We were hired by a top 10 hedge fund to help them through a technology transition. They were in the process of moving part of their business to a new entity and they were running into problems and needed help.
As part of this transition, they needed to disentangle part of the company from its current technology infrastructure to a completely new technology infrastructure that was being stood up at the new organization.
We were brought into the process after it had been started and we learned that they had missed every deadline to date, and one of the main reasons they hired Valerity was to help solve the overall problem and prevent them from missing future deadlines, which would cost them a significant amount of money.
We needed to do a quick assessment to understand where things were and where they needed to be. While there was a high-level roadmap in place of what needed to be done, the details were completely missing from their roadmap and the teams weren’t proceeding with clear direction.
SITUATION:
After our assessment we found the following issues:
Change was happening at different levels in the company and we learned that five different teams were being moved to the new entity.
Unfortunately, the change management team that was in place had no clear operating structure nor plan to facilitate the move, resulting in a very reactionary environment with no direction.
Every deadline had been missed because there was no plan nor details on how to actually meet the deadlines. Essentially there were no detailed plans nor any clear roadmap on how they were going to make all of this happen, much less how they were going to meet any deadlines.
The teams that were being moved were extremely frustrated because little was being communicated to them and they were just being told things to do, and often those directions were miscommunicated.
And while all of this was going on there was no means to collect data, feedback nor ways to collaborate with the team at the new entity.
As you can imagine, things were not in a good state.
ACTION:
So, we needed to jump in quickly and make changes that would not only get them on track, but ensure they started making the deadlines.
We started by creating and implementing an overall change management plan to fix the problems they were currently having and getting everyone on a course for success. As part of that plan, we detailed the needs of each of the 5 groups being moved, and made sure everyone was on the same page with regard to the changes needed from both a technology and staffing perspective.
The plan was designed to streamline the process as quickly as we could to allow the changes to happen and allow us to meet the upcoming deadlines.
The plan was a clear Roadmap that structured how and when each team would be moved with clear communication to all involved so future deadlines would not be missed. This was not an easy task.
We then had to understand what data needed to be migrated, and how to do that without violating the fund’s security protocols. It was a bit of a catch 22, we needed to move the information and systems, but the security protocols in place prevented moving them.
We put new technology and staffing plans in place to smooth the transition, and we merged all intakes into a consolidated platform
And we used the assessment to identify gaps in software and hardware needs and acquisition to ensure the teams had what they needed when they made the transition.
RESULTS:
This project was complicated and challenging from the start. In the end, we were able to accomplish the following for our client.
- We launched three waves of transition to get the teams over to the new organization.
- We removed the roadblocks that prevented the move from happening,
- While establishing a security review process that allowed business to continue during the transition. In other words, we helped navigate the conflict of their current protocols with the need to move tech that violated those previous protocols
- We prevent employee turnover by communicating with the teams and getting their buy in before the changes and the move took place.
- We removed the roadblocks that prevented employees from moving to the new tech at the new entity, which was not an easy task.
- We created a significantly better user experience for the end uses and created a standard intake for new clients that simplified the process, which had been more complicated in the past.
- And in doing all of that, we saved the company a minimum of $200K in penalties by ensuring we made the deadlines.
- We also saved them up to another $200K from contractual penalties by ensuring we were on track.
In the end, we helped the hedge fund navigate a complicated roadmap to transition the five teams to the new organization in a way that not only allowed them to keep on doing business, but also simplified much of the technology and process at the new entity.
While also saving them a considerable amount of money.
This case underscores the need for a clear assessment and a roadmap when undertaking technology change, as we outline in our ROI Transformation Method. The client’s team was struggling and missing deadlines because they had not clearly defined what needed to be done and how it would be done.
Once we completed the assessment and gave them clarity on their roadmap, we were able to affect change that, again, saved them a lot of money.
If you’d like to understand more about how to get control over your technology, including maximize your ROI and minimizing your risk, schedule a time to speak with us here.
Share this Post