A multi-billion pound privately owned support services business asked for our help to reduce operating costs by £35m within a financial year.
The Situation
The organisation had recently made a large acquisition and whilst the newly acquired business was performing the integration was not yet complete. The business had already identified that by creating a shared service centre they could streamline operations and substantially reduce cost to serve so in this case there was no need for our expert to get the overall solution agreed.
The Solution
As in all cases, an element of discovery was required to substantiate the Boards vision to ascertain where the business was now and where it could get to in 12 months. One of our interim shared services experts supported the Board member responsible for the change to achieve the necessary business case approval and commence work on the programme plan.
Organisational change projects following mergers and acquisitions often identify opportunities like this for a simplification of structure and services. By introducing an interim expert with specific industry knowledge and experience it can accelerate change in a cost-effective manner.
The Result
There is an ongoing involvement between our expert and the client on this programme. The business is entering the delivery phase of the programme which is expected to be unproblematic due to the strength of the relationship between all parties working on this programme.