Case Studies

The Client

The client is a large financial house specialising in offshore cross jurisdictional financial administration services.

Industry

Finance

Engagement

Process Strategy, Business Process Management

The Problem

The client had built a proprietary Enterprise Resource Planning application that had conferred significant strategic advantages. However, the absence of process thinking meant that the client could not leverage its investment in terms of business agility or functional coverage without continuously increasing levels of investment

What We Did

Worked with directors to: Introduce process management, sell the benefits and risks, build momentum for change, develop a deployment approach, coach identified champions, refine the enterprise systems architecture, redesign the development and project management capability and pilot the initial lifecycle of the first enterprise process. Provided coaching and consulting support to apply architecture and process lifecycle management techniques for other enterprise processes and sectors in the business.

The Benefits

The client can now separate process management from application management. For parts of its business it can now reconfigure processes for individual clients without impacting applications. It can also reconfigure resources around processes and events.

The Tools

Business Process Management Framework; Process Architecture and Strategy; Application Development and Integration Framework

The Client

The client is a vehicle leasing company now part of a much larger group which is a leader in the transportation services industry

Industry

Transportation

Engagement

Business Strategy, IT Strategy Alignment

The Problem

The client was registering slow growth in a consolidating market and looking to e-business as a possible route to quick growth. It needed to understand how to identify potential markets, formulate a web presence and strategy and leverage its existing IT infrastructure.

What We Did

Worked with the Directors, Business and IT leads to: Introduce strategic planning concepts, define the current business idea, identify scenarios and alternative business ideas, organisation structure, change impacts and consequent IT strategies and define architecture and process of integrating IT with E-business

The Benefits

The client became one of the first to establish a web presence and offer new services in the B2B and B2C sectors. It was able to cut costs and improve throughput by shifting some of its business to the web

The Tools

Idea generation, market strategy, business planning; Web Architecture, Security, Rollout; Process Mapping, Application Integration

The Client

The client is the dominant player in the local education authority and further and higher education sector

Industry

Education

Engagement

Business Strategy, IT Strategy Alignment

The Problem

The Client had grown through a series of acquisitions and has achieved dominant market share. But the incoherent product suite and market strategy meant that product planning was difficult and the quality and rate of product launches and enhancements was suffering

What We Did

Worked with the director and product managers to: Develop a strategic product planning process leading to a product roadmap, Define initiatives to develop a common architecture, development process and organisation, and Identify resources and coach them to fulfil the required capability

The Benefits

The client now operates a mature software product management process across a very wide range of products and a diverse client base; The client has been able to acquire and integrate some of its competitors

The Tools

Product Management Lifecycle; Software Development Lifecycle

The Client

The client is the global leader in the intellectual property administrative services market. It specialises in providing renewal services for a portfolio of intellectual property across all jurisdictions while managing currency and local formalities

Industry

Intellectual Property

Engagement

Organisation Structure, SDLC Mgmt, Product Quality, Business Planning, Marketing

The Problem

The client had been losing market share over a period of time. In response it had decided to develop a product to help its customers manage their IP portfolio lifecycle and seamlessly integrate the renewal process with that of the client. The project was in severe distress in terms of schedule, cost, quality and outcomes.

What We Did

Worked with directors, product managers and IT to: Identify key problem areas, define the software organization, Address business analysis, requirements management, architecture, technology, stability and performance issues for their key product, and Implement processes for product management, development and quality and introduce business planning and marketing processes.

The Benefits

The client is now at a higher order of maturity in terms of understanding software development and product lifecycle management. It has already gone to market with the product with significantly superior capability and structures to support it in the marketplace

The Tools

Capability Maturity Model, Software Development Lifecycle Management Process, Product Management Framework Product Architecture, Product Positioning, Product and Process Governance

The Client

The client is a large financial house specialising in offshore trusts and employee benefit schemes.

Industry

Finance

Engagement

IT Rationalisation, Development Capability, Service Definition, Product Configuration, Offshore Transition

The Problem

The client was an early entrant into the employee benefit schemes administration market. IT had grown very rapidly in an unstructured way. As a consequence its ability to take on new business was declining and the cost of doing business was spiraling

What We Did

Worked with directors to: Rationalize IT structure, and create a development capability, Define an approach to create a marketable service around a configurable product, Access and configure an off-shore capability for software development, and Design an IT organisation to manage an offshore development capability.

The Benefits

The client business is now based around a single application that can be configured as a unique service for individual customers. This has enabled it to take on new business at a rate which is an order of magnitude greater than the earlier situation. By off-shoring its software development, it has increased its scale of resourcing, while reducing cost and significantly cutting time to market for new features as well as resolution of quality issues.

The Tools

Capability Maturity Model, Software Development Lifecycle Management Process, Product Management Framework Product Architecture, Product Positioning, Product and SDLC Process Governance

The Client

The client is an offshore IT services provider whose goal was to transform the business from consulting sales to long term relationships and revenue streams

Industry

IT Services

Engagement

Marketing Strategy, Proposition Building, Enterprise Architecture

The Problem

The client had grown its business through short term contracting of resources. Consequently its selling costs were spiraling, revenue was unpredictable which meant that it could not take advantage of opportunities to develop its brand, scale and capabilities

What We Did

Worked with the Directors and Sales team to develop account management strategies and market propositions and campaigns, define the processes and structures to support business goals and coach individuals in fulfilling capabilities.

The Benefits

The client now has a coherent offering to take to market, which goes beyond the immediate engagement towards a value adding capability which can be configured as an extension of its customers’ own IT capability. The client also has a market strategy, an account management organisation, strategic selling capability. It has added significantly to its long term customer list.

The Tools

Service Strategy Framework

The Client

The client is a major player in the local and central government outsourced services market.

Industry

Services Outsourcing

Engagement

IT Rationalisation, CRM Preparedness, CRM strategy

The Problem

The client had grown very rapidly through a number of distinct projects. Consequently there was very little unification in terms of the customer view, brand and image, customer experience and integrated response. The client was also beginning to miss out on cross and up-selling opportunities.

What We Did

Worked with the Director and IT support teams to define a strategy to rationalize its many internal help desk offerings, determine the focus for the CRM initiative within the organisation and the expected benefits, and assess its preparedness to embrace CRM.

The Benefits

As a result of the exercise, the client realized that the business did not fit well into a single unified CRM model. The strategy was then to organize along key business lines with individual CRM initiatives in each, but unify the branding and customer experience. The exercise also led to the insight that implementing CRM was a service that would be valuable to its customers and a major benefit of the exercise was the initiative to set up a CRM competency centre.

The Tools

Business Analysis, Market Segmentation, Services Analysis; Benefits assessment workshops; Applications and Information Analysis

The Client

The client is a market leader in the personal loans market.

Industry

Finance

Engagement

IT Strategy, Strategy Rollout

The Problem

The client had completed the acquisition of a competitor, but difficult market conditions meant significant reduction in investment into IT. Consequently the ongoing development programmes needed to be reviewed against an integrated IT strategy which needed to demonstrate sustainable reductions in cost.

What We Did

Worked with the IT Director to develop an integrated IT strategy in terms of defining a shared platform, sequencing, scheduling projects in existing programmes, tool acquisition, development resourcing and integration and roll-out of functionality.

The Benefits

The client could manage a portfolio of project against strategic outcomes for the 2 year planning horizon. The client could demonstrate significant cost savings through rationalization of the applications portfolio and business advantage through integration of customer information. The client also gained access to as well as the capability to manage off-shore resources to sustain cost advantage beyond the planning horizon

The Tools

IT Strategy Development, Programme management framework; Applications Rationalisation Framework; Off-shore Transition Framework

The Client

The client is a large financial house specialising in offshore trusts and employee benefit schemes.

Industry

Finance

Engagement

Project Office, Project Governance, Programme Management

The Problem

The client had achieved significant growth in the marketplace. However this growth was the result of numerous fragmented projects, each of which made demands on limited development resources. Consequently both schedule and quality were unpredictable and business was being affected

What We Did

Worked with Director and Programme Managers to create a shared development facility, set up development processes and standards, develop a uniform way of defining priority and allocating resources and standardise the way business engaged with the development process.

The Benefits

As a result the client was able to streamline its project portfolio, make software quality and delivery much more predictable and set market expectations appropriately. An additional benefit was that the client could promote the reuse of significant proportion of the software which in turn reduced costs, turn-around time which brought several delayed and out-of-control projects to a successful conclusion. The client even gained competitive advantage by offering to implement quicker than its competition

The Tools

Capability Maturity Model; Software Development; Lifecycle Management; Process, Product Management Framework

The Client

The client is the statutory body for law in England and Wales

Industry

Legal

Engagement

Web Strategy, CRM Strategy, Knowledge Management, Technical Architecture

The Problem

The client needed to modernise and manage its web site, provide knowledge management and CRM capability and integrate the workings of its members and staff.

What We Did

Provided consulting support to architect and deliver the web and Intranet requirements, define strategy and proposals for CRM and knowledge management and define technical architecture and implementation plan.

The Benefits

The client was able to:

The Tools

Content Analysis, Tool evaluation framework, Web deployment framework

The Client

The client is a credit card infrastructure provider and is universally known in the financial sector

Industry

Finance

Engagement

IT Strategy Alignment, Project Impact Framework, IT Value Assessment

The Problem

The IT function were losing support of the management board as there was the perception that IT was a constant drain on resources with no tangible outputs. The situation was made worse because of the many current and legacy IT initiatives which did not seem to fit the organisation strategy.

What We Did

Worked with the IT director and team to define the IT project portfolio and a process for ensuring alignment of IT strategy with the business strategy and define a framework for demonstrating the impact of the IT project portfolio on the business strategy and identifying external constraints to the IT projects.

The Benefits

The frameworks were used streamline the IT project portfolio and align it to the business strategy. This helped IT articulate to the management on an ongoing basis, the reasoning behind the project portfolio, the external constraints that needed management support, and the impact of strategy changes on the project portfolio. This was used to formally justify IT value and funding for IT initiatives.

The Tools

Portfolio analysis; Programme management framework; IT Value assessment framework

The Client

The client is well known retail brand in the UK

Industry

Retail

Engagement

Off-shoring Concept, Off-shoring Pilot, Offshoring Strategy

The Problem

The client was finding it difficult to resource its backlog of projects within the context of a reducing budget trend. The client was inclined to explore the offshore IT outsourcing option but was not confident about doing so in the context of its project practices.

What We Did

Helped define a pilot project that included key risk factors of concern to the client. Guided the elaboration of the project to the stage where it could be safely managed through an outsourced operation. Defined the interfaces with an outsourced operation and the scope and parameters of operation. Guided the selection of an outsourced services provider and the development of an internal management capability.

The Benefits

The client was able to refine its project definition and elaboration practices to be able to engage and manage outsourced services, even with projects perceived to carry relatively high risk; Consequently the client was able to engage with relatively cost effective outsourced service providers to mange its backlog of projects

The Tools

Off-shore outsourcing framework; Capability Maturity model; Project Lifecycle models

The Client

The client handles the prosecution component of the criminal justice system

Industry

Legal

Engagement

Bid Integration, Solution Architecture, Bid Process Management

The Problem

The client required the deployment of a case management system and an outsourced IT service for 10 years extensible by another 5 years supporting 6000-7500 users over 160-250 sites.

What We Did

Led the bid (£175m) on behalf of consortium partner from a position of 1 in 22 bidders to being invited to the BAFO stage (1 in 3). Work covered overall solution design including the partnership and governance model, organisation design, application architecture, infrastructure architecture, change management, deployment strategy, and service delivery model.

The Benefits

As a result of the detailed modeling, the consortium realized at the BAFO stage that the service could not be safely delivered within the parameters required by the client at the price point expected by the client. Consequently it was able to justify to the client its withdrawal from the bid at the BAFO stage. This proved to be the right course of action since the project was eventually declared a failure by the client and the consortium was awarded the contract for its rescue.

The Tools

Client workshops; Solution Architecture frameworks, Process Architecture frameworks; Financial Modelling

The Client

The client is the statutory body for law in England and Wales

Industry

Legal

Engagement

Bid Support, Solution Architecture, Project Design, Deployment Strategy, Service Delivery ModelBid Support, Solution Architecture, Project Design, Deployment Strategy, Service Delivery Model

The Problem

The client needed to set up and manage an infrastructure which could support the lifecycle management of statutes and interpretations and their secured availability over the web . The infrastructure also needed to support issue management with regard to content provision.

What We Did

Provided consulting support to consortium partner for a bid (circa £65m).

The Benefits

The consortium won the bid and is now the preferred partner to the client for systems integration and outsourced service provision needs

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks; Process Management Frameworks; Service Provision Frameworks

The Client

Offshore software development and application management services provider, and software product vendor

Industry

IT Services

Engagement

Pre-sale consulting, Strategic Consulting, Sales Process Oversight

The Problem

The client was one of the early entrants in the software off-shoring market in the UK and had grown rapidly. However the business model was not sustainable in the longer term and the client needed to move up the value chain to becoming a solutions provider.

What We Did

Developed new positioning and service offering. Developed sales and marketing capability to support the positioning. Developed and implemented the delivery process to support the capability. Provided consulting support and sales process supervision for every strategic opportunity until the capability matured sufficiently.

The Benefits

The client is now a global solutions provider operating in the US and Far Eastern markets as well as UK and Europe. It offers a complete range of software capability solutions and services to its clients; The capability has been leveraged to deliver products into vertical markets

The Tools

Strategic Selling; Market Positioning

The Client

The client is a global brand in the transport/cargo/logistics market.

Industry

Logistics

Engagement

Strategy Validation, Resource Analysis, Project Organisation

The Problem

The client needed to replace the existing legacy depot application with a modern, integrated and resilient and accessible web/intranet system. However the project to carry out the replacement was seen not to be delivering to expectations

What We Did

Provided consulting support to validate strategy and technology, validate architecture fit to strategy and technology, validate development process and resource needs and project management organisation.

The Benefits

The exercise led to the identification of some key issues with the architecture and the development process and project organisation. On the basis of the recommendations made the strategy was modified and the architecture amended to reflect the strategy. The changes to the project management organisation meant that the replacement was implemented with minimal overrun as compared to projections

The Tools

Project Analysis; Architecture Frameworks

The Client

The client is a market leader in the energy brokering and consulting sector.

Industry

Energy

Engagement

Pre-sale consulting, Application Design, Service Design

The Problem

The client had outgrown its original largely manual back-end process for bid management. The volume and rate of bids required a fast, auditable straight through back-end process that could be specified by SLA’s

What We Did

Provided strategic consulting support to define and develop a web based infrastructure which can provide dynamic bid management facility for its clients both energy suppliers and customers. Management process to define, monitor and control service levels.

The Benefits

This application was expected to fuel dramatic growth and expansion into the European and US markets.

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks; Process Management Frameworks; Service Provision Frameworks

The Client

The client is an offshore IT services provider

Industry

IT Services

Engagement

Pre-sale consulting, Marketing Strategy, Strategy Rollout Planning, Solution Design, Proposition Design

The Problem

The client was attempting to penetrate the financial market with a focus on insurance. The client had an indifferent track record of product selling and the need to leverage its global development and delivery capability.

What We Did

Created framework for market strategy and rollout planning, product lifecycle management and value proposition for specific prospects. Developed solution and market proposition for global records management and insurance channel management offerings. Created resource management framework for the service delivery component.

The Benefits

The client has now established a significant presence in the insurance sector both in UK and in US

The Tools

Strategic Selling

The Client

The client is a large financial house specialising in offshore trusts and employee benefit schemes.

Industry

Finance

Engagement

Architecture and Design, Product Rationalisation, Product Architecture

The Problem

The client’s product management infrastructure had been stretched by explosive growth and the client had attempted to solve the problem by scaling its development resources. Unfortunately this led to a complex and fragile product in the absence of product lifecycle management maturity

What We Did

Provided consulting support to Introduce architectural concepts, rationalise product, define architecture and design principles and define policies, tools and processes.

The Benefits

The client was able to rationalize the product and its resource pool while simultaneously increasing its capacity to handle individual customer requirements and accelerating the time to market for the product

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks; Product Lifecycle Management Frameworks; Systems Development Lifecycle Management Frameworks

The Client

The client is the leader in the intellectual property market.

Industry

Intellectual Property Administration

Engagement

Solution Architecture, Service Design

The Problem

The client needed to replace its current IP lifecycle management software into an on-demand service administered and delivered over the web.

What We Did

Provided the architecture, design and development strategy.

The Benefits

The client was able to sell the web based service as a cost effective on demand alternative to its IP management product.

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks; Product Lifecycle Management Frameworks; Web Systems Development Lifecycle Management Frameworks

The Client

The client is a well-known operator in the mobile telecommunications market

Industry

Telecommunications

Engagement

Architecture and Design, Process Rationalisation

The Problem

The client had adopted a package from a leading vendor as its CRM suite and then customized it very heavily to suit its internal requirements. As a result it became very difficult to maintain and upgrade the application and make it accessible outside the perimeter.

What We Did

Provided consulting support to rationalise the architecture and maintenance process, Web-enable the highly customised and integrated CRM application suite and design processes and software to manage change control.

The Benefits

The client was able to implement change more quickly and safely while simultaneously providing web self-service capability to its clients and integrating the help desk with the web enabled interface

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks Product Lifecycle Management Frameworks Web Systems Development Lifecycle Management Frameworks

The Client

The client is the law enforcement body for England and Wales

Industry

Legal

Engagement

Solution Architecture

The Problem

The client needed to create an outsourced service to manage criminal records based upon an application to automate its complex processes and securely maintain records.

What We Did

Worked as part of a consortium to develop and validate the technical solution architecture.

The Benefits

The client was able to deploy the application which withstood several performance and security audits and became the core of the service offered.

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks

The Client

The client is a major presence in the local education authority and further and higher education sector

Industry

Education

Engagement

Architecture and Design, Product Integration, Product Rationalisation

The Problem

The client needed to integrate a diverse set of acquired software offerings into a single application providing equal or better functionality, performance and customisation capability

What We Did

Provided consulting support.

The Benefits

The solution is characterised by a core engine with script-based wrappers for specific education sectors, which can be customised to suit individual clients.

The Tools

Solution Architecture Frameworks Programme Management Frameworks

The Client

The client is a leading provider of software solutions to the defence aerospace market with a project mindset and growth ambitions in a product market.

Industry

Defence

Engagement

Architecture and Design, Organisation Transformation

The Problem

The client was used to providing project based software development to its clients in the defence industry. To fulfill its growth ambitions, it needed to productise its offerings for sale in both defence and civilian markets

What We Did

Facilitated a workshop to brief Top management on Marketing and Software engineering concepts, underlying product strategies and product architectures. Projects to product transition strategies, Structures and processes that characterise a productised organisation.

The Benefits

As a result the client was able to organise the projects that related to the productising initiative into a programme that delivered the product as well as the organisation to maintain and enhance it.

The Tools

Product Lifecycle Management Frameworks Software Engineering Frameworks Capability Maturity Models

The Client

The client is a leading brand for mobility services

Industry

Transportation

Engagement

Project Assessment, Diagnosis, Rescue and Directing

The Problem

The client had a £12m / 6 month project running £6m over budget and 18 months late with a burn rate of £1m per month with no end in sight

What We Did

Led a review of the project

The Benefits

Almost all of the recommendations were accepted and implemented. The project appropriately de-scoped, restructured and delivered over the next 3 months. The client was able to achieve over 60% of the projected benefits from the original project despite the time and cost over runs

The Tools

Programme management frameworks Project management frameworks

The Client

The client is a leading brand in the writing instruments industry.

Industry

Manufacturing

Engagement

Programme Diagnosis, Definition and Directing

The Problem

The challenge was to implement a BI framework across Europe in a tenth of the budget on the earlier failed initiative and in an eighth of the time.

What We Did

Provided programme direction in terms of: Vision and alignment across the various European projects Programme definition and scope Programme plan, project structures and resource co-ordination Programme governance institutions and processes

The Benefits

The programme was completed well ahead of the scope, budget, time and quality parameters, which was a first for that organisation

The Tools

Programme management frameworks Project management frameworks

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