The 2020 Fastest Growing Firms: A-LIGN

Consulting: What were the main factors that contributed to your firm's exceptional growth?

Price: As we continue to add to our expansive breadth of service offerings, we challenged ourselves to elevate our innovative solutions on our journey to the summit. Created with an emphasis on the end-user and by our customers, A-LIGN launched its proprietary compliance management platform, A-SCEND, earlier this year so that anyone can approach audits anytime, from anywhere. In a time where privacy regulations are becoming more mainstream and the severity of data security incidents continue to grow, security and compliance are critical components of any organization's strategy to demonstrate trust and respect to their stakeholders and mitigate cybersecurity risks.

Consulting: How is this year shaping up for your firm?

Price: A-LIGN, like many other businesses, faced unforeseen challenges this year with COVID-19 and we needed to quickly adapt to the new normal. Many organizations faced budget cuts because of the pandemic, yet compliance remained a priority for them with a need to secure their business and a growing remote workforce. A-LIGN took this as an opportunity to elevate its brand, messaging, thought leadership and the way we interact with our existing and potential clients to help them take a strategic approach to compliance. Through this strategic approach, A-LIGN helps organizations save time and money on their audits, helping them focus on growing their business to its full potential.

Consulting: How would you describe your firm's outlook for 2021? Where do you see the most opportunities?

Price: We witnessed organizations around the world shift to a remote workforce earlier this year, effectively creating a new threat landscape with employees working off personal devices at home and revealing new vulnerabilities in network security. We understand the challenges of compliance, such as evolving threats, increasing regulatory requirements and that the people conducting audits may not have experience with security frameworks, and A-LIGN is prepared for the journey ahead through our continued investment in innovative technology to improve the audit lifecycle. Our proprietary compliance management platform, A-SCEND, is transforming compliance by creating an easy-to-use process so that anyone can prepare for audits anytime, from anywhere.

Consulting: What would you say are your firm's biggest challenges in 2021?

Price: Although A-LIGN had a partially remote workforce before COVID-19, we were forced to transition to a fully remote workforce during the pandemic. One of the biggest challenges was learning how to keep all employees virtually engaged while maintaining our company culture, but we found that consistent companywide communication and encouraging employees to engage on internal-facing technology platforms like Yammer is crucial in creating a unified workforce with the same vision.

Consulting: What does being named a Fastest Growing Firm mean to your firm, employees and clients?

Price: It's an incredible achievement to be recognized as one of Consulting Magazine's fastest-growing firms. A-LIGN is in an ever-changing and evolving industry, and our strategic approach to compliance helps our clients secure and transform their businesses. We value people as much as our results, and we are focused on elevating A-LIGN's brand in the security and compliance industry. This recognition is a visible result of the efforts of our employees and their commitment to providing an unparalleled experience to our clients. Our people, processes and innovative technology platform is why we see a 94 percent client satisfaction rating and a 96 percent client retention rate.