this space. We're excited about the potential to harness these tools to generate even greater value for our customers.
A New Chapter Begins
Guillaume: In today's digital landscape, automation and orchestration reign supreme. Companies across Canada and globally are leveraging ServiceNow and Salesforce. Imagine the possibilities now that we can bridge these platforms together, all orchestrated under one unified umbrella. This is not just an advancement in technology, it's a game-changer for our customers.
Thank you, Greg for joining us on this adventure. I can’t wait to get started!
To learn more about this acquisition, read the news article.
About the authors
Greg Poirier is the Founder and President of CloudKettle. Greg has been in the Salesforce ecosystem for a decade and a half. In 2010, he joined Radian6 (acquired by Salesforce), where he grew the digital marketing team. After Salesforce, he was recruited to build the Sales and Marketing engine at TitanFile, a secure document file-sharing company. In 2013, he joined Livelenz (acquired by Mobivity), where his talent for creating efficiencies expanded his role to Chief Operating Officer.
A four-time Dreamforce speaker, Greg is a sought-after presenter and advisor specializing in Revenue Operations. Passionate about giving back, he also mentors emerging talent at his local accelerator and incubator. Greg has been named one of Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top CEOs 5 times and was recently announced as a regional finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Guillaume Bazinet is an entrepreneur and a business leader with nearly 20 years of experience in the IT sector. He co-founded FX Innovation in 2002. In this context, he notably led the sales force and consulting services to make it a key growth driver for FX, ensured the start of the ServiceNow practice, and acts as the main point of contact with strategic partners such as ServiceNow, Azure, AWS and Google. He has served as Chief Executive Officer since August 2020.
Guillaume holds a bachelor's degree in business administration specializing in information technology, in addition to having completed an executive development program in entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also acts as Chairman of the Board of the Computer Research Institute of Montreal, an organization with which he has been involved since 2014. He is recognized for his unifying leadership and his ability to identify solutions to complex business challenges and is passionate about advancing business technologies to benefit his customers’ success.