March 2017 Editor's Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

************

Guest Blogger: Dr. Robert T. Burrus, Jr., Dean, Cameron School of Business

Each year, springtime returns to Wilmington, and along with the flowers, you might be thinking it is time for your talent to bloom as well. If you are a business professional who is looking to experience some career growth, or perhaps even branch out in a new direction, there are plenty of ways for you to take advantage of opportunities locally to sharpen your skills and add new competencies to your resume. If you are an employer tasked with talent management strategies, you are definitely looking to investigate paths to greater success for your firm and your employees.

There is no better place to start than gaining the skills needed to improve your customer relationships. Growing the top line in an efficient manner is the hallmark of a healthy dynamic company. Many organizations are turning to cloud-based software applications as the most cost effective way to gain customers and enhance repeat sales.

The market leader in cloud computing customer relationship management is Salesforce, a $45 billion dollar software company (NYSE: CRM). Salesforce helps companies streamline their customer-facing processes and integrate the essential functions of sales, marketing and customer service all in one platform. A Salesforce competency is ranking high on top employers’ job requirements, as employers such as Live Oak, nCino and many others locally and globally want their employees to be able to hit the ground running by being familiar with the Salesforce technology.

Industries as diverse as health care, accounting and even nonprofits are adopting the Salesforce platform to bolster their businesses. Did you know that there are more than 500 jobs with Salesforce competency listed on LinkedIn for North Carolina alone? (There are more than 45,000 listed throughout the United States.) Clearly the demand for experts is growing rapidly, as the best companies know that hiring cloud-trained specialists can make for smoother customer software deployments and increased return on investment in their customer relationships. As a professional in bloom, completing Salesforce training demonstrates that you are a partner with the skills needed to contribute to a firm on the move.

The Swain Center at UNCW offers several programs that can maximize your future career potential, including project management, data analytics, and now for the first time in the area, Salesforce administrator skills training. The Salesforce administrator course, instructed by Elizabeth Baker, Ph.D., an assistant management information systems professor and certified Salesforce professional, will be offered October 6-9, 2016.