There’s a perception (among some) in the marketing community that campaigns and tactics should be strategized and executed differently whether your organization focuses on B2B or B2C audiences. Contrary to this belief, results published in a recent Forrester study indicate that B2B-focused organizations need to let go of this idea.
Buying journey interactions have soared from 2019 to 2021, according to this study, with “online research, conversations with providers, and other steps to learn about offerings or vendors jumped nearly 60%.”
“The critical nature of business purchases during the pandemic – along with people working from home and having more time to conduct research – led to greater scrutiny and due diligence of those purchases.” – Forrester, How The Pandemic Transformed B2B Buying
What does this mean to you as a B2B marketer? It means that digital experiences and campaigns must provide your buyers the experiences they’re used to as consumers.
A Real-World B2B Marketing Success Story
What if a global technology brand could grow an audience of tech-savvy influencers and increase conversions? Qualcomm, a well-known technology leader, realized that it needed to provide an enhanced digital experience in order to maintain its competitive edge. Creating this digital experience meant the company needed to address some fundamentals, such as ensuring its customer database and marketing automation platform were aligned to identify and monitor prospects at each stage of the buying journey.
We helped Qualcomm on its digital transformation to build a unified digital experience and personalized buyer’s journey with Adobe Marketo and expanding to the full Adobe stack.
Because of our partnership, Qualcomm now benefits from streamlined marketing operations and connected marketing and sales teams. Additionally, the company grew an audience of tech-savvy enthusiasts and increased brand awareness.
Hear The Story Behind Qualcomm’s Marketo Journey
Join us for an upcoming webinar on May 24, 2022 at 1 PM Eastern for a thought-provoking discussion with Garett Meznarich, director at Perficient; Brandon Ratliff, digital marketing operations lead at Qualcomm; and Kalie Nitzsche, Marketo sales specialist at Adobe.
When you attend the webinar, you’ll hear:
- How Qualcomm can now accurately track buyers on their journey
- How building a targeted opt-in experience increased Qualcomm’s contact database by 50%
- Thoughts and insights on the future of B2B marketing
Register now to join us live on May 24th!
Interested in the discussion, but you’ve got a schedule conflict? When you register, you’ll receive an email afterwards to view and watch the webinar at your convenience.
Perficient’s Adobe Expertise
We’re an Adobe Platinum Partner delivering end-to-end, integrated marketing solutions on Adobe Experience Cloud – solutions that tackle your ever-changing, increasingly complex business challenges.
We bring the strategic imagination of an agency and the highest level of Adobe expertise and technical acumen to deliver exceptional customer experiences for the world’s biggest brands. And our experience is second to none. We are Adobe’s leading digital experience partner with hundreds of Adobe, Marketo, and Adobe Commerce certifications.
Additionally, our Marketo team is proud to be the first in the world recognized by Adobe as Marketo Engage Specialized. Adobe Specialized partners are certified by Adobe for their proven capabilities and successful implementations — the best of the best in the Adobe Partner ecosystem. Our Marketo-certified experts provide you high-quality repeatable results every time so your business can quickly grow and adapt to market needs while maximizing your investments.
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On International Women’s Day, we recently recognized and celebrated women around the world. In honor of this day, Perficient and Adobe collaborated to host the sixth annual Women in Digital panel.
While this event typically coincides with Adobe Summit, we were delighted to host 170 people during the live virtual event. (If you weren’t able to make it, we highly recommend watching it on demand.)
Moderating this year’s panel was Kim Czopek, Director of Digital Strategy at Perficient and co-host of Perficient’s What If? So What? podcast. Kim led an insightful discussion among the panel of women leaders that included:
- Laura Hawkins, Product Ownership Manager at Enterprise Holdings, Inc.
- Nina Huesgen, Senior Manager, Electrify Home and eCommerce at Electrify America
- Tawnya Infantino, National Vice President, Digital and Human Experience at CommonSpirit Health
- Loni Stark, VP of Strategy and Product at Adobe
- Liz Trilikis, Senior Manager, Application Engineering at Caterpillar, Inc.
Curated Recommendations for Books and Shows
To kick-off the discussion, each panelist introduced herself and shared recommendations for books, TV shows, movies, or podcasts that she’s currently enjoying. These are some great ideas if you’re looking to add to your list!
Loni Stark: “I’m reading a book called The Mirror and The Palette: Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience, [a compilation of] 500 years of women’s self-portraits. I paint as a hobby, so it’s something I’m interested in. The other area I’ve been studying [comes from] The Neurobiology of Emotion because I like the breakdown of subjective emotion with the science of the brain.”
Laura Hawkins: “Right now, I decided to go deep into my ‘to-be’ read list of books. I’m reading Dune, and I’m immersing myself in it. It is somewhat of a hardcore book, and I usually read light and fluffy fast books. I’m really enjoying it, and I wanted to read it ahead of the next two movies coming out.”
Tawnya Infantino: “I’m actually revisiting an oldie but a goodie called Multipliers by Liz Weisman. It categorizes people as Diminishers and Multipliers. While diminishers essentially squash performance and outcomes, Multipliers bring out the genius in the people around them. This book guides you through being aware of when you’re modeling diminisher behavior as well as steps to focus on bringing out that genius in people, which leads to better solutions, higher morale, etc.”
Nina Huesgen: “Personally, I’m quite interested in environmental matters. The movie that has my attention these days is called ‘Conspiracy,’ a documentary available on Netflix. It investigates the international fishing industry and its impact on the world’s oceans. So, a little more serious, but it’s a must see if you care about environmental matters.”
Liz Trilikis: “A book I’m reading now that has been pretty powerful for me is called The Power of Regret by Dan Pink. What he teaches in the book is how regret is seen as a negative emotion and many people try to suppress regrets in their life. However, it can be a powerful teacher and help you grow in your life. I really like the insight that he provides.”
Key Takeaways
The event went on to cover a variety of topics from early career advice for women in digital to leading with intention and empathy. Here’s a sampling of key takeaways shared by our panelists.
Advice for Building Your Career in Digital
Nina: “Looking back, one piece of advice that I got is to really focus on my career path and make sure that whatever I do matches where I want to go. You want to set your career goals based on where you want to go, of course. But make sure you don’t [overlook] opportunities that might not immediately look to be a good fit. [Those opportunities] might give you additional, valuable experience that you might need down the road to become a leader.”
Liz: “You have to be more intentional about your relationships. Because we’re working in a remote world, you’re not going to run into people in the hallway or be able to stop by their office. So, it means a lot of meetings, but be intentional in those meetings and who you’re meeting. Even having coffee meetings or others like that, you then need to look at your network to pinpoint your peers and influencers, make those connections, and keep those relationships going virtually.”
Advice for Leading with Intention and Handling Feedback
Tawnya: “It’s important to know your audience and ask good, exploratory questions. Listen just as much, if not more, than you speak. When you’re truly listening and understanding where a person is coming from, the conversation goes much more smoothly. You learn so much, and then, you can address any items or collaborate in the right space. For me, [being a good leader] is showing up to support that person.”
Laura: “Be intentional about getting to know your team and following up on things that you learn about them. And consciously take time to have fun with them, such as saying hello to them in the morning. You’re not working in the office, so there’s not an opportunity to walk by their cubicles or offices. Additionally, be open with your team. I try to keep office hours, which are virtual, but my employees know they can reach out to me during those times, and that I’m available for whatever they need.”
Loni: “I’ve gotten to a place [in my career] where looking at feedback, I have come to realize that there isn’t good feedback or bad feedback. It’s how I take that feedback and make the best possible use of it. The better that I become at [applying feedback,] the more valuable it can be to me. It’s working on yourself to find what you stand for, what you value, and your purpose. Why do you show up at work every day, irrespective your title? What do you represent, and who do you intrinsically want to be? I think that takes time to figure out.”
Paying It Forward
With nearly 170 attendees at the live event, each person who attended resulted in a donation towards Girls Who Code. Perficient and Adobe were able to donate $2,000 total to this fantastic organization that’s providing resources and events for shaping the next Women in Digital.
Make the time to watch the on-demand recording. And, stay tuned for upcoming posts from Kim Czopek as she expands on major themes from the event, including intentional leadership and tackling business innovation and strategy.
Ready to Grow Your Career?
At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.
Visit our Careers page to see career opportunities and more!
Go inside Life at Perficient and connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
]]>Acquia recently announced the winners of its 2021 Partner Awards. We’re delighted to share that Perficient received the Outstanding Partner Contribution award for our outstanding performance in Drupal Cloud for 2021.
We’re one of Acquia’s first Certified Drupal Cloud Practices and a valued Acquia partner since 2017. Throughout that time, our Acquia practice has demonstrated consistent expertise with Acquia products and cloud hosting services. Our engagements range from implementing Drupal websites and portals to strategizing personalization and customer journeys, including clients in regulated industries like healthcare and financial services.
“Our long-term Acquia relationship continues to thrive and grow considering the extensive digital adoption that companies have faced over the last two years. We’re very honored by this award, and look forward to continuing to drive ROI and impact for our mutual clients,” said Dan Persson, Acquia Practice Director at Perficient.
The Acquia Partner Awards recognize 17 outstanding partners across four global regions. The awards acknowledge excellence in overall revenue performance, growth with Acquia’s Open Digital Experience Platform (DXP), outstanding contributions to Acquia product innovation, and impact on their communities.
Making A Difference for Our Healthcare Clients
As an early implementer of the Acquia Open Digital Experience Platform, we’ve used Acquia Drupal Cloud to enable our clients to move faster. Our expertise has supported clients in a variety of ways, whether they involved launching hundreds of sites in record time or ensuring authors have a set of flexible components to build new page layouts.
“This award recognizes Perficient’s impact with our healthcare clients, driving innovation that improves customer experience, employee experience, and patient experience,” Persson remarked. “We’ve enhanced upon the Acquia Drupal Cloud to provide ideal experiences in healthcare that meet HIPAA requirements.”
Additionally, our Acquia practice has developed consistent best practices for using Drupal Cloud to deliver progressively decoupled site experiences that leverage the best of headless Drupal. And at the same time, our clients’ content authors are empowered with full capabilities and flexibility of a component-based editing experience.
“Congratulations to Perficient, who went above and beyond to deliver substantial value to our joint customers during another year of rapid digitalization,” said Chris Doggett, Acquia’s Chief Revenue Officer. “Since last year’s Partner Awards, we’ve seen how partners, brands, and businesses across the globe have adapted to new ways of operating. We look forward to celebrating the exceptional work of Perficient, who continues to elevate the standard of customer experience by leveraging Acquia’s Open DXP and the expertise of our partner ecosystem.”
Why Choose Perficient for Acquia?
We’re a trusted and certified Acquia Gold partner ready to help you integrate a single view of your customer and create impactful digital experiences. For more information about Perficient’s Acquia Drupal Cloud and healthcare expertise, subscribe to Perficient’s blog, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
]]>If you’ve heard great things about Adobe Summit but not experienced it, this is your chance to see what it’s all about. Summit is virtual again this year – and free – for everyone to attend! This three-day global virtual event begins March 15.
With a well-crafted agenda of more than 200 sessions, training workshops, and networking opportunities, you have the chance to learn from a global community of Experience Makers. Explore the agenda for your specific region:
Additionally, Adobe Summit offers an incredible lineup of keynote speakers. You’ll hear from Adobe leadership, CEOs of global brands, and celebrity speakers, including Ryan Reynolds and Allyson Felix, the most decorated U.S. track and field Olympian.
Summit Sneaks, a wildly popular session that highlights what’s going on at Adobe Labs, will be hosted by Kristen Bell. Make sure you register and add sessions to your calendar.
Which sessions are you looking forward to? Personally, we can’t wait to hear from our friend, Adobe’s VP of Adobe Experience Manager and Commerce, Loni Stark, during her session on Personalized Commerce for Digital Business.
Connect with Our Experts at Adobe Summit
As a leading Adobe Platinum Partner, we’re excited to announce our sponsorship of Adobe Summit. Visit our sponsor page and follow along with @Perficient on Twitter. From the sponsor page, you can learn more about Perficient and the digital transformations we’re leading for top brands in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, automotive, and retail.
Sign Up for Braindate Sessions
Our Adobe experts will host Braindate meetings at Summit. These sessions allow you to network with our team during the conference just like a visit to our booth in previous years.
Take a look at the scheduled events, and sign up to reserve your seat! (Note: You must be registered for Summit and signed in to access the links listed below.)
Let’s Talk About Customer Journeys – Brent Evans, Director, Adobe Marketo and Jordan Kanter, Multi-Solution Architect
Tuesday, March 15 | 12:00 pm EST, 11:00 am CST, 10:00 am MST, 9:00 am PST
As digital marketers, we encounter all kinds of customer journeys. Let’s talk about some of the more interesting nuances we’ve seen lately and how we’ve seized those opportunities.
Accelerate the Adobe Commerce Connector for Fluent Order Management – Steve Gatto, Director, Commerce Consulting
Wednesday, March 16 | 11:00 am EST, 10:00 am CST, 9:00 am MST, 8:00 am PST
Order management, global view of inventory…sound familiar? Come join us and discuss the Adobe Commerce Connector that enables integration between Adobe Commerce and Fluent Order Management.
SPA Editing: Finally, True In-context Editing with AEM Remote SPA Editor – Jeff Molsen, Technical Architect and Robert Sumner, Principal Consultant
Thursday, March 17 | 4:00 pm EST, 3:00 pm CST, 2:00 pm MST, 1:00 pm PST
After seven years of waiting, Adobe released Remote SPA Editor, which promises marketers the ability to edit content within Single Page Applications in context of the experience itself. Come learn how it works!
Top 10 Things You Should Know about AEM as a Cloud Service – Robert Sumner, Principal Consultant and Namit Joshi, Director, Adobe Consulting
Thursday, March 17 | 5:00 pm EST, 4:00 pm CST, 3:00 pm MST, 2:00 pm PST
Learn from the team that took Adobe’s first client to production on AEMaaCS! We will discuss platform and architectural considerations for planning similar migrations to the platform.
The Zen of XDM: Leveraging Graph Databases to Calm the Customer Experience Storm – Jordan Kanter, Multi-Solution Architect
Thursday, March 17 | 5:00 pm EST, 4:00 pm CST, 3:00 pm MST, 2:00 pm PST
XDM and graph databases are changing the way we interact with customers. We’ll discuss how to make the most of these databases for improving CX.
READY TO GROW YOUR CAREER?
At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.
Visit our Careers page to see career opportunities and more!
Go inside Life at Perficient and connect with us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
]]>Perficient and Adobe will partner to host the sixth annual Women in Digital panel just before Adobe Summit 2022. This year, we’re excited to celebrate women around the world as we’ll hold our virtual event on International Women’s Day, Tuesday, March 8.
In honor of this worldwide celebration, each confirmed attendee will result in a donation that benefits Girls Who Code. The Women in Digital event held last October resulted in $2,000 donated to breast cancer awareness and support organizations, which inspired our team to take a similar approach when planning this year’s event.
Moderating this year’s virtual event is Kim Williams-Czopek, Director of Digital Strategy at Perficient and podcast co-host of What If? So What? She will be joined by a remarkable panel of women leaders including:
- Laura Hawkins, Product Ownership Manager at Enterprise Holdings, Inc.
- Tawnya Infantino, National Vice President, Digital and Human Experience at CommonSpirit Health
- Nina Huesgen, Senior Manager, Electrify Home and eCommerce at Electrify America
- Liz Trilikis, Senior Manager, Application Engineering at Caterpillar, Inc.
- Loni Stark, VP of Strategy and Product at Adobe
A Tradition of Fostering Connections in Our Community
Six consecutive years of Women in Digital events have sparked inspiration and connections in our industry. This event has evolved from a small, intimate gathering at Adobe Summit in 2017 to the popular event we’re excited to plan and host each year.
Take a look at the event recaps from previous years and join us in March! Save your seat today and be prepared for an inspiring discussion on March 8th at 8 AM PT/10 AM CT/11 AM ET.
- 2017: Leaders Join Together at Inspiring #AdobeSummit Women in Tech Breakfast
- 2018: Women in Digital Panelists Share Powerful Advice at Adobe Summit
- 2019: Armor Up: Recapping Women in Digital Panel at Adobe Summit 2019
- April 2021: Fearless Women in Digital Panel
- October 2021: Focus on Generosity and Growth at Special Edition of Women in Digital Panel
Adobe Summit 2022 – Register now!
Perficient is a proud sponsor of Adobe Summit, the digital experience conference. Head over to the Summit website to register, and plan your schedule to listen and connect with Experience Makers from around the world.
]]>Application modernization and innovation has remained a top priority of enterprises for the past several years. The economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (and subsequent aftershocks) has only escalated this priority.
In a related post, we recognize the challenges of modernizing and migrating legacy applications, which include “legacy knowledge, custom-built processes, databases, and solutions that easily break and lead to unnecessary downtime.”
Additionally, the current market trends for application modernization and migration services reveal a “continuing shift toward modernization enabled by advanced cloud-native technologies,” according to Forrester.
This market and the dynamics at play have created an opportunity for our partners Microsoft and VMware. Announced at SpringOne last week, Microsoft is previewing an enterprise Java service called Azure Spring Cloud Enterprise Tier.
Azure Spring Cloud Enterprise Tier (with VMware Tanzu Technology) is “a Microsoft managed service for Spring that offers enterprise-grade support, configurability, flexibility, and portability for enterprise developers.”
What This News Means for Enterprise Developers
Because Spring is among the most popular application development frameworks for Java, Microsoft has Basic and Standard Tiers of Azure Spring Cloud for environments ranging from development to production.
These services help developers build Spring Boot applications with a “focus on building application code (e.g., microservices) rather than pedestrian tasks like configuring infrastructure.”
Azure Spring Cloud Enterprise Tier is designed to ease pain points for enterprise software development processes such as:
- Increased expectations (from developers) for managed services that allow them to modernize applications under highly complex processes
- An understanding of what developers can and cannot use, especially with increasing shifts to public cloud and balancing that with on-premises environments
Learn more about The Importance of Application Modernization for Businesses in 2021
Ready to Help With Your Application Modernization and Innovation
As Microsoft Azure support for open-source platforms and services have increased, cross-platform expertise is a critical factor for successful cloud transformation. Considering the widespread adoption of Azure and popularity of Spring, Perficient offers a solution specifically for Azure Spring Cloud Application Modernization.
Our quickstart solution for Azure Spring Cloud supports your multi-cloud deployment strategy so that you gain the benefits of faster time to market, agility, lower costs, and full automation.
“Our teams accelerate the development and modernization of web apps and microservices with Azure Spring Cloud,” said Steve Holstad, Director, Microsoft Azure at Perficient. “With our expertise in cloud infrastructure, PaaS services, data solutions, cross-platform architecture, and solution development, we’ve supported numerous clients in financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing. We’ve not only modernized applications but also developed comprehensive enterprise cloud strategy roadmaps to enable successful cloud adoption and expansion over time.”
Embracing Azure Spring Cloud provides flexible, native Azure integration and ease of managed services for Spring developers. This allows them to focus on providing business value and reducing time to market for new products and services.
Why Perficient
As a Microsoft Gold and VMware partner, we’re uniquely positioned to deliver application transformations using Java, open source, .NET, VMware Tanzu, and the Microsoft Azure platform. We’ve helped clients across industries develop strategic solutions and accelerate innovative cloud projects. Plug into our cloud, development, and application platform expertise to increase developer velocity and shorten delivery cycles.
Ready to advance your app innovation and modernization journey? Contact our team about this solution.
]]>In the wake of last year’s sudden shift to remote work, businesses made significant changes for frontline workers. Now, companies are preparing for the next normal – hybrid work. A recent Microsoft study defines hybrid work as some employees returning to work in an office while others continue working from home.
“Hybrid work isn’t the final evolution of this next normal,” explained Ron Jones, Director, Microsoft Modern Workplace at Perficient. “As we recover from the pandemic and start applying the lessons learned from working remotely, business leaders are thinking more deeply about which roles are remote and which are on site. Then, they have to define the best way to collaborate.”
“However, this is a heavy consideration for organizations,” he continued. “Nearly 60 percent of people feel less connected to their colleagues since shifting to fully remote work. Enhancing and evolving the employee experience is crucial for organizations to keep employees highly engaged.”
What is an Employee Experience Platform? Why is it important?
Conventionally, an Employee Experience Platform (EXP) is a system of experiences that help organizations create a thriving culture with engaged employees and inspiring leaders. An EXP is usually the technology supporting an organization’s efforts to provide:
- Communications & Resources
- Growth & Development
- Knowledge
- Wellbeing
- Insights
The company culture drives these concentration areas and the benefits of each. As organizations lean more into technology solutions, how do they create and build that sense of culture and connection to other colleagues?
Crafting the Ideal Employee Experience
Positioning an EXP to meet your company’s desired cultural and technical outcomes is complex. The number of stakeholders involved (HR, IT, corporate communications, and others) combined with the areas of concentration including Intranet, Communities, Collaboration, Ideation, Learning, Analytics & Wellbeing, Apps & Business Processes, Accelerators, IP, and other third-party integrations are all underscored by the need for governance, automation tooling, and change management.
“Considering the wants and needs of today’s employee, a modern intranet platform only gives you the basics. They allow organizations to keep employees informed, but they don’t foster connections with the organization or other colleagues.”
– Ron Jones, Perficient
With the prevalence of remote and hybrid work scenarios, how organizations deliver the best employee experience matters more than ever. Many enterprise technology solutions, including Salesforce and IBM, have been exploring the EXP space from suites of tools to individual experiences that allow organizations to take a “best of breed” approach. One of the newer offerings this year is Microsoft Viva.
“All of our customers have their own unique starting line for their employee experience based on their existing investments and strategic direction,” said Jones.
“Some are taking a best of breed approach, chasing all the best tools for the best task. This often leads to extensive integration efforts and siloed experiences. Others are looking for something more holistic, taking on many of these concentration areas to provide a unified experience. Many tech players are in this space, but the biggest announcement this year has come from Microsoft,” he asserted.
Enter Microsoft Viva
Microsoft introduced a solution as part of its new EXP product category earlier this year. Named “Viva,” the platform supports organizations on enhancing collaboration, learning, and the wellbeing of their employees into a unified experience that’s housed in Teams.
Microsoft Viva aims to provide the next generation of employee experiences via the common surface of Microsoft Teams. It uses a set of four key functionality pillars:
- Connections – Culture and communications
- Insights – Productivity and wellbeing
- Topics – People and expertise
- Learning – Skills and growth
“Viva plays a big part of the connectedness back to the organization,” said Jones. “Businesses face difficulties in maintaining their teams. With our clients, we’ve seen that making the case for employee engagement has helped. Companies want operational efficiencies and greater profitability, but if they’re not making their people happy – or barely propping up employees to be more successful, then they will move on.”
“Disengaged employees are 12x more likely to leave their company compared to than those who are highly engaged.” (Glint)
Understanding The Employee Experience as an Hierarchy of Needs
With a significant number of knowledge workers that are still remote, they want to be productive, stay informed, and feel empowered.
Source: Perficient, Knowledge Worker’s Hierarchy of Needs
“Employees seek productive collaboration not just within their own teams but also with others across the organization. Those conversations need to be meaningful, and gathering information or getting quick answers should involve minimal obstacles,” continued Jones.
“Additionally, they want to personalize information to their role or location. For example, with continuous updates and news regarding COVID, I want to know what my local office is saying about reopening. Or, what information is shared by the state of Georgia? In my case, that information is more relevant versus what’s happening at the national level,” he explained.
Elevating Your Intranet Portal to a Modern Workplace
Like any transformation, going from an intranet portal to a personalized, optimized modern workplace is a journey. Perhaps your organization has a dated intranet, and you’re moving towards a modern intranet, which can be on any platform – Drupal, Acquia, Optimizely, Adobe Experience Manager, or Sitecore.
Source: Perficient, Enterprise Journey to a Modern Workplace
“These are all leading web content management systems; however, they usually don’t provide the best employee experience,” Jones commented.
“To provide a valuable employee experience, it requires integration of vital business systems and processes by embedding engagement into collaboration. An understanding of how employees work is key versus providing the ability to stay informed and consume content. This speaks to [Microsoft] Teams serving as the foundation with the intranet as a channel of information vs. building your intranet as a one-stop-shop,” Jones explained.
Ready to Reimagine Your Employee Experience?
Our dedicated Microsoft Modern Work practice brings the best expertise in the industry. Our Microsoft Partner Advisory Council and Partner Program contributions along with our 20+ years of delivering employee experiences to our clients means we seek to build the best strategy for your organization. From Intelligent Intranet to Microsoft Teams to Microsoft Viva, our consultants are here to ensure your success.
“We’re already embarking on Viva projects with some of our long-term clients for which we built their intranets years ago,” Jones remarked. “These clients wanted to shed their technical debt and modernize all of their sites. The good news is that’s a foundational piece of what Viva offers. At the very least, your organization needs a modern home site on your intranet to take advantage of Viva [Connections.]”
Your intranet portal is the doorway to creating and evolving your employee experience. If your organization is considering Microsoft Viva and wants to understand how to prep for it, we’re here to help.
Contact our team to learn more.
Did you know…
Microsoft recognized Perficient as a finalist for the 2021 Healthcare Partner of the Year Award. Read more about this honor and the great work we’re doing to reimagine the employee experience for one of our healthcare clients.
With COVID-19 as the catalyst for accelerating digital healthcare, this event shed light on a myriad of opportunities for innovators. Besides virtual health visits, healthcare organizations realized that obsolete, fragmented healthcare technologies and manual processes were a thing of the past.
As detailed in a related blog, the Microsoft Power Platform offers new ways to build a comprehensive digitized healthcare ecosystem. Power Apps and Power Automate are low-code and no-code applications that are easily customized to meet specific operational challenges of healthcare organizations.
In a recent webinar, Eric Schmitt, director for Perficient’s Microsoft Practice, and Kristina Kaufmann, senior healthcare business consultant for Perficient, explored how we’re transforming collaboration for healthcare organizations using Microsoft Power Platform and Teams.
The discussion includes:
- How Perficient’s Healthcare Huddle App powers productivity
- An overview of the solution with insight on workflows, reports, and dashboards that promote visibility of information
- Applicable use cases that illustrate the “art of the possible” with our Healthcare Huddle App and the Microsoft Cloud
Did you know…
Microsoft recognized Perficient as a finalist for the 2021 Healthcare Partner of the Year Award. Read more about this honor and the great work we’re doing in healthcare.
One thing is clear after the last year and a half – the overnight shift from in-person experiences to digital-first (or digital only) has prompted companies to double down on providing superb digital experiences. At the same time, they have to make sure that “every user interaction builds and delivers on business outcomes.”
Planning, building, and executing exceptional digital experiences is among the many reasons our clients choose Perficient as a partner. That’s why we’re excited to share that Perficient has earned Premier Platinum Partner status with Optimizely – its highest partner tier.
This distinction represents our strong legacy in delivering success on several Optimizely platforms, including Commerce Cloud, combined with our dedication to growing with Optimizely. We’re one of the few digital consultancies in the world that has significant expertise in all three areas of focus for Optimizely: CMS, Commerce, and Experimentation.
“We’re thrilled to be recognized for our expertise and continued success as a top Optimizely partner,” said Ed Hoffman, vice president, Perficient. “Our team is fully committed to growing this partnership and helping our customers achieve phenomenal results with its evolving ecosystem of digital experience solutions.”
Delivering Outsized Outcomes
Our team of Optimizely experts, including two Optimizely MVPs, can holistically assess and address a broad range of digital experience and experimentation projects with the ability to deliver success from concept to launch and beyond. Within the last few months, Perficient has added eight new customers for Optimizely within the healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services industries.
Learn more about our recent customer successes:
- A leading global manufacturer and distributor of outdoor solutions streamlined the buying experience for its B2B partners through a unified commerce engine. Perficient was the trusted partner of choice because of our commerce expertise, consultative approach, and reputation as an industry leader.
- Our team helped a healthcare workforce management company achieve increased conversions and accelerated site rollouts by re-platforming multiple websites and introducing personalization and testing capabilities.
- A leading streaming entertainment platform wanted to launch experimentation with Optimizely during the release of its new subscription service. We provided experimentation development, technical guidance, and consulting, which enabled the brand to easily scale its experimentation and automates research, reporting, and audience creation.
Over the course of our eight-year partnership with Optimizely, we’ve earned specializations in B2B Commerce and Content Cloud as well as industry badges in Healthcare and Manufacturing and Distribution.
“Both Perficient and Optimizely are experiencing incredible growth as the result of delivering world-class projects to customers on a world-class platform that optimizes the end-to-end digital experience,” said Diane Schmidt, regional vice president of partner development at Optimizely. “By earning Premier Partner Status, Perficient has demonstrated its expertise in leveraging our product portfolio to help growing companies compete digitally.”
To learn more about Perficient’s Optimizely expertise, subscribe to Perficient’s blog, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Learn how to get the most value from the new Optimizely…
]]>Microsoft recently announced the finalists and winners of its 2021 Partner of the Year Awards. We’re delighted to share that Perficient was recognized as a finalist for the Healthcare Partner of the Year Award.
This honor positions Perficient among a global field of top Microsoft partners that have demonstrated excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
“We are thrilled by this recognition from Microsoft as a 2021 Healthcare Partner of the Year finalist,” said John Jenkins, vice president, Perficient. “Building a modern workplace requires new strategies and technologies that allow organizations to scale. That’s especially true in healthcare where quality of care reigns supreme. We’re proud to work with Microsoft to build transformative healthcare solutions that delivers on the patient experience while accelerating collaboration for care teams and administrative support.”
Awards were classified in several categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 4,400 submissions from more than 100 countries. As a global digital consultancy that serves the largest health organizations in the U.S., Perficient was recognized by Microsoft for providing outstanding solutions and services in the healthcare industry and achieving key milestones for our healthcare clients’ transformations.
Recognition for Reimagined End of Life and Palliative Care
As the world grappled with the onset of COVID-19, healthcare organizations faced challenges to treat patients with the life-threatening virus while finding new ways to serve patients in need of preventative care or treatment. When the largest single-source provider of end-of-life care in the U.S. needed to make virtual patient care a reality, Perficient was the partner of choice.
Working with this specialized healthcare provider presented some unique challenges – especially during a pandemic. Fortunately, our broad and deep healthcare expertise served as a solid foundation for understanding the needs of patients as well as our client’s business.
Our team learned that approximately 80 percent of the provider’s patients want to receive care in their homes. Interdisciplinary teams comprised of nurses, social workers, chaplains, and clinicians deliver care for terminally ill patients, which is a delicate balance to provide safe interactions while also satisfying patients’ wishes.
With an understanding of our client’s challenges, we built a tailored solution on Microsoft Teams and Power Apps. The solution enables patient care teams to collaborate and share real-time information about patients’ needs wherever they are – including their homes. Within a single interface, the virtual care platform combines team meetings and patient consults, pushes updates and alerts from patient visits, and streamlines appointment scheduling.
The healthcare provider now has a scalable solution that improves continuity of care by avoiding after-hours intervention, restructures workflows for patient care teams, and reduces care costs.
Watch the video to learn more about how our client can deliver patient-centric care using this innovative, scalable solution.
A Trusted Partner With Unparalleled Healthcare Expertise
This transformation story is one of many tremendous outcomes we’ve delivered for our healthcare clients.
As a Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner and a National Solution Provider (NSP), Perficient offers more than 20 years of Microsoft experience across all Microsoft workloads, including Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics. Within the last five years, our Microsoft practice has implemented more than 150 engagements for our healthcare clients.
“I am honored to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Rodney Clark, corporate vice president, Global Partner Solutions, Channel Sales and Channel Chief, Microsoft. “These remarkable partners have displayed a deep commitment to building world-class solutions for customers – from cloud-to-edge – and represent some of the best and brightest our ecosystem has to offer.”
We stand ready to support our healthcare clients solve their biggest challenges – even in the most disruptive times.
For more information about Perficient’s Microsoft and healthcare expertise, subscribe to Perficient’s blog, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
]]>The stakes to evolve your business and adapt to new realities have never been higher. How do you accelerate and scale your transformation cost-effectively? The answer – optimized global delivery. Follow this series and learn more about our nearshore software development capabilities from members of our global consulting team in Colombia.
When coordinating software development projects, you must consider multiple variables at any given time. Tack on virtual collaboration and delivery, and the project is further complicated.
Gustavo Arroyave, Perfcient Global Delivery
Fortunately, our nearshore software development team, also known as Perficient Latin America, has more than 15 years’ experience with successful virtual project delivery. Throughout numerous client projects, we recognize that our deep-rooted philosophy and culture establishes a secure foundation for delivering projects that exceed our clients’ expectations.
In a conversation with Gustavo Arroyave, a technical delivery leader with Perficient Latin America, he shares more about the unique culture that elevates our team in comparison to other outsourcing software vendors. He also highlights successful outcomes with our long-term clients and the ways we’ve exceeded their expectations.
Shining a Light on Our Nearshore Software Development Team
What does collaboration look like within the context of how we deliver projects?
Gustavo: Our culture and philosophy are what make a difference [compared to] other vendors. The pillars for building successful client relationships include:
- Commitment to transparency with clients
- Constant communication with our peers on the client team
- Effective client participation
We don’t see our clients as different from us. We’re all part of a unique team.
For example, when we began working with one of our long-term customers, a product manager told me, “With other offshore delivery teams, it felt like they were either working for us, or we were working for them. But with Perficient, we’re collaborating on the same level – part of a single team.”
Part of our [employee] culture is empowering team members and making sure they’re comfortable communicating with customers to ask questions or provide constructive feedback. This makes a difference in our ability to collaborate and develop a partnership with them.
How do we build a delivery team that aligns our talent with clients’ goals?
Gustavo: The composition of every delivery team depends upon the project and goals of our customers.
Most teams have a similar composition, such as full-stack developers that can do front to back-end development, or front-end and back-end specialists. These delivery roles are key because they involve building the product.
Delivery teams also include testers to verify what the development team builds. While requirement managers work with our developers to clarify any questions related to our customers’ business.
In some cases, delivery teams will also have UX or UI designers, DevOps to support infrastructure needs, and/or Scrum Masters.
However, it’s a discovery process when building a team. We need to understand our customers’ business needs and expectations. That way, our delivery is more transversal to ensure these needs are addressed, and the team will perform as expected.
Once we understand the goals and a specific target date, we have technical people participate in initial client discussions to understand or identify potential challenges. Then, we start defining a small team to begin building the product – usually around six people. From there, we can assess whether or not to increase the team size up to 10 or 12 within the project. It just depends on the client’s needs.
Nearshore agile teams can perform incredibly well if they have competent leaders who understand how to manage a virtual team. Learn more about successful techniques for leading nearshore agile teams.
Delivery in Action from Our Nearshore Development Team
Developing a Modern, Big Data Marketplace Platform
One of our established clients is a marketing technology company that delivers seamless data-driven marketing solutions to its customers. To remain competitive, the company must quickly develop and deploy new technologies and sought help to build a marketplace application.
After earlier attempts to outsource development, our client faced several hurdles to develop a minimum viable product (MVP).
Solution
We served as a true partner, implementing an Agile approach to development and successfully delivering the new marketplace application. The solution features a robust, big data backend that interacts with other parts of our client’s larger platform.
Results
Customers that use the marketplace, including agencies that work with advertisers, can easily access updated data and efficiently communicate with media planners and buyers.
Why did our client choose Perficient as its nearshore partner?
Gustavo: Finding a solid nearshore development partner was one of the key reasons that our client initially connected with us. The company had a very thorough selection process to find the right partner.
The marketplace application was our first project, and it’s still ongoing. This product is very technical and specific to the [client’s] business. Because we built the solution from scratch, we had the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of all our capabilities – not only the technical expertise but also with Agile.
Our delivery team showed how we live and breathe the Agile approach. We built the marketplace application incrementally and through iterations. Our client previously worked through dependencies in the process. For example, for some teams to build the front-end [of the application], they needed to have the backend ready. So then, the backend becomes a dependency for the front-end developers.
Since our client wanted an automated solution, the teams needed the frontend finished for the testers to implement automation. It could take up to three sprints for our client to build a feature.
By establishing an Agile process, our delivery team reduced the time required to build the feature. We started working on frontend, backend, and automation in parallel and within the same sprint. This shows how we brought innovation to the development process. And, this is part of what became standard for the rest of our client’s teams.
How did the client respond to our delivery approach?
Gustavo: The reduced development time impressed our client because we built front-end and back-end parts in parallel and automated them in one sprint.
The company also values our commitment to transparency. As mentioned earlier, this is key within our culture and way of working – to speak up even when things are not working as expected.
For a team to succeed, every person on the team – both our delivery and client team – needs to be committed and prepared to accept the challenge. If we see anyone who is not prepared, then we communicate that to our clients.
This is part of the feedback that we provide. We inform our clients of challenges with the projects, which may include people within client teams who aren’t leading in the way we expect. Similarly, we recognize and speak up if our team is under-performing and not delivering as expected. Then, we introduce actions to help the team improve, or we make changes to our delivery team so that we align the right person to the right challenge.
Paving the Way for Reliable, Safe Transportation
A fleet management company, which grew through several acquisitions, has a vast collection of safety products it develops, manufactures, and sells to public transportation providers. Our client has maintained its outsourcing partnership with Perficient Latin America since 2010.
Our delivery teams support the development of various products for the business, supplying expertise in machine learning, automation, user interface (UI), DevOps, and more.
Solutions
Among the products currently in development is a real-time alert and image recognition system for buses. Using external cameras, the system assesses the speed of passing vehicles near the bus and identifies lane infractions and other nearby cars. Based on data captured and analyzed by the system, an alert notifies drivers of these external risks, so they do not deploy the stop arm.
By applying our expertise from the previous use case, we’re using machine learning algorithms and data science to automate a surveillance system for illegally parked vehicles. In the future, this system will use recognition software that captures the vehicle’s information and automatically sends the evidence to a platform that will fine the violator.
Results
We anticipate that customers (transit providers and cities/municipalities) can improve safety within their communities and simplify their operations.
How has our partnership helped the client’s business?
Gustavo: Considering our client’s growth through mergers and acquisitions, we’ve been working alongside their teams, gaining a deeper knowledge of the business throughout these events.
Over the course of our partnership, some delivery teams are focused on supporting and improving existing products. We’ve removed redundancies and built efficient platforms, which has ultimately reduced operational costs for our client.
Meanwhile, our other delivery teams support the company’s new vision by developing the innovative solutions mentioned earlier. Building these innovations come with challenges at times. However, our delivery approach and commitment to constant communication – not only with the product team but also with executives – are among the many reasons this client values our partnership and continues to bring more work to us.
If you’re evaluating nearshore partners for software development…
Our global delivery teams within Perficient Latin America are committed to a culture that emphasizes excellence, honesty, transparency, innovation, and the concept of failing forward. To facilitate successful virtual work with a nearshore partner, these characteristics are instrumental. Now more than ever, delivery teams must be set up and managed without being in the same room together.
As your nearshore development partner, we make this possible because of our culture that values fluid communication and collaboration.
Our delivery teams have proven experience working with US-based clients on complex, cloud-native product development. Learn more about outsourcing software development and finding the right fit with a nearshore development partner.
]]>The stakes have never been higher for your business to adapt and evolve. But how do you accelerate and scale your transformation cost-effectively? The answer – optimized global delivery. Follow this series and learn more about our nearshore software development capabilities from several members of our global consulting team in Colombia.
In just over 20 years, Agile methodologies have secured its footing in developing software and digital products. Forty-two percent of businesses state that three-quarters of their development teams use Agile practices, according to Forrester.
Agile adoption tends to be higher among software development and IT. This year’s State of Agile Report reveals that 82 percent of companies do not use Agile practices across their organizations.
Lía Sánchez, Perficient Global Delivery
Regardless of your business size, there’s an opportunity to expand Agile beyond software and product development. Getting there is easier said than done.
“Agile is simple to explain, simple to understand, and yet immensely complex to implement,” said Lía Sánchez, head of product development at Perficient Latin America. Lía also serves as an Agile coach, helping our nearshore delivery colleagues understand and implement Agile practices with our clients.
In a recent conversation, she provided insight about our outstanding reputation with Agile as a nearshore development partner. She also revealed how Agile has helped build trust with our nearshore clients for many years and how it’s eased some uncertainty during a disruptive year.
The Agile Manifesto emerged more than 20 years ago. With broad adoption of the approach, how many of our clients have already implemented Agile?
Lía: Agile is everywhere. It’s trendy and has become a buzzword. There are pros and cons to Agile, and one of the cons is that it’s not easy. But that’s the reality of our world.
Many companies see great results with Agile, and other companies still using traditional methodologies want [to pursue] it. These businesses think they will miss an opportunity and ultimately go out of business if they don’t adopt it.
However, Agile transformations are immensely complex. The biggest barrier is changing the mindset and the cultural elements [of a company]. The mindset has to permeate with individual employees and broader processes of how a company works.
Faster business value is among the top benefits realized by 64 percent of expert Agile firms. These firms also realize greater frequency of releases and more opportunities for midcourse correction. (Forrester)
Most of our clients aren’t truly doing Agile, but they come to us for help. Why? This type of transformation is not easy. Moving away from traditional methodologies and adopting Agile significantly impacts a company. This change may even touch on a company’s founding principles.
When a client approaches our team and says, “We work with Agile, and we’re choosing you to help us improve because you understand how to work with Agile.”
The reality is that clients often have a long way to go but that’s why we’re here. This scenario is actually positive because as their nearshore development partner, we build the solution together.
How do we help clients with Agile transformation?
Lía: The best way to help our clients is by showing results and gaining trust. In any relationship, you can have a lot of experience and demonstrate a lot of knowledge – and that may be enough for clients to choose you. Beyond that, the best way to help them understand new and innovative methods of working is to show how it will work specifically for them.
One of the most important things to keep in be mind is this – there’s no silver bullet in Agile.
Agile is based on the adaptability to change and the reality of different scenarios, so you can do what’s right in that situation. That’s why we get to know our clients, understand their needs, and start showing results.
For example, we started with a small team at one of our clients in marketing technology. With that one team, we first played by their “rules” to understand how they worked. By having that understanding, which also allowed our client to feel heard, we could begin incorporating change.
Over time, we built trust and then knew how to best incorporate Agile and more innovative methods for creating and developing products. Without understanding the “why,” you’re not going to find a good answer for clients – something that will fit their specific reality.
Which examples come to mind as far as building and maintaining clients’ trust?
Lía: With the client I previously mentioned, we saw the potential to grow. We observed a waterfall approach inserted in its named Agile implementation. It was a great first step, but they had some ways to go.
On that initial project, we showed them little by little how we could do things differently. Not only did it click, but the team realized how well it was working and wanted to continue it. The client started expanding these improvements to other teams within the company and applying them to projects with other vendors.
That was the first step. We showed results, and the client was comfortable with the process. The team trusted the process because they saw it worked. We now have several teams working on more projects with them today, which stemmed from one small project several years ago.
In my time at [Perficient Latin America], most clients I’ve worked with have come to us because of our highly-regarded reputation. From my experience, I can tell you that most of our clients recognize how we’ve helped others succeed in adopting and working with Agile methodologies and principles.
What’s the secret to success with Agile?
Lía: Agile transformation is a lengthy process and that’s something no one wants to hear. You have to do it slowly but fast. By that I mean, your business must go at its own pace because there are elements you must question. Part of becoming Agile is questioning how it [your business] works and the way you’re conceiving products and services.
For example, Agile doesn’t mean that there’s no planning involved. You still have to plan budgets and forecasts. Planning remains an important aspect, but adopting an Agile framework means that your business can adapt to changing that plan.
To be successful, we must work together with our clients. Our goal is to be a partner in technology and innovation by working through an iterative process that’s reviewed daily. And our clients must get involved. Otherwise, it’s not going to work.
Sometimes I’ve heard clients say, “I don’t have the time to work closely with a team to develop a technology solution.” As they start getting involved, they see the benefits of doing so, and they love being part of it.
Being involved is important to the transformation because it goes faster. It’s also more effective and productive. As a result, the clients understand their role in the process, which is part of our job to ensure a successful partnership.
How has our Agile reputation supported building trust with our clients?
Lía: When we talk about building and maintaining trust with clients, it’s because they collaborate with us. They might define an initial way to work, but we build on top of it together.
We commonly describe a good software development vendor as one that is reliable, transparent, and will deliver on what they say they will do. That’s great, but you’re only halfway there. The next level is collaborating with our clients to help grow their businesses.
A client can tell us what they want, and we can be reliable in our delivery. However, if I go beyond that and sit with you to brainstorm and understand your business needs, then we can evolve in a way that’s mutually beneficial. Now we’re your technology partner.
We can be partners to support our clients’ success [by taking advantage of] our experience in technology. And that’s what we strive to do. With that North Star, it’s easier for us to keep on growing and improving their businesses.
Because Agile is a top priority for our clients, how does our approach stand out from other vendors?
Lía: There are infinite ways to implement Agile, and as a company, we understand that. We want to build frameworks with our clients that suit their needs and add value.
We want to be partners, not just great executors as a [nearshore software developer]. This is only possible through extensive, fluid communication and collaboration. And nearshore makes a difference regarding this point.
Whether we’re working with clients in the US, Europe, Latin America, or other regions, seamless communication and collaboration is the goal.
For example, one of our clients, who has worked with Perficient for around ten years, recently said to me, “You could be here in Chicago or Seattle or another part of the world, and I feel that we are a team. We’re building together, collaborating, and talking all the time.”
This individual has worked with Perficient’s global delivery teams for many years and has had great experiences. When our clients see that level of collaboration, we take advantage of it. It drives us to build great relationships with them and other onshore team members to deliver that level of collaboration.
With everyone working from home during COVID-19, nearshore became transparent as far as team distribution. You could be next door, in another state, or in Colombia. With a minimal time zone difference and our cultural proximity, it removes an invisible wall that separated onshore and nearshore development.
How have our Agile software development practices helped clients during a disruptive year?
Lía: We’ve been able to use Agile to its fullest potential with regard to being adaptive. Because we understand our clients’ priorities and business values, we have a framework in place to support that change.
Those first months were difficult for any business in terms of the uncertainty they felt. It prompted questions such as, “Are my sales going to drop? Are there other products that I should design? Should I stop my projects? Do I need to stop hiring or start hiring? Should I close my offices for a month or forever?”
This uncertainty affected all our clients. But we were able to work with them and immediately adapted plans one by one. We realized industries felt the impacts of COVID differently. Our healthcare clients were bombarded and forced to react to the new reality. Meanwhile, our retail clients were concerned about customers not coming into their stores.
We worked with each of our clients and our great teams, which know the whys and the business drivers. Every team member knows why and what they are building as well as how the projects benefit our clients.
Our ability to adapt – and not just react – allows us to find our footing faster in disruptive circumstances. Then as a nearshore development partner, we can extend that sure footedness to our clients. They rely on our Agile mindset and ability to work with constant change swiftly and seamlessly. Any technology partner or vendor – whether they are onshore, offshore, or nearshore – that lacks the ability to adapt will fall behind.
The adaptiveness rooted in Agile principles allowed us to support our clients through a disruptive time. It’s also what allowed our company to adapt better through these disruptive times.
Our nearshore delivery team has proven experience working with US-based clients on complex, cloud-native product development. Learn more about outsourcing software development and finding the right fit with a nearshore development partner.
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