Providing clients with transparent, real-time data, from anywhere

“I believe that technology should be viewed as revenue generator, not least because of how it enables us to be more efficient and targeted in meeting our clients’ objectives. That’s what Invenias does for us.”

Joy Lillis is managing director of US-based executive search firm Ellig Group. She was behind the firm’s decision to roll out the cloud-based Client Portal solution from Invenias earlier this year. “We believe that digital engagement and mobile working are the future of our industry and constant innovation is key,” she says. “When we launched the Invenias Client Portal, we saw it as an opportunity to reimage ourselves and reimage the search industry.”

Joy was already familiar with Invenias, having used it in a previous search firm. “I loved it then and when we decided to move away from our old database system, Invenias was at the top of my list. We looked at a number of options, but there were several factors that always made Invenias our first choice.

“It was important to me that Invenias as a company was clearly investing money back into the product.” She explains that having been frustrated by the lack of investment and extremely long wait times for upgrades to the firm’s previous system, it was refreshing to learn about the plans Invenias had, such as its investment in Artificial Intelligence and, of course, all the regular product updates.

“Providing clients with the data they need to be competitive, inclusive and successful in real time, instead of waiting for weekly update calls, is the future of the search industry.”
Joy Lillis
Managing Director

Naturally, functionality was also an important factor and Joy is impressed with what Invenias now makes possible. “We rolled out the Client Portal as part of our strategy to work more collaboratively and effectively with our clients,” she says. “We’re a diversity-focused firm, hired to help our clients meet their objectives for bringing more women, LGBT candidates, and veterans into senior positions and the boardroom. The Invenias Client Portal has helped us with the process.

“It is speeding up the time to complete assignments, which is good for us and for our clients. Providing clients with the data they need to be competitive, inclusive and successful in real time, instead of waiting for weekly update calls, is the future of the search industry. We’re proud to be partnering with Invenias on this. The speed at which we can produce reports, both for our own purposes and for our clients, is fantastic when compared with how long it used to take. This is saving us thousands of hours-worth of effort every year.”

The transparency the portal offers to clients is a strong message that the firm takes to the market in its sales and business development activity, as Joy explains: “We live in a consumer-centric world and our clients are consumers of our services. They want to know what’s going on with their assignments and we’re able to offer them quick and easy access to that information if they want it, not only at their desks, but on their phones and other mobile devices too.”

“The speed at which we can produce reports, both for our own purposes and for our clients, is fantastic when compared with how long it used to take. This is saving us thousands of hours-worth of effort every year.”
Joy Lillis
Managing Director

Internally at Ellig Group, Invenias enables the research team and others to save everything into the system. “I hate paper,” Joy says, “and I want us to use as little as possible to reduce our impact on the environment. That’s one of the reasons I’m urging everyone to ‘live in Invenias’. It reduces our dependency on paper by making available information and reports in a central location, easily accessible on people’s screens, so we don’t have to print it all out.

“Of course, this also has an impact on business efficiency, and I stress the value of having files together in one place that can be taken anywhere our people need to be via their mobile devices.”

Joy adds that another benefit is how the platform enables researchers and consultants to make connections that support their business development and forecasting. Users can go into the system to look at a candidate profile and see where they’ve worked before and who they worked with. “This gives us the opportunity to identify candidates for particular roles where they might know other people in the client firm,” she says. “It’s also great that Invenias integrates with the likes of BoardEx, which contains personal information on people at the level we work with.

“On a final note, I love the fact that Invenias is always innovating and looking for ways to add value. I wanted to work with a company that would be a partner, not simply a vendor. I get that with Invenias. I really believe in the product and I really believe in the company.”