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Benoit Lafortune
IT / Business Digital Strategy Consultant
Professional Background
Benoit Lafortune is a dynamic IT and Business consultant with a robust portfolio that showcases a truly interdisciplinary background combining education, sociology, and political science. His career has been a fascinating journey through various sectors, including public services, private companies, and educational institutions. With a rich tapestry of roles, he has made significant contributions globally through applied research, policy development, and project management. Currently, as a managing director, he is committed to organizing strategic learning experiences for company executives across different verticals, ensuring that organizations evolve and adapt in a rapidly changing business landscape.
With a proven track record, Benoit excels in cross-functional roles that require high levels of collaboration and coordination among diverse teams. His ability to motivate and achieve consensus from stakeholders with varied backgrounds and technical knowledge has made him an invaluable asset to any organization he joins. Through his roles, he demonstrates a passion for business development, technology applications, and policy analysis, constantly striving for excellence in customer relations and operational processes.
Education and Achievements
Benoit's academic journey has laid a strong foundation for his professional endeavors. He delved deep into Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he pursued doctoral studies focusing on Public Policy Analysis. This advanced study equipped him with critical insights into the complexities of governance and policy, which he has been able to leverage in both public and corporate arenas.
Prior to this, he obtained a Master's Degree in Sociology from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), where he explored the societal implications of cultural and media influences. This program honed his analytical skills and provided him with a qualitative and quantitative skill set that supports data-informed decision-making. His academic background began with a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Université de Moncton, which not only solidified his teaching abilities but also instilled in him the foundational principles of education and learning that underlie all his endeavors.
Benoit's professional journey includes many noteworthy roles, such as a Senior Strategist for both Google News and Google Scholar at Google, which highlights his expertise in digital strategy and product management. His work at Google has empowered organizations to better harness the power of information and technology to reach their audiences effectively. Becoming a trusted advisor at the Mayor’s Cabinet of the City of Montreal further demonstrates his capability to offer strategic insights that serve the public interest.
Through his work as a Project Research Lead at UNESCO, Benoit contributed to initiatives that impact education on a global scale, advocating for innovative solutions that can bridge gaps in learning. His tenure as a Professor and Researcher at prestigious institutions, such as HEC Montreal and Université du Québec à Montréal, showcases his commitment to shaping the next generation of leaders and thinkers.
Skills and Expertise
Benoit Lafortune possesses an impressive array of skills that contribute to his effectiveness as a consultant and leader. His ability to collaborate and coordinate between cross-functional teams has been paramount in achieving high-quality results across various projects. Recognized for his analytical, consultative, and organizational capabilities, Benoit has consistently demonstrated his competence in delivering projects on time, ensuring client satisfaction through effective problem-solving and stakeholder engagement.
He thrives in environments requiring curiosity, openness, and creativity, which allows him to navigate complex business landscapes successfully. His deep knowledge of customer relations, operations processes, and strategic business development allows him to influence decision-making profoundly and ensure that organizations achieve their goals. His commitment to integrity, objectivity, and transparency is evident in all his business dealings, further enhancing his reputation as a trusted advisor and leader.
Benoit's passion for cutting-edge technologies ensures he remains at the forefront of industry trends, allowing him to provide invaluable insights into the application of new tools and methodologies that can revolutionize business operations. Whether it's through leveraging data for informed decision-making or employing innovative strategies for business growth, Benoit is dedicated to fostering environments where creativity and excellence thrive.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Benoit Lafortune has built a portfolio of notable achievements that highlight his influence and contributions to various fields. Not only has he successively advanced in his roles at a global tech leader like Google, but his impact also extends to educational, cultural, and public policy arenas through his work with UNESCO and local government entities.
His role in strategic consultation has allowed organizations to enhance their service offerings, driving growth through innovative solutions that meet the needs of a diverse clientele. Notably, his contributions to projects focusing on education reform and public policy analysis have earned him recognition as a thought leader in these areas. The depth of his knowledge and his commitment to fostering environments that support learning and growth are evident to all who work with him.
Benoit’s leadership and strategic thinking are complemented by a genuine interest in the impact of technology on society, making him a sought-after consultant for organizations looking to harness the power of digital transformation while remaining socially responsible. This combination of expertise and passion sets him apart as a leader who is truly dedicated to making a difference.
With a career that has spanned multiple sectors, countless collaborations, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, Benoit Lafortune continues to inspire those around him with his professional journey. His unique blend of skills, dedication to education, and strategic thinking makes him an exemplary figure in the realm of IT and Business consulting, and an influential leader in today's fast-paced world.
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Clay is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Clay centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.