Overview
When major global investment bank was looking for ways to reduce operating costs and increase customer focus, it chose Novo Altum to advise on strategy and implementation to deliver real results.
The plan was to transfer selected Operations and Finance processes away from its European HQ in London and create a new, dedicated Shared Service Centre for these functions.
The success of the programme resulted in an annual saving of $10-12 million in the first year alone, and this has now been scaled up by four times.
The Challenge
How to enhance customer relationships while simultaneously cutting costs is a critical conundrum facing many leading businesses today. Yet, it is one to which, with the help of Novo Altum, this major investment bank has found a sustainable solution.
To achieve its goals, the strategic decision was made to ‘drag and drop’ some of the Bank’s Operations and Finance functions into a new, green-field Shared Service Centre (SSC). This would be staffed entirely by new recruits, while existing staff would be re-deployed within the HQ. We knew it was vital that this transition was managed very carefully to secure employee engagement, maintain high operational standards, and deliver improved customer care.
The Solution
Novo Altum played an instrumental role in ensuring a smooth transition and achieving the Bank’s key goals. Having managed the set-up of the Shared Service Centre, we oversaw the transfer of jobs into the centre and provided on-going implementation support at the new site.
We also prepared the business case for a 5 -fold expansion of the programme over the ensuing two years.
Results
In a short space of time, the results were impressive, with the pilot phase of the programme achieving an annual saving of 18%.
This resulted in initial annual savings of $10-12m, or up to 30% of the previous London-based operating model. In line with our forecast expansion plan, the success of the programme led to it being scaled up by four times, with savings increasing accordingly.
