A CFO’s Secret Weapon: A Digital Transformation Partner Who Delivers

When it comes to delivering operational efficiency and financial performance through smart technology, seasoned CFO Doug Polignano doesn’t take chances, he partners with Trajectory. A trusted advisor in tech-enabled operational improvement, Doug has repeatedly chosen Trajectory to support his mandates, delivering impactful results across multiple SaaS organizations. Since being introduced in 2017, Doug has brought Trajectory into three digital transformation projects, most recently with SAI360 and two of his previous engagements, spanning everything from Salesforce ecosystem overhauls and complex integrations to data migration efforts and NetSuite Managed Services.

Each engagement tells a story of trust, precision, and business-first execution. But collectively, they highlight something even more powerful: the kind of long-term partnership that drives scalable success across organizations, teams, and evolving mandates.

As Alex Olano, CEO and Managing Partner of Trajectory, puts it:

In this combined case study, we’ll explore how Trajectory became Doug Polignano’s go-to transformation partner, providing tailored solutions, deep business process expertise, and integrated Salesforce and NetSuite technology ecosystems that empower sales and finance teams and drive results.

About the Companies

SAI360 provides cloud-based Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Integrated Risk Management (IRM) solutions for any industry, and the previous engagements involved a cloud-based provider of AI-powered eDiscovery and investigation software, and an advertising and services software company.

Let’s explore how Trajectory added value during each of the engagements.

The Challenges

During the assessment for SAI360, several areas of improvement were identified extending across different systems, business units, and processes stemming from fast paced growth. It was discovered that teams were manually performing activities that would typically be automated in a high functioning Salesforce/NetSuite ecosystem.

Objective

The objective of the engagement was to deliver immediate relief so that the accounting team could focus on non-administrative tasks.

Project Highlights

The common themes of this engagement were process optimization and automation. The specific improvements included:

• Streamlining Collections Process: SAI360’s collections process is highly manual, relying on dedicated resources for daily client communication via email. The process includes six defined levels of collection emails and escalations. Going forward, the collections email process will be fully automated.
• Automated Multi-Tier Approvals: Vendor bills coming through via email were manually routed via email to different parties for multi-tier approvals. The process was automated for improved efficiency using Trajectory’s Approvals Bundle. NetSuite users have access to efficient approvals & dashboards while the non-NetSuite users will have the ability to approve vendor bills generated in NetSuite from their emails.
• Upgraded Subscription Revenue Recognition Process: Subscription revenue is recognized using a straight-line, exact days method causing unpredictable swings for varying days in each month necessitating extra diligence and validation. Though it’s easy to update revenue rules on items for anything sold going forward, it’s imperative that revenue plans are updated for inflight transactions. A data alignment work stream will be executed to ensure steps are followed to complete the required updates to avoid data discrepancies later.
• Project Accounting Process Challenges: Project invoices are extracted out of Certinia, transformed, and loaded into the system as standalone invoices. As a by-product of the Professional Services solution, Fixed Fee project revenue requires a sub-process for extracting, transforming, and loading Accrual JE’s. Project invoices in the short term will get integrated from Certinia to NetSuite via the InitusIO integration platform. It’s a seamless passthrough of data that can ultimately save up to $6,000 annually on integration costs as compared to other larger integration providers.

Solution & Benefits

The various solutions outlined above will provide the accounting team with collective savings of up to 80 hours per month, that they can spend on more strategic initiatives.

The Challenges

The engagement was more comprehensive than initially anticipated and required Trajectory to address the following key areas:

• Optimizing the existing NetSuite ERP’s revenue recognition functionality.
• Optimizing the use of Salesforce CRM & CPQ functionality.
• Consolidation of 3 different entities, each using different ERP and CRM solutions with different sales and contract administration (amendment and renewal) processes, onto a single Salesforce/NetSuite architecture.
• Streamline the Salesforce to NetSuite process flows with optimized integrations with focus on sales in Salesforce and revenue in NetSuite.
• Very aggressive 7 month timeline.

Objective

The overarching objective of the engagement was to create a robust Salesforce/NetSuite technology ecosystem that facilitated the alignment of Sales and Finance teams efforts into a single seamless process flow on a single Salesforce/NetSuite solution, that would meet the requirements of all three merging entities. Standardizing business processes, optimizing existing use of Salesforce and NetSuite, along with a detailed data migration approach and execution strategy, were key success factors for the engagement. The tight project timeline made planning and ongoing project management critical to the project’s success.

Project Highlights

Consolidating the three entities into a single Salesforce and NetSuite ecosystem required clear definition of new state business processes across Sales and Finance and required significant data transformation and migration efforts. Highlights of the project included:

• Preparation and Business Understanding: The Trajectory team came prepared for each conversation and demonstrated knowledge of the business and it’s processes.
• One-Stop Shop: Given Trajectory’s multi-faceted team, we were able to design and build a holistic Salesforce/NetSuite architecture including the integrations with an integrated team of experts in each area, allowing us to gain efficiencies in terms of time and effort.
• Effective Communication & Expectation Setting: Clear and honest communication throughout the engagement on every aspect of the project (solutions, budget, questions, processes, progress) helped build trust and streamlined the execution of the project. A detailed project plan, outlining specific deliverables and timelines, was continually monitored and discussed, so that expectations were appropriately set and met.
• Balance of Business Process Needs and System Best Practices: The new business processes were tailored to address business-specific needs while also leveraging system best practices. The Trajectory team always explained suggested solutions, demonstrating their system knowledge and consulting expertise and they provided real consulting, asking tough questions when required, to get to the best solution result.
• Data Migration Expertise: The Trajectory team assisted with this critical work stream of the project, ensuring thoroughness via a proof-of-concept, to ensure that all would run smoothly.
• Regular On-Sites: Regular and focused on-site meetings took place to keep the project moving at the right speed towards achieving the right solution.

Solution & Benefits

The ultimate solution was rolled out on time, delivering an optimized, integrated Salesforce/NetSuite solution achieving the following benefits:

The Challenges

The engagement included optimizations to the Boomi integration architecture as well as managing ad hoc NetSuite maintenance and optimizations issues (i.e. pdf template and ACH connection set-ups and reconciliation questions etc.).

Objective

The objective of the engagement was to optimize integrations, workflows, business processes and to provide as needed support.

Project Highlights

What started out as a Boomi integration architecture upgrade engagement, turned into a 5-year long relationship built on trust and Trajectory providing reliable solutions.

Solution & Benefits

The client team was able to get the benefits of experienced ERP and integration optimization advice and executional support at the cost of a fractional resource.

In Closing

Doug Polignano’s ongoing collaboration with Trajectory is more than a series of successful projects, it’s a testament to the power of a trusted partnership, sharp execution, and a relentless focus on business value. Across three high-stakes SaaS organizations, Trajectory consistently delivered tailored Salesforce and NetSuite solutions, strategic process optimization, and seamless integration architectures. From providing long-term Managed Services for an advertising software company, to high-speed consolidation and data migration for a global leader in e-discovery software, to automation and operational streamlining at SAI360, each engagement was guided by a clear understanding of business objectives and an unwavering commitment to results.

This case study reflects what makes Trajectory different: our ability to meet clients where they are, adapt to evolving needs, and deliver transformative outcomes with precision, transparency, and speed. It also highlights our broader mission, building future-ready technology ecosystems that empower finance, operations, and leadership teams to focus on what matters most.

Doug said it best:

At Trajectory, we’re proud to earn that level of trust, and even prouder to keep delivering on it, engagement after engagement.

Alex Olano

CEO & MANAGING PARTNER
TRAJECTORY GROUP