What we do
We provide management consulting services in Australia that are in the areas of:
- Strategy and Policy
- Governance and Performance
- Transformation and Change
- Board and CEO Solutions
Strategy & Policy
An organisation’s strategies and policies encapsulate the how, what, when and why of the business. Strategies and policies that are realistic, current and understandable determine an organisation’s direction and growth.
As the old maxim goes, those that fail to plan, plan to fail.
Strategies enable the planning and progression of the business to be efficient and guided. They link corporate direction and business objectives to the operational aspects of the business through plans for critical matters such as performance, information, digital and information technology, business intelligence, communications and transitional change.
Strategic planning is essential to the development of operational systems that hold quality information to meet business needs. Our business management consultants can take clients from innovative ideas through policy development, feasibility and business cases to the management and realisation of benefits, the mitigation of risk and corporate reporting.
Strategies must be consistent with the development of well-considered and workable policies. We have a deep understanding of the full policy development cycle, from determining options for achieving a particular policy objective, selection and design of policy to achieve the outcomes being sought through to identifying the criteria required to evaluate the impact of the policy. We understand the complexity of policy development in the public sector and have extensive experience in identifying and consulting with groups that policy change may affect.
Our management consultants in Australia can assist you with identifying and assessing the feasibility of policy options, quantifying and costing the risks and impact of new or changed policy, defining performance indicators and undertaking benchmarking studies to provide a baseline, developing policy evaluation frameworks and conducting data audits to make sure that the right data is available for evaluation.
Our strategy and policy services include:
- Policy Development
- Corporate Planning
- Strategic Planning
- Program Development
- Business Case Development
- Digital Advisory
Governance and Performance
Where strategy and policy guides good work, achieving the desired outcomes, depends on good business performance and strong business governance. Improved business performance is facilitated by arriving at a clear understanding of business’s goals, risks, and strategies. Performance and benefit measurement provides the mechanism which informs your business of the success of your corporate direction and strategy. Knowing what to measure, how to measure it, and how to report it is what leads to effective benefit and performance realisation.
We can assist you to establish the governance frameworks required for implementing policies, programs and project governance, consulting on optimising business-as-usual good practice, and improving organisational performance. By confirming the regulatory and reporting business context, determining structure, roles and responsibilities, developing guiding concepts and processes you can drive business value, reducing risk and improving quality and services.
Performance scorecards and benefits management frameworks that link to the information requirements of the organisation ensure that the effectiveness of corporate and business plans is enhanced. Changes in business focus and drivers can be properly reflected, while ensuring currency is maintained with regard to industry standards, benchmarks, and customer expectations.
We conduct reviews, assessments, health checks, analyses and evaluations of and for clients for a range of business reasons. These can include status reviews, operational reviews, implementation reviews and performance reviews. Our aim with all types of reviews is to provide factual reporting against documented needs and to recommend appropriate actions.
Our business governance and performance services include:
- Governance Development
- Benefits Realisation
- Policy Evaluation
- Performance Measurement & Review
- Operational Review
- Risk & Compliance
Transformation and Change
Business transformation – changing business to a new form – is a fundamental fact of life for organisations.
While it is essential for organisations to respond to stimulus and change as a result of a desire to innovate or environmental pressures, there are substantial costs associated with poor transformation. An appropriate level of investment in requirements, analysis and design, prior to transforming practices and systems, is vital.
Business applications that fail to meet business requirements are costly to develop, costly to fix, do not provide expected benefits, and may even damage the organisation’s business and reputation. We can help mitigate the risk of application failure and help you to recover from projects that have gone off the rails.
We can take clients from business analysis and business requirements through system specification to proposal and tender documentation and evaluation, project management and pre- and post-implementation reviews.
Our business transformation & change services include:
- Business Analysis & Modelling
- Requirements & Guidelines
- Processes & Procedures
- Solution Evaluation & Procurement
- Program, Project & Change Management
- Gateway & Implementation Reviews
Board and CEO Solutions
Leadership at Board and CEO level is critical to organisation success. With modernising work environment, we seek to supply essential support to leaders and the structures of boards, so the leadership team has its best chance of success.
Our Board and CEO solutions include:
- Board Design and Implementation
- Board Governance & Oversight
- Board Coaching & Advisory
- CEO Coaching & Advisory
- Interim Board Member & CEO
Solution benefits
Our services
An introduction to the related services for this solution.
Strategy & Policy
Policy Development
Subject matter policy design. We provide research and co-design across wide stakeholder groups to deliver relevant policies.
Strategy
We help you create a strategy to support your policies and organisation’s vision, brand and objectives.
Program Development
We develop programs of work to support the implementation of a strategy and business case.
Having led large programs of work across Government and Corporate Australia you have a proven team, tools and methodologies ready to go.
Business Case
We have developed over $10 billion worth of successful business case funding over the past decade for the Government. We provide all the skills, templates and tools to co-create a business case that is supported and funded.
BA, Project & Transformation
Business Analysis & Modelling
Our team have proven organisational business analytics experience and modelling solutions.
Requirements & Guidelines
We work with your stakeholders to create both business and technical requirements as well as guidelines for your projects.
Processes and Procedures
We provide process reviews and analysis to help optimise and sustainably enable them in your organisation. We can also assist with process recovery, co-design or optimisation.
We deliver corporate process solutions with excellent frameworks and technology solutions to support you.
Solution Evaluation & Procurement
We provide independent evaluation and procurement capability to ensure effective procurement and probity compliance.
Program Development
We develop programs of work to support the implementation of a strategy and business case.
Having led large programs of work across Government and Corporate Australia you have a proven team, tools and methodologies ready to go.
Program Delivery
We have operated significant projects across both corporate and Government and we have all the talent, process and technology to manage program and project delivery.
Change and Enablement
Leverage our proven change and enablement capabilities and proven projects to ensure your change delivers the benefits it promises to.
Gateway & Implementation review
Leverage our proven change and enablement capabilities to ensure your change delivers the benefits it promises.
Governance and Performance
Policy Evaluation
Evaluate the effectiveness of policy and make recommendations to support effective application or adjustment.
We assist by co-designing a realistic roadmap and plan to optimise the benefits the policy is intended to deliver.
Governance Development
We research your organisational needs to help co-design the right governance framework to manage performance. We have a series of proven practices and tools that can be adopted or tailored to get the best outcomes for your organisation.
Performance Measurement Reviews & Evaluations
We have tried and tested models for reviewing and recommending performance measurement frameworks, SLA’s and KPI’s suitable for your organisation.
We remove the complexity and bring in new benchmarking and thinking to support your performance objectives and organisational style.
Operational Reviews & Evaluations
We provide Government and Agency operational reviews against performance targets and government benchmarks.
We provide a clear list of recommendations and a plan to bring the recommendations to life.
Benefit Realisation
To ensure you gain the benefits from your projects we provide a benefits analysis and support service.
Audits
We provide Government audit services to support internal audit departments.
Our experience extends to contact centres, projects/programs, funding, planning and policy audits.
Risk & Compliance
Risk management modelling, management frameworks and consulting to support the effective application of risk and compliance in your organisation.
Continous Improvement
We help you review and optimise your continuous improvement models, structure and performance to provide ongoing projects that deliver both benefits and return on investment.
Business Case Planning and Development
Business cases ensure robust analysis for informed decision-making and the agreed prioritisation of expenditure. They collaborate with business and project teams, establish pragmatic approaches for specified objectives, prioritise resources and mitigate risks. They are a powerful communication tool to succinctly convey intent, scope, accountabilities and benefits.
Our Approach
Our approach to business case development is based on proven Government standards. We have developed detailed guides and templates, and tailored financial analysis tools.
Value Add
Our extensive experience, knowledge and continued involvement allows us to provide our clients the benefits of the latest outcomes and thinking in many key areas where we are directly engaged, such as:
· Expectations for Capital vs Recurrent spending
· Preferences and priorities of Government and Treasury
· Requisites of business case lifecycles and related obligations
· Integration with Business strategies and business-as-usual
· Building with Gateway Review and ICT Assurance Frameworks
· Benefits, types and approaches for Corporate savings
· Innovation/initiative lifecycles and stakeholder engagement
Resourcing
We have a team of experienced business case developers that encompass all sectors of Government. Our team’s experience covers the machinery of Government and managing successful projects from conceptualisation to implementation. We bring in-depth experience in developing costs, benefits and benefit realisation models, and provide decision makers the information needed to confidently instigate new projects.
Outcome
We have completed literally hundreds of business cases, with the value of programs ranging up to now billions of dollars, and benefits that transform entire businesses. We retain an enviable record for successfully obtaining funding and enabling practical benefits realisation.
Benefit Realisation
Business context
Organisations invest in projects in order to achieve changes to their organisational capability. The expectation is that sufficient benefits will be realised in order to improve the ‘bottom line’ and that this justifies the expenditure. The practice of benefits realisation is regarded as a critical success factor in all international standards for project delivery.
Key challenges for benefits
Benefits should be realised whenever there are changes made to organisational capability, but this is not a guaranteed outcome. A benefits management plan needs to be applied throughout any project.
Benefits realisation management is a distinct discipline and is best structured as a separate stream within any project, likely providing similar management across a number of projects. When project goals change, as they inevitably do, this approach should ensure that any impact on benefits is key to informed decisions and that benefits always remain aligned and relevant to the business.
Our Approach
A key element of the benefits management framework is that benefits realisation continues well beyond the lifecycle of the project, and the project team, that delivers the desired organisational capability change. This ongoing realisation into an often moving business environment must be managed.
Financial befefits – measurable in financial terms
Quantifiable benefits – measurable in non-financial terms
Recognisable benefits – measurable via indirect measures only
Intangible benefits – non-measurable improvements
Governance for benefits management must integrate into the highest levels with senior executive level buy-in and ownership of benefits. Progression (or otherwise) of benefits needs to be reported on regularly to provide management with an overview of actual project outcomes, not just the on-time, on-budget implementation.
Gateway, Project, Operational & Performance Management Reviews Approach
We conduct reviews, assessments, health checks, analyses and evaluations of and for clients for a range of business reasons. Our aim with all types of reviews is to provide factual reporting against documented needs and to recommend appropriate actions.
The main types of reviews that we conduct are:
Status reviews – Current position or direction of the client eg status review, needs assessment, risk assessment, literature scan, impact analysis.
Operational reviews – Capability and efficiency of the organisation, to determine gaps and opportunities for change eg process review, maturity assessment, benchmark, compliance check, IT audit.
Implementation reviews – How well a change to the organisation might work or has worked eg pre/post-implementation review, software evaluation, health check, options analysis.
Performance reviews – Effectiveness in achieving goals or objectives eg performance report, benefits realisation
Review Subjects
The focus it the review – its subject – depends on the needs of the client, and can cut across thematic or systematic aspects. Most commonly, our reviews have addressed the following subjects:
Environment– A physical, social, or other context of the client eg competitors, government policy
Organisation– All or part of the organisational structure of the client eg a department, division
Function – Something that the organisation does eg caring for patients, building roads
System/Architecture – A software application eg records management, billing
Concept – Any problem, issue or concern requiring review eg business benefits, new technology
Privacy – Personal and health information eg legislative impacts, public perception issues and consumer impacts
Customer Experience – we consider the customer experience during a review to ensure the solution will deliver the intended value
Review Methodology
The methodology of our reviews reflects the type and subject of each review, and will always be formulated to match client needs. Broadly, however, our reviews are a comparative analysis between the intended and the actual, where the intended might or might not be explicitly stated prior to the review process. Prior to any review, we establish clarity with our client on:
Review Nature – What is requested by the client
Review Type – What kind of review, based on the purpose
Subject– What is being reviewed
Target – What the review is being measured against
After knowing this, we are able to develop a bespoke methodology that will meet the expected and anticipated needs of our clients.
Solution Clients
Australia’s leading companies
Case Studies
Australian Digital Health Agency
Using Automation to manage massive call volume spikes in their contact centre enabling safe and timely delivery of Government services
Aged Care Sector
Reducing risk of medication errors and identifying how the National Electronic Health Records could bring better outcomes to those needing aged care.
The Treasury – Policy Benefit Realisation
Helping Treasury policies create value for all Australians.
ATO Benefit Realisation, Portfolio Management & Governance
Helping the ATO realise Australian economic benefits.
Maridulu Budyari Gumal – Strategy on a Page
Helping priorities funding to deliver the most beneficial health research for better Australian healthcare.
UNSW – Business Strategy
Helping UNSW with Strategy and form Alliances that deliver better outcomes for the University, its students and faculty.
Your Solution Leader
Alexander Kelly
Business Analyst
Darius Vitlin
Senior Consultant
Jenny Sinclair
Senior Consultant
Jo Rappolt
Program and Change Manager Senior Consultant
Joanna Kelly
Practice Director Digital Health & Care
Laura Leihn
Senior Consultant Value Management Senior Consultant
Peter Harrison
Practice Director Value Management Consulting
Rob Turner
Principal Consultant
Rosemary Hotten
Associate Director, Digital & Customer Strategy
Sally Mainsbridge
Principal Consultant Value Management Consulting