Meet Grant Spradlin, Nuxeo’s Vice President of Customer Success, who recently joined our team of experts. With a background in IT architecture and consulting, Grant brings a wealth of experience to the table and is here to make sure our customers are happy.
Here’s his story.
Q: When did you join Nuxeo and how has your experience been thus far?
I joined Nuxeo at the end of October 2016, which was shortly after the Goldman Sachs investment. I’ve really enjoyed my time here and it’s been exciting to watch the company grow over the last 5 months.
First off, what’s amazing is the caliber of the people here. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a lot of great people in my career and Nuxeo is no exception. From my first day the Nuxeo team has been incredibly supportive. The people are smart, but grounded, and the environment is fast-paced, but family-oriented and fun. I talk with customers and prospects a lot about Nuxeo’s open-kitchen concept and I really think this permeates into the Nuxeo culture. From New York to California, Paris, London, and Lisbon, there is a great sense of transparency and collaboration.
Then of course, there is my experience with the Nuxeo Content Services Platform and Online Services. I truly believe the technology is years ahead of the competition, the landscape is changing, and we can do things that no other software can do! It’s something that I’ve become very passionate about.
Q: Tell us a bit about your background before you joined Nuxeo.
My background is IT architecture and consulting. I’ve built products for consulting companies and consulted for product companies. There has been a lot of variety in the roles I’ve played, but the common denominator is that I’ve always been in front of the customer - that is what I really enjoy.
Prior to joining Nuxeo, I was the architect advisor to Salesforce.com’s biggest customer. Before that I was the chief architect of an ACA-compliant health insurance exchange solution implemented in multiple states. And, before that I delivered over a dozen IT consulting projects covering a wide range of industries, technologies, and solutions.
Q: What does the ‘Customer Success’ role mean for you and for Nuxeo customers?
It means a new partnership between Nuxeo and our customers. Forming the Customer Success team is a demonstration of Nuxeo’s investment and interest in the customer.
It means we recognize that the models of the past may not sustain the business of the future. We want to support our customers and see them succeed where so many others have failed with legacy Enterprise Content Management system or niche DAM solutions and software vendors.
It means our customers have a new voice and channel to provide direct feedback into the organization. We’re developing a customer-centric point of view and we want to have closer communication and collaboration. This will be important as the company grows and enables our customers to help steer us.
Q: Have you received any comments or feedback from Nuxeo customers which you found interesting and would like to share with us?
The most common praise I’ve heard is how impressed customers are with the Nuxeo Support team. Tickets sit with other software vendors going through multiple iterations and escalations before getting an actual response. The engineers on the Nuxeo Support team not only exceed the response SLA, but the best effort resolution SLA. That does not go unnoticed!
The most common criticism is probably the user experience of the old JSF UI. It could be configured and extended, but the framework was aging and leading to the development of custom UIs on top of Nuxeo APIs. Nuxeo has been aware of this for some time and that’s why we built a completely new web client on top of our REST API, called “Web UI“, for LTS 2016.
Q: What is your vision for the Customer Success team?
We want the Customer Success team to:
Have a deep understanding of our customers’ business objectives and IT solutions.
Engage in strategic discussions and advise on architecture, platform use, adoption and best practices.
Make sure new customers successfully get to production and realize the value of their applications.
Enable existing customers to continuously innovate and find new value in the Nuxeo Platform.
Empower our customers to provide honest feedback and recommendations to help us grow together.
Keep customers updated on the latest Nuxeo developments, offerings, and resources.
Be the voice and advocate of our customers by taking their business drivers, needs, and feedback and informing the organization and product roadmap.
Q: How do you like to spend your free time?
I would say that almost all of my free time is spent at home with my family. I have a very active two-year-old daughter and a baby boy on the way. My wife is due in June with our second, so we’re getting close and couldn’t be happier!
When my wife and I can escape for a break, we enjoy the simple things in life like good food, music, and the company of our friends. I wish I could say there is more going on in my life, but the hyper-growth of both Nuxeo and my family is about as much as I can handle!