2020
{{user.Title}}
PEAK SIGNAL
Selecting the right assignments
... we did. Read on for our thoughts as to why. When we formed Peak Signal, we all agreed that for the engagements we undertook, we must be able to generate significantly more benefit for our customers than it was costing them to have us onboard. This came from our own experience of seeing consultancies come into businesses and, to coin a phrase, "borrow our watch to tell us the time" - and how that always feels very unsatisfactory both personally and financially. However, when discussing our experiences, we were all able to recount examples where, in our pre-Peak Signal lives, the engagement of the right consultancy with an appropriate assignment generated significant benefits. When looking at those examples, there are some key attributes that stand out when deciding whether you will achieve more value from tackling assignments internally or from getting consultants involved. This covered a number of factors: The consultancy assignments themselves The organisations' inherent skills, experience and resource availability The consultants' skills, experience and 'fit' into the organisation This article is a digest of our experiences and conclusions on where consultants can add real value. Additionally, it provides insight into where we have linked this learning into the assignments we deliver. To find out more, check out how we structure our services and some of our recent case studies. Peak Signal
Peak Signal
Have you ever wondered why some consultancy assignments succeed and others do not ...
{{page}}
How would you summarise the outcomes?
I’m Paula Mathews. I’ve been working in the broadcast and media industry for over 30 years. I joined the BBC as a trainee engineer and have been fortunate to be able to work in a variety of technical roles, including developing and leading high performing technical teams across both broadcasters and their service providers. I have also been able to combine my technical career with product management, leading the development of noted industry media and OTT products during periods of substantial change.
The financial risk of not optimising the ongoing costs was high, so time was of the essence
What made this scenario appropriate for using consultancy?
As a Head of Product and Technology within a Service Provider, I was not only responsible for developing new products but ensuring that they were both fit for purpose and that the financial returns were realised. It’s one thing having a business case and another actually realising the benefits contained within it. We were working on a number of OTT products and were early adopters of cloud deployments; while we had spent much time working up cost models and scenario plans as part of our business planning, we were really struggling with how to monitor and control cloud resources in a way that both met the service requirements and also delivered the predicted financial returns. We needed some detailed, real-world, expertise on how to track and control costs without impacting the services we were delivering to our blue-chip customers. The consultancy we involved was able to come in, hit the ground running and quickly start to analyse the complex set of moving parts. They had both the industry understanding, so they could really get under the skin of what we were trying to achieve and, crucially, also a really good working knowledge of the tools and approaches available in the cloud provider’s offerings. Importantly, they were also able to work constructively across all the teams involved. This meant they were quickly able to get to grips with identifying key areas of cost optimisation, They were also able to provide us with valuable collateral and in-life toolsets, including: updated and interactive ratecards for scenario modeling operational monitoring that not only alerted on service issues but was intimately linked into finance alerting - something that is often overlooked when cloud deployments are undertaken.
“
Peak Signal regularly solve problems like this for our customers Read our "Cloud-based tooling – licensing optimisation" case study
We were struggling with how to monitor and control cloud resources in a way that both met the service requirements and also delivered the predicted financial returns
If this article resonates with you, contact us for a free consultation
Where did you find consultancy most useful?
We needed someone with the relevant industry and cloud experience to hit the ground running and achieve the results much faster than we could trying to do it ourselves; the financial risk of not optimising the ongoing costs was high, so time was of the essence.
We got more out of it than we expected and far quicker than we would have been able to achieve ourselves at that point in our learning curve with cloud resources. The cost savings were significant compared to the cost of getting the consultancy involved;
Cost optimised services On track to deliver to the cost profile in the product business case Clear understanding of which use cases were profitable in the cloud Clear cloud resource allocation to each product Actionable dashboards for technical service delivery and financial accountability Built upon the cloud provider’s tooling, augmenting it to create interactive scenario modeling tools
Paula Mathews
Peak Signal regularly solve problems like this for our customers Read our "Software Development Services" case study
As the new head of the projects team at an OTT startup, it quickly became clear that whilst the internal resources available were highly capable, they were definitely overstretched. There were some key features that needed to be incorporated into the product, and fast. A highly successful sales organization was converting deals that were backing-up, and the business was in danger of failing to deliver. With an in-house developed platform, and a web development team with very little native application development expertise, there was a risk that new native payment and DRM features - contractual requirements - could fail to be delivered on time and the business would be at risk. We decided we needed to carve-out a sub-project and we needed a development consultancy to deliver a discrete package of work. It was not an easy ask. We needed them to: Arrive quickly and be accompanied by the skills to deliver outputs fast Apply learnings from recent similar projects, help set our expectations Spot gotchas that would otherwise have derailed the project Prioritise deliverables to maximise their own and the team’s efficiency Phase deliverables to provide maximum progress for the customer Through the consultancy’s ability and efforts, backlog features were now being addressed, the pressure eased, risk was reduced and progress was being made.
A highly successful sales organization was converting deals that were backing-up, and the business was in danger of failing to deliver
Julian Shutt
My name is Julian Shutt and I’ve worked with and for content- owners, managed service providers and media-technology vendors in the OTT space for several years. In my various roles; technical and operational, and in startups and Fortune 500 organizations, I have utilised consultancy expertise with varying degrees of success to: Extend my team when extra bandwidth was needed Provide expertise to fill knowledge gaps in my organization Deliver discrete packages of work - standalone and as part of a larger programme Whilst you can never guarantee the perfect engagement, I believe that the most successful engagements do have some common characteristics.
However, the qualitative benefits (whilst harder to assess), proved to be of even more critical importance to the business, and they provided a tail of value that long-outlived the consultancy engagement;
The immediate outcomes were clear and easily quantifiable by all involved;
Credibility with the customer was maintained Our internal teams had an improved view of "what good looks like" The consultancy introduced new, improved ways of working The internal knowledge base grew, the business skilled-up
The qualitative benefits proved to be of even more critical importance to the business, and they provided a tail of value that long-outlived the consultancy engagement
New features were built, tested and deployed - a happy customer A package of completed work was handed back to the business Risk was removed from the project
There was a clear knowledge gap that the consultancy filled The measures of success were clear for everyone The business was willing to empower the consultancy to deliver
I’m Sam Alwan. I’ve been working in the broadcast and media industry for over 20 years. Having started out in live news production I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a variety of broadcasters and service providers in an array of areas including studio and production, broadcast operations and service management. Recently I have gone on to lead large implementation, engineering and operational teams through periods of substantial growth and change.
A clear, impartial assessment of where the issues were A prioritised get-well plan clarifying the actions needed from each party Both parties being held to account - restoring an ‘adult to adult’ relationship Straightforward updates to senior management including calling out action needed by them A successful system implementation going on to be used as a reference project and customer Lasting changes to migration planning and testing plans Overhauled approach to supplier management in terms of metrics and tone of relationships
Action was required before product profitability and, more importantly, the service that we provided to our customers were significantly impacted
Sam Alwan
In addition to being timely, the benefits of the engagement went beyond the successful closure of the project, in fact leaving lasting changes to the way we structured future implementations and how we collaborated with key suppliers. Some of the key outcomes were:
As Media Services Director within a Service Provider, my accountabilities included engineering, development, operations and product management. This required ensuring that the systems, platforms and services that we operated delivered world-class performance for our customers, while being procured and implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner; representing value for our customers and profitability for our business. During the introduction of a critical platform we experienced significant implementation issues; in terms of its correct functionality and its interplay with existing systems. As our internal and supplier teams attempted to work through persisting issues acrimony set in, resulting in a non-constructive partnership; in turn slowing progress on a time-sensitive, cost heavy programme. Action was required before product profitability and, more importantly, the service that we provided our customers were significantly impacted. To rectify the situation we made the decision to involve a project rescue consultancy; tasking them with taking over the stewardship of the implementation, acting as an honest broker, re-establishing a productive working relationship and uniting all parties towards a timely resolution. To do this the consultant engaged would need to have the soft skills required to work with and re-energise weary teams, combined with the subject matter expertise to understand the key deliverables of the project, where the priorities lay and bring their presence to bear in finding solutions. They immediately set about these activities positively impacting the spirit of the project almost immediately and in the process delivering clear, impartial updates and reports to our senior management team; clearly articulating where improvements were needed by all parties, highlighting the actions and holding everyone accountable until the successful conclusion.
We needed to reset the relationship after a prolonged challenging period. This required an honest broker; someone that was working entirely in our interest, being firm with our supplier while being straightforward with us about what we had to do better.
Peak Signal regularly solve problems like this for our customers Read our "Stabilising business critical systems and processes" case study
We needed to reset the relationship after a prolonged challenging period. This required an honest broker
We had to find a way of keeping business as usual running smoothly while ensuring the project delivered our extensive business requirements
Peak Signal regularly solve problems like this for our customers Read our "CRM business process design and implementation" case study
Accountability for agreed deliverables Reduced risk by using proven talent Focusing internal stakeholders Dramatic increase in the Internal knowledge base
Due to the scope of the project, we required specific skills and most importantly a consultancy with significant levels of relevant experience to benefit the overall development cycle. Whilst the project could have ended at the initial POC, as it was important to spend our budget wisely, it became clear that using the consultancy through the complete lifecycle of the project's delivery would be the most efficient option, ensuring we could leverage knowledge not easily found from an internal member of staff, achieving results and hence return on investment quicker.
A key reason behind delivering on time and to business requirements has been down to the collaborative nature of the engagement
I’m Tom Pammenter, I worked in broadcast for a number of years before starting a specialist freelance agency. I’ve enjoyed building a company supporting a variety of customers from vendors, system integrators and content owners. We’ve supported projects across Europe and the MEA region with a real variety of requirements and internal operational challenges. As a business we have used a variety of consultants to run internal projects, these have varied in size and success.
We provide 24/7 staffing support to a number of broadcasters, servicing those requirements quickly and accurately is fundamental to ensuring we meet and exceed our SLAs. Building an in-house booking platform to meet our customers' needs, the team required specific experience and skills to bring the project to life - turning it from a set of business requirements into a proof of concept and then on in to a fully-functioning live deployment. It was clear that the success of this project not only required development skills but also needed the ability to bring together internal stakeholders, suppliers and customers. It quickly became clear that there wasn't someone available in the business that had the right mix of skills or the luxury of being able to focus on the delivery full time. We had to find a way of keeping 'business as usual' running smoothly while ensuring the project delivered our extensive set of business requirements. Our consultancy wish list included: A specific mix of software development/dev-op skills Available quickly and able to hit the ground running Deliver specific milestones to an agreed schedule Provide insight into design and implementation considerations for POC and live scenarios. Run an ongoing project plan as requirements changed Provide ongoing support if needed
An initial in-house design was taken and it was re-engineered to clearly plan and document progress against agreed deliverables. Our POC was delivered ahead of schedule using tooling not previously considered. Phased roll out of our booking platform has been successful, enabling us to realise tangible internal cost savings whilst having a product offering that enables the business to scale efficiently. The project has benefited from a consultative approach whereby the consultancy has been invested in the project rather than simply taking a design and building it. A key reason behind delivering on time and to business requirements has been down to the collaborative nature of the engagement. Overall it has been a cost effective way to secure both the expertise and the overall business outcome, providing:
Tom Pammenter
peaksignal.io