If great results were just about having the right tools, every painter would be an artist.

Recently, I received two almost identical meeting invitations from company executives. Both had invested six figures in Salesforce. Both realized that, despite that, their competitors were growing faster. And both told me almost the same thing: 

"We're doing exactly what we did before — just paying a hell of a lot more for it." 

They reached out to ask if we could help them get more out of what they already had. Their IT teams and the partner who sold them the technology had "run out of ideas." Everything had been implemented by the book — following the vendor's best practices for their industry. Now, they were waiting for growth to happen. 

When they mentioned they wanted FrodX to take over — but "keep their current CX platform because it'll be cheaper" — I said: 

"Sure. Just find me a painter who'll use my brushes and ladders. Because that's cheaper, right?" 

The Stockholm Syndrome of Enterprise CX 

This is Stockholm syndrome for enterprise software. A company buys a platform to become more agile — and ends up hostage to its own technology. Then it falls in love with it. 

Every next move is measured in features, licenses, and roadmap updates — not in customer behavior. No one ever got fired for buying IBM. Today? Salesforce. 

Owning a top-tier platform gives you a sense of safety — not necessarily results. And so the cycle begins: 

"How can we make better use of Salesforce?" Instead of asking: "What are we actually doing differently than before?" 

Here's What I Keep Seeing 

• CX becomes an IT project — run by people who know systems, not customers.  

• Partners implement everything by the book. Everything checks out — except the book has no idea what makes you different.  

• Leadership teams look for ROI inside the tool. But the tool is just infrastructure. ROI lives in behavior — in your people and your customers.  

• We confuse organization with growth. Once everything's nicely integrated, it feels like progress. But an integrated status quo is still a status quo. 

So, What's the Way Out? 

If it were just about brushes, every painter would be an artist. If it were just about platforms, every company using Salesforce would already be growing. And none running on SAP would ever report a loss. 

But it's not about the tool. It's about how fast you can reshape your customer experience in the moments that define your business future. 

GaaS isn't an "implementation project" or "platform optimization." It's a business model built around systematically changing your CX in ways that lead to growth. Technology follows your goals — not the other way around. 

GaaS Only Works If Three Things Are True 

1. You have a competitive product 
   CX can't fix a weak product. If your product isn't competitive, we'll tell you — and we won't sell you something that won't work. Growth needs a great product, excellent people, and a system that can scale. CX alone won't save you.
2. You have a team we can plug into the process 
   GaaS isn't CX outsourcing. It's a partnership where we experiment, learn, and iterate together. We need your people involved — people who understand your customers, have the mandate to make changes, and can act on what we test.
3. We work on a platform where we can guarantee speed and control
   For GaaS projects, we work on Emarsys or HubSpot. Not because the platforms drive growth — but because they let us move fast, ship changes, and deliver measurable impact. Technology is support — never an excuse. If we're expected to guarantee results, we need full control over execution. That's why GaaS only runs on platforms where we have our own technical team. 

What If You're Already on Salesforce (or Another Platform)? 

We usually see two paths forward: 

Scenario A — Strategic Consulting  

If you already have a CX platform and your own implementation partner, we can help you with:   

• a growth and experimentation strategy,  

• defining what to test and how to measure it,  

• training your team to work in an agile CX model. 

In this type of project, we help your existing platform come alive — not because we "click better," but because it finally serves a business purpose. But that's consulting, not GaaS. There's no performance guarantee because we're not running the technical execution. 

Scenario B — Migration to Emarsys or HubSpot  

If you're ready to switch platforms — and it makes business sense (for example, your current integrations aren't critical, or your platform doesn't support the agility you need) — we can plan the migration and start running the GaaS model together. 

Not Sure If GaaS Is Right for You? 

Drop me a line — I'll tell you honestly if we're a fit. 

We're not platform maintainers. We're growth partners. We're effective when we work with technologies we truly master — ones that make sense for mid-sized and large companies in our region (where you can count the really big ones on one hand). 

That's when we can stand behind the results — not just the system. A team testing new approaches every 8–12 weeks. The platform is a tool, not the goal. And success isn't measured in integrations, but in customer activity and revenue growth. 

If this sounds like you:  

• you have a competitive product,  

• you have a team we can include in the process,  

• you're ready to work on Emarsys or HubSpot (or open to switching),  

… I'd love to jump on a quick call. 

📧 igor.pauletic@frodx.com