Background
The client engagement started in October 2018, with a team of 4 full-time employees (FTEs) providing support for major financial advisory work, including business research and some limited financial research and corporate finance work. However, the team has since grown to 23 FTEs and now provides support to the Deals team with corporate finance work, sector and competitor analysis, and business research across various lines of business including Consulting and Assurance and different work types.
In the initial years of this engagement, Evalueserve identified key gaps in the client’s research and insights consumption and utilization. Some of the issues and gaps that were identified at the client end include:
- An ad hoc and reactive approach to sourcing research and insights
- Bandwidth constraints and competing priorities preventing the completion of market, client, growth, and competitor insights
- A low base for the generation and distribution process
- Siloed individual research tasks leading to a fragmented and inefficient process
- A lack of a central workflow for generating, analyzing, and distributing insights
- A need for faster turnaround times for specific skills required
Diagnose
Evalueserve conducted workshops and face-to-face interviews for both Consulting and Deals stakeholders to address the root problem. The workshops had representatives from both the supply and demand side, which included process owners at the client’s onshore research team fulfilling the research requirements of the firm on the supply side, and end requestors within the client’s business teams who have research requirements on the demand side.
The aim of the diagnostics workshops was to understand and map the current processes, gather stakeholder ideas on the desired future state, identify gaps and benchmark processes against industry practices. Based on these findings, recommendations were made to achieve the desired future state.
Design
The Evalueserve team provided recommendations to address the identified gaps and overcome business problems and challenges. The following recommendations were made:
- Raise awareness about the onshore team's specialist capability to provide insight and intelligence requirements
- Establish an integrated program to effectively gather, analyze and distribute market insights across the business
- Provide a 3-tier support system to solve and optimize insight requirements, including Self-serve, Researchstream platform access, and Programmed support
- Aggregate research needs and provide "Insights at scale" to enhance business value and improve process efficiency
- Develop a market intelligence platform like Insightsfirst for efficient aggregation, effective distribution of insights, and one-stop access to intelligence on a self-serve basis
- Add additional FTEs with specific skills to the team with an understanding of client-specific capabilities
Deliver
Evalueserve proposed a solution for the ‘To- be’ state based on four key areas- people, processes, products and platforms with broadly the following action items:
- The focus was on majorly adding sector and Deals specialists to the team
- Set up a program steering group led by the onshore champion at the client end with consulting team and Deals team nominees for Pilot projects
- Introducing new project types catering to specific needs of Consulting and Deals business
- Pivot from the current ‘reactive’ and ‘fragmented’ process for getting market insights to a ‘programmed’ and ‘integrated’ process
- Standardizing the approach for standard project types with defined templates
- Set up a continuous intelligence program and rapidly scale it up to deliver ahead-of-the-curve insights – syncing with the upcoming strategic planning cycle
- Leverage IF as the central platform for delivering market and competitive intelligence
- Drive awareness of the Researchstream platform and firm-wide subscriptions to enable self-serve
Over the years, our collaboration has flourished, and I take pride in the remarkable progress we've achieved as a team. What began with just 4 Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) from the India center has evolved into a significant expansion, thanks to the high demand for Evalueserve's exceptional work. We not only added the Chile center to our partnership but also increased the number of FTEs across both centers, bringing our total to an impressive 23 FTEs.
What sets Evalueserve apart from the competition are a few key factors:
Firstly, their unwavering focus on technology is evident in the success of Evalueserve’s intelligence program powered by Insightsfirst and where Sector Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) play a central role. This approach has not only resonated perfectly with our strategy but has also seen tremendous success firm-wide.
Secondly, Evalueserve's proactive, solution-oriented approach has been instrumental in meeting our customized requirements. Their responsiveness, such as providing Insightsfirst Opportunity Radar at the right time and offering training to enhance our team's expertise in Deals and CF, has significantly contributed to overcoming our pain points.
Lastly, I want to express my appreciation for the Evalueserve team's right skillsets, client-first mindset, and ethics. These qualities further distinguish them as a reliable and valuable partner in our endeavors.
In summary, our collaboration with Evalueserve has been a journey of growth, innovation, and success. I look forward to continuing this partnership and achieving even greater milestones together. Thank you.
Impact
The client experienced significant enhancements in operational capabilities and strategic insights, leading to a notable increase in research support hours by over 75% and a more complex project demand over the last four years. Impressed by these outcomes, the client expanded the Evalueserve team size by 360% from FY19 to FY23, extending these benefits across additional business areas. The integration of the Insightsfirst platform across multiple teams has further streamlined their research processes, empowering them to tackle future challenges and capitalize on new opportunities with increased efficiency and depth.
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Overview & Impact
The client experienced significant enhancements in operational capabilities and strategic insights
- increase in operational efficiency
- faster decisions backed with data-driven analysis