Customer Stories 
Summary
When global professional services firm RGP set out to modernize its talent technology stack, it knew that success would take more than new software. It would require rethinking long-held processes, adopting a best-in-class solution and laying the foundation for long-term innovation.
As part of Program Phoenix, RGP partnered with Avature to reinvent talent acquisition. The results were measurable cost savings, streamlined recruiting, and a scalable foundation for continued innovation and AI adoption.
About RGP
RGP is a premier global professional services firm that helps businesses transform their work. With a tailored engagement model that spans professional staffing, consulting and outsourced services, they partner with 88 of the Fortune 100 and 70 percent of the Fortune 500, delivering agility and expertise at scale.
The Challenge: Outgrowing Legacy Systems
Back in 2005, RGP operated on what was, at the time, a modern suite of applications: a talent CRM, an ATS, a sales CRM, a time and expense platform and a financial system. These homegrown and customized tools served the company well for years, but as RGP looked to grow, their limitations became harder to ignore.
By 2019, the professional services firm was dealing with significant growing pains. Global operations lacked consistency, with teams in the U.S., Europe and Asia working from systems that didn’t talk to one another. Manual workarounds became the norm, and limited automation slowed processes across the board. Fragmented data further hindered collaboration across regions and made scaling the business increasingly challenging.
And because RGP isn’t a technology company, continuing to build and maintain these systems internally was not a sustainable path forward. As Shaun Landers, Regional Vice President of Talent & Product Owner, put it:
We recognized we weren’t a tech company, but we needed to be honest about who we were and what our business needed to thrive.”
Shaun Landers
Regional VP, Talent & Product Owner, RGP
The Solution: A Bold Digital Reinvention Through Program Phoenix
The goal wasn’t just to embark on a system update. As Keith Golden, Chief Information Officer, later explained on the Talent Transformation Podcast, it was “a reinvention of how RGP functions and delivers value.”
RGP launched Program Phoenix, a multi-year initiative designed to reimagine the firm’s entire digital backbone. Guided by the three pillars of persona-driven experiences, cloud-based infrastructure and scalable automation and AI, the program led to a series of fundamental questions: What does recruiting mean for us? What kind of experience do we want for our recruiters, sales teams and candidates?
These reflections were crucial when it came to selecting the technology platform that would underpin the firm’s objectives. While the team could have defaulted to the recruiting modules of an HCM system already in place, they deliberately chose a different path. As Landers explained, the goal was not convenience, but quality; the kind of quality that could only come from a best-in-class solution:
We took it back to our talent processes and how our business operates. We didn’t want just an add-on; we wanted the best process possible.”
Shaun Landers
Regional VP, Talent & Product Owner, RGP
Choosing the Right Partner
Avature stood out as the partner that could deliver on that vision. The platform’s extensive configurability meant it could adapt to the organization’s unique processes while integrating seamlessly with other applications.
Another decisive factor was ownership. With Avature, RGP’s team could configure and evolve the platform on its own. As Landers explained, this autonomy gave them confidence that the system could keep pace with their changing needs: “We wanted to be the owners of the solution, not just passive users.”
The selection process itself reflected the rigor of Program Phoenix. Functional leads and IT leaders worked together to evaluate vendors, ensuring the decision wasn’t biased toward any one group. For Landers, this balance was critical: the platform had to meet both the technical requirements and the day-to-day needs of users.
What RGP Built: An Integrated Talent Platform
From the start, integration was RGP’s North Star. With Avature, the firm sought to create a fully integrated talent platform that combined candidate relationship management and applicant tracking. This decision directly addressed the pain points that had plagued its legacy systems: disjointed processes, limited visibility and low ROI.
By combining CRM and ATS capabilities into a single platform, recruiters can now nurture talent pipelines and address immediate hiring needs within the same system, gaining a 360° view of candidates and opportunities.
To deliver truly persona-driven experiences, RGP introduced a suite of tailored portals to support each user group, from External and Internal Career Portals to Referrals and Hiring Manager Portals. A standout example is the custom Talent Request (TR) Manager Portal, which enables real-time collaboration between sales professionals and talent partners, showcasing how Avature’s configurability allows RGP to turn its unique business needs into seamless, user-friendly experiences.
Additional capabilities, such as Avature’s built-in scheduling functionality and real-time reporting dashboards, were also deployed to replace manual processes and give leadership instant visibility into KPIs and operational metrics.
Ultimately, the firm succeeded in building what Landers describes as a harmonious ecosystem in which Avature delivers game-changing capabilities while still integrating seamlessly with all business applications.
We wanted a harmonious system of different ecosystems, one where each technology could play to its strengths without forcing trade-offs.”
Shaun Landers
Regional VP, Talent & Product Owner, RGP
Early Outcomes and Lasting Momentum
Though still early in its Avature journey, RGP’s team quickly felt the positive impact of the transformation across multiple fronts. Recruiters no longer wrestle with spreadsheets for matching or complicated mail merges for candidate outreach. Instead, automation and AI have freed them to focus on higher-value tasks:
- AI-driven talent matching has eliminated manual Excel tracking and allowed them to maximize a database of around 150,000 leads, saving $65,000 annually and enabling a skills-based approach to talent acquisition.
- Automated outreach has simplified communication, generating $72,000 in annual savings.
- Pipeline management tools have empowered recruiters to self-serve, resulting in $150,000 in savings each year.
- Reporting is now directly integrated into Avature, providing recruiters and leaders with real-time insights.
Beyond the cost savings, RGP is finally achieving the visibility, consistency and scalability needed to operate as one global organization. Collaboration across systems and teams has improved, and the user experience is now smoother.
Continuing the Journey: Skills, AI and Beyond
While the reinvention driven by Program Phoenix has already delivered impressive returns, RGP sees this as only the beginning and continues to advance its vision of a connected, AI-first talent ecosystem.
As adoption expands, the firm is building on Avature’s AI capabilities, leveraging tools such as Job Recommendations, Similar People and Recommended Candidates to deepen its understanding of talent and strengthen skills-based matching, as well as exploring new capabilities with Avature Copilot and other agentic AI.
With Avature as a core partner, RGP is confident in its ability to keep pace with change, building the agility to continuously evolve and grow.
