General IT Governance Designed Exclusively for Private Equity

I had the pleasure of working with Jack Nestell over a full ERP implementation as part of a corporate divestiture.  Jack’s hands-on approach truly benefited the company, as his recommendations and our strategy were driven by a bottoms-up understanding of the business.  In addition to leading the entire process, Jack worked with key functional leaders throughout the business to ensure that all business needs were contemplated.  I would welcome an opportunity to work with Jack again in the future.

My entire development, implementation and support teams have worked with Jack on some difficult and challenging projects over the past several years. As President of FACTIVITY, it is my personal observation that Jack’s discipline, experience, and value-added approach offers an insight and perspective that even experienced professionals can learn from.

I have known Jack for several years. I appreciate his passion for his work and his research and his enthusiasm to share that passion with academic colleagues and practitioners. Jack places great value on understanding, sharing, and applying sound proven research ideas to his field. This truly is a differentiator.

Jack has a boundless desire to see organizations succeed. It is important for leaders to learn about their organizations and utilize applied research to address the challenges they face for sustainable improvement; this skill and approach sets Jack apart. His passion coupled with knowledge towards his field of digital transformation is quite admirable.

Lucidity had the pleasure of working with Jack on a mission critical, 5-month ERP transformation that was very successful. From the onset, Jack took an “out of the box” approach that allowed him and team to navigate many of the normal constraints on such an aggressive timeline for this transformation. What was accomplished with Jack under his leadership was remarkable and industry-leading, and his ability to do “more with less” was an illustration for us all to learn from. Lucidity teamed with Jack to help him deliver on time, within budget, and meet the boldest expectations for his business – no production downtime, no lost sales revenue, no orders unfulfilled, no negative change in customer relationships, no changes in shipping expectations, and many more. Jack is an authentic, thoughtful CIO with a passion for doing things different for his business and his track record proves that…with this project just being another illustration of his capabilities and skills. We were excited to be his business partner and look forward to working with him for many years to come.

Jack is deeply committed to maximizing the effectiveness of ERP systems and strategies. Having the opportunity to teach Jack, I’ve seen firsthand how he couples his own expertise and depth of ERP experience with research-based principles related to effective organizational change. Not only is he dedicated to the success of his own work, but he has a genuine passion to transform the field by sharing best practices broadly with clients, colleagues, and other practitioners.

I have been working with Jack for the past couple of years and have had the privilege of providing him with some great resources when needed. I have seen firsthand how well Jack manages and executes large, complex and time sensitive ERP initiatives. Jack’s success comes from not only his passion, energy and insightfulness but also how he puts as much emphasis on the human element and creating the right culture as he does with making sure he has the right technical skillset on each and every project.

Complacency is the enemy of change. When companies are at the crossroads of a significant change such as a new ERP system, complacency becomes a primary obstacle. Jack has an immense ability to break down that obstacle to progress the project while aligning stakeholders. His extensive background in IT provides him the ability to be process focused while conveying his message from a pragmatic approach. Being a senior leader of SML, I was fortunate to experience Jack’s methodical approach. His ability to connect with non-IT centric leaders and provide a thorough understanding of the objectives, approach, obstacles and solutions, helps lead a successful roll out. Anyone that has worked with Jack would quickly attest to his passion, determination and assurance.

In my experience, getting people to understand and embrace the change is generally the most significant challenge of major undertakings. I’ve consistently seen Jack move large teams with his up-front, no nonsense approaches that brings confidence that the initiative is actually going to work.

Nestell & Associates provides quality service and exceptional knowledge.

“I met Jack in January 2013 while he was managing an-going ERP implementation at his current manufacturing concern. He clearly indicated the urgency facing his concern and the need to “turn on” the solution in January 2013. Although there were a number of shortcomings that required immediate attention, Jack established a team of resources and a plan to correct the shortcomings and bring to pass a first class solution for the company.

Impressive was Jack’s attention to details and his concern on the impact that it would have on the human element. Training, assignment and ownership of business processes, changes to the roles from past to future was of utmost importance to him.

His ability to work through these elements and establish a sense of confidence that individuals can move forward and the “change” would be beneficial to all was amazing.

Lean and ERP, can they co-exist? Should they co-exist? Jack has the experience and background to answer these questions and to tie these 2 powerful philosophies and tools together toachieve efficient results and to only do what matters. As an IT professional, his personal interest in understanding Lean concepts and the application of those concepts make him a great systems implementation partner.

I have spent 30 years of my career often engaged as an interim C level manager. Several of these assignments included ERP installations, for a variety of reasons.  I met Jack while serving as interim CEO  at a company that was carved out of a large public entity by a PE.  Jack immediately impressed me with his organizational skills in planning the installation. Then, his technical know- how was augmented with his ability to communicate both up and down the organization, he dealt with resistance intellectually rather than emotionally, constantly adjusted the schedule to account for surprises while maintaining the schedule, and did all this with integrity and transparency.  The most successful ERP installation I have ever witnessed.

I have had the pleasure of working with Jack Nestell over the past few years on a significant ERP project. I first met Jack during his ERP evaluation phase and I found him to be one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the ERP space that I have come across in my career. He was clear in what he wanted and more clear in how he wanted to manage the implementation of the solution. Jack employed a methodology during the implementation that led to successful outcome and a realization of the benefits promised at the outset. His professional style of leadership was effective as he oversaw resources from his team, the business users and the various vendors. Always firm and consistent in his direction along with the appropriate amount of flexibility to deal with the day to day issues that you encounter in any sizable project. Jack is a true ERP professional with the real life success to back up his credentials. A rare breed.

To get results, people have to understand, and they need to buy in…. Jack avoids the typical overflow of consulting jargon and instead moves directly to readily absorbable concepts that work.

Leading large-scale organizational transformation has been at the center of my entire career. Like any leadership role it can be a lonely business. Imagine my surprise and delight to find someone with Jack’s knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm who truly gets it to work alongside! Jack is a consummate professional and in the time I have known him I have already learned that he delivers results for all things ERP related. There is no substitute for the kind of expertise that Jack brings to bear in the successful and lean implementation of ERP systems.

Jack has been a panelist for us and has provided input on our research. I am looking forward to seeing the results of his book

In the private equity world, success depends on having trusted partners whose expertise and commitment to client service is unquestionable. For the last 10 years, Jack has been our go-to partner for all of our enterprise-level technology needs.  He has mentored, advised, and worked with a number of our portfolio companies at a variety of levels – from establishing employee technology support/Help Desk services to leading full-scale ERP integration and implementations.  Jack is a core member of our investment diligence and management network and a trusted partner in making sure technology is an enabler of business transformation and innovation within all of our organizations.

Nestell & Associates are very knowledgeable and a true thought leader in the ERP space.

Anyone looking for a lot of great info about ERP, follow Nestell & Associates. I have worked with Jack for an extended amount of time during an implementation of our ERP and he is incredibly full of knowledge and experience.

First off, I sincerely enjoy our working with Jack. His work is honest and quality work. He understands the key issues for success in implementations and stays focused on them through to completion. He has a very good knowledge of business processes and how computers and information technology in general can be applied in an effective manner.

I have had the pleasure of working with Jack on some very cutting edge enterprise technology projects.  I have found his team building / collaborative / pragmatic approach to leading these projects to be quite unique and invaluable in helping the team obtain its objectives.  All of these challenging projects had multiple stakeholders and Jack’s ability to conduct the “orchestra” is quite impressive. I hope to work with Jack on projects in the future.

Jack has put together a transcript that we can all learn from in the industry. What he did during the ERP transformation captured the essence of what everyone tries to achieve, but so few rarely do. Through his leadership and passion, the industry can see an illustration of a different way to approach these types of transformations and the ability to do “more with less” while still being wildly successful. Jack has unique capabilities and skills, and we are excited he has decided to share his story with the market.

I have had the pleasure of working with Jack Nestell over the past few years on a significant ERP project.  I first met Jack during his ERP evaluation phase and I found him to be one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the ERP space that I have come across in my career.  He was clear in what he wanted and more clear in how he wanted to manage the implementation of the solution.  Jack employed a methodology during the implementation that led to  successful outcome and a realization of the benefits promised at the outset.  His professional style of leadership was effective as he oversaw resources from his team, the business users and the various vendors.  Always firm and consistent in his direction along with the appropriate amount of flexibility to deal with the day to day issues that you encounter in any sizable project.  Jack is a true ERP professional with the real life success to back up his credentials.  A rare breed.

Jack was able to gather and effectively communicate information in an organized labor environment. He  was able to dissect our systems, correct, and distribute information in a more effective manner, much like a surgeon.

I’ve had the pleasure of working daily with Jack over nearly two years on implementing, improving, and maintaining our company’s ERP system, business intelligence, and reporting.  He’s been a great mentor and leader, and has been the undeniable key to the success of the ERP system’s implementation.   I know Jack to be a great communicator and organizer, who is highly knowledgeable and insightful in ERP and many other areas of IT.  He is very practical in his approach, emphasizing the importance of aligning company culture and business processes with the ERP system (and vice versa, when appropriate).  Besides that, Jack is just a great person to work with in general, who is trustworthy, open to ideas, and a highly positive influence on the organization.

I have had the pleasure of working on one of my most memorable and successful 5 Month Rapid implementation projects led by Jack. It was an amazing experience to see how his positive energy and ‘gung ho’ approach literally charged each one of us on the implementation team daily.  Besides his dedication to work and positive attitude, he has exceptional motivational and team building skills. There is a lot to learn from Jack!