Chordiant Improves Control of Global Resource Utilisation through Ninth Wave’s PAT
Managing and utilising resources in a complex and dispersed global environment is a challenge that many IT companies face today. Yet the establishment of an effective resource management strategy can pay real dividends to the bottom line in tough economic times – an opinion echoed by The Aberdeen Group who state, "The increase in utilisation goes directly to an organisation’s bottom line and creates additional profitability for stakeholders."1
In conjunction with Ninth Wave, Chordiant Software recently tackled the challenges of global resource management head on.
Chordiant Software provides solutions that automate and manage operational business processes for leading service-driven global organisations in retail finance, telecommunications, consumer direct and citizen services. Customers gain business value by using Chordiant to automate and integrate corporate systems and data with the operating processes and applications that link the core business systems with their communication channels to customers or citizens.
The Challenge
With headquarters in Cupertino, California and additional offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Munich and Amsterdam, Chordiant was finding controlling and monitoring its employees increasingly challenging. The company wanted to improve its resource management worldwide and ensure its customers were assigned with the best match of consultant skill sets to projects. Furthermore, it wanted enterprise-wide visibility of resource utilisation on projects, bill rates per role and the products that were being used. It also wanted to collate all these details in succinct management reports for company wide viewing.
Jayne Nickalls, Chordiant’s Vice President of Consulting Services, commented: "Whilst we were able to track our existing resources and billing levels, we wanted a centralised system with greater flexibility, in order to address future global resource management requirements as the company develops. We want to be 100% confident that we will be in a strong position to handle increased resource demands on a global basis."
"Our solutions are designed to improve employee productivity, reduce operational costs and drive revenue growth opportunities. We are also constantly striving to improve our interaction with our own clients and third party suppliers. We felt that having a single enterprise wide-view of our resources, resource utilisation and projects would provide us with clear visibility and control across the company. We also realised that if our geographically dispersed offices could collaborate and share project and resource management information effectively, it would be an essential step forward towards achieving our own customer goals," Nickalls continued.
The Solution
Chordiant singled out Ninth Wave, a developer of project, programme, resource and knowledge management solutions, as the best fit for its requirements. Ninth Wave’s Project Assistant Toolkit (PAT), is a web-based general management tool designed to help companies overcome common IT project management challenges, such as communication breakdown, information processing issues, lost data, poor data sharing, multiple channels of communication and duplicated processes.
PAT’s e-working platform enables users to collaborate, share and process information in a secure knowledge management environment. Its customised home pages, language translation, immediate escalation capabilities and the provision of full history for any key changes enables users, wherever they are located, to share the core knowledge base and processes defined and disseminated through the application itself.
Ninth Wave worked with Chordiant to configure and deploy a solution in the UK. The system is administered and maintained by a resource manager who is responsible for resource data and reporting throughout the Chordiant Group. Nickalls commented: "We were impressed by the speed and ease of deployment of PAT. The solution did not require any PC software, simply our browser. The solution was then configured for a single server and connected to our intranet. It was fully useable on a global scale within a week. The scalability of the system means that new users can be added all the time. Its flexibility was also impressive. We were able to choose which templates we needed and we can also add additional information structures as our company grows and develops."
Ninth Wave’s solution is comprised of:
There have been a number of important benefits for Chordiant, including the enabling of a centralised database that holds details such as organisational groupings, key procedure documents, etc. Additional information can be added as the need arises. The solution will enable Chordiant to more accurately monitor and manage its resources and also ensure that it can plan ahead. The database also holds details of all its third party suppliers so the company is now able to track external partners and their resources and contact details, which has helped forge stronger relationships and closer integration.
Nickalls added: "The system has changed our fundamental working practices for the better. We have improved the way in which we handle our resources and manage our relationship with both our customers and their partners from having this wealth of knowledge at our fingertips."
1 The Aberdeen Group, 2001
View the BFT case study
Managing and utilising resources in a complex and dispersed global environment is a challenge that many IT companies face today. Yet the establishment of an effective resource management strategy can pay real dividends to the bottom line in tough economic times – an opinion echoed by The Aberdeen Group who state, "The increase in utilisation goes directly to an organisation’s bottom line and creates additional profitability for stakeholders."1
In conjunction with Ninth Wave, Chordiant Software recently tackled the challenges of global resource management head on.
Chordiant Software provides solutions that automate and manage operational business processes for leading service-driven global organisations in retail finance, telecommunications, consumer direct and citizen services. Customers gain business value by using Chordiant to automate and integrate corporate systems and data with the operating processes and applications that link the core business systems with their communication channels to customers or citizens.
The Challenge
With headquarters in Cupertino, California and additional offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Munich and Amsterdam, Chordiant was finding controlling and monitoring its employees increasingly challenging. The company wanted to improve its resource management worldwide and ensure its customers were assigned with the best match of consultant skill sets to projects. Furthermore, it wanted enterprise-wide visibility of resource utilisation on projects, bill rates per role and the products that were being used. It also wanted to collate all these details in succinct management reports for company wide viewing.
Jayne Nickalls, Chordiant’s Vice President of Consulting Services, commented: "Whilst we were able to track our existing resources and billing levels, we wanted a centralised system with greater flexibility, in order to address future global resource management requirements as the company develops. We want to be 100% confident that we will be in a strong position to handle increased resource demands on a global basis."
"Our solutions are designed to improve employee productivity, reduce operational costs and drive revenue growth opportunities. We are also constantly striving to improve our interaction with our own clients and third party suppliers. We felt that having a single enterprise wide-view of our resources, resource utilisation and projects would provide us with clear visibility and control across the company. We also realised that if our geographically dispersed offices could collaborate and share project and resource management information effectively, it would be an essential step forward towards achieving our own customer goals," Nickalls continued.
The Solution
Chordiant singled out Ninth Wave, a developer of project, programme, resource and knowledge management solutions, as the best fit for its requirements. Ninth Wave’s Project Assistant Toolkit (PAT), is a web-based general management tool designed to help companies overcome common IT project management challenges, such as communication breakdown, information processing issues, lost data, poor data sharing, multiple channels of communication and duplicated processes.
PAT’s e-working platform enables users to collaborate, share and process information in a secure knowledge management environment. Its customised home pages, language translation, immediate escalation capabilities and the provision of full history for any key changes enables users, wherever they are located, to share the core knowledge base and processes defined and disseminated through the application itself.
Ninth Wave worked with Chordiant to configure and deploy a solution in the UK. The system is administered and maintained by a resource manager who is responsible for resource data and reporting throughout the Chordiant Group. Nickalls commented: "We were impressed by the speed and ease of deployment of PAT. The solution did not require any PC software, simply our browser. The solution was then configured for a single server and connected to our intranet. It was fully useable on a global scale within a week. The scalability of the system means that new users can be added all the time. Its flexibility was also impressive. We were able to choose which templates we needed and we can also add additional information structures as our company grows and develops."
Ninth Wave’s solution is comprised of:
- A centralised database to track all customer projects, resources and solutions used at existing project sites. The solution will also be used for future projects that are in the pipeline.
- An update facility that reflects any changes instantly that can be viewed by other users anywhere in the world.
- A full history option showing how resources were utilised in the past.
- A facility that tracks resource skill sets and matches these skills to project requirements.
- A document management system that ensures any documents can be retrieved quickly and easily and grouped and sorted in any manner required.
There have been a number of important benefits for Chordiant, including the enabling of a centralised database that holds details such as organisational groupings, key procedure documents, etc. Additional information can be added as the need arises. The solution will enable Chordiant to more accurately monitor and manage its resources and also ensure that it can plan ahead. The database also holds details of all its third party suppliers so the company is now able to track external partners and their resources and contact details, which has helped forge stronger relationships and closer integration.
Nickalls added: "The system has changed our fundamental working practices for the better. We have improved the way in which we handle our resources and manage our relationship with both our customers and their partners from having this wealth of knowledge at our fingertips."
1 The Aberdeen Group, 2001
View the BFT case study