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Sponsored by: Northcross Group
July 24, 2019
2019 Fact Book: Doing Business in Maine
Northcross Group
Empowering People for Business Challenges
When companies face challenges that impact different parts of their organization and cut across technical, business, and compliance issues, it can be hard to know where to turn for assistance.
Companies need experience dealing with these challenges to make sure they are on the right path. They need a breadth of capabilities to ensure they’re not missing crucial sticking points. They need tools and support to drive their teams and get desired results.
This is where Northcross Group (NCG) comes in. NCG is a management and technology services firm focused on empowering companies and their people to take on major business challenges.
A great example of NCG’s services is a just-completed regional bank purchase of a non-bank company. The bank had not done a major acquisition in over a decade and wanted to make sure they had a partner that could work with their teams and help make sure everything went smoothly.
Merger and acquisition efforts require navigating a complex, and often disparate, regulatory landscape. Many things need to come together for both employees and customers to be successful. There is the transaction itself, and then there’s the process of connecting people, technology, infrastructure, security, and processes in the new combined organization.
NCG helps bring all those needs together. In this example, NCG helped the bank navigate regulatory and operational aspects of the acquisition, keeping them on track from a compliance standpoint while ensuring internal and external operations continued uninterrupted. NCG tailored tools and expertise to fit their needs for this and future acquisitions.
We help organizations achieve success in challenging situations. We take the time to understand their needs and targets, then bring expertise and tools to help drive success.
— Christopher Bender, Northcross Group President
NCG works closely with clients to understand their objectives and how their people and organizational dynamics function. Within this context, NCG crafts tailored solutions that suit each client’s organizational structure and culture.
“We help organizations achieve success in challenging situations,” says Northcross President Christopher Bender. “We take the time to understand their needs and targets, then bring expertise and tools to help drive success.”
Discipline and flexibility
Founded in 2006, NCG support clients across the U.S. and Canada in highly regulated industries that include Financial Services, Healthcare, Transportation, Energy, and the Federal sector.
NCG’s services areas cover many of the primary facets of what a company needs in order to grow, protect itself, and make sure it is doing things the right way. Common to all the areas is a need to have a broad perspective and appreciation for people, data, technology, and processes in driving the delivery of results.
These areas include:
- Mergers & Acquisition: Working across the acquisition life cycle, tailoring tools and support to meet client objectives.
- Compliance & Oversight: Developing and enhancing internal compliance management programs and capabilities.
- Cybersecurity Programs: Helping organizations get their arms around the wide range of elements related to security. Designing and implementing complete cybersecurity programs that can evolve as needs change.
- Safety Management Systems: Designing and implementing enterprise-wide functions to foster and manage safety efforts and data exchange for risk management.
- Risk Management: Developing and improving enterprise risk management and governance processes and systems.
- Incident Management: Management and remediation services for system incidents and data breaches. Communication and collaboration facilitation of stakeholders including key third parties and law enforcement.
- Deployment Management: Planning, testing, and managing system deployments, conversions, and migrations.
- Program Development & Program Office Support: Designing and developing programmatic functions and organizational capabilities for key areas like safety, security, and risk management.
- Integration Services: Planning and execution of system, data, and process deployments, conversions, enhancements, and migrations.
- Policies & Procedures: Crafting process and procedural frameworks. Implementing tools and methods to the right fit and effectiveness.
- Vendor Management Programs: Designing and implementing external vendor risk and value management capabilities.
- System Blueprinting: Modeling enterprise systems and processes for value mapping, platform replacements, conversions, and system improvements.
Across-the-board engagement
Clients typically engage NCG when they’re facing major new initiatives and challenges that they don’t have the internal availability and/or expertise to execute. When NCG starts an engagement, they begin by learning about the organization — its people, markets, and operating environment. Then they develop plans and identify the right tools that will help work the plan.
An important piece of this process is NCG’s strategic use of tools and technology to perform tasks and track progress. These tools help NCG identify risks and opportunities, then quickly share those with the client to decide on course corrections or to retarget efforts.
Open communication throughout the process is paramount.
“We develop strong relationships with our clients,” says Bender. “We work together to find solutions and get desired results.”
Typically, management consultants come in with PowerPoints and fill-in-the-blank templates. Technology firms come with pre-packaged solutions looking for problems that might fit.
NCG is different.
NCG engages with people and helps them be part of the process, so that they can build their own capabilities. Instead of cookie-cutter templates, NCG uses configurable apps and automation to help guide and connect people. Instead of trying to fit a problem into a solution, NCG uses portal technologies and component functions to craft streamlined capabilities and support, all designed to engage people at different levels of the specific organization. NCG facilitates collaboration to get everyone moving in the right direction, understanding next steps, and facilitating course corrections as needed.
Other consultants only work top down. NCG works across the operation. Whether it’s acquisitions, cybersecurity, or any other aspect of the operation, tremendous consideration goes into planning and execution. And that means bringing personnel throughout the organization into the process.
Larger consultants often use their top brass to engage clients, then pass the work on to personnel with less experience. When you contact NCG, you’re getting the thought leaders who will stay with you in a cost-competitive, open-communication environment.
Holistic Approach – A Requirement for Success
NCG takes a holistic view of the enterprise and all the facets of how things are done on a daily basis — and where the organization is looking to go.
“To be efficient and effective, you need to understand where you are starting from, and all the things that need to get done. You also need to be cognizant of what could go wrong and what your options are to deal with the unexpected,” explains Bender. “Many of the challenges we help organizations with are not one-time challenges, but things that need to be dealt with on an ongoing basis. In these cases, that broad perspective and outlook needs to repeatable and sustainable — a programmatic approach. For instance, when NCG helps an organization with their cybersecurity program, they don’t just focus on the technical aspects. NCG looks across all of the organization’s functions, from HR to accounting to vendor management, to understand strengths and vulnerabilities.” Improvements are prioritized in such a way that balances risk and business considerations while also maximizing value and minimizing negative disruption.
“We help clients understand their current posture and what paths forward look like,” Bender continues. “Based on where the organization is currently, how do you institutionalize program concepts? What are the management and leadership steps needed to help guide how things should work on a daily basis? What are the tactical and operational pieces that need to start or align with other ongoing efforts? These are all steps needed to implement programs that are sustainable and scalable as the organization moves forward.”
The Right Tools for the Job
The right tool can make all the difference for success. NCG has developed and evolved tools for its service areas that are designed from many years of helping people work together and deliver results. The NCG tools are built to fit each client’s organizational structure and markets — and NCG holds a patent on its work in this area.
In addition, the use of secure cloud-based tools enables people to be more productive wherever they are. These centrally managed tools also provide metrics on performance and where challenges exist, thus providing insight on progress and where adjustments may be needed. And, with an eye toward empowerment, NCG tools are available to be used on an ongoing basis as a support and a platform as the organization adjusts to new factors in the future.
A Partner When You Need One
How do you protect and grow your business? How do you ensure efficiency and maintain compliance? These are not challenges any organization needs to tackle alone or piecemeal.
At NCG, the key is partnership. The proof of NCG’s success is in tenure: The very first NCG client is still one of its largest clients today. NCG is committed to being a true partner for clients as they face new challenges. This involves NCG’s own continual improvements of skills, processes, and tools, in order to bring the latest and best capabilities to the client’s table.
