Case Study

IT Systems Upgrade

IT PROJECTS

Key Highlights

Achieve Success Driven Results

Cost Reduction

Projecting with People was able to reduce licence costs and system downtown and as a result increased staff productivity.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Due to reliable data and appropriate customer service, customer satisfaction was increased significantly.

Improved Staff Morale

Staff morale was improved as systems were able to meet their needs, easier to use and enabled automation.

The Client

The client is an Australian subsidiary of an alcoholic beverage company now owned by a Global producer of alcoholic, non-alcoholic and food business group. The client has produced home-grown alcoholic beverage for over 115 years with a reputation very well embedded into the Australian culture.

At the time of engagement, the company had 12 offices across Australia.

The Problem

Due to out-dated applications, the client required a project delivery consultant to conduct a company-wide Microsoft Windows upgrade across all desktops and mobile devices. The company was experiencing multiple system shutdowns, loss of data, inability to receive new file formats as they did not integrate with the old systems. These issues were having major impacts to customer and stakeholder response times, an ability to meet day-to-day business requirements, inaccurate and loss of data amongst several other issues.

While the company had considered using its in-house IT department to manage the project, it was apparent that the team were not equipped to forecast and mitigate risks which undoubtedly would have an overall impact on business as usual functions.

The greatest risks they faced were that they did not fully know the number of systems needing to be upgraded as well as the current data and configurations on each system as this information was not consistently recorded or managed. Without this knowledge and experience to know how to manage such a scenario it was difficult for the IT team to accurately forecast timelines and costs or understand the levels of impact.

The Solution

Projecting with People (PWP) in partnership with a specialist Microsoft software vendor worked together to present a worst and best case strategy, demonstrating the costs, timelines, risks, benefits and impacts of each scenario. As the client was clearly able to see each viable option, they felt comfortable to proceed with a 2-vendor approach. PWP managed the project strategy, management, governance and stakeholder consultation while the Microsoft vendor carried out and managed the delivery. The project involved the following:

Ensured accessibility of accurate electronic stock list across all devices incl. desktop and mobile devices across the company.
Standardised company approved operating systems managed remotely from the head office.
Updated and improved enterprise document management system.
Improved system security and firewall protection.
Ensured system governance over operating systems and software.
Ensured system efficiency, reliability and security.
Ensured consistent staff training was in place company-wide

The Result

Projecting with People was able to reduce licence costs and system downtime and as a result increased staff productivity. This also resulted in increased customer satisfaction due to reliable data and appropriate customer service. Finally, staff morale was improved as systems were able to meet their needs, easier to use and enabled automation.