With around fifty projects completed since its creation, the Performance Management division in Talan in France is growing strongly. Composed of consultants in EPM solutions (of which approximately 40% are women) to manage the financial and extra-financial performance of companies, always looking for new profiles, the division is led, within the Paris and Lyon branches, by two women with very different but inspiring backgrounds. An example of Talan's gender equality policy, but also of the openness in the Group's recruitment strategy.
Meeting with Valérie Camon, Manager of the Performance Division in Lyon, and Nadia Abbassi, Director of the Performance Management Division in Paris.
EPM - Can you tell us more about this expertise?
Nadia – The EPM, Enterprise Performance Management, is one of the drivers of the modernisation of the administrative and financial departments, as part of their digital transformation. Performance Management enables effective monitoring of actual performance, drawing up of budgets and forecasts within the financial departments. The CFOs rely in particular on the EPM to address their digitisation, a need that has been increased for two years due to the context of the pandemic. This domain is inherently vertical, but necessarily linked to HR, ISD, production, purchasing or marketing. So to understand all this, very diverse talents work in the EPM divisions of Talan, coming from both the business lines, finance and of course IT. This diversity allows us to offer our customers solutions which are adapted to their reality and innovative approaches, at least for them!
Valérie – Finally, EPM is a set of innovative solutions and approaches, serving the CFOs. Because in my opinion, innovating means constantly seeking to improve. It is a state of mind, a gradual approach based on concrete actions and short-term objectives that make it possible to move from a curative management method to more preventive ones. For example, in project management, implementing agile approaches, such as SCRUM, is often a small revolution in itself for our clients. By seeking to continuously improve working methods and optimise processes (reducing time without added value), they enable employees to work under the best conditions and therefore to perform better.
THE POSITION - You are in a similar position. Do you sum it up in a few words?
Valérie – I am Manager of the Lyon Performance Management Division at Talan. Under the authority of the agency director, I am responsible for 7 consultants. My job? Energising the team humanely and commercially, this leads to a lot of management with training and support, project monitoring and responses to calls for tender. As head of P&L for the Lyon agency’s EPM offering, I can say that I run a real profit centre that is growing strongly.
Nadia – I do the same job! For longer, but the same… I am Director of the Performance Management Division in Paris. This division comprises 36 people. Here too, we have strong growth: 15 new hires are planned for 2022. I would stress that we are talking between regions. There are regular exchanges between us. In addition, our teams sometimes work on common missions.
THE COURSE - You both have very different courses. In short, where do you come from?
Nadia – A fairly traditional course in the digital services environment for me, rather vertical and straight, I would say. I come from IT: EISTI engineering school, 10 years in a first digital services company, and this has been the case since the start on EPM. In 2013, Exl Group recruited my expertise to develop the Oracle offering. I gained skills in management, recruitment and business. Then I joined Talan following the takeover where I was responsible for all the EPM offers.
Valérie – So I’m not that at all! I come from management control, with a master’s degree in Management Sciences on a work-study basis. I quickly switched to consulting in ESN, starting as a junior consultant and finishing as a manager. Then I spent five years in Peru, looking after my children, trying out entrepreneurship, consulting as an independent… Back in Paris in 2018, where I joined Talan… in Nadia's team as head of IBM Planning Analytics. Two years ago, I had the opportunity to continue my career in Lyon where I currently hold the position of EPM offer manager. I have a financial and non-IT culture. It's more unusual, as a trajectory.
THE STRENGTHS - You are therefore from very different cultures. How does this translate into your assignments, and what do you highlight ?
Valérie – We find ourselves on the EPM. It is a field that is both technical-functional IT and professional. We can therefore perform the same functions from different backgrounds. My strengths are business and financial knowledge. Moreover, in our teams we have both management controllers and technicians.
Nadia – Yes, it’s quite specific in the world of data. Moreover, in our recruitment we pay particular attention to these various sources. As far as I am concerned, I of course have IT as a driver. But like Valerie, I think our differences are our strengths. We are open to different paths, and this represents Talan’s recruitment philosophy.
