Insightsuccess the 10 most valuable consultent companies april

The way of business solutions

THE

10 MOST

VA LUA B L E

CONSULTANT C O M PA N I E S

EDITOR’S PICK

Editorial

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ynicism aside, the real value of a consulting firm is widespread along various lengthways, including a massive amount of knowledge across functions & levels and hawkeyed focus on one particular problem.

The biggest value a consulting firm provides is that you have a dedicated team of pretty smart people who are generally unbiased and can focus deeply on one particular problem. Nowadays, a big, risky, phenomenal cultural change is a little difficult to accomplish without consulting a consultant.

Consult a Consultant and Stay Competent among the Firms of the Future

The fundamental goals of strategy will not change, but how companies win will change significantly. New execution models will emerge. We are working in an epoch of constant change for the foreseeable future: change is the new normal. Formulating beforehand and embracing that change by investing in the right kind of advice is the best way to tackle these challenges effectively. The future will be about how firms deliver the benefits better and faster to customers in a highly turbulent environment.

So, you are running a company or a division, and you wonder where you have room for improvement. First, bring in a consultant with a broad background to help you identify areas of focus. Next, bring in expertise to focus on the areas which are ripest for improvement. That might be your first consultant, or it might be a specialist in sales training, cost accounting, or any other. Third, evaluate those results. Lastly, hit the next opportunity for improvement. Along the way, pat yourself on the back for taking your company to higher levels of profitability.

Documenting the expected results and the measures used to determine whether those results were realized should serve as part of the consultant's value proposition. Depending on the length and complexity of the consulting engagement, progress can be measured, evaluated and shared as major milestones are achieved and/or at the conclusion of the project.

The ability to demonstrate more quantitative measures of value can evolve over time. Think about value in a diverse and creative way. Take the challenge today to capture metrics that show how the investment in a consulting vendor made a difference to the business.

Poonam Yadav

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Poonam Yadav Co-Editors Archana Ghule Pooja Jain Abhijeet Parade Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Poonam Mahajan Art Editor Vijaykumar Dudhbhate Business Development Manager Mathew Smith Nick Adams Marketing Manager Chris Business Development Executive Sofy, Karen, John, Mary Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

Mar-Apr, 2017 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

10

JDR Consulting: Developing Relationships and Delivering Results

8

Stumbling Blocks Before Management Consulting Firms

22

Do you have what it takes to be a great consultant?

28

STAFF AUGMENTATION

36 38

CXO

STANDPOINT

Connecting Dark Data with IoT

Consultant’s Consultant: Managing Performance of Your People

30 24

Novel Technologies that Simplify Enterprise Systems

How consulting is impacting the infrastructure sector in the country

Eective Governance: Expertise for Governance and Strategic Advisory Services

20

Step Change:

26

At the Intersection of Strategy and Creativity

The Rothschild Corporation: One-Stop Strategic Solution for All Consulting and Management Training Needs

42

TOP Step Consulting: Empowering Professional Services Organizations

34

JDR

CONSULTING

“

Developing Relationships and Delivering Results

I believe that everyone has

something to offer. I don’t care who you are or what your role is; I want to know

“

you, and I want you to be comfortable. Every single person has something to offer that makes us all better

COVER STORY

JOHN D. RIVERS President & CEO

“

C

We are a global Management

Consulting firm, transforming

organ ations as your trusted business advisor, through

“

technology,

process and operational

business solutions

ompanies have largely put a hold on their expenditure due to market uncertainty. They are waiting for something to happen, whether it is tax reform or the elimination of regulations, to trigger them moving to the next phase. What an executive needs to understand is, delaying critical infrastructure and technology projects greatly impacts their bottom line and it is imperative to address issues head on. JDR Consulting is a great resource to lean on to help throughout the entire project, including initial planning, project scope, budgeting and staffing, to ensure the highest levels of efficiency and results.

JDR Consulting was established in 2004 as a management consultancy for Real Estate organizations in the United States.

Since then, they have not only expanded their offerings, but also expanded operations into Canada in 2015 and Australia in 2016.

A Prominent Implementation & Technology Advisor JDR Consulting, LLC is a certified small business, leading management consulting firm and technology advisory specializing in project management, implementations, IT solutions and managed services. They serve major players in the Real Estate, Financial Services and Investment Management industries. Their experience spans across Residential, Commercial, Single Family, Multifamily, Mixed Use, Affordable Housing, Public/Assisted Housing, Senior/Assisted Living, Military Housing, Student Housing, Condo, Co-Op and HOA and Canadian Social Housing.

As a technology advisor, they provide the expertise necessary for organizations to effectively integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions into their critical business processes. Through workflow automation, custom programming and focused end-user training, their clients are able to achieve optimal performance. They further support these technologies through accounting, system administration, helpdesk and other managed services solutions to ensure that their clients continue to benefit from their investment.

The Brainchild behind the Business John D. Rivers, President and CEO, founded JDR Consulting in 2004 to provide stellar work to the most demanding companies. Since that time, John and his team have managed hundreds of system implementations, upgrades and conversions. Their work includes extensive training, helpdesk staffing, business process optimization and accounting services. JDR has also been recognized by Yardi as a premiere partner consulting firm.

He has had an entrepreneurial spirit ever since he was a boy, when he had an opportunity to take on a paper route from his paperboy. He loved the idea of running his own business and somewhere in his heart he knew that one day he would be working for himself. Fast forward 20 years, he had worked and trained in Corporate America at firms like Deloitte and Grant Thornton, when he was in the Tax Department he realized that he needed to help clients solve their business issues.

With a consulting career that spans 25 years, with a commitment to superior performance and a personality rife with warmth and humor, John Rivers is an excellent ally for business leaders facing challenges and change. John directs his staff with perceptiveness towards inclusion and support, believing that positive esteem and teamwork are an important aspect among what differentiates JDR. “I had started another firm with a group of friends, and we worked together for a year and half then parted ways. I was back to waiting tables and preparing friend’s taxes when Yardi (one of the software’s that JDR supports) came to me with an opportunity to project manage an implementation that a client was handling internally. The Opportunity was supposed to be 16hrs per week, and I quickly realized that it was more like 80hrs per week. The client was a large institutional pension fund, and they were rolling their RE portfolio under one ERP system,” asserts John.

John added, “JDR quickly grew to 4 full-time staff and I ran around the US for 18 months training and supporting the client. This was the platform where JDR took off and my success has been through my ability to relate to clients and clearly hear and understand their needs. If our clients succeed, we as JDR succeed!”

With perseverance and dedication for his entrepreneurial seed, JDR Consulting, John has worked hard to nurture and develop the company over the years.

Exceeding and Outshining Clients’ Expectations JDR follows a consistent, high quality and high impact delivery methodology, of Discovery, Design, Implementation and Support, which results in measurable, long term solutions for their clients. Their reputation of being a company committed to achieving results, delivering value and exceeding client expectations is well-known both among their business partners and within the industry.

Through expert staff augmentation, record system implementation times, unique technology work-around and historical data conversions, JDR consistently saves clients both time and money while freeing up internal resources to focus on their primary responsibilities.

Their primary goals for every engagement are to ensure that their clients: are equipped with the right technology for their needs; are able to integrate that technology into their organization’s own unique workflows and processes; and continue to experience returns and benefit from their investment.

Assisting Clients and Companies Competently Technology can create efficiencies in many areas, not just IT. JDR’s seasoned team of associates specialize in identifying problems, solving business challenges and streamlining processes – not just solving technical problems.

The best way they support their clients is by first getting to

know them. JDR meets with each organization to conduct a Business Process Review (BPR) so that they get to understand both their current and future needs. They strive to review every aspect of their ERP system setup including general setup, permissions and workflows to identify its ability to meet and support these business needs and any areas for improvement. Once the analysis is complete, they present the findings to the client with recommendations, an actionable road map and project plan.

In addition to technology expertise, JDR offers project management resources to ensure every aspect of the project stays on track. Their project management team identifies

“

We tailor our

methodology to meet your organ ation’s

unique needs in order to take you actly where you need to be;

better, faster and more efficient than you ever imagined appropriate resources and monitors progress closely to prevent scope creep and ensure tasks are completed both on time and on budget.

JDR recognizes that many end-users receive only the initial training provided during implementation. After using the system for some time, there may be new users or questions that didn’t come up initially. In addition, ERPs continually make enhancements to their product to improve functionality and performance, so it is important to provide

refresher training and share up-to-date best practices.

JDR’s experienced trainers can provide training on core platform functionality as well as any ancillary modules. Their indepth knowledge of ERP systems helps them to guide their clients better. In addition, they have close relationships with the ERP providers which allow them to stay on top of enhancements and modifications.

Their primary goal is for their clients to realize increased efficiency, productivity and returns on their software investment by using the technology to its full potential. When users bring back skills from training, they can not only perform more successfully in their jobs but do so with more confidence in their abilities.

“

Some Out of the box Strategies by JDR to prove themselves Effectual Many consultancies specialize in either implementation OR technology advisory roles. JDR excels at both. They not only have technical systems expertise, but they also contribute over 25 years of industry experience and best practices learned from previous implementations, to help make sure the client’s system is optimized for their specific goals. No matter what challenges their clients have or how they currently use their ERP, JDR can help them take full advantage of the technology.

Another unique aspect of JDR’s offering is the Business Process Review. JDR highly recommends a BPR for each of their new client engagements so that they can get to know them inside and out. They want to understand their culture, workflow processes, standard procedures and user security rights to ensure they get it right from the onset.

“

When everything else appears the same, it’s the people who make the difference

John advises Fresh Frontrunners in the Market to: “Follow your heart, and there is no right or wrong answers but how will you respond to the challenges that come about from your choices. I’ve carried this motto for a long time – “Think Long, Think Wrong.” We (people in general) tend to over think situations and we miss great opportunities right in front of us. Also as an accountant by trade you need to know/understand your financials.”

“Always keep a good accountant, lawyer and insurance rep in your back pocket. Your accountant should be able to not only handle your taxes, but also to help with bank loan applications and seeing financial pit falls you may not see. Your lawyer will advise on your contract terms/conditions for your clients and on NSAs and reviewing contracts you receive. The insurance rep will help you with your liability and WC insurances. They all should have your company’s best interest at heart. The main advice that I can give is LOVE what you do and it does not feel like work and as soon as you see it has become work then you may need to find something else to do.”

JDR’s Concerns and their Ray of Hope: The team at JDR is currently building strategic relationships to accelerate their launch into the European market.

As they expand globally, one of their concerns is the adoption rate of new technologies. Whereas in the United States, thousands of organizations may be utilizing a technology, when they expand beyond their borders, they’ll find that perhaps less than 100 organizations in a given area utilize the technology. Although this narrows JDR’s potential client pool, it can also be seen as an opportunity as there is many times a shortage of local expertise to support the technologies. Another challenge JDR finds is that, culturally some nations are not accustomed to using consultants. This can create barriers to break into new markets until the organizations are able to realize the value of a consultancy.

As the software providers JDR supports global expansion, and look forward for providing superior services to new users of these specialized technologies. They believe that organizations in these emerging markets can greatly benefit from their years of experiences, including best practices learned and customized training resources, to help get their organizations off on the right foot.

Editor’s Pick

C NSULTANT’S C NSULTANT: Managing

of Your

erformance

People

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anaging Performance can be tricky. Managing performance is central to the relationship between managers and employees. It can be a key element of good communication and foster the growth of trust and personal development. An essential goal of performance management is to encourage and improve an employee’s efficiency. It is a continual process where employees and their managers take equal efforts to plan, monitor and review work’s objectives or goals and its overall contribution to the business.

Managing performance in the office can be as simple as managing performance of a machine. When you approach methodically, it all goes effortlessly. If you leave it vulnerable to hazards, things can possibly go wrong.

Encouraging worthy performances and making the most of it, starts with the structure for managing performance.

The aim here is to achieve company goals of innovation, performance and partnering. People (human systems) in the company, navigate the company to achieve shared objectives. Successful 8 MAR-APR 2017

companies do not materialize accidentally and overnight.

They succeed because their human systems are nurtured and kept up to date.

Do you want to achieve and improve on your targets? Is it beneficial for you to have a happy and self-correcting, wellinformed staff? Would you wish to stop worrying about things going wrong? Performance management is all about these things. When it’s properly done, it could diminish your problems and keep your staff happy. Here are some insights on how this could be done: The Motivation Factor Everyone is inspired by something different. Research shows that few highlighted factors, like being paid more or shorter working hours aren’t as useful in the long term as having colleagues as friends, a decent place to work, or the chance to duck out quickly if your family is in trouble.

Managers play numerous roles in a company including being individual contributors, developing every individual in their team and being responsible for encouraging the team to achieve set performance goals. Find out what motivates your people and give it to them as a reward. Take it away if there’s a problem. Tell them why. If you’re confused about what motivates them, just ask them.

Knowing the strength of each person in the team It's essential to know how each person contributes to your team uniquely. A strengthened approach is empowering and helps employees focus on ways to manage conflict, communicate, share their voice, build relationships, execute, think strategically, influence and build trust using their strong points naturally.

Bring out Change, Make corrections do-able If you really want your staff to change some methodologies, they must have a step-by-step method for improving. They can take concrete actions at their subsequent meeting, with their upcoming clients, to bring out change. “Being optimistic” or “cooperating better” isn’t good enough. Be decisive, greet good mornings, or organize an event. All these come under the do-able list.

Monitor how your technique works While delivering a bad news, try out the sandwich technique - positive one, followed by negative, then again followed by positive (so that the negative is packed and presented in between the positives).

2 positives”, then take out the positive. Just be certain that the correction is do-able.

A quick Rebuke or Reproof A quick reprimand should be given as soon as an employee does something wrong. It should be broken down into two halves so that it does not cause any negative impact. The first half would include informing people about what they did wrong, how you feel about it followed by a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. This assures the seriousness of the issue. Then in the second half you tell the people how you believe in their capability and how much you value their contribution. An important aspect of your quick reprimands is that it criticizes the work not the doer. The employee is never to be blamed on a personal level, only his work is accused of not being up to the desired level.

Quick rebukes are effective mainly because the feedback is instant, unlike your annual assessments where you are charged for issues occurred several weeks or months ago. If an error is pointed out as soon as it occurs, it can easily be revised. Since one error is pointed at one time, employees hear it seriously and your message is effortlessly conveyed to them.

Appreciate then and there It’s essential to give good feedbacks too. Always start by highlighting what they did well, why you appreciate their work, and then say thank you.

Short and quick admiration of work shows that you are genuinely interested in your people and care for them and their achievements. Quick appreciations aim at catching people ‘doing something right’ rather than catching them ‘doing something wrong’ like most other organizations.

Although the two might seem to be the same thing, there is a lot of difference. If you concentrate on catching people doing mistakes, they become cautious of their work and avoid going above and beyond to produce great results.

This produces mediocrity because everyone will tend to stay average and safe. For extraordinary results you need your people to put in their best and that can only happen when you emphasize on pointing out their best.

Now that you know all the secrets of managing performance of your people, implement them in your work style and witness your company attain new heights along with . your employees.

Keep a constant check on whether performance changes due to sandwich technique. If they’re saying “2 out of 3 isn’t that bad” rather than “they’re being nice by giving me 9 MAR-APR 2017

10 CONSULTANT

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Advent of an Age of Consulting Companies

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lthough precise niches of expertise are always likely to be of interest for businesses that are looking out for agencies to aid their business, recent trends show that firms are looking for more holistic skills. Consulting firms are not only trying to increase their skills in various services, but they are now launching entire creative/digital divisions or outright acquiring other digital agencies. The pressure is to become “an everything agency,” and every consulting firm is striving hard to prove themselves.

The role of the consultant and consulting firm are changing, driven by clients, employees and technology. It should be interesting to see what new service delivery platforms and skill sets the coming years bring in the consulting industry.

The extension of what defines a consultant or a consulting firm may indeed be boundless.

There are loads of competent consultants in the industry. Insights Success Magazine has chosen a prominent few for the listing of ‘The 10 Most Valuable Consulting Companies.’ On our cover page we have JDR Consulting, LLC, which is a certified business and leading management consulting firm that helps organizations to solve their most critical business process and technology challenges.

4Cite has been shortlisted for maximizing return on digital marketing investment through real-time, automated personalization of email and website interactions with your customers. Then we have Effective Governance, which is an independent, privately-owned consulting firm that delivers advice on corporate governance, strategy and corporate sustainability to clients in Australia and New Zealand. Noetic makes its way in the listing for offering strategy and planning, implementation, review and evaluation, organizational capacity building, investment management, enterprise risk management, transaction coordination and research and development.

Also we have, Shamrock Consulting Group, as the leader in formal RFP (Request for Proposal) engagements unparalleled in Design, Legal Concessions, and Savings. Step Change, which is a strategically led marketing agency, being facilitators and problem solvers, believe that the best solutions in business start with marketing. A specialized Big Data, Data Science and Data Engineering consultancy firm, Synergic Partners is shortlisted for being committed to delivering solutions and services that enable companies to leverage the business value of their enterprise data.

We have also enlisted The Rothschild Corporation for its efficacious efforts to develop, implement and support programs and processes that add value to customer’s organizations and their employees, leading to improved employee welfare, empowerment, growth and retention, management and prosperity for its customers, employees and shareholders. The preceding pages order TCG Consulting, a global leader for Independent Strategic Consulting, Sourcing, and Management Services across Corporate Travel, Meetings, Payment and Expense Management and TOP Step Consulting for offering Business Efficiency Assessment, PSA Implementation, PSA Integration & System Extension, PSA Virtual Administration to help organizations become profitable, scalable and efficient.

Have a happy start and enjoy the interesting stories of these consulting companies in this issue. Don’t miss out on the special scholarly articles penned by our in-house editors.

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10 CONSULTANT

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Company Name

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Brief

4Cite 4cite.com.au

Bob Gaito CEO & President

4Cite maximizes return on digital marketing investment through real-time, automated personalization of email and website interactions with your customers.

Effective Governance effectivegovernance.com.au

James Beck MD

Effective Governance is an independent, privately-owned consulting firm that delivers advice on corporate governance, strategy and corporate sustainability to clients in Australia and New Zealand.

JDR Consulting jdrconsulting.net

John D Rivers President & CEO

JDR Consulting, LLC is a certified small business and leading management consulting firm that helps organizations solve their most critical business process and technology challenges.

Noetic Group noeticgroup.com

Andrew Balmaks

Shamrock Consulting Group shamrockconsulting.com

Paul Cooney Founder & CEO

Shamrock Consulting Group is the leader in formal RFP (Request For Proposal) engagements unparalleled in Design, Legal Concessions, and Savings.

Step Change hellostepchange.com

Ashton Bishop CEO

Step Change is a strategically led marketing agency, being facilitators and problem solvers who believe the best solutions in business start with marketing.

Synergic Partners synergicpartners.com

Carla MartAnez Founder & Partner

Synergic Partners is a specialized Big Data, Data Science and Data Engineering consultancy firm committed to delivering solutions and services that enable companies to leverage the business value of their enterprise data.

TCG Consulting tcgconsulting.net

Bill Kerr CMO

TCG Consulting is a global Leaders for Independent Strategic Consulting, Sourcing, and Management Services Across Corporate Travel, Meetings, Payment and Expense Management

The Rothschild Corporation rothschildcorporation.com

Susanne Rothschild President

The Rothschild Corporation helps to develop, implement and support programs and processes that add value to customer’s organizations and their employees, leading to improved employee welfare, empowerment, growth and retention, management and prosperity for its customers, employees and shareholders.

TOP Step Consulting topstepconsulting.com

Jodi Cicci President & CEO

TOP Step Consulting offers Business Efficiency Assessment, PSA Implementation, PSA Integration & System Extension, PSA Virtual Administration to help organizations become profitable, scalable and efficient.

CEO

Noetic offers strategy and planning, implementation, review and evaluation, organisational capacity building, investment management, enterprise risk management, transaction coordination and research and development.

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Expertise for Governance and Strategic Advisory Services

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stablished in 1995, Effective Governance is Australia’s largest and most experienced independent corporate governance consulting firm.

It’s a team of 20 consultants which deliver measurable value to their clients by assisting them for governance, strategy and risk needs. Their experience is second to none, having established many of the governance processes that are taken as good practice by many companies, such as Board, Director and CEO evaluations to name a few.

They provide tailored solutions to meet the client’s individual needs with their following services: Reviewing the performance of the board, chair, directors and committees, Identifying current and required skills for directors and boards, Developing tailored policies and charters, Assisting with the CEO remuneration and evaluation process, Professional development tailored for your organization’s needs, Facilitating the development of

strategy, Establishing effective risk governance processes, Working with organizations to establish boards to enhance the organizational performance In addition, they provide boards and senior executives with governance advice to improve their overall effectiveness especially IT Governance and attaining the requirements of ISO 38500.

20 MAR-APR 2017

Reaching Ownership with Influential Supplements In 2006, James Beck took over ownership of Effective Governance, which sought to commercialize the ground breaking research of Professor Kiel, who in 1995 was among the earliest Australian advocates of many of the corporate governance practices now seen as standard, such as board charters and board reviews. James brought over 20 years of experience as a consultant and partner at PWC, where he had run a number of Australian business units, encompassing ERP, Human Capital and the University sector. James saw the potential of the Kiel Intellectual Property to be deployed in a practical, systemized manner for the benefit of Australian Boards.

Over the last 10 years, James has enjoyed building a team of highly qualified governance professionals who are focused upon delivering value adding outcomes for the Firm’s clients.

Overcame Complications with Astuteness James benefited from the ground breaking research of Professor Kiel, which he expanded upon, systemized and provided to clients as service based products. Effective

Our mission is to deliver measurable value to our clients by assisting them with their governance, strategy and risk needs Governance has built and provide a number of onlinesurveys for each of their product offerings. Then they use near-automated techniques which generate the diagnostic reports for the Boards. These techniques, as unlike large sample base surveys, is feedback from Boards of generally 8 respondees which has to be reviewed. When the responses considered fit for the purpose, then written in a manner that the identity of the author is not portrayed.

The biggest challenge has been attaining the trust of the Board that they are not only competent to add value, but ensure the confidentiality of individual directors. Many of their clients are proactive advocates for their services, which keeps the demand for what they provide at very high levels.

Delivering Practical Results by Guiding Clients In and Out Externally, Effective Governance can add up to 10% to the bottom line of the business by ensuring optimum governance processes through providing innovative, research based solutions that are practical.

They believe that in order to keep governance effective, outcomes or recommendations from them must be specifically tailored to the type of organization, taking account of its industry dynamics.

Having undertaken over 500 board reviews in the last ten years, they have built a reputation for delivering practical results in ways that promote unity and alignment amongst all stakeholders and key outcomes to assist the corporate vision to become a reality by achieving a High Performance Board.

Internally, they drive value through enhanced decision making processes. Effective Governance’s diagnostics allow them easily to pin-point areas where decision making can be enhanced across the roles and functions of the Board and throughout the organization.

Critical Scenario of Governance Industry The Governance “industry” is still embryonic. Many companies who offer governance service believe it is just another consulting assignment. Working with the Board requires a deeper understanding of their roles and

responsibilities and how they are going to interact with management.

Boards do not manage the organization but govern - “see that the business is run properly” which is the fundamental remit of the Board.

Effective Governance understands the remit of the Board, and as such is able to assist the Board improve its performance, and help management to more effectively interact and service the needs of the Board.

Highly Vauable Assistance with Overseas Expansion Effective Governance is currently servicing the governance requirements of their overseas clients with their Australian team. With regular request from overseas clients, they are selecting providers to whom they could license IP too, to better serve their local markets in the UK, Asia and USA. This will be a great opportunity to drive value through governance globally.

James addresses the importance of governance by saying, “While many readers aspiring to be on a Board in the near future may consider that they will not need our services until then. They could actually attain benefit from our assistance now in their role reporting to a Board. Our proven experience can assist the executive team in obtaining Board approval of the budget through to the approval for a large project - and sometimes it can be as simple as re-structuring your paper to the Board. Effective Governance is a highly valuable asset in your executive toolkit.”

21 MAR-APR 2017

Management Funda

Stumbling Blocks Before Management Consulting Firms

F

or the past few years, the performance of the IT Consulting Industry in the challenging economic climate is excellent. The performance of IT consulting industry in the major markets, for example, Financial Services and Insurance Providers, is the reason of its expansion. The consultants industry is expected to grow in the coming days with the changing economy and improving business sentiment. Also, the demand of IT consultants in various industries is expected to grow in the coming days.

Though there are various high-profile global corporations, still no single consultants can rule the market. In reality, the consultants industry include, network infrastructure companies, like, IT outsourcing companies, traditional large consulting firms, global computer equipment companies, and a wide range of other companies that do not necessarily compete directly with one another, but offering one or the other service related to information technology.

The management consulting industry has a very good knowledge of the challenges they have to face today and even the days before. The management consulting industry is witnessing the changes coming with the time being. There are three main features transforming the marketplace; disruptive technology, the rise of new business models, and the growing pressures of intense global competition.

Here are some of the market trends the management consulting industry is witnessing, which is the result of the challenges faced by the IT consulting firms with the planning to address the difficulties, identifying marketing techniques and implementation strategies.

All this clears the picture of the whole management consulting industry. Here are the business challenges management consulting firms have to face, which will give a clear view to the priorities management consulting firms have to observe.

Cardinal Business Challenges Before Management Consulting Firms Here are the Cardinal Business Challenges the Management Consulting Firms have to face which clears the industry scenario.

Roping in New Clients This concern is on the top most position of the list at 81%, which is a key point. Because, while new business is the

22 MAR-APR 2017

overriding priority of every industry, it tops the list by a significantly higher percentage for management consulting firms.

Just to make a comparison, 72% of all professional services firms note generating new business as their number one challenge.

The urgency of a new business in the world of management consulting is observed by over three times more respondents than the second-highest challenge. This is a delineate concern for the firms of all sizes, and this struggle for new clients is going to shape the future of many upcoming firms.

Hard-won Task of Dealing with the Competitive Marketplace The traces of competitive pressure are clearly seen in the second business challenge, and that is the hard-won task of dealing with the competitive marketplace.

A management consultant is an active, progressive global marketplace. With multiple international players exacerbate their efforts, the competition is heating up. The current condition of the economy, which is sluggish is prevailing in some markets, becoming the reason for many firms to look forward to the others for opportunity.

Herculean Task of Finding and Keeping Good People With the massively competitive marketplace comes a massive competitive talent environment. This makes the process of finding and retaining the best people difficult, making it a top agenda for the management consulting firms.

From the angle of setting marketing priorities, this is peculiarly notable. This can mean prioritizing the consideration of a specific audience, potential recruits. Unfortunately, searching for the best talent in the industry is always a big challenge.

New Inventions While focusing on induce new business, this is one more differentiating feature for the management consulting industry. To face this challenge, management consulting firms will have to search out new ways to not only spawn those new ideas but share them adequately with their audiences, including both prospective clients and industry influencers.

While competing in this highly competitive marketplace, firms can’t simply build a reputation on the claim or idea of innovation. Firms have to exhibit their expertise, thought processes, and results, and then only they can be come out as a winner.

The Panning Issues The current scenario shows that management consulting firms have to face lots of diverse challenges. The need of developing new clients, finding and keeping quality people, and continuously keep on innovating, are some of the challenges which are the key concern of today’s management consulting firms.

With the perspective, to compete with these many different pressures, management consulting firms will have to identify sophisticated and efficient strategic approaches. Additionally, these firms will have to keep on finding ways to use time and resources more adequately as they work to confront new competitors and find new clients, in the heating competition.

The changing time keeps on creating new challenges, which the management consulting firms have to handle by their own.

To be in the competition, while being on the forefront of the competition, the management consulting firms have to instrument variety of latest marketing techniques.

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CXO Standpoint

How consulting is impacting the infrastructure sector in the country A

s we all know, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today. It is viewed as the future global epicenter for manufacturing, engineering, tourism and services. The government has realized that the existing infrastructure is becoming a hurdle to achieve India’s ambition to become a leading global economic superpower. To overcome this challenge, India has pledged to invest around a trillion dollars towards infrastructure development. The intention and the funds alone will not be able to solve the situation. The need for specialists with experience and expertise are required to offer sustainable solutions to Indian infrastructure needs.

That is where consultants come into the picture. So what is it that the consultants bring to the table?

Optimum utilization of time & resources through reduction in wastage: Since the consultants come with prior experience and exposure in similar projects, they bring with them the experience of a solution that is already in existence. This experience helps in the reduction of time spent on the trial & error stage which optimizes resources by reducing wastage.

To give you an example, we are working on six metro projects in the country – Mumbai Metroline 3, Kolkata, Kochi, Chennai, Jaipur and Nagpur Metros. Each metro has been a new challenge for us due to the challenges presented by each project. However, years of working on metros around the world has made our team experienced enough to

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predict and analyze problems to arrive at possible solutions in advance. This helps in saving precious time and resource.

Global perspective: Consultants with global exposure & expertise bring with them the knowledge of global projects which help in benchmarking projects against global standards.

When the intention of developing Smart Cities were announced by the Government of India, there was a lot of confusion on what exactly are smart cities and what parameters are to be considered for a city to be called smart.

The Government had formed a panel of called Smart PIT (Project Initiation Team) to determine these factors. Egis, with its global experience of developing many smart cities around the world, was chosen as one of the members of this team to develop the frame work for smart cities in the country.

Our global experience of working on smart cities is helping us in winning the conďŹ dence of the client as we work on the Bhubaneswar Smart City. The client trusts our judgment as our past work vouches for our ability to manage large projects of this stature.

Domain Expertise: In most cases, the client or the end user may or may not be clear about the end product. They are aware of the need and the problem. The consultant is the competent person to analyze the problem and offer the right solution keeping in

About the Author

Ashish Tandon Managing Director

Egis-India

mind all the parameters. Since the consultants’ core competency is to offer solutions to a certain kind of problems, they are best suited to offer possible solutions based on hard facts and data.

When Egis was assigned the project of Shivaji Memorial in Mumbai, India, the Government of Maharashtra wanted to build the tallest memorial in the middle of the Arabian Sea. However, a structure of this kind (~200 meters in height) needs solid engineering skills that encompassed marine, structural and design expertise to build a memorial in the middle of the sea that can last for at least five hundred years. Egis’s prior experience of working on big structures globally, helped in understanding the client’s requirements, to suggest solutions that meet the expectations.

360 degree solution: Many a times, problems need to be

Mr. Ashish Tandon, Managing Director of Egis in India, presents the challenging projects of Egis in India (India-MyanmarThailand trilateral highway, Chennai Metro, Kochi Metro...) and the opportunities in the infrastructure sector. addressed at multiple levels to arrive at a sustainable solution. For example, a metro which is meant for smoother transportation is incomplete unless last mile connectivity is offered. This needs a holistic approach of problem solving that evaluates the problem at different levels and arrives at a solution.

Consultants with experience of similar projects can offer holistic solutions which can offer a 360 degree solution.

Credibility: A consultant is an independent third party expert who offers unbiased opinion which is best suited for the particular project. In many cases, the reputation of the consultant also adds value to the project.

Focus on core business: The clients or the owners of the infrastructure in most cases are the government or the large private players whose core business may not be

infrastructure development. For these companies or organizations, a lot of resources are deployed in infrastructure development monitoring which is a waste. These companies can hire consultants who are the experts in the domain of infrastructure and whose core business is infrastructure development.

To summarize: Infrastructure is a vast and fast evolving field. There are constantly better innovations available which can offer sustainable solutions at minimum costs. It is not possible for the clients or their teams to be on top of such developments. The global consultants who are working on these projects across the globe on a regular basis can help bridge the gap. And ensure that the client’s get the best value for the capital invested and minimize risks through continuous developments in technology, engineering and processes.

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usiness consulting firms help businesses to scale their performance by solving problems and finding innovative ways of doing things. They’re not just in the private industry; numerous firms work with public sector organisations to encourage development of their services and, where necessary, reduce costs, and make savings. A consultant is a professional who offers an expert advice in a particular area such as security (electronic or physical), management, education, accountancy, law, human resources, marketing (and public relations), finance, engineering, science or any of many other specialised fields.

Step Change is a strategically led marketing agency; it’s a collective of unlike-minded people, with a shared distaste for the status quo and playing small. They start by optimising and protecting the core before developing leveraged innovations and campaigns. To do this, they draw on tools from strategy, marketing, consumer behaviour, and behavioural economics (among others) to align challenger businesses on major growth opportunities.

Step Change exists to inspire step changes in businesses and people; their ambition is to have every client beat their industry benchmark (or previous PB). They work with leaders in challenger businesses who are looking for a step 26 MAR-APR 2017

change and a path to winning in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Who Are the Challengers?

As an agency, Step Change believes that business has the power to create positive change, and so they seek out

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businesses who can see a better way - those who are not just for themselves but are also out there to help create a better world. These businesses are the ones with growth on their agenda and everything to play for. These are the challengers.

Stepping Up the Strategy Unlike some business consultants, who work with only a few industries and clients, the team at Step Change work across every major industry and with over 90 clients every year. This massive bank of knowledge, combined with a unique way of working gives their clients powerful insights and practical ideas to transform their businesses.

Over the last decade or so, Step Change has studied and helped companies break through one or more of the six major challenges that inevitably plague every business that’s playing a worthwhile game. They call it the Big 6 Challenges™ - strategy, story, scale, creativity, connection, and culture - and for every challenge, there is an opportunity to step change. l

Strategy: For an aligned strategy that makes clear choices on scarce resources - Business Strategy Step Change

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Story: For an inspiring brand story with a predatory edge - Value Proposition Step Change

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Scale: For a best - and next-practice marketing plan that leverages a business’s assets and can scale Marketing Step Change

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Creativity: For a standout message that’s sure to get noticed and for the client to look as good as they are Cut-Through Creative

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Culture: To convert intent into action with powerful leadership and a high-performance culture - Intent to ACTION and Powerful Presence

Standing Out From the Crowd: Thinking Predatory Step Change believes it’s not enough for business leaders to think about meeting and satisfying their customer’s needs they also need to ask, “Who’s got my money?” This is where Predatory Marketing comes in. It's all about striking at the weakness that arises out of a competitor’s greatest strength.

Step Change’s Chief Executive Officer, Ashton Bishop, is Australia’s leading Predatory Marketer, an expert in pinpointing how businesses can grow by outsmarting their competitors.

However, his path was a somewhat unusual one. After graduating with a commerce/law degree, he turned his hand to street performing, TV presenting, stand - up comedy, film directing, and even literally ran away with the circus.

Fortunately, Ashton eventually found his niche in marketing, where he has spent the last 14 years working internationally on some of the world’s biggest brands. He is a business owner and serial entrepreneur, challenging sometimes even controversial - but always focused on what gets results. He has run million - dollar marketing campaigns for billion-dollar brands, created Australia’s first mobile app, received film awards, guest - lectured at leading universities, and won strategic and creative recognition from his peers.

How They Help Clients Make a Step Change

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Connect: To find and connect with customers in the digital world, coordinating all elements to work together - Digital Connection Step Change

The team at Step Change don’t just create strategic plans and documents for challenger businesses - they transform them into live and agile strategic organisations equipped to deal with the VUCA environment. They align on strategy development and culture and develop leadership in order to make sure that your strategy ends up on the bottom line and not in the bottom draw.

27 MAR-APR 2017

Do have Doyou you have

what to whatitittakes takes tobe be

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eing a consultant, you can enjoy varied jobs and lots of opportunities expanding your knowledge, experience and professional network.

Although consulting jobs often come with better opportunities and benefits, these jobs are often overlooked by job seekers. This is not a good picture to look at, because consulting is one of the most rewarding professions in the world, obviously if you are a perfect fit for the role.

That's what this article is all about: finding out if you have what it takes to be a happy and a successful consultant.

This article highlights some of the characteristics of great consultants which can be learned or achieved by experience to a certain degree.

If you have these characteristics, then you should feel good about it. If not, then try to implement it because if you do so, then maybe you have found your dream job.

Flexibility Adapting to new projects, work cultures and colleagues is one of the important characteristics of a great consultant. They take the job; they fit in perfectly and they get it done. Their technical expertise and soft skills allow them to take on their roles quickly and easily.

Discipline Great consultants know how to work hard and smart. They accomplish the best results in the shortest possible time with proper discipline. They are the problem solvers and they get the job done with as little friction as possible.

Confident Being confident about the skills and expertise is a key characteristic of great consultants. They leave their egos at the door while exposing a natural collaborative leadership. They are team players, and they put company goals and team spirit first.

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Persistent Obstacles don’t let their morale down, instead, they learn from unforeseen circumstances and negative feedback. They never give up. They accept frictions and they move on. They know how to analyze and learn from every setback in order to stop it from happening again.

Studious You are never too old, to learn new thing and this is the key quality of great consultants. They never stop learning. They bring the latest knowledge and skills to the table when others can’t while staying on top of the developments in their fields of expertise.

Problem Solver Do you remember MacGyver, the star of the famous TV show? He could solve any difficulty with his Swiss army knife and his mind. The same applies to great consultants; they use knowledge and skills from preceding projects to solve new challenges and problems.

Sociable Great consultants listen to everyone before they could speak. Their main aim is to help other people and businesses. Thanks to their will of helping their clients accomplish their goals, they build trust and lots of it.

Clearly, this list is not thorough, but it gives a good sign of the mindset of great consultants. This varied nature of the job makes it a challenging, but at the same time a rewarding one.

So now, do you have above mentioned characteristics to be a happy and successful consultant?

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CXO Standpoint

Dark Data with IoT

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he above infographic is astonishing when you really delve into the numbers. The last few years have been quite interesting when it comes to the IoT space.

I have personally taken a back seat and watched how the industry has sprouted, from an embryonic platform to an early catalyst for possibly becoming the next “Skynet� (no pun intended). For some time now pundits have been predicting great things for the Internet of Things (IoT),

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from smart cities and smart homes to smart energy grids, driverless cars and autonomous robots. What is in no doubt are the number of “things” that now have “connected capability”, and it is rising fast; according to one leading analyst, 6.4billion connected things will be in use by the end of this year, an increase of 30% from last year, meaning 5million new things are being connected up to the internet every single day. The term internet of things (IoT) was coined round about the turn of the millennium and is widely held to mean the connection of “things”. There are a number of factors driving IoT. First, consumers are demanding greater convenience, speed of delivery and personalisation of the goods and services they consume. There are also other drivers for the IoT explosion we are witnessing.

The costs of infrastructure are on a downward trajectory. Sensors are becoming smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient and battery life is improving. The further innovation of cloud computing platforms and the emergence of specialised IoT services on them mean that the data collection and analysis necessary for wide scale deployment are more accessible.

Here you can see one infographic from Deloitte in 2014 that shows the value they analysed for smart homes and smart cars.

Interestingly enough these percentages have not differed too much till now.

Is IoT Fact or Future?

IoT is right at the top of the “hype” cycle and firmly perched to what everyone is talking about. Mckinsey & Co predict that the economic impact of the IoT could be between $3.9tn and $11.1tn per year by 2025. That is a huge industry considering it was only born 16 years ago.

Adrian Hinrichsen Marketing & Business Development Director, Datumize

One of the main question I get asked a lot is “where do you see IoT making the most advantage”? Currently the top industries are

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domestic/leisure, utilities/energy and transport/automotive.

At Datumize we are seeing traction in all these sectors with each project very much different to the next. Our everyday environment is changing, sometimes without us even noticing, however our lives are being made easier for it.

Although we are moving quickly to an IoT environment, we are also facing “Barriers to connection”, where businesses and consumers do not share the same vision of IoT. One suspicion is the concern for security and how IoT technology could be hijacked and manipulated by those for ill intent. Other factors are more technical in nature, and seem to be around operating systems, pricing and current offerings. All of these factors will have to be overcome if we are to achieve the holy grail of “smart Cities” and connection of things.

In Conclusion IoT is a concept which is no longer discussed only by technical scientists, it has very much moved into the mainstream. Certain industries have embraced IoT more

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than others, for example domestic/leisure, utilities and transport are leading the way. We are all consumers and citizens, and a great deal of education needs to occur before the reality of IoT is understood and accepted by us at large.

Data is the key to IoT and organisations seems to want to get their hands on that “Dark data”, but do not know what to do with it once they have it, or how to turn it into a value for their business. It is here that obstacles occur in our everyday business environment as the resources needed have currently not been implemented into the infrastructure and this will not happen until businesses understand the value that is passing them by on a daily basis within their organisation.

IoT is potentially the most exciting technical revolution to have happened in a long time, and if we are able to help businesses and consumers connect in a smarter way, help build the resources and infrastructure to support this new environment, then the way we live and work will change forever, in a very positive way.

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e live in a global community with professional organizations in project management, engineering, sciences and other professions because certifications such as PMP, Six Sigma, Green and Black Belts are awarded worldwide.

Following standardized requirements, the practices and procedures are easily integrated into global teams facilitating effective project management.

To be able to provide advice, ideas and even implement them under ambiguous situations or under circumstances that such professional organizations might not have seen or been through, Consultants as a breed came into existence. TheRothschild Corporation is one such consultant company expertized in Strategic Planning, Change Management, Recruiting, Project Management, Talent Management, Training and World Trade Consulting.

Abetting the Businesses since Ages The Rothschild Corporation is a woman- and minorityowned Houston-based companywith more than 14 years of experience; they know what it takes to help businesses hire the right IT, project management, executive consultants, or trainers to meet client’s project needs.

They also help organizations through extensive leadership, soft skills, team building and computer skills training, and project and change management consulting services.

Whether clients need to improve company and employee performance with staffing, leadership and technical training, change management, business process re-engineering, or end-to-end talent management and information technology solutions, The Rothschild Corporation works with the client to draft a clear plan to achieve their short, medium and long-term goals.

She, Susanne Rothschild, President of The Rothschild Corporation, is experienced in strategic human performance solutions with domestic and international organizations to realize improved bottom-line results.

During her 25 plus years in the business world, Susanne has focused on human potential with Fortune 500 companies and brought expertise in leadership, consulting, training and development, coaching, cultural awareness, strategic planning, communications, change management, project management, valuing diversity, and team building to promote a positive and effective team environment.

Susanne draws on her experience as an executive consultant with Accenture and her varied roles with Texas Instruments in addition to her MBA training.

A Strong-minded and Adroit Leader It is obvious that the creator of a company which manages so many different sectors must have a vast experience in the market.

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Susanne has also facilitated training in Change Management, Enhanced Sales Methods, and Leadership to international personnel from the oil, security, HR, finance, electric power, non-profit, and education sectors and which

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We support our clients to meet their goals providing and enriching their most valuable resource - their PEOPLE included representatives from the USA, China, Iran, Mexico, Columbia, and Honduras.

Hovering over the Hardships All Leaders Face Adversity. Exceptional Leaders Thrive in It. During the economic downturn in 2003, Susanne was inspired to launch her boutique consulting firm offering the change management, project management and training services that she had previously provided on large projects as a consultant for a global firm - but now through her own consulting company.

Although she was experienced in managing projects and consulting with clients worldwide, she initially faced the complications of learning how to structure, market, manage, and sell her services. She had to learn how to handle the payroll, accounting, tax reporting, marketing, and selling for the business - each of these areas required new skills and knowledge.

Dominating the Industry with Surfeit Services The Rothschild Corporation works with their client’s team and executives to develop the solutions that meet their consulting and management training needs. Rothschild offers Business Consulting to help their clients achieve their strategic objectives and goals. They consult with the company’s representative and executives to create and revise strategic plans or find solutions to maximize their company’s success. The working sessions can help clarify the root cause and possible solutions for trends to transform.

Rothschild provides Management Training & Development, Team Building consulting and training, Birkman® Profile

and Selection Assessments, Recruiting and Human Resources Consulting, Project and Change Management, Effective Communications, Professional Development online programs to prepare participants for certifications in Project Management (PMP), Sales & Marketing, Six Sigma, and SCRUM. eLearning for over 100 soft skills, leadership and project management courses available as online self-paced training. Onsite Soft Skills Training in over 100 topics. Courses can be customized to meet the client's specific needs. Rothschild is also efficient to provide Training Strategy, Plans and Implementation, Customized Microsoft and Technical Training Development and Delivery, Succession Planning and Executive/Management Coaching.

Advice to Young Entrepreneurs: To Manage Money Mindfully For those with start-ups or about to build their company, Susanne advises to save finances to take care of personal living expenses and business expenses for at least several months. If you can work in your field or have other sources for steady cash flow, you will have more energy to focus on building the business. It is also important to know that those business owners who are starting out typically work very long hours for little or no income until they get established. If they love their work, then they will be inspired and energized to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Bridging Knowledge and Expertise for Future Development Strategic planning to expand The Rothschild Corporation presence in the global market requires developing a strong network of professionals in related and supporting fields to fill the gaps in knowledge and expertise. Because the planet has become a global community through trade, the internet, and social media, Susanne has great hopes that the consulting services are accepted and welcomed worldwide.

The key always is to build and maintain relationships.

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usiness owners and managers may need to think innovatively when filling up employment needs.

Recruiting new staff isn’t always feasible and there may be times when you need a different solution.

And in these days of economic recession and insecurity about the future, companies have been forced to reconsider the way they do business. To meet their recurring business challenges, many organizations have been forced to reduce their staff and/or stop hiring. Yet, they still need to do the same or more with very less resources and staffs. Staff Augmentation, here could help you increase the staff when you need to without making any permanent hires.

Staff augmentation in simple terms can be defined as an outsourcing strategy which is used to run a project and respond to business objectives. This technique consists of appraising the current staff and then ascertaining which added skills that are required. One possible benefit of this tactic is that it may leverage current resources as well as hire outsourced services and contract workers. Employing temporary workers allows you to avoid the hiring process and the worries of additional payroll duties.

So many companies have turned to staff augmentation to fill the gaps in their workforce, endure the declining economy and maintain a competitive edge. Using workers from service providers, mostly in nearshore locations, organizations are able to supplement their staff with the workers who have the skills necessary to meet the requirements of their businesses.

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Why Staff Augmentation Services?

Experience Matters Augmenting your staff with qualified professionals at the peak of their careers permits you to allocate projects and tasks with confidence. Accomplished mid-career professionals are not interns and so will not require much training or support. Merely assign projects and tasks as needed and an augmented staffer or team will be able to deliver the results you need right on time. An experienced professional brings his own significant set of skills to your project, and frees up your time letting you to focus on the big picture.

Cost Effective There’s no point in paying for extra employees all year round if you only need them for a very short time. With staff augmentation, you're paying for the task to be done, when you need it and only for the accurate skills at the right times. By not paying regular wages year-round, you’re saving a lot of money in both the short and long term.

Risk Mitigation Another situation where augmentation is reasonable for companies those are in a situation where it is unclear if they are going to welcome growth or if they may have to deal with reducing the staff size. A company tackling this difficulty may still have a demand for increased recruitment for the short term in order to get dire products to the market. Hiring permanent employees under those conditions can be very tricky both from a financial perspective as well as public relations.

Flexibility Staying flexible in business is possibly more important than staying powerful. The capability to adapt is what keeps the company at the forefront and with staff augmentation you can upgrade the passion of your staff's work output whenever needed.

Control By using staff augmentation, you can maintain a complete and overall control over who is doing the important work, who gets assigned to minor tasks and who is leading your most important and crucial projects. Maintain control, the final product and every single step along the way.

A motivated and balanced workforce Because consultants are hired to embark on specific projects and meet firm deadlines, they tackle the tasks with accuracy and concentration. Their goal is to warrant the client’s success. Since they aren’t concerned about promotions or office politics, they can provide a neutral and direct opinion from an unbiased point of view.

Accessibility Finding, recruiting, training, reskilling, and preserving employees take time. With staff augmentation you get speedy access to skilled and experienced talent to meet needs that can grow suddenly or more rapidly. You are protected against possibilities such as a team member proving to be a bad fit for the project, management style or the company culture.

Other Benefits Staff Augmentation offers In addition to the huge advantages described earlier, the staff augmentation model also offers other benefits over other outsourcing models. One of the most apparent is that outsourced resources work with the current employees. This means that contractors will take commands from your administrators. Leveraging company leadership to supervise contractors improves the assimilation with the existing teams and increases the knowledge of what is expected of these temporary resources.

37 MAR-APR 2017

CXO Standpoint

Novel Technologies that Simplify Enterprise Systems

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he three big technologies impacting the enterprise in the near future are mobile, social, and cloud. These have all, of course, been around for a few years, but they are ďŹ nally reaching the maturity required for enterprise robustness and scale.

Austin Rosenfeld CEO, Macedon Technologies

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In the mobile space, the community has standardized on iOS and Android (much to the chagrin of early leader Blackberry/RIM). More companies are comfortable with Bring-Your-OwnDevice policies or have an enterprise wrapper such as Good to harmonize security policy. A decade ago, we entered into the world where you were expected to be able to answer a work call or email at any time, because you had a cell phone. Now, mobile access to systems and data is going to push us

CXO Standpoint

towards a norm of 24-7 “complete responses.” No more one-line “I will look that up in the morning” responses from a phone. Instead, we will be able to access enterprise systems seamlessly regardless of platform or form-factor.

Development platforms that enable simultaneous construction of mobile and web/desktop interfaces will also become the norm, as no application should be limited to a single client device type. Today’s users, frequently use tablets in the field as opposed to the old-world pattern of the user as an assembly-line worker chained to a desktop.

A mobile user can much more effectively interact with the customers, suppliers, other workers, assets, and other entities that business systems are all about. Real-time interaction generally results in better data and faster visibility throughout the organization, both core components of Return on Investment. With the rise of larger phones, tablets, and the HTML5 standard, using the web version of an application from a mobile device has become an acceptable alternative to building a specific, native mobile version, but doing so generally compromises usability.

On the social front, citizens of the Millennial and X generations have become accustomed to their personal software supporting feed-based interaction. Every object supports commenting, tagging, filtering, etc. Images, video, and text are all intermingled seamlessly. A user can follow hundreds of contacts by exerting only a few minutes a day of scrolling through updates, and mobile technology makes it easy to take these few minutes whenever downtime emerges. Enterprise systems are still fairly locked into the old paradigm of forms, reports, using email for less structured communication. As these systems are refactored to use a social interface, users will get the same interaction their personal software has led them to expect. A sales executive can follow updates to a pipeline, events for when a demo was performed, and collaboration points with the contracts team the way he or she would follow streams of social events. It can even be done while walking through an airport. The social posts made by both system and human actors become part of the audit trail of the records they are associated with, minimizing the dreaded searching of emails that often becomes a poor substitute for this functionality.

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CXO Standpoint

Finally, the cloud has reached a level of security and maturity that is acceptable to the vast majority of businesses, crossing the chasm from “bleeding-edge advantage” to “expected infrastructure.” Certifications give businesses comfort that data will be secured and backed up. The price point has continued to fall, to the point where hosting servers in a private data center is no longer competitive with the economies of scale of the cloud. Budgets can easily be set to gear more towards the operating expense model of cloud offerings as a service than the cap-ex model of building and hosting in a proprietary data center.

Customers expect the ease of use and uptime of cloud-based systems. Additionally, since few enterprise systems exist in vacuum, modern standards greatly facilitate integration among an organization’s cloud-based systems, including integrations with systems maintained by partners, suppliers, and even customers. Enterprise technology vendors are simplifying deployment, maintenance, and procurement with a range of PaaS and SaaS offerings, simplifying the adoption of cloud technology.

Macedon Technologies is an Appian reseller and services partner. We build all of our systems around mobile, social, and cloud architecture. Whether the paradigm is workflow automation, case management, integration with end-user visibility, document management and routing, or just a general-purpose enterprise system, we use these maturing technologies as the foundations of 21st-century enterprise systems.

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onsulting is poised for a big transformation-The days when a consultant would present his/her strategy and walk away are long gone. It’s about walking along with the customer in their implementation journey and enabling them achieve tangible business outcomes. Similarly, Owner of TOP Step Consulting, Jodi Cicci’s prime focus was to provide a platform for the PS community to learn and share knowledge. This passion extends to the professional services community at large by freely contributing educational webinars, ebooks, and tips as advocates for the adoption of process efficiency and technology for achieving excellence in professional services business operations.

Thus, TOP Step offers PSA focused solutions such as Business Efficiency Assessments, Deployments, and System Extensions including integrations with ERP, CRM, HCM, and other common business operations systems.

Business Efficiency Assessments ensure technology is aligned to your business model and therefore the technology is working for you instead of changing how you do business.

Deployments follow a proven methodology of customer engagement and business modeling to ensure data capture and metrics reporting help organizations realize the investment benefits of the PSA tool.

System Extension enables workflow efficiencies within the PSA solution by adding logic to complement the vendor platform and integrations to streamline data flows among systems for accuracy and timely data processing.

TOP Step also provides Project Management Office consulting to businesses to help them deliver projects more successfully and to have more predictable project execution and management of their projects.

Multiple Roles by Jodi Jodi Cicci began TOP Step Consulting in 2007, and has 42 MAR-APR 2017

been involved with Professional Services for over 25 years.

Her experiences in various PS roles from Software Developer and Operations Director to Global Project Management Director for a large Software Technology company has contributed to the unique perspective on managing a successful professional services organizations.

TOP Step Consulting has received numerous awards and industry recognition establishing the company as leaders in providing business consulting, PSA implementation, PSA administration, and consulting skills training to enable organizations to be more efficient and profitable through process and technology.

Despite the Difficulties, how TOP Step reached the Top TOP Step started with just Jodi and within a year there was too much work coming in. The response from the customer base was overwhelming. It became quickly apparent that a

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We love solving the process and automation challenges professional services organizations face company structure with payroll, etc. would be needed sooner than expected. Her first employee hire is, in fact, still working with TOP Step Consulting today. “When you are a single person in a company, the business plan is simple. When you need to start hiring, your business plan becomes more complicated and critical is understanding how cost grows with revenue growth so plan to put one in place sooner rather than later”, says Jodi.

Finally, Systems Management provides options for customers to have a personal help desk to answer those business and process questions within the organization.

TOP Step earned a reputation of partnership and knowledge enablement, continuing to grow year over year and decided to expand by including the FinancialForce PSA solution, keeping the focus on the team’s expertise in Professional Services business processes and technology. In 2016 TOP Step introduced a focused Integrations and System Expansion team which supports code development, enhancing the robust platforms provided by the PSA vendors they support.

Need of PSA “With the movement and focus on cloud solutions and platforms, systems and products are moving faster to have better features, more options for customizations, and be more flexible in a plug-and-play method. PSA solutions need to continue to invest in their functionality and keep on top of Professional Services trends in order to stand out as a viable solution for today and the future,” shares Jodi describing criticality of Consulting.

Consulting: Helping Customers at any point in their evolutionTOP Step has developed a program called STEPS, a five-phased approach, namely Strategize, Tools and Process Implementation, Educating and Training, Performance Tracking and Reporting, and Systems Management to help organizations effectively utilize their PSA software solutions.

Process to be a Succesful Company Jodi’s advice for start-ups is find your niche or differentiator and leverage that in marketing and customer relationships. Don’t try to be all things to all customers that will spread you out too thin and prevent your organization from gaining traction in any single focused market.

The Strategize step includes offerings such as Business Efficiency Assessment, which helps customers align their PSA software solution to their organizational processes, and PSA Tool Selection, which assists customers in identifying their operational needs and how to evaluate software solutions to determine the best-fit for their organization.

According to Jodi, to accomplish all at the start would have been difficult and impacted their ability to not only deliver services but to deliver quality. Quality is important to high customer satisfaction.

Tools and Process Implementation offerings include deploying the NetSuite OpenAir or FinancialForce PSA solution as well as establishing a Project Management Office.

Education and training focuses on project manager training and consulting skills training.

Performance Tracking and Reporting works to help customers establish reporting metrics and measures to ensure they are gathering effective data for strategic business decisions.

Plans to Expand TOP Step Consulting is continually looking at the PSA market for trends and leading product platforms. Expansion into additional PSA vendor solutions and 3rd party Integration tools/platforms is their primary focus for the upcoming year. The PSA market continues to grow which indicates that there is no one-size-fits-all solution and that is exciting when you are a consulting organization helping customers select the right solution for them.

43 MAR-APR 2017