Case Study
Customer
Large Financial Services Company
Customer's main objective
- To assess the effectiveness of project design and implementation
- The company was moving many functions previously performed locally into 'back office' centres that would handle standard processes for many branches
- There was a need for reassurance and confirmation that all aspects of design and implementation had been considered and that the rollout of the centres included continual learning from each of them
Approach
- We developed a combined assessment and site visit approach, using a mix of people directly involved in the centre's design and trained in using the Excellence Model as well as ourselves
- Initially, we assessed the designs and plans for the new centres against the criteria of the Excellence Model to identify obvious gaps. The assessment was carried out with a 'look to the future' view of likely strengths and areas for improvement some months after a centre had opened
- Once a centre had opened a team undertook a visit to assess how accurate that 'future view' was in reality
- Learnings were captured across all aspects of the centre using the Excellence Model as a very comprehensive prompt, and findings were reported back to the project design teams for incorporating into new centre plans
Outcomes/benefits
- A number of important 'gaps' were identified fairly early on in the assessment phase, including some of the 'softer' issues which were able to be addressed sooner than might have been the case otherwise
- There was a marked upskilling of those individuals who were trained to assess and site visit their own and other centres' designs
- A sense of sharing emerged across all the centres so that when one type of centre had a problem they could easily contact another to help resolve it
- The foundations of a continuous improvement culture were laid
- The 'excellence' of the new centres was assessed against world class performance
Summary of our role
- Designing and developing the innovative assessment process
- Training teams of people to undertake assessments and site visits
- Facilitating consensus and then the production of Findings Reports for action by project teams
- Structuring an innovative approach for sharing good practices
