Director

Baker Tilly Digital

Digital Enterprise

Analytics

Transformation

Customer Experience

Intelligent Automation

Marketing Technology

Sales, Marketing & Service

Customer Experience Innovation

Principal

Change Management 

Market Research & Alignment

Marketing Effectiveness

Program & Project Management

Sales Technology

Service Effectiveness

Service Technology

Sales Effectiveness

Salesforce.com

Strategic Assessments & Roadmaps 

Strategy & Management Consulting

Banking & Capital Markets

Consulting

BI & Management Reporting

Big Data

Blockchain

Cloud Strategies

Connected Devices

Data Visualization

Design Thinking

Digital | Labs

Emerging Technologies

Finance Digital Transformation

Internet of Things (IoT)

Technology Enablement 

Alirrium

Customer Experience Management 

Authored by Annelise Gerschke Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) continues to grow in importance and popularity as companies look to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and respond to our rapidly evolving corporate culture. Despite common misconception, CSR, also referred to as Environmental, Social, and Governance or ESG, initiatives should not be limited to organizations or teams that manufacture or produce goods. CSR initiatives are rapidly being implemented across all industries including technology, financial services and healthcare. As more and more of our remote-based work becomes reliant on the internet and technology, now is the time to consider integrating formal CSR strategies and practices into your business.  What areas can easily have an impact on CDR? To better understand CSR, one should examine the value of Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR). CDR applies corporate social responsibility concepts to an organization’s process of creating and/or operating digital technology and data. When creating a CDR strategy, companies should consider four aspects: social, economic, environmental and technological.  Social: From data security to socially conscious partners The social aspect considers the relationship between technology and your stakeholders. This includes your employees, customers, end users and greater community. For example, if your company is storing personal data about customers or potential candidates, what practices are in place to make sure that data remains private? How do you ensure equal representation of gender, ethnicity, race, ability and more within your social media and web presence? It’s important to think through these scenarios, document guidelines and make them available for all employees to follow. The social aspect may also include using digital technology to make a positive social impact such as creating tools to help track and measure aspects of your CSR strategy from supplier codes of conduct to philanthropic partnerships.

Economic: From fair compensation to reusable products The economic aspect focuses on financial impacts for your technology choices and operations. Internally, evaluate your company’s compensation model to ensure employees and sub-contractors are paid a fair wage and offered benefits. Externally, consider how your e-commerce strategy could tie into CDR to lower costs through more efficient design and operation. The phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” applies in the digital world, too. As much as possible, try to design and develop products to be reusable for additional projects. You will save time and money by not having to start from scratch each time. Environmental: From carbon footprints to efficient online experiences The environmental aspect relates to the ecological impact of technology. This includes hardware disposal, energy efficiency and consumption and measuring the carbon footprint of technology use. At 1.6 billion tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions (and rising), the internet contributes more to climate change than most countries (3). Increase your products’ efficiency by optimizing performance and making the user experience quick and easy. Find ways to donate and/or recycle equipment, and when possible, purchase refurbished hardware. Calculate your company’s carbon footprint and actively seek ways to reduce it by limiting outputs and purchasing carbon offsets.  
Technological: From accessibility to biases The last aspect, technological, relates to security, inclusivity and accessibility of digital technology. Extend your cultural policies on diversity and inclusion to your digital practices. Are your products accessible for all stakeholders regardless of their ability or socioeconomic status? Are proper security measures put in place? If using automated intelligence (AI) algorithms, do they account for biases? If your business does not account for these items, they could be missing valuable opportunities to connect with employees and their target market.  What are the benefits to implementing CDR? As these four areas suggest, implementing a CDR strategy is not one individual or department’s job. A holistic view needs to be integrated into everyone’s work and make sense with your company’s strategy. By creating an authentic strategy and involving all stakeholders, you can increase engagement both internally and externally, reduce costs and help attract and retain the best talent and increase customer loyalty.  Like all change, adopting this mindset will take some time. Baker Tilly professionals can help businesses ensure their communications meet accessibility compliance, designed user experiences for optimized efficiency, implemented cyber security controls within systems and continue to help business leaders understand and improve their customer experience.
Resources: Interbrand Best Global Brands 2017 BBC: Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think Porter Novelli Executive Purpose Study  

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) continues to grow in importance and popularity as companies look to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and respond to our rapidly evolving corporate culture. Read this article to learn more about the areas that can impact CDR, such as social, economic, environmental and technological aspects, as well as the benefits to implementing CDR.

Four areas to incorporate corporate responsibility into your digital strategy

Video For years, companies have looked to better enable their organizations and serve their customers by considering – if not embracing – digital technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic, which emptied buildings as employees shifted to working from home, changed the customer buying experience and had a  severe impact on production lines and supply chains. This compelled many to accelerate their search for technology or automation solutions. An organization’s ability to drive adoption of technology and embrace an innovative culture is critical. Choosing the right technology among so many choices is hard. 
Are you overwhelmed with the number of technology solutions? This e-book provides practical information and advice to evaluate, implement and successfully adopt new technologies.
For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly specialists can help, contact our team. 

Overwhelmed with the number of available technology solutions? Deciding which technologies to adopt is among the biggest challenges for business leaders.

Software & Technology

Accelerate your digital transformation with AWS

Technology overload: a guide to making smarter decisions

Client background: Founded in 1902, this Fortune 500 insurer serves 2.3 million clients and as of 2020, has $162 billion under management and advisements. They have an A++ (Superior) rating from AM Best and are continually innovating to meet their clients’ needs and goals. As a long-term Baker Tilly client, they knew they could depend on Baker Tilly to independently assess their new Transformation Management Office (TMO) to reduce risk and increase performance of its One Plan. The business challenge: The client was in the process of implementing an enterprise transformation program, One Plan, focused on reshaping the organization around the individual and establishing itself as a leader in financial advisory by 2023. This program, led by a newly designed transformation office, had identified 86 initiatives to be delivered over a three-year period across five (5) dimensions:   Experience and innovation Brand and marketing Distribution and product management Organization and culture  Foundations After one year into the program, coupled with the environmental challenges they were experiencing (the global pandemic and social unrest in related business geographies), the client was questioning the progress and effectiveness of the program and sought an independent firm for assessment and recommendations moving forward. The Baker Tilly approach: Baker Tilly reviewed the TMO, focusing on stakeholder interviews, management processes and controls, management office structure, and program and initiative design. We then leveraged our xMO Capability Maturity Model to provide a structured assessment of current maturity for a holistic set of key capabilities. Overall, 16 prioritized recommendations were made, focusing on addressing observed gaps in performance that were impeding the progress and resulting effectiveness of the program. The business impact: Through the assessment, the client improved upon their program’s structure and clarity. The assessment emphasized organizational change and helped to develop an aligned enterprise talent plan. This improved the rigor of initiative chartering and mobilization, as well as an increase in performance and value measurement. Program leadership, including the client’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT), has validated the need for change based on Baker Tilly’s recommendations and over a two-month period developed a plan for executing all 16 recommendations.

Read this case study to learn how Baker Tilly leveraged its xMO Capability Maturity Model to provide a structured assessment of current maturity for a holistic set of key capabilities, identify necessary maturity for success and provide recommendations on addressing identified gaps in performance. 

Insurance

Baker Tilly utilizes xMO Capability Model to assess program governance maturity for Fortune 500 insurer 

Video
In this Baker Tilly event featuring HITT Contracting, we explored Baker Tilly Digital’s ability to help companies grow their technological innovation capabilities.  Baker Tilly Digital assists companies with technological and digital innovation in four primary areas: Transformation – We help organizations generate digital ideas and new technologies. Data solutions – We help organizations process large volumes of data to help the business grow and improve. Cloud infrastructure – We help modernize infrastructures to help organizations take advantage of the power of the cloud. Application development – We help organizations break new ground and move into customized areas that have specific applications that add value to the company. Why digital innovation matters An easy way to visualize the importance of digital innovation is a 2017 research report from McKinsey Global Institute. McKinsey’s report indicated that the biggest barriers to innovation by construction companies are an underinvestment in IT and technology and a lack of R&D processes. As illustrated in the adjacent chart, a 14-15% increase in technology and innovation results on average in a cost savings of 4-6%, which of course is quite significant.  Some examples of digital innovation in the construction industry include: Near real-time monitoring of site performance – How is each job performing? Is the site on schedule? How are you collecting data in a centralized manner? Are you progressing efficiently?  Integration with vendors – How do you make it easy to send subcontractors invoices and to get their data back so we can keep our billing cycle moving? Automation of repetitive tasks – Are there any tasks that you can automate with technology?  Improved cost and schedule forecasting – Can you better identify where bottlenecks exist and raise the necessary red flags? Advanced analysis of IoT data – Are you taking advantage of all the available data? Under the umbrella of digital innovation, our focus is on four key areas – assess, ideate, experiment and build -- each of which is directly connected to a key question.   Using these four steps, Baker Tilly takes organizations from the challenge recognition stage all the way through to meaningful innovation in the marketplace. In essence, we walk you hand in hand through the digital innovation journey. This is how we use digital innovation to transform organizations. Getting started The four-step process that we use at the outset of the process begins with a current state analysis of an organization and continues with a thorough capability research phase. Then we map out the future state of the organization, and finally we outline the process improvements required for long-term success, including the pain points that we are hoping to solve and the experiences that we are recommending either be added or altered. Driving digital innovation So how does Baker Tilly advance from that initial assessment to actually creating something that is tangible, usable and valuable? It all happens in Baker Tilly Digital’s labs sessions, where the focus is growing an organization’s innovative environment through a combination of facilitated sessions, technical expertise and experimental resources. The preparation aspect of this process takes about four weeks, followed by a one- or two-day labs session and a ramp-up phase that can take anywhere from two to eight weeks.  HITT’s case for research and development As part of the unique webinar, HITT took participants on a live tour of its state-of-the-art research & development facility, Co|Lab. HITT identified industry pain points such as the skilled labor shortage, endless cost escalation and a lack of industry-wide spend on R&D. These factors drive the national general contractor’s goals to alleviate rising costs, increase quality and productivity, enhance safety and speed to market, and other areas of impact.  Working toward these goals across methods, materials, technology and building performance components, HITT designed innovative elements into their facility including a real-time building performance analytics lobby display that tracks the facility’s net zero energy goals, the use of structural mass timber and the exclusion of almost all products that include Red List chemicals, or those harmful to human health. Ongoing research projects shared included IoT deployment infrastructures using Power over Ethernet (POE), building materials that incorporate high levels of recycled content and acoustic-friendly, movable conference rooms that can create multipurpose spaces.  How Baker Tilly can help As noted earlier, Baker Tilly can assist your organization with building innovation using a variety of methods that can save you time, energy and money. Contact Baker Tilly principals John Runte and Dave DuVarney to discuss the ways Baker Tilly Digital can help your organization continue to grow with an influx of technological innovation in 2021 – and beyond.

Baker Tilly and HITT Contracting hosts a unique on-demand event that explores the latest in construction technology advancements and ways to leverage digital transformation in the operations of your business.

Real Estate

Real Estate Investors

Building innovation in an emerging digital world

video Client background: Boland is the leading commercial HVAC systems, services and building energy solutions provider in the DC metro area. They provide a broad portfolio of energy efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, building, contracting and energy services, parts and supplies, and advanced controls for commercial buildings. The business challenge: Boland executives understand the constant state of disruption as it relates to digital and technical advancements. The executive team was looking to Baker Tilly’s digital leaders to facilitate key Boland team members through a structured digital innovation and ideation session that would ultimately be used as inputs to drive a digital transformation road map. The Baker Tilly approach: The Baker Tilly Digital team leveraged its Ideation and Design Thinking framework to facilitate the Boland executive team through a structured design thinking and innovation workshop.  Step 1: Empathize – During the Empathize phase we facilitated the group to define answers to two key questions: “Who are we trying to help?” “What problems do they have?” Step 2: Define – During the Define phase we defined the problems that Boland would attempt to resolve. Step 3: Ideate – During the Ideate phase we demonstrated the “art of the possible”. Multiple creative digital, technical and process oriented changes and solutions to address the problems defined in step 2 were documented. Step 4: Prototype – During the Prototype phase we leveraged our Digital | Labs environments to prototype the short list of solutions documented during the Ideate phase. Step 5: Test – During the Test phase we validated the prototype and got feedback from key stakeholders prior to moving forward with production- oriented solutions. The business impact: Boland achieved the following as a result of the Ideation and Design Thinking workshop: A clearly defined and concise digital, technical and process transformation idea portfolio that serves as Boland’s foundation to a strategic and digital roadmap. An understanding of the “art of what’s possible” as it relates to the problems Boland would like to address with its transformation projects. An engaged executive team that learned to apply innovative thinking and a structured framework to drive new thinking as it relates to their business.
For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly specialists can help, contact our team.

Boland, a commercial HVAC systems, services and building energy provider, leverages Baker Tilly Digital’s ideation and design thinking framework to achieve a clearly defined and concise digital, technical and process transformation idea portfolio to serve as the foundation to their strategic and digital roadmap.

Construction

Boland engages Baker Tilly Digital to create a strategic digital roadmap

In today's competitive landscape, the pace of commoditization is rapid. Technology has created a form of disintermediation, where customers have the ability to leverage publicly available content online to educate themselves about a product or service.  As a result, it's more challenging to differentiate your value to customers and prospects.  We are in an "experience" economy, where companies that create, sell and/or deliver a positive product or service experience enjoy competitive positioning and premium pricing advantages. Organizations need to consider customer experience management and experience innovation as two of the most important strategies to transform and grow your business in this experience economy.  Consider these three digital technology innovations focused on engagement effectiveness, engagement efficiency and engagement intelligence to improve your customer's experience and enable your organization's desired level of growth.

In today's competitive landscape, the pace of commoditization is rapid. Technology has created a form of disintermediation, where customers have the ability to leverage publicly available content online to educate themselves about a product or service.  As a result, it's more challenging to differentiate your value to customers and prospects. 

Technology transformation in the age of the customer

With increasing opportunities to leverage digital technologies to propel your organization, comes increasing pressure to successfully enable your organization to rapidly understand, plan, prototype and deploy new technology into the organization. 

With years of experience supporting complex organization transformational programs, Baker Tilly’s digital transformation team brings knowledge of the challenges that organizations face as they activate a culture focused on digital innovation. 

Our digital team works collaboratively with  your team to enable the core capabilities needed to succeed in this digital environment. We blend our digital technology knowledge, with our industry knowledge and our organizational change experiences to help you to think differently about transformation and what it means in today’s digital environment.

Our team helps executives to navigate the complexities of the organizational changes required to enable a Digital Enterprise. We bring proven experience and structured approaches to:

Define a future vision for your digital enterprise

Establish a digital center of excellence 

Continuously understand and adjust to the needs and wants of your customer(s)

Define and activate the organizational operating model and core capabilities to support digital execution including knowledge management, document management, and collaboration platforms

Enhance your learning and development strategy to support the needs of a digital enterprise

Establish clear and consistent communication channels to foster knowledge management and collaboration across the digital enterprise

Lead the organization transformation from awareness to understanding to acceptance to support of your transformation initiatives.

Develop a strategy for leveraging managed services to support your digital transformation

We can help your organization manage all of your digital technology solutions - whether it be in regard to change management, customer experience, or implementation and deployment.

Amanda Klein is a principal in the enterprise transformation services team within the consulting practice at Baker Tilly. As a principal in Baker Tilly’s enterprise transformation consulting practice, Amanda Klein leads organizations through all phases of complex business transformation initiatives. She leads activities to define strategic objectives, align with future-state customer experience vision and activates tools to support adoption and engagement throughout. She drives execution of the transformation strategy by leveraging her experience in program management, change management, process improvement, and business analysis. Amanda joined the firm in 2007 and has helped clients from a variety of industries including: manufacturing and distribution, financial services and healthcare – achieve their goals. 

Todd Wilkerson is a director in the consulting group of Baker Tilly. Todd leads solution delivery for the Growth Strategies practice, focused on CRM and customer experience solutions for clients. Todd brings 20 years of consulting experience in customer relationship management, with on-premise and SaaS-based package and custom solutions. He has worked with organizations both large and small, with significant industry experience in high technology (hardware and software, business and consumer) and countless clients across a broad spectrum of other areas such as life sciences, consumer packaged goods, financial services, and telecommunications/media.

John Runte, a principal and practice leader of Baker Tilly’s enterprise transformation and digital solutions, joined the firm in 2002.

Claudio Garcia, director of enterprise transformation services in the consulting group with Baker Tilly has been with the firm since 2017. Claudio Garcia, director of enterprise transformation services in the consulting group with Baker Tilly has been with the firm since 2017.

Baker Tilly helps organizations manage all of their digital technology solutions such as change management, customer experience, or implementation and deployment.

Baker Tilly provides a custom-tailored approach to help your organization manage the change associated with any complex transformation, and minimize impacts to your employees.

Our change management specialists work with you to build the right plan to drive adoption and increase the value realized from your technology, process, transformational and structural changes.

Create intentional, positive customer experiences that deliver market differentiation and premium pricing permission.

Do you have complex business challenges or strategic alignment questions?

Organizations often struggle with strategic direction and strategic alignment. Baker Tilly provides strategic assessment and roadmap services that enable strategic alignment for your most challenging business problems.

What if your firm turned project management into a strategic competitive advantage over your competitors?

Baker Tilly’s program and project management consultants help companies create their own right-sized operating model for program and project management and transform program management into a strategic competitive advantage.