ABOUT AHEAD
AHEAD is a technology consulting company that builds and manages digital platforms that power the most successful organizations in the world. Privately funded with over $1.2 billion in investment, AHEAD has over 2,500 employees across 15 locations in North America.
THE CHALLENGE
Transform IT function to meet needs of rapidly growing business
AHEAD experienced rapid growth over five years through organic expansion and acquisition, but internal IT faced challenges like technical debt, need for a new business-aligned strategy, and concern regarding the perceived transparency of IT’s action plans. To address these issues, experienced CIO Ken LeBlanc was hired to better align IT with business needs.
LeBlanc recognized the importance of understanding the current state of IT before envisioning the ideal future state. “I spent my first weeks listening to stakeholders to frame my opinion on what’s working and what’s not.” He realized a scalable solution was essential for gathering feedback from all employees to objectively assess the situation. “Sometimes, the more senior you are, the more removed you become from day-to-day operations. Getting direct feedback from those using IT services daily would provide better data points for action,” LeBlanc noted.
THE SOLUTION
Proactive measurement of Digital Employee Experience (DEX)
LeBlanc needed a solution that would quickly enable him to prioritize investment of resources to deliver tangible results for the business: “We needed a technology solution that would allow us to create action plans based on key feedback – because not everything is of equal importance, so if you try to solve everything you’re set up for failure – but help us be more laser-focused on what we really need to address.”
With over 40 years experience in IT, LeBlanc found Voxxify was the only for-purpose digital sentiment solution on the market. LeBlanc notes: “Being new to the organization, I needed a quick way to get an unbiased view of how our IT organization was delivering for our clients. Because the insights generated by the platform are specific, actionable, and measurable, it gives the foundation for a targeted action plan, and enables easy communication with all stakeholders.”
THE BENEFITS
The use of the Voxxify platform provided objective feedback that both confirmed existing perceptions and identified specific areas needing attention. The Voxxify data underpinned all conversations with stakeholders on action planning, helping focus the conversation on facts as opposed to opinions – as LeBlanc said: “you can’t argue with the data”.
Transparent, data-driven approach Elevated IT as a trusted partner of the business
Engaging with business leaders and sharing feedback transparently helped build trust in the IT department. LeBlanc explains, “I presented the reports to the executive leadership team and all functional leaders, demonstrating our commitment to improvement and validating Voxxify’s insights against their feedback”.
Highlighted under utilization of technical support team
A surprising finding was the varied satisfaction levels regarding a key technical resource team tasked with providing technical support to all parts of the business. While some functions provided positive feedback, others expressed uncertainty about how the team could support them. To address this, LeBlanc and his team engaged with the finance team, CEO, and executive leadership, using data to secure additional resources for unmet needs. “We demonstrated that while we were progressing in some areas, there was a growing backlog and frustration in others. This helped us obtain surge labor to refocus efforts and address those gaps.”
Unlocked incremental investment to enhance network stability
LeBlanc had identified “noise in the system around network stability in certain locations”, but he and his team were unable to validate the issue, meaning it wasn’t a priority on their roadmap. However, the Voxxify insights showed there was a clear and material issue with connectivity. LeBlanc notes: “when the feedback came back, it was an eye opener as to how many people were feeling pain points and frustration with network performance stability in certain locations. So that helped us readjust our priorities and justify incremental investment to accelerate the remediation work.”
THE TAKEAWAY
Fact-based framework provides foundation for targeted action plan
As a newly appointed CIO tasked with transforming their IT organization, LeBlanc found that Voxxify enabled him to rapidly understand what needed attention: “Voxxify is incredibly powerful – it gives a clear understanding of Voice of the Customer on the services that matter most to different parts of the business, helping provide the “as is” state via a fact-based framework.”
By following the Voxxify process — gathering unbiased client feedback, sharing findings, and outlining action plans including areas that will not be allocated investment — AHEAD’s IT function successfully regained the business’s confidence and trust. LeBlanc stresses the importance of follow-through to maintain integrity: “If you ask for feedback, share the results, and explain what you are and are not going to do about it. That’s how leaders and organizations build credibility and respect.”
