Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Languages
Certification
Timeline
Generic

Ram Kakarla

Kitchener,ON

Summary

Experienced Salesforce Professional over 8 years of experience, Innovative Salesforce Functional Lead at Prudential Financial, specializing in implementing insurance business processes within Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to streamline operations across policy administration, underwriting, claims management, and customer service. Proven track record in optimizing CI/CD pipelines, driving platform stability, and leveraging DevOps best practices for high-quality, compliant releases. Highly adept in user acceptance testing (UAT), cross-functional coordination, and delivering engaging demos to promote application adoption and regulatory alignment, resulting in measurable improvements in deployment quality and operational efficiency. Experienced in leading and mentoring diverse cross-functional teams, utilizing strategic planning and operational management to enhance productivity and achieve organizational objectives. Excels at analyzing business requirements and driving strategic insurance initiatives that improve process automation and performance. Technical expertise includes Salesforce administration, Apex, Visualforce, Lightning Components, Git, Copado, Jira, ServiceNow, and integrative third-party solutions. Recognized for the ability to foster collaborative environments, deliver impactful results, and swiftly adapt to evolving regulatory and operational demands in dynamic enterprise and insurance settings.

Overview

9
9
years of professional experience
16
16

Certifications

Work History

Salesforce Functional Lead

Prudential Financial
11.2021 - Current
  • Managed deployments using Copado DevOps, optimizing CI/CD pipelines and automating release processes to ensure quality, reliability, and compliance across multiple Salesforce environments.
  • Coordinated with QA teams and business stakeholders for Go-Live releases, orchestrating test planning, execution, and communication to deliver defect-free solutions that meet operational requirements.
  • Collaborated with multiple development teams, proactively assessing and mitigating the impact of application changes across integrated systems to maintain platform stability and alignment with business objectives.
  • Facilitated engaging demos and presentations, showcasing new application features and solutions to end users, business stakeholders, and client teams to drive adoption and understanding.

Salesforce Support Lead

Voya Financial
08.2017 - 10.2021
  • Administer and maintain the Salesforce platform daily, overseeing configuration for 5000+ users including profile and role management, which resulted in a 90% decrease in miscommunication and security incidents.
  • Provide first and second-level support by promptly triaging and resolving Salesforce-related incidents reported by end users.
  • Lead support operations, assigning tickets, facilitating daily standup's, and encouraging team collaboration to address complex challenges efficiently.
  • Engage with users to understand incident details and error messages, delivering effective troubleshooting and regular progress updates.
  • Escalate unresolved issues to IT Business Solutions teams, Salesforce Support, managed package vendors, and third-party consultants, ensuring tracked resolution and closure.
  • Coordinate with cross-functional teams when incidents involve integrated, non-Salesforce systems.
  • Design, analyze, and deliver bi-weekly reports detailing production support metrics to measure and improve support effectiveness.
  • Enhance and document support processes, continuously improving Salesforce production support workflows and procedures.
  • Manage user onboarding, permissions, and licensing within Salesforce for optimal platform utilization and security.
  • Perform authorized data imports using tools such as Data Loader, Workbench, and Data Import Wizard to maintain data accuracy.
  • Build operational decision support tools in Salesforce, including dashboards, reports, and list views to drive informed business decisions.
  • Develop knowledge base documentation and identify recurring issues that suggest needs for system enhancements.
  • Track product defects by creating organized backlog items for follow-up and resolution.

Salesforce Administrator

Cushman & Wakefield
02.2017 - 07.2017
  • Configure and customize Salesforce by creating objects, fields, page layouts, profiles, permission sets, and validation rules to align the platform with business needs and enforce security and data standards.
  • Automate business processes by designing workflows, building process builder flows, and managing Apex triggers, enabling efficient and error-free operations.
  • Deploy configuration and code changes using change sets, conduct data import/export activities with tools like Data Loader or Data Import Wizard, and maintain system reliability.
  • Develop reports and documentation by creating actionable reports and dashboards, and preparing comprehensive user guides and training materials for end-user enablement.

Salesforce Administrator

Cigna Care Alliances
11.2016 - 02.2017
  • Configure, customize, and secure the Salesforce platform by creating objects, page layouts, record types, profiles, permission sets, and validation rules, ensuring the system aligns with organizational business processes and security needs.
  • Automate workflows and manage data using tools like workflows, Process Builder, Apex triggers, while deploying updates via change sets and conducting regular data import/export activities to maintain data integrity and process efficiency.
  • Generate actionable reports and facilitate integrations by building robust reports and dashboards, and connecting Salesforce with third-party systems flashlight and adobe (such as content management platforms) to streamline client document creation and management.

Education

Master of Science - Computers And Information Sciences

Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT
05-2015

Bachelor of Science - Information Technology

Aditya Engineering College
Kakinada, India
05-2013

Skills

  • User acceptance testing
  • Business analysis
  • Product management
  • Requirements gathering
  • Software development
  • Cross-functional coordination
  • Team communication
  • Business process analysis
  • Data migration
  • Team collaboration
  • Team leadership
  • Quality assurance
  • Change management

Languages

English
Full Professional

Certification

Salesforce Certifications:

Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II
Salesforce certified OmniStudio Developer
Salesforce certified OmniStudio Consultant
Salesforce certified Data Cloud Consultant
Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Architect
Salesforce Certified Administrator
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator
Salesforce.com for App Builder
Salesforce Certified CPQ Specialist
Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant
Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant
Salesforce Certified Experience Cloud Consultant
Salesforce certified AI Associate
Salesforce certified AI Specialist

Agile certifications:

SAFe 6 Product Owner/Product Manager

Timeline

Salesforce Functional Lead

Prudential Financial
11.2021 - Current

Salesforce Support Lead

Voya Financial
08.2017 - 10.2021

Salesforce Administrator

Cushman & Wakefield
02.2017 - 07.2017

Salesforce Administrator

Cigna Care Alliances
11.2016 - 02.2017

Master of Science - Computers And Information Sciences

Sacred Heart University

Bachelor of Science - Information Technology

Aditya Engineering College

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Ram Kakarla