PLC Partners, Client Case Studies & Testimonials.

Business Challenge

In March 2013 Omnicom Treasury set a key objective to have a single centralized solution for the migration of its more than 300 autonomous Eurozone agencies to SEPA – an ambitious goal, given Omnicom’s decentralized operating environment, the multitude of accounting and payroll systems, country legacy regulations and the number of banks involved.

Our Role

PLC Partners was engaged to assist with the development of project management solution and set of process which enabled Omnicom to ensure that all 300 autonomous agencies successfully completed their migration to SEPA. PLC Partners also provided SEPA payments expertise throughout the project.

Business Outcome

Full SEPA compliance implemented for all 300 agencies . By centrally managing the agencies’ transition to the new standard gave Omnicom the strategic opportunity to transform their payments infrastructure and provide a gateway to further cost savings and efficiency gains. Omnicom are currently designing a centralized payments solution for the SEPA agencies. Up to now our decentralized business model and proliferation of systems had been barriers to payment centralization.

"This project presented a lot of challenges for the Omnicom Group. We found with PLC, a partner that we could work with and who was totally committed to the success of the project. We were impressed with their professionalism, experience and level of technical expertise. Their involvement considerably helped us achieve all our objectives and complete the project on time.”
Gerry Mc Ginnity, Deputy Treasurer, Omnicom Financial Services, Limited and SEPA Migration Project Manager.

"What we thought was a cash management project turned out to be a significant IT undertaking, for which PLC Partners’ capabilities were superb.”
Dennis Hewitt, Treasurer, Omnicom Group Inc.
* Adam Smith Awards - Treasury Today 'First Class’ Bank Relationship Management Award

A leading provider of asset finance in Ireland and is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

PLC Partners has ongoing engagement with Lombard Ireland to provide project management and delivery consultancy services to a range of key projects and initiatives across their ICT operations and business. Their systems are driven by new products and functionality, regulatory and compliance, and annual audit requirements. PLC Partners delivery team comprises of an Account Manager and a team of consultants assigned flexibly as needed.

Wexford Credit Union

Wexford Credit Union engage independent consultants PLC Partners to assist with their core system implementation.

When Wexford Credit Union decided to upgrade their core system, they selected a solution offered by an established Software Provider in the Irish Credit Union market.
The management and Board of Directors were aware that the demands of a full scale project implementation were well outside the day-to-day business needs addressed by their staff. In order to effectively manage and optimise the overall success of the project, they would need to acquire professional support.
They engaged independent Project Management consultants, PLC Partners, to support them as required through all project phases. Working closely and liaising with both parties, PLC Partners used their extensive experience and unique skillset to ensure the smooth running of the project and to maintain a high level of professionalism throughout. Happily, the project was implemented very successfully, on time, on budget, and with no unplanned downtime.

Key to the success of the project

PLC Partners worked in a co-operative and flexible approach throughout the project providing both project management and project implementation expertise:

• The definition of a project charter established the scope, objectives and stakeholder expectations of the project, together with the project plan formed the agreed baseline for the controlled delivery of the solution.
• Progress was regularly monitored at agreed milestones, as the core software system was integrated.
• Data migration plans were formulated and tested well in advance of the go-live date.
• Training plans were developed at an early stage and ‘super users’ at the CU level took on the important task of learning the functionality of the new software, and in knowledge transfer to their colleagues.
• User Acceptance testing was formalised and controlled to ensure all incidents were fully resolved and incorporated for the go-live.
• Test data migrations were run to ensure the final data migration was without major incident.
• Significant resources were made available for the ‘go-live’ period to operate and support Wexford CU.
• Team collaboration and communications ensured everyone understood their roles and the how they needed to interact to ensure an optimum outcome.

Outcome

Staff were fully briefed and trained on the new software system for the go-live, migration plans were executed with fall back plans in place. Members were informed and the credit union closed for 2 business days to ensure that everything was ready to use when it reopened its doors.

The solution is now fully integrated and has the ability to meet all of the operational and strategic objectives efficiently and cost-effectively.  The entire team at Wexford Credit Union are satisfied that the co-operative and flexible approach to the project ensured its success.

E-Services and Communications Credit Union

ESCCU has been delivering financial services to the communications industry for over fifty years. With a membership of over 12,700 members and with more than €180 million in assets under management, ESCCU recently completed the successful selection and implementation of an innovative credit union system.

PLC Partners, credit union IT consultants, were engaged to manage the selection and act as the Union's project manager for the implementation of the chosen solution. As with all large system implementations, significant management and skill is required to reduce risk and ensure timely and successful deployment.

We found PLC Partner's advice, experience and expertise invaluable in making sure that there was a smooth changeover from the old IT system to the new one. The services of PLC Partners were vital in planning project stages and assessing the business implications for each one. They provided a central role managing the relationship with the System Provider. We are now in a much better position with regard to our operations and member services
ESCCU management team.

Ultimately the use of best-of-breed quality control methodologies ensured the projectís success. The new systems are now fully operational.

Malahide and District Credit Union Limited

After performing a detailed review of how their legacy systems accommodated current and future business objectives, Malahide and District Credit Union identified the need to investigate the options in relation to obtaining a more suitable replacement back office system. The prime objective was to identify a reliable, secure and accurate system that would most closely support the Unions business and functionality.

The Board and Management of the Union acknowledged that without specialist knowledge and experience it is an extremely difficult and daunting task to approach the process of identifying a replacement system. The Management however, were acutely aware of the investment a full procurement exercise would require and as a result where attracted to the value for investment that the PLC Partners' offering provided.

We proposed a pragmatic approach which addressed the key elements of a procurement exercise in order to maximise the cost-effectiveness of our input and provide the greatest value for money. Our approach focuses on;

• Determining the key business requirements
• Identifying a short list of suitable vendors
• Producing a clear and concise Request for Proposal that matches individual requirements
• Rapidly and objectively assessing vendor responses to the RFP
• Providing summary report and presentation to the Unions board
• Proposing our view of the best way forward and assisting in contractual discussion

Our extensive experience in and of the Credit Union market place together with our many years experience in very large procurement exercises and systems deployments, allows us the ability to offer a highly tailored and cost effective offering to the Credit Union movement. We are confident that a Union engaging PLC Partnes will be able to offset our fees through reduced capital costs, faster delivery and efficiencies through closer matching of system to requirements.

Malahide and District Credit Union Limited benefited directly from our specialised experience, with the most cost effective ìpackagedî approach to the system selection exercise and a very rapid system deployment.

Kilrush Credit Union Limited

Kilrush Credit Union Limited just post back office system deployment as Management wanted to ascertain an independent view of the Unionís IT position and the degree to which the achievement of objectives had progressed.

We were engaged to undertake an independent assessment of the Unionís Operations and IT systems. Top of the agenda was to establish any weakness in operations and to confirm the degree to which systems matched the managementís requirements. The exercise was short and focussed, examining on-going operations, business continuity, security, data integrity, compliance and reporting, IT support, vendor management and systems capability to meet future requirements.

As Kilrush Credit Union recognises, this Systems Check provides significant results by;

• Focussing attention and resources on the most important and critical issues
• Identifying practical cost effective approaches to resolution of problems
• Engaging with vendors to address issues in a best practice manner
• Providing confidence in the operation of the Union and systems

Our approach when performing such an assessment is to engage all stakeholders where possible and try to ensure all are afforded an opportunity to address any incorrect assumptions or perceptions. Once the investigation is complete, and this includes detail analysis of data, PLC Partners produce a detailed report which highlights observations, risk assessment and priority list together with practical steps for resolution of all identified issues. This report is presented to both board and management for detailed discussion.

Business Challenge

Based in Dublin, ORIX is a major aircraft owner, lessor and asset manager with a diversified portfolio of aircraft and aviation related investments. In 2013 ORIX set a key objective to select a world class accounting system to replace the existing legacy systems to provide accurate and effective processing.

Our Role

PLC Partners was engaged initially to assist with the selection of the new system. Through a rigorous selection process the Core Finance solution was chosen. We were further engaged to provide external project management and implementation test management assistance to ORIX for the SUN upgrade and Aircraft leasing project. Our approach was to work collaboratively in order to facilitate knowledge transfer and ensure a successful engagement.

Business Outcome

The selection process resulted in substantial cost savings and a vastly improved offering over the incumbent supplier. The project was implemented successfully on time and to budget. The resulting solution has fully automated processes, visibility and traceability of operations, efficiencies in month-end processes, and the ability to provide full MIS reporting. ORIX are now operating with a vastly improved and flexible solution.

Business Challenge

Based in Al Khobar Saudi Arabia, AHEL Co is a major lessor and heavy equipment rental organisation in the Construction, Oil & Gas and related sectors. In 2013 AHEL Co deployed both a bespoke ERP and a Leasing system that would help drive the business forward and avail of significant efficiency benefits through the provision of accurate processing and timely reports.

Our Role

PLC Partners was engaged initially to assist with the implementation of the newly acquired Leasing solution. Through a rigorous review and assessment of the organisational goals and requirements at the start of the engagement, PLC partners identified and agreed with AHEL Co executives that the engagement should be expanded to include; firstly an infrastructural upliftment, followed by the deployment of the Leasing solution and finally the deployment and integration of the new ERP system. PLC Partners provided the design of the infrastructural upliftment, including developing the future IT strategy, policies and procedures and managed the full deployment and SLA implementation. For the Leasing and ERP systems, PLC Partners provided the full management life cycle and assisted with the functional design and processes mapping. Our approach was to work collaboratively with AHEL Co and the vendors, providing structure and controls in order to control budgets,facilitate knowledge transfer and ensure a successful engagement.

Business Outcome

The engagement resulted in a significant improvement in the technical infrastructure, support from the suppliers and resulted in more efficient means of operations with in the organisation. The systems implementations were a success and largely on time and under budget. The resulting solutions have integrated the whole organisation and begun the process of automating the business. They have provided; control, visibility and early delivery of MIS information previously not available. AHEL Co are vastly improved and efficient organisation.

"PLC Partners played a key role in the project management of some significant IT projects over the last year or so. Their experience, practicality and professionalism helped simplify and speed up the delivery of the various components of our IT systems and infrastructure upgrade. I would not hesitate to recommend them to prospective clients for similar project work."
Finbarr O’Tuama , CEO, Ahel

O2 Ireland engaged PLC Partners for several key initiatives; the technical programme management for O2 Ireland’s eCRM project which involved the complete redevelopment and launch of O2 Ireland’s on-line portal; as the exclusive vendor in providing O2 Ireland with qualified engineers to engineer and manage their core network during their network migration program; support of the CRM system and data warehouse connectivity, incorporating Information strategy consulting, implementation of websphere data stage upgrade and support of Ephiphany systems.

PLC Partners delivery teams comprised an Account Manager and specialist ICT and telecom teams.

PLC Partners were engaged together with our Partner in providing strategic and delivery consulting to the Department of Social and Protection (DSP) Accounting Branch on solution evaluation and delivery. Key activities included a strategic review of current systems providing recommendations for progression; the development of functional specifications and production of RFP on-behalf of the DSP and establishment of the implementation strategy; organisation and business change consulting; and finally the implementation of the new Accounting & Reconciliation system – the program launch, business process reengineering, migration strategy, test planning and training & communications delivery.

PLC Partners delivered a Professional Services deployment capability within Fenergo for the implementation of their Deal Manager lending product range. The Deployment Model incorporated key deliverables to effect consistency across the sales and delivery channels. These included the design and development of a deployment strategy, evolution roadmap and deployment model/methodology for assimilation into the PMO.

Based in Dublin Paper Dock are a subsidiary of the FIMAK Group providing enterprise content and document management consulting and software services to major corporations in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Paper Dock engaged PLC Partners to assist and provide PMO and Programme Management for some of their more complex and challenging implementations both in Ireland and England. PLC Partners performed a rapid assessment and review of existing operations, contracts and engagements. Identified the weaknesses and agreed a prioritised plan of action to address the identified issues and risks both internally and in relation to ongoing engagements. PLC Partners’ assigned resources, took full control of the projects, renegotiating the project definitions, schedules and scope of work to bring them in line and reduce the risk for all stakeholders. As a result of tight control and quality management, all the projects were delivered profitably, to schedule and successfully handed over to support. We also provided significant skills transfer to assist Paper Dock in setting up their own project office and improved implementation capability.

"PLC were key in ensuring successful implementations for our clients. Their absolute focus on our success, rapidly embedding themselves in our organisation and providing professional advice was invaluable. I would not hesitate to recommend them."
Peter Nesbitt, Sales Director, Paper Dock