Our manifesto

Philippe FERRY

President, ACT-ON GROUP
23 years leading the firm

One Friday evening,
a payroll that will not run.

The software worked.

The configuration was correct.

The project was “on schedule”.

And yet that Friday, eleven thousand people were at risk of not being paid the following month, because one seniority rule had never been signed off by anyone who carried the consequences.

Nobody had lied.

Nobody had picked the wrong tool.

One decision was missing, and everyone believed somebody else had taken it.

Read on

Technology on its own
is nothing.

In 23 years I have never seen a programme fail because of software.

They fail on rules nobody validated.

On governance nobody held.

On teams nobody explained the reason to.

That is why we do not sell technology.
We make transformations hold.

What this conviction costs us

A conviction you can check is worth ten a client has to take on faith.

Here are ours, and above all what they stop us doing.

650 salaried consultants.

No day-rate bench.

The people who open your programme are ours, from the first workshop to go-live.

No vendor commission.

We do not sell the tool we install.

Our recommendation costs you nothing but our time.

We do not answer every brief.

If you want man-days at the best price, others do that better than we do.

We say so before the proposal, not after.

23 years

An independent firm, led by the same partners, across three economic cycles.

290 active clients

Mid-caps, SBF 120, CAC 40, public sector and non-profits.

225 references published under their own names.

83 written case studies

Payrolls that run, HR systems rebuilt, HR data people can trust again.

Where transformations actually give way

That Friday evening was not exceptional.

A programme never holds on a tool: it holds or it gives way on three fronts, and that is where we work.

Organisational

Governance, committees, decision-making, processes, workforce, compliance & legal, payroll.

Digital

IS, IT architecture, data, AI, automation, new technologies.

Cultural

Values, management model, intrapreneurship, commitment, employee experience.

Most firms cover one of the three.

We work across all three with the same teams.

That is the only reason a programme reaches the end.

Four practices, one standard

We do not have four offers.

We have four places where a programme can give way, and a partner accountable for each one.

Strategy

Deciding before spending: the target, the sequence, the governance.

HRIS

The payroll that runs, the HR system that holds, time and attendance nobody argues about.

Data

HR figures an executive committee can rely on.

Technology

The architecture and the operations, so the decision stays sustainable.

Philippe Ferry

President, ACT-ON GROUP · 23 years leading the firm

I sign this page in my own name.

If a programme we open does not hold, I am the one to tell.

What is your Friday evening?

Describe it in three lines.

A partner calls you back within 48 hours, and will also tell you when we are not the right firm.

What you get.

Thirty minutes with a partner, not a salesperson.

Our reading of the three fronts on your situation, and the first breaking point we can see.

What we ask of you.

Be precise about the date.

A programme has no problem until it has a deadline.

The four situations we get called into: a payroll that has to run next month, an HR system to rebuild without stopping the business, HR data nobody believes any more, a programme already under way that is taking on water.

Thank you.

A partner calls you back within 48 hours, and will also tell you if we are not the right firm for that deadline.

Think.

Act.

Make it hold.