The Paññā Kōrero

The Client

• Microsoft, one of the largest technology companies has grown exponentially since its inception in the 70s.
• With over 150 legal entities, it had a presence in over 110 countries.

The Challenge - not fit-for-purpose

• Finance function - archaic and underinvested in technology and tools.
• Highly manual and non-standard processes; no focus on service management and low customer satisfaction & high error rates.
• Low confidence in FLT’s ability to sign off its processes for S-Ox requirements. 
• No confidence in the organisation’s internal capability to transform the function.
• Poor reputation for its treatment of its vendors, not helpful to use third-party partners to support transformation.
• Low internal acceptance of global vendor arrangements.

Design & Orchestration of Transformation

• I led KPMG’s consulting team to advise Microsoft to transform its Finance Operations.
• Designed the transformation strategy and its building blocks including operating model, economics case, governance model, service management, and 3rd party partner capability requirement.
• I drove a partner selection process, led negotiations leading to Accenture, EY, ADP, & Celergo as the partners of choice.
• Designed and drove a governance framework aimed at changing the culture of vendor relationships in Microsoft.
• Designed and implemented a gain-share framework to allocate transformation risk-reward between MSFT & Accenture.

Value Created for Microsoft & Partners

• Delivered transformation-led operational savings of 25% of TCV over the first term of the contract
• MSFT earned $4mn p.a. through Treasury savings through an innovative hedge programme I designed along with Treasury.
• Reduced inflation exposure risk across 6 geographies through COLA sharing mechanism.
• The governance framework changed the approach to vendor relationships in MSFT, emulated on other contracts, and documented as a best practice case by the Univ of Tennessee.
• The C&C process designed within the contract approved by Internal Audit and statutory auditors as definitive outcomes, which meant lower stat audit fees for MSFT.

The Client

• Largest media & publishing house, with the highest subscription since the 1970s.
• Household brand recall with a diverse reader demographic.
• Received the highest level of ad revenues across all newspapers in the region.

The Challenge – not fit-for-purpose

• The shift from print media to digital media over the past decade led to a precipitous decline in subscription and ad revenues.
• Increasing price competition combined with declining revenues led to growing financial pressure compounded by the pandemic lockdown when newspaper distribution and sponsored events halted.
• High-cost profile driven by wages and investments in top-end assets compounded the financial condition.
• Leadership decided to reduce IT staff, freeze investments, and spend on upgrades and maintenance leading to decimation of the function. 
• IT could not support the organisation’s strategy to become “digital-first.”
• Exacerbated by a weak and dysfunctional SLT.

Design & Orchestration of Transformation

• I led Avasant’s consulting engagement to support the client’s transformation journey.
• I developed a phased transformation plan that prioritised the range of value opportunity levers to create the digital-first organization.
• The first phase focused on stabilising the technology function by identifying an appropriate partner.
• The second phase focusses on a revenue generation plan.
• A concurrent initiative is aimed at reorganising operations and creating a business services function.

Value Created

• Technology partner with strong digital capability in the media industry selected. Outsourcing the IT function would provide 20%+ cost savings whilst providing stability to the function.
• Transformation of the IT function would drive additional savings; Analytics COE established. 
• Creation of offshore business services capability for Finance and HR to complement IT underway.

The Client

• EBRD was set up in 1991 to support the newly formed CIS countries’ reconstruction post the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• The 2017 strategy sought to expand its scope into Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and climate change & sustainability.

The Challenge – not designed for scale and speed

• EBRD’s Corporate Services (IT, Finance, & HR) reflected a bygone era, of highly manual processes including at the Field Offices.
• Whilst contributions from member states constitute a significant portion of EBRD’s funds, they had started to go to the market to raise funds. 
• The market was pushing the EBRD to reduce its total cost of operations delivery which were significantly higher relative to both the industry and other multilateral organisations at lower performance standards.
• With the expected growth in operations the Bank was not expected to meet the increased transactions at scale and speed, our assessment confirmed this reality. A partner ecosystem was needed to help EBRD address its challenges of scale, speed, and cost. 

Design & Orchestration of Transformation

• I led Avasant’s consulting engagement to support EBRD address its operational challenges.
• Designed the transformation strategy to create capability and capacity to deliver at scale and speed at lower costs and improve performance standards.
• Initiated and drove two partner selection programmes, one for IT and the other for Corporate Services business processes (Finance, HR, and Procurement)
• I led the redesigning the Business process arrangements that were impacted by constraints placed by the pandemic. 

Value Created

• Enabled the creation of a partner ecosystem to support Corporate Services’ transformation, this ecosystem has enabled EBRD launch its next stage of technology transformation, ERP on the cloud.
• Operational savings of circa 15%, with additional capacity and capability created to support EBRD’s Operations and Service Management function.

The Client

• One of the leading family-owned conglomerates in the ME with businesses in Retail, Automotive dealership, Travel, Real Estate, and Finance.
• They represent in the region a diverse range of leading retail and automotive brands including luxury titles.
• The Group restructured to a federated organisation model in 2016.

The Challenge– discredited and misaligned IT function

• The Group IT function had poor equity amongst the business units with significant complaints about poor service, lack of support to enable business units to build digital capabilities, significant delays in upgrading IT infrastructure, no service and performance management, low capability levels, and high TCO and costs being charged to businesses for their services. 
• The operating model was misaligned with the federated business unit, in fact, quite the opposite, organised for a centralised model.
• With no governance protocols in place, there was little transparency in costs allocated to businesses or performance metrics being reported.
• The absence of a formal demand management process, approval, prioritisation, and execution of IT projects both Capital and Opex, was ad hoc and rarely aligned to business unit strategy.

Design & Orchestration of Transformation

• I led Avasant’s consulting engagement to support ATG’s transformation of its technology function.
• Assessed the current IT function including industry benchmarking to identify opportunity levers to transform and create value.
• Designed the overall transformation strategy addressing each of the key elements, viz., operating model, direction of transformation, partner selection, capability, resource sizing, SIAM, governance, and cost allocation.

Value Created

• Partner selected to stabilise, maintain, and transform the IT function. 
• Redesigned the operating model, organisation structure, and skills redefinition.
• Created a Transformation Demand Management Office and Architecture Board to lead and direct technology transformation.
• Designed the governance model for the future state IT function and a transparent Cost allocation and Budgeting model.