success stories
The Evanston Group Success Stories
Enterprise Architecture, Fortune 50 Bank Finance Division
We worked with the CIO of Marketing & Enterprise Services for a Fortune 50 Bank Finance Division. His organization supports the technologies used by their customers. This included a $10 million multi-year initiative to update their corporate finance portal. The company’s customers use the portal to offer online business and consumer financing to their major customers such as Dell or Microsoft.
He wanted to improve his organization’s ability to perform this business critical function, which was at risk of falling behind schedule. His goal was to implement an “Enterprise Architecture” approach to improve project execution and reduce costs.
The current practices lacked the necessary organization and pragmatism to be effective in a project with aggressive deadlines. This impacted the company’s ability to effectively execute and potentially risked losing business to competitors.
We provided him with a Strategy & Architecture Consultant with deep Enterprise Architecture skills. Over the last 6 months, our consultant built a cross-functional project team, established a new best practices Security policy and selected a 3rd party software product to enable policy implementation.
The project resulted in a $1.6 million savings and proved the importance of providing unique leadership and skills in strategy and Enterprise Architecture to maintain the Company’s competitive position.
Trading Automation, Financial Services Firm
We worked directly with the CFO for a large international insurance company who wanted to automate and increase functionality for the brokerage trading operations of the company. Traders in Chicago and NYC did not have complete access to all relevant information within a consolidated interface necessary to make a fully informed buy/sell transaction nor did they have the ability to quickly transact on their position once an opportunity presented itself, they needed a much less laborious and efficient process to perform trading. Further, it was recognized by executives that a system such as this could help them identify the company’s position and the performance of individual traders in real time and thus better portfolio management could be performed far more easily and clearly.
By creating a web based ‘ticket capture system’, the company was able to improve trading bandwidth and better document and manage the company’s brokerage portfolio. By automating the entire process, Finance was able to move from fax and phone based trading operations which greatly reduced costs, improved transparency and gave a much more accurate view of the company’s investing positions in real time. Within a year of establishing the scope with the CFO and gathering requirements from Financial department staff and traders in NYC and Chicago, the system was created and all existing data converted. As a result of this system’s installation, traders could leverage more data during trading operations and more then double their trading bandwidth. The Finance department was able to much more clearly identify portfolio performance.
Marketing Data Analysis, Major Media Network
We worked with the VP of Technology at a major media network.
He wanted specialized marketing analysis on the data they receive from a major market research firm.
They wanted to avoid purchasing additional expensive products from the Marketing Research firm. The VP said they needed someone who had intimate knowledge of this Market Research firm’s data and methodology.
We provided him with a data mining specialist who had intimate knowledge of the Market Research firm’s data and methodology. Over the last 7 months our consultant managed the development of a system which will save the firm millions of dollars annually. At the end of the engagement the client told me, “you just can’t buy this anywhere”.
Executive Dashboard, Major Insurance Corporation
We worked with the VP of Technology at a major insurance corporation. He wanted to replace over 25 years of legacy reporting by bringing together an entire organization’s data sources into a single dashboard solution.
The PMO of the division had a 120M expense budget but had no way of obtaining accurate information from the current systems. They needed a way to secure real time consolidated data to better allocate budget for critical projects.
Our consultant led the implementation of dashboard solution which was delivered 3 months ahead of target. Using this dashboard, they were able to reallocate millions of dollars to critical projects and the PMO was able to limit annual expense variances to within 0.5% of budget.
The project has been acknowledged as the most successful executive dashboard program to date within this fortune 50 insurance business.
Data Center Consolidation, $80B Manufacturer
We worked with the CIO of Company who needed to consolidate ten strategic legacy data centers scattered across North America into three modern energy-efficient facilities.
These data centers represented significant geographic risk: located in earthquake and/or flood-prone areas, a single lost operational day represented as much as a $25M/day productivity loss. Maintenance costs for existing facilities were projected to exceed $180M.
We provided an experienced data center optimization professional to create a strategy for capacity, location, and business continuity by custom designing a migration plan. This plan significantly reduced their risk exposure while allowing them to operate substantially greater technology capabilities for approximately the same cost.
Program Manager, Healthcare Firm
We worked with senior executives Parent Company for their Company spin off. They needed to enable entirely separate systems and operations based on SEC requirements, or face substantial fines and loss of tax benefits.
At the same time they were in the middle of a global SAP system implementation that required the assimilation of existing systems, and creation of new regional IT groups to support international business.
We provided a seasoned Program Manager who worked with the management team both locally and in the international regions. He developed a strategic vision for implementation, integrating non-SAP systems with SAP into a consolidated approach.
The company succeeded in meeting the SEC deadlines, avoiding any fines or tax issues. The team was successfully integrated and the regions were fully aligned with corporate objectives.
Global eLearning Solution, Healthcare Firm
I worked with the Chief Technology Officer at a major pharmaceutical company who wanted a cost effective global training solution for their software migration efforts.
They needed to effectively and quickly reach an audience of 35,000 employees. They wanted to avoid purchasing off-the-shelf training that would have cost them US$1.2 million.
We provided them with an eLearning specialist. Over the course of 6 months, he developed an extensive system for the client that allowed the employees around the world to train themselves and become self-sufficient.
This resulted in a savings of over $800,000 for the organization.
Business Process, Healthcare Firm
We worked with the General Manager for a major supplier of hospital infusion devices.
His mission was to build out a new revenue generating business unit for implementing technology-based infusion devices at hospital sites. He needed a very short time-to-market for this highly competitive product.
Previous deployment had taken many weeks (with varying degrees of chaos). The client requested our assistance in creating a precise, cost efficient, repeatable process for rolling out these complicated devices.
Over the next year, we built the process playbook for the division that integrated the hospitals and medical organization's teams. Using our process the client was able to successfully deploy more than 50 hospital implementations while reducing the time-to-market to 8-12 weeks per site.
Interim CFO for a division of Financial Firm
We worked with the president of a division of Company who needed to fill a vacant CFO role. He had paid for a retained search with a well-known executive search firm. 9 months later they still had no viable candidates.
He deployed his VP of Finance to the role in the interim, however this individual now had 2 jobs to do and could not do justice to either. Also, the VP of Finance was not experienced enough for the role. They had a number of critical cost containment programs that were hurting for leadership.
Within 2 weeks from meeting our client we brought him the right person for the job. He was first engaged as an interim CFO and 4 months later converted to the permanent position.
This CFO was able to quickly come up to speed, join the C-level team and assume competent leadership of the firm’s finance function.
Video Surveillance Systems, Major Oil & Gas Firm
I worked with the CIO of Company. They needed to comply with Homeland Security mandates to install sophisticated surveillance systems in their terminals.
The need for rapid compliance and protection had increased. The manager of the terminals said he needed a way to install a large number of surveillance systems, more rapidly, while controlling costs. He thought he needed a team that would better and more quickly integrate these new devices into his existing network and systems.
We provided the client with a highly qualified Sr. Project Manager / Engineering Specialist with extensive experience installing video surveillance systems.
During the past year our specialist teamed with just one client person has installed 12 complete systems (out of 19 total planned). They will be well ahead of meeting security mandates. An additional benefit is accidents on camera to reduce exposure to lawsuits, and a savings of over $4M dollars.
Project Managers, Healthcare Firm
In 2004 Company was extricating itself from Parent Company. Their Systems Integrator and staff aug firms could not provide the leadership and business consultants quickly enough to complete the work on time. They risked heavy FDA fines if they did not make their deadlines.
Their own management was limited and over committed and they just did not have the bandwidth to address all the problems.
They engaged The Evanston Group and we quickly provide them with 78 interim leaders and specialists over the next 2 years. Our people were able to jump into complicated undefined problems, work with Parent Company and Company customers to develop solutions, create project charters and then drive the projects to completion.
They were able to make the FDA deadline and avoid millions of dollars in fines.
Process Improvement, Major Oil Refinery
I am working with the CFO of one of the largest oil refineries in the world. He is concerned about the lost dollars and lost opportunities resulting from reactive and inefficient operations. Refining is a very corrosive process and they are spending way too much money on maintenance for the facilities, pipes, valves, heaters, burners and stacks. They need a way to better anticipate and avoid high maintenance costs. Furthermore, they often incur huge fines from their shipping partners. This is because of inefficiencies that prevent them from receiving their cargo within the 72-hour window allowed. In addition, they often get fined by the FDA for waste and spillage violations.
The CFO needs a way to improve operations across the entire enterprise. His goal is to create a forward-looking, production-centered organization.
The Evanston Group provided him with an executive level professional who is working with the executive team and leading this effort using Lean Six Sigma. All functional areas of the organization are being targeted, from procurement and plant operations to finance and accounting. I spoke to the CFO the other day and he said that our consultant (who has been there for 9 months) is doing a terrific job in building and organizing a team to work these changes across the organization beginning with plant maintenance for early savings.
The plan when implemented will realize $100M of savings over the next 5 years starting with about $25M in 2009.
