Industry news

KPMG US has acquired The Arnold Group, a Seattle-based strategy consulting firm focusing on B2B technology clients.

Founded 20 years ago, The Arnold Group specializes in go-to-market strategy development for B2B technology firms – advising on growth acceleration, commercial transitions, and simplifying customer experience. The firm’s areas of expertise include product strategy, monetization and pricing, customer and partner marketing, sales organization/process design, channel strategy and programs, and service and lifecycle management.

The Arnold Group has worked with large tech companies such as AWS, Microsoft, Dell, and SAP.

KPMG’s acquisition – which finalized on January 1 – adds all 21 of The Arnold Group’s employees, including five who join the Big Four firm as leaders in the strategy practice.

Read more on Consulting.us here.

In the face of macroeconomic uncertainty, the majority of enterprises feel cautiously optimistic about 2023 and expect to tap outsourcing resources to control costs and meet the demand for talent, according to the results of Everest Group’s annual Key Issues survey. In fact, more than 80% of respondents expect their investments in outsourcing for IT services (ITS) and business process services (BPS) to stay the same or increase in 2023 over 2022, and more than 40% are optimistic about growth in their global services budgets in the coming year.

Everest Group’s 2023 Key Issues Study comprises the input of 200 global leaders across enterprises, Global Business Services (GBS) centers and service providers. Everest Group delivered the key findings from this research in a December 13 webinar, “Rise Above Economic Uncertainty and Succeed.” 

Read more on Cision PRWeb here.

“Making predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future.” That quote, or similar ones have been attributed to numerous people including Niels Bohr, Sam Goldwyn, Robert Storm Petersen, and Yogi Berra. So, to make some forward looking predictions this year, I decided to reach out to some of my friends in the industry to get their point of views. A few common themes emerged.

Risk Resiliency is top of mind

When it comes to supply chains, risk can appear in many forms. From a pandemic that highlighted the supply risks in our stretched global networks, to cyber security breaches across our systems, and the current challenges that inflation brings to our business, the need for a risk resilient supply chain is clear to everybody.

Read more on Forbes here.

Last month’s relatively docile CPI numbers look set to finally allow the Fed to enjoy some holiday cheer. Annualized US inflation dropped to 7.1% amid somewhat lower energy costs. The war in Ukraine is still on, and yet, prices at the pump are down, and house prices are falling under the weight of higher mortgage rates. So, are we all good?

Maybe not so fast. The Employment Cost Index is now at 5% annualized and the Atlanta Fed’s wages tracker shows a 6.5% hourly labor cost increase. Press surrounding workforce dropouts, unionization drives, and stubbornly low unemployment suggest rising wage-demands are still a problem.

Read more on Forbes here.

Genpact, a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation, today announced that it has earned the rank of Leader in Everest Group's Procurement Outsourcing (PO) Services PEAK Matrix Assessment 2022 for the second consecutive year. The report examines 21 PO service providers on market and industry deliverables and client interactions.

The report cites Genpact's operational consulting capabilities, deep domain expertise, and advanced technologies that provide end-to-end procurement services and enable digital transformation of client operations. Beyond its strategic sourcing and category management expertise, the company is also noted for its ability to successfully leverage a flexible operating model to support clients with end-to-end integrated risk management and analytics solutions.

Read more on PRNewswire here.

Sitel Group, providers of customer experience (CX) products and solutions, is partnering with Genesys, a cloud customer experience solutions provider, to help companies build and deploy omnichannel contact center solutions in the cloud and harness the power of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

"This is a landmark partnership for the customer experience industry and one that will empower brands to deliver seamless CX and develop deeper relationships with customers," said Olivier Camino, global chief operating officer and co-founder of Sitel Group, in a statement. "Working alongside Genesys helps brands offer fluid, effortless interactions that are faster, smarte,r and more personalized, all via an easy-to-use proven cloud product."

"Growth in digital engagement, employee experience expectations and work-from-anywhere models are transforming contact centers globally," said M.L. Maco, executive vice president of global sales and field operations at Genesys, in a statement. "The continuous deployment of new features and functionality on Genesys gives Sitel Group ongoing access to the latest innovations to remain competitive and deliver experiences where customers are remembered, heard, and understood.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, edge computing, virtual cloud desktops, serverless computing, automation, hybrid cloud, SASE and cloud disaster recovery are shaping the future of cloud computing.

Cloud technology is the lifeline of the latest technological progress and a new-generation trendsetter in the modern tech industry. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies worldwide began applying the work-from-home model to their global workforce and implementing various digital technologies into their businesses.

Read more on Techopedia here.

In early 2022, Eversheds Sutherland commissioned a global study of 1,200 business leaders to assess attitudes and approaches to M&A. Looking back on the events that have shaped the past year, it is clear that the uncertainty which pervaded the market resulted in what many would describe as a cautious end to the year. Notwithstanding this, there remains a sense of optimism for 2023, with many predicting that M&A activity will begin to increase as we move through the first half of the year. Whilst there are many factors driving this view, a rise in ESG regulation and increasing demand for ethical investments from stakeholders are two primary factors that cannot be ignored by business leaders as they innovate and adapt their existing practices to build more equitable and sustainable business models.

These views are supported by the results of our global study and demonstrate that ESG is high on the list of priorities of business leaders across all sectors, with 67% of leaders stating that ESG is important to their business strategy. In addition, 71% of business leaders operating in the TMT sector reported an increase in the value attributed to target companies with a particular focus on DEI strategies and new technologies achieving net zero.

Read more on Lexology here.

Are we living in an era in which world events trigger unavoidable cascades of crises?

Crises have always rippled out into the world around them, creating far-off and sometimes unanticipated effects. However, the early years of the 2020s have demonstrated the interconnectedness of global risks with a fresh force.

Few decades have had a less auspicious beginning. In 2020, COVID-19 swept across the globe, spreading to over half of the world’s countries in just three months and causing knock-on economic, political and social shocks. At the same time, the frequency and the cost of natural disasters have continued to increase: in 2020 alone, 389 major climate change affected almost 100 million people and caused USD 171 billion in damages. The pandemic was beginning to abate when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered food and energy crises which fueled a rise in inflation and left us on the brink of a global recession.

Read more on Zurich here.

Digital transformation and cyber security follow in top three priority list – concerns about remote working decline

Talent – recruiting, retaining and upskilling staff – is the number one issue facing Australian companies heading into 2023, KPMG Australia’s annual survey of business leaders shows.  

In the fifth edition of ‘Keeping us up at night’, 473 senior executives detailed the key challenges facing their organisations and the nation both in the next 12 months, and over the next 3-5 years. 

Read more on KPMG here.