Industry
Media & Entertainment
Client
The Walt Disney Company
Simplifying Salesforce for Antipiracy Reporting
The challenge
I redesigned a fragmented Salesforce app so Disney’s Antipiracy team could finally run the reports it needed.
Solution design and implementation | February–May 2017
Disney's Anti-piracy Physical Goods team (APPG) protects IP across a licensed-products supply chain that today spans roughly 43,000 authorized factories in 96 countries, tracking infringement involving apparel, DVDs, toys, and other physical goods. Its Salesforce org was built to give Corporate Legal reports and dashboards on matter status, open action items, and the full scope of its legal work. But the org was disjointed: 26 custom objects and more than 140 custom fields with no object relationships, formula fields, or automation tying them together. Related data couldn't be pulled into reports or list views, and that core goal had gone unmet for four years.
My approach
Start with the reports. With the team, I reviewed the existing reports, found the gaps, and listed which data had to appear together: parties and their roles, infringing uses, seizure quantities and product types, countries and ports, and matter status.
Fix the data model, not just the layouts. A content analysis found more than 20 redundant objects. In a sandbox, I cut the structure down to five functional objects. Country and Customs Port became fields on existing objects, and other data became child records of Accounts and Contacts.
Build it with the users. Over 13 in-person working sessions, the paralegals explained requirements, tested sandbox changes, and gave feedback that shaped each next round.
Make training part of delivery. I documented each session and ran hands-on training on reports, page layouts, and file management.
Outcome
A four-year reporting problem became a completed sandbox reconfiguration that could produce the reports the team needed.
The data model went from 26 objects to five, and the team had tested it before handoff.
The project closed out with written documentation of its scope, method, and status, and with a trained team.
“It has been an absolute joy working with you!” — Paralegal Manager, Antipiracy Physical Goods
What I’d do differently today
I’d add a reporting acceptance checklist that ties each business question to a sample report, its expected results, and a named reviewer. I’d also make the move to production its own phase, with documented data reconciliation, deployment owners, and post-launch support.
What it shows
I diagnose reporting failures down to the data model, simplify aggressively, and bring the people who depend on the system into the build so they can actually use it.