This case study covers how more effective risk management accelerated the delivery of complex IT capabilities & infrastructure to help deliver more effective customer service with lower costs.
A major IT infrastructure project had to be delivered ‘drop dead’ delivery rate to enable critical business initiative to be launched on time. The European Telecoms and network infrastructure was one integrated ‘cloud’, in principle this should have led to reduced operating costs and the ability to introduce new products and services faster.
Paradoxically, costs were higher as there were limited bidders able to provide services for the complete integrated European network and the complexity of operating across multiple countries made upgrades and new business developments inherently difficult to manage and deliver.
Project complexity increased due to adoption of innovative new technology infrastructure and need to coordinate seven international teams. The new business service offerings were dependent on delivering new capabilities and processes exploiting an advanced technology platform. To make this work for even one country required co-ordination of 7 international teams each with their own local priorities and business demands to support.
We supplied both an interim Project Manager and specialist resources to build capability in terms of risk assessment, IT planning and implementation disciplines and business subject matter experts. An integrated international programme put in place to manage and coordinate seven teams based across Europe and US. More structured approaches were introduced for project planning and execution, risk management, implementation and Go/No Go decision making.
The final result was that the new Technology infrastructure was implemented on time without disrupting business-as-usual operations. The Marketing department was able to launch their new products & services on time without having to worry about the Technology infrastructure.
And the bottom line impact? Improved network & telephony purchasing terms and higher back office productivity paid for the €12 million investment within 18 months.