Back with a bang: Cezanne Connect 2024 roundup

Back with a bang: Cezanne Connect 2024 roundup in summary:

• The Cezanne Connect 2024 event was held at the London Stadium, welcoming over 250 customers for insightful talks, interactive workshops, and the inaugural Cezanne Awards.
• The event featured a keynote speech by HR consultant Kirsty Baggs-Morgan, who discussed the importance of HR strategy and its impact on organisational success. There was also a panel discussion on the role of AI in HR and payroll.
• The Cezanne Awards celebrated customer achievements, and the event concluded with a presentation on the future of the Cezanne platform, including new AI functionalities and system enhancements planned for 2025.

---

A chilly wind swept through London last week, but it was no match for the warmth and excitement of Cezanne Connect: our revamped Annual User Group meeting!

Housed in the utterly glorious surroundings of the London Stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Cezanne Connect welcomed over 250 customers or Cezanne for a day of insightful talks, interactive workshops and sneak peaks of what’s in store for the Cezanne platform in 2025. And, new for this year’s events were the inaugural Cezanne Awards, where we celebrated our own clients’ successes across the year.

So, what were some of the standouts of the day?

Our BHAGs

The day kicked off with an opening introduction from Cezanne’s CEO Simon Noble and how the past 12 months have been a time of change and acceleration for the business. He talked openly about how our ambitions are now beginning to come to fruition thanks to continued support by our new investment partners, NorthEdge, and how as a company we’re continuing to enjoy rapid and sustained growth – despite challenging world and economic conditions.

Simon also talked about our BHAGs – or Big Hairy Ambitious Goals for the uninitiated! He explained that as a business, we’ve one core mission: to be the most loved HRIS & Payroll system in the market. But to do that, we must push harder to achieve three core objectives, which are to:

• Create beautiful, simple to use HR software,
• Enable a frictionless customer experience from sales to support,
• And provide the most complete solution to meet the needs of our customers now, and in the future.

To do all that will require the continued evolution of Cezanne. And, to demonstrate how the Cezanne platform will evolve over the next 12 months, Simon shared our product roadmap to the delight of the watching audience.

Closing his talk, Simon made the point that whilst the company has taken huge strides forward in 2024, there’ll be no stopping in 2025 or beyond! As a result, Cezanne will continue to enjoy focused investment across core areas of the business.

So, to continue delivering an outstanding service to a growing client base, there’ll be further investment in teams and skills within the company. Plus, alongside internal improvements, customers of Cezanne can also look forward to an HRIS which will continue to grow and develop to meet the ever changing and unique requirements of HR and payroll professionals.

Keynote talk with renowned HR consultant Kirsty Baggs-Morgan

Attendees of Cezanne Connect were treated to a keynote speech by celebrated HR consultant and founder of Ethica HR, Kirsty Baggs-Morgan. She delivered a wonderful talk that delved deep into the perception of HR and the topic of HR strategy – a topic which often considered a top of many a people professional’s to-do list… but Kirsty raised an interesting question: just what is HR strategy?

Kirsty made the point that whilst business leaders may consider HR strategy as a critical component of organisational success, its true definition and implementation can vary widely. She emphasised that an effective HR strategy isn’t just about aligning with business objectives & goals – it’s about creating a meaningful framework that supports employee growth, fosters engagement, and drives long-term value for both the workforce and the organisation.

Her talk certainly got people talking, and it wasn’t the only engaging discussion she took part in during the day…

We Love Your Voice Panel Discussion

One of the more engaging sessions from the day was a new feature for our User Group Meeting, the We Love Your Voice panel discussion.

Featuring Kirsty and three of our clients, the talk covered a wide variety of topics: including the challenges of the past twelve months and the rise of artificial intelligence in the world of work. In fact, the subject of AI become quite the talking point: with our panellists all having different views on whether it could be a help or hindrance to HR & payroll professionals.

Ultimately, all our panellists agreed that when it comes to streamlining and refining HR processes, artificial intelligence could potentially be a game changer – especially when it comes to completing time-consuming administerial tasks (like creating contracts, for example). And, whilst AI does have the potential to make HR’s life much easier, it can never replace the human element of human resources because, after all, it’s a people-focused industry, and one that often requires a nuanced touch!

The Cezanne Client Awards

Another exciting highlight of our User Group Meeting were the debut of the Cezanne Awards, which were held throughout the day.

These awards are designed to celebrate the innovative ways our customers are using Cezanne to drive success in their organisations. From creative implementations to outstanding results, the awards showcased the incredible achievements of our user community over the course of 2024. So, without further ado, here were the winners:

• Most active Kudos users – IPRS Group
• Case Study of the Year – Fonua
• Payroll Success Story – Surface Technology International
• Best Dashboard Design – Cyberfort Group
• OnBoarding Experience – Inenco
• Quickest Implementation – NOCN Group
• Community Advocate – ENSEK

Customer feedback session, AI and our 2025 product roadmap in detail

Another popular presentation from the day was the interactive Customer Feedback and Ideas session. This was the opportunity for clients to engage directly with our product developers, and vote on potential new features and enhancements to the Cezanne platform. In addition, there was also a sneak peak at new UX features that’ll be coming to the Cezanne platform over the next 12 months.

Following the customer feedback session, Cezanne’s product team shared their vision for the future of the Cezanne platform – and one of the more intriguing items was the introduction of AI functionality.

The use of Artificial Intelligence has now become commonplace in the world of work, and we’re often asked by clients whether it’s something the Cezanne platform will come to utilise. So, this part of the day looked at some of the AI functionality we’re developing for the Cezanne platform, and how it’ll support HR professionals in their day-to-day activities. We’ll be sharing more details to the wider public over the coming months: so, keep your eyes peeled on our social channels!

The day was concluded with closer look at some of the system enhancements coming to the Cezanne platform in 2025, along with details on how we’ll be improving the customer experience – from initial sales consultations all the way through to continued support.

Drinks reception and fun

Of course, it wouldn’t be an annual user group meeting without some drinks and fun! Once all the presentations and talks had finished, there was a drinks reception for everyone – and we’ll be honest, the team from Cezanne certainly enjoyed themselves! Cezanne Connect will be back in 2025, and despite it being a year away, there are plans afoot to make it bigger, better and even more enjoyable than ever before. See you next year!