Williams Bain supported the consolidation of disparate finance and operational IT systems across multiple divisions to create a blueprint which would eventually lead to a tier 1 ERP implementation.
The Situation
We were approached by the Group CIO who was an Executive Board member for this FTSE 250 engineering services organisation. The CIO needed to centralise IT and support the centralisation of other support functions including finance and HR. He was concerned that the complexity of the organisation could give management consultants the opportunity to make vendor selection, and subsequently implementation, more complicated than it needed to be. With the backing of the Board, the CIO turned to Williams Bain for help.
The Solution
Williams Bain selected an experienced Interim CIO who, after a career in Industry and management consulting, had delivered many high profile pre-ERP programmes as a hands on independent expert. During the discovery phase of the assignment our expert identified the most appropriate tier 1 vendor and systems integrator, this was then validated by one of the large management consultancies as risks associated with the programme needed to be communicated with the shareholders.
In order to get the solution agreed by the Board, our expert blueprinted exactly how the business structure needed to change in order to align with the move to a single ERP system.
Throughout this 8-month period the Board had grown to trust our expert and was able to approve the business case knowing the timeframes and costs were detailed and therefore could be measured.
The Result
Despite the programme plan being created by our interim expert, it was critical for the client that delivery was handed over to a permanent member of staff. This was alongside retaining the assurance services of the large management consultancy to validate progress against the programme plan.