Flock Safety’s Big Wins With Sonar:

• Enabled its business operations team to scale quickly, reducing systems ramp time from 3 weeks to days
• Eliminated operating siloes between the four core operations groups, bridging knowledge gaps and reducing the risk of critical processes breaking
• Avoided delays in project scoping by identifying the complexity of changes on the spot, helping the team meet leadership requests faster

The Problem

Flock Safety is a public safety operating system on a mission to reduce crime in America. The company offers distributed hardware and proprietary software that captures the objective evidence needed to solve crime quickly, while protecting civil liberties. They’ve grown rapidly since 2017, receiving multiple funding rounds that helped scale operations quickly. 

In 2021, Flock Safety achieved unicorn status with a Series D fundraise led by Andreessen Horowitz. As the company grew, there became a need for a central source of truth. Without one, their operations would become siloed. If their leadership lost sight of how other teams operated, critical processes would be at risk.

Flock Safety’s business model is more intricate than most. And the complexity often leads to negative ripple effects on its technology stack. To help mitigate those risks and maintain control over the tech stack, Flock Safety recently hired Cody Nutt, Director of Business Operations. Cody owns the company’s tech stack and ensures each system works together seamlessly.

The operations teams are the nucleus for the company’s go-to-market strategy. Cody’s department develops and maintains the systems and processes each team needs to succeed. And he ensures a change made in one system doesn’t negatively impact the tech stack. 

As the go-to-market teams grew, Cody’s role became increasingly complex. More users were accessing his critical systems—like Salesforce and Pardot—and making changes. New team members were coming on board regularly and lacked knowledge of how everything was built. This meant that one little change they made could have negative impacts on the entire company. 

As the owner of the systems, Cody was in charge of onboarding new hires and empowering them with the tech stack. But he lacked a way to help team members, like the recently hired Salesforce Product Manager, understand the systems and how they connect with each other. This created operational risks and extended ramp time, which led to inefficiencies across go-to-market processes.

The Solution

To keep scaling fast, the company realized it needed to bring in a Change Intelligence platform. Flock Safety turned to Sonar to eliminate breakages across core systems that could disrupt critical go-to-market processes and slow revenue growth.

Sonar gives Flock Safety’s go-to-market teams a clear view into Salesforce and Pardot and how each connects with every system in the tech stack. With a single source of truth, the teams can break down siloes and protect their critical processes.

Sonar serves as the central place to scope and document changes that impact multiple go-to-market teams. Now, they can communicate, see the impacts of a change before they make it, and view the changes others make—all in one platform. 

With Sonar, Cody gains the line of sight he needs across the company’s systems and processes. Now, he can easily monitor Salesforce, Pardot, and the rest of the tech stack for changes daily.

Before Sonar, it was impossible for Flock Safety’s business operations team to see how a Pardot field was referenced in Salesforce automation. That meant changing a field could often break vital sales processes, like lead distribution to Account Executives. Sonar for Pardot gives a clear view of dependencies. And it shows how each field is used across Pardot and Salesforce. 

This increased visibility also helps Cody get new hires up-to-speed faster, making it easy to onboard the new Salesforce Product Manager, Anna. Before Sonar, her ramp process might have taken weeks. Cody would need enough time to help Anna understand her platforms, how they were built, and how they connect with the entire tech stack.

Now with Sonar, Cody onboarded Anna to her systems in just a few days. Sonar gave Anna the guidance she needed to feel empowered and hit the ground running on her first week. With this visibility, Anna can understand the processes built by Cody’s team and keep them running smoothly. And Cody doesn’t have to worry about Salesforce fields being overwritten in Pardot. 

Sonar gives the operations, systems, and leadership teams shared insight into the entire buyer journey. This view helps them see and fix any potential opportunities for data leaks, so leads never fall through the cracks. With Sonar as their guide, the teams work together cohesively to drive more conversions and impact revenue.