The 10 Most Trusted Consultant Companies 2018

www.insightssuccess.com July 2018

10

THE

Most

CONSULTANT Companies

2018

Insight’s Perspective Consultancy Firm Hiring the Best According to the Relevant Business

Expert’s Column The Role of Consultants for Every Business Stage

Thomas Lebamoff CEO & Founder

Exactus Advisors: Sketching Brilliant Roadmaps for Successful Business

Editor’s Note

Asset-Based Consulting: The Trend in Spotlight

A

s the consulting industry is undergoing the inevitable effects of digital disruption, a new necessity has spread its arms. Many consulting firms are searching ways to meet the changing customer expectations and rising client knowledge. Emergence of asset-based consulting has helped these firms to overcome the challenges.

In Asset-based consulting, tools and products act as the primary asset, rather than human capital.

Traditional consulting firms rely on human talent and expertise for success, but asset-based consulting relies mostly on talent with tools and business models using the recent digital innovations. Asset based consulting will transform the intellectual property and expertise into reusable tool for client engagement with the help of technological innovations.

Unlike traditional consulting method, asset-based consulting saves a lot of time and resources by replacing the client discovery process with tech-based tools. With the changing vibes of the business world, the clients' knowledge and perspective towards consultants has also been changed. The clients today expect innovative solutions and provable ROI, unlike the traditional advices regarding operations and strategies.

Big Data Analytics and the technology leveraging organizational intelligence help consultants to create and offer innovative solutions.

As the asset-based consulting is a new business model that totally believes in productization of services rather than relying on talent or individual expertise, it will require an entire change in the structure of the consultant industry. Most of the consultancies will face unique challenges to harness the transformative

business model. As the traditional model of consultancy is still making it a success, the firms are reluctant to adopt the disruption. However, we can see many such consultancies who have already harnessed the new-age marvels of technology.

In this issue, “The 10 Most Trusted Consultant Companies 2018”, we’ve portrayed those global organizations which are rejuvenating and illuminating the walkways of the consultant industry.

On the cover of this issue, we’ve depicted the success story of Exactus Advisors a global leader in sketching brilliant roadmaps for successful business. The company excels in quickly addressing complex business problems for its clients, providing the detailed roadmap and world-class advisory support to deliver maximum value. The company focuses on scaling the clients’ business for the next level of growth while improving alignment for people, processes and business systems. Exactus is a force multiplier to the client management team, helping to illuminate the creative and operational excellence of the client employees.

Thomas Lebamoff, CEO and Founder of Exactus Advisors, specializes in operational and profit improvement with passionate execution and delivery expertise. His relentless focus on business value and deep expertise on operational risk management has resulted in millions of dollars of bottom line savings for his clients.

Following the Cover Story, we’ve enlisted those organizations which have impacted the consultant industry in a big way. BeCloud LLC which is a consulting boutique that provides highly Customized Dedicated Servers, Virtual Private Servers and Technology Solutions for clients; Beyond the Arc who assists its clients to provide a prodigious customer experience, by caters to the voice of the customer, social media data mining, content marketing, earned media, PR, merger integration, predictive analytics, text mining, smart grid and utility analytics; Candesic which is Candesic is a leading strategy consultancy constantly serving the health care private operators, investors, and public- sector organizations; J P W Consulting which is a leading Change Management and Training Firm; Nomad Financial which is a leading financial services company, serving as a trusted partner and advisor to early and mid-stage companies; Nucleus, a management consultancy specializing in management in general and project management in particular; Simplus, a Platinum Salesforce Partner and the industry leader in Quote-to-Cash implementations; Solidiance, a corporate strategy consulting firm with focus on Asia, “from Dubai to Shanghai” and The Rothschild Corporation, a Houston-based company are the companies enlisted.

While flipping through the magazine, don’t miss out on the articles crafted by the industry experts CXO Standpoint: Things a Phone Can’t Do; Expert’s Column: The Role of Consultants for Every Business Stage; and Quality Vision: Managing Quality in the Technological Age. Also you’d definitely love to go through the Insights’ Perspective: Consultancy Firm: Hiring the Best According to the Relevant Business; Tech-Byte: Deciding Factors While Investing Into New Technologies and Strategy-Talk: The Significance of an Effective Marketing Strategy.

Hope this issue will leave an impact on you.

Happy reading!

Suhel Mashayak

08 Cover Story

Exactus Advisors: Sketching Brilliant Roadmaps for Successful Business

24 Strategy Talk The Signicance of an Effective Marketing Strategy

32

44

Tech-Byte

Insight’s Perspective

Deciding Factors While Investing Into New Technologies

Consultancy Firm: Hiring the Best According to the Relevant Business

18

30

38

Quality Vision

CXO Standpoint

Expert’s Column

Managing Quality in the Technological Age

Things a Phone Can't Do

The Role of Consultants for Every Business Stage

16

CONTENTS

36

BeCloud LLC: A Global Disruptor in Consultancy Services

22 Nomad Financial: Blooming Disruptor of Financial Services

Beyond the Arc:

42

A Strategic Way to Communicate, Analyze, and Engage

28 Simplus: Sketching A Brilliant Future in Consultancy with quote-to-cash Services

Candesic: A Forerunner Unlocking World-class Management Consultation Solutions in Healthcare

Critical

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Copy Editor

Pooja M. Bansal Suhel Mashayak Crescent CU Upama Goswami

Contributing Editors Hitesh Dhamani Shubham Khampariya Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Karan Gaikwad Co-designer Sumit Lunawat Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Sophie Smith Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Md. Jim Williams Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Anup Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

July, 2018 Corporate Of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: www.insightssuccess.com

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Thomas Lebamoff CEO & Founder

Cover Story

Exactus

Advisors:

Sketching Brilliant Roadmaps for Successful

Business

�

Exactly what you value.

Exactly what you need

10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

B

eing a booming and highly profitable industry, Management Consulting is going to be significantly disrupted by technology in upcoming years. The new innovations in technology make business easier by providing simpler and more elegant solutions to problems often at a lower cost.

The consulting world today is flooded with new trends and buzzwords. Big Data, AI, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, RPA, Machine Learning, and RDA are just a few examples to mention. The art of all these trends is the same: to keep the business simple and focused on achieving greater results.

Founded in 2016, Exactus Advisors is a Chicago-based boutique advisory firm specializing in driving operational improvement for its clients. The company excels in quickly addressing complex business problems for its clients, providing the detailed roadmap and world-class advisory support to deliver maximum value. The company focuses on scaling the clients’ business for the next level of growth while improving alignment for people, processes and business systems. Exactus is a force multiplier to the client management team, helping to illuminate the creative and operational excellence of the client employees.

Philosophy of the Multifaceted Leader Thomas Lebamoff, CEO and Founder of Exactus Advisors, specializes in operational and profit improvement with passionate execution and delivery expertise. Prior to Exactus Advisors, Thomas was Founder and Managing Partner at Liberty Advisor Group; a senior partner at Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Executive VP & CIO at Drinks Inc.; and an Associate Partner with Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting).

His relentless focus on business value and deep expertise on operational risk management has resulted in millions of dollars of bottom line savings for his clients.

Thomas operates with balance; his emphasis is on choosing the right path to achieve the long term goal, rather than jumping into immediate results with a wrong short-term approach.

“My advice to my clients follows this same philosophy.

Giving advice to a client that cannot execute the plan or deliver near-term benefits is worthless advice. I’ve built my career on telling it like it is and fixing the aftermath from large and small consulting companies who time and time

again, provide disastrous guidance. I have traveled the world and had the privilege to consult with more than 75 companies—small and large, global and local—across a plethora of industries,” Tom cited.

“Tom’s key asset is his ability to quickly break down complex problems, identify business and IT risks, assess business value and provide actionable and practical recommendations. I consider him a trusted advisor who truly partners with his clients.” Ken Johnsen, the CIO of Energy and Transportation Group at Caterpillar Inc. offers words of praise for the Charismatic leader.

Thomas lives in Naperville, IL with his wife, four daughters and three dogs, a Weimaraner and two American Pit Bull Terriers. His love for his daughters is exemplary – not only does he enjoy watching them perform in competitive cheerleading and dance, but two of them have gotten the Purdue grad to support Indiana University. He enjoys cooking and range shooting with his daughters, and relaxes by an occasional cigar and bourbon or reading fiction books

by Vince Flynn and Allan Folsom. A happy family is the soul of a successful professional life.

On Overcoming the Initial Challenges “Braving it alone is not fun and having a partner to share risk, who thinks differently and of course add cash to fund the startup is beneficial”, believes Thomas. Further, he adds that one should never start a consulting company without strong relationships that are willing to “give” the new company an opportunity. Tom did not need cash while he initiated two consultant companies as he leveraged his relationships with clients and friends who were looking to do something different.

Inspiration behind its Formation Great consultants focus on understanding the complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, designing the solution, then putting integrated plans into action that address people, process and technology to get results. Growing up in a family retail business kept Thomas grounded and helped build inter and intrapersonal skills in challenging customer situations. This built the foundation for his strong problem-solving skills.

Graduating from Purdue University in Industrial Engineering continued to shape and hone these already acquired skills and prepared him for future leadership positions.

Areas of Expertise

Work Culture that Attracts Clients

Exactus’ expertise is laser-focused on three areas to deliver maximum value and leadership support. It leverages the clients’ insights and guidance along with operational and transactional data, and provides fact-based information for better decision making. The three main areas where Exactus Advisors excels, are: Business Improvement & Risk Mitigation; Value Execution and Extraction; and Recovery.

Exactus Advisors’ greatest strength is the experience of the people and the unique way in which they engage their clients to provide sustainable value.

Exactus Advisors follows an entrepreneurial culture and always look for ways to partner with the clients to grow their business and leverage their products with the solutions provided by them.

Core Practices Big consultants are good at making things up and using new and cool buzz words, but Exactus Advisors knows how to help clients most efficiently spend their time and funding.

Being aware of these facts, Exactus Advisors is building different platform industry solutions using the latest technology with SAP’s Cloud Platform, Salesforce, and custom solutions. For Exactus Advisors, delivering is about understanding the client culture, capacity, alignment, practicality and getting results for the near term while balancing the long term.

Artful Communication is the Key The innovative and passionate team of the organization excels at articulating tough messages in a thoughtful and helpful way. The team brings the right amount of finesse and directness, effectively guiding clients through challenges and complexity toward simple, practical solutions.

Currently, the company is developing RPA use-cases and accelerators to deploy a silicon-based workforce versus carbon-based. The team also has an Agent Briefcase for the independent insurance broker market to increase lead generation, in addition to a buying group ERP solution and a simplified margin improvement tool.

The company has its clients from all across the globe.

Omni, USG, Bemis, Bradley, Kofax, Dynatrace, Barracuda, Cummins, Caterpillar, Knauf Insulation NA are companies to name a few.

Reflecting on the Future of the Consulting Business Expressing his views on the future of consulting business, Lebamoff cites, “Carbon-based offshore businesses will be destroyed by robotic process automation. The benefit of the old labor arbitrage concept will be replaced by a silicon-based workforce. The digital workforce is born. The big consulting companies are lagging behind and don’t know what to do with this technology since it will eat away their profit elephant for their offshore workforce business. The old consulting pyramid is dead because experienced resources and true experts are required for the increased complexity businesses and are dealing with from strategy to cyber threat intelligence.”

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10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

BeCloud becloudit.com

James Phipps President

BeCloud LLC is a consulting boutique that provides highly Customized Dedicated Servers, Virtual Private Servers and Technology Solutions for clients.

Beyond the Arc beyondthearc.com

Steven J. Ramirez CEO

Beyond the Arc assists its clients to provide a prodigious customer experience, by caters to the voice of the customer, social media data mining, content marketing, earned media, PR, merger integration, predictive analytics, text mining, smart grid and utility analytics.

Candesic candesic.com

Leonid Shapiro Founder

Candesic is a-leading strategy consultancy constantly serving the health care private operators, investors, and public-sector organizations.

Thomas Lebamoff CEO

Exactus Advisors is a Chicago-based boutique advisory firm specializing in driving operational improvement.

John Wurch CEO

JPW Consulting is a leading Change Management and Training Firm focused on increasing end user adoption of new systems and technologies.

Jonathan Gass CEO & Founder

Nomad Financial is a leading financial services company, serving as a trusted partner and advisor to early and mid-stage companies.

Nucleus yournucleus.ca

Gary Baerg CEO

NCG is a management consultancy specializing in management in general and project management in particular, helping clients make significant and lasting improvements in their business performance through capacity building and competency enhancement.

Simplus simplus.com

Ryan Westwood CEO & Founder

Simplus is a Platinum Salesforce Partner and the industry leader inQuote-to-Cash implementations.

Solidiance solidiance.com

Damien Duhamel CEO

Solidiance is a corporate strategy consulting firm with focus on Asia, “from Dubai to Shanghai”.

The Rothschild Corporation rothschildcorporation.com

Susanne Rothschild CEO

The Rothschild Corporation is a Houston-based company that is focused on improving company and employee performance with leadership, essential skills, professional certification, and computer skills training; and project and change management services.

Exactus Advisors exactusadvisors.com

J P W Consulting jpwconsulting.com

Nomad Financial nomadfinancial.com

‘ 10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

BeCloud LLC: A Global Disruptor in Consultancy Services

D

igital disruption has become inevitable in every industry. Yet the tri-million consulting industry has survived the disruption for an impressively long time. The consultant business is a thriving and rewarding community. There are so many opportunities waiting to flourish and make a difference in the world of consultancy. BeCloud is the organization who contributes to the industry by staying abreast of the latest trends and applying the best of breed solutions.

The Vision behind Initiation With a vision to provide affordable, efficient and scalable IT solutions, BeCloud was incepted in 2011. Based out of Jackson, Mississippi, BeCloud is inspired by a desire to provide great customer service with an extreme value proposition that helps the small and medium size companies to compete in this rapidly changing global economy. To stay ahead in today’s environment, every business needs access to technology that is more agile, creative and immediately impactful while still managing risk. BeCloud LLC was founded with a vision to provide such solutions to the clients.

Wide Range of Solutions and Services BeCloud LLC solves business problems by providing solutions utilizing software such as Odoo ERP, Private

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Clouds based on hardware such as SuperMicro Blade servers, and Public Clouds based on AWS, Microsoft and/or C Spire solutions. This creates a customized solution for clients with Best in Class performance, price and scalability. The company has forged strong partnerships with its vendors by providing solutions to the customers that enhance the overall reputation.

The company offers a wide range of solutions including: Managed Services that support and service customer networks, which includes the complete care products respectively, Manage Windows Updates, Manage Security of Networks and Manage backups; Public Cloud which include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and C Spire Cloud Solutions; Private Cloud including Data Center/Server Room Setup and Management. Other complete care products include Odoo ERP Consulting, Custom Application Development; Security Consulting—Security Audits, and Network Security Solutions; Virtual and Dedicated Servers—Static IP addresses, unmanaged and managed solutions, unlimited bandwidth.

| July 2018 |

technology is cultivated by the innovative culture of BeCloud.

maintenance of solutions so that customers can focus on core business strengths.

Challenges and Changes

Trusted Technology Partner of Future

Technical prowess is not the only attribute that changes the solution provider’s trajectory; the dedication towards customer’s satisfaction, issue resolution and relationship management are also definite requirements. BeCloud had to face some difficulties in its initial years because some employee recruits did not James L. Phipps, Founder and President share this dedication to customer satisfaction. A revised and upgraded recruitment process was implemented to garner Strategies for Staying Unique better results.

While reflecting on the future of Cloud Solutions, Phipps says, “The future for Cloud Providers is bright, because there are many opportunities to provide web, email, server and application hosting for clients. The rapid and continued growth of Internet based technologies continues to cross borders and barriers of doing business World Wide. But, customers need a trusted, informed, and dedicated partner to navigate the many cloud provider solutions. Welcome to BeCloud we are that trusted technology partner!”

BeCloud test the deployed technologies in house before moving to customers which gives them the opportunity to fully understand the full possibilities of the technology. In addition, the team takes the time to engage with the customers to find opportunities to streamline business practices. This includes training, customization and analysis that further enhance value.

Internally, BeCloud promotes continuous education on the various technologies that impact their clients the most. The Company recruits consultants, engineers and technicians that love technology and they are always bringing new products, services and methods to the table for them to consider, test and implement. That excitement and enthusiasm for

| July 2018 |

Impressing the Customers The diligent team of BeCloud loves finding ways to use their technical knowledge for the benefits of customers. The smart application of knowledge to resolve the issues faced by clients and improving workflows while reducing risk work as the value add that will continue to propel BeCloud and its Customers into the stratosphere.

Cloud solutions represents the foundation for future technology, and BeCloud helps their clients navigate the “what, when and how” cloud solutions can be utilized to better predict technology cost and provide scale. BeCloud also help their clients utilize technology in a more efficient manner by removing the daily

Meet the Leading Light of BeCloud With over 20 years of work experience in technology, James L Phipps is the proud President and Owner of BeCloud. He pursued his MS in Information Technology from Capella University. Previously Phipps was in military service, which helped him in polishing his leadership skills and garnered the love of teamwork. He also provides training and mentors young adults in Software Programming and Information Technology which keep his outlook fresh and up-to-date. Leading a world class team of astute professional at BeCloud LLC to provide Information Technology Consulting Services has proved to be the most challenging yet rewarding job for Phipps.

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Quality Vision

Chris Budd Co-founder

Isolocity

Managing Quality in the

Technological Age 18

| July 2018 |

Q

uality is a factor in any business, the importance of a quality management system ranges anywhere from “Essential” in industries like Air Travel, and Automotive to “Important” in businesses such as event planning, and consulting. Some industries are required by the government to meet a certain standard, and some are simply required by the big players in their client base. One thing is consistent in all industries, the long term success of a business is dependent on the adoption of a quality management system in some form. If errors are allowed to be repeated, they will eventually erode a business.

Quality management software is the technological solution for managing quality. It represents the latest generation of quality management systems and poses a significant opportunity to any type of business.

Quality and Resistance to Technology Although the SaaS (Software as a Service) concept has been around for some time now in many industries, it seems to be a slower transition in the quality space.

Many companies established their quality management systems years ago which are based in word, excel, and sometimes even physical paper. Quality systems face a strong resistance to change, the stakeholders remember how hard it was to condition employees to follow new compliance procedures and don’t want to do it all over for the sake of going digital. Sometimes they think switching to a quality management software is costprohibitive, especially in the small to medium business

About The Author

| July 2018 |

space. They settle in knowing their current system is going to get them certified, but this mentality puts these slow-movers at-risk.

The idea that overhauling a quality management system will drain company resources is an archaic one. Yes, the last time the business implemented a quality management system, it was painful. It was done on the backs of Microsoft documents, it depended on certain people to remember all the “if this, then that” triggers. It required the same information to be written out on form after form. That is all very difficult and very bureaucratic, it’s no wonder there is trauma from the memory of that implementation, the neophobia is completely justified.

It’s time to start challenging this fear of change because a divide will form between those that adopt a quality management software and those that don’t. Those that do will see a significant drop in quality management hours and therefore, a drop in overhead. These companies will be able to offer their customers better prices and better quality all at once.

The idea that switching to a quality management software will be painful is a fallacy. When a quality system is already in place, there are very few adaptations required of the employees. They need to login to a new interface, maybe some format changes from the old forms, but otherwise, it’s asking them to do MUCH less.

Chris Budd is the Co-founder of Isolocity, a quality management software designed to drive customized quality management systems for a wide variety of companies.

Isolocity supports the management of formal systems such as ISO 9001 and other standards in the ISO family, HACCP, GMP, FDA, and most custom quality systems.

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Our clients have reported saving as much as 25% of their quality management time, or saving them from making additional hires. Many clients have reported an easy transition, sometimes the switch is flipped in a matter of a day.

Quality Management Software Adapting to Needs At Isolocity, we have adapted our software to meet the needs of a diverse range of clients. Our initial build left us with a software that drove the quality management process automatically for those needing: specification management and inspection, real time SPC, CAPA, document control, internal auditing, inventory management, HR management, equipment management, and/or supply chain management. Among the more exciting technological adaptations are: •

Mobility

Many users of our system are inherently moving while on the job, and use their mobile devices to capture photo documentation, we married these requirements with our functionality.

•

User based permissions

Not all information in a company should necessarily be accessed by all employees, we mirrored this need by allowing our clients to maintain everything within their system and restrict information as needed.

of FDA regulations) require signatures in many processes, we were able to build this right into the software Ÿ

External Delegation & Communication

We reduced our clients’ work efforts by allowing their vendors to participate directly in their system, for instance, many CAPA documents are completed by vendors, we made it so they can do this directly in our clients’ systems.

On The Horizon of Quality Management Software We have our sights set on a few technological trends that we feel will be relevant to quality in the future, here are a few of the more exciting ones: Ÿ IOT and AI

With the advent of smart fridges, smart slow cookers, and even smart garbage cans it’s clear any “thing” can be made smart. As more of a business’ equipment and supplies become smart, the quality management software will be able to capture more information and use less human input. Imagine a smart caliper sending product inspection measurements directly to the system, or a smart machine shutting down automatically when SPC goes out of tolerance. Or a smart spectrometer, a smart hotel cleaning cart, the list goes on. Imagine this layered with AI, predicting problems before they even happen.

At Isolocity, we are mindful that a quality management software should communicate with other business software. We are currently turning our focus to integrating with accounting and retail software but the broader vision is to allow clientmade integrations through services like Zapier or an open sourced API. Of course this is treacherous, how do we manage the quality of the service once we’ve handed it’s development out to the masses? Ÿ Augmented Reality

Imagine you could take a photo of a product prototype and its specifications are automatically uploaded to the quality management software. Imagine if inspection was done entirely by camera and the inspection data was uploaded automatically. Complete a 5S audit at the click of a camera… Technology is not far from this reality.

Join the Technological Journey of Quality Management We live and breath technology because we love the idea of passive production, we want to enable our clients to produce top quality outputs while minimizing the time they have to spend on production. There is so much the quality management software industry has already accomplished to that end, the earlier your company jumps on this wave, the more you will get out of it.

• e-Signatures

When moving to online, how do you maintain the accountability the way a written signature does on paper?

Some standards (for instance Part 11

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Ÿ Open Source API’s and Webhooks

Products like Zapier and IFTTT have made webhooking popular and easy. | July 2018 |

‘ 10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

Beyond the Arc: A Strategic Way to Communicate, Analyze, and Engage

T

hrough its strategic consulting, advanced analytics, and effective communications, Beyond the Arc helps its clients sharpen their focus to make improvements, which matter most to their customers. This allows its clients to differentiate their business and win in competitive markets.

BTA’s strategic guidance and hands-on, tactical execution to help its clients implement better experiences for their customers and end-to-end solutions range; from customer journey mapping, to advanced analysis of customer's data, to revised communications strategies, helps it to collectively improve their experience.

For over 20 years, Beyond the Arc has helped businesses in implementing technology to their competitive and economical advantage. The firm has always leveraged Silicon Valley’s playbook to help its clients innovate and succeed. It has continued to be at the cutting edge of trends like Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning & AI, and Social Media. The company has always leveraged technology to help its clients in achieving success. Beyond the Arc combines big data and analytics with strategic skills to help companies create richer, personalized experiences for their customers BTA’s love of solving difficult problems is always evident from the solutions they provide. The team enjoys working with people in a collaborative way, and wants to help organizations improve their consulting is a natural fit. From its experiences working with banking, utilities, and technology; BTA has become aware of the fact that

22

confidentiality is vital and uses rigorous security policies, procedures, and technologies in all the tasks it carries out.

Beyond the Arc has a very efficient and hardworking team made up of critical and creative thinkers, each with a specific set of skills, capabilities, and experience. The multi-faceted nature of the team of strategists, technicians, and creative professionals with a passion for serving our clients, is what makes BTA a forerunner in its industry.

Leading the Way of Beyond the Arc

Having completed his BA and MBA from the University of California, Berkeley; Steven Ramirez, the CEO of Beyond the Arc is leading the company very efficiently and proficiently. His main focus lies on helping his clients become more customer-centric. Steven is a strategic advisor with over twenty years of experience working with entertainment, technology, fintech, and financial services companies. He has strong strategy development, marketing, PR, and negotiation skills along with significant experience in managing mergers and acquisitions. He leads his team to create data-driven insights, and then build action plans to make it happen. Steven’s latest initiative is leading the company’s Roadmap to AI contribution.

| July 2018 |

improve their overall experience in, content marketing, data science, and media relations.

Steven J. Ramirez, CEO Steven’s expertise focuses on effective customer experience and communication strategies to help companies achieve success through key corporate initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions.

Steven also leads Beyond the Arc’s practice in data science and predictive analytics. He advises clients on how to deploy advanced data and analytics technology to make better decisions.

Under Steven’s leadership, Beyond the Arc was recognized by CIO Review as one of the 100 Most Promising Big Data Solution Providers in 2017.

The Extraordinary Consultancy Solutions that BTA Provides Beyond the Arc is an integrated agency that helps companies with challenges related to digital transformation. There are three themes to its work: Communication, Analyzes, and Engagement. BTA provides hands-on support to its customers, en route to

| July 2018 |

The firm works towards helping its clients to reduce customer attrition and build a loyal cliental.

It lets its clients to become accustomed towards using social media to acquire new customers, to tell their company’s story through local media and community influencers.

Cooperate acquisition and to ensure a successful integration of the same area, are the prime pillars of the BTA forte. BTA provides a unique text mining and data mining approach to its clients to let them obtain voice of the customer insights. Deploying advanced analytics to optimize smart grid and other technology investments of its clients is another key service the firm provides.

BTA also helps its clients promote their story through its media relations, content marketing, social media, and communications for all channels and touch points.

BTA works with clients from various industries, extending its services to the Fortune 50 companies, as well as venture-backed startups. Financial Services, Technology (semiconductor, software, telecom, and internet), Media & Entertainment, Consumer Electronics, and Utilities are some fields the company specializes in.

Although its cliental includes leaders in IoT and AI, Beyond the Arc continues to up its game, incessantly in those areas. To manage data efficiently, the company helps develop design algorithms and machine learning

systems to generate new acumens.

BTA helps its clients to tell their story to the press, business influencers, and social media; to manage the communications part effectively.

Key Features that Sets BTA Apart Beyond the Arc believes that customer experience is the most important aspect of a business, even if the company does not consciously try to shape the way it engages with customers. To create deeper relationships that lead to customer loyalty, and even customer love, BTA has to start with data-driven insights. Communication is the key; businesses should be able to communicate what differentiates their company, and convey what makes them special. Another aspects of a business, is to have the value proposition clear, strategies should be there to reach out and engage customers and other stake holders. As an agency, BTA helps its clients address these key challenges.

BTA’s passion for customer experience is a key factor of that makes its business a success. Combining strategy and hands-on execution, it helps companies build stronger, more profitable customer relationships, and effectively manage risk. The company thinks that data science, social media, and mobile tech are game changers in today's business world, and works towards helping its clients leverage them to improve customer experience and differentiate their brand.

The firm is focused on digital transformation; it appreciates the importance of coalescing analytics, communications, media relations, and technology. These puzzle pieces are almost always part of the solution, when it comes to customer experience challenges.

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M

arketing has been the real essence in the uplifting of any Organization in the long run.

While there are a number of other parameters that foster a business, marketing certifies to be the base of it, upholding the awareness and reach it requires, printing its mark worldwide.

For all firms, whether any poor start-up or an MNC giant, an effective marketing strategy can serve as a pivotal roadmap for the entire business. By developing a coherent and well considered marketing strategy, organizations can promote their business, target the right types of client and allocate their resources correctly, all while safeguarding the reputation of the firm.

Because one parameter of a marketing plan affects all of the others, synchronizing activities is critical to eliminate obstacles and maximize profits. A marketing strategy looks at all the areas of the sales activities and helps each one support the next.

One of the most important aspects of any marketing strategy relates to recognizing growth opportunities. This can be efficiently done by using the SWOT analysis. Once an organization identifies its strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of any marketing scheme, it becomes easier to en-cash those opportunities and reconsider what course or action should be taken to eliminate prevalent threats.

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The underlying focus of the organization’s marketing strategy should be based on the concept of developing and increasing awareness of the company’s brand, and also on developing trust assurance in that brand. A company’s credibility or service is its most important asset. Hence, attempts should be made to enhance and protect it during the course of the marketing process .

Understanding how to create an integrated marketing strategy is the key help to make better individual decisions with respect to specific marketing tactics. In order to achieve this, organizations must implement robust and efficient marketing strategies as quickly as possible. All the key components of a marketing strategy, if catered and applied in the best manner, helps to design and manufacture successful business.

Here are some of the crucial parameters that play a pivotal role in successfully implementing and nourishing effective marketing strategies.

Goals and Objectives As with all the plans, goals and objectives are the origin of any target-oriented organization. Without a proper mix of these objectives according to the prevalent resources, a company proves to be inefficient in the long run. =

It can begin by thinking through goal-specific accomplishments, identifying basic marketing objectives, which may include some of the following aspects: | July 2018 |

= = = =

Increased brand recognition Growth in the market share Market to New Customer Segments Digitization

=

Constructing a big picture view and reviewing the key marketing thrust areas. Others parameters such as spend comparison, consumption of utilization channels, website optimization etc. should be fetched under consideration.

Investment, Budget and Revenue Once the objectives for the business are fully determined, the concept of On-margin investments, Budget and End revenue come into play. However, there is never enough budget to cover all the marketing ‘wish-lists’ adequately.

The process of Investment is iterative and operates continually. It may be a function of: Coming up with budget to shelter all the marketing needs = Identifying the objectives that are more critical and inclined towards the success factor and reallocating budget meet top-priority objectives on a ‘first-serve’ preference. = Searching for innovating ways to stretch the marketing budget. For example, content development, low-cost crowd outsourcing etc.

=

| July 2018 |

As far as revenue is considered, a marketing strategy is used to determine the revenue that the campaign will deliver. All of the parts that go into determining revenue, including the budget allotted to the campaign, product cost, selling price and the life span of the product, should all be considered while developing the marketing strategy. The estimated End-Revenue can be measured against the actual revenue, and that information can be used to create future marketing strategies that are more successful.

Target Audience and Buyer Journey Tracking and analyzing the dynamic and changing needs of the audience under radar is pivotal in effective marketing.

Identifying the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the target audience aids to re localize the radius under consideration. Based on the available data,

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segmentation should be done to provide qualified and needbased resources.

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on statistical market research and the prevalent data about your existing customers. After developing buyer personas, developing the Buyer Journey for each single persona and its interaction with the brand is considered to be the key to implement trust and satisfaction among the target audiences.

Media and Messaging Messaging is a process which signifies the firm’s intentions, and informs the actual purpose of your business to the external world.

Based on a detailed evaluation of how target is reacting with the various components of the brand, establish an apt messaging media, tone, selling propositions and key terms that are likely to resonate the most.

Determining the Channel Mix =

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Analyze and decide where the business would get the most Return on Investment (ROI). This can be done by echoing the channels around three road categories:

Traditional marketing channels (TV, Radio, Newspaper, Direct Mail etc.) = Digital Marketing Channels (Website, Mobile applications, Social platforms, online advertisements etc.) = Content Marketing (Blogs, Newsletters, e-books, Infographics etc.) =

Competition Though the role of competition in devising an optimal marketing strategy is limited, it helps to draw comparisons among identical products and groups, providing scope for ‘brand-improvements’. In order to symbolize a powerful campaign, marketing strategy needs to offer a detailed description of the competition, according to the small business experts at the Center for Business planning.

The objective of the marketing strategy is to provide historical information on how the competition has advertised products in the past, the target market the competition goes after and the product features that the competition offers. Some other factors include competition pricing, the competition’s distribution network and the sales strategies, which are also a part of the comprehensive marketing strategy.

| July 2018 |

‘ 10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

Candesic A Forerunner Unlocking World-class Management Consultation Solutions in Healthcare

O

ver the past decade, there has been an enormous growth in the global consulting market. Although growth rates differ between the more mature markets and emerging economies, the consultancy industry is closely tied to the developments of the global economy.

An independent survey states that the global consulting sector is one of the largest and most mature markets with a total significance of around two-fifty billion USD. In such flourishing economic conditions, small-scale as well as large-scale organizations attain higher revenues and budgets, a setting that helps paving the way for higher spending on consultants.

Consultancies are also becoming more specialists, with the emergence and growth of sector specific consultancies which are ‘preferenced’ by clients over the large, multi-sector, traditional firms. Healthcare is one such specialist sector which is becoming dominated by a new breed of consultants, ones working with the ideology of benefiting patients and improving care quality with consultation solutions rather than just making money.

Candesic, head-quartered in London, is one such trustworthy and leading strategy consultancy which has been serving private operators, investors, and public sector organizations for more than a decade.

Candesic has led the industry with its unrivalled expertise in handling client issues across health and social care, pharmaceuticals, and the medtech sectors. The company

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outshines as a prominent provider of commercial due diligence for private equity transactions. It also provides consultation solutions to different sectors of the industry including FMCG, education, financial services, aerospace, security, defense, IT, software, chemical industry, and telecom. The company’s in-house personnel consist of medical practitioners with extensive business experience.

Thus, the company has paved a creative way towards success where its clients value its advice, analysis, access and deep expertise.

A Trailblazer who Recognized a Need for Special Advice Dr. Leonid Shaprio is the Managing Partner and Founder of Candesic. He is a medical practitioner, entrepreneur, and the driving force behind the company’s expansions and success. With his great business experience, he recognized a need for business consulting in medical companies and founded Candesic in 2002. Under the leadership of Leonid the company primarily focuses on commercial due diligence on healthcare transactions and strategy for corporate and portfolio companies. He consults private equity firms, corporate operators, and government organizations in the areas of healthcare, technology, and communications.

| July 2018 |

delivers insights beyond the horizons.

The company is offering consultation services across a vast breadth of the healthcare sector, working for private as well as public operators. It supports commissioners and providers to withstand the rising demand for high quality social care, both in the community and residential homes.

hard to stay on the top of the current developments occurring in the various industrial sectors. It encourages its personnel to meet their topics of interests and guides them to publish their articles in the industry journals. It also encourages its employees to learn, research or do projects on their topics of interest. As such, the company has consultants who write books, teach at business schools, and do volunteer work in their areas of expertise which drives the company far ahead of the curve.

Team Candesic is consistently working on establishment of the high quality approach to data collection and analysis, Dr. Leonid Shapiro, Managing Partner & Founder coupled with sophisticated forecasts from industry Leonid loved the project-based nature heavyweights, policy makers and of consulting and worked with an stakeholders. Focusing on these novel approach to make the company a data collection techniques it builds consulting leader in the healthcare web-robots to collect industry and space. market information on a gigantic scale and use Big Data to draw unparalleled Value-added Services with a Unique insights. The company specializes in Approach Benefiting Clients strategy embracing benefits of the market trends, maximize their Candesic is a high-class consultancy profitability, and improve the offerings providing commercial due diligence with end-to-end customer satisfaction. advice to the private equity firms, banks, operators, and the National Candesic helps its clients streamline Health Service (NHS). This advice their operations. It also helps them helps the private equity firms and other with decision-making, the services to business organizations to develop, offer in different geographies, monitor, and validate their strategies reorganize management and divisional and make successful investments. It structure, deploy shared services, and helps its clients to buy, sell, and re-invent value-delivery to the refinance businesses across a marketplace. diversified range of sectors. It helps them to withstand the market Distinguishing from its Competitors complexities, technology transformations and expand globally.

The company keeps on majorly The company offers its clients with a investing in knowledge development unique model of consulting which and its management. It always strives

Candesic’s deep knowledge about various sectors successfully outshines competitors. The company uses its associate pool of over 150 practitioners and experts across industries to enhance its core full-time staff paving a creative way towards success.

| July 2018 |

The company’s senior team and consultants have expertise in life sciences and pharmaceutical research at the world leading universities. This provides its clients with a platform that combines high level strategy and deep understanding of the R&D process, thereby distinguishing Candesic from its competitors.

Future Footsteps Candesic is planning to expand its reach by moving to the offices which are larger than its current highgrounds.

Its future executions involve its expansions that will cover majority of the cities in the Europe. It is also planning to deeply explore the adjacent sectors such as education and tech-enabled healthcare.

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THINGS

A

Phone , CAN T Do

n the past few years, almost every manager at every level has discovered some mobile phone application that has proven truly useful to increase productivity.

Perhaps for data gathering, or production status monitoring, or remote communication… there are literally thousands of ways that small devices are changing the ways that we do things… for the better.

And yet…

I

Standard Work Analysis

Have you ever noticed that when you give a child a hammer, suddenly everything needs hammering?

In your own workplace, you have probably (more than once) observed a co-worker trying to use a phone for some purpose that really wasn't a good fit.

A few examples…

A Standard Work Analysis Excel template performs 7 simultaneous types of analyses, to answer common (and important) questions like: “How long will this take?” “How much does this cost?” “How many can we make?” “How many could we make if we did a SMED quick changeover kaizen event with the goal to reduce setup times by a target amount?” “What should be the target for that kaizen event?”

Yamazumi Workload Balancing

Similarly, a phone might be useful for time observation, process observation, muda waste walk observation… but process analysis?

The purpose of gathering all of that observation data is that (at some point) someone needs to Analyze and Improve the process.

A Yamazumi Board is the right tool to rearrange workloads between operators, perhaps for different staffing levels to meet different scenarios of customer demand.

And it is also an excellent tool to visually see and eliminate the 7 deadly types of waste.

Try answering THOSE questions using only your Samsung.

Keyword = “see”. Yamazumi is intended to be a group exercise. What is your team going to do? Gather around an iPhone?

How is your team going to ‘see’ the overall flow of your entire process on a 3-inch screen?

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Value Stream Mapping The primary purpose of a value stream map is to make process flow visible.

The title of the book that introduced value stream mapping is Learning to See. Learning to see process flow. Learning to see process wastes. Learning to see opportunities for how to do things better. There’s that word again: “See”.

| July 2018 |

CXO Standpoint

Dean Ziegler Founder That’s not enough screen space for even the top third of a value stream map, that has all those symbols that show the flow of the information needed to control the flow of ‘the thing being processed’, (which might be a product, or a patient, or a packet of information).

The bottom third has charts and graphs to make some of the most important data more visual (and actionable).

Charts showing total lead time split into segments for value add time vs. wait time.

Showing how costs accumulate through the steps of the process. Showing the cycle times for each step in relation to your target takt time.

And the middle third has rows and rows of data (each row optionally hidden or revealed), to answer mission-critical questions like: “Can capacity meet demand?” “Where is our bottleneck?” “What is our Guaranteed Turnaround Time?” (the longest that it will ever take to delivery any product or service in this family) Mystery Solved Why is Microsoft Excel still so popular?

Those are just a few examples to explain why Excel is still so popular. (Visit the systems2win.com web site for a hundred more.)

Especially when extended with the power of add-ins, Excel does things well that a phone simply isn’t designed to do. | July 2018 |

About the Author

Dean Ziegler is the founder of Systems2win (systems2win.com). They develop and support an Excel add-in with 150+ templates for Continuous Process Improvement, each with training, videos, and systems for popular lean methodologies like process ow optimization, standardized work, visual management, FMEA risk reduction, quality improvement, OEE preventive maintenance, and lean management systems.

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DECIDING

Factors Investing Technologies WHILE

INTO

NEW

R

eaching out to new opportunities and investing in them, is more likely to be considered as an art. With each day passing, advanced technologies are often tightening the hold on business markets. It has sort of become mandatory for the enterprises to adapt with such new advancements in order to attain continuous growing culture.

Implementation of upgraded technologies brings out numerous benefits to an enterprise which mainly are interrelated with revenue-

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generation. As a matter of fact, working along with today’s technology are more beneficial and tranquil as compare to early traditional methodologies.

Where once there was one, or two, fundamental technological change on the horizon, now there are several; making investment more difficult for the enterprises. A commonly used phrase states that winning doesn’t occur on betting what has happened, or what is happening, but on what will

happen. Thus, enterprises go through a series of analysis which helps them to predict future benefits as well as the consequences. The market is filled with various technical solution providers which provide enterprises with various technical implications, if needed. But, it’s more important for an enterprise to choose the technology as per their needs. Mostly enterprises adapt advancements depending on their compatibility ratio with respect to their products and services. But, there are various other parameters which act as a

| July 2018 |

Tech-Byte

deciding element in order to determine the suitable technology for one's growth. Depending on the retrospective persona, such factors allow an enterprise to analysis the realtime structure with available technology to put forth the investment strategies.

Outlook on essential factors before investing Reaching Out To the Successful Early Adapters Idea spread faster than air; but it depends how intensified the idea is.

Every technology must be tested before its implementation, either the company can itself be the first one to acclimatize or it can just wait for else to do so. The decision of being the first adapter brings up maximum amount of

| July 2018 |

risk but, if the company succeeds in achieving their desired goals then, that company is considerably known to be ground floor or bench mark for others.

Apart from being a first one to adapt, a company can take reviews of other entities who had have used or being using the same technology. A little research can dig out all the information requires to determine whether the technology is capable enough to process the work more efficiently.

Undeniably Efficient Under Fewer Resources None can predict the future, but can be prepare for it. While implicating a new technology, an enterprise focuses mainly on the big context rather the little stuffs. Success does happen by creating a larger picture, but it do needs those understated amenities to

drive it further. Whether the new technology is huge or trifling, it should be compatible with existing system as well as should require few resources to match-up the needs. In most of the cases, the adapted technology completes the task by utilizing more resources than it should have. This issue does get resolved after uncertain time; as disruption occurs into that technology leaving enterprises to reimplement the upgraded version, resulting into more loss rather than the estimated profit. In order to overcome such matters, it’s better to study and then choose the technology which satisfy the current situations and cover up the processes under existing means.

Technologies to invest into: There is range of varied technologies available in the market, which is

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single-handedly driving the digital world. Follow up with such technologies to uplift an enterprise to the desired heights.

Blockchains—everything is getting digitalized, and so is money.

Blockchain technology was created to easy up the money transaction process in a more secure way. As per its name, blockchain is chain of an encrypted block-like structure which holds the data of users more precisely. This technology is very much hard to crack through external sources as it entails a series of complex programs for encryption. So implementing such technology in an enterprise transaction process will allow the use of digital currency. One of many, Bitcoin is stated to be the best example of digital currency which uses blockchain technology.

Fog Computing—also known as cloud computing, are been diversified to

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various fields and sectors of the enterprises. Its enormous data computing capacity helps enterprises in saving substantial amount of money which was often spend on big data storages. This open-source operating software provides enterprises with a secure and better way to store company data. This cloud is utilized for commercial as well as personal purposes.

Artificial Intelligence—technology was introduced in late 90’s, due to less knowledge or technological gratification it never did came into lime-light. But, IT intellectuals were sure enough that one day the technology will witness the rise. And now, AI has achieved a place in enterprises as well as in individual's lives. Establishing of a perfect AI system might take some more time, as it includes advance and complex programming structure. This AI with the help of Machine Learning can

autonomously generate solutions to any kind problems which will save a lot of time of an enterprise. In future, there are possibilities of the utilization of fully-operated AI by many enterprises.

These are the focused technologies which are not only helping an individual to visualize the future but also, bringing it into reality. Hopefully, such advance technologies will be seen everywhere soon. Anyhow, like others these advancements may also face technological disruption by upgraded innovations. Hence, it is obligatory for the enterprises to determine suitable technology by considering above factors. These technologies will act as a backbone to enterprises in order to achieve great success.

| July 2018 |

‘ 10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

Nomad Financial: Blooming Disruptor of Financial Services

D

igital age is flourishing at a rapid pace changing the entire landscape of the financial services.

Rise of AI and Machine Learning has greatly disrupted the financial consulting industry. The fact is that in the vast constellation of one-size-fits-all services, no one can deny the need of a consultant.

Nomad Financial is a full-service growth finance strategy and operations firm for early- to mid-stage companies, many of whom are backed by leading Venture Capital and Private Equity funds. The company provides its clients with tailored solutions including interim CFO and advisory, accounting & bookkeeping, and tax & tax advisory services, helping them grow and operate their businesses with best practices giving their size, scale, and ambitions.

The Dynamic Leader Jonathan Gass, Founder & CEO of Nomad Financial, holds a BSBA in Finance, International Business, and Managerial Economics & Strategy from Washington University in Saint Louis. Prior to Nomad, Jonathan worked as an operating partner at Interplay Ventures; at IAC in various strategic, transactional and operational roles; and most recently serving as the head of Finance & Business Development at Vimeo.

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There’s an interesting story behind Jonathan’s becoming an entrepreneur as he mentioned during the interview.

Jonathan started his career as a consultant with Bain & Company. However, very quickly he came to realize that his passion was entrepreneurship and technology versus the large Fortune 100 companies that hired Bain. After helping build Vimeo from a small team and emerging product to a massive Video site as the first Head of Finance & Business Development, Jonathan returned to work with early stage entrepreneurs. Those early projects are what turned a solo practice into Nomad Financial.

Jonathan has always been outshined as a great leader with commendable innovative zeal. While many times financial services can appear and even be treated as a one-size-fits-all solution, since launching Nomad, Jonathan has always been focused on providing unique, tailored solutions to each client. “Building a business is incredibly challenging and we wanted to make it easy for entrepreneurs and executives to have access to best practices that fit their size, scale, and budget”, Jonathan asserts.

| July 2018 |

fintech investors to see what early-stage companies are developing and then shares feedback. Nomad also keeps up to date on the research shared by top firms such as Bain & Company and McKinsey as well as the Harvard Business Review.

When it comes to any new application, the leadership thoroughly discusses with the research team at all levels (especially the frontline employees) and Jonathan Gass, Founder & CEO builds out a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Sometimes a technology is His approach to solving his client’s too early or too specific for use, or specific needs is also reflected in the not enough of an upgrade to offset services Nomad provides. The firm the transition costs. And when they initially provided only advisory don’t expect most to pan out, when services by placing CFOs with they do find one to go forward with, clients. In that role, they struggled to they carefully roll it out to ensure a find their clients adequate accounting successful launch. and tax support that had the technical chops for these complex business models, prioritized clients in this stage of their lifecycle, and met the high level of standards expected by the Nomad team, founders, and investors.

Exclusive Services and Strategies Remaining ahead of the curve on best practices, strategy, new technology and applications requires a commitment to both investment in the research and test for results. The company stays in touch with the

| July 2018 |

Offerings for Clients

Directors, going through audits, domestic and international tax issues, outgrowing their financial software, working capital management, and monitoring their cash burn among a plethora of challenges.

Instead of looking to hire an expensive internal resource that has gone through this process once or even twice, Nomad helps them navigate these challenges leveraging a team that’s gone through it dozens if not hundreds of times. It is one thing to have technical knowledge, but far more impactful when it’s paired with deep experience and knowledge of best practices.

Future Insight “It’s hard to predict where this space will go, but without question new technology such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will dramatically alter how we deliver financial services. Being prepared for those changes will not only be important for Nomad, but will dramatically improve the services our clients receive”, Jonathan offers his future insight.

Launching and growing a company is such an impressive feat, from getting those first sales across the line to raising capital and getting first hires bought into the vision. The company is constantly in awe of its clients, seeing what they’ve built and their drive to achieve their goals.

As they start to raise capital from institutional investors and shift from startup to scaling, they suddenly have to deal with a formal Board of

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Expert’s Column

The ROLE of CONSULTANTS for Every BUSINESS Stage very business owner and executive comes to the realization and fear that they don’t know what they don’t know at some point in the game. To leap beyond this fundamental hurdle, wise leaders lean on experts to help fill in the gap. Experts such as CPAs, attorneys, bankers, mentors, and consultants are routinely sought by successful business owners for guidance, advice, and support that can be promptly made effective. Gaps in business are essentially analyzed to determine the best, quickest, simplest, or most cost-effective solution, which is then developed and finally implemented by consultants in various niches every minute of the day.

E

Mom & Pop Shop

Consulting is a big industry for a reason. Businesses have a high risk of failure. Failure is easy, and failure is hard. With the assistance of a consultant, businesses have a much better chance of survival. Let’s take a look at how consulting can work at every stage of a company.

Small Business

Start-up / Pre-revenue This stage of a business is filled with passion and dreams.

The owner is typically a technician within the industry breaking free from the constraints of their boss or is a dreamer of great things in general. Problems arise when the many components of running a business the right way interfere and bog down this solopreneur. Seemingly simple, but highly important, responsibilities such as accounting, operations, and marketing can quickly overwhelm and lead to failure.

Bringing in a consultant at this stage or prior to start up can save the solopreneur from a tremendous amount of stress.

The consultant can walk the owner through the hurdles of business with ease and experience. Establishing systems, creating procedures, and building plans for sales and marketing will prepare the busy start-up for successful growth through to the small business phase.

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Mom & Pop Shops are what we refer to small businesses with 1-25 employees. This may be a small generational business or a growing start-up that is hiring friends and family to help get the job done. One day, the goals become too large and the owners take on more than they can handle in an effort to grow. What these owners don’t realize is that they need to have defined systems in place, along with communication, leadership, and a growth plan to move beyond Mom & Pop Shop status to Small Business status without suffering collapse.

The small business typically has 1-100 employees which may also include many family and friends. Some systems are in place, yet there lacks organization and communication leading the owner down a path of “too many chiefs” or not enough oversight. At this stage, business owners may discover they have a lot of people doing the same thing, no formal processes and a lot of fires to put out. Stress once again takes hold of the business owner in a way that may make them question closing shop and going back into the workforce.

Consulting at these stages require in-depth analysis of where the company currently exists on the spectrum and identifying gaps in the foundation of the organizational structure. Analysis will require a look at financial performance, operations workflow and processes, systems integration and utilization, human resources suite of knowledge and procedures, centralized standard operating procedures, marketing plans and strategy, and more.

Analyzing each component of the business will bring to light top layer and secondary issues that the consultant will prioritize to match urgency and effective organizational modeling for proper implementation. Business owners should expect this process to take some time, but in the end

| July 2018 |

About the Author April Salsbury, MBA is the owner of Salsbury & Co., a business management consulting firm. After growing an organization from 15 employees to 100 employees and seven locations, including international distribution and working in legislation for industry oversight and accreditation, she believed her experience as a CEO and a “builder” could help small business owners avoid certain hurdles and gain valuable insight.

April Salsbury owner

the business will operate like a well-oiled machine ready for growth.

Mid-size Business & Enterprise The Mid-size Business has successfully identified the needs of a growing business. Most companies of this size (101999 employees) and of the Enterprise size (1,000+ employees) have established policies and procedures, human resources, systems integration with maximized utilization, and have a plan to move forward. These areas will experience ongoing expansion enhancement over time.

Mid-size companies will start to departmentalize and create an executive team for improved oversight and strategy development. Problems Mid-size companies face are keeping everyone working toward the same goal, communication, effective leadership and management development, mergers and acquisitions, continuous improvement of systems and operational workflow and recruiting for longevity all while staying on top of their next strategic move and pacing change. Enterprises continue to refine and silo roles within the company; however they experience many of the same issues a mid-size company does.

niche of service. This is when the: Branding Consultant is brought in to develop a brand or revitalize a brand for a segment of the business; Lean Specialists are brought in to examine one segment of the manufacturing process; System Analyst is brought in to create functional APIs to connect the 25 software programs used by the company to prevent errors and reduce time wasted on duplicating entries; and possibly, Coaches are brought in to develop a mid-level management team.

There is a need and a place for Consultants at every stage of business, even before the first signs of failure. Bringing a Consultant into the company earlier in the process will make the transition to the next big step easier and the longterm outcome of the business much better. Although business owners may have a difficult time justifying the cost of consulting, especially if funds are limited, the desired end result has greater potential to be realized in a shorter timeframe. Companies that have successfully worked with consultants see the value of their work in the overall success of the business and often retain consultants for future projects.

At Mid-size and Enterprise level, Consultants are brought into a company on a project basis and will be focused on a | July 2018 |

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‘ 10 Consultant The

Most

Trusted

Companies 2018

Simplus: Sketching A Brilliant Future in Consultancy with quote-to-cash Services

T

he future of consulting is a more balanced, sustainable business approach coupled with healthier, happier cultures. However, consulting firms need some consulting help themselves when it comes to culture. Simplus is an organization who helps in creating some of the world’s best cultures in the consultant space.

They embody all that with their stewardship, critical thinking, and underdog mentality.

Simplus can be termed as a global leader in quote-to-cash services, including advisory, implementation, and managed services. Simplus supports multiple Salesforce platforms—including Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Billing, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Community Cloud, and Oracle CPQ cloud.

Since its inception in 2014, Simplus has been achieving newer heights of growth and excellence. Thanks to the uncontainable optimism, passion and drive of the CEO of Simplus.

The Leading Light of Simplus Ryan Westwood, the CEO and Founder of Simplus, has above 14 years of experience as an Information Technology Executive. Ryan is also a best-selling Author, Angel Investor, Speaker and National Columnist/Journalist respectively.

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Ryan’s vision allows the company to tackle current market problems in three ways: the abundance of quote-to-cash consultants, its international presence, and the expanding talent in the company.

In personal front, he believes in the motto, “Live Simply, Be Grateful, Give Generously”. He leads a life of excellence with a hayloft of success stories. Apart from being a successful and mostly acclaimed CEO, he earned himself the title of the Best Selling Author with the publication of “The Five Characteristics of a Successful Entrepreneur”.

Opening up a New Era with ‘CPQ’

Being a fairly new technology, CPQ resources are still too limited. Despite this, Simplus has created an environment of top quote-to-cash superstars, including Erich Rusch, one of the first to implement Steelbrick before it was Salesforce CPQ, and Gilles Muys, the only Salesforce CPQ black belt in the world. This foundation of CPQ legends allows the company to mentor and train the next generations of topnotch consultants.

| July 2018 |

buy, hire, and train talent makes this possible”, Ryan states.

Strategy for Success—’sticking to the niche’ Simplus contributes to the consultant business by staying in its own lane.

The company differentiates heavily within its niche and goes deep into it. The more firms can maximize value to the customer by going deep, the better. It’s when consulting firms are willing to take work Ryan Westwood, CEO & Founder they’re not truly experts in that they diminish the Additionally, Simplus was the first amount of value they can drive to the consultancy to expand the QTC customer. It diminishes value for services internationally. The consultant businesses to take on Philippines office opened in the projects that are not in their core summer of 2017 is much more than the competency. So at Simplus, the satellite locations of some other brilliant team found a sub-niche and companies. The Manila office has full they stuck with it. This strategy has decision-making capabilities and local brought industry-high customer management, spreading the benefits of satisfaction results. innovation of quote-to-cash to more of the world. In addition, Simplus has Contributing to ‘Culture’ of remote workers all across North Consulting America sharing the same message.

Finally, Simplus owns the largest Simplus can expand to offer more than group of quote-to-cash experts in the quote-to-cash. Over time, the company world—all under one roof. The team will expand its tech offering into leadfollows a specific strategy to roll up to-cash, and then into ERP systems to and combine the efforts of all of its help a company go from marketing to leaders in order to better handle large finance. projects and do QTC implementations for enterprise.

Consulting firms need some consulting help themselves when it comes to “At Simplus, we are building the culture. At Simplus, you can create largest bench to handle some of the some of the world's best cultures in the most complex enterprise projects for consultant space. the biggest brands. Our commitment to

| July 2018 |

First off, transparency— Simplus believes that transparency is critical, and you have to make sure all departments know all other departments. Then, secondly, they encourage collaboration and they rotate their executives to different offices.

In Simplus, Slack channels are used for sporting teams and sharing day-to-day chatting, personal stories, fun banter.

This helps encourage not only workplace collaboration but also a work-life balance, which is something the old school model does not encourage.

Finally, there’s clarity—the leaders always makes it sure that every employee knows “this is our playbook, this is what we’re about, this is what we're after.” If the employees don't feel as a part of creating something special together, the company surely is missing the things that create a better culture.

Amazing Culture—the Pride of Simplus Simplus is Salesforce’s largest investment in a services company—they’ve done three funding rounds together. Salesforce has rated Simplus highly based on its ability to grow certified individuals, create more experts, and expand the ecosystem instead of taking from it, in addition to the ability to consistently receive high CSAT customers and really differentiate itself.

Simplus has worked really hard to create a vibrant culture despite all the challenges. “We’ve been recognized time and time again for an astounding culture based on rankings and reviews from our own employees,” concludes Ryan in a positive note.

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Insight’s Perspective

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here are many reasons why companies lease consultants to remedy an issue within the corporation. Sometimes it’s because the company desires an independent opinion or it doesn’t have the required assets to deal with the internal difficulties.

Consultants offer a way to solve such hindrances without costing a fortune. They often work with many special agencies attaining experience which can offer a perspective from their previous works.

Additionally, firms sometimes don’t have the necessary manpower that can focus on the problems. Hiring new employees out of the blue doesn’t make sense in such scenarios and consultant fits here perfectly just like a puzzle of a picture.

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