We are your trusted partner, helping solve your toughest challenges in new ways, from strategy through execution. Read a sampling of our successful engagements below to learn more about our work and success.
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LIQUIDS DISPATCH AND HAULING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION (TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION)
Challenge
An oil and gas organization was struggling with issues in its dispatch and hauling process. Systems were outdated, many key processes were still manual, and during frequent network failures, orders could not be dispatched to the truckers who empty tanks of oil and water so production can continue. When the organization engaged us, it was mid-way into a three-month pilot project with a third-party vendor to automate hauler scheduling and tracking. We were engaged to manage and help assess the success of the pilot. Time was one of the biggest challenges, with just six weeks to assess business needs and the product’s ability to meet them.
Rapid, objective assessment
Due to a lack of existing program structure and processes for measuring success, we began by implementing the program governance needed to assess the progress of the pilot launch and make recommendations to objectively measure pilot success. Teaming with the organization’s stakeholders to understand the business case, we implemented metrics to measure the extent to which business requirements were met, assess contractual obligations met by the vendor, and revisit the original business case. We also worked closely with our client’s contract hauling companies to ensure that they understood their role in the new solution. Gaining their commitment was critical to meeting the aggressive pilot schedule.
Making a pivotal decision
We facilitated checkpoints with leadership to review metrics as well as the business case. Through these working sessions, the team was able to gain the necessary insight to determine whether to proceed with a full implementation of the software. Ultimately, the team realized that both the software vendor and its product did not provide the customer support and functionality to meet the organization’s requirements, including the dispatch and hauling teams.
Taking a closer look at need
With the help of our leadership, the organization terminated the contract with the software vendor before committing to a two-year contract—saving $1.6 million in licensing fees alone. Based on our analysis and recommendations, our client is conducting a more detailed internal review of its end-to-end dispatch and hauling process to identify specific focus areas for improvement—a simpler, more effective approach than adjusting the entire process. Our client now has the foundation in place to take that closer look.
HUMAN RESOURCES PEOPLE, TOOLS, AND PROCESS INTEGRATION (MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS)
Challenge
A world wide leader in the hospitality industry purchased 4 mountain resorts and established the goal of integrating them into their company by year end, coinciding with their primary business season. Employee bandwidth was severely limited to complete the complex integration effort, so we were engaged to plan, manage, and execute the activities required to onboard employees, transfer critical data into customer core technology, translate customized benefits packages, and develop support and change management actions.
Accelerated mobilization and planning
Despite many years of integration experience, the client did not have well documented and centralized acquisition integration processes, resourcing estimates, quality activities. and overall program management functions. We quickly mobilized and setup a program structure to staff critical roles, assess and report progress to leadership, track budgets, and establish "clean room" procedures to share relevant information within team members to quickly build out an execution plan that met the acquisition closing date. We also mapped out a plan to build an integration "playbook", which would help with future similar efforts.
Executing a complex plan
We managed day-to-day work activities in HR to perform discovery activities, identified resource and budget needs, translated discovery outputs into actionable steps to implement, prepared for Day 1 and opening day, and responded to employee questions/issues. Once the deal closed, we executed Day 1 go live plans to convert 800+ employees to company employees, provided resort day to day support as they transitioned to company processes and tools, developed and managed HR specific program OpEx and CapEx budgets, and supported onboarding of seasonal staff (5,000+) leading up to the resort's opening day.
Meeting a rigid timeline with satisfied customers (the employees)
The resort integration was one of the most successful efforts to date for the company. All employees were onboarded on time to prepare for critical opening day activities, employee data and benefits were mapped and transferred into company core technology and providers, and a robust integration playbook was developed to be leveraged for future domestic acquisitions.
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM UPGRADE (VENDOR MANAGEMENT)
Challenge
Having an up-to-date land Geographical Information System (GIS) application is imperative for oil and gas companies as they identify well locations and manage land leases. However, software application upgrades can be time intensive and require thorough project management and coordination with internal and external staff. With its leadership already focused on the planning of several other concurrent strategic business and IT initiatives in addition to day-to-day business activities, the organization engaged us to help plan and execute the required software upgrade.
Detailed planning for success
We began by bringing together the appropriate stakeholders from the client’s legal, business, and IT teams in order to understand the organization’s requirements and the work effort needed from each group.
With this understanding, we negotiated and established a clear contract and statement of work with the land/GIS software vendor—including pricing and scheduling. We also established a detailed plan that allowed each team to effectively plan for and schedule the required work from its team.
Project leadership makes the difference
Recognizing the integral part that the Land/GIS system plays in the organization’s business processes and the resulting cyclical nature of the GIS software upgrades, we implemented additional standard project leadership strategies. Our goals: to enhance the quality of the upgrade and reduce vendor cost and dependency in future upgrades.
Our project leadership strategies included:
A structured test approach
Testing by business subject experts early in the process
Cross-team planning and coordination
Documentation of the upgrade process and procedures
Our leadership in contracting with the system vendor, together with our cross-team project planning and coordination, enabled our client’s organization to successfully upgrade its Land/GIS software without losing momentum on other strategic business and IT initiatives or impacting day to day operations.
We were also able to minimize post-go-live errors through a structured testing approach. Last, but not least in the eyes of our client, we reduced the cost of, and dependency on, the software vendor for future upgrades.
PROGRAM LEADERSHIP (PRODUCT LAUNCH)
Challenge
Offering customers modern, robust, and secure functionality, high reliability, and easy to learn software to efficiently run their business are critical components for technology companies to be successful and grow. Getting customers to move to new technology offerings, however, is very challenging as customers are reluctant to change that may impact their business operations and user productivity. The expected change must be well planned by a the team with software value/benefits communicated, adequate time included to prepare the customer and their users, detailed training and help materials made available, and a detailed and proven plan in place. With technology teams busy driving future innovations and providing support to customers, we were engaged to lead the planning and execution activities to migrate customers to the new product.
Client senior leadership alignment
Success started with executive senior leadership, who understood the challenges we were facing. They quickly identified a cross functional team that represented all areas of the company, who could contribute with their domain knowledge and drive the program to success. Representation came from all functional areas of the company. Executive sponsors were highly engaged, removing barriers to success as they were identified, consistently recognized team member contributions, and made the necessary resources available for the program duration.
Detailed planning and incremental success
The core team convened in person to map out current setup process, including requirements, dependencies, and current product status. Work had been underway for several pilot customers, so the team emersed themselves in learning from internal staff and customers on what worked and where improvement were needed. Customers were segmented by several categories such as size, products used, and modernization progress and an initial list of customer sites identified to receive the upgrade. Knowing the importance of frequent communications with customers using different channels, the team built out a communication plan that included multiple customer touchpoints via email, messaging, and system notifications. We also leveraged internal customer facing staff to contact their customers and proactively prepare them.
As we executed our plan and started migrating our customers on a regular cadence, we monitored product adoption via tools and adjusted our approach to migrate our customers via additional communication, popups and redirect methods. The support teams were staffed during our efforts to quickly support customer calls and adjustments were also made in our learning documentation. The program completed its goal of moving the majority of its customers to the new product, going from under 200 unique daily users early in the year to over 200,000 at year end.
COMPLEX PROGRAM LEADERSHIP (TECHNOLOGY AND VENDOR SELECTION)
Challenge
An international non-profit has successfully operated around the world for over 70 years, working tirelessly to end poverty and give children and their families the opportunity to succeed in life. The client was operating using outdated, custom technology and processes that were inefficient, costly, and prone to errors. With the organization stuck in the past, we were engaged to work closely with executive leaders to build out a strategy and execution plans to modernize the ministry and enable a higher level of engagement with donors and provide more resources to eliminate poverty.
Aligning the organization
Given the estimated investment level in funding and internal resourcing, leadership alignment across the organization was critical to the initiative's success and support. A major activity was the creation of a detailed project charter, outlining a detailed business case, an overview of the program milestones and activities to achieve program objectives, and key stakeholders and deliverables. After many review interactions, we achieved approval to move forward to begin execution of the plan, starting with selecting a key vendor partner to design and implement holistic technical solutions for the client.
Following proven approach
We leveraged a proven technology and vendor selection methodology leading a customer team to confirm requirements, build out an extensive request for proposal (RFP), identified and vetted vendors who could be the successful partner, piloted improvement ideas to incorporate into the overall solution, and executed a selection process that included initial client program presentations, vendor question and answer sessions, vendor presentations and demos, and final vendor recommendation and contract negotiations. Executive leadership was engaged throughout the process, providing key guidance, encouragement, and support.
Choosing the best partner for customer
Starting with five vendors, the team followed the methodology to objectively evaluate the vendors to come to a recommendation consensus. The chosen vendor was the best choice for the client based on pre agreed upon selection criteria - technical solution, client culture fit, applicable experience of vendor and proposed team members, overall budget, and vendor commitment to the client and program. The program implementation duration was over 3 years and the vendor successfully executed the effort under our management and oversight, replacing the client outdated technical tools and processes with modern cloud based tools, workflows, and digital capabilities.
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