Case studies

Situation & need

Relocating the control center of a motorway network, which had become too cramped, to new premises to be designed and fitted out, with the constraint of keeping operations running 24/7, 365 days a year. Budget: 1.3M€ · Timeline: 13 months · 70 subcontractors.

NetsFive’s response

The project is extremely complex and involves many subcontractors. After a very detailed set-up of the project, in particular the identification of risks and the actions to contain them, and the definition of the strategy to follow, we implement highly rigorous, weekly monitoring based on a Post-it schedule (our “Pert-it” method). Regular “project flash” updates give every stakeholder a clear overview of progress, schedule and issues encountered.

Outcome

On the planned day, at 6 a.m., the night surveillance team leaves the old control center for the last time. At the same moment, the next team settles into the new one. Everything is ready and operational. The old center is permanently decommissioned. Budget, timeline and constraints were all met.

Situation & need

The company decides to create a new piece of software, a true ERP that must integrate the four main application modules it had developed and, until then, sold separately. It is the first time the company launches a project of this size (around 1,100 man-days, 15 people in development) within such a short timeframe (one year).

NetsFive’s response

We train the whole team in our project management method and tools. These principles are applied within the project: precise definition of objectives, building of teams and coordination structures, identification of phases and tasks, planning and estimation of workloads, allocation of resources. Rigorous monitoring follows, keeping the project under control throughout its delivery.

Outcome

“The project management methodology and tools allowed us to fully master a strategic project that involved almost all of our development teams. Every deadline was met, with a serenity that genuinely surprised me.” The CEO

Situation & need

An international group sells one of its businesses to a foreign international group. Its entire information system was managed in-house, except for human resources. The divested subsidiary must switch to an ERP for which a group template exists. It covers Sales, Supply Chain, Procurement, Production, Inventory Management, industrial-site Maintenance, Finance, and Management Control & Reporting. The rollout is planned over 18 months.

NetsFive’s response

The number of projects is large. The 68-person project team (business and IT sides) is heavy enough to require strong support in steering the whole. Project management is therefore put in place. The method and tools are standardized across the company and staff are trained. These actions make it possible to run all the projects related to the new ERP in parallel, within 24 months.

Outcome

Thanks to the effectiveness of the project management organization put in place:

• The gaps between the existing group template and the needs were very clearly identified,
• The schedule could be adjusted in agreement with the new shareholder,
• Staff took part massively in the acceptance-testing phases (150 people),
• Training was of high quality despite its volume (over 7,500 days),
• Budgets were kept under control.

In addition, the communication put in place led to genuine ownership of the project by the company’s staff.

Situation & need

Launched nearly a year earlier, the project had continuously drifted, to the point that no one in the company could clearly define what remained to be done or imagine a realistic end date. The objective is to identify the causes of the malfunctions and propose a fast, effective recovery plan.

NetsFive’s response

The project audit covers every aspect: initial set-up (definition of objectives and scope, organization and governance, risk analysis, planning, and so on), project monitoring (meeting frequency, tracking tools, and so on) and the acceptance procedure. The diagnosis is quickly established; three problems are at the root of the situation:

• A moving project scope: new features are requested and taken on board while those already developed have not yet been accepted,
• An unclear allocation of roles between the various project stakeholders, on both the IT and user sides,
• Schedules based on a non-exhaustive inventory of the tasks to be carried out.

The proposed solution is quickly adopted:

• Fixing the scope of features to be developed. Any new request will be handled as an additional work package,
• Setting up a clear organization, with roles split between delivery and business ownership,
• Building a realistic schedule that includes the full set of tasks to be carried out.

Outcome

The project is quickly put back on track. The new schedule is met to within a week. The method convinced the company so thoroughly that it entrusts us with rolling it out across all its projects and including it in its quality procedures.

Situation & need

An accountancy and audit firm decided to move away from paper-based file management to an Electronic Document Management (EDM) package. After two years, only 20% of files are in the EDM and many sources of resistance to change remain to be overcome.

NetsFive’s response

Our approach consists, first, in bringing out during small-group meetings with the managers all the benefits of the EDM as well as the full range of barriers to its use. Against each barrier, the actions to reduce or remove it are identified. In a second stage, carrying out these actions is entrusted to the people in favor of the change. Their success helps convince the opponents.

Outcome

The actions carried out kept the enthusiasm of change supporters intact and won over most of the opponents. As a result, the silent majority of the undecided rallies to the cause. Within a few months, EDM use across files rises from 20% to 100%.

Situation & need

Faced with the growth of its business and the sale of solutions requiring significant specific adaptations, the company was looking for tools and a way of working able to ease coordination between departments in order to control response times and intervention costs.

NetsFive’s response

A diagnosis highlights that the company has no method, tools or shared thinking agreed by all ahead of action. Following our recommendations, a project-based management organization is defined and put in place to manage all of the company’s activities on both sides of the Atlantic. All employees are trained in the principles of this organization, as well as in a common project management method and tools. Over the following six months, we support the various working groups tasked with adapting the company’s quality procedures and managing ongoing projects using this new approach.

Outcome

“Today, with this organized and strong coordination of our ongoing projects, we manage a greater number of cases with the same headcount. This progress rests, without doubt, on better anticipation and precise upfront set-up in all our engagements.” The Managing Director

Situation & need

An international group has just sold one of its business lines to another company. All the support IT functions (networks, payroll, accounting, sales management, and so on) were managed at group level. The divested subsidiary must gain autonomy over its own information system.

NetsFive’s response

To run a very large number of projects in parallel with limited resources, a project-based management organization is put in place. The method and tools are standardized across the company and staff are trained. These actions make it possible to run in parallel all the projects related to the new information system (some forty projects, including the implementation of SAP and HR Access and the rollout of a national and international network) as well as around twenty related projects, all within 30 months.

Outcome

Thanks to the effectiveness of the project-based management organization put in place:

• The commitment on the subsidiary’s gradual autonomy timeline is met,
• Budgets were kept under control.

In addition, the change of organization led to a real breaking-down of silos, the emergence of a genuine team spirit and an increase in individual motivation.

Situation & need

The organization has many physical sites spread across a defined geographic area. A single site handles most of the public reception on its own, with limited organization and tools.

NetsFive’s response

Interviewing the key people allowed us to build a precise diagnosis of the existing situation and to propose several scenarios and recommendations for change.

Outcome

“We were very satisfied with NetsFive’s work: speed, effectiveness and availability were the watchwords. Their expertise allowed us, on the one hand, to establish a diagnosis of the health of our reception function and, on the other, to determine various improvement solutions applicable in the short and medium term.” The organization’s director

Situation & need

A multinational telecoms operator providing enterprises with network-performance consulting identifies a new client need: to match network performance with business performance, notably by including application and business-process performance aspects. As this represents an innovation, it is very important that the new service be developed in a way that ensures effective, consistent selling and delivery across the world.

NetsFive’s response

During workshops with the client, we build a clear modular structure for the various aspects of this complex service. We analyze and structure the market, delivery and development needs of the service and propose a compelling business case. We run sessions with the experts involved in the pilot deliveries to distil best practices for selling and delivery from their feedback. Based on this, we develop marketing, sales and delivery materials with clear messages and guidance about the service. We also handle the management of the service-development project.

Outcome

• The service development ran in an effective, focused and objective-driven way,
• Our project management strongly contributed to its visibility, clarity and control, which led to executive ownership and support,
• Making the most of the internal experts’ knowledge and experience, which is integral to our approach, was greatly appreciated.

Situation & need

A multinational telecoms operator provides reactive fault- and change-management services in support of its various enterprise network services. With eroding margins in its core network business comes the need to broaden the service activity, both as a differentiator of its overall offer and as a way to generate additional profitable revenue. This is compounded by the need to adapt internal terminology and processes to align with ITIL.

NetsFive’s response

We lead the overall program and communication management and establish the change-management principles. Working with the client, we define the sales models for the different market segments and design a new service portfolio covering consulting, implementation, support and outsourcing services. Our comparison of current and future offers against the ITIL framework serves as the basis for planning the transformation. We manage process- and tool-development projects for the marketing, sale and delivery of a number of offers in the new portfolio. We develop high-impact presentations for client executives and run sales-force training based on consultative-selling methodology.

Outcome

The program was completed successfully after the launch and rollout of the new portfolio, largely because we managed to secure and retain the support of the leadership team. The new portfolio was a commercial success, because it delivered clearly value-added services to clients, and the use of the ITIL framework made communication and interaction with clients easier.

Situation & need

The economic and social development of many Middle Eastern countries raises ICT-service challenges on several fronts, for example:

• Smart-city developers must provide a portfolio of state-of-the-art ICT services to attract buyers while keeping costs under control,
• Incumbent telecoms operators must justify price changes, both internally and to regulators, before introducing revised offers to stay competitive.

NetsFive’s response

Our involvement in a number of projects in this area rests on the following approach:

• We build the structure of the economic assessment by identifying the main revenue and cost categories,
• We collect and model the relevant data, working with marketing, technical and operational experts to capture sales projections and the labor, infrastructure and investment needs, and we validate the results with all the relevant stakeholders,
• We provide the financial analysis, including depreciation and financial indicators, and we write reports for the clients’ management team and (where applicable) for regulators, summarising market, revenue and cost information,
• We present the final results to client executive committees and division heads.

Outcome

• Our single-point-of-contact approach ensures consistency and agreement on costs and prices across all functions,
• Clients gain clear visibility over expenditure planning and financial implications, enabling effective risk management before investing.

Situation & need

An SME, an international player in software publishing and sales, wants to replace its accounting and finance package. Successive version upgrades had not been applied, and moving to the latest version would be equivalent to acquiring the package for the first time. Moreover, the existing solution does not fully satisfy its users, and the finance department’s organization has changed. The company therefore decided to launch a new consultation to choose a market package better suited to its needs and meeting the constraint of strong integration with the in-house customer-tracking intranet applications.

NetsFive’s response

We work with the client to establish a precise, detailed set of requirements that takes into account the experience gained with the current package and captures the new needs. We then survey the software market to identify the products likely to meet these requirements and the integrators offering the best guarantees of competence on them. The requirements, together with standardized response grids, are sent to these companies. The standardization of responses and the pre-established scoring grid let us quickly produce a synthesis for our client. The two best candidates are then invited to present their solution. After these presentations, a quick joint review allows the client to make its final decision.

Outcome

• The effectiveness of our approach allowed the client to make the best choice within a short, controlled timeframe,
• The client could focus its contribution on the key moments of the process while keeping full visibility over it and control of the final choice,
• The project was carried out in full compliance with the planned schedule and effort.