Cherry Bekaert: Digital Journeys

In today's interconnected world, where organizations count on various software technologies to streamline operations, the implication of system integration is significant. Developing a robust IT infrastructure can be an intricate process that requires time and resources, while having a big-picture perspective. 

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast and the third part of our system integration series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, reconvenes with Jon Schrader, Director and Business Applications Leader, as they emphasize the importance of creating a successful system integration plan.

Listen to learn more about:

• Keys on implementing network security controls and user autonomy while ensuring data protection internally and externally
• Discover modernizing approaches to mitigate integration risks from implementing operational change and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)
• Determining reasonable timelines based on software integration types, methods and tools sourced while discovering your source of truth for record keeping
• How they can embed intelligent technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) into existing applications to automate monotonous tasks
• Furthermore, revolutionizing your technologies is an essential first step in advancing business value and exceeding customer needs

To discover more about integrating your IT infrastructure and optimize cost and performance, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team is available to discuss integration solutions with you. Contact us today!

Related Guidance:

• Importance of System Integration: Part One
• Importance of System Integration: Types, Methods & Tools: Part Two 

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System integration brings data and workflows together, allowing organizations to work more efficiently, improve collaboration and increase productivity. 

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast and the second part of our system integration series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, welcomes Jon Schrader, Director and Business Applications Leader, as they summarize the various layers of system integration.

Listen to learn more about:

Different types of system integration architectures to best suit your business needs.

• Explanation of integration platform as a service (iPaaS) consists of a suite of cloud-based services. 
• Point-to-point integration involves custom coding, application program interfaces (APIs) or both.
• Robotic process automation (RPA) mimics how people interact with software and workflows.

Common data integration tools and how they correspond to other software to empower businesses to reach their full potential.

Stay tuned for part 3 of this series, where we will further discuss the importance of system integration.

If you have any questions specific to your situation, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team is available to discuss your situation with you. Contact us today!

Related Guidance:

• Importance of System Integration: Part 1 

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By centralizing information, reducing silos and increasing visibility, system integrations significantly help improve operational efficiency. System integration is the process of connecting various systems, technologies and software applications to work together seamlessly as a single cohesive unit. 

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, and Jon Schrader, Director and Business Applications Leader, will discuss the value of forming a software integration strategy. 

Listen to this episode to:

• Identify the significance of system integration by incorporating disparate software systems and platforms.
• Learn about two different types of architecture approaches tailored to meet multiple functions, the best-of-suite and the best-of-breed application areas.
• Discover key data strategies and roadmap to best fit your business needs while embedding business intelligence actionable visualizations in real time.
• Uncover trustworthy data analytics and insights that allow organizations to identify areas for improvement and discover opportunities for growth.
• Analyze agile growth strategies and necessary impacts to position yourself for your IT infrastructure.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this series, where we will further elaborate the key factors of system integration.

If you have any questions specific to your situation, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team is available to discuss your situation with you. Contact us today!

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Is your company struggling to connect with customers or is your digital strategy behind the curve?

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast, Hisham Nabi, Managing Director of Digital Advisory, talks about how to get started on your digital strategy. You might think digital strategy starts with technology, but Hisham stresses the importance of starting with your problem statement and then solving it by integrating technology.

Listen in as Hisham discusses: 

• His background and passion for helping others on their digital journey. 
• Changes in technology, especially as it relates to the customer experience. 
• Automation’s influence on driving productivity and cost savings. 
• Effective business models for starting your digital strategy. 

Contact us today to discover how Salesforce products can help you enhance the customer experience. Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory Practice will meet you where you are in your digital journey. 

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In Part 1 of this three-part series, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory Practice advisors defined the Power Apps and in Part 2, they focused on the purpose and benefits of the Power Platform. This low-code development platform enables businesses to easily build dashboards, applications and workflows to best fit your needs. Quickly build data-driven business solutions with the Power Platform application—Power Apps, Power Automate (formerly known as Flow), Power BI and Power Pages.

In Part 3, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, is joined by Trace Armstrong, Senior Manager of Digital Advisory, to discuss best practices on leveraging the Power Platform and how it can significantly help propel your business forward into today’s digital world.

Part of our Digital Journeys podcast channel, and the third in our mini-series on collaboration and workplace productivity, this episode covers the following:

•  Real world client case study example of how Cherry Bekaert leveraged PowerApps to migrate their SharePoint to Office 365 SharePoint Online and Cloud implementation of their ERP.
• Harvesting all your business data and sources on the secure Power Apps platform.
• Reflecting a greater return on investment (ROI) and time-to-market to build more efficient processes and increase workforce productivity.
• Incorporating secure electronic signature tools with the power of automation.

Do more with less. Contact us today to find out how the Microsoft Power Platform can help you accelerate your business processes. Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory Practice will meet you where you are in your digital journey.

Related Guidance:

• What is the Microsoft Power Platform? 
• Why the Power Platform: Part 2

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Now that we’ve identified what the Power Platform is, let’s focus on the purpose behind and the benefits of the Power Platform. By leveraging the Power Platform, people from practically anywhere can rapidly improve their day-to-day solutions for whatever challenges they may come across. Furthermore, the Power Platform enables organizations to be more agile and effective in their business operations.

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast and the second part of our collaboration and workplace productivity series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, and Trace Armstrong, Senior Manager of Digital Advisory, discuss best practices for integrating the Power Platform usability solution with Office 365, and implementing Dynamics as a simple way to get reliable data analytics and insights flowing in real-time.

Listen to learn more about:

• Capitalizing on your licensing allotment, enabling you to get the most features out of your Microsoft 365 subscription 
• Scaling cloud interoperability and interconnection 
• Maximizing your Microsoft investment by having a consultant or reseller incorporate proper governance in place with the Power Platform solutions

Stay tuned for part 3 of this series, when we will discuss collaboration and workplace productivity benefits and implementation of the Power Platform.

Do more with less. Contact us today to find out how the Microsoft Power Platform can help you accelerate your business processes. Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory Practice will meet you where you are in your digital journey.

Related Guidance:

Part 1:  What is the Microsoft Power Platform?

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The Power Platform is a resourceful Microsoft 365 applications tool that enables you to automate business processes, develop solutions, analyze data and much more, leading to increased productivity and innovation.

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, and Trace Armstrong, Senior Manager of Digital Advisory, will introduce the various components of the Power Platform and how you can better leverage these solutions to best suit your business needs. 

Listen to this episode to understand the four main components of the Power Platform and its core fundamentals:

• Power Apps: a custom application development for low- to no-code apps
• Power Automate (formerly known as Flow): a process automation enabler
• Power BI: a business analytics and reporting tool
• Power Pages: a new software as a service (SaaS) platform for administering public-facing websites

Stay tuned for part 2 and part 3 of this series, when we will discuss the benefits and implementation of the Power Platform.

Do more with less. Contact us today to find out how the Microsoft Power Platform can help you accelerate your business processes. Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory Practice will meet you where you are in your digital journey.

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Digital transformation spans across people, process, technology and culture. Creating a data-driven culture starts at the very top, meaning that leaders must lead by example. Having reliable data and analytics in place is an essential part in enabling organizations to make smarter decisions and better business outcomes. 

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, and Dan Mitzenmacher, Director of Digital Advisory, will help you discover the value of developing a data-driven culture in part of a successful strategy.

Listen to this episode to:  

• Understand why a data-driven culture is important to business success.
• Discover the importance of trustworthy data and analytics for leaders to leverage when optimizing business processes.
• Learn practical guidance for leading data-driven digital transformation across your organization.
• Enhance your organization’s data culture and utilization in accelerating growth by developing a strategic roadmap for multiple sources of data.

If you have any questions specific to your situation, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team is available to discuss your situation with you. Contact us today! 

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Integrating technology before and after an acquisition is critical to an organization’s success, yet it's often overlooked. When acquisitions transpire, there are often redundancies. Regardless of the industry, optimizing and streamlining operations will result in efficiency and higher productivity to effectively sustain short- and long-term growth.

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast series, Jim Holman, Director and Strategy & Operations Leader, and Nita Sanger, Director of Digital Advisory, share best practices and insights into incorporating the right technology platforms and processes to best suit your business and to minimize disruption. 

Listen to learn more about how to: 

• Determine what opportunities to leverage and how to eliminate redundancies 
• Develop a seamless client experience to provide consistent, positive, personalized experiences 
• Identify impediments such as inadequacies, skills and capabilities and budgeting
• Execute a human approach by crafting a systematic approach that unifies change management 
• Analyze the current economic conditions and what executives can do to prepare 

If you have any questions specific to your situation, Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Advisory team of advisors are available to discuss your situation with you.

Contact us today! 

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Continuous improvement methodologies identify opportunities to streamline work and reduce waste, advancing process maturity in organizations.

In this episode of Cherry Bekaert’s Digital Journeys podcast, Jim Holman, Director of Strategy & Operations, welcomes Steve Holliday, Director in our Digital Advisory practice. Together, they unlock how digitalization and continuous improvement can help organizations achieve the highest levels of process maturity.

Listen to this episode to learn more about: 

• The role of continuous improvement
• The importance of identifying key requirements, outputs and metrics 
• The implementation of digitalization to improve business performance

If you have any questions specific to your situation, Cherry Bekaert provides a host of Digital Advisory services. Contact us today! 

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