Why do so many change projects fail to deliver the expected benefits? Whether it’s mergers, IT systems, outsourcing deals or product launches – the majority don’t meet expectations. Benefits delivery is becoming more difficult because public and private organisations are increasingly complex and their environment is constantly changing. Today, change initiatives involve a wide range of stakeholders and often cross organisational boundaries.
We believe that Benefits Delivery Management is the core process of any initiative – it applies throughout the cycle from concept to operation. It starts with the business case defining a vision, objectives and benefits. It is the focus for defining, prioritising, reviewing and implementing the necessary changes. It continues after the “project” into operational management because this where the majority of performance improvements are delivered.
Metaskil focuses on delivering benefits not projects and uses a range of tools to identify benefits, assess investments, establish “dependencies”, track performance and identify corrective action if interim targets are missed.
The UK rail fares settlement system is one of the largest transport settlement systems in the world. It processes 700,000 daily ticket sales. It was the largest IT contract ever awarded by Britain's rail industry.
Two years into the project, the completion date had already slipped by 24 months. Metaskil provided the overall Project Director to assist the CEO in recovering the project. He was backed up by an experienced team of 8 Metaskil managers and specialist consultants. The team managed aspects of the organisational change and the benefits realisation, coordinated stakeholders within the business and tested all system deliverables. The project delivered a 6 week improvement in cash flow, more efficient service planning and more effective marketing programmes to increase sales. The overall project slippage was reduced to just 10 months. This avoided £75m of losses.
It went on to win two prestigious Industry Awards - one for outstanding teamwork and the other for innovation in IT.
