Consultants that deliver

1) What it is - in plain English:

2) What it is - in a bit more detail:

• The Diagnostic assesses business vitality and ensures your business is set up to survive and thrive in the short and long term;
• The Diagnostic assesses key aspects of your business, including your strategy, context, business model, core capabilities, operations, organisation, and systems;
• The Diagnostic benchmarks your key business capabilities against best practice and against your strategy and business goals.

3) Benefits you can expect from the Diagnostic:

• The Diagnostic will EITHER provide independent verification that all is well with your business OR identify those things that you should consider changing to meet your business objectives;
• Getting recognition from your Boss/ EXCO/ Board through independent verification that you are on the right track. Failing which you will have at your disposal the justification for changes suggested by the Diagnostic to move your business forward;
• Identification of key areas for improvement, with supporting business cases and suggested next steps.

4) What we will do during the Diagnostic:

• Conduct a scientific assessment of your core capabilities (those key “things” that contribute to the success of businesses in your industry sector). We do this qualitatively and quantitatively;
• The quantitative assessment leverages Redflank's Best Practice Capability Framework to assess your core capabilities against industry best practice;
• The qualitative assessment focuses on reviewing and assessing your businesses internal and external context. This includes a review and assessment of your business strategy, industry context, business model (including your client offerings, distribution channels, competitors and suppliers), and solution blueprint (your systems, operations, organisation, infrastructure, and performance).

5) When to consider the Diagnostic

• When you believe/ suspect your business is not realising its full potential;
• When your business is facing significant internal and/or external issues;
• As a precursor to strategic or business planning, as the Diagnostic will point out changes for you to consider for your business;
• When you have just taken up a new job, and would like a quick and comprehensive assessment of the environment;
• When you know your business is being run well, but others seem not to see things the same way
• As an assessment tool during a due diligence.

6) The deliverables you will receive:

A Diagnostic Report, which will include

• An executive summary of our findings and recommendations;
• An outline of your current business context, including client offerings, distribution channels, competitors and suppliers. This will include a SWOT analysis and an analysis using Porters Five Forces framework;
• Documentation of your current systems, organisation, operations, and infrastructure solutions. This will include a review of each architecture against Redflank’s Solution Assessment Framework;
• An assessment of your current core capabilities, using Redflank’s Best Practice Capability Framework(click here for more details), with a rating for each core capability assessed. This effectively benchmarks your key business capabiities against best practice and against your strategy and business goals;
• A list of issues and opportunities identified, together with recommendations to address them;
• Supporting business cases for the recommendations.

7) Client case studies:

8) What you need to do to get started

1) What it is - in plain English:

• Assistance on projects that are focused on fundamental business analysis or change, e.g. strategic research, business turnaround initiatives.

2) What it is - in a bit more detail:

• Strategy formulation & business planning;
• Feasibility assessments & business cases;
• Research projects;
• Due diligences;
• Business turnarounds;
• Programme & implementation planning.

3) Benefits you can expect from Strategy Projects:

• Generally speaking, our strategic assistance will help provide clear insights into where to take your business going forward and why this will be beneficial, as well as the supporting views on what to do to make this possible, and how and when to do it;
• Particular projects will have additional, specific, benefits, e.g. due diligences of potential acquisition targets will provide the insights required to make a "buy" versus "don't buy" decision.

4) What we will do during a Strategy Project:

Specific activities will vary per type of strategic project. The following are some of the core activities across the various project types:

• Ensure a clear articulation of the current context, both at a macro and a company level;
• Conduct a Diagnostic should this not have been done already (click here for details on the Diagnostic offering);
• Help articulate, and decide, key strategic choices;
• Map a clear view of the company's target states (viz. the company's business model and solution architecture) at key points in the future (viz. short term, medium term, and long term);
• Quantify the benefits of the future target state;
• Define a plan of action to implement the future planned states.

5) When to consider Strategic Projects

   When planning your company/ division strategy;

• At any time of significant business change;
• When significant performance improvement is needed;
• When research insights are required.

6) The deliverables you will receive:

Specific project outcomes will vary per type of strategic project. The following provides an indication of some of the key deliverables:

• Research findings;
• Business strategy;
• Business plan;
• Target business model;
• Target solution architecture (organisation, operations, technology, infrastructure);
• Roadmap and implementation plan;
• Business case.

7) Client case studies:

8) What you need to do to get started

1) What it is - in plain English:

• Implementation partner services for delivery of systems, operations, or organisation change.

2) What it is - in a bit more detail:

• At any point of a systems implementation, from requirements definition to testing to rollout;
• Organisational design;
• Human performance optimisation;
• Process design;
• Business process reengineering.

3) Benefits you can expect from Redflank's implementation assistance:

• Right first time, given the deep implementation experience of Redflank resources, complemented by our proven tools and methodologies (click here for details on Redflank tools); [link to Tools tab, in Our Offerings section]
• Simple, practical, outcomes-focused implementation;
• In budget, on time, implementation delivery.

4) What we will do during an Implementation Project:

Specific activities will vary per type of implementation project. The following describes (as an example) our standard activities for a systems implementation:

• As a systems implementation/ systems integration partner, Redflank assists with the full systems development life cycle (or equivalent activities for non-waterfall approaches) from needs analysis, through to post-implementation support;
• As a systems implementation advisor, Redflank is able to play a guiding and sound-boarding role throughout the implementation, from systems selection through to rollout;
• For package implementations undertaken by the system vendor, Redflank's assistance will focus on project management, requirements definition, systems selection, functional specifications, and testing.

5) When to consider assistance with Implementation Projects

• When you do not have the capacity or specific skills within your organisation to deliver an implementation project single-handedly;
• When you need to ensure delivery within budget and schedule;
• When you have concerns about a solution vendor's capacity or capability;
• When you need an implementation partner to guide and support internal resources.

6) The deliverables you will receive:

Specific project outcomes will vary per type of implementation project. The following describes (as an example) some of our standard deliverables for a systems implementation:

• Defined business requirements;
• Systems selection framework and decision;
• Systems specifications;
• Test strategies, approaches, preparation, execution, and closedown;
• Implementation plans;
• Rollout plans and execution;
• Support plans and execution.

7) Client case studies:

8) What you need to do to get started

1) What it is - in plain English:

• Assessing project or business performance, including planning and execution of corrective actions.

2) What it is - in a bit more detail:

• Business performance assurance relates to the design, implementation, and evaluation of M&E, and other, performance management frameworks;
• Project assurance interventions include project reviews (an independent assessment of project status, a kind of project "healthcheck"), project rescues (helping bring a wayward project back on track), and project capability diagnostics (an assessment of underlying project delivery capabilities).

3) Benefits you can expect from Redflank's Performance Assurance assistance:

• Assured business performance, through the design, implementation, and evaluation of M&E, and other, performance management frameworks;
• Clear and independent assessment of project performance;
• A clear plan of action to rescue a project that is not delivering against scope, budget, or schedule expectations;
• Assistance turning around a business that is not performing up to expectations (Click here for input on business turnarounds)
• Improved project and business capabilities.

4) What we will do during a Performance Assurance project:

• Project Review: an independent & objective assessment of the state of health of a project/ programme, helping confirm whether a project is on track and recommending corrective actions where relevant;
• Project Rescue: assessing and defining corrective measures for a project that is not delivering against its outcomes, schedule, or budget;
• Project Capability Diagnostic: ensuring long term project delivery success by assessing underlying project delivery capabilities using the project component of Redflank's Best Practice Capability Framework.

Our assistance with Business Performance Assurance would include:

• Definition of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, including balanced scorecards;
• Implementation of M&E (or other performance metric) frameworks and processes;
• Assessment of business performance, against M&E (or other performance framework) measures.

5) When to consider a Performance Assurance intervention:

• EITHER when your business performance (e.g. revenue, profits, staff satisfaction) is not at a level you are comfortable with
• OR when the extent of business performance delivery is not clear (due to inadequate tracking and reporting).

• the status on one of your projects is not clear;
• you have a project in trouble;
• there is a lack of visibility for project successes;
• you are about to start a must-succeed project;
• you are experiencing similar problems across multiple projects.

6) The deliverables you will receive:

• Business Performance Analysis Report;
• Business Performance (including M&E) Design Report;
• Business Performance Implementation Plan;
• Completed Business Performance Implementation;
• Business Performance Review Report.

In the case of a Project Performance Assurance project:

• Project Review Findings Report, including Recommendations;
• Project Rescue Findings Report;
• Project Rescue Action Plan;
• Project Rescue Immediate Corrective Actions;
• Project Capability Assessment Report, including maturity diagrams, details and supporting evidence.

7) Client case studies:

8) What you need to do to get started

• Best Practice Capability Framework
• Strategy Development Framework
• Industry Analysis Framework
• Business Model Framework
• Vendor and Software Selection Templates and Tools
• Performance Assurance Templates and Tools
• Systems Implementation Templates and Tools.