Kantata’s 2024 Catalyst Awards: Spotlighting The Best in Professional Services

The realm of professional services thrives on the dedication, creativity, and results-driven mindset of its people. At Kantata, we take immense pride in highlighting the exceptional strides made by individuals who have pushed boundaries, driven change, and made a lasting impact on their clients and the industry with the prestigious Kantata Catalyst Awards.

This year, in the lead up to Kantata Converge 2024, we were delighted to receive nominations from firms and individuals worldwide, showcasing an unwavering dedication to delivering top-notch professional services.

The 2024 Catalyst Awards are divided into three distinct categories:

• Client Experience Champion: This award honors those who go above and beyond to elevate client experiences. These champions of client experience forge meaningful partnerships, surpass expectations, and create environments where individuals and teams flourish.
• Innovation Champion: This accolade recognizes trailblazers who lead transformative initiatives, enhancing their working environment, streamlining business processes, or improving client outcomes. It celebrates visionary leaders who drive positive change through innovation.
• Results Champion: This award celebrates leaders who have significantly impacted measurable success, such as revenue growth, profitability, cost savings, or market share expansion. These champions are results-oriented, executing complex strategies and initiatives to deliver services with unparalleled quality.

Our esteemed panel of experts faced the daunting task of evaluating each submission based on criteria including innovation, impact, and contribution to the professional services industry. After meticulous deliberation, we proudly present the winners of the 2024 Kantata Catalyst Awards:

Client Experience Champion:

Sylvia Isbell, Principal of Business Analyst at Esri

• Sylvia has been with Esri for 19 years and has been a dedicated Kantata champion since 2018. She consistently goes above and beyond for her users, ensuring that the client experience is second to none. By participating in Co-Innovation Councils with Kantata Product Management, Sylvia helps shape meaningful product enhancements that benefit not only Esri but also our wider customer community.

Innovation Champion:

Mike Wilson-Phillips, Head of Delivery Operations at Qodea

• Mike has provided leadership throughout the merger of Appsbroker and CTS that formed Qodea, playing a key role in the integration of both Delivery teams transformation and optimizing the organization’s tech stack and operations. By integrating new technologies like Salesforce and BambooHR into Kantata, Mike improved resource management, MI reporting, and project visibility across teams. The Qodea Delivery Operations team are also streamlining month-end processes to drive reductions in time to close and significantly enhance billing efficiency and cash flow.

Results Champions:

Scott Lee, Director of Business Applications at Frank, Rimerman + Co. LLP

• Scott has been using Kantata for quite some time. While at his previous company, Scott led an impressive transformation by consolidating legacy PSA systems into Kantata SX, saving that company a staggering $300,000 annually while at the same time doubling the number of application users. His ability to streamline workflows, optimize resources, and cut delivery times made a huge impact, boosting operational efficiency across departments. Scott’s leadership through the migration of 865 engagements and 36,000 tasks was nothing short of remarkable.

Ryan O’Shea, Vice President of Customer Services at Digital.ai

• Ryan, alongside his colleague, Sr. Program Manager Megan Vogel, successfully drove a significant increase in billable utilization at Digital.ai, driving 8% improvement in a single month, with an ambitious target of hitting 19% overall improvement by year-end. In addition to these improvements in billable utilization, they also exceeded the company’s productive utilization goal. Their leadership in introducing new time-tracking behaviors has provided invaluable insights and transformed operational efficiency.

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 Kantata Catalyst Awards! Your dedication, ingenuity, and unwavering commitment to excellence serve as a profound inspiration to us all.

Thank you for joining us in celebrating the extraordinary achievements of these champions who are propelling the professional services industry into the future. We eagerly anticipate the future of professional services and stand ready to support you and your organizations every step of the way. For more details on our Catalyst Awards winners, please read our announcement or visit our Catalyst Awards page.