Working at the intersection of people, technology and change, Agilyx Group has a two-decade record of success in the delivery of digital transformation projects for customers globally. They recently celebrated their 20-year anniversary as an Elite Unit4 partner firm and have a 4.6/5 ranking on Raven Intel.
We spoke with Paula McKeown, Global Head of Professional Services for the Unit4 Practice, to learn more about how they operate internally and their approach with customers. Paula’s perspective is unique, as she has nearly 17 total years of experience working with Unit4 products and previously worked at Unit4 as a Solutions Architect in their Consulting team.
“When I left school, I was actually working in finance and later was asked by one of my employers to run payroll. My career path kind of switched at that point, and I enjoyed doing it. I was lucky enough to run a payroll implementation when I was a Payroll Manager and that piqued my interest to move more into the implementation space,” said Paula.
Cultivating a Positive Customer Relationship
The Agilyx team goes to market offering a people-focused and personal approach to Unit4 implementations. Transparency is their core mindset and shapes their desire to truly work side-by-side with their customers, forming more than just a partner/vendor relationship.
“It’s an honor when customers choose to work with us, and we take that seriously,” Paula said.
For the Agilyx team, vulnerability is also a key element of the customer/consulting partner relationship. Several of these key concepts can be found in Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni, which is required reading for Agilyx associates and has helped to shape their thoughts around forming relationships.
“The project partners did their best to ensure the project was perfectly complete, and they were really helpful by providing the expected risks, considerations and additional information as well. It was very satisfying to work together.”
– Project team member in Higher Education (North America)
Handling Difficulties that Occur During Implementation
In the world of implementations, it’s inevitable – challenges will occur. This is another area that Agilyx lets its transparency shine through and strengthens customer relationships. When something unexpected occurs, their team doesn’t sit around and play the blame game.
“We don’t mind rolling up our sleeves and digging our hands into customer data when it’s needed to help fix things,” Paula said. “We’ll do it without hesitation.”
Their organization also offers positive response training to their people that better prepares them for decision-making and how to handle difficult conversations. This training is one of the key elements that enable them to quickly assess the situation and identify a solution. On top of that, Agilyx trusts its people and enables them to make decisions without always needing to obtain approval to move forward. This allows their teams to move swiftly and steer the ship back on course without wasting time.
“Agilyx was on hand to help resolve some issues that came up during production cut over even though the exercise occurred over the weekend. Overall, the implementation experience was great!”
– Project leader in Public Services (North America)
Keeping Teams Consistent Across Implementations
One of the main pieces of information that Raven Intel collects during the review process is team consistency. Raven’s data shows a correlation between team consistency and overall star ratings, and this holds true within Agilyx’s metrics as well. With a 79% team consistency rating on Raven Intel, it’s obvious that team consistency is one of the strategies that Agilyx uses to keep its customers smiling.
Their focus on teams goes beyond what is customer-facing, as well. Vulnerability follows them into their team structure and amplifies their collaboration.
“We don’t hide information from each other. There’s always a willingness to share information and help, even if you’re not on the same team,” Paula stated.
If team changes do occur, Agilyx strives to make the transition as smooth as possible for the customer. They let the customer know what’s happening and why, and this helps develop a solid relationship on transparency.
“Our culture keeps the people around, too,” Paula noted. “It’s the little things, like offering events such as online cooking, that keep people happy. This shows through on the way our people treat our customers.”
Recruiting the Right People
Soft skills are something that Agilyx seeks out in candidates. In their opinion, it’s harder to teach the soft skills of being humble, considerate, and keeping the customer’s best interest in mind, while functional skills can be taught.
“We look for candidates who are humble, transparent, collaborative. These are the people that fit into our core values. Culture is very important,” stated Paula.
Implementing Success Throughout COVID-19
As a global organization, Agilyx was already used to virtual collaboration and remote work. Being onsite for key milestones, however, was something that changed for them this year. Despite the lack of physical interaction with customers, their team took to virtual collaboration very smoothly and continued to focus on building customer relationships with the new channels available to them.
“Things changed more for our customers,” Paula said. “Things like obtaining requirements and scoping are now done through Zoom. Overall, our customers have adapted really well, too.”
One silver lining that Paula pointed out is that remote work is much more acceptable than it used to be, which means that companies have expanded from their normal pool of local partners to consider for implementations. Being a global company, this is a significant benefit for Agilyx.
Advice When Searching for the Right Partner
When looking for the right implementation partner, Paula advises customers to look at three specific areas:
> Find a partner that speaks your language. From an industry standpoint, this is crucial to make sure that you’re on the same page. Agilyx prides itself on being able to understand their customers on a deep level, so this means understanding their industries thoroughly. This also means turning down prospects if they’re not a good fit.
“Turning down customers is hard because we’re a business and our goal is to make money,” Paula said. “But if someone isn’t a good fit, we’ll point them in the direction of someone who might work better.”
> Look for a partner that has a proven track record. Websites like Raven Intel can help remove bias from recommendations and hone in on the things that matter to a customer.
> Look for healthy relationships with the software vendor. If not, this is a key indication that there might be problems down the road.
What’s Next for Agilyx?
Still leading the peer ecosystem for positive customer relationships and implementation success, Agilyx is focused on growing globally. Paula’s current role is new and the Agilyx team continues to grow as they identify growth strategies and create plans on how to best use their global resources.
If you’re interested in learning more, visit their website or Raven Intel profile to see more customer reviews.