White Glove Consulting Group: Removing Data Silos, Enhancing Interdepartmental Communications

Tracy Crawford, President For an organization to continuously move forward, seamless communication amongst internal departments is indispensable. Miscommunications or barriers can cost millions of dollars to organizations. Today’s ever-evolving technological landscape leading to the need for continuously changing and updating processes has also left them in a fix with interdepartmental silos hindering communication. Organizations are struggling to figure out a way to eliminate communication gaps between departments to ensure they play along well with each other, especially during system transformations. Typically, departments have different goals, KPIs, and metrics to adhere to, making it difficult for organizations to get everyone on the same page to run business processes efficiently. As trusted advisors for business processes, White Glove Consulting Group understands business processes right from marketing to sales to actually delivering projects all the way to revenue invoice and collection to provide operational efficiency and scalability. The company provides the kind of undivided attention and hard work to each project as if they were the business owners, hence the name—White Glove Consulting Group. Focusing on end-to-end business processes, the company helps clients achieve their high-level goals rather than doing configurations or implementations within silos. “One of our primary goals is to break down departmental silos to ensure that all the teams in an organization communicate well with each other in order to achieve the most accurate and efficient data and process flows,” says Tracy Crawford, president of White Glove.

EXPERIENCED AND TRUSTED ADVISORS DRIVING CUSTOMER SUCCESS

White Glove’s team comprises professionals holding decades of experience in various business processes, including sales, development, and specifically accounting, to fulfill requirements such as ASC 606 that can be very complicated. The company has a team of professionals who have used different systems as end-users from each of these departments to ask the right question to customers to identify the crux of any issue. Importantly, White Glove focuses a first and foremost on the end-to-end business process, and the organization's overall strategy and high-level goals are rather than trying to do configuration or implementations in a box or in a silo. "We aim to develop long term relationships with our clients and fill the roles of trusted advisor and business process consultant, rather than just system implementation consultants,” says Tracy.

She also highlights that since the company was founded by a team who had previously worked extensively within the private equity sector, most of their projects are either private equity purchases or mergers and acquisitions. Such projects have unique requirements because it’s not only about implementing a new system but merging multiple companies into one and getting all employees into the same business process. “People are used to running different systems or running their operations various different ways.
Getting them to align on a single methodology that works for everybody can be challenging. The fact that we work primarily in that space really gives us a competitive advantage, because we understand the importance of what our clients are looking for,” says Tracy. For instance, if a PE firm purchases a portfolio company with the intention of a quick resell, the goal may be to very quickly rip and replace its accounting system. In this scenario White Glove helps them implement a new system with a focus on a cost-effective and timely project completion. However, if the PE firm’s goal is to hold the portfolio company for many years and invest in its growth, White Glove will instead focus on the importance of implementing best-of-breed systems with solid integrations that allow for the portfolio company to align to operational best practices with a focus on scalability. Here, the company thoroughly understands what the clients are looking for and provides them the required services. “It is important for us to have those conversations and ask the right questions in order to understand the overall strategy and bigger picture of the organization. This allows us to provide the best design recommendations based on the needs of the entire business, not just one department,” adds Tracy.


One of our primary goals is to break down departmental silos to ensure that all the teams in an organization communicate well with each other in order to achieve the most accurate and efficient data and process flows

White Glove experts work collaboratively with clients to quickly identify the excess steps, unnecessary approvals, exceptions, and workarounds that prevent progress. Working with clients, the company rapidly reengineers core business processes so that teams can carry out their jobs easily. White Glove also works closely with fast growing SaaS and Professional Services companies seeking private equity funding or preparing for an IPO. The capital funding landscape has been immutably altered by regulatory mandates, from regulations like SOX, which apply to public companies, to legislation like the Jumpstart Our Business Act (JOBS) that has fueled private capital markets by allowing emerging companies easier access to private capital, and enabling them to remain private longer. Regardless of the type of funding a company is seeking, it is very important that they adequately prepare their organizations to adhere to the many requirements dictated by the private and public capital markets. In many cases, a company must be prepared to meet certain requirements regardless of the market that funding is being sought. There are however some differences between public and private markets—these are summarized below.

HIGH-QUALITY SERVICES WITHOUT OVER UTILIZING RESOURCES

As a dynamic, well-rounded individual with a drive to solve problems and focus on the big picture, Tracy brings to the table an experience of over a decade in the field of accounting and another decade in consulting services.
Her extensive background in accounting and ERP implementations in the SaaS and Professional Services industries, along with the knack for technology and learning new skills, makes Tracy a great addition to any team looking to improve their current systems and processes. “I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and the drive to create a consulting company that focused equally on the quality of work we provide to our clients and our consultants work-live balance, when I founded White Glove my vision was to change the way consulting is done,” remarks Tracy. It’s incredibly common in the consulting industry to focus only on resource utilization, leading to consultants who are over-utilized and working on four or five projects at once. This can lead to exhaustion and low quality of work. “When consultants are working on 4-5 projects at once and 150 percent utilized, their first hours is obviously more productive than there 60th. It’s unfair to consultants who are passionate and want to provide best in class service, as well as to clients who pay for those services,” she says. With White Glove, Tracy aims to completely change the scenario by embedding an important principle of not over-utilizing its resources into its core values. Simply put, the company's professionals that may have worked on strenuous projects of large-scale implementations such as shifting from Salesforce to NetSuite or so are not immediately put into the next project but are given vacation time to recuperate. The professionals are also constantly updated with the latest trends in the market by training and certifications or working on blog post activities. “Look, consulting can be hard and strenuous work, and at White Glove we work on large, complex and demanding projects. Our goal is for consultants to work on only one project at a time, and they will likely work more than 40 hours a week. But at least they are only focusing on one client and can provide the level of service that client deserves. Our goal is to create an environment where the best and the brightest can flourish. But after working 6-9 months on a demanding project, we require our employees to take at least one month off. No responding to emails, no meetings, no work at all. They need to go enjoy life and recuperate, otherwise they will burn out, and that’s not good for anyone.”

“We aim to develop long term relationships with our clients and fill the roles of trusted advisor and business process consultant, rather than just system implementation consultants”

White Glove is moving steadily towards the growth path while ensuring that its culture of delivering high-quality services remains the same. “Rather than focusing on growing fast, we want to make sure that we are delivering a White Glove treatment to our clients giving them 100 percent attention,” States Tracy. “We have found that a combination of Salesforce, NetSuite and OpenAir is the perfect trifecta for companies seeking private equity funding or preparing for an IPO. As such, our goal for 2021 is grow our Salesforce and OpenAir practices to further accommodate our clients who need all three of these applications,” Tracy explained. At the same time, the company is looking for steady growth without compromising on high-quality service delivery to clients.

Company
White Glove Consulting Group

Headquarters
Charlotte, NC

Management
Tracy Crawford, President

Description
As trusted advisors for business processes, White Glove Consulting Group understands business processes right from marketing to sales to actually delivering projects all the way to revenue invoice and collection to provide operational efficiency and scalability. The company provides the kind of undivided attention and hard work to each project as if they were the business owners, hence the name—White Glove Consulting Group. Focusing on end-to-end business processes, the company helps clients achieve their high-level goals rather than doing configurations or implementations within silos