What was at stake?

The client, an Irish subsidiary of a foreign bank, needed staff and cost reduction in order to keep their doors open. The requirement was to reduce their expenditure by over 30% within 12 months while in tandem training their internal continuous improvement teams in the analysis and delivery of the business-critical solutions. Expertivity Technologies worked with the client through a very comprehensive service excellence journey. The driver at the time was unequivocally cost reduction and the real tangible fear that the subsidiary would be closed if they didn’t get the required results.

What was the result?

Expertivity Technologies delivered the required outcome earlier than the deadline and under budget. Together with the client, we helped the business unit reduce costs by more than the 30% required and implemented ServiceForce as their day-to-day operations management system, facilitating the efficiency and sustainability of the newly designed back-office processes. The full program was delivered in 10 months and was 15% under budget safeguarding their presence in Ireland.

Backgro​und

The Client went out to tender seeking support on a fixed contract and with a very precise deadline. Against significant competition, the client chose Expertivity Technologies as their partner on this crucial piece of work. Interestingly, our proposal was not what they asked for – which initially was for a provider to train their internal teams in order for, those teams to deliver the result. We recommended an alternative approach which the bank accepted and as a result, we won the tender. The COO famously said that he reserved the right to fire us every two weeks if we did not meet our two-week deliverables.”

The challenges:

Normally, building the right level of client engagement can be a challenge, as clients are used to having consultants that come in and deliver without significant staff involvement. Key to our approach in the delivery and sustainment of the required change and improvements was internal staff engagement. We planned to mentor and work with them, but not do the work for them. In terms of the 30% cost (resource) reduction - It had to be the bank that ultimately made the decision in terms of who stayed and left. Even with that reality present for all staff, the commitment to change was given, because all were aware of the potential to have the subsidiary closed. The agreement was, to save the bank from being closed, we needed access to their best people in each of the key processes. Because of the burning platform and the skilled expertise of the process staff, it was among the most successful projects we have ever delivered.

What we did:

Our practitioners along with a small internal team of three people worked with the business units to identify the core processes within the bank that consumed the most resources. Together we used standard Lean tools and methodologies by developing value stream maps and running improvement workshops to identify non-value added tasks. We introduced and implemented our ServiceForce software to the back-office team as their day to day management system.

The outcomes

The Back-Office Processes were mapped, wasted effort and delays eliminated and processes improved. The workforce reduction was reduced from 750 to 500 people while delivering business growth. After the implementation of ServiceForce, the cloud-based service-operations management system provided by Expertivity Technologies, the client went on to become the back-office shared services center for the business at large.

ServiceForce facilitated a more holistic view of operational improvement companywide i.e. something that tackled continuous improvements across every department by leveraging a culture of shared values and principles routed in continuous improvement, that could be built into every process outside of just operations. As with many clients, what was key was delivering a solution that helps their organisation know they are doing the right things, measuring the right metrics, adding the right kind of value to their customers.

And systemising this, using ServiceForce, so that every part of the organisation has a shared language, an aligned set of KPI’s and a shared belief that they are delivering a better experience for the customer while optimising profit and revenue.

The client has become experts in the applications of lean as their standard way of doing business and regularly travel abroad to speak and advise other subsidiaries within the overall bank group. Their profile has risen quite significantly in the interim following their Lean Transformation and this facility is now seen as the center of excellence for lean operations in Europe.