As with any other critical IT delivery solution, Essex County Council faced a number of challenges which could have impact on the successful completion of the project. They needed to be in a position to drive the delivery quickly and effectively, but not to compromise on the quality. With the cost-saving challenges that the Council faced, the they also required the programme to be achieved on budget, and they knew that having an external partner assisting in delivery, such as risual, there would be fewer impacts from internal challenges.
The solution
Given Essex County Council’s requirements, risual’s Customer Engagement process was the perfect solution to achieve the customer’s expectations. risual provided the Council with an “Engagement Manager” who was a single point of contact and was responsible from risual’s perspective for the customer relationship with Essex County Council. They became the key touchpoint for all elements with particular focus on delivery inline with the timescales, budget and technology. They were accountable for driving the project through to completion, with a fast delivery but ensuring that quality was not compromised in any way. Alun Rogers from risual comments, “We knew from previous experience through our engagement process, that success would result from excellent communication, strong technical expertise and proactive management of the change and messages within Essex County Council. Our unique approach meant that we were able to provide the right risual resource at the right time and shape the delivery milestones to meet the business objectives, blending in the appropriate skill-set at the right point in time.” This extra resource that risual provided to Essex County Council also ensured an objective viewpoint free from any internal impacts and meant that the project was kept on track irrespective of central restraints.
The benefits
Essex County Council experienced a wide range of benefits from risual’s unique engagement model.
• Single Point of Contact for Delivery. risual’s Engagement Manager offered Essex County Council a single point of contact with accountability for delivery, offering both technical expertise and business change experience.
• Improved Communication. risual’s engagement process resulted in an effective communication for the implementation and a business understanding of the benefits, working within the Essex County Council governance and change control procedures. However, because the Engagement Manager was an external resource they were also able to act as a neutral voice and were independent of any internal constraints.
• On Time and On Budget Delivery. risual’s Engagement Manager kept the project delivery on time and to budget without compromising quality by the ability to understand the business objectives, implementing milestone driven plans and blending in the right resource at the right point in time. Achieving the budgeted costs was also partly as a result of saving money in terms of less wasted technical resource
