Business Excelleration Podcast

North American HR Executive Advisory Practice Leader Franco Girimonte and Senior Research Director Anthony DiRomualdo discuss key findings from The Hackett Group's latest Digital World Class HR research.Show Notes: Welcome to The Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where week after week we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. Today's episode is hosted by Franco Girimonte, North American HR Executive Advisory practice leader at The Hackett Group. He is joined by Tony DiRomualdo, senior research director. The discussion today is centered around the 2022 Digital World Class. To begin, Tony defines Digital World Class as Hackett's representation of what they see as the top-performing HR organizations. It is based on a number of different measures, including their performance, enabling capabilities and other various practices driving performance. Not only are they outperforming typical HR organizations, but they are doing so in such a way to utilize digital technologies. Thirdly and especially important in the digital age is the experience of stakeholders dealing with HR organizations. Today, HR and businesses are having to cope with tremendous volatility, stress, and uncertainty across the board. What organizations need to be successful and sustainable in this kind of environment is having a high-performing and motivated workforce.Then, Franco speaks to the key differences in terms of performance between Digital World Class organizations and baseline HR. In the technology area, Digital World Class organizations spend 90% more per employee per peer when it comes to investing in technology. They also show much higher levels of automation. This includes things like self-service, workflow, AI, synchronization and more. Compared to your typical HR, world-class organizations don't give up on technology if it doesn't land at first. In terms of productivity, world-class organizations service 67% more employees. This demonstrates that they have the right individuals working on the right activities to make the operating model and technologies more efficient, resulting in higher productivity. They also have a 34% advantage over peers in terms of operational cost.Direct access is the ability for employees, managers, and even candidates to access data and functionality from HR systems. Digital World Class has moved away from this concept by extending HR responsibilities to the employee and manager. Now, it is more about enhancing the work, productivity, and experience of employees, candidates, and managers. Thus, Digital World Class organizations have an 83% greater deployment of self-service access capabilities. That means more cost-effective access to vital HR services.In today's market of the Great Resignation, retention is a major challenge for many organizations. This is where we see Digital World Class have some very distinct advantages. They do a better job of retaining employees because of their superior organization and use of technology. When it comes to retention, organizations need to be listening to their employees to figure out what's going on and why they are looking for another role. The best way to combat this is having a listening capability. Other areas include the use of exit data, monitoring employee's questions and using analytics to spot trends before they become a major issue. Using technology for recruiting and attracting new employees is also very helpful.A complete list of show notes is available here for download.

The Hackett Group Solution Director Mark Eklund talks with Associate Principal and Consolidation Vertical Lead Brian Willson about the benefits of transitioning from Hyperion Financial Management to Oracle EPM FCC.

The Hackett Group Senior Director, GBS Advisory Penny Weller talks with Principal and Global GBS Advisory Practice Leader Martijn Geerling about the impact of inflation on global business services and shared services operations.

Senior Director Anthony DiRomualdo talks with Associate Principal Arbin Smith, Associate Principal Dorothee El-Khoury about results from our recent research examining best practices around corporate efforts to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

The Hackett Group Senior Director and Global IT Advisory Practice Leader Chris Key talks with Tech Transformation Practice Principal Michael Fuller, Senior Director Jay Ruffin, and Tech Practice Principal Scott Holland about key findings from The Hackett Group's recent Cloud Migration Study, the largest-ever study of its type.

The Hackett Group Managing Director, Advisory, Europe Martijn Geerling talks with Sourcing Transformation Practice Leader, Europe Jill Stabler and GBS Transformation Practice Leader, Europe Hermann Waschefort about factors companies should consider when deciding whether to outsource or internally develop shared services or global business services operations.

Senior Research Director Shawn Fitzgerald talks with Global GBS and Finance Advisory Practice Leader Jim O'Connor and Finance, EPM, and BI Advisory Practice Leader Gilles Bonelli about the many areas where corporate finance leaders can help their companies address inflationary pressures.

The Hackett Group Senior Procurement Advisor Nicolas Walden talked with Associate Principal Jonathan Fehring about the impact of inflation on procurement, and how procurement leaders can address it.Show Notes: Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where – week after week – we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. Today's episode is hosted by Nic Walden, Senior Advisor at the Hackett Group. His guest is Jonathan Fehring, Associate Principal in Hackett's Principal Advisory Practice.Up until last year, inflation was not really a huge topic in procurement. The longevity and false predictions of the experts should be somewhat alarming as we see record inflation in almost every category. The response of the government was a major jumpstart to the inflation we are now seeing. This period is one of significant volatility, uncertainty, high demand, supply constraints, lockdowns and reopening, tight labor markets and more. In the U.S., the government directly financially supported those who were laid off. Whereas in Europe, the government incentivized companies not to lay people off. Many Europeans naturally slip back into their same positions while Americans were forced to reconsider the jobs they undertook moving forward. This is where we see the spiraling increase in wages and products. Inflation is not only impacting goods, but also services, labor, and property values.From a policy perspective, the U.S. stopped accepting Russian oil which has significantly driven up prices. While America is not as dependent on Russian resources as European countries, the impact is still being felt day today including increased food prices. These impacts are more than likely here to stay for the long haul as Russia has refused payments in any currency other than rubles and European storage tanks are basically empty. One of the biggest drivers will have to be reducing demand and consumption of energy. There are too many things converging at this point to think that these sensations are transitory. Companies are raising prices and people are continuing to spend the money and Jonathan predicts these prices could remain until 2024. We are encouraged to look at the numbers and follow the data as it develops. It all starts at supply and demand and imbalances in the markets. Then, Nic shares a data point from Hackett's client polls. In April, the expectation in terms of how high and how long of prices seem to be continuing to shift to the right.Jonathan speaks to how we can manage in this time of inflation. Many clients are becoming less optimistic in their ability to hit price reduction goals. It is essential to make sure that incentive structures are aligned in mitigating inflation. Outside of that, it is a huge focus area and companies should be doing more intentional sourcing whenever possible. One third of companies reported that they are passing on pricing details directly to the consumer. Eventually, pre-existing contracts will have to be re-negotiated. This is where we will begin to see even more companies passing on prices. In seller's markets, strategies and tactics must change as we recognize that prices are going up. As companies are approached by suppliers, they are encouraged to look at the data themselves and understand the structure of costs.As we talk about delivering cost savings, maybe we should change the discussion from just talking about cost and actually thinking about how we change the mix. This includes how we look at requirements, specification and how some companies responded to semiconductors challenges. There may also be an opportunity in how we can better manage demand in certain areas. In closing, Jonathan reiterates that there is not a one single bullet approach to addressing these changes.

The Hackett Group Director Jay Ruffin Senior talks with Oracle Cloud CTO Yonas Yohannes and Oracle Vice President, Cloud Engineering Venu Mantha about how banks are accelerating their movement towards cloud-based digital solutions as a key element of their overall digital transformation efforts. Part 2.Show NotesWelcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by Hackett Group Director Jay Ruffin and features guests Yonas Yohannes, Oracle Cloud CTO, and Venu Mantha, Oracle's Vice President of Cloud Engineering.  The Hackett Group and Oracle have partnered to create a series on emerging needs for the financial services industry, especially focusing on cloud platform and financial services solutions.  Today's episode is the second in the series; following on the last episode, it focuses on how banks are accelerating their movement toward cloud-based digital solutions as a key element of their overall digital transformation efforts.As the conversation gets underway, Jay asks his guests how they expect banks will continue to meet customer expectations in a changing market.  The COVID-19 pandemic caused an acceleration in digital transformation in the banking space, with customers rapidly adopting and expecting technological services.  Traditional banks have been faced with the need to speed up their own shifts to digital platforms and offerings, and have found themselves in competition not only with other banks, but with big tech and financial tech.  They must both adapt to address a changing customer profile and mount a two-pronged attack against the pressures of big tech and fin-tech.  This attack involves forming alliances with fin-tech to together work against big tech.Banks must also attend to matters of threat mitigation and efficiency, and this entails a new mindset.  Part of this overall mindset requires the need to think differently about how to interact with customers.  Customers are the primary asset of a bank, and banks need to be considering the entire life cycle of the customer and adopt a customer-centric model.  The new bank mindset must also be marked by agility, risk management, flexibility, and innovation.  Agile banks are best able to meet evolving demands and are marked by the kind of holistic thinking that is necessary to developing solutions for a changing market and consumer base. Moving forward, Yonas and Venu comment on how cloud providers are adapting alongside banks.  Cloud providers like Oracle are specifically working on fit-for-purpose solutions for banks, following several general steps in doing so.  They are helping banks with the challenging process of first simplifying legacy technology and then migrating aggressively in order to take advantage of the new digital environment.  Oracle is offering what Yonas calls automation plus, and the company has developed a robust two-part strategy of helping banking partners.  The conversation concludes with thoughts on current statistics reflecting the banking space.

 The Hackett Group Director Jay Ruffin Senior talks with Oracle Cloud CTO Yonas Yohannes and Hackett Consultant Matt Williams about how the pandemic has accelerated the movement of banks towards cloud-based digital solutions as a key element of their overall digital transformation efforts. Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted Hackett Group Director Jay Ruffin and features guests Yonas Yohannes, Oracle Cloud CTO, and Matt Williams, a Senior Consultant with the Hackett Group.  The Hackett Group and Oracle have recently partnered to create a series of information on emerging needs for the financial services industry, especially focusing on cloud platform and financial services solutions. Today's episode is the first in a five-part series diving into these topics!  To kick off the conversation, Yonas comments on the current situation of the financial services industry with a particular eye to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic advanced and expanded the digital transformation process already underway, pushing banks and other financial service organizations to adapt faster in order to meet customer expectations.  Banks, in particular, also face challenges pertaining to talent acquisition and understanding the "new customer."  This "new customer" is a large contributor to growing quality of experience, as the evolving customer base is not only demographically different (including millennials) but expects a strong, technologically current experience and a relational rather than transactional approach to client engagement.One way to gauge how well a given subset of the financial services industry is doing in the digital transformation process is to look at its use of the cloud.  A high workload migration level is a positive sign, and a helpful aim for financial services organizations to pursue.  Companies in the industry can leverage technology in the same way financial tech companies do in order to achieve goals, and Yonas explains what this means for banks, in particular.  Banks have to deal with legacy technology and the "friction" it brings and can look to both learn from past merger processes and partner with a fit-for purpose cloud platform (designed for a specific industry).Yonas sees the banking industry slowly progressing in its digital transformation and credits this momentum to such platform partnerships and to banking solutions.  As innovation in financial services continues, organizations will have to be intentional about enhancing cyber security.  Banks with cloud platform partners will find strong cyber security allies in their cloud partners but must remember that customer security is ultimately the bank's responsibility and needs to be incorporated into bank policies and procedures.  As the conversation wraps up, Yonas offers thoughts on what level of integration is necessary to get the full value out of a fit-for-purpose cloud platform and comments on how he thinks a CIO can prepare now for the future.

The Hackett Group Senior Director Philip King talks with Sanjay Patel, SVP and Global Head of Takeda Business Solutions about how Takeda has embarked on a digital transformation program designed to reimagine its global business services function to make it truly cross-functional, improving efficiency and strategic alignment. Takeda was named a finalist in The Hackett Group's 2021 Digital Awards for its CFOinUrPocket AI-driven global finance dashboard.Show Notes:When Sanjay joined Takeda in 2019, he decided to change the name from “Takeda Business Services” to “Takeda Business Solutions.” During the timeframe in which he joined, Takeda was undergoing a reimagination of the future of the company. Sanjay believes that the term services leads to a servitude mindset, while the term solutions suggests active engagement and proactivity. It was more than just a cosmetic change, but rather a fundamental shift in the company's philosophy. Then, Philip asks Sanjay to elaborate on the importance of alignment for Takeda's overall business strategy. More prevalent today than ever, employees of all organizations must have a very strong sense of purpose and belonging. At Takeda, patients remain at the heart of everything the company does. It was crucial in their reimagination to ensure everyone involved in the pipeline was connected to Takeda's vision, values, and purpose. They proactively took steps to prove their commitment to the company's purpose of better help for people in a brighter future for the world. They also recently launched an onboarding initiative called the Patients Connections Program which gives employees the opportunity to connect with patients directly and better understand their medical and life experiences. Through the emphasis placed on patient experience, relationships became critical in everything the company does. As we are seeing more and more within the industry, organizations are beginning to see the inherent value of shared GBS. Functions within the business now look towards GBS for guidance exploring innovation, automation, cost pressures and other new ways of working. The pandemic has further demonstrated the resilience of this operating model. One large benefit of GBS is the opportunity it allows to put digitization at the forefront of operations. The focus of Takeda's enterprise includes digitization, automation, analytics, and solutions. Takeda made a commitment as an organization to unleash the power of data and digital to transform itself into a more trustworthy data driven, outcomes-based global biopharmaceutical company. Further, they believe that their people, not technology alone, will make all the difference in their data and digital journey. They empowered the organization through a program called Digital Ninja Program, which is all about building capabilities and skills within everyday actions. Colleagues underwent a 5-week immersive program where they learned to identify opportunities for automation and were equipped with the skillset to build their own digital assistance. TBS has built a digital culture in which they enable employees to develop next generation capabilities while creating an agile talent pool. Takeda has identified four key variables of their corporate philosophy: patients, people, data, and planet. As part of the people element, TBS moved from an organization delivering simple solutions to one in favor of an exceptional people experience. When surveying for improvements, a common theme was the desire for proactive and confident support for clients. Finally, Sanjay reveals how the business was able to stay afloat amidst the number of changes and acquisitions they were undergoing. He then reveals two examples of his pride in Takeda and the team's achievements. As the episode wraps up, Sanjay shares his expectations and aspirations for the future of Takeda Business Solutions. 

The Hackett Group Principal David Ketchin talks with Principal Paul Morrison and Senior Director Hermann Waschefort about critical success factors for how companies can drive real benefits and improved performance through their digital transformation efforts.Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where – week after week – we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by The Hackett Group's Managing Director of Europe David Ketchin. His guests today are Paul Morrison, Principal and Lead for Hackett's Digital Enablement Practice in Europe and Hermann Waschefort, Hackett's U.K. Lead for Business Transformation team and Global Business Services.Between the two of them, Paul and Hermann spend their time implementing end to end transformation programs with Hackett's clients. Today they'll discuss digital transformation and give tales from the front lines. To begin, Hermann defines digital transformation as the process of change in which new technology is combined with people and processes to create value. Its key components are change, combination and value.Then, Paul elaborates on the broader themes to be addressed in tackling digital transformation. One overarching theme is what organizations can do to achieve maximum digital impact. He shares a few examples of clients Hackett advised on this front, including one targeting democratization of technology.  As a related trend about maximizing impact, we're seeing growth of product-centric development and the use of a limited number of platforms. A final challenge is clarifying how IT and other functions are working together amidst tension.It is clear that technology is not the only driver of digital transformation, but it is a key driver. Hermann touches on the two key components of a successful strategy. It begins with being very clear on your business objectives and what you're trying to achieve. You must remain agile and evolve as priorities evolve. Then, have an understanding of the broader capabilities which can move you forward.Each year, Hackett runs their Digital Awards every year, which gives them a fantastic insight into what organizations are achieving. Listen as Paul highlights two companies who are really succeeding in this field. First, ​​Mondelēz, winner of the Order-to-Cash category, has been on a multi-year journey towards world class performance in receivables. They raised the bar further this year by using machine learning to predict customer payments. Reckitt was the winner of the IT Opportunity-To-Deployment with their next gen living labs program. Their goal was to drive automation at scale through IT operations and bring to life user experience. Employees have improved their satisfaction by over 20%.As the episode draws to a close, Paul and Hermann each share absolute critical success factors for organizations, namely those hoping to secure rapid benefits. First, Hermann stresses the importance of determining whether an organization is clear on the value of what they're trying to unlock. A second question is what they hope to do with customer experience, which is key in unlocking growth. Lastly, what can they do to really leapfrog the competition? From Paul's perspective, it's key that digital should not seem that it is done to you by IT. Rather, digital change is something in which you are an active participant and decision maker. You must be able to ask yourself whether your function is set up for success in ongoing digital change.

The Hackett Group Senior Research Director Rick Pastore talks with American Kidney Fund CIO Gregory Smith about his new book “The New Normal in IT: How the Global Pandemic Changed IT Forever”.Show Notes: To begin, Rick asks Gregory to share his motivation behind writing his most recent book. Initially, he had written about the topic of the pandemic's impact on companies. His wife recommended he expand on the idea of the article and write a book. As an academic and intellectual, Gregory believes in continual learning and chafing knowledge. He feels it is his obligation to help educate the next generation of IT and business leaders, which is a key reason as to why he wrote the book. In the times of government shutdowns, technology organizations were the real lifeline keeping companies running smoothly. The well-deserved recognition of IT, Gregory explains, had two key long lasting effects. First, is working through the positives and negatives of a corporate remote work environment. Second is the focus on the significantly hostile cyber security environment. Cybersecurity tax has gone significantly up on various industries, combined with the challenge of revenue reductions, remote work environments and company culture changes. In terms of the future of the workforce, Gregory has observed diverging strategies and opinions taking place. While the old guard CEOs want to go back to normal, the employees want to stay remote. It can be summed into a labor vs. non labor battle and the employees will likely win. The term “work from anywhere”, however, really doesn't apply when it comes to security.  Technology CIOs as a whole are comfortable with where they are and where they're going. Gregory predicts KPIs will change to determine if companies are as effective as they can be when working in this new hybrid work environment. Many companies are recognizing the benefits of decreased operational costs as a benefit of the work from home model. Thanks to the pandemic, the pressure for digital acceleration to drive innovation is now even higher. To sum it up in one single phrase, Gregory states that software rules the world. Now that companies are employing remote workers from all over the world, they will have to adapt to different tools and skill sets to facilitate collaboration. Collaboration software has grown at an exponential rate. Gregory believes that when we are challenged as a society is when we do our best. The pandemic has forced society, corporations, and professionals to ask the harder questions and work together to resolve them. In the future, collaboration suites will be even more effective. Based on Hackett's recent survey of 1,000 companies worldwide, the average percentage of technology infrastructure in the cloud is 40%. Prior to the pandemic, there was a good security model in place for the 3 main cloud models: infrastructure, software, and platform. The pandemic revealed an evolution of the digital cloud path starting to take off. The gradual shift for companies moving to the cloud is likely due to the infancy of these cloud models. Next, Gregory reveals the findings which came as a surprise during his research, including the diverging strategies between senior corporate executives and staff. He also speaks to the backfire of vaccine mandates on supply and demand resources trying to fight the pandemic in the first place. He advises CIOs on how they can lead in today's ever shifting environment. Most importantly they should remain honest with themselves, their CIOs and employees about the future and plan for disruptions on a variable basis. As the episode ends, he offers advice for new CIOs. 

The Hackett Group Principal Robert Derocher talks with Associate Principal Joshua Nelson and Associate Principal Erin Blair discussed key findings from The Hackett Group's 2022 Supply Chain Key Issues research, which details the priorities and challenges for supply chain organizations.Show Notes:To begin, Erin identifies the biggest issues we saw in 2022. Given the supply chain disruption because of the pandemic, she finds it unsurprising that the top three issues related to managing these disruptions. The number one key issue was reducing supply risk, the second was enhancing product availability and finally improving supply chain agility and resilience. Fourth, Josh shares, was sound the area of digital transformation, in which companies hope to achieve better visibility across the supply chain. Fifth is around cost efficiency and companies are keeping their eyes on the bottom line. Improving sales and operations planning and integrated business planning was actually number one on the survey last year. It dropped down a bit on the list, likely because many companies have acted on this goal. The talent gap was also evident this year, across all functional areas. As Hackett consistently conducts this survey every year, there is an interesting dynamic in observing what happens year to year. They saw the pandemic start to transform the priorities of executives. Companies are needing to mitigate risk and become more agile, all while keeping their eyes on the bottom line. They are no longer pursuing cost efficiency, though Josh predicts it may be an issue in the future. There are many different strategies companies are using to identify, mitigate and solve supply chain risk. First are supplier related strategies, including expanding supply base, multisourcing, leveling different geographies and having a backup plan in place. They are also doing regular evaluation of supplier risk. The third is around structural and operational changes, as companies look towards their entire network itself. Josh then elaborates on the digital transformation goals represented in the study. There are a whole lot of small-scale deployments occurring as companies roll out new technologies on a small scale or pilot phase. The top three focus are data visualization, supply chain analytics and robotic process automation. People are using other technologies within the supply chain, such as AI and blockchain, but Hackett is focused on small scale deployments at this time. The study also considers the types of apps companies are investing in, in which sales and operation planning really rises to the top. We are moving away from the spreadsheet mentality and embracing more structure and automation. In terms of what executives need to be planning for next, the survey shows that companies are expecting business activity to grow. One challenge is how to get employees enabled with technology and innovation to drive efficiency across the enterprise. Another developing area in 2022 is the outcome of inflationary economics. As wages and costs go up, companies will look to grow costs and be most efficient.    Moving into another year of supply chain disruptions, it is important the leaders first keep their focus on the customer and demand. Collaborating and communicating what is possible and what is not is key. They should also invest in business transformation widely and efficiently. Ensure you have the right people and skills to make use of these technologies. With digital technologies comes the need to upgrade skills within your organization. Finally, Josh urges companies to make efforts to return back to a sense of normalcy in their operating model by stabilizing cost and headcount.  

The Hackett Group European Practice Leader David Ketchin talks with Global Advisory Practice Leader Tom Willman about key findings from our 2022 Finance Key Issues Research, which outlines changing trends, priorities, and challenges facing the finance function.Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. Today's episode is hosted by David Ketchin, who leads the Hackett Group in Europe, and his guest for the discussion is the Hackett Group's Global Practice Leader for Finance Advisory, Tom Willman.  David and Tom's conversation focuses on the key issues from the Hackett Group's latest research conducted at the end of 2021, and it identifies why these issues are the top priorities for finance functions in 2022.While the Hackett Group's Key Issues Study identifies the top ten priorities for the finance function, David and Tom narrow their discussion to the first half of these priorities.  But first, David first offers business context concerning current realities of high inflation, labor shortages, labor rate and freight price increases, and COVID-19 recovery.  This context provides the backdrop for considering the priorities highlighted by the study, most specifically those of returning to growth and fostering agility.  Tom explains how he has seen the business context of the day impact finance, detailing how finance is being asked to do more with less staff and money, and so needs greater productivity and to lean into tech-enabled improvements.The acceleration of digital transformation has actually jumped to be finance's top priority for the year ahead.  This priority is followed by the goals to enhance finance's role as a strategic advisor to the business, upskill and retain talent, and foster agility.  Digital Transformation, Tom says, is the process of driving change in which we will leverage new technologies combined with people and processes to create value.  He unpacks what this involves for finance before expanding on the priority of advising the business; this priority, at heart, looks like giving business leaders new insight, saying things they don't already know.  In terms of talent, finance needs to take stock of and improve its value function, and make changes within workforce and management strategy.  As the episode ends, Tom offers four absolute "get rights" for finance.  

The Hackett Group Senior Manager Vicky Kavan talks with Principal Chris Sawchuk and Principal Timothy Yoo about key findings from our 2022 Procurement Key Issues Research, which outlines changing trends, priorities, and challenges facing the procurement function.

Senior Director Chris Key talks with Principal Michael Spires about key findings from The Hackett Group's 2022 Technology Key Issues research, which identifies priorities and potential challenges for technology organizations.Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by The Hackett Group's Senior Director Chris Key. His guest today is Mike Spires, Principal at the Hackett Group. The subject for today's discussion is Hackett's 2022 IT key issues study results. Every fall, The Hackett Group reaches out to their constituents to get an idea of their goals and areas for improvement in the upcoming year. Over 300 companies were polled for the results of this study focusing on the technology aspects. The first objective this year is securing data and systems. This is an issue at the top of every technology executive's list. Mike explains that a core feature of being a good steward of your resources is making sure your data is secure. Number two is effective strategic partnering. This process means optimizing the processes and skills to enable effective stakeholder partnering, necessary to succeed in our transformations. This is no longer a tactical role, Mike says, but is now a collaborative and strategic effort. A partnership mentality drives achievement all down the pipeline. The third objective is maximizing the value of data. It is incumbent on our technology function to manage data for maximum utility. This isn't just a one-time action, but rather an ongoing capability. Mike sees many organizations treat data as an enterprise asset part of an organizational construct. He stresses that how you schedule and treat staff, for instance, actually plays into operational efficiency. There are many dependencies built within this observation. Having the skills, business understanding of data and organizing talent all go hand in hand with getting value in your data. Fourth is aligning technology, skills, and talent to the needs of the business. The ability to attract and maintain talent is more of a challenge than ever. To address this, Mike explains that Hackett is trying to instill an overall resourcing strategy which determines key skill gaps and how to build an ecosystem of internal hiring, external third party and independent contracting networks to best fill these gaps. The fifth objective is enterprising transformation to a more digital operating model. The reality is that most organizations need to accelerate their interfaces. Creating alignment within your own model and product teams who are truly embedded is an effective digital partnership going towards market. And, Mike adds, the better you are at doing this, the easier it is to retain the talent you already have. Sixth is regarding the matured and industrialized analytics capability, which really unlocks insights and improves the speed and accuracy of decision making. The insight cycle begins with what we need to be doing as technologists and leads into the sources of data, how we're doing analytics and who is the consumer. It is a continuous journey. Having the partnership, technology and functional teams aligned creates a sense of ownership on both sides. You can create models which adjust and adapt very quickly based on strength and both structured and unstructured guidance. Analytics gives the ability to drive better outcomes and business functions. Seventh is enterprise cost efficiency improvement. For the first time, we're hearing that FTEs and operating budgets will keep pace with the expected demand and workload volume. Customer and workforce models are being driven by technology, and many organizations are recognizing the need to invest in better techn

The Hackett Group Senior Research Director Anthony DiRomualdo talked with European HR Practice Leader Dorothee El-Khoury about key findings from The Hackett Group's 2022 Human Resources Key Issues Research. The research covers top priorities and challenge areas for HR in 2022, including the ongoing pandemic, the great resignation, the challenge of retaining and attracting workers, the shift to remote/hybrid work, creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce, and more.Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by The Hackett Group's Senior Research Director Tony DiRomualdo. His guest today is Dorothee El-Khoury, Head of France & HR Practice for the EMEA region at Hackett. The Hackett group polls several 100 executives every year in the October timeframe to gauge what is top of mind for them for the upcoming year. Today, they will discuss some of the key highlights from the research on the HR agenda in 2022, namely the top 10 issues.  To begin, Tony elaborates on the number one issue overall: to act as a strategic advisor to the business. After being on the backburner for many years, this issue finally made it into the top 10 list in 2020. That is significant because Covid changed many things in the world and in business. For HR, it was a breakthrough moment, because they were being relied on to help business leaders deal with a flood of operational challenges. For the first time, HR at large was really appreciated for how they can help the business succeed. This being at the top of the list speaks to the fact that these issues remain top of mind as we move farther from the initial pandemic panic. These obstacles include the great resignation, the pressures around creating a diverse and inclusive workforce and the shift to remote and hybrid working models. Combined, all of these are reinforcing HR's role as strategic advisor.   Then, Dorothee shares what she found most interesting on this list. In line with #1, she notes that numbers 2 and 3 really relate to how HR can support delivery of company strategy. The second is about being able to require critical skills and retain critical profiles. From the same studies, companies find that not having the right talent is a major risk to the company and can weaken their strategic position. Number 3 is about creating and maintaining a high-performance culture in the organization. This is linked with the new flexible and remote ways of working. The culture replaces what used to be a direct management oversight over employees as they work. These are much more linked to business objectives than they would be in the past. Next, Dorothee identifies that what really surprised her about the list was in fact what isn't mentioned on the list. The change in HR operating models is absolutely necessary for HR functions to continue driving in 2022. There is a productivity and efficiency gap due to business growth, but the HR teams and budgets remain stable. This gap must be bridged by branching away from the old ways of working. Tony's biggest surprise was #8 on the list: maintain employee resilience and wellbeing. Tony's surprise dates back to April 2020, when he wrote a blog post concerning employee wellbeing and ability to be productive under stressful conditions. Seeing this on this year's list was a reassurance that it's on the minds of leadership. Finally, they discuss the things on the list giving them pause for concern. For Dorothee, the last item on the list, aligning HR skills and talent management, is slightly worrying that it isn't a higher priority at this time. HR commonly underestimated how much they need to do in terms of bringing in fresh skills and persp

The Hackett Group Vice President of Research Erik Dorr talks with Global GBS Practice Leader Martijn Geerling and Senior Director Hermann Waschefort about key findings from The Hackett Group's 2022 Global Business Services Key Issues Research. The research tracks GBS goals, critical development areas, and digital transformation priorities, and offers GBS executives guidance on where to focus their efforts.Show Notes: Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where – week after week – we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by the Vice President of Research at Hackett, Erik Dorr. He is joined by the Global GBS Practice Leader, Martijn Geerling and Senior Director of Europe GBS Practice, Hermann Waschefort. Listen as they talk about the insights they have on the Hackett Group's key issues and improvements for 2022. The episode begins with Martijn sharing about his observations on some different issues in the GBS business environment along with how they have adapted and responded to them. One of the major ones he addresses is how the pandemic has changed the norm and influenced the business community and environment, specifically with the transition to a virtual culture. Additionally, Hermann adds to this by bringing up the great resignation and how it has affected the market. Digital transformation is another area of change 2022 has brought and both men share about how this has impacted the business' investment in new skill sets. Next, they turn their attention specifically to how GBS is responding to these challenges they have been faced with. First, they speak on the goal of returning to a new normal and focusing on growth and productivity within the business. This includes improving customer experience and making it more personal and user friendly. They also point out how GBS is using new technologies and tools to increase digital transformation and reach a higher level of excellence and business value. Going along with this, they point out the importance of planning and managing digital adoptions to assess all the aspects of change it will bring to the company. Lastly, they discuss the plans for increasing value delivery for the enterprise of the GBS organization. This includes continuing to establish stronger enterprise capabilities, focusing on delivering faster, and joining forces with IT. Another important aspect is using data as an insight into improvement through data management and collaboration. There are several big areas of opportunity to move into, specifically in the supply chain, sales, and marketing, and they discuss how to represent and develop more of these aspects. They conclude with some closing thoughts on 2022 GBS transformation and goals they are excited about for the future.                                    

The Hackett Group European Procurement Advisory Practice Leader Mélani Flores talks with Vodafone Global Head of SCM Development, Operations & Digital Reinhard Plaza-Bartsch about their Vodafone Blockchain Price Manager, which was the winner in the Source-to-Purchase category in The Hackett Group's 2021 Digital Awards.Show Notes: Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by the Hackett Group European Procurement Advisory Practice Leader Mélani Flores.  She speaks with Reinhard Plaza-Bartsch, Vodafone Global Head of SCM Development, Operations & Digital.  Mélani and Reinhard discuss the Vodafone Blockchain Price Manager, which was the winner in the Source-to-Purchase category in the Hackett Group's 2021 Digital Awards.To kick off the conversation, Mélani asks how the Vodafone Procurement Company operates and supports the other lines of Vodafone business.  Vodafone is, Reinhard shares by way of background, a leading technology communications company.  Vodafone Procurement Company is effectively the large supply chain arm of the Vodafone group.  It centralizes procurement for most third-party connections Vodafone maintains, covering categories from networks to IT, devices, and "indirects."  The Vodafone Procurement Company's value proposition is to bring value to the business through scale, driving category transformation and heavy digitization of the supply chain.  Moving forward, Mélani and Reinhard talk more about the role of digital transformation within Vodafone Procurement Company.  Digital transformation has been the organization's top priority for several years, and it started with a clear focus on getting access to data.  It involves standardization and automation, movement and connection of data, and much more.  Digital is ultimately now part of the company's DNA and drives operational and customer experience efforts.  Turning more specifically to the Vodafone Blockchain Price Manager, Mélani asks what it is and what business challenge required it.  The instigating challenge was the issue of keeping track of many pricing agreements, managing them actively, and avoiding any financial leakage.  Automation promised to cut down on time and labor, and blockchain seemed a viable option.  As Reinhard and his colleagues looked into their existing estate and leaned into new technology, they thought blockchain would offer a unique opportunity for synchronization and alignment.  Blockchain could integrate into the Vodafone ecosystem, and offered several points of value, such as making both catalog maintenance and the offering of full transparency easier.Turning to other business professionals engaging in similar initiatives, Reinhard advises them to be cautious about the technology they choose, and then to focus on development.  After having a view to design, the last piece takes critical stock of architectural concerns.  As for Reinhard and his company, next steps for Vodafone Blockchain Price Manager include maximizing use of the solution, as well as considering the possibility of turning into a product available for other companies.  More broadly, the next steps in Vodafone Procurement Company's digital transformation center on three areas: deep focus on analytics and business insight, deeper automation, and moving into other areas auxiliary to procurement.  

The Hackett Group Principal David Ketchin talks with Senior Director Hiten Parmar and Principal Georg Bach about their perspective on sustainable procurement in Europe, how the pandemic has helped move the topic to the top of the procurement agenda, and critical success factors for sustainable procurement initiatives.Show Notes:This episode of the podcast is hosted by David Ketchin, Managing Director of Europe for the Hackett Group.  His guests for the episode are Principal Georg Bach and Senior Director Hiten Parmar.  Georg helps lead the Hackett Group's operations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Nordics, working with senior executive clients.  Hiten is the Hackett Group's procurement transformation leader based in the UK.  Both guests join David to discuss the topic of sustainable procurement, and given their contexts and roles, there is a distinct European flavor to some of the challenges discussed.As David and his guests launch into their discussion, they first consider the fragile state of Europe' supply chain right now before turning to a basic definition of procurement.  The primary goal for procurement is cost management, which involves obtaining the right supplies at the right time for an optimal price.  In the present moment, there is a particularly high demand to do this job well and, in doing so, to meet relevant regulations - especially in the high-profile area of sustainability.  Sustainable procurement is multi-faceted and involves two broad themes.  The first theme, that of looking at ESG and strategic imperatives, centers on three key pillars: environment, social, and governance.  The other broad theme is possibly even more important than the first, and it is to extend the CPO's impact in the decision-making process at the board level, CEO level, and beyond.  Because of changes in consumer behavior and investor attitudes, a company CEO has to access innovative profit pools with smaller carbon footprints.  The CPO and procurement department generally manage supplier innovation, so they are now presented with both the challenge and the opportunity to effectively contribute to business markets and carbon footprints.  Moving forward, the group talks about how to get started in forming and implementing an effective strategy.  It is such an exciting time for procurement leaders, as they have great opportunity to innovate, challenge, and identify strategic partners to accelerate business change.  Effective engagement with suppliers is of primary importance, and leaders should also consider what is in their control in relationships with suppliers (such as the cultivation of relationships with suppliers that share the company's values).  Procurement leaders have opportunity to work toward a sense of mutual value creation, a robust insistence on company values, and even diversity on multiple levels.  Of course, when preparing to move toward a stronger sustainable procurement practice, it's helpful to see how other companies are handling similar shifts.  However, it is not entirely clear at this point what companies are and are not doing well in this area, and the realm of sustainable procurement is constantly evolving and demands flexibility.  That being said, there are critical success factors to bear in mind.  First, those trying to secure rapid benefits should treat procurement as a true business partner.  Procurement leaders should leverage their asset (expertise and data), live the visible strategic priority of sustainability in procurement, keep an eye to tangible value, focus on business alignment, and establish structures of collaboration.  

The Hackett Group  Director Jay Ruffin talks with Principal Yonas Yohannes on the growth of cloud computing and what companies should think about as they make the decision to move to the cloud.Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by Hackett Group Senior Director Jay Ruffin. His guest today is Hackett Group Principal Yonas Yohannes.  Yonas is an expert in all things digital and is a leader in the area of technology transformation; he joins the podcast today to offer insight on the specific topic of cloud computing.The market for cloud computing has grown a great deal in recent years, and it is expected to continue growing.  Interestingly, though, much of the growth thus far has been seen among small and medium-sized businesses, while larger businesses seem to be lagging more.  Yonas offers a brief overview of the history of the cloud, and notes that there has been a lack of both a systematic way to adopt and a motivating sense of need to migrate to the cloud.  As part of ongoing digital transformation in the market, Yonas explains, we need to see the cloud treated more as a business strategy and a strategic imperative.  We need to see cloud service providers (among others) constructing an adoption mechanism and migration plan, and helping business leaders to think through migration and the necessity of it.  And while it is true that larger companies have thus far lagged behind smaller companies in transitioning to the cloud, Yonas also notes that there are exceptions to this trend.  In the financial services industry, for instance, several large companies have migrated to the cloud.     Such transitions have been helped by strong cloud education shaping c-level decisions, as well as the emergence of the new customer (with a demand for the digital).  In some business sectors, Yonas points out, there has been a faster rate of adoption among large companies than in others.  In general, though, the whole market is moving toward adoption of the cloud as a digital transformation pillar.  Moving forward, Jay and Yonas discuss whether there are any must-haves in terms of frameworks or tools as companies consider transitioning to the cloud.  Yonas explains a few valuable frameworks: cloud strategy, economy, and management.  And while content for executives on a general approach to and the mechanisms of cloud have been missing in recent years, there is increasing availability of resources for leaders to consider the benefits and risks of cloud, an adoption strategy, etc.  As the conversation moves toward a close, Jay asks Yonas for his thoughts about what is in the future and what listeners should be looking out for.  Yonas explains that the concept of resilience has changed, and is now tied to the cloud, how banks in particular will be helped by modernizing and simplifying their legacy structures and applications, and more.  Yonas offers advice to those looking to formulate a cloud strategy, advises a multiple-CSD approach, and an overall push to both adopt the cloud and mitigate company risk.  Finally, he leaves listeners with parting thoughts on the primacy of strategy, the importance of executive sponsorship and having the cloud aligned to all aspects of a business, and the need to think in terms of resilience.

The Hackett Group Senior Research Director Tony DiRomualdo talks with Chief HR Officer Harry Osle about “The Great Resignation,” what is driving it and what companies can do to address issues relating to hiring and retention in today's changing market.  Show Notes:Welcome to the Hackett Group's Business Excelleration Podcast, where - week after week - we hear from experts on how to avoid obstacles, manage detours, and celebrate milestones on the journey to world-class performance. This episode of the podcast is hosted by the Hackett Group's Senior Research Director Tony DiRomualdo. His guest today is Harry Osle, Chief HR Officer and Global Leader of the HR Executive Advisory program at Hackett. The topic for today's discussion is the great resignation. As we all know, people are leaving their workplaces, and some even the entire workforce, at an unprecedented rate. To begin, Harry shares some of his own observations as a CHRO and advisor at Hackett. He believes these resignations and high turnover rates are an outcome of what he deems “the great introspective.” Over the last two years, people have had the chance to really ask themselves if they are doing what they truly love. Many are realizing that they are not, and are deciding to do something different. Once people have the opportunity to experience the hardships of personal business, Harry expects we will begin to see some returning to the traditional workforce. As the variants go away and life becomes more normal, the pendulum will shift back as well. However, we will never be back to where we were before. For many organizations, remote work is here to stay. Many employers have found themselves at a complete loss in terms of how to attract and retain a workforce. Currently, there are more positions open than there are people to fill them. This is putting tremendous pressure on the entire recruiting pipeline, from attracting talent, interviewing them, ensuring they are a right fit and that the onboarding process is efficient. Next, Harry shares a few ways employers can be more effective in attracting and retaining talent. When it comes to attracting talent, they should do a better job of positioning their brand and ensuring it is out in the marketplace and recognizable. Taking advantage of all job listing and social media sites is very important. Then, they must be timely and efficient with the interview process. This involves ensuring you have the right interview questions, process and interviewers. At that point, it's very important to ensure that you have an efficient and impactful hiring process. Make sure new hires understand all of the capabilities they are provided for learning new things, developing themselves and growing their careers with you. Remember that while you are hiring someone, you are also marketing to them. Finally, make sure a new hire is equipped with the right performance manager, understands their goals and is surrounded with others who will make them successful in their career. In terms of retaining talent, Harry believes it is all about making sure they understand that the organization is there. It begins with great coaching, mentoring and candid feedback on performance. Because remote knowledge working is here to stay, you must create avenues for employees to reach out to individual and get feedback on how they're doing. People often leave their employers because they feel disconnected from the organization. If you can address that by making sure they're engaged and enjoy their work, you will gain respect. Additionally, making sure they have appropriate and impactful compensation and benefits is more important now than ever.  The final piece is to provide them with global mobility and other career options after they have held the same position for a while.  

The Hackett Group's European Advisory Services Practice Leader Martijn Geerling talks with European Practice Leader David Ketchin about the financial impact of the pandemic on European businesses, and how companies can prepare for potentially rising interest rates in 2022.

The Hackett Group Director Jay Ruffin talks with Senior Director Rick Pastore, ADP Senior Vice President Roberto Masiero and ADP Corporate Vice President Don Weinstein about the evolution of ADP's Innovation Lab, which has helped drive transformational technology change for the HR management software and services vendor.

The Hackett Group Principal David Ketchin talks with Associate Principal John Sheridan and Senior Director Hermann Waschefort about the role of global business services and outsourcing in the next-generation operating model for finance, procurement, and other business services.

The Hackett Group's Chris Key speaks with Senior Research Director Rick Pastore about best practices that enable top performing IT organizations to more effectively prioritize and manage IT projects to deliver greater business value.

The Hackett Group Associate Principal Franco Girimonte talks with Senior HR Research Director Tony DiRomualdo and HR Advisor Dave Polacheck about the current crisis in retaining and finding talent, and how companies can more effectively address these issues.

Senior Research Director Nilly Essaides talks with Associate Principal Gilles Bonelli and Associate Principal Sherri Liao about what steps finance organizations can take to mature their finance business partnering capabilities.

Associate Principal Dorothee El-Khoury talks with Senior Director, HR Advisory Services David Polacheck about the latest trends in corporate learning and development.

Director Jay Ruffin talks with Principal Yonas Yohannes and Senior Consultant Matt Williams about transitioning IT towards a value-driven approach that provides greater transparency to internal clients and focuses on improving flexibility, agility, and the quantification of the strategic business value that is being driven by technology transformation and systems rationalization.

The Hackett Group Principal Paul Morrison talks with Wipro's VP of HR and Global Head of HR Shared Services Putul Mathur and VP and Global Head of AI Solutions Practice Mukund Kalmanker about Wipro's AI-led digital transformation in human resources, which won the company a 2021 Digital Award in the Hire-to-Retire category from The Hackett Group.

Principal Martijn Geerling talks with Vice President of Research Erik Dorr about The Hackett Group's new Digital World Class performance standard, and how it differs from the world-class standard that The Hackett Group has used for decades to measure operational excellence and business value in finance, procurement, HR, IT, and other business services areas.

Director Jay Ruffin talks with Senior Consultant Matt Williams and Principal Yonas Yohannes about how data science has changed in the past few years, and how data scientists can better understand and address the needs of the business.

Associate Principal Patrick Chan talks with Associate Principal James McDonald discuss how companies can transform and optimize their buying channel strategy by considering the best mix of requirements, controls, approvals, and procedures for each major category of corporate purchases.

The Hackett Group Senior Advisor Kurt Albertson talks with Senior Advisor Nic Walden, discussing and contrasting trends in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ES&G) programs in the U.S. and Europe. They detail how sustainability and supplier diversity in particular are a growing priority for many companies, and talk about the requirements companies are putting on their procurement leaders and suppliers to more effectively address these issues and measure performance.

Host Istvan Bodo talks with Craig Bailey, who leads the working capital team within The Hackett Group's finance transformation practice, about key findings from The Hackett Group's 2020 Working Capital survey. The survey, which analyzes performance in payables, receivables and inventory for the 1000 largest public non-financial companies in the U.S., showed the transformational impact of the pandemic on working capital performance. Overall, most companies dramatically slowed payments to suppliers in 2020 to improve their own bottom line, while disrupted demand caused inventory to reach record levels. Driven by market uncertainty, cash-on-hand and debt both also rose to record levels. The two also discussed how companies are now moving forward, focusing on working capital to be able to more effectively respond to the various unknowns related to the economic recovery.

Host Franco Girimonte talks with Senior Research Director Tony DiRomualdo and Senior Director David Polacheck about winning HR strategies for the new hybrid workplace. They discuss the return to the office, the future of work, and provide recommendations on how to redesign work for the better.

Host Laura Gibbons talks with Senior Director Tarun Puri about findings from our new supplier diversity study. They discuss how the social equality movement of the past few years has sparked growth, the ambitious goals companies have for supplier diversity expansion, and changes in how companies are structuring their programs internally.

The Hackett Group Principal Vin Kumar talks with Senior Director Vanessa Keating about key findings from regular round table discussions with business leaders, discussing how they are making the most of RPA and other smart automation technology, and how the use of this technology is evolving.

The Hackett Group Associate Principal Franco Girimonte talks with Senior Director Tony DiRomualdo about results from our latest digital world-class HR research. They discuss how technology is dramatically changing the way HR organizations operate, and allowing them to provide greater strategic value and an improved customer experience at lower cost.

The Hackett Group Associate Principal Gerhard Urbasch talks with Principal Jim O'Connor , who lead's our North American Advisory Practice, about the findings from our Digital World-Class Finance research. They discuss how digital transformation has helped finance become leaner and more agile, and deliver greater strategic value to the enterprise.

Host Chris Sawchuk talks with Tim Yoo, leader of The Hackett Group's Technology Practice, about findings from the latest Digital World-Class Procurement Research “Reaching New Heights in Peak Performance,” which details how technology enables procurement organizations to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience. They also discuss how data and analytics skills have become more important in procurement, and how challenging it has become to find talent qualified and able to utilize these tools to provide greater business value.

Host Chris Key talks with The Hackett Group Principal Mike Fuller and Senior Director Jay Ruffin about key findings from our new Digital World-Class IT research, and how advanced technology is enabling new levels of insight and business value across various business services functions. Topics covered include the increasing role of data and analytics in decision making, the move towards the cloud, the need for new skills and talent in IT, and the role that organizational culture plans in IT transformation.

Host Jay Ruffin talks with Edward C Anderson, CIO and IT Department Director at the IMF about the challenge of modernization, and the integrated tools and cultural shift required to help staff become better knowledge workers. Ruffin also discusses how his IT staff has helped the IMF adapt to the pandemic, and how his team has participated in IMF discussions around cryptocurrency, blockchain, and other technology-driven issues, and have helped their organization develop strategies for finance technology implementations.

Penny Weller, The Hackett Group Senior Director, GBS Advisory, talks with Juan Gomes Hoyos, Senior Manager, GBS Global Operational Excellence Practices for Kimberly-Clark about Kimberly-Clark's transformation journey in global business services. The company has created a culture of continuous improvement that enables its GBS operations to provide unique strategic value, drive cost savings, improve efficiency, and enable excellence in both traditional and non-traditional global business services areas.

Host David Ketchin talks with Tom Kellaway, The Hackett Group Associate Principal and European Benchmark Practice Leader about creating a sustainable performance excellence culture via a combination of measurement, accountability, strategic thinking, and cross-functional collaboration. Tom shares brief case histories from several clients who are targeting world-class performance levels, including Vodafone, Sky, Tetra Pak, and BASF.

Host Nathan Harris talks with Kurt Albertson, Principal in The Hackett Group’s Procurement Advisory Group and Josh Nelson, Principal in The Hackett Group’s Supply Chain and Operations Consulting Group about the impact of the pandemic on companies’ digital transformation initiatives in procurement and supply chain, and how companies with more mature digital transformation programs benefitted in terms of improved agility, efficiency, and insight.

Host Paul Morrison talks with The Hackett Group IT Transformation Practice Principals Scott Holland and Mike Fuller about how IT must adapt to its changing role in the business, balance the need to “keep the lights on” with the development of emerging capabilities, and use digital transformation to improve agility, enhance the customer experience, and drive greater value to the enterprise.

Host Martijn Geerling talks with Paul Morrison, Principal and Digital Enablement Transformation Practice leader and Vin Kumar, Principal and Digital Finance and Global Business Services Advisory Practice leader about how digital transformation is changing the way Global Business Services organizations operate, and how they can use technology to further optimize processes, reduce manual labor, and provide greater strategic value to their companies.

Host Clayton Gammill, Associate Principal, HR Transformation for The Hackett Group talks with Dave Polacheck, Director, HR Advisory about how digital transformation has the ability to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience for the HR function.