Numerix is a global leader in financial technology solutions that provides risk management and pricing platforms. It has grown from a small startup to a company with over 700 clients in 26 countries. Numerix's flagship product, Numerix Oneview, offers a single front-to-back real-time solution for pricing and risk managing derivatives. The company prides itself on innovation and pushing boundaries to create breakthrough technology. Under the leadership of CEO Steve O'Hanlon, Numerix has focused on developing industry-leading solutions and disrupting competitors. It also works to foster a culture of innovation and excellence through initiatives led by VP of HR Jennifer Bonelli.
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The 10 best workplaces in technology 2018
1. People Analytics: A Magical
Crystal Ball for HR Fraternity
Tech Trend
The Rise of GIG Economy
Editor’s Pick
Pushing Boundaries to Create Breakthrough Technology
December 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
Jennifer Bonelli
Vice President
Numerix
Company of the Month
Harman Sandhu
President
2.
3.
4. onsidering the current corporate world, employees nowadays expect value and appreciation
Cfrom their employer for the services they are rendering to an organization. They need respect
and acknowledgment for their contribution. Innovation and advances in the work culture
have become a significant agenda in every organization. To maintain this virtue in business,
throughout its endeavor, organization needs to ensure and accommodate gratitude and satisfaction
towards employees. It is earnestly stated by an acclaimed author Simon Sinek that, “Happy
employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders- in that order”.
This is just like a usual business relationship, ’Give & Take’; if employees are contented, then it
becomes their sole motto to fulfill and satisfy their customer’s needs.
A person will never dwell in a place where his conscience is impounded, which will lead to
melancholy. Similarly, an employee cannot be cheerful, unless and until the work culture doesn’t
motivate them to devote to their own organization. The atmosphere in the organization needs to be
healthy, enthusiastic and most importantly, ’a relation that communicates both ways’, as employees
share the half of their day with their workplace, which at the end should invite them the next day
enthusiastically with the same zest as the day before. The growing competition in the Industry has led
the organizations to undertake a creative & effective work culture holding the essence to appraise
their employees.
Editor’s Note
Ensuring
Gratication
to Employees
5. To shed light on a strong culture and mutual trust between management and staff, Insights
Success has enlisted “The 10 Best Workplaces in Technology 2018”, which are building an
innovative work culture in technology and facilitating the comfortable and expeditious flow of
people, ideas, and emotions in the workspace.
Our cover story features Numerix, a company recognized across the industry for its many
breakthroughs in quantitative research and being able to price and risk manage any derivative
instrument. Its next generation technology solutions help banks to manage the complexities of
the changing capital markets landscape, effectively manage risk and build a competitive edge.
Further, this edition includes akaCRm, a Salesforce Cloud Alliance Partner, providing
comprehensive services for Salesforce® and Conga®; Banker’s Toolbox, a company that
provides software, professional and consulting services to give financial institutions confidence
in their BSA, Anti-Money Laundering and fraud detection programs; Lunarline, a company that
provides the solutions and staff to secure data with its solutions called ’Solutions Built on
Security’™; Peloton Group, a firm that enables its clients to drive growth and enhance business
performance through digital transformation; Smart Energy Water, the leading global energy
and water cloud platform for customer engagement, workforce engagement, and smart analytics
to the energy and water utility sector.
Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO
standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.
Let’s start reading!
Hitesh Dhamani
6. Pushing Boundaries to Create
Breakthrough Technology
08
18
Maestros Insights
Healthcare Technologies:
Driving Successful Innovation
40
Expert's Outlook
4624
Tech Trend
People Analytics: A Magical
Crystal Ball for HR Fraternity
32
What a tech CEO can teach
your business about digital
The Rise of GIG Economy
Editor’s Pick
Constituents of
a Productive
Empowering Workplaces
7. Peloton Consulting Group
Driving Growth and Enhancing Performance
through Digital Transformation
44
Banker’s Toolbox
A Revolutionary Fraud
Prevention Platform
28
SEW
A Global Smart Energy & Water
Cloud Platforms Provider
Company of the Month
16
akaCRM
Delivering CRM Results,
the Faster, Easier Way
22
Lunarline
Strengthening Cyber-security and
Privacy Capabilities of Businesses
36
11. Pushing Boundaries to Create Breakthrough Technology
Cover Story
As a technology company, we understand
that innovation comes through the efforts
of those driven to excellence and we
attempt to provide an environment that
nurtures and rewards that drive.- Jennifer
12. Back in 1996, Numerix was
founded as a small pricing
analytics shop with a handful
of employees. Since then, the
organization has grown and has
reached new levels of maturity, and
today it is a poster child for derivatives
trading technology solutions.
Now with more than 20 offices, 700
plus clientage and over 90 partners
across more than 26 countries,
Numerix is a global force in the fintech
industry. The organization is
recognized across the industry for its
many breakthroughs in quantitative
reactive, microservices architecture
that supports a stack of interoperable
solutions that provide a holistic, front-
to-risk view of the derivatives
business.
A Groundbreaking Solution
Numerix Oneview offers institutions of
all sizes and complexities a single,
front-to-back real-time solution that
delivers unparalleled efficiency,
flexibility, performance and accuracy.
Thanks to the consistent and powerful
analytic foundation of Numerix, it has
been able to build unique solutions that
research and its dynamic stack of
analytic capabilities, as well as
technology and business services. It is
proud of its reputation for being able to
price and risk manage any derivative
instrument—from vanillas to the most
sophisticated exotic products. Numerix
products and services are utilized in
many forms by both the sell side and
buy side, including banks, broker
dealers, insurance firms, hedge funds,
pension funds and asset managers.
Numerix’s intelligent front-to-risk
conceptualizes the technology vision of
its Oneview platform– a real-time,
Our mission is to upend
existing technologies and
business processes via
leading-edge technology,
to give clients a strategic
advantage in their markets
and enable them to make
profitable shifts in business
strategy.- Steve O'Hanlon
CEO & President
Numerix
13. truly meet business needs and allow
users to choose from a robust selection
of business services applications and
enabling component technologies, or
develop and connect bespoke
capabilities, data sources and libraries.
In addition to this, embracing market
standard domain scripting languages,
such as Python, the organization has
also been able to provide interfaces and
empower end users to interact with the
analytics in very specific, bespoke
ways. This has enabled users to
leverage the defined user experience of
Numerix Oneview alongside their
customized workflow. This has been
central to building out light, flexible
front-end environments, to which
Numerix or the client can rapidly
incorporate new features and address
complex requirements.
Leading the Evolution
There are several examples that
encapsulate the contributions Steve
O’Hanlon, CEO and President, has
made to Numerix over the past several
years, especially during times of
swiftly changing market environments.
As the leader, Steve possesses a strong
sense of confidence, built upon years
of leading, experimenting, taking risks,
and always pushing hard for a
company’s growth—whether it’s
turning around a Numerix that was
deeply struggling in 2003, or being the
first in the industry to introduce new
risk analytic offerings back in 2012 in
response to the global financial crisis,
or executing last year the hugely
strategic acquisition of TFG Financial
Systems, whose unparalleled real-time
technology could leapfrog Numerix
over its competitors.
Another characteristic of Steve is that
he leads change in the organization. It
is his breaking through a fear-of-
change mindset that has enabled
Numerix to absorb and overcome
changing markets, and quickly develop
industry-leading products and services
to meet evolving industry demands.
created an environment where the
generation and implementation of ideas
flourish, where there is the constant
pursuit of greater technology, and
where entrepreneurial thinking is
encouraged.
Numerix believes that a company can
build a spirit of innovation by being
one that delivers superior technological
solutions—better than that of the
competition and that meets client
expectations. Numerix does this well.
The organization also highlights most
fintech firms are innovators, but the
best fintechs are those companies that
build the type of innovative technology
which drives disruption within their
respective industries. These companies
also have a demonstrated ability to
lead, change and solve for industry-
wide challenges. Fortunately, Numerix
holds all of these attributes, and it has
achieved this by maintaining a climate
where idea generation, risk taking, the
ceaseless quest for innovation and even
unconventional thinking become a part
of Numerix’s DNA.
What is also important, and this needs
to be stressed, is that the company
“opens up space” for its employees in
order to give them room to innovate.
Jennifer is a strong believer that
barriers and hierarchies often sap
creativity. Numerix additionally
With traditional revenue streams
becoming more difficult to achieve,
disruption from fintechs has threatened
banks and forced them to question their
very survival. Steve saw this as an
opportunity for Numerix to help banks
strike back against the fintech
insurgency so they can seek to stay
competitive and transform their
technology infrastructures. In other
words, Numerix wants to be a fintech
that disrupts the fintechs.
Under Steve’s leadership, Numerix
made the key decision to re-evaluate its
core analytics solution. Numerix
started the development of one of the
industry’s most comprehensive risk
management and pricing platforms.
The concept of Oneview was built out
of Numerix taking a holistic view of its
pricing and risk product stack and
realizing an opportunity to offer a
unified analytic application platform
that could support needs related to
front office pre-trade analysis as well
as middle office risk.
A Ceaseless Quest for Innovation
The company’s culture has also made a
difference. Jennifer Bonelli, Vice
President of Global Human
Resources, has always emphasized
building a “fintech” culture that
nurtures and pushes innovation and out
of the box thinking. This strategy has
It is our goal to push boundaries to
create breakthrough technology
that digitalizes business processes
and helps clients reimagine
their risk.-Steve
Cover Story
14. maintains its culture of innovation by
hiring those that the organization
believes will align with its values and
who it perceives as being best suited to
Numerix’s environment.
Enriching Strategies and
Experiences
Just like any other organization,
Numerix has gone through many
transformative periods, and 2017/2018
was one such period. The company
made massive progress along a number
of fronts, most notably its acquisition
of TFG Financial Systems, a financial
software and services firm. The
challenge, of course, was to plan for
and ensure the fluid assimilation of the
new personnel. Not only did this mean
integrating them into the Numerix
offices, culture and ways of working,
but also procuring their commitment
and loyalty as quickly as possible.
Jennifer understood that an initial and
important step would be to have senior
Numerix leaders personally meet with
each TFG employee and give them a
sincere welcome to the company,
discuss their new employee package,
the environment they can expect to
work in, and to allay any concerns or
fears they may have had. The
committed leaders of Numerix also
communicated to them about how
important they were and the great
value the technology they produced
brought to the company. In fact, their
technology truly became a huge part of
the organization’s branding and
marketing efforts this year. As a result,
commitment and morale remained
strong.
Writing its Own Rules
From a competitive standpoint,
Numerix has often been a company
that writes its own rules and anticipates
change before anyone else. While
traditional competitors maintain
architectures developed for the historic
legacy operating environment,
Numerix has advanced by adopting
and embracing fintech innovations, IT
modernization and digitalization.
Working towards a microservices-
based architecture, Oneview is based
on an open, flexible environment, data
consistency and open-source
languages.
Moving to an open architecture has
enabled the fast delivery of new
functionality and the ability to offer a
truly scalable risk solution to clients.
This openness has also provided vital
flexibility. Oneview solutions can react
more efficiently and be adapted to meet
changing conditions. This is how
Numerix Oneview is transforming
today’s technology landscape as the
industry’s next generation, intelligent
front-to-risk platform.
Promising Future
In the long run, Numerix sees itself
leading the fintech industry in its space
in the capital markets arena. The
company believes this can’t happen
without a vibrant, dedicated and
productive workforce. It is an
ambitious company that wants high
performers. As a technology firm,
Numerix understands that innovation
comes through the efforts of those
driven to excellence and it attempts to
provide an environment that nurtures
and rewards that drive. Jennifer pushes
an approach towards garnering this
“environment of excellence” that is
based on three pillars:
Ÿ Encourage professional motivation
Numerix believes if employees do not
feel motivated to complete the tasks at
hand, the efficiency in the office may
decrease. This is why the organization
fosters an environment of individual
empowerment and encourages
employees to “own” their future. Every
employee is viewed as critical to the
success of Numerix, regardless of their
role or function, and they are given the
space to help Numerix achieve that
success. This employee-focused
principal has been instrumental in the
rapid growth of the organization.
Ÿ Provide mental breaks and build a
family atmosphere
Sometimes, employees need breaks
from concentrated periods of work as a
way to reenergize. Some of the breaks
Numerix provides include Lunch and
Learns, ping pong tournaments,
birthday celebrations, annual
international food festivals, and happy
hours. The company even offers
Summer Half-Day Fridays, with a
happy hour before they depart. It also
focuses on building employee bonds
through shared experiences, such as
participating in softball and bowling
leagues. Numerix is all about the
extended family as well: for the
children of employees, the company
has Bring your Kids to Work Day,
Breakfast with Santa, and holiday
luncheons. All these activities are
designed to make employees more
productive and more secure in the
value they bring to the company.
Ÿ Reward employees who complete
outstanding work
As a company, Numerix recognizes
employees during its monthly town
halls for their excellence and
encourages innovation through mini
perks such as long weekends for teams
that have completed major projects.
Apart from the standard annual
incentives of promotions, raises and
bonuses, Numerix holds an Awards
Ceremony once a year that culminates
in the recognition of an Employee of
the Year. This prize entails a one week
fully paid vacation anywhere in the
world for the employee and his/her
spouse or significant other.
Numerix also places a great deal of
emphasis on employee satisfaction. Its
employee retention rate is nearly twice
that of similar companies. The average
employment stay for a Numerix
employee is 7.6 years versus the
average retention of 4.6 in the industry
(as provided by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics). The organization has also
exceeded the levels of ethnic and
gender diversity by whole multiples.
15. We have created an
environment where the
generation and
implementation of ideas
flourish, where there is
the constant pursuit of
greater technology, and
where entrepreneurial
thinking is
encouraged.- Jennifer
Cover Story
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CORPORATE OFFICE
17. Management BriefCompany Name
akaCRM
akacrm.com
Brent Mellow
President & CEO
akaCRM is a Salesforce Cloud Alliance Partner, providing
comprehensive services for Salesforce® and Conga®.
Banker’s Toolbox
bankerstoolbox.com
Wayne Roberts
CEO
Banker’s Toolbox provides software, professional and consulting
services to give financial institutions confidence in their BSA,
Anti-Money Laundering and fraud detection programs.
KPMG US
kpmg.com
Afrah Faraj
Marketing &
Communications
Manager
KPMG is a global network of independent member firms
offering audit, tax and advisory services.
Lunarline
lunarline.com
Waylon Krush
CEO
Lunarline provides the solutions and staff to secure data with its
solutions called ‘Solutions Built on Security’™.
Peloton enables its clients to drive growth and enhance business
performance through digital transformation.
PUSH Payments is an instant payments processor specializing in
the immediate transfer of value between a multitude
of accounts types.
The RHB Banking Group provides financial products and
services through its main subsidiaries – RHB Bank Berhad, RHB
Investment Bank Berhad, OSK Investment Bank Berhad etc.
WebResults offers cloud IT services and specializes in
delivering projects tailored to support company’s sales,
marketing, and customer service processes.
Numerix
numerix.com
Jennifer Bonelli
Vice President
Numerix is recognized across the industry for its many
breakthroughs in quantitative research and being able to price
and risk manage any derivative instrument.
Peloton Group
pelotongroup.com
Guy F.Daniello
Founder & CEO
Push Payments
pushpayments.com
Travis Dulaney
CEO & CTO
RHB Bank
rhbgroup.com
Norazzah Sulaiman
Communications
Manager
Smart Energy Water
smartusys.com
Herman Sandhu
President
Webresults
webresults.it
Giuseppe Alfonsi
Product Marketing
Smart Energy water (SEW) is the #1 global energy and water
cloud platform for customer engagement, workforce
engagement, and smart analytics to the energy and water
utility sector.
18. A Global Smart Energy & Water
Cloud Platforms ProviderSEW:
Headquartered in Irvine, California and founded in the
year 2012, Smart Energy Water (SEW) aims to
continuously lead the industry with its innovative
solutions. These solutions are easy to use and integrate
seamlessly with the existing back-end systems. SEWdisplays
its uniqueness in leading the industry with innovative
solutions that are used to increase the operational efficiency
while reducing IT costs by leveraging advanced technologies
such as Cloud, Mobility,Analytics,AI, Machine Learning and
IoT.
At present, SEW is well-known as the #1 global energy and
water cloud platform focusing on providing digital
customer and workforce engagement and smart analytics to
the energy and utility sector. It harnesses the power of
technology to simplify, automate and integrate various
aspects of activities to create a modern workplace that is
productive, secure, creative and responsive. At SEW,
innovation comes from developing a collective sense of
purpose by unleashing the creativity of teams throughout their
organization and empowering them to act on new ideas to
recognizeunconventionalopportunities.
AComprehensiveGrowth Strategy
With an objective to promote and improve employee
effectiveness, SEW works together as a team to plan, monitor
and review an employee’s work objectives and their
contribution to the organization’s vision. Empowered by the
vision of the company, the leadership team connects the need
for innovation to SEW’s strategic goals and corporate values.
Following the lead, the team runs internal campaigns that
have been proven to be incredibly successful in generating
newandmeaningfulideas.
Additionally, being a forward-thinking company, SEW
focuses on creating a better employee environment to
increase the level of innovation in terms of new products and
services and deliver better customer experiences. SEW teams
are empowered to embrace a workplace culture that
necessitate a new approach including the need for greater
agility, innovation and increased collaboration. To align
employee’s day-to-day actions with strategic business
objectives, provide visibility related to performance
expectations, support in future planning and decisions and
skill development and learning choices SEW conducts an
effective performance management process. This enables
team leaders and managers to evaluate and measure
individual performance and optimize productivity thus
augmenting and amplifying the capabilities of the employees
atalargescale.
The evolving workplace strategies opted by SEW enable
employees to stay engaged and walk an extra mile to accept
true ownership of an issue and deliver on their commitments
to both internal and external stakeholders. The organization is
passionate to develop a truly customer centric business by
delivering innovative solutions with best services and support
while addressing the social and industrial challenges. More
importantly, to engage employee’s talent towards a
productive culture of success, it conducts team gathering
sessions like smart hangouts, knowledge and training
sessions, internalcampaignsandfocusonwork collaboration.
APassionateLeader
Harman Sandhu, as the President of the organization, leads
the strategic growth initiatives at Smart Energy Water. He has
extensively advised energy and utility companies on
commodity management, regulation, smart grid, metering,
and information technology projects. Prior to SEW, he
worked with PwC and KPMG for over eleven years where he
led the delivery of business strategy and technology
consulting services to Fortune 1000 companies. He is
passionate about developing technology products and
scalable SaaS business models. Harman holds a BE degree in
ComputerSciencesandMBA.
Software-as-aServicePlatform
SEW has developed a wide range of cutting-edge products to
address the challenges of utilities and customers. The primary
areas include digital customer engagement, mobile
16 December 2018
Company of the Month
19. We focus on delivering technology
that reduces the environmental
impact of the modern lifestyle.
“ “
®
SMW is a single integrated mobile platform designed for the
utility mobile workers and management to increase
efficiency, productivity, compliance and safety by enabling
real-time two-way communication between the field workers
and dispatchers at the back office. With one touch intelligence
and accuracy, it provides end-to-end workforce management,
user-friendly interface and real time updates which allow
mobileworkers tocontinueworkingonwirelesscoverage.
Smart iQ-TheEnergyandWaterAnalyticsPlatform
Smart iQ is an intelligent analytics platform with built-in
customer and operational analytics. The platform provides
real time data analysis on Peak Load Management, Leakage
Analytics, Customer Segmentation, Energy Efficiency, Water
Conservation and Performance Evaluation to improve the
operational and workforce efficiency along with Customer
Service insights. It uses leading mobile & cloud technologies
in most secured environment which provides predictive
analysisinartificialintelligence.
FutureExpansion
SEW is driven by a vision to create value for the citizens to
help utilities and government addressing the global
challenges of sustainability by leveraging technologies to
achieve environmental efforts and contribute to
environmental stewardship. The goal is to sustainably
develop smart communities for citizens who work on smart,
connected and integrated digital network with a common
goal of conservation and efficiency. The goals set by SEW
is within a SMART framework which includes open
communication channels across all teams by expanding
offices globally through increasing employee engagement
and use of new tools and technologies.
workforce, energy efficiency, water conservation and big data
analytics. This suite leverages technologies to facilitate the
modernization and digital transformation utilities. Some of
the mentionable award-winning and innovative industries
provensolutionsare:
®
Smart Customer Mobile (SCM ) – The Digital Customer
EngagementPlatform
®
SCM provides self-service capabilities to utility customers
enabling real-time two-way communication. It is an
integrated comprehensive solution with native mobile app
functionality which is user friendly and delivers meaningful
customer insights by providing in-built configurable
modules. From usage consumption to bill payments, service
requests, outage reporting, online energy/water auditing,
®
home energy/water reports and program enrollment, SCM
provides a 360-degree view of all customer interactions on a
singleintegratedplatform.
®
Through in-built analytics, SCM also provides actionable
insights on consumption patterns that help utilities manage
demands, and educate their customers about controlling their
usage, minimizing consumption, advice on various
conservation and efficiency programs. It helps utilities offer
personalized services, enable effective customer engagement,
and deliver enhanced customer satisfaction. It enables
citizens and communities to contribute sustainability globally
byleadingasustainableliving.
®
Smart Mobile Workforce (SMW ) – The Digital Mobile
WorkforceEngagementPlatform
Harman Sandhu
President
17December 2018
20. Healthcare Technologies
Driving Successful Innovation
Healthcare Technologies
The world is changing rapidly, so is healthcare
technology. In today’s accelerated technological
environment, changes are occurring at a blistering
pace. In the last fifteen years, we have progressed from
phone books, to computers, to handheld devices. Although
not as visible to the naked eye, healthcare has actually
progressed at an even higher velocity than many of the
technologies we are familiar with. Doctors have moved
from loose paper based charting, to structured computer
documentation that allows for standardized reporting and
benchmarking, all the way to system assisted medicine.
This transition from paper to digital has opened the doors
for technological advancement within healthcare at a pace
that has never been seen before.
These advances in healthcare technology are having a
profound effect on the entire healthcare ecosystem. They
are allowing for cross-functional integration and
collaboration amongst disparate healthcare professionals
and systems. Consider this- if you received a prescription
ten years ago, it was likely on a piece of paper. Today, it is
transmitted electronically through a clearinghouse to the
local pharmacy. This simple change alone accounts for an
almost unlimited branching of technological opportunities
such as drug interaction comparison, medication
adherence, utilization tracking and ways to
overcome the opioid crisis. Now, multiply
this times 10,000 and you begin to see the
speed at which healthcare technology is
driving innovation.
Advancements in Healthcare technology
are further accelerated and driven by
companies such as CompuGroup Medical.
CompuGroup Medical is the leading
company solely focused on e-health with more
than one million users worldwide. It is currently in
the final stages of development of the foremost
cutting-edge electronic medical record, practice
management, patient engagement, and
provider/patient toolset platform in the industry
– the MediOne platform. These types of
technological advancements will continue to
facilitate a better exchange of patient data, as
Benedikt Brueckle
Chief Executive Officer
CompuGroup Medical US
18 December 2018
Maestros Insights
21. Benedikt Brueckle is the CEO of CompuGroup Medical US. He is the
top performing management executive in e-Health and digital
healthcare with expertise in building and optimizing organizational
processes, measurement systems, and infrastructure to maximize business
results. He also has expertise in running software operations throughout
Europe, including restructuring, opening new markets, and expanding market
share. Benedikt focuses on developing strategic plans into workable solutions, and
benchmarking performance against key operational targets and goals. In addition,
Benedikt oversees mergers and acquisitions in various countries with due diligence by
negotiating contracts and post-acquisition integrations. His success is proven through
his initiatives that exceed operational performance targets and yield measurable
outcomes. CompuGroup Medical's CEO is a strategic leader, driven to grow and expand
business organically and inorganically, explore new markets, and drive efficiency.
About the Author
well as drive additional utilization
through intuitive adoption amongst
both provider and patient communities.
Innovation such as this will continue to
deliver a surge of better patient
outcomes while improving operational
and financial efficiency within the
healthcare sector. This will, in turn,
allow providers to deliver better care
across the continuum of the
patient/provider universe.
Healthcare technology businesses, just
like any other business, are based upon
need, service, creativity and ultimately
customer satisfaction. Competition is
strong, so what is your company’s
differentiator, what makes you unique?
This is the question you ask yourself as
a company in this competitive
technology market. For businesses, you
need to move with the times and the
technology. The business culture is fast
paced and with a creative edge. When
developing and testing a technological
breakthrough, companies must ask
themselves whether or not they
actually innovate, and whether or not
that innovation is at the expense of the
user experience:
Ÿ Do you just plan to reinvent the
wheel ?
Ÿ What will distinguish you from the
competition ?
Ÿ Will the product need a tutorial and
extensive training ?
Ÿ Is it intuitive enough ?
Ÿ How will the User Experience be ?
However, the most important question
is if the product will actually enable
the customer:
Ÿ Will the customer be able to
achieve their goals of
digitalization ?
Businesses will survive and keep up
with these healthcare advancements in
technology by expanding on the
points below:
Ÿ Envision: Make sure you have a
clear vision of what the supposed
outcome will be. Have a clear
WHY for what you’re doing. Don’t
just do it for the sake of doing it or
“winging it”.
Ÿ Plan: This is your roadmap, your
guide to how the business will
function and what your end goal
will be. Make sure to account for
changes as well, as they will
inevitably happen.
Ÿ Implement: It’s all about how you
implement your plan. This requires
obtaining the proper personnel.
You cannot have a lackluster,
lackadaisical freeloader waiting for
things to drop in his or her lap.
They need the tenacity, the forward
thinking, and the drive. Processes
need to be put in place as
guidelines for your departments to
work collaboratively with an end
goal in mind.
Ÿ Grow: Healthcare technology is a
growing business. Physicians are
eager to increase their efficiency
and lower administrative burdens
to be able to spend more of their
time with the actual patient.
Patients want excellent care, with
the least amount of cost and the
best return. Move with the times-
market trends, competitive
analysis, trade shows, and focus
groups are just some ways your
business can grow. You should be
the sponge of knowledge and you
should have a creative and
aggressive marketing campaign.
Communicate what your business
can do effectively, efficiently and
creatively.
Ÿ Lead and Challenge: Your
business should be at the forefront
of the technologies. You want to be
the leader not the follower. You
want to be able to push the trend
and create the market saturation.
Invent and create. Be the one that
comes up with the idea and
implement. Make sure your
business is unique in what
it is offering.
19December 2018
22.
23.
24. akaCRM:Delivering CRM Results,
the Faster, Easier Way
Revolutionary products from business technology leaders like Salesforce and Conga are transforming how companies
succeed in a complex and highly competitive world. However, the accelerated adoption of digital solutions in a short
timeframe has left many companies floundering for adequate support.
It does not have to be that way.
Since 2009, a Salesforce Cloud Alliance partner has been providing a comprehensive range of services to allow businesses of
all sizes to overcome these challenges.
Their motto is ‘Be easy to do business with’ and the company is akaCRM.
A Wide Footprint
akaCRM is one of the most trusted names in the implementation and integration of Salesforce, Conga, Pardot, and related
platforms. It excels at helping companies leverage the power of business technology to drive customer acquisition and
retention, suppress costs, and boost revenue.
With its steady growth over the past decade, akaCRM now staffs experts in 10 states. The company’s clients are located in 45
states across the country. They come from fields as diverse as business services, education, financial services, gaming &
entertainment, health, law, manufacturing, nonprofits, technology, and transportation.
In recent years, akaCRM has started to devote more resources to delivering add-in applications for its Student Success
Platform and Nonprofit Success Platform. These gateways give higher education and charitable institutions the same
powerful tools to maximize results as large enterprises.
Every client receives the consistently high quality of service and delivery that is always associated with the akaCRM brand.
However, the company also tailors its approach to cater to a wide range of budgets and can be adapted to varying levels of
client collaboration or independence.
Brent Mellow
President and CEO
akaCRM
22 December 2018
25. Customers which want to retain
complete control and oversight can opt
for just training and advisory services.
Those who prefer some collaboration
can choose co-managed
implementations. Other clients prefer
to leave it to the experts and take the
turn-key implementation alternative.
A significant factor that distinguishes
akaCRM from its competitors is that
the company itself uses the vast
majority of products it deploys for
clients. The level of familiarity and
proficiency its experts possess cannot
be replicated by other companies,
which rely primarily on scenario-based
training.
Leading from the Front
Successful companies have one thing
in common – committed leadership. At
akaCRM, that leadership comes from
its President and CEO, Brent
Mellow.
Brent is not just a C-suite executive but
one of the most experienced and
knowledgeable Salesforce experts
anywhere. His association with the
platform began as a customer in 2001
and evolved into a partnership in 2003.
Today, he is a Salesforce Certified
Administrator, Advanced
Administrator, Sales Cloud Consultant,
Platform App Builder, Pardot
Specialist, Pardot Consultant and
Salesforce Accredited Sales
Professional.
Along the way, Brent has owned and
managed three separate Salesforce
consultancies and contributed to
innumerable Salesforce initiatives. His
words have resounded at the platform’s
annual conference, Dreamforce.
Over the past two decades, Brent
Mellow’s incisive analysis, bold
creativity, and irrepressible vigor have
drawn some of the most talented minds
and largest businesses to Salesforce
and to akaCRM.
A Unique Workplace
The work culture at akaCRM is
distinctly different from virtually every
company, and not just in the Salesforce
sphere. Company staff which are
spread from the West Coast to the East
Coast, have the option to work from
home offices or from personal
executive suites.
The versatility and agility of its
distributed workforce are among
akaCRM’s strongest assets. However,
such a revolutionary approach to
staffing does present some unique
obstacles.
“Creating a sense of connectedness
with a remote-based team is always a
challenge,” Brent explains, “To
counter it, we use technology to build
bridges. Chat, video conferencing, and
Chatter groups remind our staff that
they are part of a single, cohesive
team.”
“This is supplemented with a first-
Friday all-team meeting. It keeps
everyone aligned to a common vision
focused on the company’s core values.”
The akaCRM workplace is an
ecosystem in constant, positive flux.
Brent’s management team proactively
implements strategies to improve
employee work-life balance and their
latest initiative is the four-day work
week. It is an option the company
offers to employees during the summer
months.
akaCRM’s commitment to people goes
well beyond simplifying attendance;
the company’s continuing investment
in people is the bedrock of its success.
Brent elaborates on this aspect of his
company.
“One of the reasons clients select us is
because of the talent here. We hire
individuals who demonstrate a passion
for learning and a desire to expand
their skills. The network of support we
offer includes paying for certification
tests and personalized routes of
advancement that cater to every
individual’s strengths and skills.”
By cultivating this culture of mutual
respect, and by nurturing and
rewarding talent, akaCRM continues to
attract some of the most skilled and
innovative professionals in the
industry.
Proven Strategies, Proven Results
Brent has witnessed firsthand the
unprecedented upheaval in the arena of
online engagement since the turn of the
millennium. Instead of slowing, the
pace of change has accelerated in
recent years. The latest seismic shift is
the advent of Cloud technology; its
proliferation continues unabated.
He reveals how akaCRM has handled
these evolutions with remarkable ease.
“Our core values of Trust, Creativity,
Teamwork, and Scalability keep us
focused. Scalability is perhaps the most
crucial of all – it is the basis on which
we develop high-quality processes that
can be duplicated for consistency.”
The success of this systematic
approach gives Brent and his team
confidence that they are on the right
track. With akaCRM’s popularity as a
CRM provider surging, it seems the
company’s clients agree.
We treat your
company like it
was our own -
giving you solid
Salesforce advice
and services
to improve
your results.
“
“
23December 2018
27. s an employee, if you were given a chance to sell your skills on the
Aglobal stage with a greater sense of autonomy, independence, and
flexibility as compare to the traditional 9 to5 job, what would you
prefer? As an employer, if you were given a chance to hire a potential
candidate on-demand at your terms and conditions as compared to a
permanent hire, what would you prefer? This is where Gig economy comes
into picture. The days of ‘life-long’ careers within the same company, long-
term stability of a signed job contract, guaranteed significance of the skills
acquired in the college, and predictable work routines are long gone.
In this fast paced global economic era, there is a growing demand for
independent talent who are autonomous and willing to sell their skillsets on
the global market. There are multiple factors that are giving exponential rise
to Gig economy than even before. Below are some of these factors that are
fuelling the growth of Gig economy, which is considered as the new and
burgeoning trend in the HR space.
Financial Freedom
According to a survey conducted on 6,247 Gig economy workers, 57% said
they chose freelance path to earn more money. On an average, a freelance
worker makes $60,000 a year, according to MBO partners. When a person
works as a freelancer, he is not tied to incremental salary increases, or limited
to how much you can make. Depending upon the industry, sky is the limit.
And this is what fascinates most to the freelancers.
Do what you really passionate about
People work because it gives them the most important resource required to
live i.e. Money. But how many people do the work which they really find
fascinating; that is the million dollar question, and answer might be a fraction
of the total workforce. This is another reason people get attracted towards
freelancing, as it gives them an opportunity to do what they really find
interesting and have a passion about.
Balanced Work Life
Gig workers have full control of their workload, they can pick and choose
how much they can take on and where and when to work at their own
convenience. One LinkedIn survey which was conducted on 10,000 workers
revealed that more than 46% value working in such a fashion because it
allows them to work on flexible timings. According to Forbes, more than
35% like the work life balance that Gig economy provides to its workers.
Full Control over Destiny
In a permanent job, employee works for some specific job role and are bound
to work in the same domain if they want a greater hike or a better position.
Whereas, gig worker have the liberty to change career track whenever they
25December 2018
28. want. If a person wants to make some more money, want to
try something new, or want be their own boss, then being a
gig worker they can achieve these goals and have more
control over what to do next. For a big dreamer who never
gets satisfied with a traditional job, entering flexible
workforce might be a refreshing change of pace.
Not only Employees but Employers also want Flexibility
In most part of the contemporary world, employers also
now gracefully accept the option of contractual manpower
due to variety of advantages that contract worker bring for
an organization.
Skill based Hiring: Many jobs require a specialist only
when there is a dire need of it, not all the 365 days a year.
Then, why to spend extra money on a full time employee, is
the burning question that arises in the mind of recruiters
time to time. This is where gig workers fit
into the picture more conveniently than a
full time employee. When employers
seek a gig worker, they often look for a
specific skillset among candidates.
Since a gig worker is not a full time
employee and hired to complete
specific project, chances of
getting work done more
efficiently, effectively and in
timely manner always remains
high.
Speedy Hiring and Onboarding
Process: Conventional
onboarding process many times
takes weeks or even months.
But individuals in the flexible
workforce are expected to
onboard much more rapidly and
even seamlessly integrate their
work with the team. Since
companies hire gig workers for their
expertise in the subject matter and there
is a no commitment for a full time
employment, workers do get hires from
various platforms in a very speedy manner
with fast onboarding process.
Past and the Future
While alternative work arrangement has been in the fashion
for long but its usage has grown significantly over the past
decade. The fraction of contingent employees in the labor
force increased from 10% to 16% between 2005 and 2015,
with alternative work arrangements accounting for all of the
net growth in employment over the past decade.
The increased applications of disruptive technologies like
Artificial Intelligence, robotics and automation will shape
the future of global workforce and will significantly give
rise to so-called gig economy. According to one survey, an
estimated 7.6 million Americans will be regularly working
as providers in the on-demand economy by 2020, more than
doubling the current total of 3.2 million flexible taskforce.
Gig economy is still at the nascent stage, according to
research firm PwC, gig economy cover mere a 2% of the
total recruitment market. But by 2020, gig economy will
worth $63 billion globally.
26 December 2018
29.
30. At Banker's Toolbox, our
mission statement is displayed
on our wall as a daily reminder
of who we are and what we
believe. We put a lot of pride
into our products, employees
and customers.
‘‘‘‘
A Revolutionary Fraud Prevention Platform
Banker’s Toolbox:
Recognizing and adapting to risk is one of the biggest challenges
financial institutions face and it is a problem that is becoming
more and more complex. Banker’s Toolbox recognizes this
trend and believes in having an enterprise-level view of risk is the only
way to truly understand the threats to an institution. With so few
institutions having the capability, much less the personnel, to address this
type of strategic need, the challenge becomes how do financial
institutions gather data and review it systematically to provide their
executives and board of directors the intelligence needed to make
strategic business decisions based on an institution’s risk. This is the
problem Banker’s Toolbox is trying to help financial institutions solve.
Wayne Roberts
CEO
28 December 2018
31. The Importance of Enterprise Risk
Management:
An ERM solution provides a holistic
view of all the material risk a
financial institution faces and is
integrated with key decision-making
processes across the organization. It
gives executives and the board of
directors an all-encompassing view
of risk areas of the institution in one
centralized location, streamlining a
way to identify, measure, monitor
and control risk. Often, risk
management is siloed into various
systems and executives have to piece
together reports from multiple
systems to attempt to see their entire
risk profile. From a centralized ERM
dashboard model, they can generate
valuable reports so the board, who is
ultimately responsible and liable, can
appropriately understand the risk and
thus govern effectively.
There is a greater focus on
governance at an institution where
the board and senior management
should have a heightened awareness
of the bank’s risk profile and
mitigation efforts – i.e. risk
governance & corporate governance.
Larger institutions, with over $750
billion in assets, are subject to higher
standards in this arena. These
“heightened” standards eventually
make their way to community banks,
especially those with complex risk
profiles, often in a subdued version.
Basic steps, such as developing
reports that compare and aggregate
risk concentrations across business
lines, industries and geographies, can
provide valuable insight into a bank’s
vulnerabilities to economic and
market trends. Having an ERM
solution is an integral part of an
institution’s success.
Mitigating Risk Across the
Organization:
The risk that financial institutions
face encompasses more than
monetary transactions. It covers all
aspects of a financial institution from
credit to lending to strategy and even
an institution’s reputation. Knowing
that, Banker’s Toolbox CEO, Wayne
Roberts, a leader with more than 30
years of experience in the technology
industry, set out to continue to
trailblaze a path in the industry and
cultivate the next generation of
product innovation. Under his
tutelage, Banker’s Toolbox acquired
two industry-leading companies in
the allowance software solutions
sector in 2018, Main Street
Technologies and Sageworks. Main
Street Technologies (MST) is a
pioneer of allowance software
solutions for financial institutions
and supports institutions in their most
critical quarterly calculations with
increasingly comprehensive and
sophisticated automation. Sageworks
is a leading fintech company that
develops innovative solutions to
make financial data easier to
understand through their banking
platform.
At the end of 2018, the three
companies combined to become a
growing leader in the enterprise risk
management field. Under this new,
united umbrella, the organization has
set goals to create and develop
software which brings an institution’s
entire risk portfolio into the same
dashboard. This would allow
everyone from the back office to the
C-Suite to the board of directors the
opportunity to get a holistic
perspective of their risk profile and
make better-informed business
decisions.
Together, Banker’s Toolbox
combines the continued success of
these three companies into one
company, designed to bring a larger
view of risk together onto one
platform. Taking a strategic high-
growth plan, they aim to be the
industry leader in enterprise risk
management software. Not settling
for just AML and allowance
software, the leadership team
continues to look for additional
products to add to their successful
portfolio and continue to lead the
company on a path of stable growth.
Dedicated to Their Customers:
Through all of this progress, one
thing has remained steadfastly
important and will continue to be a
guiding principle at Banker’s
Toolbox: the success of their
customers. The company believes in
offering “Success, not just software”
and it is a motto that continues to
inspire them through their mergers
and acquisitions. The staff is
dedicated to helping their customers
succeed beyond providing the
software to do so. The three
companies combine to bring together
above a 90% customer retention rate,
not only adding to their growth but
confirming their dedication to their
customers.
Combining high customer retention
rates, strong patterns of growth and
proven leaders in the enterprise risk
space positions Banker’s Toolbox on
the precipice of the financial
technology industry.
29December 2018
32.
33.
34. The secret of my success is that we have gone to
exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world”
- Steve Jobs
The said quote itself explains the power of recruiting ‘right’
candidate. A right candidate has the potential to transform an
organization fortune to a new level. A right candidate brings
quality and effectiveness that builds a brand and develops a
unique customer experience, while a ‘wrong’ candidate can lead
to a lot of extra stress and issues that can hinder the
development of a business. But at the core, hiring right talent is
important, and this is where HR personnel struggle the most.
With the advent of an emerging technique known as “People
Analytics”, hiring right candidate will get easy than ever before.
Necessity of People Analytics
Competition for onboarding top talent is getting fierce,
especially in industries, like IT, financial service firms,
healthcare sector, and manufacturing, that are going to witness a
massive transformation. Ever growing numbers of job seekers,
shaken economy and neck-to-neck ruthless competition are
making HR’s job even more challenging to find right talent for
the right job. One technique that is seen as a solution for the said
problem is “People Analytics”. It is an emerging field that is
pulling everyone’s attention due to its potential to assist HR
people in recruiting the right talent.
“
Tech Trend
32 December 2018
35. Understanding People Analytics
People analytics or HR analytics is the application of
statistics, mathematics, and modeling which collects and
process worker-related data to see and predict patterns. This
technique assist organizations to predict whether a
particular person fit for a given job or not. Due to its ability
to boost hiring and retaining the right talent, some people
have gone so far that they have even started calling it as a
“crystal ball for HR”.
How ‘People Analytics’ can help HR fraternity
• Identifying the features or variables in jobs and
employees that matter/counts most
• Matching those important job variables with a pool of
applicants or recruits
• Predicting the likelihood of a worker to stay on the job
for a long time or to “churn”
• And recommending salaries and other compensation to
bolster longevity
Importance of Peoples Analytics
There are lots of important questions that arise into the mind
of management peoples like: How can we find more top
performers? What do our most successful leaders do to
excel at their work, and how can we replicate that across the
organization? Which people are most likely to stay for long?
Which employees are likely to leave? With the right
analytical tool in hand, one can get the right and accurate
answers to these vital questions which plays a pivotal role in
shaping company’s fortune and can assist an organization to
maintain a robust workforce.
Popular HR Analytics Tools
Power BI
Power BI link multiple sources like SQL database with
people’s data, live twitter feed, machine learning API’s and
more. All these different data sources are then combined
with an aggregation process to create one large database.
33December 2018
36. The consolidated data then can be used to create pivot table to let end user get a quick insight in the key areas of the
workforce. And, all these meaningful insights then the end user can see in a user-friendly manner with Power BI’s
dash boarding capacity.
SPSS
Dealing with analytics requires some sort of technical capability to make the most of it. But what if the end user is not
a technical person but still want the same results which can be derived from the above tool. Answer to this said
concern is ‘SPSS’ tool. Without having extensive statistical knowledge, an end user can do an exploratory correlation
analysis or a quick regression analysis. This makes SPSS one of the most commonly used HR analytics tools in social
sciences.
Rstudio
It is a people analytical tool which is best suited to process huge data sets. It provides valuable insights that can help
an organization to maintain robust workforce. It’s potential to let end user visualize and statistically analyze candidate
data with the help of user friendly interface is the prime reason behind its popularity.
Interesting Research Finding
Many recent studies even proved the effectiveness and productivity of People Analytics techniques. Recently,
Deloitte’s Bersin found that organizations that use people analytics techniques at a sophisticated level reported 82
percent higher three-year average profits than corporations without properly-deployed people analytics methods.
Over the world more number of schools, colleges, and universities are opening up than ever before. There is an
increased awareness for education as well. More people want to get access to quality education to raise their living
standards. All these are resulting into increased number of job seekers. With business competition going intense with
each passing year, recruiting right talent has become the need of hour for HR personnel. The potential benefit of
People Analytics will then definitely assist HR fraternity in recruiting and maintaining a robust workforce if applied
meticulously.
34 December 2018
37.
38. oday modern businesses face tough challenges
Twhen it comes to protecting critical or sensitive
information. Hackers constantly try to attack on
vital information or confidential data. There are many risks
which threaten businesses that can distort business
processes. Businesses are prominently threatened from
malware, hackers, viruses and the most invasive cyber-
threats. Malicious cyber attacks are constantly increasing.
Sometimes World Wide Web can be very overwhelming
and dangerous place to be in. During the last five years,
more than 9 billion data records have disappeared or were
stolen. If businesses start to worry about their data security
then it will eventually hamper their productivity and it
won’t allow them to focus on important aspects of
businesses. Therefore it is very essential to have solutions
that can protect confidential information from cyber threats
and attacks.
Best workplaces in technology are equipped with necessary
resources to provide cyber security and privacy to essential
data of customers and businesses. Lunarline is one such
leading cyber security and privacy provider. It protects
businesses from all kind of cyber threats and allows them to
focus on important aspect of businesses. It provides secure
solutions that improve the security posture of the federal
government, Department of Defense, and commercial
companies worldwide. It also empowers its employees to
invest time in solving significant challenges and grow their
Strengthening Cyber-security and Privacy
Capabilities of Businesses
36 December 2018
39. skills and career in providing better
cyber security and privacy to
businesses.
Solutions Built on Security
Lunarline has been a full spectrum
cyber security and privacy company
for over 14 years. Its mission and
vision is “Solutions Built on Security”
and everything it does and invests in is
around enhancing its customers’ ability
to develop resilient people, process,
and technologies.
Comprehensive Cyber Security
Lunarline is a leading cyber security
and privacy provider to the Federal
Government, as well as private
industry. Its unique approach to cyber
security combined with proven
products, specialized services, and
certified training together act as a
complete solution customized for the
success of cyber mission of customers
of businesses. Lunarline monitor,
protect and secure all the important
data of businesses. It prevents data loss
with encrypted storage and virtualized
recovery which eventually allows
businesses to enjoy increased
productivity. It helps businesses stay
up, stay running and stay protected.
Solving Significant Challenges
Lunarline has developed a suite of
force-multiplier security and privacy
tools that help to strengthen and
automate its offerings to its customers.
Because of this it becomes possible for
its employees to spend more time on
solving the much more significant
cyber and privacy challenges its
customers face. The organization has
started to significantly enhance its
cyber and privacy automation
platforms in order to work together and
to strengthen its customers’ current
cyber and privacy infrastructure
investments. It has also updated all of
its over 100 courses at the School of
Cyber Security (SCS) and over 50
Cyber Certified Expert (CCE)
certifications to meet the new and
rigorous requirements around every
specialty and workforce area supported
by the National Initiative for Cyber
Education (NICE). Lunarline provides
sector specific solutions that transform
security programs and reduce cost.
Elite Cyber Security Experts
All of Lunarline’s Management Team
from the CEO to every director in the
company works directly in the cyber
and privacy field and its contributions
span just about every area of cyber and
privacy across customers and sectors.
Lunarline’s elite cyber security experts
transforms security infrastructure of
businesses.
Waylon Krush is Lunarline’s Co-
Founder, President and CEO. He’s
happier out in the field helping
Lunarline clients fight back against an
ever more threatening cyber world.
Some of his notable recent projects
include redesigning a major federal
security operations center to combat
advanced persistent threats (he even
pulled few night shifts), developing
systems for RF/Signal/System
monitoring, and creating cyber
intelligence platforms for various
organizations around the world.
Waylon has more than 20 years of
experience in cyber security, critical
infrastructure protection (CIP), security
operations, information operations
(IO), signals intelligence etc.
Integrating Best Practices
Lunarline fights cyber-crime by using
the feed lessons learned. Best practices
learned back into School of Cyber
Security which helps it to constantly
advance its cyber and privacy missions
for its commercial and Federal
customers.
Workforce Training
Lunarline understands the cyber and
privacy workforce is being spread very
thin – so it continues to invest heavily
into cyber and privacy workforce
training programs and automation tools
that reduce the workloads put on its
teams.
Cost Efficient Cyber Programs
Lunarline has developed close
relationships and solutions for over
500 customers in Federal and
Commercial Sectors over 14 years in
business. It has created some of the
most innovative tools, programs, and
solutions to ensure its customers have
effective and cost efficient cyber
programs – so its employees can
continue to have areas to grow their
skills and careers in cyber and privacy.
Solutions Built on
Security –
everything we
do is to better
the security and
privacy
capabilities of
the customers
we support.
“
“
37December 2018
40.
41.
42. Pam Bateson is an expert coach and
mentor in business, training others to
Masters level qualifications and
supervising coaches. She has worked
within the healthcare, retail, hotels,
construction, media, agencies, education
and public sector. She specialises in
Coaching, Mentoring, Employee
Engagement, Change Management,
Learning and Development and
Organisational Design. She has worked
with all levels in organisations from
graduates to the CEO. She has
designed change programmes that
connect projects, outcomes, training and
coaching. The performance outcomes
have been outstanding. She is CEO
and Co-Founder at Thrive Partners.
About the Author
40 December 2018
Expert's Outlook
43. am Bateson set up Thrive
PPartners, an on-demand
coaching company, three
years ago. In this article, she
shares her point of view on how
important humans are in a more
digital world, what she’s learned
as a tech CEO, and what this
means when you’re looking to
use tech in a way that’s both
disruptive and works for
customers.
41December 2018
44. In October 2015, I gave up a successful
career as a management consultant and
coach to set up Thrive Partners. Lots of
people thought I was crazy. I was
approaching 50, with two children still
at home. But for the decade running up
to that decision, I’d been thinking
about a better way to deliver coaching
– supported by digital, to share more
widely the coaching tools I’d used to
help clients for many years.
This was the business I set out to build
three years ago. Today, we’re working
with 25 clients on five continents –
delivering our own brand of on-
demand coaching, backed with insights
for the whole business. The learning
curve has been steep – particularly for
someone who, by their own
confession, didn’t have a lot of
experience in learning technology. So
here, I wanted to share some of the
things we’ve learned – and what it
might mean for your business.
Dream big
I didn’t really set out to build a
business that would be considered
disruptive, but my background as a
lean engineer and coach did mean that
we ripped up the rulebook when it
came to the coaching industry. We
scrapped the idea that you needed to
meet face to face, and that sessions had
to last an hour, or even two hours. And
we made it a lot easier for people to
access a coach to answer the questions
they had there and then – increasing
access so people could chat to an
expert within an hour.
Working with my co-founder, we then
rebuilt the industry by asking the
biggest questions we could imaging.
What if we could make coaching
available to whole organisations? What
if we could get listening as valued as
speaking? And what if we could help
organisations learn as quickly as
individuals?
I found these questions irresistible: I
wanted to do for coaching what Uber
had done for getting a taxi, Netflix had
done for home entertainment, and
The whole-system insights we
produced has helped to make sales
processes smoother, improved
communications and created more
opportunities for people to learn.
Keep it human
With suicide being the biggest killer of
men under 45, loneliness sweeping
through developed economies in
epidemic proportions and a third of all
young people suffering from anxiety, I
strongly believe that we have a duty to
keep talking to each other as a society.
We believe that keeping the art of
conversation alive in this digital age is
essential; only humans can master
creativity, empathy, humour and
imagination in a way that’s compelling.
Information is everywhere, so we’re
using technology differently – to offer
real human experiences at scale, at any
time of the day, whenever our clients
need a conversation, for everything
you can’t Google.
And what of the future? Curiously,
even the structures of artificial
intelligence and machine learning look
set to mimic human patterns. It’s still
early days, but leaders in this space
talk of ‘deep learning’ with AI – by
layering up different tools that connect
in the same way as our brain’s neural
networks.
And so, the next three years?
My recent experiences have led us to
ask even bigger questions than we did
to begin with – which I suspect will
lead to our next irresistible set of
adventures! What if we could
transform learning management
systems into learning ecosystems?
What if any community of learners
could connect with any community of
teachers? And what if a better
understanding of outcomes from
learning could help both individuals,
organisations and society to thrive?
I for one believe there are exciting
times ahead.
Tinder had done for dating. It’s these
big dreams that have galvanised our
success in the last few years – and
which has set us in the right direction
for the future.
Build for modern users
Despite big dreams, we’ve also made
our fair share of mistakes! A lot of
them mistakes happened when we took
our attention away from our end
customers. It sounds obvious to see it
there on the page. But it can be easy to
lose sight of the customers that matter
most, especially when, as a tech CEO,
sometime we get preoccupied with a
shiny piece of new technology.
So, what to consider first when it
comes to users? The main thing to bear
in mind is that they expect experiences
that are easy and fast to access – a shift
brought about by what we call the
‘Amazon Prime Mindset.’ In this era,
clunky user experiences reduce the
chances of uptake of services. In short,
if your technology can’t match or
exceed the quality of digital experience
people get in their everyday lives, then
you’ll need to go back to the drawing
board.
Create wins for the many
So, if users come first – who else can
we harness the power of technology
for?
Our answer? Everyone else in the
system.
Early on in the development of our
MyThrive platform, we realised that
delivering digitally would enable us to
do more than just scale and facilitate
coaching in global organisations; it
would also mean we could spot trends
and patterns within communities of
users, in organisations or society at
large. Just as carefully listening has a
powerful and transformative role in
one-to-one coaching conversations,
carefully listening to and analysing
anonymised version of the
conversations we host has a powerful
and transformative role within whole
organisations.
42 December 2018
45.
46. he technology sector, one of the
Tfastest-growing segments of
the economy, is also famously
one of the best industries for job
seekers. But there’s more to creating a
great workplace than perks. The best
workplaces not only walk the talk, but
back it up with generous benefits, a
strong culture and mutual trust
between management and employees.
One such best workplace in technology
is Peloton Consulting Group
(“Peloton”). Peloton is a leading
consultancy that helps clients drive
growth and enhance performance
through digital transformation.
Guy F. Daniello is CEO and Founder
of Peloton Consulting Group. He
understands and values the importance
of teamwork and leads the firm with a
passion for customer service,
innovation and quality work. His
leadership is reflected in all aspects of
the firm. He named the company based
on inspiration he derived from cycling.
A peloton is a group of cyclists
working together as an integrated team.
When cyclists ride in a peloton, they
ride with 40% more efficiency
allowing them to go faster. Peloton’s
The company also provides Managed
Services to help clients successfully
support, enhance and ensure their
transformation is successful.
A Culture of Values and Innovation
At the core of Peloton’s culture are its
values of Teamwork, Integrity,
Innovation, Can-do-attitude, Service
and Voice.
Innovation is in all aspects of its
business and it invests in bringing new
insights and technology to its clients.
Peloton uses the latest business process
best practices when it comes to helping
their clients implement the latest cloud
and analytics solutions. Their
Breakaway™ delivery methodology
provides customers with an innovative
approach to project delivery that drives
business adoption.
Internally, Peloton has built its culture
of innovation based on collaboration
and constant learning. The company
holds weekly trainings named
“Vitamin I” sessions (the I stands for
innovation) where employees share
new ideas and strategies for solution
implementations, technical design, and
team of solution and industry experts
come together to help their customers
achieve business goals faster.
Providing Comprehensive Services
Peloton provides a full suite of services
to help companies realize digital
transformation. The company provides
Advisory services to envision,
benchmark, and assess people, process,
and technology to help customers
understand the value of leveraging
modern best practices. These insights
result in a roadmap and
implementation blueprint.
Further, it provides Consulting services
to ensure a successful implementation
that drives change across people,
process and technology leveraging a fit
to modern approach. Peloton uses its
TM
proven Breakaway implementation
methodology to deliver high quality,
innovative projects and ensure
adoption begins at project inception.
The company also leverages Cloud
Solution Accelerators to help
customers reduce manual effort, cost of
ownership and increase accuracy and
efficiency.
Driving Growth and Enhancing Performance
through Digital Transformation
44 December 2018
47. Peloton has the vision and
connected capabilities to help
CFOs, CIOs and business leaders
to envision, implement and
realize the benefits of
digital transformation.
“ “
Guy F. Daniello
CEO & Founder
Peloton Consulting Group
process improvement. Peloton also
facilitates “All Company Dialogues”
which engage the entire organization –
across the U.S. and globally. These
sessions represent an open and honest
discussion with the entire firm where
all employees actively participate and
discuss challenges and opportunities
that drive innovative approaches and
cutting-edge ideas. These ideas are
then reviewed and prioritized to be
embedded in Peloton’s go-forward
business strategy.
Development of Employees
Peloton values its people and works
hard to strengthen its culture and
learning environment. This starts with
attracting and retaining people who
have deep experience and love what
they do.
Peloton invests in its employees by
finding innovative ways to train, cross-
train and work smarter. In the past
year, Peloton modernized its internal
technologies by introducing more
virtual collaboration tools, enhancing
knowledge and capabilities and
partnering with best-of-breed solution
providers.
“I have worked with Peloton since the
inception of the firm and believe they
are one of the most customer-centric
firms that I have worked with. They
have a tremendous corporate culture
that enables them to keep very talented
people to help solve business
challenges and add business value,”
says the Director of Global Business
Intelligence & Reporting at a $5B
Global Management Consulting Firm.
“There’s no other firm like Peloton out
there – bar none. They come to the
table with their sleeves rolled up, ready
to work and not afraid to get dirty.
Their sheer knowledge, expertise and
management made a past
implementation of mine one of the
smoothest I ever experienced. They are
a class act,” adds the Director of
Finance at a $16B Global
Pharmaceuticals Company.
its performance management processes
to celebrate achievements and promote
skill development, and further
developing employees through
technical, business and soft skills
which are imperative to building a
world-class team.
Additionally, in support of its Service
value, its team members demonstrate
their enthusiasm for helping those in
the community by hosting quarterly
community service events. These
events give Peloton’s employees the
opportunity to strengthen team
connections and most importantly help
improve the communities where they
do business.
Benefiting Clients and Customers
Clients approach Peloton looking for a
lasting partnership and value the
relationship they develop with them
because of their commitment to
honesty and innovation. Peloton leads
the charge in helping clients realize the
power of digital transformation by
continuing to invest in building
45December 2018
48. Constituents of a Productive
You cannot mandate productivity; you must provide
tools to let people become their best.” –Steve Jobs
When it comes to work culture, it is a tedious task for
organizations to assume as to what kind of an environment,
will the employees be most productive in. However, there
are traditional methods of setting up the work culture, but
with the consideration of all generations of employees, the
process becomes even more complex. Moreover, there is
always a dilemma of whether the employees create a
productive culture or the culture makes the employees
productive. But what consists of a work culture?
Apparently, it includes everything from an office space with
good lighting to the organizational structure and the way
communication flows.
Ÿ In recent studies it was found that:
Ÿ 58% of employees became managers because they were
good at work and not because they were good at
managing the force.
Ÿ 79% of employees quit their jobs because of lack of
appreciation from the management.
Ÿ 50% of the paid leaves were left unused by the
employees in America, reason being having the fear of
being left behind in the work place,
Ÿ 53% Americans are unhappy at work.
Ÿ 58% employees admitted that they don’t trust their
bosses and would rather trust a stranger than the former.
Evidently, the facts reflect a huge scope of improvement
pertaining to work culture. The initial change towards the
same is associated with the vision of the company. The
employees must be well versed with the notion that drives
the organization and the whole culture must have this
essence imbibed within the vision. The next most vital part
is values. The values that the company believes in must
align with the value of its employees. However these are
the key points which will direct the employees towards
making the environment productive.
Following are the steps that will help the management
create a productive place:
Enabling Self-exploration
Acknowledge individuals and their performances. Make
them understand what they are doing rather than explaining
what is to be done. This will maintain a track on their
performance, growth and scope of improvement allowing
them to understand the difference between their belief and
the organization’s culture. These changes must be in context
of the business needs.
Enhancing Perspectives
Every employee has an outlook on his/her position in the
organization. These outlooks, when combined, create the
work environment. These beliefs may have generated
before the employees were in the organizational ecosystem,
but they do impact the overall approach of employees
towards their work. Every little detail of how the reviews
are given and how the task is operated, conditions the
employees to behave accordingly. Organizations must pick
the flow and reframe the perspective by formulating a
routine that best describes the culture.
Devising Examples
How employees perceive the organization depends on the
knowledge they receive from their leaders. The values
inculcated by the leaders decide how the employees will
Empowering Workplaces
46 December 2018
49. approach towards their roles, which will ultimately design
work culture. There should be a role model to make the
employees grasp the mindset and values of the organization
which promotes a culture that is best for the business.
Embracing Change
Change is inevitable and in order to sustain, organizations
need to change every now and then. However, while some
employees are always ready to come on board, some are
reluctant to change. In which case, the management must
get into the skins of employees by knowing their zones and
pushing them gently towards the change they require,
keeping in mind certain limits.
What is your Story?
Every tribe has a story. These stories are a hardbound copy
of the values, beliefs and culture a tribe believes in.
Similarly, an organization must have a success story which
precisely defines its culture. It will keep the values right in
the minds of people who work there. Moreover, the story
enables a dialogue for the workers to communicate easily,
which leads to productivity.
Making it Employee Driven
One important thing to note is that it’s the employees
that form a company. It is the people of an
organization that decide its fate. So whatever the
strategy is, make sure it is people friendly.
Because in the process of productivity if the
workers are
suffocated by the
restrictions, then they will not be able to perform and there
will be no productivity.
Long story short, the culture that runs through the
organization plays an important role in the productivity of
the same. The organization must make efforts in creating an
environment that promotes efficiency and it must update its
processes consistently in order to sustain growth. These
strategies will work both ways, for the
employer and employees, making everyone
satisfied. But like Steve Jobs
said, “It’s not the company
and the tools that we should
believe, it’s the people who we should
have faith in.”
47December 2018