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Financial Services Case Study

Case #4935: Administrative Cost Reduction and Service Improvement - Human Resources

Despite strong earnings and legendary industry leadership, this global financial services firm grew dissatisfied with the performance of certain of its shared services departments, Human Resources (HR) chief among them. There were significant differences between its European and domestic HR organizations, their ability to adapt to new technologies was in question, and peer-company HR functions appeared to be operating more efficiently.

We were engaged to document existing HR operations and processes, examine differences between the continents, evaluate their implementation of PeopleSoft, and identify relevant benchmarks and best practices. The overall goal was to significantly reduce costs, improve overall performance, and close the HR gap between the company and its peers.

The changes we implemented resulted in saving the firm more than $26 million, standardizing firm-wide HR policies and practices, aligning business processes and PeopleSoft capabilities, and raising performance levels to those of the company's most highly ranked peers.

Engagement Highlights

  • Industry:
  • Financial Service
  • Client:
  • A Global Industry Leader
  • Assignment:
  • Document Existing Operations and Processes
  • Identify Relevant Best Practices
  • Make PeopleSoft Fully Operational
  • Significantly Reduce Operating Costs
  • Raise Overall Performance Levels
  • Approach:
  • Identify HR Best Practices
  • Assess Client HR Performance Relative to Industry Standards
  • Compare Business Processes among Domestic Branches and Between US and Europe
  • Review PeopleSoft Implementation
  • Assess Skills/Training Requirements
  • Establish Objective Performance Metrics
  • Conduct Benchmarking to Identify Best Practices
  • Redesign/Standardize Business Processes
  • Develop Capacity Planning Model
  • Align Business Processes with Technological Capabilities
  • Implement/Track both Short- and Long-term Improvements
  • Quickly Capture Benefits to Self-fund Ongoing Initiative
  • Duration:
  • 38 weeks (12-Week Assessment & Design and 26-Week Implementation)

Results

  • HR Performance Levels Raised to Highest Peer-group Quartile
  • PeopleSoft Made Fully Operational
  • Industry-leading Best Practices Implemented
  • Organization Re-skilled and Trained
  • Short-term Savings Funded Ongoing Initiative
  • R.O.I.: > $6.00 for every $1.00 Invested

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