While it was their duty to implement government policy, he said “we have to be clearer about where it is possible and where it is impossible”.

“We sometimes get sucked into things which are very difficult to achieve.”

Mr Manzoni, who has been in the newly-created job for a month and first joined the civil service in February, said his objective in his new job was to “improve execution across government”.

Making his first appearance before the Commons Public Accounts Committee since being appointed, he said the civil service had always been over-extended but the situation had become acute in recent years.

“We are doing 30% too much across the board, we always have been,” he said.

“We have got too much activity. No company would undertake the level of transformative change that this government has. No company would do this.”

nil plus ultra’s Co-Founder, Graham Jackson is one of the first to be appointed as a Crown Representative, (this cadre of business leaders are a key component of the commercial organisation which reports into Mr Manzoni) and has been engaged to assist Whitehall in its drive for better value for money. Already, Sir Francis Maude Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General and his team have declared savings of over £14bn.

Robert Fedder, nil plus ultra Co-Founder commented: John Manzoni talks like the top businessman he is…and he has a major challenge ahead of him. Already, the progress is material. It is very satisfying to see Graham Jackson playing his part in this change and drive for value. This represents a major plus for Whitehall efficiency, value for money in public services and returns on the tax that people and companies pay into Whitehall coffers.

“Carnectiv represents a labour of love for us. We feel there’s huge untapped potential for the “connected car”

Carnectiv will do three complementary things:

1. Drive a flourishing “gathering place”, carnectiv.com which publishes news, opinion, resources (technical and business intelligence) and showcase the best of what’s going on. carnectiv.com is now operational for all popular platforms and social media
2. Design and organise events for a specific connected car calendar, complementing other events already established. The Carnectiv Events Calendar puts particular emphasis on the engagement of developers, providing a showcase for them, as well as an opportunity for larger corporates (OEMs, technology businesses and telcos) to engage with developers
3. Organise specific stakeholder forums or “round table” groups for selected industry players

Robert Fedder, nil plus ultra Founder said “Carnectiv represents a labour of love for us. We feel there’s huge untapped potential for the ‘connected car’. Carnectiv is really a long term investment for us. However, we believe there are many opportunities which will emerge once the “crowd” of developers bring their skills and innovations to this area. We want to be a part of this and to help stimulate the speeding up of the sector”.

Professional programme & project management: achieving successful outcomes for businesses

Having completed the commercial phase of the proposed project, carried out all the initiation tasks successfully and engaged the project team, everyone is anxious to start work and make some progress. However, despite all this enthusiasm and commitment, projects can still go off the rails if key tasks are not carried out to correctly engage the business, set expectations and lay down a framework for future phases.

Similarly, the entire journey through the project lifecycle needs careful scrutiny, forethought and planning. Prudent businesses engage the services of a professional project manager to help them to navigate their way along this journey, put appropriate governance structures in place, and regularly communicate progress to key stakeholders.

Even after a successful initiation of a project, many businesses need the services of professional programme and project managers to drive the achievement of their desired outcome.

Once roles and responsibilities for all parties have been agreed, key business people need to ensure that they can allocate the right amount of time to fulfil their tasks, and planners need to avoid busy times in the business calendar in order to facilitate this. Where this is not possible, business people should be backfilled with competent temporary staff.

Multi-year programmes and projects can be impacted by changes in the business which cannot always be foreseen, so plans need to have elapsed time contingency built in to enable projects to be flexible enough to deal with these unexpected events. A change control process should be invoked to analyse the impact of any changes, and all options should be evaluated before recommendations on the most optimal way forward are presented to the Business Sponsor for approval. At nil plus ultra, our project and programme managers use their experience to keep projects on track despite these changes, and help businesses to achieve the benefits envisaged in the business case.

As the project progresses, Change Management activities need to be carried out with key stakeholders to ensure business readiness for the new solution. These include:

• communicating the delivery dates of the new solution and progress against key milestones to all stakeholders,
• informing the user community about the proposed changes to existing processes and procedures,
• gaining user buy-in through close involvement with the shaping of the new solution,
• ensuring users allocate time for attendance at training events, and
• ensuring that users thoroughly test that the solution meets their business needs as they work through the new procedures.

After implementation, checks need to be made that users are not slipping back into old habits based on their legacy solution, as this will negate the achievement of efficiency gains.

Caroline Birkby, one of nil plus ultra’s most senior Programme Directors, said “Many organisations end up using modern solutions to carry out the same processing as they used to do on their legacy solution, hence benefits are not realised and processing on the new solution is just as labour intensive and error-prone as on the legacy system. This is only detected if someone is assigned to check that everyone has adopted the ‘To Be’ process flows and is using the new solution according to the new processes. No matter how well the project has been delivered, it is important to continue to track that the business benefits are being realised long after the project has ended”.

nil plus ultra’s programme managers are experienced and accredited Prince2 and PMI professionals.

For more information, follow these links:

Companies only embark on projects that they believe will have successful outcomes, but may need the help of professional commercial and project managers to drive their achievement of this, especially at initiation.

There’s an overload of information on the internet about why projects fail, and many books have been produced on the same subject. So given this wealth of information and well documented past experiences, why is it that there are still so many failures?Getting the project commercially agreed and initiated correctly is half the battle. Whilst problems can arise at any stage of the project leading to overruns on cost or time, and lack of clarity on the requirements can lead to solutions being developed which don’t meet what the business needs, there is no doubt that the a lack of experienced input just prior to and at the initiation phase can subsequently unhinge a project . Businesses today are being buffeted by forces which require them to remain flexible and ‘fleet-of-foot’ to be able to deal with their dynamic marketplaces. Directors and managers have to maintain a keen focus on these even whilst a key project is being defined to introduce efficiencies and reduce costs. This can lead to the responsibility for commercial closure and project initiation being given to those who not have have the experience to successfully negotiate with suppliers nor put the building blocks in place which will provide the foundations for success. At nil plus ultra, our commercial and project managers understand these pressures and support businesses to help them through these early stages. Our senior procurement and commercial specialists guide the business through their make or buy decisions, and provide expert advice during the supplier selection and negotiation process. Without expert input, businesses face many pitfalls, such as inadvertently selecting a solution from a supplier which is still under development, or having their expectations incorrectly set about the features and functions of a particular solution. During the commercial negotiations, our commercial managers will qualify the suppliers, and work with businesses to negotiate the right contracts which accurately meet the business’s needs, clearly lay out both their and their supplier’s obligations and remedies.

Graham Jackson, co-founder of nil plus ultra, an IACCM Fellow and Crown Representative on the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group, is one of Europe’s foremost supply chain and commercial experts. Graham said “Once the commercials are in place, projects can face challenges even at the very start. Business Requirements may not have been clearly defined at the detailed level during the pre-contract stage, may be incomplete, or the boundaries of the scope may be ill-defined, This typically occurs in public sector organisations where the procurement phase is protracted and political changes may lead to a change in policies and decisions within the organisation. In private sector organisations, change may result from mergers and acquisitions, new product development, management changes in the organisation, new challenges in the marketplace, or changes in the business strategy. Analysing how these changes affect the achievement of the quantified benefits is a key contributor to making the right decisions. Every potential change needs to be carefully assessed in terms of cost and benefit and impact on timelines.”

On the supplier’s side, particularly on IT projects, enterprise software is subject to constant revisions and enhancements by product development, and suppliers are often keen to encourage customers to implement the latest version so that this becomes referenceable. But this comes with huge risk, and businesses need to consider carefully whether they can justify taking this risk.

Caroline Birkby, Programme Director and Change Agent.

Caroline Birkby, one of nil plus ultra’s most senior Programme Directors, said “Many IT projects have been derailed by an ill-thought out decision to implement the latest version of a product, with product bugs causing major delays. Worse still, decisions to switch to a newer version halfway through a project without a careful impact analysis as well as a full cost / benefit analysis beforehand can lead to major problems and even project termination. If there is a real benefit to be achieved by the business in taking such a step this requires stringent planning. One option is to continue the project on the current version but instigate a parallel stream of work to implement the new version so that in the event that it is not fit for purpose, the project can continue on the original version and deliver the benefits as originally envisaged. Businesses need to be fully aware of the risks and additional costs likely to be incurred.”

Caroline commented that new releases, or ‘bleeding edge’ technology can only get businesses ahead of the competition if it works and delivers a tangible competitive and / or business advantage. The risks of delays due to the newness of the software and undetected bugs might impact business’s achievement of any of the additional benefits envisaged for this version. It may be that the business benefits to be achieved with older, more mature versions are significant enough that the risk of using newer versions cannot be cost justified. Caroline said “Businesses don’t take these decisions lightly, and engage professionals to assist in evaluation of their options.”

Project initiation activities include defining how the supplier and customer teams will interact, which business individuals are key knowledge holders and can articulate the existing business processes, and which supplier resources can work with them to map these to the new solutions. Reporting lines and project governance needs to be put in place, individual terms of reference defined and risks agreed between all parties. This is a busy time for project managers, and if businesses cannot dedicate individuals to carry out these activities, they need professional support.

“The smart businesses who utilise the services of experienced project managers can be confident that the right foundations are being laid for future success while they focus on their business imperatives” – Caroline Birkby

nil plus ultra’s programme managers are experienced and accredited Prince2 and PMI professionals.
For more information, follow these links:
 

“We’re serious about equipping the Civil Service with the right skills to help the UK compete in the global race. That’s why we’ve recruited experts from the business world, using their commercial insight to work alongside departments to get the most from relationships with our largest suppliers.” – Francis Maude

Graham is one of Europe’s leading commercial professionals, and all of his colleagues at nil plus ultra congratulate him on this appointment. Robert Fedder, co-founder, said “It is a privilege for one of our co-founders and Senior Team members to have been awarded this. Graham’s skills and reputation will be of immense value on this coveted engagement.”

Robert Fedder comments “Deutsche Telekom is a giant in the telecoms industry, and T-Systems is one of the world’s leading Systems Solutions players. Our work with them is multi-national, and we are delighted to be entrusted with the role of working with them on some important projects”.

The programme will deploy nil plus ultra personnel from both UK and German offices.

“+traction benefits are compelling: it applies effort intelligently, accelerates results and generates much higher return on effort”

Jude Meadows, a member of nil plus ultra’s Senior Leadership Team, adds “we have experienced managers who know how to drive this activity without any kind of handholding. They interact as closely with the sponsor or client as required – or they can just get on with it. The taskforce leaders use our experts in the sales, marketing, online and commercial teams, as required. The whole trick is knowing where to focus effort for maximum impact, soonest”

Robert, again: “this is where our +traction approach comes in. It’s just a time-proven method really, which has worked for us consistently, over many programmes. It’s all about being clear on what you need to do, and what you should ignore. This is highly efficient and cost-effective: with a clear focus on those key actions which will generate the required volumes and revenues. It’s also very simple, actually. The knack is keeping ruthlessly focused on achieving the goal. Easier said than done. So, we drive a relatively small number of impactful things, leveraging things we can use, ignoring things we can’t change. It’s a highly operational application of the 80/20 rule, here addressed to sales and marketing activity. For example, we apply an 80/20 rule to research and analytics. Most of the value comes from bringing experience, relevant contacts and know-how to the table, and applying judgement, quickly. It also saves time, effort and costs. We also scale opportunities early in the process, saving time by only developing avenues of real interest. This approach, when combined with the right people from nil plus ultra, effectively “on demand”, is impressive.”

Jude Meadows comments “it’s remarkable how quickly this works. We use a phased approach, which actually speeds things up, by ensuring we focus on the right things. The first phase takes no more than 2 or 3 weeks, usually just a few days, and it surveys the possibilities quickly, working out what needs to be done. By this time we know which initiatives are feasible and can make an impact. We therefore know what tasks we are going to do, properly planned, understanding what we can use, and how we will do the job. It forms the basis for the highly focused executional programme the taskforce delivers in the second phase. We then measure the results on a regular basis, expecting prompt payback.”

Robert also notes “+traction is a great model to help us keep taskforce operations aligned to impactful outcomes. It forms the basis for working out who does what, where and when too. But we remain flexible…but it’s always smart to keep relating back to the model: are we making a difference?…are we wasting time on things which won’t have impact?…is this the smartest way to get better results, sooner?”

Here’s an overview of the essence of the approach:

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Robert Fedder commented: “Working with world class industry leaders is a privilege, and we are delighted to have been chosen by BMW management to assist them on a range of associated topics. This work will deploy personnel from our London and Munich offices, on an important global project”.

“…discussions…are pretty much over…what sponsors want now is to just get it done…attention is turning towards getting the right deals for value, performance, flexibility…they want help to do this properly, swiftly, without incurring exorbitant advisers’ fees”

nil plus ultra reports recent strong demand from organisations who seek help to restructure their partnering and sourcing arrangements. The key driver is the pressure on the bottom line in a harsh economic environment; businesses are looking for swift improvements on costs, but are eager to avoid potential drawbacks in any new sourcing arrangements. The goals: competitiveness, more profit and better value for money. Such assistance is now being provided in a range of operational areas, not just the traditional IT and back-office administration processes.

Specifically, sponsors wish to harness the economies of scale that service providers and outsourcers enjoy, whilst ensuring service level and flexibility is maintained or enhanced. With intense pressures on profits on the one side, and a buzz around topics such as “Cloud Computing”, the familiar theme of partnering has come to the fore again.

Robert Fedder, nil plus ultra Co-Founder asks: “What do you really need to do yourself and retain in-house? If it’s a special skill, which others don’t have, and it differentiates the business in a way which truly adds value – keep it, invest in it – treasure it. Objectively, many other functions and processes just aren’t special though – someone else could do them better, more cost-effectively. Such partners will inevitably have economies of scale. You just need to ensure effective partnering and contracting to make sure you get the benefit of these economies of scale, and contract in a way which gets you what you want. This takes commercial nous and business know-how. It’s very topical – we’re seeing a lot of extra cost reduction and profit through better sourcing on back-office and some front-office processes…often boosting profit by 40% through better partnering and supply – quickly”.

Mike Utting, Co-Chair Supply Chain & Commercial Group

Co-Chair of nil plus ultra’s Supply Chain & Commercial Group, Mike Utting, comments: “once the scope was typically IT, since few managers really understood it, and were happy for “outsiders” to provide an outsourced expert service. By the way, we’ve seen this kind of IT partnering rejuvenated with some new twists, branded as “Cloud” service provision. Then it moved to administration processing…but actually, partnering in many other areas, for example, HR, supply chain management or procurement, salesforce extension, telesales, marketing…can all make absolute sense, and is much more widespread”.

It’s all about the right “make or buy decision” coupled with good solid execution of the partnering arrangement. Mike explains: “there is often misplaced preference to “make” (or keep in house) things which are better done elsewhere, or “bought”. Deciding which ones should be kept in house, and which partnered, is actually a relatively straightforward thing to do – especially if you come at it with a performance-oriented and consequential perspective. However, sometimes people feel they can get more control or better quality from an employee – this is usually wrong on many levels . A motivated partner is better than a demotivated member of the payroll. A motivated, correctly contracted partner must get it right – not always so with members of staff. And partners can pool expertise, secure scale for better unit costs and even provide flexible pay as you go rates. Once the boundaries are clear, the right service provider can give better value for money, used on a flexible “as needed” basis…and is much more expert. It’s increasingly rare for managers to cling on to the ego-thing – that they must always have people on their own payroll. Nowadays, they realise there’s just as much prestige, more real control, and certainly more value – with a properly set up partnering arrangement”.

Robert Fedder adds: “Frankly, these days, the discussions about whether such partnering is a good idea in theory are pretty much over. What our client sponsors want now is to just get it done. So their attention is turning towards getting the right deals for value, performance, flexibility and so on. And they want help to do this properly, swiftly, without incurring exorbitant advisers’ fees”.

Mike Utting provides an example: “Take HR, where we’ve found clients outsource this increasingly to us. The cost-benefit is obvious, particularly for SMEs, especially if they are restructuring their workforce given the current economic climate. It can be a complex thing to right-size an organisation, and some HR departments are overstretched. They just can’t handle it without exposing the business to high risk. There are now many nil plus ultra clients who use our HR Services to provide a flexible, pay as you go expert service. Sometimes just as a supplement to the in-house team. This provides experience and expertise which would otherwise be completely beyond reach at twice the price”.

nil plus ultra provides expert capability to design and implement partnering arrangements, and can also provide specific services, on demand.

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