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Background
The company was the leading supplier of mortgage and savings systems to UK banks and building societies. The role was to lead the redevelopment of the mortgage and savings software suite from an early version of Oracle to the 11g platform, transforming it into an n-tier application, enabled for Service Orientated Architecture (SOA).
In addition to transforming the application software the company also wanted to move product development off-shore and take a new approach to how the UK operation serviced and supported its customer base.
Objectives
Approach
I started in August 2007 as the programme manager, focussed initially on creating the UK development team and selecting and building an off-shore operation. A number of options for the off-shore partner were explored and by November an Indian subsidiary with no Oracle expertise was selected. This therefore required the creation from scratch of a new centre of competence.
A unit of 12 people was established by Jan 2008 with processes in place to bring the recruits to the UK for familiarisation and training. During 1Q2008 this group continued to grow and further skills migration was done in the UK.
In parallel, the UK development team was designing and constructing the new version of the product. In May2008, it became clear that the implications of the twin strategy: developing the new product and building the competence centre were at odds and the development budget was insufficient to achieve both objectives. In addition the need to engage with customers and gain their commitment to the proposition increased in priority.
I transferred to focus on the roll out programme and customer engagement, handing over the development to a delivery manager but continuing on the steering group. A revised approach and budget was developed in 3Q 2008 with the budget increased to GBP2.6m and a timetable of a further 12 months to release.
Conclusion
At the start of 2009, with the collapse in the Savings and Mortgage market the programme was scaled down
Customer Quote:
"Jeff worked for me for just under two years as a Programme Manager and I found him to be a solid individual who would get the job done. Jeff was very approachable and would gather all the facts in order to make the right decisions. He was a good stakeholder manager and kept the relevant people informed at the right times. Not only was Jeff a strong Programme Manager, he was also a driver for business change management"