“Doing more with less” is a timeless epithet that challenges executives to question their assumptions and re-allocate their resources. Operating a business in 2020 though has put that moniker and just about everything else BAU (Business As Usual) on hold as the global pandemic upends workforce productivity.
Even the most experienced planner can find themselves stumped by how to meet project delivery commitments if pressures rise to increase capacity, overseas offices suddenly close or managers suddenly go missing after being reassigned to downstream activities.
As Jim DeLoach of Forbes recently wrote, “The root cause is essentially the same. If a company closes its offices, its employees cannot perform their work if they lack the necessary remote-capable technology. Not only is no one in the building, no one is covering the bases from home or in any remote locations, either. At such times, an immediate need exists for ready-to-work resources.”
Accordingly, meeting today’s delivery targets rest on the ability to integrate the right resources with operational challenges on short notice. These real-world remote consulting examples provide an illustration:
- Surging trading volume required “E-boots on the ground:” The gigantic swings in trading volume on both the buy side and sell side have been well-documented throughout 2020. As one firm saw its trading activity double, it struggled without success to find additional staff through its conventional recruiting practices. Fretting over potential compliance exposures and business losses, management changed course and adopted a workplace augmentation strategy. In two weeks from its initial call to a project augmentation service to a signed Statement of Work (SOW), the firm had established a remote, certified operations team to meet the need for additional trading capacity.
- Transitioning tasks between regions: The pandemic has also impacted operations around the world. Accordingly, many financial firms are migrating key operational processes to facilities augmented by virtual, ready-to-work specialists.
- When a critical manager is suddenly reassigned: Downstream disorders caused another firm to reassign a remote manager – already spearheading the firm’s critical Order Management Systems (OMS) project – to oversee another function. Meanwhile, as its OMS project began to flounder, this mid-sized money manager looked for an outsourced recruiting solution. In less than two weeks, they were able to place a highly qualified candidate who had already been identified and vetted by a project augmentation specialist to complete and launch the new OMS.
Accessing skilled expertise through enterprise-level consultants helps firms to focus on projects over staffing. Such virtual teams are proving they can reduce the expenses of hiring, training and supervising new employees during unusual periods of revenue unpredictability and business disruption.
If your firm is considering remote ready-to-work solutions, explore the advantages of Broadridge Consulting Services. Whether you need a team to seamlessly integrate with current capabilities or you require an external resource solution under your direct control, the Broadridge team of experts offers a unique, technology-centric perspective derived from global collaborations with the world’s leading financial firms and service providers.
From benchmarking and strategizing, through planning and execution, timely access to the right project augmentation resources can deliver the operational intelligence you need to accelerate your own firm’s digital transformation through the business challenges of 2020 and beyond.