Saving £££ in the crunch
METRI, founded by senior Gartner and KPMG consultants, has worked with some of Europe’s largest governments and multinationals save – in some cases – up to £millions in ICT costs while improving service quality. With deep business and IT expertise, underpinned by enriched price/performance market data, METRI advises on best-practice ways to achieve more with less, negotiate better outsourcing contracts and gain competitive advantage.

Green IT
METRI is also seeing a major uptake in its Green IT compliance advisory business as organisations seek to combine IT and energy cost savings that benefit the bottom line while improving sustainability credentials.

Outsourcing
Outsourcing consulting is the third area of expansion as METRI advises corporates on best-price, best-practice supplier options and assists service providers with comparative market pricing strategies. METRI also helps both users and providers with contract negotiations and mediation.

Says Paul Michaels, Head of Consulting, METRI UK: “With less margin for error in today’s economy, we see a growing need for sound business advice underpinned by fact-based data. Our ability to supply delivers double-barrelled power in helping organisations prosper not perish in a challenging future”

Robert brings to METRI a wealth of IT and business experience, particularly within the public sector. Starting his career as a computer programmer for British Steel, Robert then spent 17 years as a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy followed by senior management positions with leading IT service providers EDS, Admiral (now LogicaCMG) and Unisys. Clients included the Ministry of Defence and Royal Mail. In addition to overseeing numerous business transformation and programme management projects, Robert has managed businesses, complex outsourcing projects and proposals for multi-volume catalogue and shared service contracts for the government with annual revenue up to £1 billion.

“METRI came to my attention last year when I discovered they had helped the Dutch government save over 50 million Euros a year across twelve different ministries. This was by recommending a programme of organisational restructuring which included reducing the number of desktops and consolidating multi-site technical support into a central hub. I believe that in today’s market the type of service that METRI provides will be increasingly vital as the business community and public sector organisations face mounting budgetary pressures, and as IT outsourcers seek help in positioning themselves more competitively. For these reasons, I foresee the opportunities for METRI at this time to be huge.”

From METRI’s point of view, attracting someone with Saxby’s calibre is a coup says Paul Michaels, Director of Consulting at METRI UK. “An impressive business, technology and management skill set, knowledge of both corporate and public sector dynamics, and decades of experience with industry-leading service providers make Robert a powerful addition to our UK operation.”

Says Bill Dawson, IT Manager UK & Ireland for SCA Hygiene: “While most IT application support is handled from Sweden, we look after local help desk, infrastructure and other site support across the UK’s three locations. We have been very successful in cutting costs, but need to ensure this hasn’t been at the expense of support quality. We were also interested in seeing how our running costs compared to our peers and wanted to identify where there was room for efficiency improvements. Overall, we were looking for best practice advice in how to optimise the combination of IT cost, process and performance.”

When asked why the company chose METRI for the project, he explained: “METRI was flexible. We didn’t want a full-blown detailed study, we just wanted an overview and METRI immediately understood our requirements. In just four weeks they delivered a clear set of recommendations we plan to use to create an action plan. When it comes to submitting it to senior management for buy-in, it helps that it is backed up by an expert, independent source. Ultimately, the benchmarking project may be rolled out to SCA’s other European operations, so it was another positive factor that METRI has a strong continental presence.”

The study confirmed that SCA Hygiene’s IT costs were almost 8% below those of peer organisations, based on like-to-like comparisons of transaction volumes, types of services delivered, infrastructure complexity, geographic region and industry focus. It highlighted where additional efficiencies could be won: Firstly by rationalising help desk support (currently based in Dunstable and Newcastle) into a single location, and secondly by reducing help desk traffic (currently higher than peers) through an education campaign aimed at internal users. The report also confirmed that service quality – especially in areas like response times and reporting capabilities – was at risk with continued cost cutting. In terms of best practice guidelines, METRI recommended a review of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators), service level agreements and deliverables and suggested further implementation of the IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) to provide a baseline for all standard IT processes across the enterprise.

Says Paul Michaels, Director Consulting at METRI Measurement Consulting in the UK, “Increasingly we are finding that companies are no longer solely focused on reducing their IT costs but are also looking at how their technology infrastructures can support best practice goals from enhanced operational efficiencies to better service quality. Towards this end, benchmarking is emerging as a key business enabler. We are proud to be at the forefront of this trend and to have the opportunity to contribute to the now and future success of clients like SCA.”

About SCA (www.sca.com)
Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA) headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, is a global consumer goods and paper company which develops, produces and markets personal care products tissue, packaging solutions, publication papers and solid-wood products in more than 90 countries. Personal care products include toilet paper, kitchen rolls, feminine care and baby diapers. Packaging includes containerboard and transport, protective and consumer/point-of-sales and forest products include pulp and paper, as well as timber and other solid-wood products. With over 51,000 staff in 50 countries, SCA had annual sales were EUR 11bn in 2006.

Fujitsu Services conducts benchmarking as a routine component of its business intelligence strategy. As Mark Dixon, Benchmarking Manager at Fujitsu Services, explains: “Continual measurement is a key part of our methodology to ensure we are in touch with the market. It provides us with an ongoing system of quality checks and balances to ensure we remain competitive.”

Dixon continued: “Previously we had been using two other well-known consultancies. This year I included METRI because I wanted to introduce some new ‘blood’, and that they were able to provide additional data not available elsewhere. As it happens, they have outperformed the other suppliers in terms of quality, time to deliver and data richness.”

Paul Michaels, Director Consulting at METRI Measurement Consulting, comments: “Sometimes organisations turn to benchmarking when they need to fix something or have lost competitive edge. Fujitsu Services is impressive in that benchmarking is used as a foundational part of its business practice to stay ahead of the curve and to plan future strategies.“

About Fujitsu Services (www.uk.fujitsu.com)
Fujitsu Services is a leading European information technology services company. Its business is helping its customers realise the value of information technology through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed service contracts. It serves customers in the private and public sectors across Europe including retail, financial services, healthcare and Government. With an annual turnover of £2.46 billion (€3.59 billion), it employs over 19,000 people across 20 countries. Headquartered in London, Fujitsu Services is the European IT services arm of the US$43.2 billion (€32.5 billion) Fujitsu Group.

METRI’s three-month study analysed Unisys service operations in those target regions, analysing cost structures and identifying efficiency gains within some of Unisys support locations, such as Amsterdam, Budapest and Bangalore. The study also benchmarked the pricing structures of Unisys various IT outsourcing services, including help desk, remote server management and desktop management. This data was then compared against regional market norms, looking at most popular service options and competitive prices as a check that Unisys offerings conformed to, or exceeded, market expectations.

Steve Garrou, director, IT Outsourcing Strategy & Portfolio Management at Unisys, explained why Unisys chose METRI for the project: “We wanted a consultant who could look across our international operations and apply a single benchmarking framework. After researching the options, we concluded that METRI was unique in its capability to compare our costs and our pricing strategies uniformly across all the target geographies. In addition, while its competitors offered more generalised market-based data, METRI had access to fresh, accurate and precise information and brought a very thorough approach to the job.”

According to Willem Zwang, manager, IT Outsourcing at Unisys Amsterdam office: “We were pleased with the results of the METRI study. It both confirmed our strengths and pointed out some areas of opportunity that will help us stay in the forefront in providing quality, cost-efficient IT outsourcing services for clients, as a recent report from a leading analyst firm indicates we are doing.”

About Unisys (www.unisys.com)
Unisys is a worldwide technology services and solutions company. Our consultants apply Unisys expertise in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, infrastructure, and server technology to help our clients achieve secure business operations. We build more secure organizations by creating visibility into clients’ business operations. Leveraging the Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise approach, we make visible the impact of their decisions – ahead of investments, opportunities and risks.

The initial aim of the study was to enable top management to gain a better view of government IT across the board. There was also a mandate from above to save 750 million Euros in operational costs and while it was suspected costs were higher than necessary, supporting evidence was needed. Beyond these issues, the government wanted to put in place instruments that would provide more centralised IT control while integrating a diverse range of ministry and departmental infrastructures.

Multi-dimensional measurement criteria
To achieve these ambitious aims, the government appointed METRI Measurement Consulting. Says Peter Vermeij, Deputy Secretary General, Ministry of Economic Affairs: “We chose METRI after an intensive evaluation and tendering process. They were able to bring additional dimensions to the project, looking at the quality of processes, results and outcomes as well as cost and performance. They also completed each phase on time and worked smoothly with the various departments without tying up too much of their time. We also wanted to work with just one company throughout the project for the sake of continuity, and METRI had the capacity, depth of experience and data resources to handle the job.”

Standardising the Global Desktop
The first phase of the Dutch government’s massive year-long study involved looking at strategies for standardising and centrally provisioning its 15,000 unit desktop environment, called ‘The Global Desktop’. The project also called for an examination of the government’s overall IT infrastructures, including front-to-back office and inter-departmental connectivity. Part of this task was to identify where performance gains and economies of scale could be won through rationalising processes like document management into regional service hubs. Having examined all of these elements and more, best internal vs. external sourcing options had to be reviewed and compared against current market practice and pricing.

Ultimately the benchmark report determined that comparing overall efficiencies with the market norm, the ministries were placed virtually in the middle. Explains Vermeij: “So far, all of METRI’s recommendations have been well-founded and the study has given us an excellent insight into the costs we incur and now to negotiate more keenly with suppliers.”

Saving 50 million Euros
On the Global Desktop project alone, METRI has helped identify over 50 million Euros a year in savings through organisational restructuring, reducing the number of PCs and consolidating technical support into a central hub. According to Paul Michaels, Director of Consulting at METRI’s UK-based office:: “Governments everywhere face the same issues: the need to find cost savings, do more with less resources, harmonise departmental silos and provide the public with consistently high quality services. In this, we are extremely proud to have been able to help the Dutch government find solutions to these challenges and achieve such a broad range of positive outcomes.”

Getronics PinkRoccade is the largest IT service provider in The Netherlands and to maintain this position, it regularly conducts quality and performance monitoring. The METRI project came about as part of a specific initiative to benchmark the results of a major system rationalisation and transformational change programme within the Application Services division, resulting from a recent wave of M&A activity at Getronics PinkRoccade. The company used the opportunity to target a 25% productivity gain and a 99%+ ‘On-Time’ delivery rate across the division.

Says Alain Le Loux, Senior Director for Application Services and Projects at Getronics PinkRoccade: “In addition to measuring the quality and performance levels of our services resulting from the change programme, we wanted to see where we stood in the marketplace and compare costs against the competition. As part of this exercise, we needed to be able to analyse and compare our cost structures for such things as offshore software development.”

Getronics PinkRoccade chose METRI for the benchmarking project because, as Le Loux explains: “METRI impressed us with its access to up-to-date, ‘real-world’ market data – not the theoretical, 20-year old statistics being offered by some of the other consultants. We also appreciated the fact that METRI had the capacity to measure a wider range of factors and provide comparative metrics on such things as service quality levels as well as cost and productivity.”

Phase One results revealed that Getronics PinkRoccade’s Microsoft department was best-in-class while SAP achieved high quality ratings but indicated room for productivity improvements. Set against the competition, service quality was uniformly in front, but pricing came out a little higher in a few areas. In most cases this was because Getronics PinkRoccade offered a more comprehensive specification than others.

Le Loux is so enthusiastic about METRI that he is encouraging all Application Services clients to benchmark their internal IT platforms. “Not only does benchmarking show them where they can find inhouse improvements, it helps us because clients get a better insight into how we support them. If they understand, for example, how their system complexities are adding to servicing costs, clients have the option to make changes.”

Says Paul Michaels, Director of Consulting at METRI’s UK-based office: “We at METRI are pleased with this opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to one of the world’s top IT service providers. The study highlights the fact that in today’s increasingly aggressive business environment, access to accurate and timely market data can deliver a powerful competitive edge and be a significant asset in the bidding process.”