OVG

We are happy to announce that Claire Hendershot is joining our OVG team as a part-time associate after successfully completing her summer internship. Claire has been an incredibly quick study with building low-code applications and applying them to solve FP&A and Business Operations challenges. We are excited that she is continuing her journey with us!

Sharing some thoughts from our first Microsoft Power Platform Community Conference experience that several of our OVG team had the opportunity to attend. Microsoft's platform strategy is hitting its stride and there is plenty to consider, especially for FP&A and business operations teams that sit at the intersection of strategy and analytics. #planning #lowcode #analytics #AI

A great wave of software consolidation is upon us, thanks to a confluence of AI and low-code innovations: “Klarna's (KLAR) CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said that the company is shutting down its software as a service provider (SaaS) Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) and within a few weeks will shut down Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY).” https://lnkd.in/g2g2r8ns (Thanks Matthew Wahl for sharing this!) With both low-code platforms and AI-driven full-code tools in play, the moats for incumbent enterprise software are rapidly evaporating. It’s not that off-the-shelf software has gotten worse, in fact they continue to get better. It’s that replacement costs have gone dramatically down when the core functionality of a CRM, HRIS, or EPM solution can be built in-house with minimal investment and minimal recurring software costs. PLG approaches are also streamlining the buying process. You no longer have to go to the dealer and haggle to buy most enterprise software. What’s remarkable is that this is possible for everything from SMB up to companies at Microsoft scale. This will fundamentally change how businesses or all sizes leverage technology and Saas providers will be forced to adapt. Theoretically there is nothing stopping the creation of unlimited custom software right now (as we discussed yesterday Daniel Eyre). The days of outsized software margins m and valuations are likely limited. More value will accrue to capital-intensive hardware providers, data owners, and operators/service providers who can quickly translate technology directly to business value. While this certainly doesn’t mean that all enterprise software is doomed, it does mean that the equation for making decisions on whether to buy off-the-shelf or DIY are shifting dramatically. Some software providers will adapt and figure out how to provide differentiated value, but others will not and will rely on buyers not knowing the alternatives. It will be easier increasingly important for buyers to buy understand what is truly value-add and what is not, and determine how agile they need to be given their specific business needs. If you are considering tech consolidation options, we’d love to hear from you!

Last month, Satya Nadella discussed how knowledge and frontline workers will start to drive more productivity with workflows and automation using Copilot Studio, in similar fashion to developers. Business operators and developers used to be entirely separate fields, but we have already seen many software development practices permeate into business teams over the past 10 years, for example the introduction of agile project management. Now not only the management approach, but the tools that developers use are coming into play. We are moving beyond inputting data or configuring dashboards, to integrating systems, querying and transforming data, and building bespoke mobile apps and web apps from scratch. With these tools and the right mindset, the level of productivity possible for operators will reach the same astronomical level as developers. For example, I talked with someone today who is running a late stage startup’s entire suite of business apps with only a team of two. It’s both a daunting and exciting time to be in an operator role today. How do we find the balance between automation and catastrophic failure, which will undoubtedly be different from the balance for engineering? If you’re going through thus experience now, we’d love to hear from you! #businesstransformation #dualthreat

Sharing some learnings on building dual threat teams! Also available on our Substack: https://lnkd.in/gaNMgKBw

An integrated low-code approach presents compelling cost savings and process improvement opportunities for companies across growth stages, industries, and functions.

I am happy to announce my promotion to Project Lead at OVG. The last year has taught me to get out of my comfort zone and trust the process. I want to share a few learnings with my community. 1. Dual Threat Skills: Understanding the business and the technology is essential to becoming a successful advisor and driving client innovation. Know the business and understand data relationships, integrations, and systems. 2. Embrace low-code platforms: Microsoft Power Platform enables business leaders to design and build personalized solutions by end users for end users. 3. Don’t be afraid to try new things: Learning hard skills is hard, especially when it’s not your background. It’s important to be patient and keep going.?As a mom, this is lesson I want to pass on to my kids. I never thought I’d be able to do it, but I built my own app in three days. 4. Expand your network: This is a given but very relevant. Get to know people, even if they aren’t from your industry or background. Collaborations happen when we don’t limit ourselves to a box or a label. Thank you, Bill Wells, for being a wonderful mentor and an advisor in my journey. Thank you to my wonderful OVG team. This is a team that supports and fosters their teammates' growth. The best is yet to come! Please DM me if you want to discuss Microsoft Power Platform or learn more about OVG. In the picture: My daughter made me a "Work" necklace.

Our OVG team has been busy delivering for clients and it's past time for us to share some client success stories from the past few years. Thanks to the entire team for making these outcomes a reality and to our clients for the opportunities to collaborate on their planning journeys. Much more to come! OVG executes on connected planning roadmap at $20B+ healthcare client https://lnkd.in/g-qsqmvF OVG helps $1B software client build FP&A from scratch https://lnkd.in/gAias5JR OVG supports $150M technology client to get IPO-ready https://lnkd.in/gKdVyEuH Follow our Substack for more: https://lnkd.in/gGJvq5zq