EXCLUSIVE: CELEBRATING OUR SUCCESS
NEWS AT
ISSUE 13
A TRULY GLOBAL BUSINESS
IN THIS ISSUE:
DELIVERING COMPLEX SEPARATION AT THE CO-OPERATIVE GROUP
MEET THE TEAM ANDREW COOPER & TONY DIGIOIA
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR LUXURY RETAILER
NEWS AT
FOReWORD
HAYLEY GREENHILL EDITOR
20 34
n this issue of News at One we delve deeper into some of the fantastic work our team has been leading for our clients and the difference they have made to their organisations. We hear from our clients, our team and take a trip down memory lane with the highlights of our summer celebration and the introduction of the Project One awards. Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this issue, I hope you enjoy the read. If you have any stories you’d like to share in the next issue, then please get in touch.
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contents
04 2017…the highlights so far
32 Recruitment special
06
34 Delivering complex separation at The Co-operative Group
06 Digital Transformation at Harrods
12 Meet the team – Andrew Cooper
36 What our clients say
14 Summer celebration 2017
38 Change Capability Improvement
20 StepChange – Business Transformation for
40 Giving something back
a leading debt charity
24 Welcome to the team
34
38
27 Meet the team – Tony Digioia
28 Xoserve – The largest SAP IS-U implementation in the world this year!
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PROJECT ONE
“This year we have become a truly international organisation, supporting our clients from Canada to India and
TERRY HOLLAND - Managing Director 2017… The highlights so far elcome to this issue of News at One, it’s certainly been a year of achievements so far and one which has seen Project One make significant progress across many fronts. This year, we have become a truly international organisation, supporting our clients on their business-critical change programmes across the world from Canada to India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In fact, we celebrated our consultants working for our clients in more than 34 locations across the UK and 22 countries around the globe. 2017 has also brought some significant challenges to the different sectors our clients operate within. We have seen organisations turn to Project One for leadership of their complex change programmes in areas such as digital transformation, global cost reduction, business model transformation and improving their own internal capability to manage and lead change. W
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
A further common theme throughout this year has been pressure on our clients facing into areas such as digital information, big data and GDPR. We are experiencing high demand for our services in supporting these areas and we anticipate this will continue right through next year. With that in mind, we are looking to formalise a new service line to provide our clients with the expertise they require to meet these challenges and I hope to share further news with you in our next issue.
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I hope you enjoy reading about our successes so far this year. There are some great stories within this issue of the outstanding leadership our teams have provided for our clients, from establishing Harrods as a true omni-channel organisation, open for business across the globe; to enabling the Liberty Global growth agenda through Virgin Media’s transformations to expand its services to customers in the UK, and Telenet’s digitisation transformation agenda in Belgium. Closer to home, we continue to lead some of AstraZeneca’s challenging transformation programmes, which will support their objective of maintaining their global leadership within pharmaceuticals. I hope you enjoy reading more about these assignments and feel as proud as I do, about how Project One is making a real difference.
We have also had tremendous success in welcoming new clients to Project One. We have started working with Amec Foster Wheeler, New Look, PZ Cussons, ReAssure and Urenco. We are excited to be helping these clients with their transformation and change agendas.
Finally, it was fantastic to see so many of the team come together at our summer event in June. I was proud to see the collaboration, energy and enthusiasm coming from the whole team to support Project One in its next chapter of growth. We’re already looking forward to summer 2018, which will be extra special, as we celebrate our 20th anniversary! Hope you enjoy this issue of
News at One. Best regards,
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Client focus
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“It surprised me how quickly Project One got a handle of the challenges and the programme shaped and under control. The governance and structure of the programme were very good.” Neil Borer E-Commerce Director
Harrods operates in the luxury end of the retail market where offering customers the wow factor and a unique experience is key. For over 150 years, Harrods has had a rich heritage of driving service excellence through investment and innovation in the customer experience. Consequently, Harrods customers are extremely loyal. They are also widely spread across the globe and cannot always visit the flagship store in Knightsbridge, London. Therefore, growth via other channels, such as online, is critical. The percentage of international customers shopping online has grown steadily over the last five years. Offering the same experience across all channels, including online, and reaching out to those customers that do not live near the store became paramount to meet customers’ needs and expectations. Expanding the e-commerce business and becoming truly omni- channel was critical to the next stage of the Harrods journey.
Delivering a business transformation: from an IT re-platform to an omni-channel programme
Digital Transformation at Harrods In June 2015, Harrods requested Project One support to help re-enforce the programme to ensure it was a truly omni- channel business transformation. While the transformation programme started in the e-commerce department,
The customers’ needs are moving at pace and the challenge for Harrods was to deliver a new platform that could respond to market dynamics and changes to customer behaviour. With this goal in mind, Harrods embarked on a re-platform programme in October 2014. E-commerce requirements were outlined; Technology applications and IT suppliers were selected.
Harrods looked to Project One to provide additional programme leadership capability to scope, shape, mobilise and execute an integrated transformation in the business and IT.
Harrods recognised that to fully achieve their ambition, a cross- departmental programme of work and staff mobilisation was required.
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Client focus
CHALLENGES
2. An integrated approach An integrated approach, encouraging people to work outside the usual organisational boundaries was required to create a genuinely omni-channel platform that would enable the growth desired. 3.Scope Definition Once the scope was clarified and quantified a phased approach was adopted to provide maximum business benefit as quickly as possible.
1. Not just an IT e-commerce project Delivering an omni-channel solution successfully required many different teams from Customer Loyalty to Distribution to be involved; and their needs and requirements to be catered for. The challenge for the programme leadership was to bring these teams on-board, ensure that the solution was fit for purpose and then deliver it in an environment constrained by the previous technical and supplier decisions.
4. Structure and Governance
The omni-channel nature of the transformation required a new way of operating. Rapidly re- structuring the programme to ensure clarity of responsibility and inter-dependencies between the workstreams was key. To manage these workstreams
and the cross-functional nature of the programme, a number of business and
technical governance forums were introduced. The structure also needed to remain flexible throughout the delivery to ensure it remained optimal.
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What we delivered: 1. Programme Leadership: Project One provided strong leadership that combined commercial and technical understanding to support the business in making the right decisions. 2. Technical plus Business Change: We ensured that the technical delivery was done in conjunction with business change so that the new systems and processes could be efficiently operated to generate business benefits. 3. Communication: We joined up different parts of Harrods that traditionally worked and operated independently. Engaging and timely communication was the glue that held the programme together. 4. Programme Delivery: We drove the delivery of the transformation by setting up and executing a set of integrated workstreams, plans, risks and issues. 5. Structure: We created a structure that covered all aspects of the delivery and ensured accountability for all aspects of the programme. We provided weekly board updates and ensured all members of the team and business areas had weekly updated information on the programme RAG, risks and issues.
“It was impressive how the Project One individuals came on board of our fast-moving train. They plugged in our capability gap with specific skills and got up-to-speed very quickly. They turned up on Monday and started adding value by 10:00am.” Jonathan Manley, IT Director.
6. Governance: We created governance forums for business and technical decisions at Harrods. 7. Vendor Management: We inducted and managed the key vendors developing and testing the key platform systems, constantly challenging them and directing their energies in areas that supported the overall goals. 8. Standards: We upgraded project and programme management standards and established the testing function, introducing best practice processes.
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Client focus
What we have learned 1. The power of leadership The right programme leadership drives the entire programme through its energy, focus, clarity and pace. The rhythm of the programme, the commitment levels, the passion that drove the hundreds of people to come on board, emanated from the attitude displayed by the leadership of the programme. 2. Communication is key To keep hundreds of people working in different locations communications was needed. However, no matter how much communication you plan and deliver – it probably doesn’t feel enough! Multiple techniques / mediums were needed all anchored on the core principles of transparency, honesty and single source of the truth. This required significant energy and determination and more careful and detailed preparation than usual but it paid off massively in terms of engagement. on board, a completely new approach to internal
3. The right structure produces clarity The programme was quickly organised into workstreams, each of them with its well-defined charter outlining key deliverables, responsibilities, milestones and team. This provided each team and team member with the necessary clarity to progress at pace knowing when and how to scale for decisions. The workstreams were supported by a strong governance and meeting structure catering both for the technical and business needs. 4. Flexible delivery Different parts of the programme were delivered in different ways; some agile and some waterfall. Each methodology was flexed just enough to enable the entire programme delivery to come together via an integrated plan.
5. Step change capabilities The scale of the change Harrods needed to deliver required experience and capability that the business would not typically have to hand internally. Recognising the specific gaps and addressing these through supplementing internal capability with additional specialist and experienced support was imperative. “Given the scale and complexity of the project, upgrading and blending legacy, back-end systems with new, digitally orientated applications, Project One played a fundamental and instrumental role in ensuring all the moving parts were managed and aligned for
successful go-live.” Neil Borer, E-Commerce Director.
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Outcome
H
arrods’ new platform and associated business processes went live in May 2017 providing Harrods a solution based on integrated best in class components that provided an excellent baseline for their omni-channel ambitions. The website provided a significant step change with the capacity to grow substantially in terms of products, customers and transactional volumes. Neil Borer, e-commerce Director at Harrods, summarised it: “Our programme has delivered the foundation needed to propel forward the digital and omni-channel ambitions of the business. We now have the infrastructure in place to manage customer, product, order and stock data seamlessly across the business, whilst at the same time have a web application capable of scaling to the needs of our rapidly growing, global ecommerce business. “We have delivered a best-in-class luxury experience to the customer, that meets the needs of our products and how our customers like to browse and shop them. With adaptive/ responsive templates, we are able to ensure consistency across all devices. “Given the scale and complexity of the project, upgrading and blending legacy, back-end systems with new, digitally orientated applications, Project One played a fundamental and instrumental role in ensuring all the moving parts were managed and aligned for successful go-live”
“The pace and rhythm of the programme really became defined by the programme lead. Everyone got on board with it, and that drove a lot of the commitment, energy, passion which emanated
directly from her.” Jonathan Manley, IT Director.
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TEAM FOCUS
MEET THE TEAM ANDREW COOPER Andrew joined the team in November 2016. He grew up in India, on an Assam tea plantation, and later moved to Yorkshire. He attended Imperial College, London and, apart from a period in Singapore, has lived in the south ever since. Now his children are grown up, Heidi is a junior doctor and Ross a strategic analytics
consultant, he is enjoying travelling again. Andrew is currently on assignment in Belgium with Virgin Media.
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“Project One knows that if you trust, support and empower he consultants, the best client outcome will emerge.”
What accomplishment are you most proud of? I mentor two small family businesses; over the past seven years I’ve seen them grow from nothing to being sustainable and employing other local people. What’s your favourite restaurant and what would you order? The family Thai restaurant that I mentor in Bournemouth – I’d order Neua Salathai – spicy steak. I’ve been invited to Buddhist good luck ceremonies there and calm pervades the place. If you had a time machine what would you want to see? I’d like to be present when the nature of dark matter and dark energy are finally discovered, and we find out what the 96% of the Universe that we don’t currently understand is made of. If you could write a book about anything what would it be about? Large scale business and technology transformations, how they go wrong, and how to recover them.
First ever job? I froze peas for three summers to pay my way through Uni. I got to be expert at judging exactly one tonne of peas on a pallet – a skill I haven’t yet found a reuse for in my later life. What do you believe makes Project One different? Project One knows that if you trust, support and empower the consultants, the best client outcome will emerge. What little known fact might surprise your colleagues? I’m a rugby union referee, which sometimes comes in useful in mediating in business. What has been the most memorable moment so far at Project One? Working at my first client, and meeting four new Project One team mates, each of whom were brilliant and clicked into a perfect team immediately. What is the best aspect of your job? Coming into new organisations and applying the learning from many previous situations. Also, to open the eyes of client managers to new possibilities that may be outside the existing experience in their organisation. What do you do for fun? I love to explore the deep interiors of sunken battleships. In 2001, my team researched, located and undertook the pioneer dives on a US submarine, lost for 60 years, near Makassar, Sulawesi.
ABOVE - Andrew and his son Ross, diving at Truk Lagoon, Micronesia.
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project one Summer Celebration 2017 I n June, we hosted our summer event at the Wokefield Estate in Reading. It was fantastic to see so many of the team taking the opportunity to catch up and Project One in an ever-changing business world
celebrate our achievements. And who could forget David Meade, an international speaker whose entertaining and thought- provoking performance made us all think critically about the challenges around us.
Managing Director, Terry Holland, took to the stage to share his thoughts on Project One in an ever-changing business world and, with some of the team, talked through their insights and observations. We all gained an even better understanding and pride in the great work that Project One undertakes for our clients, every day. Project One’s growth during the last four years equalled that of the previous 15 years, emphasising that we are moving from a small to medium sized company, and certainly operating in a different world from 10 years ago. We were reminded of our values, created by our team. Each one represents Project One’s DNA. Whilst Project One has been extremely successful, improvements can always be made. So, together the team considered how we might think and act differently to have an even greater impact on our clients and services, whilst protecting what makes Project One special as we grow.
“We don’t just want to be better, we want to
build a great company for our people and our customers. When we get this right, our customers will keep coming back for more and our competition had
better watch out.” Terry Holland
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David Meade astonishing and brilliant!
Our Values: 1. Doing what we promise and more - Show initiative 2. Building trust and earning respect - Be curious 3. Creating clarity - Be compelling 4. Doing the right thing every time - Be hungry 5. Using the power of the team - Be energetic 6. Making a real difference - Be brave
“Wow, this is not like other company events I have been to. This is fun. And genuine.” “So well put together and executed. It was great to hear all the company news and challenges, and to catch up with old colleagues and friends. David Meade was brilliant!”
We had the pleasure of welcoming David Meade to speak at our event. David is a researcher and lecturer in international business with one of Ireland’s leading universities, whose personal interests have always focused on aspects of popular psychology, consumer behaviour, and choice. Having caught the bug for mind- reading and mentalism as a teenager, David has been honing his act for nearly 20 years. David enlightened us with ways in which, by making small changes, we could make a greater impact on our clients and inevitably bring about greater success for not only our clients, but also for Project One.
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project one
Celebrating success As the summer evening sun fell over the Wokefield Estate terrace, we donned our finery for an evening of celebration in the quintessentially summer setting. It was a time to raise our glasses to toast our finest at our annual awards ceremony, where we were proud to recognise the outstanding contributions from the team.
AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
WINNER: David Knappett The Project One Award for Excellence is about taking extreme pride in all work – no matter how big or small. It is an attitude and mindset that is core to our business. Awarded to the individual
The six awards were based on our values which recognised those who consistently bring alive each value for the benefit of our clients and our business. To round things off we introduced a new Project One ‘Award for Excellence’, for an individual who has demonstrated an outstanding, ‘excellent’, contribution in whatever they do, whenever they do it. Congratulations, once again, to all our nominees and winners. who has demonstrated excellence in whatever they do, whenever they do it. It is earned through real evidence of striving to improve in their work and career with Project One, as well as showing a habitual nature for going above and beyond expectations.
POWER OF THE TEAM WINNER: The Finance Team Sharon Crawshaw, Louise Black, Carly Gray, Angela Oakes and Kim Whitelegg Nominees for this award collaborate at every level and are never afraid to share intelligence and knowledge with the wider team. They’re always on the lookout for opportunities for the whole business and play a part in making them happen.
The Prize: iPad 128GB, vintage champagne, a trophy, £1000 luxury city break. Award for Excellence £5000 luxury city break!
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DOING THE RIGHT THING WINNER: Lynne Freund This award is for an individual that can always be relied on not only to deliver but to be famous for doing so in exactly the right way – representing the best interests of all involved. The award could be for client work, or for a community project, but always for the way this person’s actions have made people’s lives better.
BUILD TRUST AND EARN RESPECT WINNER: Jo Battam This award recognises an individual who commands enormous trust and respect from their colleagues and clients. Consistent in their positive behaviour and always delivers on promises; they take commitment seriously and will never let you down.
CREATING CLARITY WINNER:
Bal Hegedus-Pickvance Creating Clarity nominees always communicate in a clear and positive way. You always know where you stand and their personality is infectious. Clients and colleagues want to work with them and are very clear on the direction in which they are driving their work.
MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE WINNER: Paul McElwaine An individual who has made an extremely positive difference for the organisation or a client and are passionate about helping to drive real change.
DO WHAT WE PROMISE AND MORE WINNER: Philip Michell Nominees for this award exceeded targets, made a real difference beyond a client’s expectations or out-performed the original specification. They are an individual who can always be relied on to deliver, support and assist their always go the extra mile. They may have
One of our award winners, Philip Michell, used his £1000 prize to upgrade his family to First Class on their summer holiday to America. Thank you to the Michell family for sharing your photos!
award winner Jo Battam and her family enjoying the sunset in Ibiza. Thanks Jo
clients and Project One colleagues.
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project one
OUR celebrations were topped off with a superb evening “A fantastic day from start to finish.”
“A really memorable event”
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“The best event I’ve been to.”
“Another wonderful event!”
“Astonishing and inspiring.”
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Client focus
Business Transformation
for a leading debt charity
How do you transform the UK’s largest provider of free independent debt advice and managed solutions, who are at the forefront of helping consumers struggling with debt? This is an especially demanding challenge, as the call for debt management services increases every year. In fact, StepChange Debt Charity has experienced a 50% rise in demand since 2012 and is expected to double again in the next five years.
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Client focus
the challenge
This organisational business transformation was driven both out of a necessity to improve processes and legacy systems, as well as a broader ambition to become more effective and efficient, in order to be able to manage substantial future demand. It became clear early in this journey, that a wider perspective was needed to produce a clear vision of the aims of the transformation programme. This needed to include the organisation itself, its clients’ needs, the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the credit agencies who contribute to funding and ultimately, the trustees. Once realised, this vision needed to be shared with all key stakeholders and the 1,400+ charity colleagues.
Charlie Stewart Director of Corporate Services, StepChange
“We had managed our change to this point, largely driven from our technology requirements and in discrete projects. This transformation required us all to approach change differently. It demanded a more rigorous approach to stakeholder engagement and coordination across all our cross-functional elements and beyond, to our external parties. We needed the ability to consider our vision, our people strategy and our core operational ways of working, before we even started to tackle legacy systems and data requirements”, explains Charlie Stewart, Director of Corporate Services.
“Project One started with us in 2016 and helped our organisation construct the business transformation programme. Firstly, they ensured we had a very clear business case that defined not only the investment options and the benefits profile but was robust and realistic in terms of phases of work, systems requirements, communications and training, as well as governance and methods. We had some very real deadlines and further regulatory requirements from the FCA to comply with.”
As Charlie further stated: “I had experience prior to joining StepChange Debt Charity in leading complex transformations and I knew I needed an experienced partner to support our executive team and all our functions, to not only set this transformation up for success, but to improve our own internal change capability. We want to confidently drive our own development in the future. I chose Project One because I needed experienced people who had tackled these challenges before and had the energy and leadership to work alongside my team with equal determination, to achieve our ambition for StepChange.”
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the approach
“We couldn’t have achieved what we have without the support of Project One. Their experience,
Charlie’s team and Project One started by ensuring they were controlling the investment costs and ensuring the benefits could be realised, by implementing robust and iterative delivery forums with strong governance. The programme then turned its attention to: Managing the technical complexity of delivery: Building a strategy to deal with the introduction of new technologies and applications, while decommissioning existing components. This was a particularly crucial area given that the 1,000-strong client-facing team were at maximum capacity in their day to day operations and could use up to seven different systems during one call with a client. Finalising the technology choices required for transformation: Significant work progressed in detailing the application, integration and data architectures. This area started with a thorough assessment of the client journey and optimising the pathways through complex and regulated processes, and included detailing the business process requirements to support clients through bankruptcy, debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements. Preparing the organisation for change: Given the potentially disruptive nature of this change, the programme considered alternative operating models which would enable the transition to new ways of working, using new technologies, to be managed smoothly. A key part of the overall transformation journey was also ensuring that clear communication phases were built into the plan.
resilience and expertise, has been crucial in moving us through this transformation journey.” Charlie Stewart, Director of Corporate Services, StepChange
the outcome
So where are StepChange today on their business transformation journey? They have achieved real progress in defining new processes to a good level of detail Data architecture and future requirements have been reviewed to the point that they have a comprehensive view of potential solutions and providers They are now about to start the set up and configuration of a new CRM system, Pega, which will replace some legacy applications and enhance technology’s ability to support the organisation and clients in the future. In other areas, StepChange is harnessing the power of its teams to work in a coordinated way on making StepChange a more resilient and sustainable charity, with easier systems for their teams to work on and a better informed and stronger campaigning capability. At the end of the day, their vision isn’t just to help people recover from challenging financial situations, but to work towards a society free of problem debt. Project One is proud to have helped StepChange move a step closer to this ambition.
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Welcome to the team
PROJECT ONE
Our recruitment team has been working hard this year, attracting more excellent people to the team. We are incredibly proud to have welcomed 17 new, highly experienced consultants so far, this year. You can read more about our recruitment drive on page 28. Here’s an introduction to the joiners of 2017.
Graham King I have over 15 years’ leadership experience of complex IT change programmes across both the public and private sector. Having successfully fulfilled project, programme and portfolio management roles across a range of business-critical and demanding programmes, I have developed a keen sense of the critical success factors and how these in combination are driven to realise the business strategy.
Alistair Burt I’m a senior leader with
Fabrice Rodrigue I’m an accomplished Programme Delivery Director with 20 years of complex large scale transformation expertise. I have experience in scoping, leading and delivering numerous transformation programmes for a variety of blue-chip and FTSE 100 companies. I also have extensive supply chain management skills from a cross-range of industries including retail, utilities, oil and gas, communications and high tech, media and entertainment, and defence. I am a dynamic people-orientated leader and problem solver who establishes credibility through effective delivery.
significant experience gained in both industry roles and as a consultant, with a proven track record of successful delivery in business change, transformation, and in senior leadership roles. I’m extremely conscientious and highly adaptable, thriving in dynamic, high-pressure environments, enjoying variety and challenge within a role.
Lisa Gobell Originally from Australia, my professional background lies in investment and advisory services to private clients, with experience in property, IT and contract management, together with a successful track record in managing complex customer relationships and a variety of business improvement projects. As the Business Support Manager I will work within the operations side of the business to ensure the Shared Services function operates efficiently to allow Project One to grow seamlessly over time. This covers IT management, facilities management, supplier management, and oversight of policies and procedures.
Chloe Daintith My professional background lies in both internal and external recruitment. I have worked as an in-house recruiter in the Oil and Gas industry in Aberdeen, until my move to the North-West in 2015 where I have worked as an HR recruitment specialist. All my roles have been focusing in executive search, senior level and niche markets, and I look forward to finding new talents to grow the Project One team.
We need more great people. £5,000 for every successful referral!
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Kevin Phillips I joined Project One after ten years as an Interim Programme Director working with large corporates and prior to that I had 15+ years in a variety of roles both with large systems integrators leading project and portfolio delivery. I have worked in both the private and public sector across finance, technology, utilities, aerospace and the fast-moving news sector. My career to date has been varied and has included capability creation, pure delivery, business change and strategy to delivery work.
John Gleeson I am an experienced Programme Director with a track record of delivering innovative technology enabled business transformation across a range of industries. This experience includes digital enablement, merger integration, ERP, CRM, customer experience and functional transformation, together with large scale ITC operations management. Having been involved in too many costly IT projects, I have become passionate about developing robust business cases and delivering tangible, measurable business benefits from projects.
Jon Dayton I have over 25 years’ experience of leading large, complex business change programmes both within industry and as a consultant. A track record of working at senior levels to bring clarity and focus on the things that matter, and then leading teams to deliver improvements in outcomes. I’m motivated by doing interesting work that makes a tangible difference, and creating an environment where the team genuinely works together to achieve the common goal.
Jonathan Leslie I’m a highly-experienced Consultant / Programme Manager in delivering complex business transformation initiatives and have helped some of the world’s largest and most complex organisations implement new technologies (SAP ERP) to enable them to achieve their corporate goals. I have experience in a variety of sectors including, petrochemicals, pharmaceutical, metals and automotive, as a result my skills are highly transferable across different industries. I’m passionate about helping organisations realise
John Griffiths I joined Project One in May 2017 bringing a strong track record in developing C-suite client relationships. I’ve delivered and managed the change associated with the breadth and depth of core technology services across IT strategy, digital change, operating models and organisational design, and vendor management. I’m a strong advocate of the consumerisation of IT and in my consulting career spanning over 20 years have led many high-profile client transformation programmes. I have a passion for delivering high quality outcomes, am customer focused and provide a solid balance of analytical thinking combined with commercial robustness and pragmatism.
Sarah Newman Specialising in large scale service operation and transformation programmes, I have spent the last 22 years working with organisations who are looking to fundamentally change the way in which they do business. With experience across the transformation lifecycle. I have worked in the areas of stakeholder management, strategy definition, solution design, procurement, programme and project management and benefits realisation. Typically working in a multi-party delivery environment, I build excellent working relationships at all levels, and bring clarity and insight with my approach.
their goals and achieving operational excellence.
Continued...
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Welcome to the team
PROJECT ONE
Lala Burchall I joined Project One with over 30 years of experience in making transformational change happen in industry and in cross-sector consulting. The single most important factor in delivering real change and real business outcomes is always leadership. Leading teams to deliver real, lasting, valuable change is what I love doing and working alongside clients to support and enable them in the leadership of transformation in their organisations is the most rewarding part of the work.
Nick Woodward I have over 25 years’ experience working on
Steve Bass I’m a senior leader with
significant experience gained in both industry roles and as a consultant and I have a proven track record of successful delivery in IT and business change, programme delivery and recovery and organisation transformation. I have held senior leadership roles in both interim and permanent positions most recently at CIO level. I am extremely adaptable having worked in a number of sectors and thrive in challenging environments.
transformational programmes across a range of sectors and transformation types – often on a scale that are ‘once in a lifetime’ for the organisations. I lead large teams with clients to shape and deliver their strategic transformations. I help executive teams get the best from their strategic transformation programmes, achieving timely delivery and business results and enhancing their ability to deliver in the future.
Chris Field I’m a confident, enthusiastic Programme Management Consultant with strong client facing skills and a successful track record mobilising and delivering change projects and programmes for some fantastic FTSE-100 and Fortune-500 clients. I have worked across a number of different industries including automotive, leisure, utilities and financial services. Prior to Project One I’ve held both industry and consulting roles, including more than 12 years with a major systems integrator.
Luke Southam Having spent 13 years in consulting I have both IT and business transformation delivery management experience on large integration projects and programmes across the full project lifecycle, and across multiple industries including, automotive, retail, pharmaceutical and financial services. I have had the pleasure of working with and managing teams across the globe to deliver on complex multi-vendor, multi- location engagements.
Padmesh Sharma I’m a Strategy and Operations consultant with over 20 years’ experience at Accenture, Wipro, DLG and GE. During this time, I led several global business transformation and change programmes across financial services, healthcare and utilities sectors, specialising in design and delivery of target operating models and strategic cost reduction programmes.
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First ever job? British Steel - on ‘the knockout’, manually lifting red-hot manhole covers from one production line and throwing them onto another. Hugely rewarding! What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received? Given the choice between money and experience always choose experience - the money will follow. What do you believe makes Project One different? 1) It has a very special culture. 2) We have a real focus on delivering for the customer. 3) Its flat structure. 4) We only recruit highly skilled and experienced people. What is the best aspect of your job? I’m trusted to get on and do the job but I can call on a large virtual army of support should I ever need it... and the end of year bonus. What has been your most memorable moment so far at Project One? Dave Chatham finally buying me a coffee last week. What little known fact might surprise your colleagues? When I was 18 I spent a night/ morning drinking with Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones drummer). I didn’t realise who he was until the next day.
TEAM FOCUS
MEET THE TEAM TONY DIGIOIA Originally from Melton Mowbray, Tony moved to Manchester in 1985 after completing university, where his career took him firstly to the Co-op and then Cap Gemini before joining Project One in April 2000. Tony is the longest serving employee with over 17 years’ service. He lives in Ramsbottom with his wife Jasmine and four grown up children.
If you could have any job in the world what would it be? Player or manager for my beloved Leicester City. Or lead singer in a band. Or (light) heavyweight champion of the world. The only thing that has stopped me is lack of talent. What’s your favourite restaurant and what would you order? This & That, Northern Quarter, Manchester. 3 curries, rice and chapatti, plastic chairs and tables, all for under a fiver. What’s not to like? If you had a time machine what would you want to see? Travel back to 2015/16 and actually enjoy Leicester City winning the Premier League instead of being massively stressed throughout the season.
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Client focus
The largest SAP IS-U implementation in the world this year!
We all know that any large-scale transformation is challenging. But when you’re implementing a technology-enabled transformation, in an organisation owned by its customers, operating the world’s largest single marketplace in a heavily regulated industry, serving 24 million consumers, then ‘challenging’ becomes the new norm. Welcome to Steve Adcock’s world. Chief Information Officer at Xoserve and Executive sponsor for the largest SAP IS-U implementation in the world this year. Steve took time to tell us about the three-year programme, how it will underpin the ongoing transformation of the UK gas market and how Project One helped him to pull it all together.
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“Getting the industry to a point where they all agreed it was ready and we could go live required cut-over plans for Xoserve and every one of the 45-participant companies. A big exercise in industry readiness”.
Steve Adcock Chief Information Officer, Xoserve
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Client focus
the challenge
Steve began by setting out the context for the programme: “We are a 350-person business, but the market we serve is huge. The systems we operate and the change activities we deliver are completely out of kilter with the scale of business because of the role that we play in the marketplace. As you probably know, the gas market has been competitive since 1996, with business and then domestic competition being introduced The UK Link platform we are replacing was put in-place in 1996 to enable this competitive gas market. UK Link served us well for 20 years, but in that period our marketplace has changed significantly. In 1996 there was one gas transporter in the UK and probably a handful of energy suppliers. Today gas distribution is managed through a range of different companies - about 45-50 participants - so it is quite a complex marketplace, highly regulated. One of our first exercises was to ask, OK we know what the platform does today, what does the industry want from this platform in the next five to ten years?” Meaningful engagement with the industry was vital. As the Central Data Service provider for Britain’s gas market, Xoserve is owned by the industry it serves. The new UK Link solution had to be fit to serve the market’s view of its current and future needs; fit to handle future settlement technologies and processes; fit to enable even easier supplier switching for consumers and fit for smart meters and smart energy balancing. The programme undertook what Steve describes as “a huge consultation exercise.” The solution that was being built and deployed by Xoserve would have to be used by these 45 participants, who would also have to change their systems.
Steve Adcock Chief Information Officer, Xoserve
“A big exercise in industry readiness”
the approach
The programme moved into its design, build and implementation phase in March 2014. Steve and his teams identified major risks, “there was probably a political and regulatory motivated drive for early delivery, that felt extremely risky. So, the project set out with a timeline that felt very difficult to achieve. Consequently, we hit issues and couldn’t achieve the timescale”. In late summer of 2015, the decision was taken to reschedule
the go-live, replan the programme and replace the Programme Director. Steve recalls that they were difficult times, “we were probably at quite a low. I had made the decision to change the Programme Director and Project One was recommended to me. It was a very difficult period. I would say it was probably one of the lowest points in terms of the confidence in our teams. There was a lot of negativity around the programme, just because people
felt disappointed. What I needed was someone who was very people oriented to come in and start to bring the team back together again, build the confidence and morale”. Dave Payne (then of Project One) took on the Programme Director role handing over to Project One’s Paul Toolan in 2016, and Cheryl Ashman, Piers Dove and Gary James have each had significant roles on the programme.
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What has Project One contributed?
Charlie’s team and Project One started by ensuring they were controlling the investment costs and ensuring the benefits could be realised, by implementing robust and iterative delivery forums with strong governance. The programme then turned its attention to: Managing the technical complexity of delivery: Building a strategy to deal with the introduction of new technologies and applications, while decommissioning existing components. This was a particularly crucial area given that the 1,000-strong client-facing team were at maximum capacity in their day to day operations and could use up to seven different systems during one call with a client. Finalising the technology choices required for transformation: Significant work progressed in detailing the application, integration and data architectures. This area started with a thorough assessment of the client journey and optimising the pathways through complex and regulated processes, and included detailing the business process requirements to support clients through bankruptcy, debt relief orders and individual voluntary arrangements. Preparing the organisation for change: Given the potentially disruptive nature of this change, the programme considered alternative operating models which would enable the transition to new ways of working, using new technologies, to be managed smoothly. A key part of the overall transformation journey was also ensuring that clear communication phases were built into the plan. Steve says Project One has made difference, “managing through the tough ti es, putting the commitment in. I have got a direct workforce here that ha been putting in an awful lot of time and effort in order to drive this programme hrough. It is important that they see third parties with the same commitment. So, there is a building of respect, and I think certainly we see that from Project One people”. Engaging with the industry has certainly b en key, “a lot of Paul’s time is spent on he ext rnal engagement and i dustry forum , providing the a surance and credibility that we are going in the right direction and it is an important part of his role”. Bri ging the industry along with the programme h s bee important but here have been many other ch llenges too. St ve recalls that, “data migrati n and mark t testing were two really big challenges”. “Getting the industry to a point where they all agreed it was ready and we could go live required cut-over plans for Xoserve and every on f the 45-participant companies. A big xercise in ind stry readiness”. In readiness for go-live, a 23-day cut-over period was necessitated by the sheer volume of data to be migrated. With £4 billion of turnover at stake in the industry, the team ran four dress rehearsals before completing the cut-over to the new system. Steve says, “it is referred to as a big bang. We hope it is not a big bang. Certainly not in a gas context!”
CHERYL ASHMAN consultant Project One
DAVE CHATHAM account Director Project One
PAUL TOOLAN consultant Project One
PIERS DOVE consultant Project One
the outcome After a successful go-live at the beginning of June, Steve is able to look back on the programme and reflect on his team; “The thing I am most proud of is the way our people have worked and committed, and shown resilience to drive through what has been a very long programme”, and on the Project One team, “it is about bringing in knowledge and experience to add to your own knowledge and experience. Through passing that knowledge and experience on, our people are richer at the end than they were at the start. With the knowledge and experience that people like Paul, Dave, Cheryl and Piers have, it is important that they don’t just come and only do a job but they help to enrich the ability of Xoserve and its people”.
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project one
We all have a story to tell. Cast your mind back to when you joined Project One. How were you introduced? What was your recruitment journey like? What helped you make the decision to join? You Don’t Have to be Called John to Work Here, but it Helps!
The toughest part of recruitment is finding the right person. It takes time and plenty of effort, and given the competition and options available to candidates, we can’t take anything for granted. Our process is rigorous, quality consultants, who have the right experience, skill, and cultural values. It’s what stands us apart as a company. and we take pride in selecting the highest
What are we doing differently? Since April 2016 we have focused on developing an in- house sourcing function and with Chloe Daintith joining us earlier this year, we’ve made great progress. We’re getting our message out there by being active on social media, talking to candidates regularly and acting on leads and information far quicker. It’s also about the long game so we’re looking to build a pipeline for the future. The most pleasing aspect of 2017 has been the continued improvement of our direct channel which has seen 61% of all offers being made to direct candidates. Our consultant team’s own contribution in the last 18 months has resulted in 83% of offers to referred candidates being accepted.
Nigel & chloe
“I have been delighted with the contribution our
in-house recruiters have made to our business. We can now deliver direct recruits into our business at volume but also provide a much more
personal and consistent candidate experience.” Paul Clark, Director of People
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