Optimization of its IT and business process functions
A Fortune 500 health insurance company required a complete optimization of its IT and business process functions. Wavestone transformed 8,500 FTEs across seven BPO modules and 20+ functions. This supported multiple retained and shared services business process optimization mandates in F&A, procurement, and HR.
Wavestone's mission and benefits
Wavestone helped the company earn $139 million in projected five-year savings.
Wavestone's vision and value
The role of IT in business has completely changed. Last year’s IT strategy and roadmap is no longer applicable in today’s landscape. IT holds more power than ever before and has a clear mandate to operate a digital enterprise that propels the business forward. Businesses require a strategic IT plan that is forward-looking, digitally-focused, cost-effective and drives business value.
Consistent with this new focus, core IT systems will need to be modernized, digital channels will need to be enhanced and optimized, companies will need new data and analytical platforms that directly impact business results, and greater attention must be paid to digitally-enhanced customer experiences. These modern imperatives are a challenge to IT organizations that otherwise just tried to “keep the lights on.” Now, it’s about modernizing infrastructure and applications, improving efficiency, creating value, and directing company resources to the right projects, people, and technologies to drive real business results and performance.
Wavestone consultants are well attuned to this shifting landscape and the challenges of balancing these new objectives with traditional IT performance and stability. In fact, individually, they have each led and transformed many IT organizations. Whether triggered by the need to reduce cost, optimize efficiency, improve service quality, drive better speed, or elevate the value IT contributes to the business, Wavestone is regularly retained to provide an outside-in view of the quickest path to the right action. We have experience conducting IT assessments for organizations of all sizes and have led both high-level and deep-dive evaluations of infrastructure, applications, end-user services, networks, vendor contracts, costs, organizational models, and core IT processes. We advise our clients as they develop the right IT roadmap strategy to support the business, and tailor our approach based on each client’s unique business requirements, competitive environment, and technological needs.
IT Technology Roadmap
We at Wavestone approach IT strategy with a 360° view of the IT function to evaluate opportunities for scale and value, keeping two questions in mind:
- Are we doing the right things?
- How do we optimize?
Our development of IT strategy is underpinned by a comprehensive evaluation of each client’s IT environment. We evaluate six key dimensions, always factoring in cost reduction:
Review the effectiveness of mechanisms to ensure your IT roadmap and priorities are aligned with the business, and to examine the strategic relevance of current in-flight projects.
Assess IT processes for suitability, comprehensiveness, maturity, and efficiency, identifying process gaps and redundancies against future-state requirements.
Determine suitability, scalability, cost, risk, and security by comparing applications and infrastructure portfolio and operations with the industry best practices most relevant to each company’s strategy.
Assess the level of skills and capabilities and the appropriateness of organization structure.
Evaluate the balance between internal and external sourcing and assess the value potential of leveraging third parties and global service delivery models. Compare current practices with industry best practices and factor in possible value to make strategic sourcing recommendations.
Perform a detailed cost analysis across IT functions and activities. Compare staffing levels, internal labor costs, and third party contracts and pricing with market benchmarks and make specific cost improvement recommendations.
Wavestone integrates recommendations across all six dimensions and gives clients a prioritized and actionable implementation roadmap. It includes:
- Key implementation initiatives
- Priority-based cost savings impact
- Recommended implementation resources, requirements, and costs
- Implementation dependencies
- Risks and barriers to execution
- Proposed implementation timetable
Once the IT assessment is complete, the IT strategy is defined and documented, and the IT roadmap is created, Wavestone can assist each client in executing some or all of their portfolio of initiatives to ensure that their strategic benefits are realized.
