Think back to some of your most recent unpleasant experiences. If you’re a frequent traveler, you’ve probably found yourself, your luggage, and your backpack crammed into an airport bathroom stall with a broken door hook, balancing your items above a filthy floor and cursing the reason you’re traveling, the airline, and yourself.…
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This feature is part of a series highlighting the contributions and career paths of women at West Monroe. In technology consulting—traditionally a male-dominated industry—it can be difficult for women to find role models and paths that work for them. The goal of this blog series is to communicate the unique paths and successes of women at West Monroe.…
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The ability to transform businesses through digital is one of the greatest value creation tools available to private equity. While time constraints may present a challenge, prioritizing and implementing the right digital investments can be a highly effective way to deliver efficiency improvements, revenue and earnings growth, and drive a high return at exit.…
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As we engage utilities on their progress and insights deploying data analytics platforms and use cases, we’re noticing a common theme. When embarking on more complex operational technology (OT) use cases, they are finding gaps in historical records that require them to revisit or rethink their data acquisition, storage, and retrieval strategies.…
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2019 has not been a banner year for Minnesota’s M&A market. After a half-decade of record-setting activity, the local M&A scene has cooled significantly, with the lowest reported deal volume and dollar values since 2013. According to Pitchbook data, total deal count for Minnesota companies for the first half of 2019 was 35% lower than over the same period in 2018.…
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Although it’s been a conversation in the industry since 2014, the dialogue around sun-setting Libor (London Interbank Offer Rate) is intensifying. Published daily, Libor is the interest rate benchmark upon which many other interest rates are based. With its replacement, SOFR (secured overnight financing rate), widely agreed upon, Libor’s planned retirement in 2021 has made advice from...
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A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is now virtually a requirement to support daily operations for labs that support any type of testing, from R&D to commercial. The global LIMS market is currently over $500 million and is projected to reach $750 million in the next few years. A LIMS can take many forms, ranging from custom-built software to an off-the-shelf vendor-configured...
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Blockchain has been touted as the great connector to integrate businesses under consortium networks. It’s ability to verify data using smart contracts and provide transparency across network participants through immutable shared data has people talking about a technical revolution. However, this benefit has been a double-edged sword because the enterprise world is skeptical about sharing...
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This week brought another set of headlines about a large data breach—this time at Capital One. In this case, the alleged attacker is domestic and the federal indictment provided some details of how the breach occurred. In this case, a misconfigured firewall allegedly allowed Paige Thompson to remotely execute commands against an Amazon Web Services (AWS) server.…
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One challenge a growing organization faces involves sustaining a team of skilled professionals that can meet the growing expectations and needs of the business. Even more difficult is the task of filling less-desirable roles, such as shifted positions, where employees endure difficult hours and see less room for opportunity. One way to address these challenges involves adding more value to the...
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Despite the escalated rate and severity of cyberattacks, leaders at most companies have not changed their approach to cybersecurity in the past few years to adapt to the increasingly challenging environment. The goalposts have changed. And the question leaders should ask themselves is not, “is my data secure?” but “how prepared are we to minimize operational downtime in the likely event of a...
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From vehicles, to beauty supplies, to food production, the manufacturing industry’s 8,343 employers provide jobs for over 300,000 Minnesota workers. The industry contributes the largest share of the state’s gross domestic product (16%) and nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies in Minnesota are in manufacturing. Manufacturing has historically been Minnesota’s largest private-sector industry...
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