Some highlights from 3 amazing days of CCH® Tagetik inTouch Global User Conference
The CCH® Tagetik inTouch Global User Conference took place from September 21 to 23 in the historic city of Lucca, Italy, under the theme Elevate your Business. There were plenary sessions, customer panels, solution demos, partner project sessions, and one-on-one opportunities with industry experts. And, of course, networking in a way that isn’t the same in virtual scenarios.
The more than 850 participants could curate their schedule from the six breakout tracks: Innovation, Technology, Knowledge Share, Financial Close, Integrated Business Planning, and Regulatory Compliance.
This community hadn’t enjoyed the opportunity to gather together since 2019 when the “Mining your Gold” iteration of CCH® Tagetik InTouch took place in blissful ignorance of what lay ahead for the world. In the intervening years, we’ve mined a great deal in terms of resilience, resourcefulness, and the possibilities of virtual communications. Corporate Performance Management has gone from strength to strength. But Lucca in September with real people was evidence if it were needed that we’re in an H2H - human-to-human - business.
A highlight innovation for 2022 was the R&D Lab Tours. For the first time, CCH® Tagetik’s Research & Development department opened its doors to customers so they could see where the software is designed and developed. And open throughout the event at the Real Collegio - all day, every day was the Demo Corner for first-hand experience with a range of solutions.
ESG – a thread running through the event
A standout theme during this year’s InTouch was ESG – from sustainability reporting to the growth/compliance partnership; it was a thread running through the entire event. On Day two, the experiences of major European insurance group Talanx in the management of evolving ESG requirements, related by the group’s Head of Regulatory Solvency II Reporting Sebastian Baumert, was an ideal example of how to navigate a path to an integrated ESG and financial data environment.
Now to the content. Where to begin? Here are the highlights of three memorable days, including 75 breakout sessions!
Day one – opening keynotes, plenary session, awards, and InTouch night out
This was the time to meet, renew acquaintances and catch up with colleagues and peers before launching into the keynotes. Regional receptions brought together those from the Nordics, DACH, North America, UK and Ireland, and APAC before all gathered in the entrancing Teatro del Giglio to be welcomed by Senior Vice President & GM Corporate Performance Solutions, Ralf Gärtner. Ralf shared how today’s never-before-seen economic, industry and market trends are redefining how Finance leaders guide their organizations through disruption.
This was followed by a keynote from the University of Oxford Blavatnik School of Government’s Professor of Business & Public Policy Karthik Ramanna, “Cutting through the ESG greenwash,” on the inescapable reality of ESG for corporate strategy. This session was closed with a keynote from Wolters Kluwer, CTO, Global Technology, Brian Diffin, on the advanced technologies powering finance and business.
There was still time for a customer panel, “Elevating your business,” which tackled topics on digital transformation, ESG & Sustainability, supply chain planning, and AI & predictive analytics, which was my pleasure to moderate. Five customers participated in the 45-minute session, including Jody Rogers from Charles River Labs, Edoardo Bettinardi from Nobis Assicurazioni, Thomas Raschke from E.ON, Bernd Stangl from Alcatel Lucent Enterprise, and Donna Durling from Principal Financial Group. Each revealed how they are taking best practices to new heights. After the customer panel, I had the pleasure of sitting down with and speaking to many of our customers to record interviews on their experiences with our products. It was refreshing to hear first-hand how their businesses are thriving and how much they appreciate working with CCH® Tagetik.
An early evening customer success awards presentation then gave way to the welcome party in the wonderful Mercato del Carmine in the historical center.
Day two – multiple tracks, panels, presentations, and workshops. And a Gala on the walls of Lucca
Following an opportunity to check out the exhibitors, it was time for visitors to break out into a full-day program of multiple tracks and formats. As mentioned, tracks included Innovation, Technology, Knowledge Share, Financial Close, Integrated Business Planning, and Regulatory Compliance. These were addressed through technology deep dives, panel discussions, focus groups, customer stories, and workshops. Expert panels included “How CFOs can create value through sustainability reporting,” while a customer panel looked at how to “Evolve financial close with automated account reconciliations & transaction matching.”
The day closed with the Annual Celebratory Gala on the walls of Lucca at San Colombano (walls being a somewhat modest description – they need to be seen to be believed). The theme for this year’s gala was the seventies. Seeing how the attendees embraced the theme dressed in their seventies finest was inspiring!
Here is a further taste of the day’s content:
• Financial close: “Customer story on Financial Close by Keurig Dr Pepper”
• Regulatory compliance: “What you need to know about Pillar 2: Global minimum tax”
• ESG: “Meet compliance and drive growth with CCH® Tagetik ESG & sustainability performance management”
• Integrated Business Planning: “Customer story: integrated business planning with Charles River”
• Technology: "How cloud can help you achieve your ESG and digital transformation goals by AWS”
• Innovation: “Supply chain planning workshop”
Day three – the conference continues with the future in focus
The conference continued during the morning with exhibits and breakouts tracks aligned to multiple roles, organization needs, and experience levels. This included a focus group on innovation, a customer panel “Beyond IFRS 17 and Solvency II in the new world order,” and various previews, including CCH® Tagetik & MS Power BI and Corporate Direct tax in the workflow of CCH® Tagetik. There were also universally-relevant sessions such as “Tips & Tricks on Performance” to get the most out of CCH® Tagetik solutions and “Technology of the future: Tech trends shaping CCH® Tagetik,” which complemented the Lab Tour perfectly.
Here is a further taste of the day’s content:
• Integrated Business Planning: “Customer story: workforce planning with Discovery Education”
• Financial Close: “Customer story: The power of the CCH® Tagetik platform & how it can support a growing organization”
• Regulatory Compliance: “Customer story on IFRS 17 by Tokio Marine Insurans (Malaysia) Berhad (TMIM)”
• Technology: “CCH® Tagetik cloud governance and monitoring”
• Innovation: “How to digitally accelerate your finance organization”
• ESG: “Meet compliance and drive growth with CCH® Tagetik ESG & sustainability performance management” (a further opportunity for those who missed out on Day 2)
We’ll be back
After three days of new technologies, inspiring anecdotes, and knowledge sharing, it was time to say “a presto” to Lucca after:
• 75 breakouts
• 35 customer sessions
• 15 sponsoring partner sessions
• 38 CCH® Tagetik presentations
• 15 customer testimonials
• 70+ executive one-to-one meetings
As one visitor said, “I particularly enjoyed the conference's collaborative, inclusive, and family-orientated approach!”
The takeaway for InTouch is intended to be enhanced knowledge and understanding of the support available, both of which should contribute to success. I sensed that visitors were left invigorated by the opportunity to meet face-to-face and inspired by what is possible when shared knowledge and expertise among committed professionals.
I’ll leave you with thoughts from an inTouch first-timer: “I attended my first CCH® Tagetik inTouch last week in beautiful Lucca. It was an exciting trip for our cohort, from customer sessions to product roadmaps to the latest innovation for our customers to leverage. I’m ready for next year.” Me too!
Mark your calendar for inTouch 2023
Our next global inTouch event will be in May 2023.
You can learn more about InTouch and other upcoming events on our website at: Events and News: Press Releases, Webinars, and more | Wolters Kluwer
