Case studies of the application of TOP™ tools, techniques and templates to organizations.

More case examples are in the full book, THE TOP BOOK

Drake International – Recruitment services

Challenge
Previous 2 year project had failed to build a case for a new finance system costing $11.8m

Results
Extended scope to include all business functions, took 48% of the operating complexity out and delivered a positive business case and then solution for $12.5m for the whole company. Solution was then rolled out worldwide

Solaris/AGL – Utility

Challenge
Company created from six other companies therefore having at least six ways of doing everything and few useful systems

Results
Simplified and standardized all processes, taking out 66% of the process steps, and progressively installed a new systems strategy costed at $19m (when Accenture, for a comparable utility at the same time costed the same strategy at over $80m)

Coles Myer – Retailer

Challenge
Major ($82m) project was replanning each month but not making progress. Scope unclear and constantly moving

Results
Simplified the number of transactions to focus the scope and eliminated 'nice to haves' that delivered little-to-no value. Project delivered for $35m

Bluescope Steel – Manufacturer/distributor

Challenge
IT systems security project business case knocked back by the Board as it had no benefits despite several severe outages that took out the manufacturing plants and cost tens of millions of dollars

Results
Project repositioned as a business project and $5.6m of realizable benefits and $1.6m of productivity benefits identified and accepted by the Board when they then approved the project

Australia Post – Postal authority

Challenge
Attempts to streamline and improve the sales processes had met insummountable opposition and had, consequently, failed

Results
All sales-oriented processes simplified and integrated allowing a reduction in supporting systems of over 60% and an increase in net revenue of over $40m

Stratus/Origin Energy – Utility

Challenge
Moving from a government-owned entity to become a commercial business – the processes and culture needed changing, fast

Results
Redefined the operating model for the company and simplified the processes by 43% while also reducing the systems support costs.

ANZ Bank – Bank

Challenge
Project evaluation and approval process seen to not be rigorous enough or even dealing with the right information leading to bad investments

Results
Evaluated the end-to-end business case to approval process to find multiple deficencies which were confirmed through an analysis of projects approved that should not have been. Upgraded processes and trained staff to rigorously evaluate all future project proposals reducing the number of projects that became 'Challenged' during their implementation

SA Health – State government

Challenge
Department undertaking a massive overhaul of all of its IT systems – hardware, software and structure – affecting every part of health – could they succeed?

Results
Department's overall 'project delivery capability maturity' level evaluated and 28 actions identified as required to fill the capability gaps and significantly increase the level of success achieved

Right Management Consultants – Consultants

Challenge
Rapidly growing firm was finding its sales and marketing processes and systems were inhibiting future growth

Results
Defined and designed a new marketing system that refocused and more effectively marketing activities and helped the firm manage a national organizational structure to grow at 100% for the next five years

Smorgon Steel – Steel distributors

Challenge
Firm was in the process of installing an ERP system but was also taking over another organization that was installing a different ERP system – what should they do; pursue their own ERP or adopt the acquired company's?

Results
In 10 days the two alternatives were fully costed to identify a clear winner in terms of both time and cost to implement

Victorian Education – State government

Challenge
Major projects with fully operating governance structures were still failing – the effectiveness of those in governance roles was questioned

Results
Progressive education and coaching TOPology implemented to inform and up-skill both the executives in governance roles and their project managers on how to work with and leverage the governance function effectively

Orica – Manufacturer

Challenge
Two major retail clients were demanding both adoption of full paperless B2B operations and a consequential 3% price discount to reflect the 'savings' to be made. The business case could only find $4m in savings

Results
Opportunity taken to redefine the bases of the relationship with the retailers leading to a consequential saving of over $70m through the use of B2B to eliminate many of the retailer-caused costs

Alinta – Utility

Challenge
Dynamic organization constantly growing by acquisition through using a very novel and different business model – the IT department was struggling to keep up, so we reviewed their processes and operating model maturity and effectiveness

Results
Developed a progressive capability uplift TOPology to first standardise the processes and them improve them so that they could produce better results faster and at lower cost with the same number of staff

Siemens – Distributor

Challenge
Company – consisting of eight separate entities – was to install a major SAP upgrade and had previously failed to see any real benefits from previous implementations. KPMG had estimated potential savings of $5m-$7m were possible

Results
The processes of all eight separate entities were simplified and standardized (a result never achieved before across Siemens), identifying between $18m and $30m in savings

Glaxo Smith Kline – Pharmaceutical distributor

Challenge
The new CEO challenged the annual plans with reasonable questions that the planning process did not prepare executive managers to answer; the planning process was seen to be inadequate

Results
Reviewed and simplified the end-to-end planning process and identified that the firm needed a 'scenario-based' planning process to give future investment options. Shortly after the world HQ announced it had identified the need for … a scenario based planning process – but this had cost them 1000% more to discover and taken 4 years.

Mayne Health – Health services provider

Challenge
Company wanted to exploit the Internet to capture doctor orders for tests and examinations but could not generate a cost justification

Results
Facilitated a team to analyse the opportunity and implications creating a business case with $42m in potential gains at a cost of $22m – and then verified the likely adoption rate of 15% pa by interviewing doctors, which proved to be highly accurate

Westpac Bank – Bank

Challenge
A project to uplift the bank's project delivery capability had crashed with no results. The Board demanded some real action (and results)

Results
Devised a progressive project delivery capability uplift TOPology covering the end-to-end project delivery lifecycle and consequent IT services lifecycle. Key major problems were resolved in first few months and TOPology (eventually) survived a major acquisition and several changes in management

ANZ Bank – Bank

Challenge
A project to streamline systems development had failed to gain approval as the benefits (of $6m) were deemed too low

Results
A new business case approach identified and quantified a conservative set of benefits of $24m for the same cost

Coles Myer – Retailer

Challenge
A new change manager on a project had highlighted a potential problem but was told to 'bury it' by the project manager. The Governance Team worried other things could have been 'buried'

Results
Project was found to be near implosion internally and likely to cause the business to become unprofitable if implemented. In addition the business was missing the necessary skills to operate the designed solution. The project was re-baselined and restarted to deliver a workable (and adoptable) solution

Energy Australia – Utility

Challenge
Previous project to define the electricity distribution systems needs had failed and been closed down. This was, in fact, to be attempt number three – with the attendant level of scepticism

Results
100% commitment to a solution that cost half of the expected cost as we had also reduced the operating complexity by over 52% and found new ways of generating revenue in the process

Sensis – White and Yellow pages

Challenge
Several high cost projects with little to no perceived value had caused senior management to focus on benefits realization to ensure future projects did deliver value

Results
Outcomes based benefits management processes implemented with each project team progressively trained in how to define and quantify benefits and then plan to realize them and, ultimately, report them consistently – increasing both the focus on and volume of benefits

National Australia Bank – Bank

Challenge
The bank was outsourcing to India some staff-critical processes and the Project Sponsor was a newly promoted executive who, all agreed (including herself), needed some governance coaching

Results
Project nearly went off the rails on several occasions but the Sponsor was able to intervene at critical points to refocus the project and avoid downstream problems. The project was such a success that the executive was promoted again immediately after its implementation

Telstra – Telecommunication services provider

Challenge
The CIO had introduced a number of major reforms in one of Australia's largest companies and he wanted to know how they were operating 'at the coalface'

Results
Reviewed the actual operations versus the intent and found a series of 'holes' in the implementation that negated many of the reforms intentions – the resultant action plan closed these 'holes' and achieved the CIO's true goals

Members Equity – Bank

Challenge
The 18 month banking software acquisition process had stalled and the CEO had become concerned that this indicated greater problems than just 'contractual disagreements'

Results
Found that no real definition of the bank's requirements had been identified – which, when simplified and defined, halved the time to process loan applications, simplified the organizational structure and quantified an additional $52m in benefits that had never been identified before

Ergon Energy – Utility

Challenge
Government mandated cost savings were not being found in the IT area – the CEO did not accept that IT costs could not be reduced

Results
In one day, when challenged to halve their costs, by focusing on their true business outcomes andmeasures of success, the IT department found 20% of cost reductions that could be implemented immediately, placating the CEO and preventing an 'external review'