Technology leaders recently came together virtually to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today. As remote work environments become the new norm, CIOs in the Minneapolis community discussed how to leverage new technologies to streamline a remote work environment, leveraging IT’s newfound influence for deeper business engagement and how to help each other adapt and overcome new business challenges.
SMC Squared CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Patricia Connolly and Ecolab former EVP & CIO Anil Arcalgud took the stage at the Evanta Minneapolis CIO Virtual Summit to discuss how to accelerate digital transformation with top talent in an increasingly remote world.
Ecolab, a Fortune 250 company, partnered with SMC Squared to build the Ecolab Digital Center in 2018. As a result, Ecolab has surpassed goals that were set to be achieved in four years in just two – by partnering with SMC to increase their digital capabilities and ultimately accelerate digital transformation globally.
Connolly and Arcalgud broke down the keys to their success in a formula that can be applied to all companies, regardless of industry and size. Here are the top takeaways from the conference and a look at what CIOs should consider as a part of their unique digital acceleration plan.
Identify the Why
Ecolab was looking for critical skill sets that could help accelerate their global model and employment capability. Their challenge was to stay relevant and drive change in every industry they served. Ecolab had to transform how they worked and what they delivered in order to provide the best service to their customers. What Ecolab quickly discovered was a limited talent pool within the US, low quality results, and high attrition with the traditional outsourcing models they were testing.
Are you experiencing similar challenges? Are you reviewing your current traditional outsourcing models and having difficulty with attrition? Here are three questions every CIO should be asking when you’re considering how to accelerate your company’s digital capabilities:
- Why do we need to accelerate?
- What are our biggest challenges?
- How quickly do we need to implement a plan?
Consider How to Grow Quickly and Effectively
After working with several IT vendors, Ecolab discovered that they weren’t able to identify the top talent needed to pull through their initiatives. They were experiencing exorbitant on-shore contract labor rates and needed to improve their global delivery model so that they could extend their current employees skill sets in order to accelerate their speed to market and scale quickly.
Enter SMC Squared, who stepped in to help fill the skills and competency gaps that existed within the organization. Through their Global Capability Center (GCC) model, SMC helped Ecolab to attract the digital talent needed and create an offshore center as an extension of their team. By focusing on putting their people first they were ultimately able to achieve a 91% employee retention rate. Through SMC's proven methods, we are able to build a team best fit for your workforce, train your leaders on how to get the best results from a global team, and define your growth, allowing for agility on a quarterly basis.
The Pathway to success: Owning Your Entity
Regardless of the size of the team or intricacies of each company’s needs, SMC Squared has proven success with the GCC methodology in place to optimize a company’s offshore strategy. For Ecolab, using a BOT model, they have been able to build and operate a GCC with the help of SMC while minimizing the risk and upfront cost that can be associated with the traditional outsourcing model. Over a three year period, they’ve worked with SMC to expand their teams and competencies, optimize costs and prepare for the opportunity to transition the center from SMC as their own entity.
The big question is: Will this methodology work for your company? And the answer is yes; regardless of the industry, size or unique technological skill sets, SMC Squared provides a refreshing alternative to traditional outsourcing methods that will work for any size corporation regardless of your company’s current outsourcing experience.
With the help of a trusted partner like SMC Squared, you should be able to start a successful Global Capability Center and be on the path to own the entity or work with SMC as a managed service within three months. If you have overseas operations and feel your leadership is already competent, SMC can also help on an a la carte services basis to enhance what you already have.
