Insight in Indian Country – Streamlining Your Digital Platforms

It seems every other day you get an email from a software provider, offering you all the platform bells and whistles that will change your organization for the better—but is another software platform what your enterprise really needs?

This episode, REDW National Tribal Practice Leader Wes Benally discusses how to better target optimal data use in your operations with Lorin Saavedra, Director of Operations in REDW’s Client Advisory and Accounting (CAAS) services group.

REDW LLC is proud to bring you the Insight in Indian Country Podcast, covering important advisory, accounting, and finance topics that impact Tribal Nations and business affairs. Thanks for listening!

Meet Your Hosts:

Wesley Ryan Benally, CPA

Principal and National Tribal Practice Leader

As the leader of REDW’s National Tribal Practice, Wes is committed to improving financial literacy throughout Indian Country. He oversees audits of a wide range for Native American communities, state and local government agencies, and non-profits, nationwide and is a member of the Arizona State Board of Accountancy’s Peer Review Oversight Advisory Committee and serves as an instructor with Arizona State University’s American Indian Policy Institute.

Lorin Saavedra, CVGA

Director of Practice Operations, Client Advisory & Accounting Services (CAAS)

Skilled at strategic planning and creating efficiencies for clients, Lorin has more than 15 years of leadership and accounting experience in banking, hospitality, and manufacturing. She oversees business functions with REDW’s CAAS team, helping clients plan better financial futures and to bridge the gap between the provision of accounting and tax planning services and more extensive financial analysis and consulting.

Compensation Studies—Your Key to Hiring & Retaining Top Talent.

It’s important to attract—and retain—the best employees to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of your tribal organization. And given an exceptionally competitive labor market and the usual budget constraints, this means basing your employee compensation and benefits programs on relevant and reliable data.

Learn more about REDW’s 2023 Tribal Compensation Study.

More from Insights in Indian Country

• Building the NAFOA Orange Book with Corrine Wilson
  This episode, host Wes Benally talks with Corrine Wilson, CPA, former REDW Principal and National Tribal Practice Leader, about how the Orange Book actually got its start.
• Soaring Bird Solutions & the Road to the TL&M Conference with Karla Bylund
  Karla Bylund, founder of Soaring Bird Solutions, joins Wes Benally to share her journey from a one-woman Tribal HR practice to REDW’s broader advisory platform — and what’s ahead at this year’s Tribal Leadership & Management Conference in Las Vegas.
• “No is a complete sentence.” | Breaking the Need to Explain Yourself
  A REDW HR Consulting duo brings their standing-room-only WEWIN National Conference session to the podcast — practical tools for confidence, boundaries, and voice in Indigenous women’s leadership.
• “Tribal Finance Is Much More Than Just Budgeting.” Inside OSU’s Tribal Finance & Accounting Certificate with Lindsey Ray
  What does it take to truly prepare a professional to work in Tribal finance and governance? For Lindsey Ray, Senior Tribal Programs Manager at Oklahoma State University, the answer started with a needs assessment, a gap in the market, and a partnership that grew into something much bigger than anyone expected.
• “We’re all fighting for our people.” Economic Growth, Diversification, and the Future of Indian Country with Chris James
  Chris speaks candidly about the role gaming has played as a transformational economic driver — and why Tribes are increasingly looking beyond it to federal contracting, technology, agriculture, tourism, and citizen entrepreneurship.