Delivering a successful IT Transformation

Over the past few years, they had seen significant growth in the range and complexity of services offered, the public profile of the organisation, and its critical positioning to make finance work for smaller businesses. This was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the bank released the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, and Future Fund to enable businesses to access finance more quickly during the outbreak. 

To enable the bank to respond to this demand, a new two-year IT strategy was developed which aimed to transform the IT function and deliver a robust technology foundation, which once in place, would position the bank to be able to better exploit technology innovations and better support evolving business objectives. 

The IT transformation focused on the following areas: 

• Infrastructure modernisation 
• Cloud operating model and migration 
• Procurement of a new outsourced IT delivery partner 
• Cyber security 
• IT service delivery transformation, and 
• Business application rationalisation. 

Project One supported the Bank through the full lifecycle of the IT transformation, which was run as part of a wider enterprise transformation across the Bank.  

During the setup and mobilisation phase, Project One brought clarity and structure, devising an IT transformation roadmap that detailed the delivery of the strategic objectives and their constituent projects over a two-year period. Project One planned and orchestrated working sessions with key stakeholders to perform resource forecasting and technical dependency analysis to drive project prioritisation and sequencing for the roadmap. The team designed and stood up the programme governance structure, ensuring effective planning and reporting at the various levels. 

Working with IT leadership, we devised the business benefits case, conducting multiple workshops to drive the identification of benefits at the individual project level, and defined a schedule for benefits realisation over the course of the IT transformation and beyond.  

Following setup and mobilisation of the IT transformation programme, Project One oversaw end-to-end delivery across multiple workstreams and suppliers, actively driving delivery across the teams, holding suppliers to account, and facilitating the resolution of delivery and supplier issues as they arose. 

Several months before both the IT transformation and wider enterprise transformation were due to close, Project One was asked to devise a framework and approach to ensure that business readiness activities across the enterprise-wide transformation had been appropriately identified and were fit for purpose. Delivered through a key workshop orchestrated by Project One, gaps and opportunities across all business readiness initiatives were identified in sufficient time to allow them to be remedied ahead of programme closure. 

“You made a massive difference and I’m not sure how you kept dealing with one horrendously difficult thing after another, but you did.” Managing Director, Data. 

The transformation succeeded in its objective of building a foundation of robust and resilient IT systems and services. Specifically, the IT transformation delivered a new cloud operating model, migrated multiple legacy applications to the cloud, remedied critical IT infrastructure risks, selected, procured, and transitioned to a new delivery partner, transformed the IT service delivery function, fixed a number of cyber security vulnerabilities, and defined a roadmap to rationalise the IT application estate.  

Project One brought the following benefits to the IT transformation: 

• A structured approach to programme shaping and delivery, that was tailored to the customer’s specific situation and context. 
• A collaborative approach to identifying and detailing business outcomes and benefits, ensuring senior stakeholder buy-in throughout.  
• Clarity and precision in stakeholder messaging and reporting, instilling confidence and a sense of comfort in the executive team. 
• Orchestration and coordination of multiple delivery streams, and robust supplier management. 

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theteam@projectone.com