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Shari Chung
Director, Procurement
Professional Background
Shari Chung is an accomplished Director of Strategic Sourcing with extensive experience in both the Retail and Financial Services industries. With a career marked by progressive leadership roles, Shari excels in driving organizational success through strategic sourcing methodologies and data-driven decision-making. She has effectively utilized her expertise in data and analytics to enhance customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, ensuring that businesses make informed choices to maximize their operational efficiency and profitability.
Shari began her professional journey in the fast-paced world of technology and sales, where she honed her skills in various strategic roles. One of her significant roles was as the Director of Procurement in Macy's Technology division at Macy's. In this high-stakes environment, she was instrumental in sourcing technologies that align with retail operations, thus enhancing customer experiences and optimizing operational processes. This experience solidified her reputation as a skilled strategist capable of managing complex vendor relationships and leveraging data to inform sourcing strategies.
Shari's career also includes a pivotal role as a Senior Account Executive at Teradata, where she was responsible for developing key partnerships with major clients. Her deep understanding of data warehousing and analytics enabled her to provide valuable insights to customers, ensuring their needs were met with effective data solutions. Prior to her tenure at Teradata, she served as an Account Executive at NCR Corporation, demonstrating her aptitude in sales and marketing.
Education and Achievements
Shari Chung studied at Jackson State University, where she built a solid foundation in her professional life. While specific details about her degree are not mentioned, her education has undoubtedly equipped her with critical thinking skills and analytical abilities that have served her well throughout her career.
Throughout her career, Shari has achieved numerous milestones that exemplify her dedication to excellence and her strategic capabilities in sourcing and procurement. Her role at Macy's Technology stands out in particular as she played a crucial part in streamlining procurement processes, improving vendor collaboration, and driving technology innovations within the retail space.
An advocate for data-driven decision-making, Shari excels at interpreting complex datasets to identify purchasing trends and developing strategic sourcing frameworks that align with corporate objectives. As a thought leader in the technology sourcing space, she has contributed to discussions around best practices for procurement in the retail industry, enhancing the visibility of sourcing strategies in tech-related projects.
Notable Achievements
- Leadership in Technology Procurement at Macy's: As the Director of Procurement, Shari led initiatives that significantly streamlined sourcing processes and facilitated high-impact negotiations, contributing to Macy’s ongoing commitment to enhancing customer experiences.
- Client Relationship Management at Teradata: In her role as Senior Account Executive, Shari forged lasting relationships with some of Teradata's key clients, contributing to substantial revenue growth through strategic insights and tailored customer solutions.
- Data Analytics Advocacy: Shari is a proponent of utilizing data & analytics in CRM efforts, believing it allows organizations to enhance customer loyalty and improve overall service delivery. Her work in this area showcases her commitment to evolving business practices toward more strategic and informed decision-making.
- Cross-Industry Expertise: Shari’s extensive background in both retail and financial services sectors showcases her adaptability and wide-ranging expertise. This cross-industry experience enables her to bring unique perspectives to procurement challenges, turning potential hurdles into strategic advantages.
Shari Chung continues to be a leading figure in strategic sourcing, advocating for innovative solutions that harness the power of data and analytics. Her strong foundation in procurement, combined with her extensive professional experience, makes her a valuable asset to any organization aiming to refine its sourcing strategies and enhance operational efficiencies.
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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:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- 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.
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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.
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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.