Blacksmith Technology Company with a major financial institution streamlined its IT operations, solved for inefficiencies in project management, vendor management, software development, and more.
ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATION
As the rapid evolution of today’s financial sector continues, effective IT operations are responsible for the crucial maintenance of organizational agility. This large financial institution was facing numerous IT operational inefficiencies, ultimately resulting in increased costs, project delays, employee dissatisfaction, and an ongoing decrease in overall business success.
An integral part of an ever-changing, ever-growing industry, the organization was struggling to balance multiple project management systems, a growing number of problem-tracking systems, rising external staffing costs, and a lack of processes standardization across three major development centers. We worked together to simplify their work streams, motivated by the ultimate goal to turn the negative effects of their operations around.
THE CHALLENGE
Stalled by an array of critical challenges, the organization found that each one was compounding into the impact of the next. From the rise in overall IT management expenses to the utilization of three separate project management systems, there was a clear need for simplified communication and greater consistency across its teams.
In total throughout the organization, they depended on eight different problem-tracking systems, which required significant effort to consolidate data for timely reviews. The organization lacked standard software development and change management processes, which only exacerbated the problem—and its visibility amongst employees. Additionally, there was an absence of standard key metrics to effectively manage software delivery.
Finally, high external staffing costs and continuous delays in filling open roles led to project implementation delays. These issues accumulated, escalating IT spend, slowing processes, and overworking employees who were increasingly unhappy with the organizational and process inconsistencies.
THE SOLUTION
To tackle these issues, we supported the organization in adopting a structured change management approach with a focus on streamlining processes, consolidating systems, and improving resource management. The change was guided by John P. Kotter’s eight-stage change process explained in "Leading Change¹," as well as Noel Burch's Conscious Competence Learning Model². To support organizational adoption, we also recommended the additional step of Integrated Competency for a unified approach to change communication.
Together, we formed a team of four experts, each heading up the resolution to one of the critical challenges:
● Resource management
● Software Development Methodologies
● Key Metrics
● IT Financial Management
This cross-functional team coordinated efforts to drive comprehensive and cohesive change. They reduced the number of project management platforms from three to one, consolidated eight problem-tracking systems into a single system, and negotiated better rates with fewer, but high quality, external staffing vendors.
Over 400 staff members at the organization were trained on a single software development methodology, and key software metrics were established to optimize delivery processes. Enhanced resource management was achieved through dedicated support, coaching, tools, and recognition, with changes thoroughly communicated to ensure understanding and adoption.
KEY RESULTS
Cost Reduction: The organization reduced their overall annual IT management expenses by $7.5 million, representing an impressive 15% of the total budget. In addition, they decreased external staffing expenses by $1 million annually.
Improved Hiring Efficiency: Now far removed from its previous hiring delays, they reduced the time-to-fill open positions to less than 30 days.
Operational Efficiency: The client halved their month-end internal billing process time, reducing employee confusion and motivating more consistent, more positive results.
SUMMARY
Completed in less than a year, the transformation successfully addressed the organization’s operational challenges. By streamlining project management and problem tracking systems, optimizing vendor management, standardizing development methodologies, and communicating key metrics, our client achieved significant cost savings, improved efficiency, and growing employee satisfaction. Leveraging the impact of well-executed organizational change and continued process improvement on large-scale IT operations.
1 Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press.
2 Burch, N. (1970). Conscious competence learning model. Gordon Training International.
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