Forbes: Catalant’s Client Platform Intelligence Connects Companies With Top Talent, Fast

At Catalant, we’ve spent nearly a decade connecting organizations with highly-skilled, independent consultants — for business needs ranging from supply chain innovations at Fortune 500 companies to corporate strategy overhauls across industries.

As the freelance economy continues to flourish, our approach is resonating with independent consultants and clients alike. We’ve seen a 54% year-over-year investment growth among high-usage Catalant clients, and over 8,000 strategic freelancers joined our platform in 2021 alone. As talent pools shift, there’s a growing need for organizations to find an agile consulting partner equipped with client platform intelligence — the technology enabling Catalant clients to quickly join forces with on-demand talent and solve business problems.

How Catalant Drives Enterprise Growth

I recently spoke with Jon Younger for an article in Forbes about the rise in independent consulting and new staffing models. Jon and I discussed Catalant’s approach of combining people, technology, and data, which offers businesses greater visibility into how projects are handled by high-skilled consultants. This depth of connection helps our clients identify the right talent for their business needs and stay on trend with problems other companies are actively solving. Early alignment between your business and strategic consultants ensures transparency about how these engagements are managed long-term, as well as clarity around performance tracking and measurement. 

Catalant's CEO explains benefits of client platform intelligence

Here are three key benefits of Catalant’s approach to connecting businesses with top independent consultants that surfaced during my conversation with Jon:

1. Custom Data and Analytics

Catalant clients receive custom data through our platform. This includes initial cost assessments for staffing upcoming projects and recommendations on finding top talent to address your unique business problems. Over time, we also provide analytics that demonstrates how effectively your enterprise is working with independent consultants and point out opportunities to better leverage external staffing resources in the future.

These insights help Catalant clients derive maximum value from our platform. As I told Jon, we attribute our ongoing business success to investments made in client platform intelligence. Within our technology-enabled marketplace, we keep our client’s entire organization in mind and therefore build stronger client engagements. This perspective helps our clients overcome long-standing reliance on big consulting firms and move away from the generalized data sets these vendors provide.

2. Specialized On-Demand Talent

Clients can expect instant access to specialized talent on Catalant. Traditional consultancies like McKinsey offer support in the form of rotating project managers and associates — many of whom are recent MBAs with little real-world experience. Conversely, our client platform intelligence matches Catalant customers with highly-qualified consultants based on individual specifications and business needs, not simply who is available to take on work at the time. From there, our clients review profiles for a wide range of strategic consultants alongside their rates, ensuring a personalized staffing connection.

Catalant clients also have the option to receive proposals for projects, which means consultants can bid on upcoming work. All of this happens within our platform and at a greater speed than when businesses work with larger consulting firms. Our over 80,000 consultants are ready to staff projects, and in most cases, Catalant clients can narrow down experts within 48 hours of reaching out and have talent working almost immediately.

3. Enterprise-Wide Partnership

Client platform intelligence fosters long-term partnerships between Catalant and our clients. When organizations consistently engage our marketplace for projects, Catalant relationship managers can focus on “demand planning.” This method identifies project requirements well in advance to ensure you’re proactively considering how to solve your next business problem — and thinking about the highly skilled talent you’ll need to do it.

We also create custom talent pools for our clients that are specific to their industries and business needs. Not only can you connect with talent at a moment’s notice, but you can rest assured you’re engaging the top folks in your industry.

Investments in platform intelligence enable us to always put our clients first. We look forward to continuing to merge smart tech with top talent and helping our clients maintain leadership in their respective industries — including yours.

Read the full Forbes article here.