ChallengesOur client, a global pharmaceutical, wanted to gain control over its ICT infrastructure to comply with the list of regulations of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). They aimed to centralize all ICT activities after which they intended to outsource it. The company had already called for a tender, but was confronted with incomparability of proposals, the feeling of losing control and strong internal resistance. The company formulated no clear drivers and objectives that were endorsed by the separate countries and the role of the central ICT department was ill-positioned. The decision-making process was not well-founded by a balanced business case. The company claimed they needed a way to overcome the inhibitions of the local companies by jointly completing a transparent and outstanding centralization and sourcing process. SolutionsQuint provided them with insight to the potential bottlenecks in the discussed centralization/sourcing process by performing a sourcing assessment. This assessment was focused on their internal capabilities, business & ICT drivers and governance structure. To be successful Quint integrated five dimensions: stakeholders, legal affairs, finance, maturity of ICT services and competences of human resources. ResultsAs a result the company initiated a joined IT strategy program, which lead up to the successful outsourcing of the common ICT infrastructure preparing it to comply with the list of regulations of the Federal Drug Administration. Moreover, for the first time the company had a sound grasp of the level of ICT costs and configuration items. Also a new ICT governance model was introduced. The transparent tendering process strengthened the position of the central ICT department.

ChallengesIn a Dutch ministry the minister forced the four main directorates to join forces and share common resources and scarce competences. As a side result, a 10% reduction of headcount is experienced. In the effort to reorganize IT Services demand and supply, the ministry asked Quint to assist in designing and implementing a new organizational unit. The task of this unit was to bundle demand for IT Services and to channel this bundled demand to the proper IT supplier. SolutionsQuint delivered a blueprint for the new organizational unit and a transition plan which was shared by the four directorates. The organizational unit is now fully operational with a smooth transition of staff from the four directorates to the new unit is completed. ResultsThe potential for headcount reduction was realized. Bundling demand for IT Services started to generate benefits due to economies of scale.

ChallengesOur client, a large bank, had been working for a long time in establishing a sourcing program, selecting vendors and designing the retained IT organization. Now the moment was near that contracts would be signed and that the transition to a new steady state would have to start. Worried and wondering whether all aspects were covered, our client requested Quint to assess the design of the ‘to be’ situation. SolutionsQuint applied the concept of ‘stress testing’ to the design and made worst case scenario with the things that typically may happen in this kind of transitions. The actual testing was done in a series of workshops with experts from the client organization. ResultsThe process and the outcome proved to set all minds at rest as major risks were clearly and substantially mitigated in the design. On some remaining issues, the workshops delivered precise actions that could be carried out in a relatively short period of time.

ChallengesThe merger of three distinct IT units into a single organization of a Dutch insurer with 1200 FTE resulted in the centralization of the Shared Service Center (SSC) IT. In 2004, the company’s turnover exceeded €7 billion, and its net profit was over €300 million. The SSC IT faced the challenge of not just merging the organization, but also of unifying the processes, practices and the workforce. SolutionsQuint played an active role in the change program to re-define and re-engineer the processes. In addition to program management, expert consulting on content, coaching of process managers and filling the position of acting process manager, Quint was also engaged in training the workforce. ResultsAfter six months the core processes were re-defined and implemented, and process output and quality were measurable. The management team could start to actively manage service delivery. As a result stability of the IT infrastructure increased, and availability of IT services to end users rose.

ChallengesOur client, a company producing and distributing drinking water, was planning for fully automated water production but had serious problems in managing the new underlying IT-applications, support processes and external suppliers of related IT services. Essentially, there was no IT-organization to support this new production process. SolutionsAs time was running out, Quint was asked to manage the transition to a new IT support unit, new contracts with suppliers and fully implemented support processes. Quint provided a program manager who defined a program addressing all issues in separate projects and who managed the actual program towards completion. ResultsAt the planned date, our client was able to switch to fully automated water production with support from the IT-organization and external suppliers in place.