• A fast-growing UK-based Strategic and IT Consultancy

    Operating within the health sector, they wanted to double the size of their business in two years.

    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.

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  • A Leading International Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy

    After receiving a speculative offer for their business, the founder and shareholders of this 29-year-old international equality, diversity and inclusion business engaged us to take their business to market.

    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.

     

  • Global IT services provider

    When a top 10 global IT services provider needed to develop their resourcing model in parallel with a significant organisational change in their UK operation, we were more than up for the challenge. But with the organisation operating in over 50 countries, it was far from straightforward.

    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.

     

  • A Strategic Management Consultancy

    Garwood helped this fast-growing, disruptive, consultancy based in UK and Netherlands, successfully implement a PSA solution.

    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 (now Kantata), 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.

     

  • A Global Technology solutions company

    Garwood helped the organisation’s European Professional Services operation – based in 19 countries – significantly improve business performance.

    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 (now Kantata) 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 practices 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 PSA solution to deliver business results.

     

  • A Global Payroll and HR technology and services provider

    A large, European based business wanted to transform and standardise its operations and technology enablement.

    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 (now Kantata) 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 PSA solution efficiently with minimal risk to their business.

     

  • A UK-based Private Equity investment business

    A large UK-based Private Equity business was looking to invest in and partner with a £30-million turnover company to take advantage of a significant potential market opportunity, and came to us to conduct an Operations Due Diligence project for the business.

    Having already completed Phase 1 Financial Due Diligence, they engaged Garwood Solutions to identify potential risks and opportunities, and work with them to create a post-transaction improvement plan, to support growth ambitions and projections.

    Over a four-week period, and using our proven methodology, we conducted a structured Operations Due Diligence. Among other things, this included assessing the target company’s processes, capabilities, and governance. We looked to analyse the strengths of their operations and identify the areas where improvements could be made.

    Based on our findings, we made clear, prioritised recommendations to the executive teams of both the client and the target company to mitigate risks and improve post-transaction operations and performance.

     

  • A UK-based Charity

    A UK-based charity wanted to diversify its sector offering with the acquisition of a complementary consultancy business.

    Having identified their acquisition target and initiated the appropriate structured due diligence, the charity engaged with us to determine the correct business valuation and deal structure.

    Working alongside their financial, commercial and legal due diligence partners, we assessed the acquisition target’s commercial potential and risk. Furthermore, we advised on a suitable valuation range based on prevailing market conditions. We put forward a deal structure to incentivise the target company to realise its commercial potential, whilst protecting our client against the risk of them failing to do so.

    We also provided an initial, deferred, and bonus consideration structure with values (stage payments) and business performance thresholds.

    Our client successfully completed the acquisition of the target company earlier this year.

     

  • A UK-Based Provider of Pension Administration

    Garwood worked with a leading UK-based provider of pension administration, with over a thousand client relationships and 670 employees after their acquisition of an actuarial consulting firm.

    The acquisition was part of a plan to expand their capabilities and scale their business, and they wanted to move the newly-acquired business onto their existing Kantata PSA platform quickly (within a two month period) in order to drive increased efficiency and consistency.

    Garwood was asked to advise on the correct approach, identify risks and mitigations, and formulate the onboarding plan. We facilitated and supported the business, finance, and technical teams through successful deployment.

    This involved a rapid Operational Readiness review and testing of the revised Kantata reconfiguration, planning and execution of the data migration from the acquisition’s legacy systems, and support to help the business adopt an effective business process.

    The project was completed in time and within budget because of the deep expertise of the Garwood consultants as serial users, and implementors of PSA solutions and Kantata in particular. We are adept at bringing practical advice, realism and experience to the process and plan, and have a business-led approach and perspective. In this instance, it was also vital for us to be able to facilitate efficient engagement between the client and Kantata SMEs

     

Trusted advisors to…

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    Operations Director | UK-based embedded technology services provider

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    Program Director | Large international technology services provider

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    Chief Information & Process Officer | Large international technology services provider

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