Following several years of mergers and acquisitions, the client observed an increase in inefficiencies, inconsistent business practices, and inflated costs – all of which hindering operations and client service. These challenges were magnified by market conditions and declining revenue. An opportunity assessment identified the following:
- Lack of clarity in capacity and utilization within Project Management and Survey Development hindered consistent global resource sharing across regions
- Operational metrics at the point of execution were non-existent
- Roles, responsibilities and expectations varied across regions
- Given the global footprint, wage rate differential was not capitalized on because of inconsistent business practices
- Assessing of workload was relegated to opinions rather than facts, leading to inaccurate (and costly) outsourcing decisions
Carpedia collaborated with the client to transform the culture and standardize misaligned processes, systems, and behaviors across regions and teams. Significant improvements were achieved in process alignment, planning, and execution, with global work planning ensuring balanced workloads and maximized utilization.
Key changes included:
- Balanced workloads for the Survey Development teams through custom scheduling tools
- Refined and developed capacity trackers for the Project Management team
- Built an Operations Performance report to target variances to plan
- Standardized communication cadence for managers/leads and their teams
- Established outsourcing visibility and guidelines to improve decision-making
The Results
- Actual 5:1 ROI (vs. projected ROI 3:1)
- 33% increase in Billable Hours (Survey Development)
- $15M annualized improvement
- 20% Reduction in headcount
- 28% improvement in Project Management utilization
- Customer satisfaction improved
