Company Updates

Kimberly Gress a Top Woman in Cloud

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Headshot of Kimberly GressDell Boomi’s Director of Client Services Kimberly Gress has been named one of CloudNOW’s Top 10 Women in Cloud and is a finalist for the Top Woman in Cloud Innovations Award. She received this recognition for her leadership in developing Predictive Assistance, our recently patented technology for helping customers utilize our integration platform to its fullest potential.

When I heard about it, I wanted to know more about Gress she prepares to compete in a pitch-style event with nine other finalists for this award, so I asked a few questions:

Q: What exactly is Predictive Assistance technology?

A: Predictive Assistance integrates near-real-time customer usage metrics with Dell Boomi’s customer relationship management system, enabling the Dell Boomi Client Services team to proactively reach out to customers whose usage metrics indicate that an engagement can optimize their use of the Boomi integration platform.

Q: How does this ultimately enable our customers to grow their businesses and do more through technology?

A: Predictive Assistance helps customers by promoting a greater return on their investment in Dell Boomi’s integration platform as a service (iPaaS), especially compared to traditional middleware, because the analytics-driven, proactive communication enables them to maximize their integration success with Boomi AtomSphere.

Q: What excited you most about leading this project?

A: . By focusing on improving existing usage cases, we were able to expand our interaction with customers and build trust. Predictive Assistance is, by its very nature, designed to serve the customer, often before the customer recognizes the need for it. I really enjoy watching how the data has driven a better relationship with our customers.

Q: A couple of years ago, someone asked if cloud computing would kick the IT door in for women. Do you think it has?

A: I think technology in general is becoming more accessible. If you think of mobility, computing platforms, SaaS and cloud solutions, technology is more accessible than it used to be. I think where women are going to excel, to really make a difference, is that we’re really good at problem solving. We are tackling all these technologies and putting them together to create business solutions. And at the end of the day, I believe that if we’re not solving a problem for our customers, for our end users, we’re not banging down doors.

Q: I notice your Twitter handle is @STEMmother. Do you think girls today have an advantage in the technology field with the emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education?

A: I believe all young students have an advantage today given the educational focus of STEM. For girls, supplemental programs are providing them more insight and advantage into technology and the opportunities it presents too. Techgirlz.org, they provide insights in all different types of technology, including cloud and educates girls on how to think about the business around those technologies, so in essence, we’re giving girls a 21st century understanding of technology, so yes. A focus on STEM education is helping everyone, but supplemental programs like Girldevelopit.org are providing a special helping hand to them.

Q: This month we’re celebrating Dell’s 30th birthday by looking forward toward 30 more. What do you look forward to Dell making possible through cloud solutions?

A:  Our customers are the real possibility-makers in that cloud enables business agility for them. Customers like GoPro who have automated complex EDI and NetSuite integration to support end-to-end business processes to fuel their amazing growth, or like Mozy whose sales and support professionals gain access to near-real-time user interactions from their website into their Salesforce CRM for sales and support activities.

Gress will present the Predictive Assistance project that garnered her spot on the CloudNOW Top 10 list on June 17, 2014, at the Wyndham, Union Square in San Francisco. The event is open to the public, and you can also follow the conversation on twitter @cloudnow_org #cloudnowawards.

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.