Case Study: Governmental Organisation

Client Requirement

This government organisation had been created in 1999 as a quasi-commercial agency. As it moved from a traditional public sector organisation it needed to put in place the processes, organisation and systems to support a full commercial capability. Simultaneously, it wanted to extend its limited adoption of Planning and Control principles across the entire business.

Having initially acted as advisor/coach to the IT Director, Rod Clarke was asked to act as an external, independent advisor to the COO as he created and led the resulting ERP project.

Solution Proposed and Delivered

Rod Clarke’s role was first during the software selection process when he advised the Board on the appropriate software partner. Rod guided them through the implementation partner selection and contracting process, including advising on the structure of the Invitation To Tender, evaluating the ITT responses and acting as an independent member of the selection panel. During the project set-up phase in mid 2000, Rod advised on the project team structure and selection, critical elements of the project schedule, management and control of the external partners (both software supplier and implementation partner) and introduced an interim manager, initially as Change Management Lead and subsequently as Project Manager.

Rod as an independent member of the Project Board, carried out regular reviews of the process design, led the work on defining the requirements for management reporting and advised on all aspects of the project.

Recommendations and Action Taken

Three critical interventions can be noted:

  • The ERP Pilot Programme – Rod designed an approach to incorporating a Pilot Programme into the implementation plans, to maximise the validation of the process design and software build and to increase the awareness and understanding of the manager and user community.
  • Software Enhancements – Rod reviewed all requested software enhancements, based on his “vanilla software” approach and enabled the organisation to minimise changes to the package. Where enhancements were required, Rod provided advice that enabled the organisation to dramatically reduce the cost of these.
  • Cutover Planning – Rod provided a framework for cutover planning and decision making, which enabled DARA to enter the complex and high-risk cutover process with great confidence and understanding.

Cost/Benefit

  • Total cost to the client of this activity was c.£200,000 over 18 months.
  • The total cost of the ERP Project was c.£30m over this period.
  • Benefits to client included improved quality of the process and system design, reduced cost of implementation partner, reduced costs of software enhancements, reduced complexity of the overall project and delivered capability and successful, anti climactic cutovers.