When I switched from a corporate HR role to consulting, I had a vision that I was going to transform the HR technology landscape—be a champion of the consumer and help businesses finally get the value they were promised from their technology investment. While I may not have completely changed the world, I had a lot of success while at Knowledge Infusion and then Appirio with some of the brightest and greatest peers I could have hoped to work with. However, after a decade in HR technology and talent management, companies are still grappling with the same issues: system limitations forcing companies to limit their own potential; stale and outdated processes jammed into new(ish) looking systems; HR spending more time talking and strategizing about value than actually displaying it to businesses. Important note: As a consultant, I don’t exclude myself from the same culpability as the next person for feeding the HR stereotype. I was on the internal team that drafted an HR2020 strategy back in 2010, I facilitated vision & blue-sky sessions where we imagined a perfect HR world where we would have “a seat at the table,” and I fed the illusion we could transform job changes and terminations into engaging processes that managers wanted to do with self-service.
That said, I’ve also worked with companies who did flip the performance review upside down, who used self-service as a way to engage HR with their managers and leaders, and who adopted technology and processes that changed the way their people worked. Which brings us to now. Well it actually brings us to Next. To Prossimo. Prossimo (Italian for next) is the consulting company that aims to help HR functions deliver the next level value that we have been promising businesses for years. We’re going to partner with clients to help them avoid a deployment that will leave everyone on the team wanting just a little bit more. And we’ll work with others who are ready to correct years of neglect that has left everyone on the team with the nagging feeling that there is more.
Prossimo is about the Next step. Your HR technology journey is already on it’s way, we want to work with you to make sure it keeps moving forward.
So how will we do it?
Deployment Support
Whether you’re going from nothing to something, or from something to more of that something, deployment projects are intimidating. How big should the project team be? How do we know the partner is steering us in the right direction? How do we test and verify that we’re actually ready?
Project teams are usually stretched thin between the challenges of learning new systems and the fact that their day-jobs never seem to go away. We can help prepare, educate, and supplement your projects so you can feel confident the step you’re taking isn’t backwards, it’s Prossimo.
Phase N
There’s three things that keep most companies from even turning on all the valuable features from their technology.
Budget and resources probably forced some things out of scope.
You probably left some stuff out at the original go live because it was no longer “critical.” (This is usually project-speak for if we’re going to get this thing done, we’d better toss the non-essentials over-board.)
New features and functionality are regularly being released and it’s too much for your team to stay on top of all the new possibilities while they keep the lights on with what you have already.
We can help assess what’s missing and create a plan for getting your company caught up. It’s about evaluating and prioritizing where there is value being missed and where you might be better off not with that new bell or whistle. Don’t just step because you were sold something or saw a cool demo, step with purpose, step towards Prossimo.
Advisory Services
You have questions, you need an unbiased perspective, you need a consultant who is invested in you without the cloud of “scope” and “billable hours” hanging over their heads. We offer a subscription model that guarantees you have someone looking out for you, who knows your business and direction, and who comes to the table without hidden agendas or priorities. Someone to reach out to who has been in your shoes and knows that sometimes you just need a question answered or extra eyes on an idea you have.
So with that said, it’s time to take that step. Not just a step for the sake of movement, a step to take you and us somewhere specific. Somewhere Next. Somewhere Prossimo.
Andiamo! (Let’s go!)