Year after year, we increasingly live our lives online—and all too often, hackers are paying attention. Since 2014, cybersecurity breaches have increased by 67 percent, and for businesses, the average cost of a single malware attack is $2.6M. That’s why NASA, Macy’s, SiriusXM, and many others trust LogRhythm to prevent the constant and growing number of cybersecurity threats.

Founded in Boulder in 2002, LogRhythm is a leading security and event management (SIEM) solution built by security professionals, for security professionals. The company serves clients of all sizes, offering an end-to-end product framework—log management, network and endpoint monitoring and forensics, security analytics, network traffic analytics, and more. It provides the toolset not only to identify threats but to respond to and neutralize them using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

In less than 20 years, LogRhythm grew from a garage-based team of two cofounders to a 500-person global company. Early adoption of Salesforce helped support that growth—but with so much focus on expansion, maintenance of the legacy interface fell behind, creating inefficiencies across the organization.

When LogRhythm was purchased by a private equity firm, the company made a commitment to streamline and mature processes. Because we had successfully partnered in the past, leadership recommended Slalom to the new board. “I knew they wouldn’t miss a deadline, they’d be under budget, and they’d provide a realistic view of how we could attack the problem,” says Rex Young, Chief Information Officer at LogRhythm. Together, we embarked on the Polaris project.

To get a 30,000-foot view of the company, we began with a discovery process. In talking with leadership and development teams, we learned that governance of the legacy platform had fallen behind. Heavy customization had made updates unmanageable, so the platform had become cumbersome and created redundant, manual work for sellers and customer-facing teams.

Together with LogRhythm, we developed a strategic three-year roadmap to put the company in a strong position to scale. Each phase of the project would address a different work stream, and up to 250 users would be affected in each phase. With a team of more than 20 Salesforce experts, project owners, program managers, and change management resources, our Slalom team set out to reduce technical debt, transform the platform, and help streamline the organization.

LogRhythm primarily used Salesforce for core selling functions and product organization. But as the platform aged, entering lead generation and financial reporting information had become labor-intensive, which resulted in inaccurate or diffuse data.

In phase one, we restructured the outdated Salesforce platform. The work was heavily process-driven and focused mainly on Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ). Leadership expected it would need to be torn down altogether, but we advised against it. Before we could upgrade the system, we needed to fix the cracks in the foundation: streamline internal processes, identify and remove recurring waste, and clean up the code structure.

Using an agile process, we worked closely together in daily scrums, requirement and testing sessions, and weekly status meetings. “I think the LogRhythm team appreciated that we were ready to speak from the perspective of best practices, and that’s why we were able to have a solid working relationship built on trust,” says Andrew Otton, principal at Slalom.

In phase two, we conducted value mapping and expanded our focus to external-facing improvements. Then, halfway through the three-year project, the pandemic hit. We paused for six months, and when we resumed work, we did so with a new perspective. To insulate LogRhythm from another potential stoppage, we shifted to a more incremental work model. “We revised our contract because it was the right thing to do. And we were able to provide continuity through all four phases because our solution owner was right there throughout the project,” says Benjamin Kendrick, director at Slalom.

Now that the company's Salesforce foundation was strong, it was time to leave heavy custom code behind. In phase three, we upgraded the platform to Lightning and delivered a cleaner, more intuitive user interface. Developers no longer need to maintain the legacy platform, and the all-new experience makes it easy to build new efficiencies on top of it.

Lightning also boosts the value of the application for sales teams, providing a clear look at their progress. “Now we have a very distinct sales process that ties directly to the technology, so teams know exactly where they are in the deal,” says Young. “Lead handoffs and deal registrations are more easily defined and easier to find.”

In the final phase, we continued to streamline processes and maximize the technological improvements. To better connect marketing and lead-gen teams, we created a unified lead record that allows LogRhythm to easily share and process leads and respond to partners more quickly. To give sales leadership more flexibility, expedite approvals, and reduce redundant work, we implemented Salesforce advanced approvals.

Our work helped support the finance team as well. “We worked with Slalom to partially automate our annual recurring revenue [ARR],” says Barry Capoot, Chief Financial Officer at LogRhythm. “It’s a very important metric in our industry, and because it’s coming from Salesforce, which is the record of truth for us, we can now be confident that the numbers we report are correct.” In fact, the new ARR functionality has become the reporting standard across the entire portfolio.

Project Polaris was ambitious in scope, but the strong partnership between LogRhythm and our Slalom team made the work possible. The company has seen remarkable efficiencies, both qualitative and quantitative—a 77 percent reduction in average time to create an approved quote and a 23 percent decrease in average time to convert new sales in North America.

“We set out to create a solution that would support LogRhythm’s ambitious growth plans, allowing it to rapidly scale while limiting increases to its cost basis and staffing,” says Edwin Gordon, senior director at Slalom. And not only has LogRhythm simplified its workstream, it has enabled sales teams to do their jobs more effectively and proven that leadership cares about supporting their day-to-day experience.

“The Polaris project has made us a more efficient company,” says Capoot. With its processes and technology optimized, the company can maintain its powerful momentum for growth—and continue finding innovative new ways to keep its customers’ data secure.