The following are an indication of the sorts of situations where we can provide support:

Performance Improvement

Every now and again, it's useful to take stock and look at whether the business is working as effectively and efficiently as it could. This may be done proactively to ensure things don't start to slide or there may be a specific driver such as changes in your market, or internal issues where things just don't seem to be working as smoothly as they once did. Particularly where growth has been fast and / or organic, there can come a point where processes, systems and ways of working seem to hinder rather than support the delivery of services and products.

We can analyse your business to understand the underlying issues and not just the symptoms of under or poor performance, as well as areas that are already working well. We can outline the changes that could be made to improve performance overall or in specific key areas, provide an implementation plan and manage the implementation process with you, as required.

The changes to support performance improvement may relate to, for example: business processes; systems enhancements or replacements; greater clarity and distinction in roles and responsibilities within the organisation; culture change.

Outsourcing / Insourcing

Regardless of the scale of the activity or whether an outsourced contract would cost tens of thousands, or millions of pounds, the selection of a service provider, business partner or a decision to retain / bring services in-house cannot be undertaken lightly.

The starting point to making the right decision is ensuring the required services, standards, service levels, expertise and capabilities are properly defined. Identifying the right providers to approach, followed by thorough financial, operational and strategic analysis as well as effective evaluation of all the options will ensure that a decision can be made with sound knowledge of all the benefits and risks involved.

We can support with any aspect of an outsourcing / insourcing project or we can manage the full process for you, from business requirements gathering, to tender and contract documentation, managing the tender process, supplier negotiations and business change management once a decision is made.

New IT Systems Introduction

Business systems should facilitate and support the business activity or services for which they are used. Usually, they should be expected to make the job easier for users, more efficient for the business and provide better information to support performance analysis, trends and business decisions.

Sometimes the business users' needs and the business benefits can be overlooked in the development of a great technical solution.

We can undertake business analysis to ensure the business and functional requirements are properly captured and communicated appropriately to the development and technical teams; the anticipated benefits of the new systems are identified; any business changes needed to support the implementation of the solution are known and planned for from the outset.

We can work with you just during the requirements phase, or we can support you through the implementation to ensure the necessary business changes take effect and the benefits are realised.

Mergers and Acquisition

Any decision to acquire or merge with another organisation is a significant step for any business, whether it is the first time or one of many. A significant amount of time and effort will have been invested to determine that merger or acquisition is the right choice. The process for identifying the right organisation is a big investment, before any deal is done. It is important to make sure the return on that investment is maximised through the appropriate selection of organisation for acquisition or merger as well as effective implementation post acquisition or merger, to realise the anticipated benefits.

We can support at any or all stages of the process: prior to decision being made, once a decision has been made, and / or after the deal has been completed.

To support with decision making we can undertake operational analysis of target organisation(s), to help identify performance, process, skills and cultural synergies and / or differences that will be of value to your organisation, as well as potential risks.

Once the decision has been made, we can create effective change plans for post acquisition / merger activity. Change plans might consider areas for standardisation and integration as well as areas to specifically retain as distinct entities or with their own defined processes and service standards. Almost always there will be a requirement for cultural change to some extent in one or both organisations and identifying the requirements and how to manage this effectively as part of the overall change programme will be a key factor in realising the value of the acquisition / merger.

Post acquisition / merger, we can implement any required changes as well as the maintenance of separate approaches where applicable, to ensure that the expected value and benefits that were the basis of the original decision, aren't accidentally eroded or lost.

Please contact us for a no obligation discussion about your requirements and our services.