Vanessa Cowan

OUR BUSINESS BUSINESS CHANGE ESSENCE APRIL 2010 PAGES XX (HEADING) Business Change helps builds successful projects (INTRODUCTION) Change is a given in any organisation. What is key though, is making the right changes at the right time for the right reasons. Santam’s Business Change division ensures that our change projects adhere to the right standards to support and maximize Santam’s business strategy. Essence chatted to Lizet Murray, head of Business Change about the business change services that Business Change offers Santam. (BODY COPY) Any project goes through certain stages throughout its lifecycle. The Project Portfolio Office (PPO) (which now forms part of the Business Change Unit) has developed a Business Change Lifecycle (BCLC) to ensure that all projects in Santam meet certain criteria and standards at every stage of its lifecycle. The stages through which a project goes, can be best explained by using the analogy of building a house. Building blocks Say you want to build a house. What does your ideal house look like? Do you have a clear picture of your ideal house? It is during this concept stage that ideas are crystallised into a clear concept, so that you have an overall view of what your house should eventually look like. [Do you have a clear picture of your project? Do you know exactly why you are starting this particular project? Have you contacted your Business Change Manager (BCM) to arrange for the necessary Business Change support for you?]] Next, you will need to start engaging with an architect (designer), who will help take the concept to a more detailed level, clarifying, for example, the style and size of the house and which direction it should face. It is at this scope stage that a draft plan for the house is put together. [How big is your project? What is the scope? How many people are involved?] Once this is done, you would need to assess the cost involved and decide whether to go ahead and build or not. Does the plan fall within your budget? Are you getting value for your money? [What is the budget for your project? Have you explored all the possible synergies? Are you not perhaps reinventing the wheel? Do you know what benefits your project will have] You’ve decided to go ahead and build your dream house. This is where you are moving onto the define stage. In this stage, you may need to make some refinements to the original plan, perhaps cut down on some costs, or meet particular architectural requirements or building restrictions. Following this, a comprehensive project plan will be developed and the project team appointed. [ Do you know what the key outcomes are that you expect from the project and by when? Will you be able to track progress?] In the next design stage, the detailed design of the house plan will be finalised to ensure that all design specifications are understood and planned for, before the team starts building. The develop stage sees the project team actually build the house, strictly according to the plan. Here the project manager will ensure that the project runs according to the project plan, timelines and quality standards are met and that costs do not exceed what has been budgeted for. [Have you clarified all roles and responsibilities? Are the timelines realistic? Careful not to overpromise and under-deliver?] During the implementation stage the completed house is handed over to the client. The builder ensures that the client understands what has been built, how everything works and is satisfied that the desired quality standards have been achieved. [Is the BU satisfied? Don’t make assumptions] In the post-implementation phase, the built house is reviewed and, where necessary, a snag list is created. This list will record all those things that have not been done to the satisfaction of the client and which need to be rectified. The builders will then come back and fix or improve on what has been agreed to. [Lessons learnt] Finally, in the last benefits realisation stage, you are now the proud owner of a new house and can enjoy all its benefits. You will begin to transform the house into a home through furnishing and decorating. Further down the line, your house will become an asset that should ensure you get a return on your investment one day. [Do you have plans in place to make sure that the tools, systems and processes delivered by the project are further refined and that everyone can use it as intended? Are you monitoring and measuring to see that you get the benefits you thought you would get? Governance and support It is important that any project that is undertaken adheres to certain standards to ensure quality, increased benefits, and cost management. One of the services offered by Business Change, is Programme Governance and Support. This service ensures that all projects in Santam adhere to certain standards. It provides the required regulatory framework and rules for effective project management, including a number of standards, methods and tools. These for example include a standard process to assess and initiate all proposed change and projects within Santam, standardised documentation templates, governing principles and roles and responsibilities for key stakeholders involved in projects. Different types of change will require different levels of governance. Through careful collaboration with colleagues in the Information Technology Division, the PPO has also aligned the IT Solution Development Lifecycle (SDLC) with the BCLC, to understand which SDLC deliverables are relevant at which stages of the BCLC. This enables a single owner (project or programme manager) to have an end-to-end view of any change (project). Change management The BCLC has further been integrated with a recently developed Santam change management approach. This will ensure that the people impacts of change are well managed throughout the duration of any project. Another important service offered by the PPO is a Project Management Centre of Excellence. This service will develop project management as a key competence in Santam and set standards for the performance of project managers, including the contracting, onboarding and performance management of people in such functions. Look out for the insert included in this magazine. It provides an easy reference guide to the business change services and the business change llifecycle. In the next edition of Essence, we’ll provide more detail on the various services and how they work in practice. ENDS WORD COUNT: 935 (IN BOX) Do you need a to initiate a change in your area? Contact a Business Change Manager (BCM) today: • BCM: Broker distribution – Andre Jordaan- • BCM: Specialist Business and New and External Markets – Johan Troskie- • BCM Claims Services – Maryka Erasmus- • BCM Risk services – Ashraf Ismail (during Surina van Ransburg’s secondment to a strategic initiative, Fusion)- • BCM Support Services (incorporating Corporate Services, People and Brand, IT and Market Development) – Mario Beer- Once your project has been approved, the BCM will facilitate the resourcing and scheduling of any required project resources. For general queries on project management support tools, methodologies or training, contact the PPO office direct on-/7805. (IN BOX) Santam’s change journey goes international Lizet Murray, Head of Business Change, was invited to share Santam’s change journey at the Best Practice User Group’s annual congress in London in February this year. (IN BOX) Santam’s change journey … 2005 Santam’s change journey starts with the launch of key change initiatives 2007 Project Support Unit (PSU) and Project Committee launched 2008 PSU developed into a fully-fledged Project Portfolio Office The Project Committee replaced with the Strategic Investment Committee A standard project methodology was adopted 2009 Business Change launched ENDS WORD COUNT: 208