Unleashing IT operational excellence for a pioneering international construction company

Our client is a global construction, design and engineering business that specialises in creating, managing and maintaining buildings that are innovative and sustainable.

Challenge

They had recently undergone a global organisational structure change that necessitated support from common enabling services such as IT that are capable of effectively and efficiently operating across all business departments.

To achieve this, our client launched an IT Services Optimisation programme that aimed to:

• standardise processes, reduce duplication, address gaps and improve flow​,
• provide predictable, quality focused, cost effective, optimised​ and managed IT Services​,
• improve end user satisfaction.

To enable this, Mason Advisory were engaged to develop the business case for, and support the run of, the 24+ month IT Services Optimisation programme.

Solution

To determine programme scope, surveys were issued to key stakeholders to create a priority list of services to transform. Individual Service Charters captured clear problem statements, goals and benefits which resulted in a comprehensive business case that gained unanimous approval for implementation.

The programme was launched with the transition of two core services, Print and Connectivity, back into the central IT function from peripheral teams to enable them to be fully optimised. We conducted deep dives into the current state of each service through collaborative workshops that focused on the ‘request to fulfil’, ‘detect to correct’, ‘costing and charging‘, and ‘enhancements and changes‘ processes to capture all aspects of the service including people/vendors, process, tools/systems, and data/reporting. We performed a gap analysis of the current state against industry best practice, and, ensuring alignment to the client’s strategic objectives, identified the transition target state required to bring processes under the control of the central IT functions in an improved state.

Figure 1 – Service Management assessment areas

The changes required to move from current to future state were identified, defined, costed and prioritised ready for leadership decision. Senior Leaders agreed that the recommendations were ‘sensible, achievable, and brought value to the business‘. With this senior leadership backing, we supported the effective transition from current state to the agreed target state, placing organisation change management at the core to ensure buy-in from all parties and a smooth service operation.

We also developed a clear roadmap of activity to reach the optimised target-state, underpinned by a more detailed Improvement Register describing each activity’s current state, target state, actions required, stakeholders, dependencies, impact, benefits and measures, leaving each activity in a state of readiness for detailed planning and implementation.

Outcome

Through our robust approach and emphasis on client coaching and collaboration, we fully prepared our client for the ongoing management and implementation of the Improvement Roadmap, whilst ensuring they were accomplished in re-using the applied methodologies for continual service improvement.

The IT Service Optimisation Programme delivered a range of benefits:

• Providing a ‘fit for purpose’ quality service experience for business users.
• Ensuring predictability in the delivery of services by managing the end-to-end journey, eliminating duplicate and non-value adding tasks, automating where appropriate and ensuring simplification where possible.
• Driving transparency and financial control through efficiency identification and standardisation.
• Reducing risk by enhancing management of assets, contracts and vendors.
• Fostering a culture amongst client teams of continual service improvement to deliver efficient, managed IT service operations.

Providing a dynamic, valued, and engaging work environment for service delivery teams.

“Working with our client was an exceptional experience. From the outset, they embraced us as part of their own team, creating a collaborative and inclusive environment.

Our pragmatic approach inspired our client to engage in blue sky thinking and adopt industry best practices. This collaboration led to streamlined operations and improved efficiency across their teams. The clarity of roles and purpose among the client teams has been significantly enhanced, resulting in a noticeable boost in morale and engagement.

The tangible impacts of our work together are already evident, and we are confident that these improvements will continue to drive positive outcomes for our client in the future.”

Stefanie Smith, Principal Consultant – Mason Advisory

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