- Constriction Innovation Hub
CI Hub: From Overwhelming Challenges to a 40% Reduction in Reporting Time
- Overview & Stats
The UK government’s innovation hub, comprising three leading organisations, faced significant challenges in coordinating diverse programs and managing organisational complexities.
Milestones Analysed
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Deliverables Loaded
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Individual Project Reports Replaced
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Centralised Dashboard
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DB
- Case Study.
What We Did For CI Hub
Background
An innovation hub had been established by the UK government to drive technological advances within the UK construction and infrastructure sectors. The hub brought together three of the leading organisations from the built environment as partners to collaboratively deliver four major programmes that were critical for the transformation and competitiveness of the sector. The changes were large scale and wide-ranging and within these programmes were 60 separate projects across 18 workstreams. A centralised Senior Management Team and PMO had been formed within the innovation hub to coordinate the delivery of the integrated programmes.
The Challenge
The central PMO was facing significant challenges in coordinating the integration of the three partner organisations into the hub, with their own cultures and ways of working, and managing the complexity of implementing the four programmes. The administrative burden of the hub’s implementation approach was high and starting to overwhelm. Together these factors were causing the programmes delivery to slip dramatically and posed a serious risk of failure.
Amarji were engaged to enable the innovation hub to transform the programme delivery reporting capability and reduce labour intensity by streamlining the programme management.
Solutions Implemented
Amarji conducted a detailed analysis of the innovation hub’s programme management systems, operating rhythm and decision-making processes, including assessing the true resource load across the programmes, and reported back to the client.
Issues were identified across a range of programme areas such as the lack of work plan and version control, unclear accountabilities including an inability to identify project owners and responsibilities for specific tasks, a reactive approach to PMO actions and decision-making, inefficient decision-making cycles and response times, actual project performance being masked by workload, and unstructured meetings that undermined the programme focus.
Amarji proposed a shift in approach in the client’s reporting process and implemented new tools into the client’s way of working accompanied by the training and coaching of more than 80 people on the system. The new reporting system enabled clear accountabilities for all programme deliverables and the ability to transparently track progress in near real-time. With this one agreed source of truth, the client was able to start to regain control over their programmes.
The new operating methodology also required behaviour change within the hub and partner organisations, which they were coached in by Amarji. Amarji worked with the client to demonstrate how the way we report could make a difference to key areas of programme implementation such as strategic meetings. The one version of the truth generated by the dashboards focused conversations on agreed information, driving accurate, data-backed understanding that enabled better decisions to be made. This turned reactive into proactive programme management with forecasting, planning and control. It also accelerated decision-making cycles to prevent issues arising in advance.
Amarji also worked closely with the innovation hub to create a highly effective feedback loop throughout the programme implementation. This used Agile methodology to continuously enhance the dashboards through sprints to address the client’s evolving needs and overcome any problems as they emerged.
The Outcome Achieved
Amarji’s engagement transformed the client’s ability and capabilities to manage, implement and deliver change. Amarji’s new approach to combined reporting using Power BI and the client’s adoption of associated working behaviours resulted in all four programmes returning to schedule and delivering their intended outcomes. Project performance significantly improved with immediate overdue items identified and actioned, while the overwhelming administrative burden of the project was dramatically reduced, with savings made in automating the reports alone amounting to >120 people hours per month or a 40% reduction in reporting time.
The collaborative effort didn’t just automate reporting; it catalysed a cultural shift within Airedale Group, enabling them to harness data effectively and strategically, propelling the business towards continued growth and success.
What the Client Said
The whole experience with Amarji has been excellent. Our Programme is quite complex but Amarji were able to tailor the design of their support to meet our specific requirements. We were impressed at how effectively Amarji were able to consolidate the information from multiple projects and workstreams into one tool, providing us with one version of the truth and the full picture of our Programme. Using the power bi solution has significantly reduced our administrative load saving us time, resources, and money.
The collaborative effort didn’t just automate reporting; it catalysed a cultural shift within Airedale Group, enabling them to harness data effectively and strategically, propelling the business towards continued growth and success.
Angelique, Business Manager, CIH
