01 Jun

Rescued Global HR Data Integration Program for a Global Pharmaceutical Client

Abby Grable Case Studies, Data Management & Analytics, Enterprise IT, Implementation Planning, IT Strategy, Program Management

Rescued Global HR Data Integration Program for a Global Pharmaceutical Client

A global pharmaceutical client with decentralized HR operations needed to integrate data from 60+ countries and 80+ local HR systems to their centralized Workday® platform in 12 months. They had contracted two well-known consulting companies to support sourcing employee data and loading the data to Workday ® through a Teradata data warehouse as well as build ongoing interfaces from 25+ other source systems to an Informatica MDM hub.

Nearly half-way through the planned implementation, requirements had not been finalized for any of the 80+ local HR systems, inaccurate status was reported to senior management, and the chosen strategy would not meet the client’s overall objectives.

What We Did

We revamped the entire strategy to leverage a global, regional, and in-country team structure to maximize team member contributions, time zones, communication preferences, and local languages to mobilize “boots on the ground

Developed Data Sourcing Toolkit

We developed and iteratively improved a Global Data Sourcing Toolkit to ensure that stakeholders around the world had clear and consistent understanding of background, purpose, approach, timelines, expectations, templates, definitions, business rules, and other requirements.

Streamlined Project Management

We simplified project management practices so the team could focus on working rather than constantly reporting status​. Examples include dividing schedule governance, so the global team focused on overall timelines while in-country teams focused on their own detailed timelines and activities; improving communication flow to eliminate the need for team members to provide the same information to many people; and streamlining dashboards to focus on the most salient points.

Client Results

Leveraging tailored PrO PMO processes and tools, our client increased their project delivery rate from 18% to 79% in just one year. This transformation provided leadership and stakeholders with better visibility into IT priorities and ensured critical initiatives were completed as promised.

0
Countries
Successfully integrated into single, global Workday platform
0
Local HR Systems
Integrated to share core HR data with global stakeholders
0
Worker Records
Successfully integrated
0 %
Accuracy
Data quality metric achieved through initiative, which was nearly 10% higher than client’s objective
04 May

Quadrupled # of IT Projects Completed Within One Year

Abby Grable Case Studies

Quadrupled # of IT Projects Completed Within One Year

An early-stage biotech client was struggling to understand, organize, and deliver critical IT initiatives. As a result, IT was reactive to the needs of its stakeholders, who were extremely dissatisfied.

Understanding the value of project management processes and project governance, our client asked us to help assess and organize the work and devise simple yet impactful changes to ensure the work got done.

WHAT WE DID

Assessed The Work

We scheduled interviews with IT leaders to understand what they were working on, including responding to and resolving tickets, modifying existing systems, and implementing new systems, and we captured all salient details. During the course of these interviews, we started to obtain a sense that IT was working on a mix of steady-state and temporary initiatives.

Organize the Work

Then, we sought to organize the work—to do so, we introduced the idea of a project (an initiative with a defined start and end date intended to achieve a specific set of goals) and we placed those projects onto a Gantt chart. We then shared that Gantt with each IT lead to help them track the most critical and visible items their teams were working on.

Rolled Out Basic Project Management Framework

To ensure the work got done, we devised and rolled out a basic project management framework, including a stage gate, to evaluate and prioritize new initiatives. In doing so, we set basic expectations of what constitutes a project, how projects should be managed, and how project updates should be communicated. In addition, we created and introduced several basic tools and templates that project managers used to capture project scope and objectives, kick off projects, and dashboards.

CLIENT RESULTS

Leveraging tailored PrO PMO processes and tools, our client increased their project delivery rate from 18% to 79% in just one year. This transformation provided leadership and stakeholders with better visibility into IT priorities and ensured critical initiatives were completed as promised.

IT Projects Completed in 1st Year
79%
IT Projects Completed in 2nd Year
92%
IT Projects Completed in 3rd Year
94%
IT Projects Completed in 4th Year
98%
03 May

Diagnosed Issues Derailing Our Client’s Coupa Implementation and Advised on a Better Path Forward

Abby Grable Case Studies, Enterprise IT, Implementation Planning, IT Strategy

Diagnosed Issues Derailing Our Client’s Coupa Implementation and Advised on a Better Path Forward

Our client lacked centralized procurement processes and tools to support its complex organization structure, which consisted of a parent company and 25+ subsidiaries. As such, procurement was a major pain point, and there was a critical need for a system that would centralize and optimize procurement processes.

To address these challenges, our client kicked off a two-phased project in August 2020. The first phase intended to implement Coupa P2P and integrate it with the existing NetSuite ERP. The second phase aimed to integrate Coupa P2P with SAP, which was to ultimately replace NetSuite as the organization’s future state ERP.  

Phase one was targeted to go-live January 1, 2021 and phase two was targeted to go-live on October 1, 2021. Roughly eight weeks before the phase one go-live, it was clear that the project was significantly off track and the January 1, 2021 go-live was not going to happen.

What We Did

  • We conducted a project deep dive to understand what was going on. In doing so, we reviewed the system implementer’s statements of work to confirm key deliverables, timelines, resourcing, and fee structure. We also analyzed project spend to date. We determined that resources from the vendor lacked the necessary experience in several key roles including project management, business analysis, and solution architecture to effectively lead the project team through the implementation.
  • Moreover, we discovered that the Coupa SI had been planning to integrate the system with NetSuite, meanwhile the organization was actively implementing a new ERP (SAP) which was to go live in just a few months. This meant that significant re-work would need to be done to integrate Coupa with SAP once the new ERP was live.
  • In short, the Coupa SI was not leading the client through the implementation in a strategic and effective manner.
  • Once the vendor’s shortcomings were uncovered, we rapidly built a business case to change course. We recommended that our client offboard the existing Coupa SI and collaborated with the client and SAP implementation team to make a decision to pivot the approach to integrate with the new ERP. As a result, the vendor was offboarded, the project was re-scoped, and the go-live date was pushed to accommodate the new approach. When it came time to hire a new system implementation vendor, we helped to architect and execute the process whereby the new vendor was chosen.
  • We partnered with the finance team leader to build a supplier assessment questionnaire that was utilized to assess multiple vendors being considered. Additionally, we actively aided in the negotiation and contracting process to select the new system implementation vendor. Lastly, we helped the new vendor acclimate to the project and what had been accomplished to date. After the new vendor re-kicked off the project, they were able to deliver the full scope just six months thereafter.

Client Results

As a result of our intervention, the client successfully implemented the Coupa P2P system, aligning it with their new ERP, and achieved cost savings by avoiding redundant integration work. Post re-kickoff, the project was completed within just six months, restoring stakeholder confidence in IT.

1 2 3