Live Q&A with AV - Ask Me Anything (AMA)

Avero's latest livestream delved into the complexities of modernizing ERP systems for local governments. With a focus on public sector tech solutions, AV discussed strategies for overcoming budget constraints and gaining public support for technology investments. Dive into the insightful conversation and learn how Avero navigates the intricacies of ERP implementations to drive efficiency and better serve communities.

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Transcript

00:00:00:16 - 00:00:28:20
Unknown
Welcome to Untangled. Whether you are a local government leader tirelessly searching for trailblazing solutions to operational hurdles in it professional with a zeal for public sector technology or a curious mind intrigued by the symbiosis of technology and governance. Untangled is your platform. Join us on this fascinating journey as we explore how technology can revolutionize local governments. Effective, sustainable, cutting edge solutions are not just for the deep pockets.

00:00:28:20 - 00:00:54:02
Unknown
Private sector anymore. Let's get untangled. Morning and welcome to Avero live this week. Today we're going to take questions. We're taking questions from prospects from clients. Lots of questions have come in over email and through our social channels and we're just going to go through them and answer them to the best of my ability and any audience questions that come in.

00:00:54:03 - 00:01:23:23
Unknown
So if you're joining us today, please in the chat box and tell us where you're joining from. A little bit about you if you want to tell us, and we'll go from there. And also, we go live as Avero every Wednesday at 10 a.m.. This podcast, this livestream, then turns into a podcast our newsletters our blog posts and lots of other great things that we offer to our clients and prospects across the world.

00:01:24:01 - 00:01:57:07
Unknown
A little bit about Avero we are a tech agnostic, independent technology and management consulting firm that focuses on public sector in the U.S. and we specialize in planning for IT Strategy and also large scale ERP implementations ranging from financial systems, h.r. Systems and everything that surrounds core processes within a local government organization. So we've done work with cities, states, counties, transit agencies, public housing, you name it.

00:01:57:07 - 00:02:24:17
Unknown
Anything to do with the government we actively pursue and work with and we're really proud of the work we're doing across the country. So without further ado, I am going to start looking at the questions coming in and I'm going to take the first one, which was asked by a prospective client this this actually was asked of us during a sales presentation we had recently.

00:02:24:19 - 00:03:04:03
Unknown
And the question is, it's a long question, but I'm going to summarize it. It's it talks about budgetary constraints in local governments and how they're always asked to do more with less. Everyone expects governments to do more with less, understandably. They also say that technology can be the key lever for creating public value. It can help control costs through automation, provide consistency in service, through process management, improve citizen interface, and through data analysis, better citizen, better identifying citizen demands, as well as extent to which those needs are being satisfied.

00:03:04:03 - 00:03:32:18
Unknown
Performance measurement. However, citizens may place comparatively lower value on technology investments when weighed against more visible assets like parcel facilities. How have you helped other clients and how might you help the county make a business case for an investment like this? This meaning any RPA modernization effort. So that we can communicate its benefits to the public. How do you ensure that the recommended solutions are right sized and within our organizational capacity?

00:03:32:18 - 00:03:53:05
Unknown
What a great question this is. This is a very intelligent question, right? You're talking about public perception of what the government is spending money on. If you're spending money on a fancy new football field, you're going to be in the newspapers. It's going to be highly visible. It's going to be talked about, it's going to be voted on.

00:03:53:07 - 00:04:13:09
Unknown
And a lot of this is because people understand what that is, because they can see it. It's a football field. If you're building a new courthouse, visible, if you're building a new city hall visible. But technology is something that lives within your walls. It's invisible almost. Only the people that are using it on a daily basis know that it's changing.

00:04:13:10 - 00:04:49:20
Unknown
So how do you make the case for for getting the votes, for getting the support to do a multi-million dollar ERP implementation? And the way I've seen this happen is just through grassroots advocacy. The best story I can tell on that is, is our one of our first clients. They have a 21 member legislative body. It's a rural county and semi-rural and 21 member legislative body that that was was at the time when we worked with them.

00:04:49:20 - 00:05:14:20
Unknown
They were up against arms, up in arms against the executive body, which is the mayor's office. They did not want anything to do with anything related to spending any money. It was it was all about voting everything down. So how did we make the case for a $5 million almost technology modernization plan that went beyond just the ERP implementation?

00:05:14:22 - 00:05:45:15
Unknown
It was slow. The first thing we did was make, you know, just we just got the scope was doing an active strategic plan. Step one, take, take stock of where we are today. It was a that situation was bad. They didn't have any virtualized session. None of their servers were optimized or even upgraded. They had a homegrown greenscreen ERP system that was hand-built by their I.T. director of 30 plus years, who had, by the way, left the organization.

00:05:45:17 - 00:06:11:05
Unknown
And, you know, the situation was really dire. So our first task was to identify what the real problems were. And we didn't go at it from just, you know, you need to replace servers and buy new computers, which is what most people expect when you talk about I.T., strategic planning and technology modernization. But we were able to make the case for a growing county tied to economic development.

00:06:11:07 - 00:06:38:23
Unknown
Make sure that, you know, the investments that they were looking at and they were also doing investments in, you know, hard assets like roads and schools and the football fields. And I've always talked about how it's the same risk profile, Right. It's not the same visibility, but it's the same risk profile. So when people that are voting on these items that they don't understand what any RPA modernization really means, are you just buying computers?

00:06:39:04 - 00:07:10:00
Unknown
Why would they cost $2 million per year? You have to take on an educators role almost to explain what this means. One, not just in technical terms, but also how is this going to impact everyone around you? How is this going to impact your county, your city, from an economic development standpoint, from from a talent acquisition and management standpoint, you're bringing in people, especially in a growing county where there's a lot of economic development growth happening.

00:07:10:00 - 00:07:41:09
Unknown
You're trying to attract companies like making names up Amazon and Google to come, come set up shop in your locality and they expect to do business online. They expect to do business through your web portals, through your county or city website. And that's a key element of of your offerings to these companies that want to come build in your in your locality.

00:07:41:11 - 00:08:07:16
Unknown
So that's one angle, right? Again, the question was how do you convince the public? Public? Not necessarily easy, but easier because, you know, if you offer them services, they can avail of virtually online that they don't have to come stand in line at the county courthouse or the the city building or what have you. They'll be happy, at least consumers and citizens of a certain generation.

00:08:07:18 - 00:08:28:12
Unknown
But you need to give them the option. And that's another way of of tying all of this together to the public perception. How do you win that over when you're spending 3 to $4 million on technology that you can't see and touch you, you sell the outcomes, you sell what it's going to bring to the citizens of your county or city.

00:08:28:14 - 00:08:58:16
Unknown
At the very end, not to mention internally, you're looking at efficiencies, you're looking at attracting better talent, retaining talent, becoming more efficient so that your accountants, your utility workers are not bogged down by Excel sheets and are bogged down by paperwork. They're doing strategic thinking, they're doing management, they're making sure that your organization is moving forward. According to the vision that was said by council, by commissioned by the city management.

00:08:58:18 - 00:09:22:03
Unknown
And and and you tie all of this together in a cohesive story because otherwise you're not you're not going to sell it. You're not going to sell something that you can't see. So how do you ensure the recommended solutions are right size within organizational capacity? That's another part of that question. That's that's a whole different area of technology modernization implementations.

00:09:22:05 - 00:09:46:15
Unknown
Everyone talks about AI. No one knows what it really means for the end user, which is our our governments. It's like we've just discovered oil and now we're trying to figure out to rebuild roads. Should we build cars, Should we eat this? What happens? So that's the kind of era we're in with AI and what's going to happen to that.

00:09:46:15 - 00:10:11:21
Unknown
So my point in that is you can you can talk about being on the bleeding edge of technology and buy all the things that are shiny and new and but just because you have the funding, but if you don't have the right kind of infrastructure, not just I.T., but also business processes, people that are willing to take risks and learn new things.

00:10:11:23 - 00:10:31:20
Unknown
A supportive legislature, you're not going to get much out of it. So how do you rightsize this? It always comes from going at it from a business process and strategy perspective. What is your vision for delivering services to your citizenry in the next 3 to 5 years? Let's start there and then we'll look at what you have today.

00:10:31:23 - 00:10:52:17
Unknown
You might have a green screen. There's 400. Clearly, that's not visionary. Those things are workhorses, but they don't necessarily attract the best talent or make things the most efficient. Next, you do a gap analysis of where you are based on your vision, where you are today. These are the gaps that are out there that will prevent you from getting to your vision.

00:10:52:17 - 00:11:15:08
Unknown
And how do you fill those gaps? That's where you come in with an IP strategy. That's when you come in with an active strategic plan that tells you how to right size these things. All right. Audience questions. Meghan asks How would you guide an employee who lacks the knowledge of current technology and practices to see the value in changing and actively supporting it?

00:11:15:13 - 00:11:44:06
Unknown
No buzzwords. How would you get an employee who lacks knowledge of current technology and practice? I think outcomes based. That's a really tough thing to do, right? If someone has only worked in one system for the last 30 or 40 years, if they're only used to working on paper and pencil, it's hard to sort of show them the vision for how technology can change their lives because the number one fear is, am I going to get replaced?

00:11:44:08 - 00:12:10:01
Unknown
The number one fear is, is technology going to take my job and what am I going to do? So we've run into situations where well-meaning folks like these don't give us all of the information. They withhold information. They they obfuscate stuff, but not not in a malicious way. They just they're just afraid. So how do we guide these employees or our staff members on the on the client side?

00:12:10:03 - 00:12:45:07
Unknown
Number one, you need you need a clear mandate from the top levels of the organization saying this is a project that everyone's invested in. Council commissioned the city management, mayor's office, all the directors, everyone is behind this project and we're going to push this through to you, make sure that that doesn't become just an executive level push that your client management is translating that into meaningful sort of action steps for people that will actually be using these newer systems.

00:12:45:08 - 00:13:17:07
Unknown
And then our job as consultants becomes showing them what a new system might do, what modern systems are capable of doing, how that doesn't mean that you're going to lose your job because that's never number one, especially in our clientele. Governments don't lay people off very, very rarely does that happen. So the point is always to to make these processes more efficient, to find other uses for great talent that are currently bogged down by the lack of technology or what have you.

00:13:17:09 - 00:13:47:15
Unknown
So showing them what new tech can do, tying it to outcomes and tying it to sort of human tendencies to build legacies or leave the place that you come to work at better than when you found it. You know, if you're an older generation that's about to retire, we treat that as this is your chance to build a legacy, leave a legacy behind of of how you improve things for the place that you worked at.

00:13:47:17 - 00:14:07:23
Unknown
If you're brand new into the workforce, this is your chance to to set things up the way you want it to. So lots of different ways to bring people forward because at the end of the day, these are not technology projects that they are. The end result is a system that helps you do things better. But they are largely people projects.

00:14:08:00 - 00:14:39:10
Unknown
They're largely change management projects. And if you don't treat people well, these projects don't go well. So. And of course, then there are the people that that, you know, want. There's nothing else worse than then dragging them into the future. So all of the above techniques can be used? Lexi asked. Education on tech transformations is so important in elected leaders who get it should do a better job of helping the public understand the investments they're making.

00:14:39:12 - 00:15:04:13
Unknown
A lot of the public would support this money being spent if they could understand how it makes lives easier. That was a statement. Great statement. Let's. But then she asks, how does employing, employing organizational organizational change management practices tie in to this? It's huge. I mean, there's whole areas of practice that that are built around OCM organizational change management.

00:15:04:14 - 00:15:42:16
Unknown
You need to constantly tell people what's going on, how it's important to them, and how they are part of something larger than themselves. Because change. Change is scary. Change is it's it's uncomfortable. And again, doing something different than you've always been accustomed to is is extremely nerve wracking. So organizational change management has several different techniques to communicate well, communicate often, communicate in different ways, give people access to the information without them having to ask.

00:15:42:16 - 00:16:14:20
Unknown
It particularly is very important. So lots of great work. You know, I encourage you to go look at process. I want to follow directors. Andrew Hayes is an expert. He is certified in in the process methodology for change management. And we employ that quite often on large or small scale ERP implementations. Clay Brooks says What advice do you have for somebody who wants to make a career pivot and get into consulting?

00:16:14:22 - 00:16:44:18
Unknown
what advice do I have for people that want to do consulting? Learn about it first. I mean, this is not for the faint of heart. It's not it's not easy. You know, clients are consultants to solve really difficult problems. And not just technology. They're management problems. They are organizational problems. They are business process problems. And it's not that they can solve them themselves.

00:16:44:18 - 00:17:14:08
Unknown
They have day jobs, too. They may have tried several different things. They may have run into political issues. So they've probably tried everything before. They bring a consultant in. And as a consultant, your job is to not be an expert at one thing. You're a generalist. You may be doing an ERP project, but there's so many aspects of management theory and organizational design and business process that go into ERP consulting.

00:17:14:08 - 00:17:36:00
Unknown
For example, if you're doing IT consulting or active strategic planning, there's several different ways that you're training in accounting or finance or h.r. Come into play when you're doing an active strategic plan because at the level that we're at which we do at strategic plans, it's not necessarily the nuts and bolts of technology. We're looking at your organization as a whole.

00:17:36:02 - 00:17:57:20
Unknown
We're looking at where you want to go. We're looking at your practices, your current technologies, and what's going to take you to that next level that you think you should be at, that you're aiming at. So consulting is not just for technology majors, it's not just for finance majors. It's not just for h.R. Majors, technology, the best consulting.

00:17:57:22 - 00:18:31:17
Unknown
And if I said technology policy, i mean, consulting, the best consultants are those that are generalists that are curious about things that then become experts at maybe one or two different workstreams within consulting. But to start off some of our some of the best consultants I've ever met or worked with have had varied backgrounds. They've been design majors, they've been organizational design majors, they've been music majors, they've been they've gone to pre-med and then decided to do consulting.

00:18:31:17 - 00:18:56:19
Unknown
So curiosity, a thick skin which develops over time because, you know, we're constantly put into situations where it's fraught with risk and failure. So you have to get up and brush yourself off and move on and take on the next challenge. So what advice do I have for somebody, somebody to get into consulting? Do it? It's very rewarding.

00:18:56:19 - 00:19:18:15
Unknown
I've only done consulting for the last 20 years. It's extremely rewarding. And if you're the kind of person that is interested in everything at the same time and not afraid to fail, you definitely need to do it. And and if you're bored easily, consulting might be for you. So it was a call. We're always looking for people like that.

00:19:18:17 - 00:19:49:08
Unknown
Great questions from from the audience. I'm going to move on to the next one from our prospect that we got asked. So they're asking us what different approaches will will we we take to make their project successful. And the project is it's a mid-sized county and they want to replace their current ERP system. So what approach will we take to make this project successful?

00:19:49:10 - 00:20:12:12
Unknown
And then what accountability measures can be taken to make this project successful in terms of scheduled budget staff resource allocation, what can you and the county do to ensure a successful project from evaluation to implementation? I'll take the last part of this first. I think the first piece is having a common vision, right? What can we do to ensure that this is successful?

00:20:12:12 - 00:20:37:06
Unknown
This is the this is the county's project, This is your project. And we're we're putting our necks on the line as consultants because when things go wrong, obviously we should be blamed first. It's our fault. But if we don't start the project with a common intent, with with a feeling of teamwork and understanding exactly who's doing what, we're signing off on the wrong foot.

00:20:37:06 - 00:20:56:21
Unknown
That's number one. We have to communicate together, set parameters, set communications plans, know what the budgets are, know what, who's in charge of what part of the project. And that falls on the project manager and the and the program manager office. Right. That's something that we do for our clients and, and the different approaches to make projects successful.

00:20:56:21 - 00:21:29:04
Unknown
Really, they're different flavors of the same approach. Right? And it comes down to communication, effective project management, change management, making sure that there are no surprises. We don't like surprises our clients for sure. And also our our our goal is to make sure that that everyone is communicated to at all times in multiple formats because we've had issues or run into situations where email newsletters and status reports weren't being read because you know, there were too many.

00:21:29:06 - 00:21:59:16
Unknown
And we like to overcommunicate, which which is a big part of our job because we don't want there to be any sliver of doubt in anything that's going on. So that's that. There are different approaches and it all boils down to effective project management, effective communications and effective stakeholder management and expectation management. There's a lot of jargon that gets spoken about and key words and big words thrown out during projects like these.

00:21:59:16 - 00:22:22:23
Unknown
So you need to make sure that, you know, ERP means the same thing to you that it means to the client. You need to make sure that business process map means the same thing to you as it does to, you know, the finance department. So making sure that you're cognizant of of what you're saying, what the meaning is and our people on the same page is extremely important.

00:22:23:01 - 00:22:39:02
Unknown
And then everything kind of falls around it. Aaron, welcome to the show. Aaron says What are some key indicators that a state or local agency is a candidate for an ERP renovation? Great question.

00:22:39:04 - 00:23:06:20
Unknown
The obvious one is when, you know, when was the last time you implemented in ERP system? If it's 20 years ago and if it's on premise and it's a product that is out of support from the vendors that they bought it from, that's obvious. They need to move on it pretty quickly, right? The non-obvious ones tend to be where the system itself is.

00:23:06:22 - 00:23:33:15
Unknown
It's not that old. It's been migrated to the cloud. They are on a SaaS platform, but it doesn't work for them, right? When you ask questions like how how efficient is are your processes and they're telling you they're still doing purchase orders on paper and pencil. There's still printing out reports and they're still running into issues where, you know, there's overspending, money that wasn't in the budget.

00:23:33:17 - 00:24:01:11
Unknown
They're they're running into issues where people don't have the right kind of credentials or are or approval thresholds. You know, then, you know, the line of questioning then becomes. It sounds like it. It's not set up right. Maybe you need a re implementation, right. If it's a product you implemented within the last five years and it doesn't work for you, you're still using the old system, you're still running parallel.

00:24:01:13 - 00:24:40:05
Unknown
You have a plethora of Excel sheets around that do the actual work, and then you stick the final results into your ERP system. There is no workflow, and that's another indicator that they might be a candidate, but this only happens through through dialog and conversation when when the RFP comes out that we respond to. Yeah, obviously they're looking for an ERP solution, but a lot a lot of times clients don't think they're a candidate for any early replacement, that they've sunk too much money into the system, that they have to make it work.

00:24:40:07 - 00:25:03:08
Unknown
And that's a fallacy, right? There's several different ways of avoiding that situation. And it starts with a good implementation, a good selection process. If you just bought something without doing your requirements analysis, if you implemented it but with no help, you know, without, you know, buying the extra help from either the software vendor or from a consulting firm like us.

00:25:03:10 - 00:25:35:16
Unknown
And you just stuck it in there and it doesn't work for you. That's that's troublesome, right? And now you're stuck for a little bit because you just you've just paid all of the SAS fees, you've paid the implementation fees and it still doesn't work. Then you might need to do a re implementation. But given that we work with state and local agencies, I would say that almost all state, local agencies need to be asked these questions and so that we can help them.

00:25:35:18 - 00:26:15:14
Unknown
Thanks so. Next question is how do we do ERP projects? How do we facilitate onsite and virtual consultation during the first phase, which is evaluation of processes and practices? And then second part of that is how will stakeholder feedback influence your procedures and recommendations? We prefer being on site. We love being on site. And I'm glad that we've kind of, you know, opened up since the COVID era and people are traveling and going to client sites and we're doing the same.

00:26:15:16 - 00:26:44:20
Unknown
We don't like to leave, you alone with the vendor because it's our job to protect your interest as as a client that is trusting us to tell you what what is what. And and it's fair because it's your day job, but it's not your day job is not ERP consulting, right? It's our day job. So, you know, it's our job to tell you how this goes and what happens next and what are the pitfalls and risks on taking this project on.

00:26:44:22 - 00:27:06:10
Unknown
So we like being on site now will do that when we do discovery sessions will be on site for process mapping sessions. We will be on site when there are vendor demos that will be on site for key configuration meetings and when the vendor sends the teams onsite to actually do the work and build a system, we'll be there.

00:27:06:12 - 00:27:47:01
Unknown
And how do we get stakeholder feedback? How rather, how does stakeholder feedback influence your procedures and recommendations? I'd say we we take it into it informs a lot of our practice, really, right? Because you know your business best. You know the organization you've been there as a city or county employee. So we lean on your intel and your institutional knowledge and tribal knowledge to to sort of tell us how we should do this and or at least advises on what things should change as far as our standard practice goes.

00:27:47:01 - 00:28:15:04
Unknown
Because in a project like an ERP replacement, a lot of times it's the people, it's the politics, it's the it's it's the stories behind. And like I said, the tribal knowledge of why certain decisions were made that are key to understanding how things are going to change in the future. You can go in there and say, we're going to do a to be process map for you and rip apart everything that people have worked for really hard over 20, 30 years.

00:28:15:06 - 00:28:45:19
Unknown
It takes some nuance to do that. So stakeholder feedback is really important and it's one of our superpowers is we're we're really good at making people feel at ease, not threatened and really taking their lead on on things like that culture of the organization. So that feedback is really, really critical. Meghan's question is Special Breed, which is all encompassing solutions, thoughts?

00:28:45:21 - 00:29:15:04
Unknown
It depends. It really depends on what your current setup is, what your what your functions are, how specialized some of your functions and departments are. For example, are you a Tennessee Valley Authority power reseller? As a city? Do you supply power that you buy in wholesale from TVA? There's a whole other reporting element and layer two making decisions like that.

00:29:15:04 - 00:29:42:13
Unknown
And we've have clients specifically in that area. Best of breed solutions. If you're a smaller agency, all encompassing ERP might be might be better for you. If you're a larger agency with specialized departments, functions, processes, you may want to look at best of breed. But the point is when you when you add all ties down to business process analysis and requirements definition, what are your requirements telling you you need?

00:29:42:15 - 00:30:08:05
Unknown
Put it out there in an RFP and see what the vendor community offers you. And when you when you release an RFP, make sure it says we'll accept both, right? We'll accept an all encompassing product or suite that you have. Mr. Vendor, that only, you know, one product does it all or will accept best of breed, singular, very specialized products that that can also integrate with other products.

00:30:08:07 - 00:30:39:10
Unknown
So so best of breed versus all encompassing. It really depends on who you are and what your situation is right now. Katie asks, How does a variable bring value to ERP projects in representing the client as a program manager or organizing a full PMO? Great question. It's as one of our core offerings ERP projects in general, right? We help clients untangle the Christmas lights.

00:30:39:12 - 00:31:05:00
Unknown
If you are running a system that has been cobbled together over 30 years ago, it's so intertwined with your business practices that you don't know where to start. It's like a ball of yarn. Are you going to pull on something that's going to make things worse so you can't just yank things out, throw them away as much as you'd like to, and implement a new system right away.

00:31:05:02 - 00:31:27:17
Unknown
It takes time. It takes careful effort and it takes some deliberate steps. That's where we come in. We help you identify where you need to start, what the sequence of events should be, what the risks are, what might break, where you might run into some issues, how much this thing might cost. And we'll stick with you to the end of the implementation.

00:31:27:19 - 00:31:54:20
Unknown
And and in the implementation phase, we help you set up the project management office because again, the clients we work with you are cfos. You are h.r. Directors who are mayors and city managers. You have a portfolio of things you're responsible for and erp implementation is another full time job. Make no jokes about it. This takes full time, attention and work to see through to the other end.

00:31:54:22 - 00:32:22:06
Unknown
So we've had clients that have hired temp workers to do certain pieces of the project, or we have had clients that have hired temp workers to backfill on the actual day to day work of the organization. Like, for example, we had one client that that hired some temps to staff the accounts, payables department, while the accounts, payables, clerks and officers became part of the project team.

00:32:22:06 - 00:32:48:12
Unknown
So they could really shape how this project, how the AP function should be configured in the new system. On our part, we we staff the PMO, we become the overall leaders of the project where you have vendors, we are overseeing vendors, we are overseeing suppliers, we are overseeing everything that goes on with the project, especially in the timeline budgets, invoices that come in from the vendors, things like that.

00:32:48:13 - 00:33:24:05
Unknown
Almost like a general contractor for for, you know, a building project. So almost the same. Next question is what are some important factors that government agencies should consider when selecting in ERP consultant? I think experience is one, but I think it's often misrepresented, meaning it's misunderstood experience does not mean number of years. Experience does not mean how long this company has been in existence.

00:33:24:05 - 00:33:55:02
Unknown
Experience means how recently have you done a difficult project and what was the outcome and how often have you done that in the last two years? I think it's critical because if you look at a software provider or a consulting firm that has been around for 50 years, things are a lot different then all you have is a legacy and all you have is a stack of client names that you've done work with.

00:33:55:04 - 00:34:20:10
Unknown
How does that equate to quality? But when you're when you're selecting any RPA consultant, if I if I was a mayor or a CFO, I would look for the company that is nimble, that can move as quickly as we want them to move, that is not bogged down by bureaucracy because they are too large. And I would look for innovation and innovation comes out of things that are newish, right.

00:34:20:11 - 00:34:49:11
Unknown
Why was Kodak not able to captivate the digital camera market? Right. It's a question you need to ask yourself. What happened to Blockbuster? Why aren't they the Netflix? So longevity doesn't always mean better, right? That's one thing. Second, the people right again you don't you don't really want people that have done this for a long, long, long time because you're coming in with baggage of how things happened 20 years ago.

00:34:49:11 - 00:35:15:11
Unknown
It's a new world. This is SAS Cloud era. AI's coming in and companies like Avira are at the forefront of thinking through things like that. We're not tied to deliverables and templates from 20 years ago because we are constantly evolving, constantly changing things internally and for our clients. And that's the other thing I would look for. So to summarize, are you nimble, Are you innovative, and can you move as fast as we want you to?

00:35:15:13 - 00:35:50:00
Unknown
And are you going to make us fill out 100 forms to get some minor changes done or answer a question? So those are the things I would look for. Jake Holland asks and piggyback off of Meghan's question How can you ensure functioning integrations between all systems defined in the ERP? In the RFP, if you're considering multiple solutions for each type of system, how can you ensure functioning integrations?

00:35:50:01 - 00:36:16:13
Unknown
Yeah, this is something, Jake, you nailed it. I mean, it's a very important question. You need to you need to define the integration points in your requirements because any modern system should be able to provide APIs. And I'm simplifying this completely, but APIs today make anything, talk to anything. And if I'm wrong, vendor friends put it in the chat box here.

00:36:16:15 - 00:36:42:22
Unknown
If you're if you're a vendor with a product that is worth its while, you've got APIs that will allow, if not real time interaction between two systems. Definitely at the data layer, you can you can for sure integrate multiple solutions. And we've seen we've seen it right? We we use several reviews, several different ERP systems that do this today.

00:36:43:00 - 00:37:13:03
Unknown
And they're not they're not the small I mean, small or large, you should be able to integrate with with anything. So that's why Best of Breed is sort of becoming more popular, because you're not you're not relegated to silos. Now, we have a client that is implementing Workday with six other systems that are very specialized, and they all will integrate because that is part of our requirements as part of the contract, and they'll all integrate with with Workday.

00:37:13:03 - 00:37:44:22
Unknown
So it's not a pie in the sky thing anymore, and nor do you need to build specific integrations between systems. Again, if you pick the right vendors, if they're if they're good, they'll have APIs that allow you to do that. How does Avira work against the more established companies? The narrative that more established equates to better, you know, our our job is to keep getting better at what we do.

00:37:45:03 - 00:38:10:19
Unknown
And we have we've we've been around for almost a decade and we go up against the best and we beat them not as often as we would like, but it will get there. Right. And the more established companies, like I said, all if all they have is a is a larger, more established quote unquote more established older brand.

00:38:10:21 - 00:38:45:22
Unknown
That doesn't scare me because that's all they have. We know we do better work. So the clients that have chosen us over more established brands will attest to that. The clients that have fired the more established first firms then hire us in their place will attest to that. So it's a matter of time that we become more established, and then our challenge will be to not become mundane and run of the mill like the more established firms.

00:38:46:00 - 00:39:23:15
Unknown
All right. Next question that came in the county, like most counties in the state, are uniquely structured with separation of powers and duties, including an elected board of supervisors for five constitutional officers, Circuit Court, Commissioner of Revenue, Commonwealth Attorney, Sheriff, Treasurer and other quasi local government, local state agencies that interface with the state. How what experience do we have in overseeing every project given the constraints of public work in counties like this?

00:39:23:16 - 00:40:00:00
Unknown
This this is this is all we do, very experienced. I mean, we've we've dealt with several counties that have had large legislative bodies and elected offices. And with that comes politics, right. And ERP implementation that touches every department within the county, that includes the school system, sheriff's office, Some very powerful bodies need to be taken into confidence because if this is something that's coming from the mayor's office and the mayor and the sheriff don't get along right, it's not going to go far.

00:40:00:02 - 00:40:33:09
Unknown
If the school system hates the guts of the, you know, central finance office, this isn't going to go far. So we need to read a read the room really carefully. One, we have to work towards making sure that no matter what the political differences, that all the powers that be are aligned behind this one thing. So finding out what's important to each agency, finding out what's important to each elected official, to each large body, political or not, is is really important.

00:40:33:09 - 00:40:59:08
Unknown
It's part of the consultant's job to find out, to smooth things over, to make sure people are on the same page, and that at least for this one thing, they're pulling in the right direction in the same direction. So we've done work with several counties successfully that have had constitutional elected officers that interfaced with the state on several different things, and we've put them live on on ERP implementations.

00:40:59:10 - 00:41:29:21
Unknown
And it all comes down to to how well we work with people and how much time we spend on, you know, understanding the client and understanding what makes people tick. So again, a large part of what we do and large part of your implementations is people management, strategic planning, project management. And then there's technology that that's also there.

00:41:29:23 - 00:42:02:19
Unknown
All right. Next question is how will you ensure delivery of project activities, key milestones on time and within budget? This and this is this is one thing we take very seriously. I mean, if we have one main value, it's no surprises, right? So that leads you to believe that we do a really good job of planning. We do a really good job of project management, of budget, management, of communications, and therefore we don't miss deadlines, period.

00:42:02:21 - 00:42:26:14
Unknown
So when we deliver value to our clients, it's always on time, it's always on budget. Unless there's something that, you know is out of left field. We didn't anticipate it. Client then disclosed a certain piece of scope. It wasn't included at contracting, but it's included now things come up that we pivot for. But it's not it's never a surprise, surprise for the main scope.

00:42:26:19 - 00:42:53:04
Unknown
So we ensure project activities are delivered on time within budget because it's it's within our interest to do that. Right. We're consultants. We don't want to come live in your organization forever. We want to get the job done and be gone on to the next thing. So our metrics internally are very reliant on project delivery at the highest quality within budget on time at the highest levels of satisfaction to the client.

00:42:53:06 - 00:43:27:03
Unknown
And that's how we deliver on on our project. Give us an example of how you might benchmark the county's processes and opportunities for improvement against other recognized public sector governments and best practices, as well as ensure that solutions recommended compliment those best practices as the county's legal and regulatory requirements. This is a great question. I mean, there's best practices that are best to me and best practices that might not be best practices to your county.

00:43:27:03 - 00:43:49:11
Unknown
So again, I'm going to use the word the term. It depends. You can just take blanket best practices that was that were published in some magazine or a website and say, let's apply these to your county. So it all comes down to distilling what's right for you as a county or a city or an organization. Which of these best practices are applicable to you?

00:43:49:13 - 00:44:15:12
Unknown
Which of these other governments that, you know might be forward thinking ahead of its time in certain areas might be comparable to you and county governments, especially in in rural areas or semi-rural unique animals? You can't just apply blanket best practices to every county, but the the good point is that we show up prepared to share those best practices with you.

00:44:15:14 - 00:44:39:13
Unknown
We have internal knowledge banks, we have internal, you know, stories and our own tribal knowledge that we can bring to the table that tell you what these benchmarks are and what might be useful to you. So really defining what, what, what benchmarking means to you, what best practices means to you, is important before you go down this path of looking at what's out there and what's good for you.

00:44:39:15 - 00:45:04:10
Unknown
The key element is understanding business processes for yourself, envisioning what you need to do for your for yourself, for your agency, the next 3 to 5 years, and then going out and looking at what in that direction, what might the best practices be? Because otherwise universal best practices is to make the universe of people coming up with best practices is too big.

00:45:04:12 - 00:45:31:04
Unknown
And with technology changing as rapidly as it is with the advent of AI, what is a best practice? So. So all of this needs to be taken with a with a real grain of salt. And that's why the profession of consulting exists. It's our job to stay up to date with best practices. It's our job to stay up to date with who the leading government agencies are that are of a comparable size.

00:45:31:04 - 00:45:55:14
Unknown
What are they doing that might be applicable to you so that we can bring that knowledge to you on day one? And that's how we are useful in, you know, in one of the many different ways. Tell us about the change management process. How do you address that discomfort to change how what role will you play and what role in the county play?

00:45:55:16 - 00:46:25:15
Unknown
So we talked briefly about change management earlier. I think I think defining these roles is critical upfront. There's three different roles. One is the project sponsor, which is the county's, you know, you might call it the selection panel, the steering committee, the project sponsor ship is a group that makes decisions on behalf of the county when you're trying to change things, not just the system, micro decisions, how are you going to change the thresholds of purchasing?

00:46:25:17 - 00:46:44:08
Unknown
Do you need to change how you track commodity codes within your purchasing system? Do you need to change your charter of accounts or an element of your chart of accounts these are decisions that can't just be made by a consultant or by the software vendor we need, and then we need inputs from the client side, and that's the sponsorship body.

00:46:44:10 - 00:47:06:02
Unknown
When there's an invariably an inevitable disagreement, a fight where two department heads are butting heads about how do you do a certain process that needs to be a tiebreaker, That's the sponsor. That's the one person that can break that down and make that decision. So that's the sponsorship role. Second is the project management team. That's us. What are we do?

00:47:06:07 - 00:47:28:15
Unknown
We ensure that everyone, everything is is working like clockwork, that the vendors are doing what they're supposed to do, that they're delivering to you what their what, what we've bought from them, that they're not charging you and sending invoices for things that have not been delivered or delivered wrong and generally making sure that your best interests is taken care of.

00:47:28:17 - 00:47:56:07
Unknown
Now, that's a very simplified definition of program management and it can expand, right? We can also supply temporary resources, we can supply business analysts and and subject matter experts that help you through this very critical process. So those are the roles and and we talked about change management and how do you get people to move forward. Again, it's number one is stop treating people like people.

00:47:56:08 - 00:48:35:10
Unknown
You can have all of the acronyms for OCM procedures or what have you, and you can send out emails and communications all day. But if you're not treating people as people, if you're not understanding that what you're talking about is their lives and talking about changing their lives, you're not a good consultant and you know that That's how we go about this real deep care for the people that are on the other end of your best practices in your in your PMP and OCM jargon.

00:48:35:12 - 00:48:55:09
Unknown
With what ERP solutions do you have experience given that one solution may not be the best solution, how have you managed projects that have incorporated multiple solutions? Have you taken a phased implementation approach by department or area? How are you able to ensure that you do not have a preference for a vendor? I'm going to take the last one first.

00:48:55:11 - 00:49:29:04
Unknown
We do not and we'll never have a preference for a vendor. We are and an agnostic, independent third party that we don't take sides because that's the role that we are in. We want to be the client's trusted advisor because, you know, as, as a CFO or a C HRO or a CIO, you're getting ten emails a day or more saying their product, the software product that speaking to you is the best thing since sliced bread.

00:49:29:06 - 00:49:58:11
Unknown
How do you know what's best for you too? If we go at it from a biased perspective, we lose credibility. So our job is to remain independent. Our job is to remain unbiased and agnostic. When we try to find you the best fit. That doesn't mean that we don't know what's going on in the market. We know a lot because it's it's in our best interest to one stay on top of things, on on what products are being offered, what what functionalities are being offered.

00:49:58:11 - 00:50:18:14
Unknown
So we, we sit on a bunch of advisory boards, again, from a clients perspective, we work with clients so closely we are able to tell our software vendor friends what what the what the client is looking for, what they want and in a sense their best interest to come to us to give us demos of their best, you know, best new features, best new products.

00:50:18:16 - 00:50:46:10
Unknown
And there's a continuous dialog that goes on again while being completely independent. So yeah, we'll never have a preference for any vendor really depends on on what's the best fit for you. We talked about best of breed solutions and interfaces and let's talk about the next piece of this question. How what's the phased implementation approach by department or area IT?

00:50:46:12 - 00:51:16:16
Unknown
We've done it several different ways. If you want to implement finance first or isp role later, we've done that. If you want to implement finance h.r. Payroll at the same time we've done that typically what happens is at the beginning of the project, depending on which vendor you've chosen, you will determine what the sequence is like. The vendor will show up and say, okay, this should go first, then this, then this.

00:51:16:18 - 00:51:45:22
Unknown
But is it right for you? So then our job becomes creating that that real work plan on on what product suites are going to go live when. And that happens, working with the client and the vendor. So sequencing and the phasing of this really depends on on your unique situation. What do you believe is the single most area important area for the services you provide that makes your ERP projects more successful?

00:51:46:00 - 00:52:12:14
Unknown
What is your value proposition and why should we select you? This was a great question. I think. I think one of the biggest reasons is, is we're we're smaller than our competition by design. We choose carefully, choose the clients we want to work with, and the clients that want to work with us don't want to be one of a thousand clients for for the firm they're working with.

00:52:12:16 - 00:52:47:01
Unknown
They don't want to be on the back burner. They they want a firm that is nimble and innovative and will take them to finish line quickly without getting bogged down in bureaucracy and paperwork. So that's that's one of our biggest value propositions. And then the more value based value proposition is really that that our people at a very or not just ERP experts, we take great pride in in taking care of our clients.

00:52:47:01 - 00:53:18:22
Unknown
That is our number one value deep care for our clients. And that just doesn't mean the project we care about the people that work at these slightly at these clients and that helps in several different ways. Building rapport is extremely important in a project like in your replacement. Building trust is is extremely important. So we differentiate ourselves by being real value based people that really care about not just the work that we do, but the people that we work for.

00:53:19:00 - 00:53:52:21
Unknown
And that has paid off in spades. It's every project has been successful, not only from an ERP sort of deliverable perspective, but but from a making people's lives better perspective. That's our core philosophy and we'll stand by. And that that really is what makes us okay. Last question. We only know what we know. Most of us around this table have not been through a technology project of this magnitude.

00:53:52:22 - 00:54:18:20
Unknown
What questions have we not asked you that you were expecting? Or what do you believe is paramount in understanding? Paramount to understand during our deliberations? And that question stumped me at the time, and it's stumping me now. I think these people, this this, this kind, they became a client. We won this job. They did a great job of due diligence.

00:54:18:20 - 00:54:52:07
Unknown
They were very interested in what we had to say. It wasn't a checkbox sort of presentation, and it was very tightly run. It was it was within purchasing regulations and it was it was a great dialog. They brought a cross-section of people to do the selection. There were there was a CFO or CIO, a couple of representatives from the Board of Supervisors, which is the legislature, someone from the school, someone from chair of a good cross section.

00:54:52:07 - 00:55:19:06
Unknown
So we could really get into a dialog and answer any questions from any angle. So they did a great job. I think it was one of the best interviews I've done as a team and so the opposite of that tends to be where you are not allowed to ask questions yourself or have dialog. You're taking canned questions and you're going through the motions as if as if the selection's already been done.

00:55:19:07 - 00:55:39:04
Unknown
You've made up your mind about who you want to go with. And here we are jumping on two flights at three in the morning to get to you to show you our our presence. But anyway, questions that were not asked, I don't think they left anything on the table. All the important questions were asked. And again, that they became a client.

00:55:39:04 - 00:56:08:21
Unknown
It was its latest client actually was we're about to sign off on that contract, but I don't see any other questions that have come in or that I missed. Let me double check. And I think that is it. If you have any other questions, I am available on all of our social channels and by email or website, just reach out on LinkedIn.

00:56:08:23 - 00:56:34:04
Unknown
We are here to serve you. We're here for dialog, we're here for a good debate and come find us at a AveroAdvisors.com. And again, all of our social channels LinkedIn, Facebook, what have you. We're out there. I hope everyone has a great week and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you. That's a wrap on today's episode. Untangled.

00:56:34:06 - 00:57:02:00
Unknown
For more exciting insights, remember you can find Vero on YouTube at a Avero Advisors and other social media platforms. And don't miss out on our weekly newsletter on LinkedIn, where we delve even deeper into digital transformation. Interested in a career to Vero, simply visit our career center on our website to see how you can join our team. Thank you for joining us on Untangled your reliable source for understanding the intricate crossroads of technology and local governance.

00:57:02:02 - 00:57:02:23
Unknown
Until next time.