Service Provider Type: Business Process Outsourcing – Offshoring
Industry: Human Capital
Need
Business Process Outsourcing – Offshoring
PE firm sought offshore assistance with manual tasks to increase efficiency, lower costs and focus on higher order.
Challenge
Finding an offshore partner to free up resources
The PE firm sought an entity that could get them as close as possible to a turnkey finished product for several daily manual tasks performed by one of their human-capital focused portcos. Many of their work streams were labor-intensive, and the right offshoring partner would help them free up those resources to focus on higher order while lowering costs.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
After the initial scoping call to understand the PE firm’s specific needs, we reached to a pair of exact-fit resources that we knew would be great matches for this project. The firm evaluated them both and engaged with a BluWave-grade service provider that has completed multiple successful projects for other PE firms.
Result
Lowered operation costs and freed up resources
We connected the private equity firm to a trusted, proven service provider that specializes in offshoring. They tapped into their network in high-growth emerging cities, allowing the firm to lower its operations costs and connect with tenured expertise in a less competitive environment. The manual processes were offshored allowing the PE firm to reinvest the time and money it saved its portco.
A tech stack is a set of software tools and programming languages that serves as the foundation of any technology project, including websites, desktop software and apps.
It’s also the backbone of a project and can determine its performance, scalability and maintenance in the long run. Selecting the right one can help developers streamline their work, speed up the development process and provide a better user experience.
The LAMP Stack is a widely used open-source web development stack that is suitable for creating dynamic websites. It comprises Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, where Linux is the operating system, Apache is the web server software, MySQL is the database management system and PHP is the programming language used to create dynamic web pages.
MEAN Stack is a comprehensive JavaScript framework that is widely used to create dynamic web applications. It comprises MongoDB, Express.js, Angular and Node.js. MongoDB serves as the NoSQL database management system, Express.js is a web application framework used with Node.js, Angular is the front-end JavaScript framework that enables the creation of dynamic web pages and Node.js provides the back-end JavaScript runtime environment.
Another JavaScript framework that is commonly used for creating web applications that support real-time updates is the MERN Stack. It comprises MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. MongoDB serves as the NoSQL database management system, Express.js is a web application framework used with Node.js, React is the front-end JavaScript library used for building user interfaces and Node.js provides the back-end JavaScript runtime environment.
Ruby on Rails is a well-known web development framework that utilizes the Ruby programming language. It is a preferred choice for startups because of its user-friendly interface and straightforwardness. Ruby on Rails follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and emphasizes convention over configuration.
The .NET Stack is a Microsoft technology stack that includes tools such as C#, ASP.NET, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is widely used for creating enterprise-level web applications. C# is an object-oriented programming language that helps develop Windows desktop applications and ASP.NET is a web application framework used for creating dynamic web pages.
Django Stack is a Python web development framework that is widely used for creating scalable and secure web applications. Django follows the Model-View-Template (MVT) architectural pattern and incorporates an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) layer that enables developers to interact with databases using Python code.
The iOS Stack is a comprehensive stack of tools that includes Xcode, Swift, and Objective-C and is widely used for creating iOS mobile applications. Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) used to develop iOS apps, Swift is a programming language developed by Apple specifically for iOS app development and Objective-C was previously used to develop iOS apps before Swift was introduced.
The Android Stack is another comprehensive stack of tools that includes Android Studio, Java, and Kotlin and is widely used for developing Android mobile applications. Android Studio is an IDE used to develop Android apps, Java is an object-oriented programming language that is used for building Android apps and Kotlin was introduced by Google as an alternative to Java for Android app development.
Choosing the right tech stack is a critical decision for private equity firms. The right PE technology stack should be a cohesive system that enables fund managers to source deals, manage relationships with limited partners and portfolio companies, and close more deals.
A firm with the right technology solutions in place can work smarter and faster, deliver higher-margin services and ultimately increase profitability. For private equity firms, the technology stack should be viewed as an investment and a way to stay ahead of the competition.
There are many factors that go into choosing the technology stack, but here are some of the more important ones:
Out-of-the-box solutions: These are pre-built software solutions that can be used to solve common problems. They can save time and money by reducing the need for custom development. Examples include WordPress, Shopify and Salesforce.
Integration with third-party solutions: This refers to the ability of a tech stack to work with other software solutions. It’s important to choose a tech stack that can easily integrate with other tools you may need in the future. Examples include Zapier, Segment and Twilio.
Developer availability: This refers to the availability of developers who are skilled in a particular tech stack. It’s important to choose a tech stack that has a large pool of developers available so that you can find the right talent for your project.
Documentation: This refers to the quality and quantity of documentation available for a particular tech stack. Good documentation can help developers get up to speed quickly and reduce the time needed for troubleshooting. Examples include React documentation and Django documentation.
Easy to test: This refers to how easy it is to test code written in a particular tech stack. A good tech stack should have testing tools built-in or have easy-to-use testing frameworks available. Examples include Jest for React and Pytest for Python.
If any of this sounds like unfamiliar territory (and even if it doesn’t), it may be a good reason to look for expert help.
There are experienced, proven service providers out there who know industry-specific tech stack requirements inside-out and can help your business make the best decisions every step of the way.
Fortunately, you don’t have to waste time searching for them. Hundreds of PE firms and private and public companies tap into the Business Builders’ Network for this exact reason.
Not only will you be connected in less than one business day, but we’ll only provide the exact-fit resources that are experienced in your particular industry.
Service Provider Type: Business Process Outsourcing Firm
Industry: Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals
Need
Life Sciences & Pharmaceuticals List Building Expert
A PE-firm’s portcos were wasting precious time manually building lists by going from website to website and scraping LinkedIn. They needed an experienced third-party resource that could create a contact map with shared customers across multiple businesses.
Challenge
Grow Portco Contacts
Multiple portcos were using different systems to work with many of the same customers in the life sciences industry. The PE firm wanted to not only identify overlap and consolidate efforts, but expand their database faster.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
After a Vice President at the PE firm emailed us, we immediately got on a call to scope the specific outsourcing need. Armed with a better understanding of the situation, we provided for the client multiple industry-specific BPO shops that specialize in list builds.
Result
Connected a best-fit service provider
The firm quickly identified the best fit among the short-list of options we presented, and engaged them to build and consolidate their contacts across multiple portcos.
The service provider did great work. We will be using them again if something comes up. Ten out of 10 quality and service.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software streamlines business processes by coordinating data flow across an organization. It provides a single source of truth and optimizes operations.
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They are used to manage everyday business activities such as finance functions, compliance, risk management, retail, supply chain and HR.
That’s why so many PE firms seek help for their portcos in this area. Private and public companies often seek outside support, too.
Here are the primary hurdles we hear about on scoping calls where a client needs help extracting data from their ERP:
Lack of internal expertise: This is a common challenge when extracting data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Outsourcing to a third-party service provider offers access to domain experts with the knowledge and skills to efficiently extract data.
Time constraints: Outsourcing offers a faster turnaround and allows companies to focus on core business functions rather than data extraction, which can be a time-consuming process.
Complexity: Extracting data can be complex, especially if the data is spread across different modules or systems. Experienced service providers who specialize in data extraction can provide a more efficient solution and ensure that the information is accurate and reliable.
Cost: Investing in the necessary hardware and software to extract data from an ERP system can be expensive. By outsourcing the project, companies only pay for the services they need.
Need for specialized tools: Companies may not have access to the necessary specialized tools and software. These same tools will be part of a third-party service provider’s day-to-day toolkit.
Data accuracy concerns: Extracting data from an ERP system requires a high level of accuracy to ensure that the data is reliable and can be used for reporting or analysis. If you leave this to chance, you may end up making important decisions based on faulty data.
Need for customized data extraction: Companies may require customized data extraction from their ERP system, which may not be possible with existing in-house resources. Outsourcing to a third-party provider can provide customized solutions that meet the specific needs of the company.
Compliance and regulatory requirements: The data extraction may be subject to specific regulations or industry standards. Companies may not have the in-house expertise to ensure that the process meets these standards, and can benefit from the provider’s knowledge of industry-specific regulations and standards. This helps minimize the risk of regulatory violations, legal penalties and reputation damage.
Scalability: As a company grows, the amount of data generated by an ERP system may increase, and the data extraction process can become more unwieldy. There may become a point when companies don’t have the resources to handle the volume of data generated by their ERP system. Third-party providers can offer scalable solutions that can handle larger data volumes and provide ongoing support as the company grows.
If you’re ready to extract data from your ERP system, we’re here to connect you with a niche-specific, expertly vetted service provider.
We know the resource you need for your specific situation before we ever jump on a scoping call, and we’ll introduce you to two or three best-fit solutions in less than one business day.
How has the current economic situation – i.e. the 2023 bank collapses – affected collaboration between operating partners, portfolio support and deal teams? What are private equity firms’ latest technology best practices around data & analytics, cybersecurity and AI?
These were the hot topics in the latest BluWave-hosted PE Operating Partners’ forum March 21.
Centralized data in business analytics involves consolidating information from across an organization into a single system for easier analysis.
“This aspect of business intelligence and analytics is important because it gives companies visibility into KPIs at a high level,” says Brandon John, BluWave’s Service Provider Relationship Manager.
The consolidation usually happens in something called a data warehouse.
Business intelligence practices like centralization are becoming more and more important to businesses, whether that mean private equity, portcos or private and public companies.
According to our most recent quarterly report, we saw “broad-scale adoption of data quality and visualization endeavors and emergent efforts in higher level analytics and AI.”
Let’s take a closer look at what data centralization can do for your business.
Centralized data provides a single source of truth so leadership can make faster, more accurate business decisions.
Early Detection of Issues
Centralized data allows businesses to identify problems sooner before they become bigger issues.
More Consistency
Different departments often have the same definitions and metrics for things like active users and sales. By centralizing data, you can eliminate confusion at the leadership level.
Holistic View of Customer Journey
Centralized data from marketing, sales and customer service systems provide a complete picture of the customer experience.
Advanced Capabilities
It is easier to analyze data and find insights when all of the relevant data is in one place. Businesses can more easily see correlations across different data sets.
Increased Efficiency
Employees don’t have to spend time aggregating data from different systems. Everything is available in a single source.
Improved Trust
There is confidence that the data and reports are accurate and consistent since there is only one version of the truth.
Digital transformation is no longer something only the biggest, wealthiest companies can afford.
Not only are these services within reach for businesses of all sizes – from enterprise organizations to lower middle market companies – but they’re also essential.
Learn about common improvement areas all businesses can implement to accelerate digital transformation efforts.
Business leaders, including operations partners at private equity firms, C-level executives and functional leads are evaluating the digital capabilities and infrastructure in their companies to identify areas for improvement
Simple improvements to workflows or procedures can significantly trim manual tasks and optimize human capital during economic uncertainty
“No-regret” moves such as the following can accelerate change in a targeted, cost-effective way:
Adopting cloud and SaaS solutions
Improving cybersecurity
Enhancing website capabilities with tools like chatbots
Automating order processing and inventory management
How do you identify top C-suite talent? And what’s the best way to improve culture and retention for existing employees?
These were among the most popular topics in the latest BluWave-hosted Human Capital forum March 9.
Megan Ryan Kanefsky of J.F. Lehman & Company, Kristin Brown Patrick of New State Capital Partners and Abby Wilson of Transom Capital Group joined BluWave as panelists for the virtual event.
The panelists discussed the importance of creating scorecard assessments for all executive positions to test technical aptitude.
Incorporating objective criteria, such as personality assessments, can also be helpful. For example, when hiring a CFO, the process might involve screening for cultural fit, sending an assessment that models financial statements with errors and conducting behavioral interviews with key stakeholders.
To ensure success, it’s essential to communicate effectively with candidates and get alignment on what you’re looking for from the onset. Putting in the work upfront can help build a high-performing executive team that drives company growth and success.
Hiring deeper within the organization – beyond the C-suite – also came up. The panelists said that one important aspect of the hiring process is using data to evaluate talent.
Objective criteria like cognitive abilities and behavioral fit for the role can help companies focus on hiring for aptitude and growth potential rather than just credentials. Encouraging a mindset of thinking outside the box can also help identify junior talent with a strong aptitude to learn and grow.
While it may take longer to find smarter and better hires, these candidates are more likely to stay and contribute to the growth and success of the company.
Improving Retention and Culture
Creating a positive and engaging work culture – vital to retaining top talent – was the third and final topic the panelists discussed.
One way to encourage employee buy-in and create a sense of ownership is to offer profit interests to all employees, not just top executives. This can motivate team members as they feel invested in the success of the company. Leadership programs for middle managers and director-level employees can also have a significant impact on retention rates.
Regular standing events create a sense of loyalty to the organization, too. For example, weekly lunches or bi-weekly events can encourage collaboration and give different levels of the organization opportunities to interact. This can foster a sense of community and help create a more positive work environment.
Simple acts of recognition and gratitude can also go a long way toward building a more positive culture, the panelists said.
Pricing consultants help businesses maximize profits based on researching trends, competitors, customer behavior and more. The goal is to maintain high demand and revenue generation without sacrificing quality, loyalty or perception.
Setting the right price for a product or service is a key factor in maximizing profit margin. It can unlock substantial additional revenue when done correctly.
In fact, demand for pricing strategy resources continues to increase in this high-inflation economy. It’s often among the most-sought resources in the BluWave network.
If you want to hire a pricing expert, here’s what you should look for during your evaluation.
How consultants set prices depends on many factors, such as the type of product or service, market conditions, customer segments and business goals. That’s why it’s so important to hire someone who will take the time to intimately understand your organization and its competitors.
By choosing the “right price,” these consultants help maximize a business’s ROI by protecting profit margins while maximizing revenue and demand.
Pricing consultants may use a number of different high-level strategies: cost-plus pricing; value-based pricing; dynamic pricing; promotional pricing; penetration pricing; skimming pricing.
Pricing, however, is not a one-time exercise. They must be constantly assessed and adjusted based on performance. Consultants work closely with their clients to understand their objectives and constraints and develop a pricing strategy that supports them.
They help businesses choose the “right price” that aligns with the overall business strategy, marketing plan and sales goals to achieve maximum ROI.
When choosing a pricing consultant, finding someone who thoroughly researches the market before making recommendations is essential. Pricing consultants use various methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, experiments, data analysis, and more to gain customer and market insights. This establishes a solid foundation for an effective strategy.
In addition to customer and market insights, pricing consultants also consider production, distribution and other operational costs to develop a strategy that ensures profitability.
Pricing consultants also analyze competitors’ strategies to identify opportunities and potential threats. This analysis includes not only their product or service prices, but also their promotions, discounts and other tactics.
To measure price sensitivity, consultants may use techniques such as conjoint analysis or price elasticity testing. This helps them determine how price changes may affect customer demand. They also use digital tools such as web analytics, social listening and sentiment analysis to gain insights into customer behavior and preferences.
All this market research can help validate a new product or service, identify customer value drivers, measure price sensitivity, segment customers by willingness to pay, benchmark competitors’ prices and more.
After conducting market research and analyzing customer insights, pricing consultants typically use a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to create a pricing strategy that meets their clients’ goals. This includes:
Segmenting customers: Based on their willingness to pay, customer segments are created to help determine the optimal pricing strategy. This involves identifying the different types of customers, their preferences and their willingness to pay for a particular product or service.
Identifying value drivers: Consultants work with their clients to identify the key value drivers for their products or services. This involves understanding what features or benefits are most important to customers and how they affect their willingness to pay.
Developing pricing structures: After identifying customer segments and value drivers, consultants develop pricing structures that align with their clients’ business goals. This may involve creating different pricing tiers or packages that offer different levels of benefits or features.
Conducting sensitivity analysis: For an optimal pricing strategy, consultants conduct sensitivity analysis to understand how changes in pricing may affect demand and revenue.
Developing measurement tools: Pricing consultants also develop measurement tools to monitor the performance of the pricing strategy over time. This includes setting up metrics and analytics to track sales, revenue, profit margins and customer satisfaction.
By using a combination of market research, quantitative analysis, and pricing strategies, pricing consultants help businesses maximize ROI and growth.
To better understand customer behavior and preferences, pricing consultants use a range of techniques to gather insights:
Key decision factors: One of the first steps in understanding a customer base is defining what motivates them. This involves identifying the main drivers of customer behavior, such as price, quality, brand reputation or convenience. Research techniques such as surveys, focus groups and data analysis can all be used to understand what influences purchasing decisions.
Willingness to pay: This concept helps businesses determine the optimal price point for their products or services. Essentially, willingness to pay is a measure of how much customers are willing to spend on a particular product or service based on factors such as perceived value, quality and market competition.
Preferences: Customer needs vary from market to market. For example, pricing consultants may work to reduce churn for a SaaS organization by understanding customers’ needs, what they value and how they make choices. Success is measured by an increase in adoption and revenue.
Offer options: Offering choices with good-better-best options and bundles that meet varying needs, use cases and budgets can reveal a lot about a customer. KPIs here include customer adoption and employing Give-Gets to protect price/value alignment.
Perception of discounts: It’s also important to understand how customers perceive discounts and how they influence purchasing decisions. This information is also used to inform pricing strategies that maximize revenue while maintaining loyalty.
A pricing expert will know when and how to use each of these tactics to develop the deepest understanding of the customer base for your particular industry.
Some businesses never realize the potential of their products or services because they’re not charging the right price.
By blindly setting prices without conducting proper diligence, you’re leaving money on the table. Depending on the size of your business, this could mean millions of dollars.
Fortunately, there’s a roster of expertly vetted price consultants ready for you to hire from within the BluWave Business Builders’ Network.
We have thoroughly evaluated each and every pricing resource that’s been invited into our network so that you can move forward with confidence. These niche-specific resources have invaluable experience helping companies like yours optimize prices.
Whether you’re a PE firm working with a portco, or a private or public company that wants to accelerate revenue growth, we already have the right service provider for you.
Service Provider Type: Interim Executive with Manufacturing Expertise
Industry: Manufacturing – Glass
Need
Interim CEO
Struggling to get the right CEO in place for its portco, the PE firm needed a stopgap while it prepared an internal candidate to take over as its long-term chief executive officer.
Challenge
Underperforming Portco
A glass company with a great product line couldn’t keep up with consumer demand. After years of underperformance throughout the holding period, the PE firm was underwater on its investment. Having broken covenants with its bank while battling labor and equipment issues, the team was desperate for a quick turnaround.
They identified a strong internal candidate to take over in the long run, but he needed some guidance to grow into the role. To help him get up to speed, they needed an interim CEO who could serve as a mentor while refining operations at multiple plants across the U.S.
How BluWave Helped
The Business Builders’ Network
The BluWave Vetted™ Business Builders’ Network features a deep bench of hand-selected interim executives, ready to step into a new role on short notice. We immediately contacted the best and brightest leadership talent in the manufacturing industry from within our network and presented a short list of candidates that same week.
The team’s top choice was identified just one day after the initial scoping call, and the interim CEO stepped into the role shortly after. We maintained contact with both the temporary executive as well as the PE firm throughout the entire engagement – and beyond – to ensure the relationship was fruitful.
Result
The veteran executive righted the ship during a six-month stint, buying the PE firm time to name a full-time CEO
The career interim executive hit the ground running and brought stability to the portco. In the meantime, the private equity firm identified and groomed its permanent replacement from within.
The interim executive we provided from our PE-grade network stepped in and mentored the presumptive leader to prepare them to take the reins. At the end of the six-month engagement, the transition was complete and the full-time CEO remains in place to this day as the company continues to grow. Now the PE firm can focus on winding down its holding period and preparing the manufacturing company for sale.
