Quorum Cyber, born in 2016 and with headquarters in Edinburgh, are a specialist Cyber Security services organisation. They serve customers globally through a collection of simple, clear and innovative Professional and Managed Security Services.
The business has seen huge growth doubling in size and turnover year on year and have ambitious goals for future growth. They needed to mature their project and service delivery processes quickly to facilitate this and to deliver on one its core values that customer satisfaction is at the heart of everything they do and their highest priority.
Challenge
It was quickly ascertained that the Leadership team did not have full and clear visibility of the projects being delivered, both internally and to their customers. Resource scheduling was not formally in place and this led to not only sporadic customer satisfaction and communication issues, but also lack of clarity on utilisation and resource effectiveness.
- Portfolio level view
Delivery risk was not monitored, managed or foreseeable and frequent issues were having to be dealt with at very short notice with the senior leadership team involved. - Financial controls
The business carried a risk that revenue and margin was being impacted and it was of paramount importance that this risk was assessed and managed. It was clear that these should be dealt with earlier and ensure the senior team were freed time to concentrate on strategic objectives at a key time of expansion. - IT infrastructure and processes
This needed to mature to support efficient working and the expansion. Internal project processes needed streamlining to assist in delivering improvements quickly and efficiently ensuring they were aligned to the wider business growth objectives.
Solution
The solution was to undertake initial Maturity Assessments of both the Project Delivery and Professional Services functions to ascertain their current capabilities, mapped against the desired strategic goals, and create a phased approach to achieving these. The senior leadership team could then visualise where the greatest value would be gained and allocate budget and resources accordingly.
- Interim Head of PMO
Senior resource deployed on a fractional basis to manage change effectively whilst ensuring customer satisfaction was high, and maintain cost controls. - Resource Augmentation
Project Managers and Project Coordinators were utilised from the Speculo team to improve customer experience and project delivery whilst changes were being implemented. - Project Governance Model
A bespoke methodology was created by tailoring the P3O, Prince2 and SCRUM frameworks ensuring relevant controls were introduced whilst agility was retained. - Resource Management Tool
Quickly selected and implemented to allowed the business to quickly understand work load across the teams, see constraints and manage issues. - Financial Controls
Provide critical management information around utilisation, revenue and importantly provided much needed foresight into recruitment planning. - Talent Search
Helped to recruit permanent employees to take over and run the newly implemented Project Management and Professional Services functions. Roles and responsibilities were transitioned over an agreed period.
Results
During the period of the engagement the professional services and project delivery areas of the Quorum Cyber doubled in size but the processes and governance Speculo put in place continued to deliver excellent customer service and satisfaction. Quorum Cyber now have the framework to grow further and faster knowing the in house capability is fit for purpose. Some key benefits delivered for Quorum Cyber include:
- Improved Customer Satisfaction – through a central Delivery function to cover Project Management, Professional Services and Managed Services. This improved communication and increased customer satisfaction.
- Increased Revenue – by tracking Time and Materials work more effectively, Professional Services revenues increased by approx. 35% month on month
- Profit Margins Increased – in ensuring Resources where effectively deployed based on skill and availability margin was maximised
- Informed Recruiting Decisions –Revenue forecasts could be plotted against ongoing staff and recruitment costs to provide accurate roadmaps for increases in head count.
- Flexible Resourcing –Being able to flex their team up and down in times of demand by using Speculo’s highly skilled resources on a resource augmentation model. Allowing flexibility in their professional services financial model, increasing margins further.
- Reduced Internal IT Operational Expenditure –through consolidation of existing systems, selection of new and scalable tools which in turn lead to reduced Operational overhead from both a cost and effort perspective.