The Professional Services Pursuit

Welcome to another insightful episode of the Professional Services Pursuit podcast! In this episode, we were lucky enough to sit down with one of the foremost experts in customer experience, Jessica Noble. In part 1 of this conversation Jessica and Banoo discuss what improving the customer experience looks like today and how improving both your employee and customer experience can play a key role in improving margins. Some other topics covered include:Understanding the mechanics of good customer experienceHow to maintain your margins in an inflationary market The PAIR methodology and how it drives both customer and employee experience Incentivizing teams to help reduce waste through programs and think tanksHow customer experience, employee experience and operational excellence are all inextricably linkedWaste management, identifying margin leaks and the most efficient ways to take action  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of The Professional Services Pursuit Banoo is joined by Charles Gustine, Brand Evangelist at Kantata. They discuss the findings from a new Forrester research study commissioned by Kantata and Salesforce that helps explain the importance of vertical SaaS, how it is helping professional services organizations solve critical problems and how it is proving to be more effective at moving businesses through the maturity curve. Other talking points include:·         A review of the recently released Forester study to provide insights into vertical SaaS·         Trending challenges professional services organizations are facing·         The benefits of vertical SaaS and how it helps solve these challenges for PS companies·         How traditional PSA’s and horizontal SaaS differ from vertical SaaS solutions·         Prioritizing and optimizing client experience with proper resource management capabilities·         Charles’ thoughts on how vertical SaaS can solve future problems and what he expects to see from it going forwardIf you would like to read the full research study you can download it hereTo watch the webinar Charles did with guest speaker Margo Visitacion, Forrester’s Vice President and Principal Analyst, view here  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Brent is joined by Randy Mysliviec, the President and CEO of RTM Consulting and Managing Director of the Resource Management Institute (RMI). They explore the top trends emerging in the industry based on the RMI’s latest research report and Randy’s predictions for the future around resource automation management:The latest survey series results around resource management automationTrends emerging around resource data management Driving down labor costsEmployee engagement at scaleAutomated staffing plansRandy’s predictions for the next year in resource automation managementVisit the RMI website to learn more about the courses they offer, become a member and get access to their free reports - https://resourcemanagementinstitute.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carrie Young, Vice President of Strategic Solutions at Cority, joins Banoo on the show to discuss how to most effectively utilize your employee base by implementing cross training and expanding the skill sets of your team. Carrie has extensive experience scaling PS organizations and managing demand against capacity and resource optimization. Additional topics discussed include:Understanding and mapping your employee base to identify gaps and synergies; Documenting a clear career path for each employee;  People management is not for everyone; The importance of allowing mistakes and providing the tools, time and training needed for employees to grow; Incentivizing cross training and alignment with HR; How to get constructive coaching;  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this special episode of The Professional Services Pursuit, both of our hosts, Brent Trimble and Banoo Behboodi, sit down to discuss the different dimensions of the services industry as it pertains to talent and dive into some recent research on this topic. They also discuss why we are seeing more people taking a less traditional career path, and how services businesses need to adapt to retain their employees. Additional  talking points include:●        The shifting talent pools●        Recent articles and research by Kantata and McKinsey & Company●        Strategies that businesses can use to retain good talent●        The future of business  and getting in a position to optimize and scale●        Reasons why people are choosing to become their own boss ●        How to source talent in this new climate●        Upcoming webinar with TSIA addressing the changing workforce dynamicsCheck out the McKinsey & Company article referenced and keep your eyes peeled for Kantata’s upcoming report, “The Changing Dynamics of the Modern Workforce”, or read more about the research here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joining us on the podcast is Dave Yusuf, Senior Vice President of Customer Success at Q2. With a successful background in CS and PS, along with many other roles in the services industry, Dave is well versed on the idea of a “customer for life”. Dave talks through the journey to success and the role implementation, support, customer success, and product teams play in this process; including:●  Creating a successful cross-team strategy●  Determining KPI’s that dictate success●  The importance of aligning client success with your company values●  Measuring your clients success using a balanced scorecard●  Potential roadblocks to look out for along the way Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With his incredible experience in the professional services and recruiting industry, Sean Kogan, co-founder of Recruiting-In-Motion, has seen and heard it all. He shares his knowledge and the trends shaping the evolution of recruitment during this new work from home era. Some of the things discussed include:The impact of the pandemic on recruitment as a wholeHow AI has helped soften the blow to recruitmentBalancing the human-AI interactions to get the best, most efficient resultsSocial media recruitment on LinkedIn, indeed, and others and how it’s assisted the professional services industryThe gig economy vs full-time workforceThe challenges of working from home on a company’s culture  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ray Grainger is the Executive Chairman of Kantata. He’s also a professional services leader who is on a mission to reinvent the way businesses deliver work. In this episode Brent and Ray discuss the importance of the networked economy and how it is evolving into a critical element of the IT revolution; Including: The evolution and importance of communicationBusiness conditions and pressures on the service businessAccess to talent networks to ensure client satisfactionSupply chain orientation of optimizing across a talent networkRemoving technological constraintsHow to scale without acquisition Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With over 20 years of experience leading change on enterprise-wide transformations, Peter Hadas specializes in providing leaders with practical, measurable solutions to adoption and sustainability challenges. In this episode Peter shares his top tips for managing transformational change, including: Change leadership Setting success criteria early onThe importance of celebrating key milestones Developing a change management networkMaking change management sustainableFollow through with a new processArchiving old processes and developing new habitsEncouragement and performance based reviewsApproaches to adoption and trainingCreativity is key to support adoptionOpenly communicating changesUnderstanding 10-15% will not be onboardAddressing cultural changesThe benefits of remote training Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us as we welcome in our newest co-host Banoo Behboodi to the Professional Services Pursuit podcast! Brent and Banoo sit down to discuss Banoo's business experience, her insights and what she is looking forward to most with her interviews. We also get to learn a bit more about her favorite books and why she is excited to ask her guests what they are reading right now.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.