Customers demand you operate at their speed, not yours
Can you provide continuous innovation and new products with increasing velocity and better quality?
Are new competitors releasing Rev 4 but you’re still working on Rev 1.5 and de-scoping to get something in the market?
Is a combination of silo culture, inflexible systems, and historical controls inhibiting responsiveness and growth?
Do you need to reduce time to realizing revenue?
Since 1995, Return on Efficiency has tangibly, and measurably, helped our clients innovate, transform and operationalize to market speeds.
Our senior-level consultants and advisers discretely serve Management in Capital Markets, Banking, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Insurance, Technology, and New Product Innovations organizations.
- INNOVATION, NEW PRODUCTS AND STRATEGIC APPLICATIONS
- TURNAROUNDS + INTERIM LEADERSHIP
- PROJECT + PROCESS RESCUE
- ASSESSMENTS + ROADMAPS
INNOVATION, NEW PRODUCTS AND STRATEGIC APPLICATIONS
We have implemented Enterprise level as well as departmental and ‘spot’ solutions of new systems, products, processes and operating business units. As operating executives who have sold, implemented, supported and used combined technology and process dependent products and services, we understand both sides of the company-customer relationship.
- Product Development and New Systems Integration are all about interrelated and interdependent details. We minimize or eliminate technical and operational debt for expediency’s sake.
- End-to-end combinations of technology, processes, culture, compliance and policies create sustainable operating entities. Voice of the Customer delivers fungible simplicity based on the user experience.
- Business Models, Capacity Planning, TCO, scalability, privacy and governance are not afterthoughts.
- We leverage our hands-on expertise to build sustainable, lowest possible cost/highest customer satisfaction operations. Our highly detailed and proven customer management services prevent product hijacking.
- Our hands-on sales expertise helps in first sales and first implementations, that point where reality kicks in, requiring quick response by Developers, Product Managers, Brand Mangers and Marketing.
- We effectively lead complex systems integration/implementation initiatives.
New! Our P&C BI Solution!
TURNAROUNDS + INTERIM LEADERSHIP
Technology-centric companies and operations go through stages of maturity – they either evolve or become irrelevant. RoE has developed an extensive Organizational Maturity Diagnostic tool based on over 30 years’ experience starting, growing and leading technology-centric organizations and companies.
- Business models, hiring criteria, management style and culture, customer alignment, product innovation cycles, and support requirements, all change over time. Start-up teams are rarely sufficiently experienced to deal with the details involved in daily profitable operations.
- Sales and business development are essential functions, each with a specialized body of experience and best practice knowledge.
- We assist a founder in moving to into a CTO or other significant but non-Line Management position, while maintaining their motivation and stature; we’re also excellent Executive Mentors.
- We address instances of inwardly focused employees, who may laugh at or mock customers, making sure you don’t miss the next megatrend.
PROJECT + PROCESS RESCUE
IT-centric projects can easily turn upside-down. Systems are increasingly a powerful revenue growth engine and, therefore, an upside-down project or IT unit affects EBIDTA and the customer experience.
- Many projects wrongly assume ‘Agile’ requires less discipline and pre-thought about desired outcomes and requirements. Perfection is in the customer’s mind, not the developers. We manage that process.
- A vendor may underestimate implementation due to sales pressure, or a contract for enhancements may not protect your rights and future needs.
- Many vendors take quick and dirty shortcuts, trading speed (and their limited range of knowledge) for future scalability and long-term adaptability as you evolve over time. We ensure thoughtful, effective and sustainable action plans.
- We provide careful strategies to ensure a vendor’s preferred systems integrator protects you more than they protect their vendor relationship. Ownership of Intellectual Property and thorough levels of testing even the outlying conditions ensures you get the correct outcome.
- We bring your organization’s IT and business sides together, focused on timely delivery of meaningful functionality, especially in complex Enterprise IT environments.
RoE neither resells nor accepts finder’s fees. Therefore, our sole point of interest is you and your program of work.
ASSESSMENTS + ROADMAPS
In-house systems and operating models often exist for 10+ years, while technology, on average, changes every 12-48 months and SaaS vendors can enhance or launch weekly. Periodically re-aligning your application and process portfolio is essential to ensure your customers are not disappointed or you are unable to rapidly respond to market directions. Economic cycles require constant realignment of Revenues with OpEx and CapEx to maintain proper size, agility and profitability.
- We benchmark your systems, processes and total costs per revenue dollar against the current state of the art, as well as your future business goals/projections.
- We determine if your in-house developed systems, and enhanced licensed applications, all have a valid and effective architecture, permitting accurate cost/time estimates for enhancements and fixes, evidenced by overall production level stability.
- We lead the replacement vendor evaluations, rating, recommendation and negotiation processes.
- We provide a roadmap for your IT unit to follow or for us to assist in implementing.
- We assess your organizations various categories of spend, enlisting a variety of specialized resources, as required, to provide a go-forward organization and expense map, as well as concrete and specific ares to cut costs without sacrificing agility. We then execute on the mutually agreed to plan.
What We Do
Since 1995, our clients have consistently received sustainable improvements in financial, operational and project performance, often in complex and fluid situations. RoE’s ethic is to deliver hands-on specialized experience, with the foresight for success, the skill to strategize, and the hands-on experience to perform and deliver. RoE makes strategic vision real.
We specialize in companies, business processes and projects where technology is a key driver of revenue and the customer experience:
- Turnarounds and Rescue/Restart with RoE as Interim Management or as Program Manager and Trusted Advisor.
- Our Key Initiative Leadership services, including technology product development from conception to launch and first sale, company and product roadmaps, strategic systems implementation and operational improvements.
- Our Operational and Strategic services, such as Due Diligence, pre-transaction greenfielding, post-transaction planning and execution.
- RoE Neutral Trusted Advisor service, operating a business during partner breakups and other transitions.
RoE’s experience base includes Property & Casualty and Health Insurers, SaaS and Software Vendors, Professional Services organizations, banks, Asset Managers, and manufacturers, both in the US and Globally. We frequently work within highly regulated industries.
RoE doesn’t read many case studies – we live the case studies.
For business insights, perspective, analysis and answers, Read our Blog
Why ROE
Leadership
Business today is complex, combining technology, services and innovative business models. Each of our colleagues as did our founder, Rich Eichen, backed into this crazy business from their field driven successes handling extreme situations. For example, Rich, as a young pup, worked for a major Financial Services Capital Markets Operations subsidiary, while getting his MBA at night. This wasn't a white shoe position - it was hands-on supervising processing hundreds of thousands of stock transfers, paying dividends and processing stock options and splits. He was quickly identified as their ``firefighter,`` the person who could take on a broken situation, re-strategize the vision of success, execute and operate.
Hard Work
Business today is complex, combining technology, services and innovative business models. Each of our collogues understands the interdependency of culture, systems, process, governance and monetization.
Every RoE consultant is equally experienced, no nonsense, leads by example and is fully committed to both our clients and the challenges at hand. We all have the key traits our clients require under these circumstances. Yeah, we're smart; but more importantly, we're heat-tempered and possess dogged perseverance.
Expertise
SOFTWARE/SAAS, CLOUD VENDORS, {ROFESSIONAL SERVICES
- Innovation, New Product Roadmaps
- Gap/Fit Analysis with Remediation
- Go-To-Market and Customer Support
- Sales process linked to requisite infrastructure
- Professional Services and Revenue Delivery
- Customer Rescue
- Interim Leadership with greenfielding and backfill
- Effective stakeholder-focused Development Organization
- Market and Feasibility Research, Customer Feedback
- New Product Launches
- Cloud Strategy and Migration
- Business Models linked to tested Sales Process
- Moving to Agile/Hybrid culture, lean gates and processes
- Controlling cost per line of tested code
PMO CREATION/TUNING FOR LOW OVERHEAD EXECUTION
- Creation of SDLC artifacts/templates
- Definition of PMO review criteria
- New SLDC implementation
- Risk Management, Governance and Compliance
- Creation and execution of effective communication plans
- Stakeholder Involvement
- Converting PMO from reporting to Operations focus
- Demand Management aligned to Product Roadmaps/Strategic Plans
MANUFACTURING (EPA, FDA, DOD)
- ERP
- E-Commerce
- Supply Chain
- Maintenance and Field Operations
- Lean, Cycle Time Reduction
- Sustaining Improvements over time
- Governance Risk and Compliance
Financial Services (Banking, Brokerage, Asset Management/Custodian
- Revenue and Billing Management
- Retail and Investment Representative systems including accelerated on-boarding
- Commercial
- High Net Worth, including Household/Extended Relationship P/L
- Fix and Trade Management
- Reconciliation Ultility
- Shared Service COE
- Corporate Actions
- Manager Payouts
- AP, GL, AR, GRC
- CRM, SCRM
- Cloud and Mobile new applications and products
- Lean Operations
Insurance (P&C, Specialty Lines, A&H, REINSURANCE)
- Customer Self-Service Portals
- Carrier Portals
- Submissions-Rating Underwriting
- New Products Factory; Policy Administration
- Billing/AR and Distribution Management
- Claims (STP and high touch); Coinsurance
- Ceded, Treaty and Facultative Reinsurance Systems
- BI, Statutory Reporting, Financial Reporting, Big Data insights
- Mobile Applications
- Partner Ecosystems
- Lean Operations
- Governance, Risk and Compliance
- Mobile and Cloud based applications and products
Customer Results
Client Situation
A SaaS vendor was experiencing customer drop-offs (and decreasing revenues) not replaced by new subscribers. Senior Leadership recognized their need to transcend to the next level of vendor maturity. This included transforming the internal viewpoint from inward facing to outward/customer oriented.
RoE Approach
Working with Senor Leadership, RoE formed a blended team, reviewing their software applications and services suite, including benchmarking to competitors and incorporating the Voice of the Customer. RoE created and internally sold a customer-centric a vision of the market’s trajectory, created roadmap for both the products and the organization to attain the vision. This also included developing and implementing a new High Performance Culture and KPIs.
CLIENT’S BENEFITS
Despite some initial push-back, the client realized their applications suite needed significant refreshing and in some cases, replacement (based on RoE’s recommended replacement applications and renegotiated financial terms). A new customer oriented website, including white papers and product/service specification sheets, was well received in the market. A new position, Enterprise Architect/CTO was created to formalize the development process. ROE trained the entire employee base in the new culture, related KPIs and sales process.
ABOUT
I am a senior operating executive and Trusted Adviser, with over 25 years of operations improvement, Interim Management, turnarounds and crisis leadership. Since 1995 our firm, Return on Efficiency, LLC has materially contributed to the growth or turnaround of numerous companies, major initiatives, Divestitures, Acquisitions and IT organizations.
