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summary

An Associate from Campion Willcocks led a multimillion-pound project at a financial services group to develop and install a centralised imaging and workflow system for six large operations centres. The 18-month programme was completed on schedule and 40% below the initial budget projections.

This project was among the first to introduce imaging and workflow into 'traditional' bank account maintenance and payment operations. The bank believed it would drive processing costs down while enhancing customer service in terms of speed of response, accuracy and consistency.

The client featured is a leading UK-based financial services group. At the end of 2002 its assets totalled more than £250 billion and the group employed around 80,000 people.

the challenges of change

The bank's Group Operations division provides all back office functionality for the retail banking network. "We wanted to improve our operating model and the way requests were fulfilled - previously, there were hundreds of service centres handling the back office processes," says a Programme Manager in the Project Services division. "We had to put together business cases for projects to improve efficiency and achieve cost savings."

One business case involved an imaging and workflow system, fully integrated with the bank's systems. However, "we decided to proceed with a scaled-down version, initially designed to centralise our postal mail system into a central location and save between 5-6 million pounds annually: we were paying Royal Mail to redirect post to multiple locations. We wanted a centralised location for scanning mail, and then provide feeds to five or six strategic sites."

"With the original project cancelled, the Project Managers pencilled-in had been reallocated elsewhere. We couldn't resource the Project Manager internally and the skills required weren't easily accessible in-house."

the right match

"We chose Campion Willcocks for various reasons. Responsiveness was important as we had to move fast. And in terms of cost we believed working with a Campion Willcocks Associate would be substantially less expensive than some of the other suppliers under consideration." The Associate chosen led total activity on the project, not only in IT development but also covering the cultural change aspects.

His initial role involved gathering requirements from the project sponsor and his representatives. He then looked at what IT had done, examined the project's feasibility, and achieved a consensus on moving forward. The biggest challenge was working with IT: putting together the plans and pushing IT to achieve them. "I'd say he brought three important characteristics: his expertise, his ability to challenge, and his sense of calm."

The project had up to 45 staff at any one time. Based on AS/400 and Windows NT server/workstation configurations, the system will be used by up to 900 staff in the initial phase of operation.

outcome

The system was delivered on schedule and cost £5 million rather than the projected £8m. The aim is to continue building on the infrastructure, expanding it to additional sites and removing all paper inputs from the operation over the next six years.

"This was a huge programme of work," says the Programme Manager. "I think the Associate's biggest challenge was delivering a highly complex system within the time frames. Our goals were certainly achieved, and with costings far lower that estimated.

"I was managing a team of 20 Project Managers and his participation was completely seamless. He was one of the team, taking a keen interest in internal issues like the reorganisation, the bank's policies, and so on. This gave us something extra, in that he understood the dependencies and inter-dependencies in the business that could affect his project. This was a critical success factor."

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