CLIENT STORIES
Our team has the experience you need. Read the case studies below to find out how we’ve helped others just like you.
With the recent completion of a Management Buy Out, there was a requirement to review and overhaul the technology infrastructure and operating model to support and facilitate growth and drive operational efficiency at scale.
Garwood Solutions was introduced to provide expert, independent advice on the selection and deployment of a Professional Services Automation (PSA) solution to enable a transformed operating model.
Channel 3 asked Garwood to support them through the whole process from Business Preparation (understanding the as-is and development of To Be business processes, and User Stories for the PSA), through Procurement and Deployment of a CMAP solution.
Through the facilitation of effective communication with all stakeholders, the project was delivered on time, on budget and with full deployment and adoption across the business.
We helped the leadership team prepare the business for sale, before leading the market assessment and engagement, and finally negotiating the sale. We worked closely with both the seller and the buyer to agree the post-acquisition growth strategy, ongoing investment case and governance model.
The sale was negotiated in just five months, across two phases: initial engagement to heads of terms in the first two months, and heads of terms to financial close in the subsequent three months.
With our support, the business was sold for an enterprise value four times the speculative offer. With performance bonuses included, this amounted to a total value of more than five times the speculative offer.
Following the acquisition, the business has continued to flourish, having already embarked on the growth strategy agreed during the sale process.
The challenge was exacerbated by a lack of central visibility of demand, ad hoc data being held in multiple spread sheets, and managers who were protecting their key people. Senior managers were also spending too much time in internal teams and not enough time with clients, so business opportunities were being lost.
To help solve these challenges we supported the development of a new, best-practice resourcing process for the UK, aligned to the evolving organisation structure.
The new model improved forecasting, by bringing all data up-to-date and in one to place. It made the company more efficient, by reducing human error, the need for contractors, the time assigning resource, and the time manually creating reports. And it improved employee morale, because everyone was more aware of projects in the pipeline and what that meant for their own day to day work.
The Partners wanted to standardise and industrialise their business processes to support future growth and greater efficiency – and in particular to improve scheduling of their talent pool, client billing, Associate self-billing, and time & expense capture.
Working alongside Kimble, Garwood brought our proven PSA deployment methodology and toolset to ensure an efficient and successful 6 month implementation project – from foundation assessment, through iterative Sprints, integration, data migration and post go live adoption support. Central to the success was Garwood’s knowledge and understanding of the client’s business, operating ethos and values.
The client was facing challenges with the performance of the business, had inconsistent business processes and practices across geographies, and lacked comparable performance data and KPIs. They had implemented the Kimble PSA 2 years previously but it was being used inconsistently and information was of little value, and not being used.
Garwood assessed the existing Operating model and capabilities against industry best practice and benchmarks, identified actions for improvement, formulated a pragmatic deployment programme and then supported the first phases of implementation across the 19 countries.
Key to the success was Garwood’s Directors track record and first hand practical experience of leading and driving the performance of large multi-national consulting firms. We also brought unique insight on how to implement the Kimble PSA to deliver business results.
With a complex ecosystem of legacy systems – varied by different geographies and service lines – choosing and integrating the right PSA solution was integral to the running and scaling of the business. They chose Kimble’s PSA solution.
Garwood was introduced by Kimble to assess the readiness of the business, identify major changes and risks, and support with necessary preparatory work to ensure the programme for success.
Over a four-week period, Garwood ran an in-depth assessment, engaging senior SMEs from across the business. This involved Operating Model Canvas workshops and in-depth analysis of processes and systems.
Garwood worked closely with the business to implement an independent, tried and tested PSA Business readiness assessment methodology which enabled an objective, efficient, fixed-price project to be delivered on time.
This business is now ready to implement the Kimble solution efficiently with minimal risk to their business.