Brad Gerick, Author at BluWave

Understanding Voice of Customer: Metrics, KPIs, Analytics

August 22, 2023 Brad Gerick

Customer-centricity is a business imperative, which makes understanding the voice of customer (VoC) critical to success. VoC insights provide a deep understanding of customer needs, preferences and pain points, guiding the strategic direction of a business.

The value of VoC, however, isn’t merely in its collection, but in the ability to quantify it using the right metrics, KPIs and analytics. By focusing on the metrics below, companies can track progress, identify trends and make data-driven decisions.

Not employing these metrics effectively could lead to misguided strategies and missed opportunities, underlining the need for expert advice on this critical subject.

Third-party resources, such as those BluWave connects you with, offer businesses the expertise to measure, analyze and make strategic use of VoC data. Having access to such proficiency could mean the difference between having a wealth of customer data and leveraging it for business growth. Let’s explore the potential of VoC data.

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Essential Voice of Customer (VoC) Metrics and KPIs

Understanding and implementing standard VoC metrics and KPIs is the first step toward a comprehensive customer-centric strategy.

READ MORE: Voice of Customer Methodologies

Keenan Kolinsky, BluWave’s co-head of research and operations, says working with specialized third parties can uncover insights the company wouldn’t be able to on its own.

“Before determining your growth strategy or any commercial strategy, you should get targeted insights from your customers and potential customers,” he says.

Sometimes clients will have very specific questions they want included in the scope. Other times they will look to the third party to advise.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS serves as a barometer of customer loyalty and satisfaction. It is determined by asking customers a single question: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” NPS provides valuable insights into your customers’ overall perception of your brand and their willingness to endorse you to others.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

CSAT is a key metric that measures customer satisfaction with a specific product or service or an overall experience with your company. Typically measured on a scale, CSAT helps businesses understand how well they meet or exceed customer expectations, guiding improvements in product or service offerings.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

CES gauges the ease of interaction with your company. It measures the effort a customer must exert to obtain a product or service, resolve an issue or get a query answered. Low CES indicates smooth interactions and processes, directly contributing to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer Loyalty Index (CLI)

CLI is a composite metric that gauges multiple dimensions of loyalty, including repurchasing, upselling and recommendation likelihood. A high CLI indicates strong customer loyalty, suggesting repeat business and customer advocacy.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

CLV predicts the net profit associated with the entire future relationship with a customer. It helps businesses allocate resources efficiently for customer retention and acquisition strategies.

While business may be able to answer some of these questions on their own, Kolinsky says getting an outside perspective can be invaluable.

“Sometimes clients will have very specific questions they want included in the scope. Other times they will look to the third party to advise,” he says. “One of the insights they’re looking to get is buying drivers. What influences that customer to purchase that service or product?”

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Advanced Voice of Customer (VoC) Metrics

With a strong foundation in place, businesses can progress to more advanced VoC metrics that delve deeper into customer sentiment and behavior.

Learning Opportunities: Improving Products Based on Feedback

This metric identifies specific areas where your product or service could improve based on customer feedback. By proactively spotting and addressing these opportunities, you enhance your offerings and customer satisfaction.

Repurchase Ratio: Evaluating Customer Retention

The Repurchase Ratio measures the percentage of customers who have made repeat purchases. This metric is critical for assessing customer loyalty and informing retention strategies.

“Would You Miss Us?” (WYMU): Assessing Customer Dependency

WYMU assesses the extent of customer dependency on your products or services. High scores indicate significant customer reliance, which is indicative of a strong customer-business relationship and often results in brand loyalty and advocacy.

READ MORE: What is Voice of the Customer?

Integrating VoC Metrics into Your Strategy

Accumulating VoC metrics is just the beginning; integrating these insights into your business strategy is where the real value lies. A tool that proves vital in this integration process is the Customer Journey Map, a visual representation of your customers’ experiences across all touchpoints. A well-constructed journey map can guide you on where to collect VoC data, adding to your voice of customer strategy.

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Amplifying Results with Voice of Customer Analytics

VoC metrics and KPIs provide vast amounts of data, but it is the role of VoC analytics to interpret this data and glean actionable insights. Analytics facilitate the understanding of complex customer behaviors and sentiments, allowing businesses to make strategic decisions that drive customer satisfaction and business growth.

Companies often find interpreting and actioning VoC data a complex task, calling for specialist expertise. BluWave can connect you with an exact-fit service provider to navigate this complexity and help you amplify your VoC strategy, based on proven voice of customer methodologies.

Focusing on voice of customer metrics, KPIs and analytics is not just a best practice, but a necessity. They offer quantifiable measures to track progress, understand customer behavior and preferences and make strategic decisions that lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and business growth.

Looking to strengthen your VoC strategy with expert third-party resources? Get in touch with BluWave today. Our dedicated research and operations team will connect you with an exact-fit service provider to aid your journey to customer-centric growth.

5 Steps to an Effective Voice of Customer (VoC) Strategy

August 22, 2023 Brad Gerick

In today’s competitive market landscape, understanding your customers’ perceptions and needs is paramount. This is where an effective voice of customer (VoC) strategy comes into play, allowing businesses to capture and analyze customer feedback for informed decision-making.

But without a strategic approach based on proven voice of customer best practices, deciphering customer pain points and optimizing your business operations can be challenging.

This guide will take you through five essential steps to building and implementing a successful VoC strategy.

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Building a Customer-Centric Company Culture

An effective VoC strategy begins by cultivating a customer-centric culture within your organization. This involves adopting a mindset where customer needs and feedback are the driving force behind every decision. From the C-suite to the front-line employees, every team member should understand the value of the customer’s voice and its impact on business success.

The integration of a VoC strategy extends across all departments, with each having a unique role and benefiting differently. For instance, the marketing department might prioritize understanding customer preferences for promotional channels, while the product development team might focus on feedback about product usability.

Building a Robust VoC Data Collection Framework

Your VoC strategy is only as good as the data you collect. Diverse methods of data collection provide a multifaceted view of customer preferences, expectations and pain points. As you adopt different VoC methodologies, you’ll gain a more comprehensive understanding of the customer journey.

Select feedback channels that align with your customer’s preferences and your business sneeds. Whether it’s through direct interviews, surveys, social media or customer support interactions, diversifying your feedback channels is crucial. Continually assess the strengths and weaknesses of your current channels to fine-tune your data collection strategy.

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Transforming VoC Data into Actionable Insights

Collecting VoC data is just the beginning. The power of your VoC strategy lies in transforming this raw data into actionable insights. Analytical tools are indispensable for interpreting the data and identifying patterns that signify customer sentiment, preferences and pain points.

READ MORE: The Power of AI and Data Analytics

For instance, you may notice a recurring theme of customers struggling with a particular feature of your product. Grouping similar feedback points helps you identify and prioritize areas for improvement. By mapping these themes against customer personas and journey stages, you can gain a deeper understanding of specific customer experiences and expectations.

Prioritizing and Implementing VoC-Driven Initiatives

Having extracted insights from your VoC data, the next step involves implementing VoC-driven initiatives. Prioritization of these initiatives depends on several factors, including the feasibility of implementation, expected impact and alignment with business objectives.

A VoC roadmap can help you systematically execute prioritized initiatives over time. Transparent communication is key during this phase, ensuring everyone understands the changes and is on board with the new initiatives. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be set to measure the effectiveness of these initiatives, providing tangible proof of your VoC strategy’s success.

Enhancing Customer Engagement and VoC Program Evolution

A successful VoC strategy doesn’t stop at implementation—it’s an ongoing process that evolves with your customers’ needs and expectations. Keep your customers informed about the changes you’re making based on their feedback. This not only shows your commitment to their satisfaction but also encourages their continued participation in your VoC program.

Regular reviews and updates to your VoC program are essential to stay in sync with changing customer needs. Your VoC strategy should be flexible, allowing for continuous improvement and adaptation.

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Building and implementing an effective VoC strategy may seem like a daunting task, but the rewards of increased customer satisfaction and business growth are worth the effort.

Working with a trusted third-party expert can help ease this process, and BluWave is here to connect you with the perfect resource.

“There are providers with networks of contacts across different industries,” says Keenan Kolinsky, BluWave co-head of research and operations. “Not only is it interesting to survey existing customers, but also potential customers to gain their insights and perspectives, and that’s really where these third parties can add value, is helping businesses get insights from potential customers – not just the ones they already have.”

Whether you need help refining your data collection methods, analyzing VoC data or implementing VoC-driven initiatives, our research and operations team is ready to assist. Contact us today and let us guide you to success in your VoC journey.

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Voice of Customer Process: Methodologies for Better Service

August 22, 2023 Brad Gerick

Customers shape the success of your business. Their feedback, preferences and expectations guide your strategies, refine your services and bolster your bottom line.

Enter the world of the Voice of Customer (VoC). This indispensable tool – often part of a specialized commercial due diligence project – empowers you to tap into what your customers desire and harness their insights for growth.

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VoC is a research method that captures customers’ expectations, preferences and aversions. By leveraging this approach, you can cultivate a customer-centric culture that not only boosts satisfaction but also propels your business to new heights.

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VoC (Voice of Customer) Methodologies

VoC methodologies are a collection of techniques to gather valuable customer insights. They pinpoint customer needs, expose pain points and reveal opportunities to improve.

BluWave co-head of research and operations Keenan Kolinsky says using an industry-specific third-party can make this process more efficient.

“The study can be much more targeted if there’s a specific customer segment they’re interested in. Additionally, when a VoC is part of a due diligence activity, the acquisition target could introduce the fund to a targeted and select group of customers to get their insight specifically,” he says. “They’re much more targeted insights from the key accounts that can make or break the business.”

Customer Interviews and Surveys

Nothing beats a conversation when it comes to understanding customers. Interviews unveil the “why” behind behaviors, offering rich qualitative data. On the other hand, surveys, whether online, email or SMS, yield quantitative data, transforming feedback into measurable insights.

By pairing these methodologies, you gain a holistic understanding of preferences and experiences. But managing and interpreting both qualitative and quantitative data can be complex. Collaborating with expert third-party services can alleviate this burden, allowing you to focus on leveraging the insights.

Social Media

Customers often voice their opinions on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and more. Monitoring these platforms uncovers real-time feedback and sentiments. Social listening tools identify trends, track brand mentions and facilitate customer engagement. This goldmine of unfiltered opinions can equip you to refine your products and services.

Doing this on a regular basis, though, can become unwieldy. Experienced third parties who do this on a regular basis can save you time and help you get capture core customer sentiments.

Focus Groups

A small group of customers, a structured discussion and a skilled moderator – that’s a focus group in a nutshell. It’s enables customers to freely express their thoughts.

This format often reveals hidden perceptions and enables you to understand how group dynamics influence feedback. Nevertheless, coordinating and moderating focus groups can be time-consuming and requires expertise for accurate interpretation. Here, experienced third-party firms can step in, streamlining the process and ensuring valuable takeaways.

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Customer Support Data

When customers reach out for support, they reveal their needs and frustrations. Scrutinizing inquiries, complaints and feedback from support channels can reveal recurring issues and areas for improvement.

Website Behavior Analysis

How do customers interact with your website? Analytics tools – like Google Analytics 4 – offer the answer. By tracking page views, clicks and navigation paths, you gain behavioral insights.

Heatmaps, user recordings and conversion funnels also unveil usability issues and help streamline the customer journey. But analyzing such granular data and deriving meaningful insights isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It demands deep technical expertise and significant time investment. A third-party solution with a knack for analytics can be the key to unlocking these valuable insights, sparing you from getting lost in the complexity of data.

Online Reviews

Customer feedback thrives on online review platforms. By monitoring them, you can understand customer sentiments and address concerns. Engaging with customers on review platforms also shows your commitment to their satisfaction.

Feedback Forms

Feedback forms on your website or app offer a structured way to gather feedback. Well-designed, user-friendly forms capture specific information, enabling customers to express their thoughts in detail.

Net Promoter Score® (NPS®)

How likely are your customers to recommend your business? The Net Promoter Score® (NPS®) offers a clear answer. NPS® surveys categorize customers into promoters, passives and detractors. Analyzing this data uncovers the reasons behind customer ratings and helps craft strategies to boost loyalty.

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VoC (Voice of Customer) Processes

Data Collection and Analysis

Gathering data is only the first step. VoC methodologies call for structuring and organizing data to facilitate effective analysis. Tools and techniques for data analysis spotlight key insights and patterns, making sense of what you collect.

Insight Generation

Converting data into actionable insights is the heart of VoC. Analysis uncovers customer preferences, pain points and emerging trends. Triangulating from different methodologies offers a comprehensive understanding of your customers.

Action Planning and Implementation

Insights are the foundation for action. Prioritize improvements based on both customer input and business goals. For instance, if feedback consistently points to slow website load times, prioritize website optimization. Effective implementation requires cross-functional collaboration to effect change.

Monitoring and Continuous Improvement

The Voice of Customer process is not static, but rather a dynamic, ongoing endeavor. It evolves in sync with market trends and customer needs. Establishing continuous feedback loops, gauging progress and refining strategies based on the evolving customer landscape is essential.

“You could also incorporate price sensitivity into a VoC to help a company determine if there’s room to increase prices,” Kolinsky says. “Basically what the customer thinks about how the product or service is priced.”

This is where BluWave steps in, bridging the gap between understanding your customers and implementing that understanding into actionable strategies. Our research and operations team works diligently to connect you with industry-specific, vetted service providers who specialize in Voice of Customer methodologies. They assist you in maintaining the momentum of your VoC efforts, from the initial data collection to the final stages of strategy adaptation.

Through our extensive network, we’ve got you covered whether you are a private equity firm, a portfolio company, or a private or public company. Our exact-fit resources are at your disposal to ensure you remain customer-centric, adaptable and progressive in the ever-changing market landscape. We understand that your goal isn’t just to listen to your customers but to hear them, comprehend them and ultimately grow with them.

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Merger Planning & Integration: Best Practices for Private Equity Firms

August 21, 2023 Brad Gerick

Mergers and acquisitions are a key strategy for private equity firms. The process of integrating two companies, however, can be complex and difficult in practice.

That’s why a detailed, well-thought plan is key to success.

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“Middle-market and lower-middle market businesses don’t have the surplus of people that publicly traded businesses would,” BluWave co-head of research and operations Scott Bellinger says. “Bringing in a BluWave resource will let those resources focus on their day-to-day jobs while outsourcing the integration to an expert who can do it on a much quicker and efficient timeline than trying to do it internally.”

We’re going to walk through the various steps and best practices at a high level.

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Merger Planning & Integration Process

Identifying Potential Targets

The first step in any M&A process is to identify potential targets that align with investment strategies and offer growth prospects.

This involves conducting market research, evaluating competitors and considering companies that fit specific criteria. It’s important to consider factors such as the target company’s financial performance, product offerings and market position.

Conducting Due Diligence

Once potential targets have been identified, it’s time to conduct a thorough due diligence process. This is done to assess things like the target’s financial and operational health, legal and regulatory compliance, and management and personnel.

Bellinger says this essentially comes down to a “synergy assessment” of the buyer and the target.

This is critical to thoroughly understanding the organization before it’s acquired. Reviewing financial statements, interviewing key personnel and evaluating systems and processes are integral parts to most diligence exercises.

Negotiating Terms

After due diligence is finished and a company has decided to move forward, it’s time for both sides to negotiate.

The better the communication between the buyer and the acquisition target, the more likely both will be satisfied with the outcome. That being said, they should carefully consider the terms of the deal before signing to ensure it makes sense for their business.

Integrating the Acquired Company

The final step of any M&A process is integrating the acquired company into the portfolio.

Bellinger says this typically takes between 90-120 days and is focused on integrating various integration streams.

This often involves combining operations, systems and processes. The more detailed and clear the integration plan, the better.

Typical key factors include cultural differences, employee morale and operational efficiency.

An experienced interim CHRO can be a valuable resource in these situations.

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Best Practices in Merger Planning & Integration

A cross-functional team of experts from finance, operations, legal and other areas can make for a comprehensive and coordinated approach.

The right plan will outlining the required steps – in detail – to smoothly integrate the acquired company into the PE firm’s portfolio.

To the degree that it’s legally permissible, the firm should keep employees, customers and other stakeholders informed throughout the process. Sometimes no news at all can spook key stakeholders, even if everything’s going according to plan.

It may make sense to hire an interim CFO who’s experienced in these situations and can hit the ground running.

Merger planning and integration is a specialty of the service providers in the exclusive BluWave-vetted network.

“Engaging these firms pre-close can help you understand and validate cost synergies after the acquisition is complete and integrated,” Bellinger says.

Each resource goes through a rigorous evaluation before its admitted into the network, and again before we connect them with you. Instead of spending days or weeks searching for the right resources to plan your merger, we’ll provide the two or three “best fits” within a single business day.

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Business Intelligence & Analytics: What is it?

August 21, 2023 Brad Gerick

Business intelligence and analytics is a key facet of modern-day business building.

“BI gives you the ability to dig deeper in to all the operations of your business to track KPIs and other metrics, which can then help you steer your business,” says Houston Slatton, BluWave’s head of technology.

Leaders at private equity firms, portfolio companies and private and public companies use data to answer questions about their business. This could give them a better understanding of their customer base or product, for example.

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What is Business Intelligence and Analytics?

“It’s using very large amounts of, and sometimes real-time data to paint a whole picture of your customers, your business and your products or services,” the founding partner at one of our expert service providers says. “The difference between business intelligence and analytics and maybe traditional financial analysis is the scale at which it happens.”

In the past, business leaders would get information from an old database and manual analyze it in a spreadsheet program. That very spreadsheet fundamentally limits the analysis, according to the data firm’s founding partner, Mike Datus.

“Once you enter the realm of business intelligence or analytics, or data science is sometimes used synonymously, you’re talking about a bigger, more comprehensive, more real-time picture,” Datus says.

Different Aspects of BI&A Process

One key way to maximize portfolio company performance is with private equity analytics. The right data helps a firm make better investment decisions while maximizing portfolio company performance.

The right information also helps with risk management, and eventually, increasing a portfolio company’s exit value.

Of course, non-PE firms can reap the same benefits to build their business. Slatton says this process starts with putting your data in a data warehouse and formatting it in a way that’s “analytics ready.”

“The next chunk is building or doing analysis on top of that data,” he adds. “Probably a lot of defining KPIs or metrics. All businesses are generally going to agree on revenue, but most of the operational metrics, there’s probably a little wiggle room around. But you can’t build a visualization with wiggle room.”

Precision, then, is key to actionable analytics. Once you have reliable, accurate data in place, it’s time to put it to work.

“You’re going to build some visualizations on top of that analysis so you can build some metrics over time and build some historical results and predict future results as well,” Slatton says.

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How PE Firms, Businesses Use BI&A

By monitoring key performance indicators and market trends, organizations can identify weaknesses. The right data can help develop strategies to address these issues and strengthen a firm’s portco or a company’s operations.

“Most companies don’t have great insight into the actual operations of their business at the granular level that you can have now,” Slatton says. “It’s an investment to put in a full data stack and to build the visualization capabilities. But you can really unearth a lot of highly impactful insights about your business once you have access to the granular data sets.”

One of the key considerations in BI & analytics is the selection of data sources. As Slatton mentioned earlier, accuracy is imperative, along with up-to-date information that’s aligned with the firm’s overall strategy.

“One of the most important parts of BI is figuring out what the actual KPIs are that are going to be the real levers of the business and making sure to track those,” Slatton says.

Once the firm knows what it wants to monitor, it must decide how to securely collect and store that information.

Integrating new private equity analytics programs and tools must be done with existing systems in mind. These might include portfolio management software, investor reporting platforms, website analytics, payroll management and more.

Lastly, and most practically, the data must be accessible for the relevant parties. That means reports that are easy to analyze and share. That way, everyone from partners to C-suite executives to the most junior employee in the organization understands what’s driving the decisions that affect them.

Whether you’re the CTO at an independent company, an interim CFO at a portco, or any other business building role, we have expertly vetted analytics and insights resources on standby.

The BluWave-grade network of service providers have helped hundreds of companies like yours choose, implement and distribute data platforms that have a positive impact on their organization’s value.

“You want a group that can define the right, limited set of KPIs,” Slatton says. “The C-suite or leadership team should bring that to the table, but you want a group you’re going to be able to work with to define and refine the KPIs that you use to drive the business.”

Contact us to set up an initial scoping call, and we’ll connect you with two or three best-fit resources for your exact situation within a single business day.

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*Privacy is important to us. While the source and company name have been changed, these are real quotations from a real service provider in the BluWave Business Builders’ Network.

Healthcare Compliance: Due Diligence Checklist

August 21, 2023 Brad Gerick

Healthcare is a hot sector for private equity firms looking to acquire new portfolio companies.

Buy-side commercial due diligence on healthcare compliance is table stakes before any deal gets done.

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One expert service provider from our network says his firm has seen an influx of diligence requests in this industry since the beginning of 2022, and it hasn’t slowed down since.

“There continues to be a lot of interest in the healthcare sector, whether it’s device manufacturers or contract manufacturers, and even services,” Don Jenkins* of M&A Healthcare Experts says. “Whether it’s tele-health-related services or just other technology platforms that can address healthcare service delivery.”

Here are some of the top trends and must-haves in healthcare due diligence.

Private Equity: Healthcare Sector

With so much money to spend on hand, Jenkins says that middle-market private equity is all over the map.

When he thinks about the last 50 projects they have done for private equity firms, he estimates they would span 20 different markets.

There are a couple, however, that have stood out since as we head deeper into an uncertain, if not turbulent economy. One of those is healthcare.

Firms want to dig deep to learn more about the devices and software systems being used in hospitals. Just as popular, though, are in-home services that allow people to receive diagnosis and treatment from the comfort of their home. This trend has become especially important since the onset of COVID.

Healthcare Due Diligence Process

“Essentially the goal of commercial due diligence is to validate the story that the target’s telling, or to identify the reality of the marketplace out there so that they can make an informed decision on their investment,” Jenkins says.

While the fundamentals of commercial due diligence are the same from one market to another, there are nuances to businesses based in hospitals, pharmacies and other related medical organizations.

Since these companies are creating or using products that affect people’s health, there’s increased risk, which means more scrutiny is needed.

“It can be a very different set of objectives, but if it’s a product, then there definitely will be regulatory issues involved,” Jenkins says.

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Top Trends in Healthcare Due Diligence

Service providers in healthcare aren’t just trying to make better products and improve services, they also want to be more affordable.

“It’s still technology, but we’re not trying to design the greatest device, the greatest stent in the world, or the greatest cardiovascular diagnostic product ever made,” Jenkins says. “It’s really what sort of products and services can we develop that are going to not only get the job done, but do it in a more cost-effective manner so that it’s more affordable for the healthcare ecosystem.”

In particular, that ecosystem includes insurance providers and patients. The easier it is for them to engage with a health company’s products or services, the more successful the business will be.

“There are just a lot of moving parts in healthcare that make it an interesting space,” Jenkins adds.

BluWave co-head of research and operations Scott Bellinger most frequently fields calls related to these areas:

Medical Devices: “Regulatory review on manufacturing processes to make sure they’re FDA compliant.”
Operational Diligence: “Understand how you can manufacture those devices at a faster more efficient clip.”
Ancillary Service Buildouts: “For example, if you’re ear, nose and throat, do they have an ambulatory services center?”

Jenkins isn’t the only one seeing an increased demand for commercial due diligence in healthcare. It continues to be one of the most important industries to our clients as well.

That’s why we spend so much time connecting with and evaluating due diligence service providers who know healthcare – and every other sector that touches private equity – inside-out, backward and forward.

Our research and operations team takes a hands-on, white-glove approach to every project they service, from the first scoping call until after the engagement is complete.

If you’re looking for proven, PE-grade service providers to conduct buy-side diligence on your healthcare acquisition, contact us today. We’ll provide two or three best-fit options for your exact situation and specific needs within a single business day. From there, we’ll hold the third-party resource accountable and make sure they’re meeting all your needs until the ink is dry.

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*Privacy is important to us. While the source and company name have been changed, these are real quotations from a real service provider in the BluWave Business Builders’ Network.

What To Do When Your Service Provider is at Capacity

August 15, 2023 Brad Gerick

Connecting with a service provider you can trust is like looking for a great dentist. Once you find “the one,” you wouldn’t put your teeth in anyone else’s hands.

The same goes for your business. After a successful engagement with a trusted third party, you save a lot of time by contacting them directly the next time you have a need.

There are reasons you have go-to service providers: they’re fast, reliable and they know your business.

But if you love them so much, you’re probably not their only client. Far from it.

So what happens when you reach out and they tell you they simply don’t have the capacity to take on more work on the timeline you need? Or worse yet, they give you their B-team.

We’re glad you asked.

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There are a number of reasons service providers could suddenly be in high demand. A bounce-back from a recession. A surge in deal flow. A hot new trend of which everyone’s trying to stay ahead.

When this happens, BluWave is on standby with a deep bench of trusted, PE-grade third parties who can deliver the exceptional work you expect no matter what your industry.

In fact, we experienced this post-COVID recovery when the whole world got back to business at once and it seemed like there wasn’t enough help to go around. At that time, we heard from dozens of private equity firms that couldn’t book their preferred third-party resource.

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We helped those firms by connecting them with industry-specific firms and consultants that understood their business’s most pressing needs.

Every service provider in the Business Builders’ Network has gone through a rigorous vetting process, giving us confidence in every match we make whether it’s a first-time engagement or a repeat relationship.

BluWave founder and CEO Sean Mooney has three tips for organizations when their usual service providers are at full capacity.

1) Use Alternatives

“If you’re go-to is sold out, don’t try to force them into giving you capacity. You’ll get the C team,” Mooney says. “There are plenty of other comparable PE-grade specialists that you should use.”

2) Use Substitutes

“There are other diligence and value creation products that go by a different name but still serve your need,” he adds. “For instance, if you can’t get a commercial due diligence group to meet your deadline, use a voice of the customer group to do a deep dive on your target’s customers.”

3) Use Independent Consultants

“There’s a select world of independents who spun out of name-brand shops and can give you the same product at a fraction of the cost,” Mooney says. “This cohort works well not only for commercial diligence, but also for operational and HR diligence as well as value creation.”

Mooney recognizes that trusting your most important work to new partners can be scary. With the right introduction, though, the risk can have a huge payoff.

“Using new groups can be nerve-racking,” he says, “but the BluWave network of PE-grade resources is on standby to meet your specific needs.”

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Whether your go-to service providers are at full capacity, or you just don’t know who to turn to, give our research and operations team a call. They’ll connect you with a shortlist of exact-fit third parties within a single business day, and be by your side until the completion of the project.

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August 9, 2023 Brad Gerick

Thanks for your interest in our AI white paper, featuring insight from the world’s leading service providers in data analytics.

Learn about the four steps our expert service providers say every business must take before implementing artificial intelligence tools:

Identifying Your Use Case
Working with an Advisor
Evaluating Data Availability and Hygiene
Implementing the Tool: Buy or Build?

Download the white paper now to learn how to transform your business using AI.

Want to talk to the team?

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Unleashing Business Potential with AI: Beyond Open Source Tools

July 24, 2023 Brad Gerick

Artificial intelligence has evolved from a futuristic concept into a business norm. The advent of Language Learning Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard is only the tip of the iceberg.

While these consumer-focused models are noteworthy, they form only a fraction of AI’s potential. Businesses stand to gain significantly by digging deeper into the realm of AI and integrating advanced models.

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Let’s dive into how AI is revolutionizing private equity firms, their portfolio companies and other private and public businesses.

Beyond Data Availability and Hygiene

AI models are adept at analyzing and interpreting massive datasets, providing businesses with valuable insights that drive decision-making. With data being produced at an unprecedented rate, AI’s role in sifting through this sea of information and drawing actionable conclusions is invaluable.

Ken McLaren, partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners, spoke to this on a recent AI-focused webinar hosted by BluWave.

“We do a lot of prototyping on desktops,” McLaren said. “As we prove the value and the use cases, we then start getting ready for production. But don’t build in production first. Get the proof value with your customer market in place before you start building.”

He elaborated on the importance of not just having clean data, but that it’s also production-ready, which means having a quality data lake infrastructure.

“Having your data pipes with things like Azure Data Factory, having good storage…or using Databricks Delta Lake on top of that, having a production-ready data environment is important,” he said. “Once you’ve got your models ready…you can plug in a lot of open source tools. So there’s really no one platform to rule at all.”

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Protecting Your Sensitive Data

With AI tools new and old evolving so rapidly, there’s also concern from business leaders that the data they share with these same tools is not safe.

“If you’ve got history turned on, then it becomes part of that AI system,” said Keith Thomas, National Practice Lead, Cybersecurity Operations, at AT&T. “It gets built into the models, and there’s the ability for the model to use that data.”

Since McLaren’s firm exclusively works with healthcare companies, they err on the side of holding back data from open tools that could otherwise compromise privacy.

“We still guide our portfolio companies for sensitive business data, customer data – keep it out of any open tool,” McLaren said.

BluWave CEO and founder Sean Mooney also cautioned about sharing propriety data that gives your company an edge:

“If that’s something that’s competitively sensitive or advantageous your business,” he said of adding it to an open-source tool, “you’ve just given it to the world.”

Beyond Open-Source AI Tools

Tech stacks at innovative businesses are changing faster than ever. Not only are the tools themselves changing, but they’re also becoming easier to use for team members who aren’t as technically skilled.

“In software development in general, there’s this movement more and more toward no-code, low-code solutions,” said Alex Castrounis, Why of AI founder and CEO. “Part of the benefit of those things is, one, accessibility and making it easier for people in organizations to sort of build software, or in this case, train models, iterate on models, tune them, optimize them, deploy them and so on.”

He added that the future of AI could look more like J.A.R.V.I.S. in Ironman than simply getting help summarizing large sets of data or writing an email.

He describes this potential technology as an “interface that becomes sort of an information-retrieval system or a question-answering system on top of your data. …It solves a lot of those issues that I know a lot of organizations are wondering when it comes to proprietary data and confidential data.”

Other tools like LangChang – used in conjunction with other tools – can help users make templates out of their existing prompts and iterate them for future inputs. These can then be set up with outside sources such as Wikipedia, as well as databases and APIs.

These, however, are just a small sample of the growing list of possibilities.

While OpenAI, Microsoft and Google continue to grab the lion’s share of attention when it comes to new AI tools, there are countless others being developed and improved every day.

Business leaders must strike the delicate balance between experimenting and staying ahead of the curve against protecting proprietary, and even sensitive data. Miscalculating could not only compromise competitive advantages, but also user safety.

The Business Builders’ Network is full of expert, trustworthy service providers who are on the leading edge of artificial intelligence technology. When you’re ready to connect with an industry-specific resource for your business, contact our research and operations team to set up a call.

The Road to AI Implementation: Strategic Planning, Data Management, Cybersecurity

July 18, 2023 Brad Gerick

What’s worse than not implementing artificial intelligence tools into your business?

Implementing them without a plan.

While it might feel like you’re falling further behind competitors every day you’re not adding AI to your tech stack, you’re better off waiting a little longer to get it right. Rushing out a half-baked product will only cause you more harm in the long run.

Let’s dive in to some of the key precursor activities for implementing artificial intelligence into your business.

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Aligning AI with Business Strategy

As you choose your AI use cases, it’s essential to align them with your broader digital and business strategies.

Nik Kapauan, principal at Access Holdings, recently talked about this on a BluWave-hosted webinar, Activating AI.

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“Your strategy for using AI obviously needs to tie to your broader digital strategy, which needs to tie to your broader business strategy as a firm,” Kapauan said. “I’d also bifurcate it because when we say AI, it’s a broad spectrum of things. You have your traditional analytics, which is descriptive analytics, just getting stuff on a screen and reporting. And then you have your more predictive analytics for predicting the future.”

In either case, Kapauan reiterated the importance of aligning with your overall goals, noting that predictive analytics allow for more flexibility.

“The way you’d approach that strategy is a bit more iterative, a bit more experimental,” he said, “trying to get use cases and experimenting as soon as you can to figure out where the value is.”

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Tackling Data Challenges

Data is at the heart of any AI initiative. The service providers in our network say the number one hurdle businesses face to adding artificial intelligence tools is not having a good sense of data availability or hygiene, respectively.

“A lot of people want to jump to the model or the technology. ‘What if we could do this with customers?’ I think it’s really important to start with, ‘What is the space of data that we have at our disposal?’” Michael Woods*, the CEO of an AI consulting firm BluWave works with regularly, said in an interview. “Then just as importantly, ‘Do we have any sense of the inaccuracies or things that could really lead us astray in that data?’

On the AI webinar, Kapauan said that handling data is often the most significant part of large analytics projects.

“That centralization of data, the cleaning of data, the ongoing maintenance of data, is the lion’s share of the effort,” he said.

BluWave CEO & Founder Sean Mooney said the effort, however, is worth it.

“You’ve got to do the unglamorous data cleanliness part… the only thing worse than no data is bad data,” he said. “Keep [the data] good because it’s like a piece of equipment that’s gotta be maintained. Anytime there’s rotation and force in anything, it wants to lose calibration.”

READ MORE: AI Data Analytics: BI Tools

Change Management: A Key Component

Kapauan emphasized the need for a high-level leader to drive the change internally when significant changes are being made to the way a business operates.

“I think one of the biggest predictors of success is a champion inside the organization that could really own the vision and drive the opportunity. And often that’s the CEO or someone the CEO directly holds accountable for the digital agenda,” Kapauan said. “Having that leadership voice to set the vision and drive the organization and mobilize change is critical to success for analytics and any other kind of major digital transformation.”

Mooney added that this is a key part of change management.

“AI’s going be part of your strategy,” he said. “It’s a tactic, it’s not your strategy.”

Securing Your Data Assets

Finally, as businesses build up their data assets, it is vital to safeguard them.

“We want to make sure that we protect [our resources] from theft, making sure that if someone gets into our organization that they can’t pull that model out and take it with them to use somewhere else,” said Keith Thomas, the Cybersecurity Operations National Practice Lead at AT&T. “There are some ways that we protect using different security tools, and different security capabilities support the idea of a [data] model theft by attackers.”

Thomas also emphasized the importance of having a robust disaster recovery plan. If an AI system goes down, the team must be prepared to mitigate any negative impact on data and analytics.

“Even if it is to go to a manual approach, that’s OK. Having the plan is the most important part of that,” Thomas said.

Mooney pointed out that various resources are available to help businesses of all sizes protect their most critical asset: their data.

“Once again, we’re seeing this theme of, ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail,'” Mooney said. “You’ve gotta do the work in advance. Not just even on the data and the analytics side, but also in protecting your data.”

BluWave has seen a rapid uptick in demand for AI-related services recently. What many firms lack, though, is the necessary foundation to get started.

Aligning your AI tactics with your overall business strategy, preparing your data, identifying an internal champion and protecting your data assets are crucial precursors to implementing these powerful new tools.

Whether you’re at a private equity firm, portfolio company or private or public organization, BluWave’s Business Builders’ Network is full of expert third-party AI resources. These highly vetted service providers can not only help you with the aforementioned preparations, but will also work with you to implement these tools.

Contact our research and operations team to learn more, and we’ll connect you with an industry specific expert to assist your digital transformation using artificial intelligence.

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*Privacy is important to us. While the source and company name have been changed, these are real quotations from a real service provider in the BluWave Business Builders’ Network.

Hiring Remains Strong, AI is Abuzz in Q2 2023

July 17, 2023 Brad Gerick

Hiring activity remains strong, but the focus has shifted. Additionally, the AI craze is reaching a fever pitch in private equity.

These and more insights come from our Q2 2023 BluWave Insights Report. The proprietary data used to compile this report comes from the projects we work on with our 500+ PE firm clients to get a bird’s eye view of the market.

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Other key findings from Q2 2023 include:

Demand for artificial intelligence tools boosted Business Intelligence, Analytics & AI into the top 10 of value creation services for the first time in three years
Strategy, revenue growth and technology-related initiatives are on the rise
Deal flow remains slow, but that’s expected to change in the second half of the year

Learn more about the insights we gleaned from Q2:

We can support your value creation needs, human capital needs, technology needs, sales & marketing needs and more.

Professional Healthcare Recruiters: Specialized Human Capital Resources

July 3, 2023 Brad Gerick

The healthcare industry is in a constant state of flux. It’s a field that requires a dedicated workforce to manage patient care effectively.

With the growing demand for healthcare services, the need for specialized professional healthcare recruiters has never been higher. Especially in areas such as multi-location healthcare services and chief medical officer searches, both on the clinician and corporate side.

“Specialized recruiters will not only know the subset of candidates really well,” says Scott Bellinger, BluWave’s co-head of research and operations, “but they’ll also understand what candidates are relative for certain size companies.”

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We’re going to explore why a people expert with industry experience is essential for health and medical organizations.

Benefits of Working with a Professional Healthcare Recruiter

Healthcare providers save time and money when they work with recruitment experts. An experienced talent leader will have access to a large pool of candidates and can quickly identify the most qualified applicants for your specific need.

They know how to guide employers through the hiring process, from defining the job description to negotiating compensation and benefits.

CASE STUDY: Chief Medical Officer Search for a Healthcare Services Firm

“A specialized provider will be able to more quickly identify and recruit candidates,” Bellinger says.

Job seekers also benefit from working with professional healthcare recruiters. They can match their skillset and experience to the ideal opportunity so that both sides feel like they win in the end.

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What to Look For

When selecting a specialized recruiter in the healthcare industry, it’s important to consider their experience, expertise and personalized attention to your needs.

Look for a recruiter who has experience in your industry, as well as a deep understanding of the recruitment process. A good recruiter should also have the skills to provide personalized attention to your needs, offering tailored advice and guidance.

CASE STUDY: Maintaining Rapid Healthcare Services Growth with Specialized CFO

It’s also important to work with a recruiter who stays up-to-date with the latest industry trends, compensation and benefits.

“When you work with specialized healthcare recruiters, they’re focused on serving the middle market and their network of candidates reflects that,” Bellinger says.

Healthcare Industry Resources

In today’s labor market, finding the right job or candidate can be a daunting task. That’s why professional healthcare recruiters exist, and why they are such an important resource for both job seekers and healthcare providers.

BluWave has the best specialized recruiting resources in healthcare on standby. Our expertly vetted network has what you need on standby before you even contact us.

Set up a scoping call today with our research and operations team and get presented with two or three best-fit options in less than one business day.

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