Food for thought: Business Innovation Breakfast Briefing
Thank you to everyone who attended our recent business briefing at The Brewery in London! The packed agenda included compelling stories from Certinia customers Worldline and NewVoiceMedia, with further presentations focusing on new research within the finance and professional services industries. For those who couldn’t attend we’ve shared some of the event highlights below.
Certinia CEO Tod Nielsen kicked off the event with the opening keynote session on the new services economy. Tod discussed the shift in how customers want goods and services, and the impact this is having on the way businesses operate and plan for the future.
After Tod’s portion, we shared a sneak preview into brand new independent research taken from a survey conducted by the Certinia research team and Lab42. Key themes included the importance of aligning sales and finance teams using connected CRM and finance systems, rising AI adoption, and the rise in services businesses. Data from the survey showed that 95% of finance leaders in the UK agree that having the flexibility to change or add business models will help increase their company’s chances of future business success.
Adrian Hepworth, Chief Architect UK & Ireland at Worldline, delivered an insightful talk covering the business challenges Worldline was trying to solve before moving to Certinia, the technology they put in place to streamline and simplify their business processes, and the learnings and results they have encountered so far.
In the Services session, delegates heard snippets from the new 2018 Professional Services Benchmark Report by SPI Research, based on global research involving 400 professional services teams. The presentation highlighted key insights including the fact that many leading indicators improved in 2017. Backlog grew from 45.6% to 46.2% while consultant billable utilisation increased from 70.4% to 71.5%. Higher utilisation, combined with a richer percentage of billable headcount (75.5% in 2017 versus 74.6% in 2016) were the primary catalysts for profit improvements.
Finally, Phil Davitt, RVP Services EMEA NewVoiceMedia, shared his story, including the challenges and successes on moving their business to a cloud-based software solution. Using Certinia Professional Services Automation (PSA), NewVoiceMedia now has much more efficient assigning of resources, with PSA providing visibility into billable and non-billable hours on all projects, allowing them to assign multiple resources to a project. Project profitability is up and they have seen a 12% improvement in day rates sold and day rates achieved.
As the event drew to a close the topical presentations sparked a number of thought-provoking conversations between delegates, presenters, and Certinia representatives, reflecting on the highlights of the day. Missed out this time? Watch out for our upcoming events here!
