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SGK Consulting Ltd Pine Trees, Dark Lane Tiddington Stratford upon Avon Warwickshire CV37 7AD |
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0845 858 8000 |
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info@sgkconsulting.co.uk | ||
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www.sgkconsulting.co.uk |
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SGK Consulting Ltd Pine Trees, Dark Lane Tiddington Stratford upon Avon Warwickshire CV37 7AD |
|
0845 858 8000 |
|
|
info@sgkconsulting.co.uk | ||
|
|
www.sgkconsulting.co.uk |
What
types of organisation
do you work with?
If
your organisation uses IT as a driver for business change you are a
potential client.
Although most of our clients are IT or technology organisations, as a result of our track record in this sector, we've worked in the financial services, healthcare and local government sectors in the last few years and been struck by similar the issues and solutions are. It seems that that good practice really is universal.
We have a healthy mix of clients who have needed business analysis and project management services themselves, such as SMART, 3M and Northgate IS, and other clients who have engaged us on behalf of their own clients. These include ESI, Sciforma and Infor.
Size and status are no issue for us. We are as happy working with a multi-national or a small company with just a handful of employees such as OITUK. All that is needed is an open mind and a will to succeed.
What
general trends influence what
you do?
We
are passionate about effective ways of making change happen. To us this
means three separate but intertwined disciplines; project management,
business analysis and programme and portfolio
management.
Project management is no longer the preserve of civil engineering and defence companies engaged in huge infrastructure projects. Any company that is implementing change, whether it is IT related or not, will benefit from using project management techniques to plan, monitor and control effectively. The general acceptance of methodologies such as PRINCE2 and tools such as MS Project have brought project management to the smallest organisation.
But before you start implementing change, you have to know what change is needed and that is where good business analysis comes into it's own. Without effective requirements elicitation, analysis and documentation your project can make the wrong changes and result in dissatisfied stakeholders. In our opinion, business analysis is a very underestimated discipline that rarely gets the focus it deserves but can have a dramatic impact on the success of your projects.
Finally, to tie it all together, programme and portfolio management gives you an effective framework to evaluate a portfolio of projects, assign resources to the most deserving and ensure your change projects are all aligned to your overall strategy.
How
do you engage with your clients?
As
members of the IBC (Institute of Business Consulting) our focus is on the
building up of the capabilities within our clients to deliver successful
projects themselves, rather than become a permanent part of the
organisation.
Every client needs are a bit different but usually involve an element of training, based on our standard training classes, followed by development of processes and more specific organisational development through our consulting services.
After an initial period of activity, we find that a regular maintenance programme works well, to ensure that the business change sticks and that our clients can evolve through a process of continuous improvement. Our Virtual Change Office service provides this support on a retainer basis that gives the flexibility to deliver help when needed.
Having said all that, we aren't opposed to some interim management engagements and we have worked with many of our clients on this basis. Whether this is as a project manager to drive software selection or a business analyst to identify business process requirements or introduce business change, we are always delighted to discuss it with you.
Where
do I start?
It
is always difficult to ask for help when you don't know what is needed, so
we are always happy to carry out an initial audit of your
organisation on an FOC basis to identify weak areas and come up with an
initial proposal for our first engagement
Especially for larger, more complex businesses, this will involve further investigation and analysis before any meaningful change can be planned. But where possible we try to avoid lengthy assignments that won't benefit you directly, as we feel our strength is in making business change happen, not talking about it.
If we feel that we aren't the right company to help you, we will be upfront about it and try to introduce you to some of our partners or clients, who may be better placed to assist you.
What
don't you do?
We
are focussed on making business change happen, so we aren't in the business
of strategy consulting. Although very valuable, we prefer to leave that to
the specialists.
We also specialise in the application of IT to achieve change. We don't get involved in generic HR, finance or sales & marketing consulting as again, there are plenty of organisations who are specialists in these areas. But we are happy to implement IT systems in these functional areas, having a good working knowledge from over twenty years in business.
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