The situation
The organisation was seeking to realign the cost base of the business through a series of independent strategic reviews. Technology was a significant part of that picture: three separate technology divisions, plus a number of IT capabilities being managed inside other business units, each with its own cost structure and history.
Cost realignment on that scale cannot be done credibly from the inside. Each division has its own view of why its costs are necessary, and capabilities embedded in business units are often invisible to any central review. The organisation needed one objective, consistent picture across all of it.
Why independent advice mattered
Cost reviews conducted by parties with a stake in the outcome tend to find savings in someone else’s budget. Divisions defend their own arrangements, and external providers assessing an environment are simultaneously assessing their own sales opportunity.
Our independence meant every division and every embedded capability was assessed by the same objective standard, with no interest in where the findings landed, and no services to sell into the gaps we identified.
What we did
The review covered the full technology footprint, not just the parts with technology in their name.
Reviewed three technology divisions
We assessed each of the organisation’s three technology divisions on a consistent, independent basis, so their cost structures could be compared honestly for the first time.
Mapped IT capabilities inside business units
We identified and assessed the IT capabilities being managed within other business units: the spend and duplication that central reviews routinely miss.
Built the consolidated cost picture
We brought divisional and embedded costs into a single view of what the organisation actually spends on technology and what it receives for it.
Identified realignment opportunities
We set out where the cost base could be realigned, giving the executive an evidence-based set of opportunities rather than a blunt cost-cutting target.
The outcome
- A consistent, independent assessment across three technology divisions
- Visibility of IT capabilities and spend embedded inside other business units
- A consolidated view of the organisation’s true technology cost base
- An evidence-based set of cost realignment opportunities for the executive
The organisation gained what internal reviews could not produce: one objective picture of its full technology spend, and a set of realignment opportunities each division could be held to.
Do you actually know your technology cost base?
If technology spend is spread across divisions and buried in business units, no one inside the organisation can see the whole picture. An independent review can.
No pitch, no sales process. Just a senior view.
