Case Studies - Information Management

Major Oil and Gas Company – Programme Management

Resources Global Professionals was engaged by a large oil and gas multinational to provide Programme Management support as a result of their enterprise wide adoption of Oracle Financials, replacing their existing financial and operational support systems. This was supplemented by an implementation project management team to coordinate and support the local refinery sites across Europe with business preparation, change and adoption activities.

The approach taken for this initiative has been broken into multiple phases, in an effort to minimise the risk change fatigue within the business. Phase one focused on the standardisation of the Finance processes, data structures, Chart of Accounts (using the full functionality available within the latest version of Oracle Financials) while initially interfacing to the considerable number of diverse sub-ledgers and operational systems. Phase two focused on the standardisation of the enterprise processes, data and systems based on the core of Oracle. We have provided consultants (defined as both technical and functional in nature) in leadership and Programme Management roles to support the first phase of this enterprise wide adoption process.

As this programme continues to progress we are currently providing local site implementation teams to work between the local businesses and the site implementation managers. As Phase one has continued we have added several Implementation Managers across all European locations to provide project management support and co-ordinate support, preparation and change management activities across all sites. In addition to providing the PMO function and cross country implementation managers we are now starting to deploy local site implementation teams to work with the local business units and the implementation managers. The main focus is to perform all the local site implementation activities including data mapping, data preparation, user acceptance testing, training and cutover.

As is typically the case in large system implementations, we encountered challenges such as end-user buy-in. Our cross business implementation managers addressed this by focusing on internal communication and planning which have helped to engage and align the local business teams. One key take away for this engagement has been to manage the programme in such a way that quick wins can be achieved thereby motivating the business and creating an environment of acceptance for change.

Major Travel Industry Operator: Programme and Change Management

Resources Global Professionals was engaged by a well known major travel industry operator following an acquisition. The acquisition was then followed by significant organisation, strategic and operational reorganisation and change with a view to align and optimise the businesses financial and operational organisation and processes, reduce cost and increase revenue streams through improved product cross sell synergies, and improved operations and technology.

Our consultants were responsible for managing the Project Management Office (PMO) transition and integration and the co-ordination of project risk assessment, prioritisation, governance and integration across the group. They divided their time between Programme Management (including communications and change management) and Operational Business Programme Management. In addition, they managed the transition and post merger business integration activities and supported the alignment of new business frameworks and structure. They were responsible for up to 400 projects in the newly acquired and existing business.

One of the challenges we encountered was a lack of project coordination and governance across the business. We overcame this by placing consultants on the project which had strong, proven project management abilities to provide structure and guidance.

As a result of the success of this project, business benefits have so far included improved project governance and alignment to strategic business objectives, significant improvements in process operational efficiency, improved transparency and management support information, as well as a successful IPO placement.

We continue to actively support this client on several projects to standardise, optimise and rationalise processes and systems.

Global Oil and Gas Company: Information and Change Management

Resources Global Professionals was engaged by one of the world’s largest energy companies as a result of challenges they were experiencing in rolling out global, standardised process and system templates (based on SAP) into their global marketing organisation whilst making considerable changes to the process.

Though the client had engaged two large consulting firms to help with this rollout, they were experiencing two key challenges. Firstly, the end users were either using another ERP system or in the most cases, were not using any system at all and had little or experience using SAP. Secondly, the programme experienced strong resistance to change from the local businesses.

Our consultants were engaged to help address these challenges and provide change management and local business support for the global implementation of SAP. More specifically, we were asked to focus on business awareness, preparation and localisation activities to bridge the gap between the global IT project and the needs and preparation of the local businesses.

Our business preparation activities included; providing regional co-ordination of user and business readiness and preparation activities relating to the implementation, managing a communication and awareness programme to sell the business benefits, conducting a change programme to evaluate and minimise the impact of change relating to process and role changes, assisting with the coordination of business/user activities (i.e. testing and training, support and coaching) and supporting the business through go-live while implementing an embedding programme to create a sustainable business support framework.

We then performed a bottom up review of their management information organisation/process and systems across all downstream businesses and the controllership functions.

Though this project is still live, as a result of our successful intervention and collaboration with the clients’ corporate/local business teams and with the two consulting teams, it has realised a significant change (improvement) in user awareness, acceptance and adoption of the new operations model, processes and systems and assurance that each local country will adopt the global template.

Multinational Insurance Provider: Programme Management

Resources Global Professionals was engaged by one of the world’s largest insurers to provide Project Management Office (PMO) assistance as a result of their acquisition of a network of internal businesses from several global organisations. These international operations had significantly differing processes and systems and as a result, the business opted to initiate a Global Finance Framework (FFI) Programme to standardise operations around a common process and systems model and to provide an efficient platform for significant international expansion.

The Programme is highly collaborative, and there are several client business units involved with major roles in these 14+ projects such as Finance Operations, Corporate IT Systems, International IT Systems, International Finance, International Treasury, and Technology vendors. This is also a high profile program within Metlife with the support and interest of its Board of Directors and executive management team.

Our consultants were engaged to facilitate successful implementations across all territories through co-ordinating the activities of the corporate IT, local business and third party suppliers. Our global PMO team helped to define the programme to ensure appropriate life cycle management of 14+ financial system projects (and associated process change) implemented over a period of 4-years to 18 Client global businesses within 14 countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

We provided a team of 16 consultants, including two global PMO leads and 14 international regional and country project leads, in addition to client executive sponsors. They were structured into a multi tier management and support structure providing regional PMO support, governance around the functional template and localisation as well as co-ordinating all regional implementation and preparation activities.

In addition we augmented the local teams and support in addition to performing many of the local implementation activities (design configuration, data definition and preparation, testing, training, cutover co-ordination and post implementation support).

Our consultants encountered (and continue to work through) three key challenges including: defining the global template vs. the localisation functionality and rollout plans, changing regulatory landscape in some regions and countries (e.g. China and the co-ordination and strategic alignment) and co-ordination across and between all the stakeholders from corporate and local management and third party provider perspective.

Key learning is the overriding importance of effective communication, alignment of roles and responsibilities, preparation and strong programme governance.

Big Four Accounting and Services Firm: Systems Implementation

Resources Global Professionals was engaged by a big 4 firm to provide project & programme management and team member assistance for their global PeopleSoft, Business Objects, Hyperion and Corvu implementations. A hands-on approach was taken to build project teams inclusive of internal employees and our consultants. We acted as subject matter experts in the areas of project delivery, change management, issue resolution and knowledge transfer while the client provided a base of in-house knowledge and long term ownership of the initiative.

Our programme management consultants were responsible for project scoping and design, developing communication plans, reporting and monitoring progress with other global teams and the logistical aspect of managing the project.

Our project management consultants focused on the areas of team recruitment, defining the roles and responsibilities for each team, and developing work stream project and communication plans.

The business analysts and systems specialists engaged on this project acted as subject matter experts and were responsible for process design, localisation configuration in partnership with the global team as it relates to the systems being implemented.

Our consultants have been involved with the successful delivery of a UK global finance solution and UK reporting services. A balanced scorecard was chosen for the UK business, approved globally and has since been successfully implemented.

We encountered and overcame challenges such as managing delivery across multiple geographies (and languages and time zones), continuing the momentum to maintain consistency with the global phased project time table and creating mitigation and workaround scenarios which still allowed us a successful delivery. Lessons we learned as a result include ensuring that the right resources are allocated in each to-be impacted geography, the importance of developing strong communication channels (which help to anticipate issues before they become problems) and ensuring that there is a balance between internal employees and external consultants to maximise the team’s strengths.