Creating a clear roadmap to deliver tangible benefits and predictable return on investment in Digital Transformation.
Over the last decade the accounting profession has undergone considerable change. This was driven largely by the UK Government backed initiative Making Tax Digital (MTD) and the rapidly expanding accounting technology industry. Businesses across the globe have been digitising all aspects of their business, including Finance functions, at an ever increasing pace.
The Partners at Scrutton Bland realised early on that they needed to be at the forefront of this change to ensure that they stayed competitive and continued to deliver an exceptional service to clients that represented great value for money.
In 2018 Ryan Pearcy joined Scrutton Bland as Business Advisory Director to head up this initiative. The SB Digital service was designed to help clients optimise their business by improving processes and underpinned by the latest technology.
Ryan is a qualified accountant and highly knowledgeable digital technology specialist who is passionate about using that knowledge to help businesses become more profitable and efficient. He comments:
“The challenge for many of our clients is justifying the spend on new technologies and knowing exactly where to target that investment. Is it just their finance processes or does it impact other parts of their business too? Historically that has been difficult for them to demonstrate.’
Ryan also highlights that clients always want to know how long it would take to see a return on their investment before they made any decisions. ‘This is an additional challenge’ he says. ‘Every business is different and deploys technology in different ways.’
The team at SB Digital therefore partnered with Skore to support them in helping their clients understand the process mapping process and building a business case. The SB Digital team maps each client’s processes in Skore and are then able to enrich the information by adding in the client’s existing systems and noting the length of time taken for different activities.
“We can demonstrate to clients the areas where cost savings can be made, and which process can be made more efficient. Once they understand this, they are compelled to act.” says Ryan.
“Not only can this exercise show how much the client will save, but they can also clearly see the steps they need to take to achieve their objectives. The biggest value for our clients is undoubtedly to be able to clearly see the difference between the old and the new. They can easily envisage what will change, and the positive impact these changes will have on their business.”
To find out more about how Skore can help your organisation to deliver value and attract clients get in contact today.
Carte Blanche, the award-winning creator, distributor and licensor of branded gifts, cards and apparel, is best known for Tatty Teddy, the cute grey bear with a blue nose who is the signature character of the much-loved Me to You brand. The Chairman of Carte Blanche Group is Stephen Haines, who founded Carte Blanche Greetings Ltd in 1987 with a dream and a collection of just 12 greetings cards. More than 30 years on, design and innovation are at the very core of the Carte Blanche business.
In 2019, Carte Blanche embarked on a sustained period of change and implementation with a view to enhancing the company’s organisation and productivity. The successful implementation of two new software systems (MS Dynamics and Perfion) plus personnel changes and diversification of product offering meant Carte Blanche recognised the need to reevaluate and review operating procedures and approaches.
Stuart Morgan, a Process Engineer with over 20 years of experience in the organisation, was tasked with leading this initiative. Aware that Carte Blanche would benefit from greater clarity and understanding of their processes he was clear from the beginning that before they started changing anything they needed to comprehend the current state of the organisation.
To successfully achieve this,, Stuart was looking for an effective solution which met the business’s needs:
‘Process mapping in the past has fallen down for two reasons – it’s been produced on sticky notes, which is laborious and inevitably wrong when you revisit it, or it’s been mapped on archaic software for which only one person in the organisation has the expertise and access. We recognised that our processes are living things – they evolve and change – and people need to be able access and understand them and easily change them when needed’
Stuart Morgan, Design Engineer, Carte Blanche
Finding the Simplest Solution
“We chose Skore as our solution because it’s perfection as far as simplicity goes… Everyone can look at a Skore map and understand it. It’s a very simple system. Everything can be broken down into two types of boxes – what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.’
Carte Blanche used Skore initially to simply record and clarify what happened in their everyday business. A visual tool, the team used Skore to facilitate workshops and map at the speed of conversation whilst allowing their colleagues to focus on the realities of the process being recorded. At this point it became an integral tool in the business to achieve analysis and improvement. The team used Skore to note any issues or queries whilst mapping the processes. Everything was easily logged as a simple attachment in the process map. This enabled the team to carry on capturing information and engaging with colleagues whilst documenting important information. At the end of the exercise the team could export all the extra details as issue logs and use them as a checklist to resolve any issues to improve and enhance the current processes.
Engaging the Organisation
‘We began to understand that we could use Skore as a way of engaging with a significant number of colleagues. We have the opportunity for colleagues to understand how processes work and how they can be improved. We can map technical processes and system interactions. A huge bonus is that it shows people that our processes are robust and we can dispel myths around technical issues.’
Using Skore meant they could visually display how complicated some parts of the process were which enabled them to discuss collectively in a team how to improve and make things easier.
‘It made us start thinking differently and challenged us, we realised we could make different choices and we couldn’t have done this without Skore.’
Analysis and Improvement
With a long history and great depth of experience, Carte Blanche are proud of their diverse range of products servicing many customers with their own individual needs. When reviewing processes Skore allowed Carte Blanche to recognise what areas could be improved, record specific issues and most importantly empower the team to make changes. It enabled Carte Blanche to continue to take this diversity into account and effectively tailor processes to the individual needs of customers.
When focusing on the Sales Process for UK Independent Customers – a vital part of the customer base, they were aware of the complexity involved with servicing them. With so many variables built in it was a good example of a complicated process. In addition, the team needed to engage with a wide audience and a range of tools, including the Operations team, the Sales team, systems used by Sales Reps, internal software systems and the introduction of new products. With Skore they were able incorporate all this information and clearly document it to whittle away perceived issues and misunderstandings.
‘We really understood through Skore that we could clean up a messy process. It has saved us a huge amount of time by streamlining our flow of activity and understanding that, by resolving issues earlier on in the process, we could make it easier for our people to do their jobs.’
An Innovative Future with Skore.
To date Carte Blanche have focused on Procurement & Inventory, Sales Orders & Fulfilment and Product Management, but recognize the potential for the rest of the organisation. Their objective is to build an even clearer and more complete picture of the business.
‘There really is an amazing human centric benefit to Skore beyond the mechanics of process mapping’
The next venture for Carte Blanche is to explore the possibilities of using responsibility matrices through Skore. Using the RATSI method they will be able to define who is doing the work, who is signing it off, who is helping and who is informed. This will help everyone understand what people do, create job descriptions, understand workloads and how they can help each other.
They also see the opportunity for employees to have complete clarity over their roles. Employees can use Skore to navigate and understand their roles. They can understand what is expected of them, where they fit in the process, to whom they speak to understand an issue, to learn how to do their job and appreciate why their role is vital.
‘Skore has become the place to hold all that vital information. It’s so much more than we imagined at the beginning. As Carte Blanche expands and diversifies, it’s great to know we have Skore at our centre to help support all our staff to do their jobs and to keep delivering fantastic customer experiences to all our clients.’
Skore is the Process Improvement Software designed to be used and understood by everyone in your organisation. Our reporting and analytics, plus a simple two shape system, creates powerfully simple processes.
More than 30 years on design and innovation is at the very core of the Carte Blanche business and as well as growing and nurturing the Me to You brand and complementary ‘Blue Nose’ brands, My Dinky Bear for four to eight year olds, toy brand, My Blue Nose Friends and nursery brand Tiny Tatty Teddy, Carte Blanche now boasts award winning humour brand, Violent Veg, sentiment brand, Wishing Well Studios and a fast-paced, trend-led offering from Hotchpotch. Carte Blanche are also proud to license and distribute designs from Blue Mountain Arts giving customers a uniquely comprehensive offering of some of the best brands the industry has to offer. Please visit www.carteblanchegreetings.co.uk for more information. Follow us on Twitter @CarteBlancheGrp and Instagram @carteblanchegrp
Skore’s partnership with this leading RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) vastly improved communication between the Client and Project Team. This enabled them to onboard new clients quicker and ensure a high quality and efficient service.
Cielo are an US based RPO whose mission is to ensure their clients attract the best candidates possible and provide incredible service. They were frustrated by the rigidity and overly complicated process drawing tools they were using. The introduction of Skore led to an enhanced and improved user experience. It was easy for both client and project team to understand and engage with.
As part of their onboarding process, Cielo reviews a client’s current recruitment process, identifies improvement opportunities, aligns with best practice models. They create a world class future state service to delight and satisfy clients. They use Skore, process improvement software, as an essential part of every client project.
Driving Change Differently
The easy to use and simple interface means that everyone in the organisation can follow the process. Erin Arkin leads the project management office for Cielo. She is responsible for managing work streams, engaging with clients and ensuring deadlines are met. Skore was an instant hit with Erin.
‘Look at this great tool, it made us think, how can we map processes differently? And how can we drive change by looking at change in a different way.’
High standards and thorough discovery work means lengthy questionnaires are often needed with new clients. Best practice models must fit around a client’s bespoke organisational structure, compliance requirements and business culture. Skore was the tool that gave them the flexibility to shift and move things around without having to recreate a process flow every time. This greatly improved the user experience for all involved.
Delivering Information in High Level conversations
Skore showed Erin a more dynamic approach to presenting processes.
‘Previously we were getting into rooms of leaders, heads of Talent Acquisitions and Senior Leadership teams and then having to pull out a process map with swimlanes and trying to walk them through what the future was like and what it meant for them. It just wasn’t communicated at all in the right way. Being able to show Skore and say here is an overview of your process flow, we can do detailed dives, we can call out notes, document SLAs, responsibilities etc in a way that is really engaging.’
Skore enables Erin to go to leaders to review processes with the ability to talk about a high level view of what it would look and feel like. She has no need pull out a 20 page process map that they have no interest in. The easy to understand process diagrams encourages engagement and collaboration at every level of the organisation.
Cielo’s comprehensive discovery process with the client means Skore is engaged from the very start of every project. The software allows them to map the process, at the speed of conversation, in front of the client. From there it is simple to demonstrate Cielos’ proposed vision of the new process. For Cielo the added advantage is that clients can effortlessly understand and easily sign off on the project.
Internally the team can then use Skore to develop detailed procedures on how they will follow the process workflow and the key steps needed to implement. Plus the detailed and easy to read process maps are then used to train recruitment teams and advise on how to interact with hiring managers and candidates.
Amber Boland is the Experience Designer for Cielo. Her role is to work with clients and understand how recruitment functions work in their organisation. She ensures that future processes are aligned with the Cielo best practice model. Skore is an essential tool for success.
‘It really is the backbone of the design, of everything we do in the project. It provides a roadmap of a project that the client signs off. It can show a level of minute detail and simultaneously be high level enough to give the client the required overview’.
Flexible and Adaptable
Skore’s design means that Amber is able to build out Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for her team. Using the software platform she is able to identify the workflow early on, train her team and brief Shared Services. Skore holds all the relevant information and is available to her at a glance while keeping all the internal workstreams aligned.
For Amber, Skore is a living breathing document that describes all aspects of a client project. Allowing you to add and tweak information, it starts as a template and grows into the single source of truth for everyone involved.
‘Little details come out the more you get involved with a client and the more stones you unturn. I can hop back into my map and move some boxes around, update who is responsible, add a note box about an exception on a process, add in some questions to ask the client… like throwing up sticky notes on the map.’
Skore’s flexible, adaptable approach means that for Amber and her team, their process maps constantly evolve. After the team is trained and the project goes live the team continues to update, improve processes and publish new versions. This functionality also supports the team as the relationship with the client grows. If Cielo wins further business with the client they already have an up to date and interactive library of information ready to go.
Optimising internal processes and creating efficiencies
Cielo first started using Skore to assist with external projects but having seen the benefits Skore is now also used internally. Using templates in Skore, Cielo can easily ensure their own teams understand and utilise best practice models. By engaging this way they are able to review the way separate teams work and create consistency in technologies and tools used. Erin confirms:
‘Skore helps us to look at how we optimise the way our teams work in business as usual and move them where necessary into a more optimised process and engagement model. We can find the gaps and look at efficiencies.’
Constantly providing clarity and simplicity
For the Cielo team using Skore gives them the ability to create a more functional process using an easier tool for teams to navigate.
‘Skore is so user friendly, it’s easy to get in and move things around. For the basics – anyone with a quick tutorial can get the gist so it really saves time with new people joining the team to access and add information. The simple, comprehensive design consolidates everything into one picture, a one stop shop to see the Who, What and Why.’
Internally Skore has won over leadership and stakeholders, it allows teams to be flexible, proactive and adaptable with new clients. Using a process mapping software that dares to be different and allows everyone in the organisation to collaborate and engage gives Cielo yet another advantage over the competition.
Skore is the Process Improvement Software designed to be used and understood by everyone in the organisation.
As well as one of the first G Suite partners in the UK, Foxability is a leading UK Xero App Integrator, recommended by Xero, they help companies to decide which software applications will serve their business best. Foxability enables companies to be fearless about the Cloud and allows organisations to automate the everyday boring processes in their business, saving them time and money.
Understanding a Client’s Business
Foxability understood early on that mapping the processes of their client’s business was a vital tool to client success. Having previously used sticky notes and a drawing software to try to understand the workings of each business, Jonathan Fox, Director of Foxability, was looking for a simpler standardised approach that he could use with any client that they would clearly understand. Skore was the answer.
The team at Foxability use Skore, the process mapping and improvement software, to kick start new projects. Meeting with new clients, they are able to sketch out the business together, live, to understand the Whos, Whats, Where, Whys and Hows of their organisation.. Skore allows them to rapidly see the current state and understand what the client would like to have in the future. Foxability uses Skore to understand the flow of money and the flow of data through the business.
“We chose Skore due to ease and simplicity, we could instantly see how we could quickly explain to new clients how it worked in a workshop, get them to use it and make sure we had a consistent, yet straightforward approach.”
Needing to gather requirements quickly from a client, Skore is now used in all their process workshops.
“We are able to map out a high level process with the customer in 90 minutes. The business owners understand it perfectly on the screen and they’ve gained valuable insights. Skore bridges the knowledge gap when we start working with a new client and ensures we are the experts in their business from the first meeting. ‘
Using Skore provides tangible benefits to any organisation with instant analysis and the knowledge they gain about their business but in addition it builds relationships with new clients rapidly. This was something that Foxability felt lacked in traditional time consuming approaches to process mapping.
“We’ve built an incredible amount of trust with them in a short period of time, we’ve had meaningful conversations and now we can show that we understand their business’.
Deep and meaningful analysis
The simple framework also allows Foxability to capture any extra information that may help them when advising on the best software applications for the client. They can input costs, risks, opportunities, requirements, responsibilities and anything else that might be specific to the business they are working with.
Skore’s simple two box framework means that people are quickly describing their process using the language of Skore within the first workshop. The Foxability team are not only able to understand the processes but also show them where they can start making improvements thanks to Skore’s analytical dashboards, instantly created as soon as you start mapping the process. Mapping out the business processes in this format not only helps Foxability to understand the client business quickly but also means they are able to communicate with software vendors clearly about their needs. Vendors are then able to easily produce demos tailored to their clients and all parties are referring to the same, easy to read, requirement details.
As Skore is a cloud based application it is also instantly shareable and comes with version control so anything can be added at any time it needs be or rolled back. Skore can also be used as a user manual for the business, storing all the knowledge for the business and is a perfect training tool for teaching employees how to use new software or for onboarding new staff.
Identify and Implement Change
“What we love about Skore is the value it brings to our organisation as well as the client’s”
For Foxability, only half the work is helping clients find the right software to automate a process in their organisation. Often more challenging is persuading or demonstrating to clients the need for change or to implement a solution.
“Skore enables clients to go through the process discovery themselves, they see the pains but even more importantly, they discover them themselves in the workshops. They feel they are listened too and can immediately see the value of change.”
Skore enables organisations to see the long term gain over the short term pain and this is a vital part of change management. For Foxability and for any business, large or small, this ability to appreciate change and adaptation gives them a strong competitive advantage in an uncertain climate.
To find out more about how easy it is to get started using Skore sign up for a free trial and start mapping processes in minutes. You can also take our free training to become a master in your field.
Want to know how Skore not only saved 80 days of Waste but also delivered a sustainable successful solution for a system implementation to the end customer?
At the beginning of any Systems Implementation Project, mapping a process is an essential step. It ensures the right requirements are identified and delivered to the users. It should also drive the right business outcomes.
However there are also additional benefits derived from taking the time to capture processes. Skore Software was able to identify and remove an additional 80 days of waste in a customer system implementation project and in this blog we will show you exactly how.
Incredibly in this case the business case had long been agreed, contracts signed and the project underway. Yet Skore was still able to identify further benefits for the end customer that would not have been recognised otherwise.
Building the superior solution
The consultants ran a 2 hour Skore process mapping workshop with the core team of users and the business owner.
Using Skore they quickly identified the key areas of work. They broke those down into more detail, capturing the steps they each performed. At the same time they used attachments against activities to record any documents, templates and other systems they used.
As they mapped out the processes they also made a note of any challenges they faced on a day-to-day basis and additional requirements. For example they identified a compliance requirement that had to be tracked. Although not part of the original business case, in Skore it could be easily added to the process map and documented. From this they were able to add it to the system and it was a significant improvement on their current way of working.
Ideas, challenges and questions are captured as notes
Finally the consultants made a note of how long each activity took and how often they did it each day. Durations ranged from 5 seconds to an hour per activity. Once multiplied up by the number of times each activity happened per day it was a significant amount of time.
Duration and direct costs are captured against each activity.
With this information the solution team could then look at how the system laid over the existing business processes. The consultants sketched out a configuration for the compliance requirement and defined which modules needed to be configured and how.
Bringing the Solution together
Skore then creates reports of your costs and duration for easy analysis
Finally the consultants looked at which activities would be automated by the new system. Based on the information gathered in the workshop it was here that they identified an additional 80 days of savings on top of what they had already agreed. Through Skore they discovered a new set of activities that could be automated that wasn’t in the original set of requirements. The simple Skore approach had helped the customer articulate a whole set of activities not originally included and not previously recognised as an automation opportunity.
Delivering the solution effectively
Essentially using Skore ensured that the end customer was clear on their current ways of working BEFORE the implementation. Achieved through the workshop described, everyone together had their chance to dispute the process and amend it accordingly. Collaborating and engaging with the process and each other from the start.
Furthermore with the process agreed, at the end of the workshop it was shared online and tweaked where needed in the following days.
Supporting the solution – Embedding into the organisation
Once implemented and trained the processes were made available to the team for reference. Queries about how something worked could be referred to in the process before calls were made for assistance. If a support call was made, the support team would use the same process as the user to identify where the issue occurred and explain the solution.
Skore’s straightforward language and framework meant it was possible for anyone in the organization to read and understand the process. The processes were delivered through an interactive online portal and users could leave feedback and improvement suggestions at any time.
So this is how you effectively capture requirements, delight users, align the team and save 80 days of waste in a system implementation project. Best of all, it was achieved in a single 2 hour workshop. Imagine what you could achieve in your own organisation with the Skore Platform?
If you haven’t tried Skore – why not sign up for a free trial?
Lawrence & Wedlock, a leading intelligent automation services provider working across industries, has target customers with an average turnover of £250 million – £4 billion. Despite working in a disruptive, agile and fast-moving industry, L&W were frustrated with the manual and slow process of RPA process discovery. Forced to use multiple tools to collect information, with documents likely to have input errors, sent to and from customers and often too big to share or update easily, their RPA process discovery and ability to capture requirements was slow and tedious. Keen to find a solution, they came across Skore through a marketing campaign and got in touch.
Initial Use Case
For L&W the initial attraction was the fact that Skore covered so much of the end to end process. A collaborative and live tool, that included everything, the detail and drop down functionality allowed them to drill down easily when they needed to access information. With all the information held securely in one place, it became the ‘one stop shop’ platform for L&W to do all their process discovery.
Originally using the software internally and training the team to use it, L&W started on smaller projects, with the L&W team working on Skore alone to produce process documentation before sharing the output with their clients.
‘What became obvious quickly was the phenomenal difference it made to our workload.’
Daniel Lawrence MD, Lawrence & Wedlock
The team learned that using the Skore Robotic Assess module shaved half the time off that they generally took for process discovery. From an average 2 weeks to 1 week to complete process discovery with a client.
Value added to Partners and Clients
L&W quickly discovered that their clients saw great value in the tool as well. Skore was added to their offering and made part of their client services. Internally it meant less time training and on-boarding of staff as the L&W team used one format for the whole process. With fewer difficulties or misunderstandings and simple training, using Skore helped standardise their project methodology.
This standard approach was attractive, practical and gave them a competitive edge.
‘We are more agile and able to deliver quicker results, with resources freed up because less time is taken up by process discovery and the essential bottom-up keystroke detail all in one place.’
Daniel Lawrence MD, Lawrence & Wedlock
Fully Digitised Discovery Process
Using Skore software has enabled L&W to offer their clients a ‘fully digitised discovery assessment process’. For Skore, working with leading edge automation experts has enabled greater opportunities within the RPA sector and the opportunity to explore how Skore technology could evolve to further support RPA discovery requirements.
Craig Willis, Customer Success Director at Skore notes; ‘Working with such a fresh and groundbreaking company like L&W has empowered Skore to master more knowledge of the world of RPA and understand how the software can truly be evolved to meet and excel customer needs and requirements.’
Daniel Lawrence agrees: ‘What was unexpected was the relationship between Skore and L&W, we weren’t expecting to have our own needs and requirements taken so seriously by all the team, the focused attention to changes and desires, the Skore team worked so hard to ensure this was the tool for us. That was a very powerful message to us indeed.’
L&W plans for 2020 include significant growth and becoming RPA official training partners with Skore. Working on future collaborations together will ensure that both Skore and L&W are truly able to differentiate themselves in the market and offer a bespoke alternative to customers. This partnership will enable customers to truly benefit from fast paced transformation in their companies and ensure they are able to make the most of their RPA opportunities and scale accordingly.
Used by consultancy partners and end users alike, it enables organisations to understand, map and collaborate on their processes by providing an intuitive interface. A live workshop tool, its reporting and dashboard functionality delivers clarity, insight and process efficiencies. Skore transforms your business at the speed of conversation.
Lawrence & Wedlock are an experienced RPA services and solutions provider. Their objective is to help clients enable the automation-first, business-led workplace of the future.
Embedding Process Discovery and Ensuring Best Practice
A Trusted Name in Homebuilding Since 1885
Bovis Homes is one of the country’s leading home builders building family homes across the UK for more than a hundred years. Listed on the FTSE250 the company has established an enviable reputation for the quality of build and design, specification and customer service.
With more than 1,000 members of staff, Bovis operate across 7 regional businesses in the South, Midlands and North of England. Each regional business unit is set up to make the best use of local tradesmen and local knowledge. This ensures the best locations are selected and the right mix of homes are constructed in each area to suit local communities.
While this approach ensures local needs for housing and employment are met it poses challenges for an organisation operating at a national level. Strict standards for health and safety must be met. Operational costs must be carefully controlled to ensure affordability of homes. At the same time high and consistent levels of quality and customer experience are essential to the brand.
Rapid Growth Brings New Challenges
Following a period of ambitious growth, where the company had almost doubled the number of completions, the business started to develop a number of operational challenges. These challenges resulted in longer than expected delivery with knock on effects of higher costs and a negative impact on customer service standards.
In early 2017 Bovis appointed new Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald, with over 32 years of experience in the construction business. Fitzgerald immediately started making changes to core processes, ensuring key controls were in place and key personnel were empowered to make those decisions.
“If everything is not ready for a smooth start on site they can say STOP.” Staff are empowered to make important decisions and are accountable for the outcomes of those processes. The leadership team also committed to putting customers back at the centre of everything. This means ensuring best practices for customer experience and construction are rolled out across the country.
Establishing Standards and Best Practice
As Group Head of Internal Audit and Risk Chris Jones is the owner of internal process excellence at Bovis Homes. To start putting the necessary improvements in place Chris needed to create a risk and control framework, minimum standards for best practice and an audit plan.
However, following the rapid growth, there was no central standard for describing processes and procedures. Different parts of the organisation maintained different sets of documentation and not all of it was kept up-to-date.
Without a standard set of minimum best practices it was difficult to accurately test the organisation’s ability to deliver on its promises. This made it even more difficult to assess the real level of risk the business was exposed to.
What’s more, there was little in the way of agreed best practices at group level with varying levels of collaboration between the regional businesses.
Making Best Practice Accessible
Skore software had already been used in the business as part of the end-to-end review of processes. In 2016 a group level process had been created with the executive team to help articulate and prioritise improvement initiatives.
“Having worked with several different tools in my career what I like about Skore is how clean the processes look and how key control points are clearly shown in the relevant place.” Says Chris.
“It has a really nice look and feel, it’s easy to use and really quick to capture processes along with related policies and control points. This makes it very accessible to the widest possible audience.”
Making process information accessible is a key requirement as Chris, and his team, bring best practice out of the regions and share it across the group.
“Skore has the ability to take complexity away from the resulting diagram while retaining all the necessary detail. It makes it easy to communicate and share standard processes and key control points.”
The team used Skore to engage with regions by collaboratively creating the best practices while aligning with industry standards for quality, health and safety. This was done across live workshops before being shared among all key stakeholders.
Agile at a National Level
The next phase of the programme is to roll the new best practices out to all the regions. A key part of this is to integrate Skore into the existing systems through single-sign on. According to Chris “This makes accessing the content seamless to those that need it.”
“The processes will be used to train new team member as well as informing improvements to our systems.”
Regional Managers will own the standards and be responsible for improving them and using them as a base to collaborate across the group. As the company continues to standardise key control processes it will be much easier to benchmark performance and improve. This will make the organisation more agile and easier to adapt to changes while maintaining high levels of quality and customer service for home owners across the nation.
If you’d like to find out more about how Skore could help your organisation transform their business today contact us for a free trial
Early 2018 saw Marjolo and Skore embark on the beginning of a partner relationship
that would transform their own business practices and the scope for innovative
transformation projects.
The
Opportunity Identified
Marjolo’s ‘disruptive
and dare to be different’ attitude attracted Skore who saw an opportunity
to work with a company with a similar
ethos and behaviours to themselves.
Skore initially collaborated with Marjolo on short outcome based
projects where it was vital to deliver value quickly. It became rapidly obvious that the combination of
Skore and Marjolo was not only a perfect product fit but also a true company match, and recipe for success.
Originally used
internally to define their own processes and growth prospects, Marjolo immediately
saw the value and began to use the
same process with customers. Initial collaborations saw
Marjolo using Skore software on smaller projects, adopting it quickly for tactical
situations whilst combining Skore on a wider scale into
their methodology.
Partnership
Development
The relationship between the two companies developed swiftly with similar cultures being only the start. Skore and Marjolo continue to work on projects together with Skore recently hosting public training at Marjolo headquarters in Sheffield and a Skrum community event planned there for March 2020. Chris Green, Skore Partners Director, says
‘Working with Marjolo on community events like these just demonstrates again how aligned Marjolo and Skore truly are. Shared thinking and collaborations means the customer is truly put to the front of everything we do’.
From the beginning,
Marjolo’s innovative approach to everything saw them considering new and
fascinating ways to apply Skore to different projects. One such opportunity saw them
considering how to use Skore to improve a Capability Assessment approach on an already established client project. Indeed,
one of the most exciting parts of this new partnership is the chance for
Marjolo and Skore to combine their expertise and explore ideas of how software
could be developed and improved for the future to create industry leading initiatives, offering sustainable growth and financial
advantages for clients.
Collaboration Tried & Tested
A recent in-depth
project challenge with a
multinational BPOwas to develop the concept of the ‘Contact Centre of the Future’.
By using Skore’s
software, Marjolo was able to underpin the three main process elements of the
project in greater depth through workshops and greater engagement of the organisation:
Technology
People (future job opportunities and
capability requirements)
Process
Marjolo capitalised on
the Skore platform solution by implementing it as the thread connecting the various
workstreams. By simplifying the project,
Marjolo accomplished innovative transformation initiatives and delivered
effectively on cost and time demands.
Skore’s leading edge
software resulted in Marjolo being able to capture the Roles and
Responsibilities in the People workstream whilst collating and understanding
the technology requirements (Epics and Stories) against the processes. Together
they prototyped a solution to take these requirements and process information
and transfer the project directly to DevOps.
For Dave King, CEO of Marjolo, it was
‘the first time I had seen true process led requirements capture’.
Differentiation
by Partnership
Ground breaking
innovations such as these, results in Marjolo now including Skore as part of their ‘go to market’ offering to truly
differentiate themselves in the market and outperform against all business
strategy expectations.
Chris Green stated that he is proud of the fact that Skore with Marjolo are winning more work and increasing software sales. More than that however,
‘Marjolo have assisted Skore in reaching an even wider audience and exploring possibilities that we would not have considered possible a few years ago. Marjolo are more than a partner – they have the capability to instinctively bring out the best in Skore, assist us in product development and continuously challenge the way transformation and change occur in organisations.’
Used by consultancy partners and end users alike, it enables organisations to understand, map and collaborate on their processes by providing an intuitive interface. A live workshop tool, its’ reporting and dashboard functionality delivers clarity, insight and process efficiencies. Skore aligns people, processes and tools
Marjolo works to support businesses in navigating industry and economic challenges by aligning business capabilities & culture with digital technology innovation, creating and delivering success blueprints resulting in real savings & benefits to meet organisational aspirations.
A2Z Cloud is a specialist in transforming businesses with cloud based technologies. For the last 6 years the team have focused on delivering innovative business transformation solutions based on the Zoho platform. This provides businesses with a complete suite of intelligent automation solutions. These can be configured and integrated to streamline operations, reduce costs and increase revenue.
Standing out from the crowd
With over 35 years of experience in software sales A2Z Managing Director Lucy Beck understands the importance of delivering a solution that exceeds the customer’s expectation. This is especially true in the age of cloud technologies and Software-as-a-Service platforms where customers can easily move from one solution to another as part of business transformation initiatives.
In order to differentiate A2Z from other cloud technology service companies Lucy set out to establish an approach that focused on developing the customer’s business rather than simply implementing a solution. She wanted her customers to really take a look at their own business, think about where they are heading, what’s slowing them down and, therefore, what a real solution could look like.
In 2016 Lucy introduced the Skore software platform to her team. Led by Kieron Jones, the team quickly adopted the approach. With support from the Skore team A2Z use Skore to help their customers really understand what makes their business tick.
Skore helps them build a holistic picture of people, processes and technologies and the client’s readiness for change. On top of this the A2Z team capture both functional and non-functional requirements, business issues, risks and improvement ideas, all into a single model.
Everything the team captures in Skore is shared instantly with the customer for further improvement and collaboration. This helps unlock further potential and improvements in their business and A2Z can offer more value.
“Every project we use Skore on grows beyond the original scope and adds more value to the customer than they expected.”
Sustainable solutions
Once the solution has been designed in Skore, and then developed in Zoho, the Skore model can be embedded into Zoho and used as training material. This allows an ongoing relationship to form between A2Z and their customer and a clear basis on which to build future improvements.
Using Skore has enabled A2Z to comprehensively understand the customers’ business and their requirements. There are no hidden surprises halfway through a project and everyone involved has visibility.
This combination of the A2Z skills and expertise, the Zoho platform and the Skore software has led to significant growth for A2Z and satisfied customers. The business has ambitious growth plans and with a renewed confidence is successfully tackling larger and larger customer projects.
Improving Placements for Local Children and Young People in South London
In 2017, a partnership of three NHS Trusts in South London embarked on a New Models of Care pilot in order to improve the experience of children and young people requiring inpatient placements in Mental Health Services. The partnership sought to reduce the distance that many children and young people, and their families, have to travel to these placements. The further from home a placement the greater the impact on the wellbeing of the patient and their family.
Change Platform Consulting led a series of workshops to understand the current state situation, develop a vision and then design future state processes. The workshops were facilitated using whiteboards and sticky notes along with Skore for the process capture and design. The team found the Skore approach both challenging and hugely valuable. The simple structure of the Skore approach challenges a team to not only describe WHAT happens but also WHY it happens. Furthermore, with it’s advanced RACI modelling, it asks WHO DOES the work, WHO OWNS the work and WHO ELSE needs to be involved.
“The team found the Skore approach both challenging and hugely valuable.”
These simple questions drive the discussion to the heart of the challenge a team is dealing with. It helps uncover problems within a process, it highlights misunderstanding, duplication and rework. All things we are looking to resolve or reduce in order to deliver a better service.
The Result of Skore Led Collaboration
In this phase of the programme the Skore approach helped the team model out different scenarios and make informed decisions about the best design moving forward. But more importantly it helped them address challenges in their existing ways of working and make immediate improvements even before they started implementing a solution.
As a result of these initial workshops the partnership saw a 75% reduction in the number of children and young people, from South London, staying outside the area. Across the partnership’s inpatient wards the total capacity used by local children and young people increased from 52% to 90%. The improved ways of working in this area also contributed to a 12% underspend against budget. All in the first 9 months.
These results demonstrate how the Skore approach and platform continually delivers value above and beyond the original project goals. It brings teams together and breaks down barriers in understanding very quickly. It delivers digital process discovery and analysis quicker than the competition. It forms the perfect basis for educating the workforce on the impact of changes to their ways of working. And helps you identify unexpected improvements.
Change Platform Consulting is a specialist consultancy supporting clients to successfully understand and deliver strategic impact in the most complex of change initiatives. With significant experience in multi-organisation health and social care service change and transformation, they provide a range of services that support clients in people orientated change linked to strategic initiatives. Download the full case study here.
