Latest news with #Kantata
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Arthur D. Little Signs Five-Year Renewal with Kantata to Power Global Business Transformation
Longtime Kantata customer deepens commitment to Kantata's Salesforce-native solution to support global scale and operational excellence IRVINE, Calif. & LONDON, August 06, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kantata, the leading provider of professional services automation (PSA) solutions, today announced a five-year renewal agreement with Arthur D. Little (ADL), the world's first management consulting firm. The expanded relationship underscores ADL's continued focus on operational excellence, digital transformation, and global growth. A Kantata customer since 2017, ADL recently concluded a competitive RFI process and chose to reaffirm its commitment to the Kantata platform. The decision reflects the firm's strategic shift toward centralized operations, automation, and data-driven decision-making. As a pure play, partner-led management consultancy with a 135-year legacy, ADL is accelerating its operational transformation journey — one in which Kantata plays an important enabling role. "As we continue to drive innovation and scale globally, we are focused on adopting technologies that support automation and standardization across the business," said Frederic Duval, General Manager at ADL. "Kantata contributes to our overall transformation by helping streamline key processes and improve operational responsiveness." Driven to implement tools that fully reflect the firm's evolving needs, ADL has adopted Kantata as a key component of its broader digital infrastructure to help simplify operations and enable smarter ways of working. The company expects to continue unlocking a range of strategic benefits, including: Operational Efficiency and Automation at Scale – Centralized operations and increased automation are streamlining complex workflows and freeing up resources to focus more on client value. Smarter Resource and Financial Management – Faster, more responsive staffing processes and improved period closing automation are enhancing financial control and supporting better business alignment. Data-Driven Insights for Forecasting and Decision Making – Kantata supports ADL in strengthening forecasting accuracy and enabling smarter, insight-led decisions that help drive performance and ROI. "ADL's renewal highlights the value Kantata's Salesforce-native solution delivers—replacing complexity with clarity and enabling smarter, more scalable operations," said Sarah Edwards, Chief Product Officer at Kantata. "We're proud to support their transformation with purpose-built innovation that drives efficiency, automation, and better decision-making." "Our vision for technology is centered on scale, speed, and global consistency," said Jon Nicholls, CIO at ADL. "Kantata contributes to this by helping us improve productivity today and laying a foundation for leveraging future innovations in automation and AI." As ADL advances an ambitious growth agenda, the firm is committed to building a digital backbone that enables global cohesion, smarter resourcing, and real-time visibility. Kantata's purpose-built platform for professional services organizations is helping ADL achieve exactly that. About Arthur D. Little Arthur D. Little is the world's first management consulting firm, with a 135-year legacy of helping companies innovate, transform, and lead in their industries. With a partner-driven model and a presence in over 40 countries, ADL is known for combining deep industry expertise with forward-thinking strategies that drive sustainable business impact. About Kantata Kantata takes professional services automation to a new level, giving people-powered businesses the clarity, control, and confidence they need to optimize resource planning and elevate operational performance. Our purpose-built cloud software is helping over 1,500 professional services organizations in more than 100 countries focus and optimize their most important asset: their people. With Kantata, PS firms gain access to the information and tools they need to win more business, ensure the right people are always available at the right time, and delight clients with project delivery and outcomes. To learn more, visit View source version on Contacts Media ContactJen Dodos for
Forbes
10-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Are Your Projects Sprinting Toward Failure? Five Lessons From Running
Sarah Edwards is the Chief Product Officer at Kantata, a leading provider of Professional Services Automation (PSA) solutions. Imagine a marathon in progress. Runners flash by, muscles flexing, pushing for speed as they go the distance. But here's the real secret of marathon winners: The most important quality a runner can develop is not speed—it's consistency. In my almost 20 years of running and decades spent in project management (PM) leadership roles, I've learned a paradoxical piece of PM wisdom: Reaching the finish line for a race or a project isn't about the speed of the run. You sometimes have to go slow to go fast (and far). Here's how to shift your thinking to adopt this counterintuitive mindset. 1. Why Focusing On Speed Sacrifices Performance This 'consistency over speed' concept flies in the face of our corporate obsession with rapid execution. In the rush to deliver quick wins, a common casualty is the foundational work that ensures long-term success. The fastest project execution isn't always the best project execution. Quality outcomes require consistency and the wisdom to know when to pull back before your team falters just before the finish line. Runners know that sustainable outcomes and the best overall performance come from steady, reliable training runs, rather than sporadic bursts of intense training. The same logic applies to project management. The overarching goal in my own work is to focus on enabling our professional services customers to deliver high-quality projects to their customers, not to simply crank out projects as fast as possible. So, how do you make sure you build out a project to support consistency instead of rewarding speed? It's all about planning the right "route" from the very beginning. 2. Strategic Prep: Route Planning For Projects Before every run, I need to take several variables into account. Is it raining? (In London, where I live and run, the answer is often "yes.") Am I going to tackle a hilly route? Or work on distance over flatter terrain? What's the right challenge for my personal capacity today? Asking these kinds of questions about my environment and the goal of the run and gauging my bandwidth mirrors the critical preparation phase that separates successful projects from costly failures. Just as runners map their route to avoid unnecessary hills or dangerous intersections, project leaders must anticipate obstacles and plan alternative pathways. Of course, every project is different, depending on the team, the client and other variables. The key is developing workable plans that account for the deviations that are inevitable, while maintaining focus on the ultimate destination. To prepare for a run, I draw from my past experience and results to set realistic yet challenging training goals. In the same way, effective project management requires learning from past initiatives and applying those insights to improve forecasting accuracy—a skill that becomes increasingly valuable as projects grow in complexity and stakeholder expectations rise. 3. The Recovery Imperative Perhaps the most overlooked parallel between running and project management is the critical importance of recovery. Just as pushing too hard in running can lead to injury, overextending project resources results in team burnout and lower quality outcomes. Sustainable project delivery requires building in recovery time, both between projects and during project execution. This isn't about being lax about inefficiency; it's about maintaining the capacity for consistent, high-quality output over time. It's also helpful to build in a "reflection phase" that follows both completed runs and finished projects. This serves a dual purpose: It allows for recovery/rest while capturing lessons learned that can improve future performance. Organizations that skip this critical step often repeat costly mistakes and miss opportunities for efficiency gains. 4. Real-Time Performance Monitoring Modern runners rely on sophisticated tracking devices to monitor heart rate, pace, distance and overall condition. This data helps me to recognize patterns and adjust my training plan before problems (i.e., injuries) arise. This same principle applies to project "health" monitoring. Too often, project and portfolio health have been measured solely by timelines and budgets. But that's an incomplete picture. Truly healthy projects don't just deliver on time, they preserve the well-being of the teams delivering the work and sustain strong client relationships in the process. This is something I've been particularly focused on: how to bring that same real-time visibility runners rely on into the world of project management. Just as a smartwatch gives you constant feedback as you run, I've been leading efforts at Kantata to deliver tools that give professional services leaders a steady stream of insights to audit the impact of their projects—how clients and teams are feeling along the way. By monitoring project health metrics continuously, teams can pivot appropriately before hitting their equivalent of "the wall" that runners fear. 5. The Long Game Perspective Professional services organizations understand that client relationships are marathons, not sprints. That's why it's essential to keep your focus on quality, efficiency and outcomes. No matter how much PM technology or strategies change, one thing remains the same: Sustainable success depends on long-term client satisfaction. This perspective shift is crucial for executives leading major initiatives. The pressure to show immediate results often undermines the steady, consistent effort required for transformational change. Like distance running, successful project management requires maintaining an optimal pace that can be sustained throughout the entire journey. Lacing Up And Taking The First Step To apply these principles to your project planning, make sure you have the right technology to support your project goals, which includes the ability to audit your organization's approach to project pacing. Are teams being pushed to sprint when they should be settling into a sustainable rhythm? Is adequate time being allocated for the preparation and recovery phases? Most importantly, remember that consistency in project execution requires commitment to long-term thinking over short-term gains. Make sure stakeholders understand the importance of both. Leaders who master this balance will help their organizations ultimately complete projects faster, while also delivering better outcomes and more sustainable team performance. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kantata Earns Top 10 Spot on G2's 2025 Best Software Awards for Project Management Products
IRVINE, Calif. & LONDON, March 06, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kantata, a leading global provider of purpose-built technology for professional services, has been recognized on G2's 2025 Best Software Awards, ranking #6 on the Project Management Products list. This marks six consecutive years of Kantata earning a top-ten spot, highlighting its impact in a market often dominated by general work management tools. G2, the world's most trusted software marketplace, ranks the best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users. Kantata's sustained success underscores the growing demand for specialized project management solutions designed for professional services firms. "The stakes for choosing the right business software are higher than ever," said Godard Abel, co-founder & CEO at G2. "With over 180,000 software products and services listings and 2.9 million verified user reviews in the G2 marketplace, we're proud to help companies navigate these critical choices with insights rooted in authentic customer feedback. The 2025 Best Software Award winners represent the very best in the industry, standing out for their exceptional performance and customer satisfaction. Congratulations to this year's honorees!" "It's an honor to see Kantata ranked among the top project management solutions year after year," said Charles Gustine, Director of Customer and Market Insight at Kantata. "This reflects the increasing shift towards purpose-built solutions. G2's user community continues to validate our commitment to pushing boundaries with innovations like Kantata Pulse and AI-driven tools that empower firms with unparalleled visibility into project and portfolio health, proactive risk management, and smarter, data-driven decision-making." Kantata Stands Out in Professional Services Kantata is the highest-ranked professional services automation (PSA) solution in G2's top 50 project management products and the only product designated as a PSA in the top 25. Recent research from Service Performance Insight (SPI) highlights significant performance gaps in project execution between high- and low-performing professional services firms, particularly in billable utilization, project margins, on-time delivery, and client referenceability. High performers complete projects on time 15% more often and achieve 55% higher fixed-fee project margins (46.8% vs. 30.2%), emphasizing the need for advanced PSA solutions like Kantata that empower professional services organizations to optimize their workforce, improve forecasting accuracy, and enhance project outcomes. What G2 Users Are Saying About Kantata Verified reviews from services professionals on G2 highlight Kantata's flexibility, implementation ease, and impact on efficiency: "Before switching to Kantata, our team was trying to make everyone fit their individual workflows into the strict templates of other project management systems. With Kantata, each employee's experience can be customized to fit what they need. This has increased our efficiency and therefore made us more profitable. There's nothing to dislike about Kantata. It has been the best project management software I have ever used." "Implementation and integration is easy because [the] Kantata Team is helping us along the way with very professional individuals. I use it everyday and couldn't live without it. I've tried others like Monday, Asana, or Wrike, but none of them can compare with all the features Kantata has." "I really like how well Kantata pulls all of our project management and budget information for my client's projects together. I have continued to be impressed by how much information I can gather to make decisions on resourcing for our client-services projects. Our team now uses Kantata in all parts of our projects to prepare, plan, and deliver our work." About G2's Best Software Awards G2's 2025 Best Software Awards feature dozens of lists, ranking software vendors and products using G2's proprietary algorithm based on G2's verified user reviews and publicly available market presence data. To be eligible for the Best Software Awards, a software company or product must have received at least one approved review during the 2024 calendar year and appear on a G2 Grid®. Scores reflect only data from reviews submitted during this evaluation period. To learn more, view G2's 2025 Best Software Awards and read more about G2's methodology. About G2 G2 is the world's largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 100 million people annually — including employees at all Fortune 500 companies — use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of software and services companies of all sizes partner with G2 to build their reputation and grow their business — including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and Adobe. To learn more about where you go for software, visit and follow us on X and LinkedIn. About Kantata Kantata takes professional services automation to a new level, giving people-powered businesses the clarity, control, and confidence they need to optimize resource planning and elevate operational performance. Our purpose-built cloud software is helping over 1,500 professional services organizations in more than 100 countries focus and optimize their most important asset: their people. By leveraging the Kantata Professional Services Cloud, professionals gain access to the information and tools they need to win more business, ensure the right people are always available at the right time, and delight clients with project delivery and outcomes. To learn more, visit View source version on Contacts Media Contacts Jenny Gardynski at G2jgardynski@ or press@ Jen Dodos for
