News, articles and events
May 2013
WCL Partner eBECS is crowned Microsoft Global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Partner of the Year
Congratulations to eBECS for this fantastic achievement. Read more at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/May13/05-20WPC13PR.aspx
WCL extends work strategy work with Tesco
Earlier this year WCL started work with Tesco, facilitating Senior Managers in their strategic approach to the food supply chain in the UK. We are delighted that this work has been extended to look at Tesco's European programmes.
B2B Partner Deep-Insight publishes new case study from Irish Life
Deep-Insight is WCL Customer Management's partner company providing relationship quality surveys for account management teams in B2B organisations. Their latest case study from Irish Life can be found at: http://www.deep-insight.com/clients/case-studies/
WCL supports Impero's bid for GLOW
WCL were asked to support specialist school management software provider Impero in their bid to provide Education Scotland's education portal service, GLOW. Impero were keen to leverage WCL's extensive experience in Public Sector change programmes, helping to give Education Scotland confidence in Impero's comprehensive offering.
WCL develops Schools Cloud Computing Services questionnaire
In November, South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) are launching a new Public Sector approved framework for Schools and other Educational establishments to procure cloud computing services. In order to gauge the levels of interest and current cloud solution usage, SWGfL asked WCL to develop a survey to go to all schools.
April 2013
WCL Microsft Dynamics CRM partner eBECS to cycle 150 miles for MacMillan
10 members of eBECS staff aim to cycle 150 miles coast to coast from Penrith in Wales to Tynemouth in North Tyneside. eBECS aim to raise £5,000 for MacMillan Cancer Research to go towards their funding of MacMillan specialist nurses. When they reach this goal eBECS will have funder over 250 hours of care. Details of how to sponsor them can be found on their Just Giving Page https://www.justgiving.com/eBECScoast2coast/
WCL Customer Management welcome Lee Campbell as new Associate.
March 2013
B2B Partner Customer Attuned launches a series of blogs on "Interdependence" http://www.customerattuned.com/blog/
February 2013
WCL Customer Management win CRM Roll-out roll with ŠKODA Auto.
November 2012
Peter Lavers keynotes at eBECS Convergence Conference
Peter spoke on the subject "Managing the Customer Experience - a vital new competence for sustained business profitability . . . . or just another buzzword?"
Please click here to view Peter's slides.
October 2012
WCL Customer Management launch Strategic Partnership with Axxon Consulting
WCL’s B2B specialist arm Customer Attuned announced today a strategic partnership with Axxon Consulting bringing Business to Business (B2B) customer management assessments to South America. Bringing on board customer management practices to the Microsoft Dynamics channel improves the overall service offering allowing Axxon to operate in markets traditionally reserved for Siebel and Oracle customers.
Francisco Nelson, Senior VP of Axxon said, “We feel there is a strong need in South America for Customer Attuned and are very excited about this strategic Partnership.”
Axxon will now not only improve their customer’s technology but work on the underlying business processes that large organisations work with. As the CRM market matures, firms are looking for more value out of their CRM investments, through their Partnership with Customer Attuned and Axxon will be uniquely positioned to deliver more value to customers in the B2B environments.
Aug 2012
WCL summer of fun
We spent most of August having fun at the Olympics and Paralympics. Hope you had a good summer too.
Regards
The WCL Team
July 2012
WCL and Customer Attuned represent Deep-Insight in the UK
We are delighted to announce that WCL Customer Management's B2B arm, Customer Attuned, is now representing Deep-Insight in the UK, which measures what we call Customer Relationship Quality (CRQ™).
This approach has been adopted by some of the world’s leading organisations and delivers customer assessments that act as an early-warning system to identify potential customer or account defections before they actually happen.
Please click here for more information.
eBECS wins top reseller award
Congratulations to WCL Partner eBECS for winning the Microsoft Dynamics UK Reseller of the Year award!
WCL Creativity and Innovation Awards
WCL’s Managing Director Kieron White presented the inaugural WCL awards for Creativity and Innovation to students of Totton College. Kieron said: "The award recognises the important place of creativity and innovation in helping businesses to develop new ideas, new products and new services. The four student winners beat off stiff competition from across the College and did exceptionally well." In recognition of their dedication and commitment to their studies the students we treated to a fantastic day aboard a luxury motor yacht in the Solent, near where the College is located.
June 2012
College Transformation Programme
WCL is delighted to be working with a leading College to plan and manage an ambitious change programme that aims to transform the College. Managing Director, Kieron White said "Our work will involve working with College staff to develop a strategic change plan that brings together transformation activities with wider College improvement plans to create a single Change Programme. We will be kicking off with our lean approach to programme governance and project management and we can't wait to see the results".
WCL and BT working together on FE cloud solutions
WCL are working with BT on cloud based solutions for the FE sector. Over the next few months WCL will be talking to a number of leading colleges to assess the requirements and market appetite of the sector for potential cloud based solutions. If there is a significant demand products and soultions will be developed for launch in 2013. WCL Director Neil Watkins said "We're obviously very pleased to be working with such an important company in the cloud computing space. We belive that with our knowledge of the FE sector and BT's technical ability we have to potential to create some really innovative and exiting solutions for colleges that will save money, increase the effectivness of teaching and learning, and provide a differentiator for colleges looking to attract new students". If you are interested in taking part in this initiative, please contact Neil Watkins.
New Academy Win
Against stiff competition WCL have been selected to provide Project Management support the launch of the new Berrygrove Academy in Watford, due ot open as an Academy in September this year.
May 2012
Strategic Review for leading Academy Chain
WCL has been selected to support one of the leading Academy chains in a strategic review designed to look at growth and capability over the next three years. Nigel Hall, WCL's Education Director said "We were delighted to be chosen against stiff competition, especially as the client recognised the fact that we know the market (both education and academies) inside out and that we can also bring a fresh perspective from our other public and private sector work".
Two new wins in the Life Sciences sector
Working with our partner Triumph Consultancy Services, WCL has been selected to provide project managers for two major companies in the Life Sciences sector. The first project is managing a major system migration over the next six months for one of the world's largest healthcare companies, with expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The second project is running an "end-to-end" review of the clinical trial process for a leading global Clinical Research Organisation (CRO). This project is designed to bring compliance consistency and efficiency to global clinical trials, a major challenge for all companies in the sector.
Customer Attuned Website launches
Customer Attuned is an innovative and practical B2B customer management model and tool that enables companies to systemically improve the customer experience by focusing on the three key drivers of sustaines B2B success:
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Trust – never undermine your trustworthiness in business
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Interdependence – build mutual dependence/rectify dependency imbalance
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Equitability – ensure the relationship works commercially over time for all parties
A dedicated website has been launched that explains how Customer Attuned works. Please see www.customerattuned.com.
April 2012
Lots of activity in the FE sector
Congratulations to Canterbury Christ Church University, K-College and Thanet - WCL were delighted to have supported them in their successful bid to the CATS pilot project fund.
WCL are working with a large FE College to explore the benefits and challenges of developing a staff mutual model taking advantage of the freedoms set out in “New Challenges New Chances”.
WCL have completed FE Customer Assessments with the first tranche of FE colleges and good progress is being made by them in implementing the improvement recommendations. For example, we are entering the final weeks of a four month quality improvement programme to enhance the ‘student experience’ (based on LEAN/6 Sigma techniques) across a number of FE colleges in the South East. In addition we are designing and implementing a Customer Management Strategy for learners and employers at an FE college in the North West.
New Housing Association assignment
WCL is supporting one of the UK's top 10 Housing Associations in developing and implementing an innovative company-wide staff engagement programme based upon mutualisation principles. Paul Miller from WCL said" The organisation has over 1300 employees and turns over in excess of £150m p.a. so this is a very significant project for both the Housing Association and for WCL. Because of our extensive experience with projects of this type, we're confident we can deliver an excellent outcome for everyone involved".
February 2012
Up to 50% of Corporate PMOs are dissolved each year
Gartner estimate that between 30% and 50% of all corporate PMOs are dissolved, disbanded, absorbed or otherwise reconfigured every year. That's a huge amount of change and waste of valuable and expensive resources. Yet PMOs can provide valuable control and risk management. So why do so many fail? We believe it's usually for one or two key reasons: either the perceived benefits are less than the cost and burden of the PMO; or it’s the wrong type of PMO. In this article, WCL argue there are three differernt types of PMO, all with different purposes. Click here to read the full article.
More FE Colleges sign up for Learner Journey Assessments
Since the start of the year five more colleges have signed up for the WCL Learner Journey Assessment. We will be producing an interim report on the initial finds for the sector which will be published around Easter, after reporting back to the the Senior Management Teams of the current group.
New win in Pharmaceutical Sector
WCL have won a six-month contract to support the world's leading Oracle Clinical Trial Management Systems Integrator, Triumph Consultancy Services. Initially working with international Clinical Research Organisations (CROs), WCL will be supporting Triumph's growth across the Life Sciences sector.
IT Directors to lose 15% of IT spend by 2014
Gartner are predicting that by 2014 IT Directors will lose control of up to 15% of their organisations' IT spend as Business Units increasingly purchase Cloud and SaaS solutions without reference to the IT department. The BUs will however expect the IT department to make the solutions work on the organisation's infrastructure, with obvious problems for IT. To mitigate these risks, WCL argue that IT needs to become better at influencing key BU stakeholders before they sign those contracts. And that means developing and implementing comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement plans. Click here to read the full article.
WCL win another Free School Contract
WCL have been selected by the Department for Education and St Michael's Catholic Secondary Free School in Camborne, Cornwall. Starting immediately, WCL will provide Project Management support to the School team over the next eight months. WCL's Schools Director, Nigel Hall, said: "We're really pleased to be given the opportunity to work with the St Michael's team on what promises to be an important and rewarding project, making a major difference to the life chances of pupils in West Cornwall".
January 2012
WCL win Reading UTC Bid
WCL have been selected by the Department for Education and the University Technical College (UTC) key sponsor, Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, to deliver the new Reading UTC which will specialise in software engineering and computer science. Starting immediately, WCL will provide Project Management support to the UTC team over the next 21 months to ensure the college opens on time in September 2013. WCL's Schools Director, Nigel Hall, said "We're delighted to have been appointed by OCVC as their delivery partner and we're looking forward to working with them and DfE on delivering this highly innovative UTC which will help bring significant new employment and advancement opportunities to students in and around south east Reading."
Customer Attuned
The Customer Management team are working on a unique, innovative approach to unlock customer value in B2B businesses via a practical methodology and toolset that will systematically orientate companies to place trust, interdependence and equity at the heart of everything they do. Please click here for a sneak preview.
BUPA extends scope of WCL's work
BUPA have extended WCL's contracts to support the Global Technology Information Systems (GTIS) rollout out improved programme management governance and reporting arrangements to key Business Units across the organisation.
December 2011
WCL completes first C3CA assessment in FE
Sussex Downs college has become the first Further Education provider to use the C3CA tool to help improve its Learner Journey. Please click here for what Melanie Hunt, the College Principal, said about the experience.
Season's Greetings from WCL
Please click above to view our Christmas greeting to all our clients, partners, friends & associates.
November 2011
Fresh Thinking in Further Education
For the AoC conference WCL produced a one-pager which highlights some of the new ideas WCL have brought to the sector from different fields, disciplines and cultures.
Click here to see Fresh Thinking in Further Education.
Customer Journey Assessment - presentation at AoC Conference 16th November
The Annual AoC Conference is one of the highlights of the college year. For the second year running, Kieron White has given a highly insightful and thought provoking presentation to a packed audience. This year's topic was the Customer Journey Management, where Kieron presented WCL's new service offering to colleges, designed specifically to increase the number of college "customers", and therefore revenues. Also speaking was Melanie Hunt, Principal of Sussex Downs College who has been through the process and who talked about the benefits to the college and the changes they are making as a result.
For more information on the Customer Journey Assessment, please contact Kieron White.
Thank you to WCL - in Swahili
As part of WCL's charitable donations campain, we give our employees a cash sum for them to donate to the cause or charity of thier choice. In 2009, Jo Vigor, one of our senior consultants donated her sum to sponsor a student, Leah Muti, from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, to come to the UK to study for her Masters in Public Health qualification. We were delighted to recieve a thank you note from Leah saying that she has now qualified and is putting her qualification to good use for an organisation doing important work in Dar es Salaam called Pastoral Activities and Services for people with AIDS (PASADA). Presently, PASADA is handling over 700 patient visits each week, with over 200 individuals each month receiving testing and counseling services.
Click here to read the note from Leah
October 2011
3 Reasons why HR Departments should lead organisational change
Every new project or programme an organisation carries out involves change of some sort. And any review of the literature will tell you that having a compelling vision, changing behaviours and communications are vital to any successful change programme. Yet the vast majority of change programmes in large organisations fail. Why is that? We believe the reason they fail is that the leading role is not carried out by the HR function. Many change programmes today have IT leading the change – which is why so many Project and Programme Management Offices (PMOs) are located in IT departments. As organisations wake up to the fact that it is people who make or break change programmes, we believe that leading organisations will increasingly locate their PMOs within their HR Departments in the future.
Click here to read the full article.
WCL and key partners win funding for “Enterprise Agenda for Adults” project
London, UK – 17th October 2011: WCL announced today that, along with eight partners they had been awarded £303,000 from the AoC’s Collaboration and Shared Services Grant to deliver their Enterprise Agenda for Adults project. The project creates a sustainable adult market for further education (FE) and is aimed at increasing the number of adult learners in colleges, specialist adult services, and other providers, by providing a curriculum based around six work and entrepreneurial themes: Business Start-up; From Passion to Profit; E-commerce; Social Media & Networking; Social Enterprise; and Benefits to Enterprise.
Click here to see the press release.
September 2011
WCL Wins DfE Academies/Free School Framework Contract
London, UK – 29 September 2011: WCL, experts in Public Sector change programmes announced today they have been awarded a 3 year framework contract to support to opening of Academies, Free Schools, University Technical Colleges (UTCs) and Studio Schools by the Department for Education (DfE).
AoC Conference 15-17th November
Kieron White and Peter Lavers will be presenting new ‘Customer Strategies’ for colleges at the AoC Conference 15-17th November. Building on WCL’s research, approaches and strategies will be discussed that colleges can use to improve the customer acquisition and retention of both learners and employers, and he’ll be sharing lessons and learning points from best practices in colleges and WCL’s Private Sector clients such as Aston Martin.
New Case Studies
Case studies have been published for:
August 2011
WCL values get international recognition
The Awaken Group interview Ashley Semmens on how WCL have developed and live our values: what's Confimility?! Click here to read/view the article.
July 2011
GLA Project Oracle Expansion
WCL Group Company The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP - www.tsip.co.uk) is delighted to have won a tender for the expansion of this project, which is creating a market for supporting charity improvement in London.
DfE Free Schools Group
Following our highly successful support to the DfE City Challenge initiative across all three challenge areas during last two years ( click here for case study), educational specialist members of our team have now been engaged to work with the Department’s Free Schools group on the analysis and evaluation of proposals to set up new Free Schools.
Dorset Police appoint Alliantist and WCL for One Force initiative
In conjunction with our partner Alliantist, we are supporting key change initiatives in Dorset Police. The project further builds our credentials and experience in change management in the Public Sector, and we look forward to helping Dorset Police - and other forces - to make change happen in the current operational conditions. WCL Director Neil Watkins said "We are delighted to be working with Dorset Police on their One Force initiative, and also delighted that this is our first joint initiative with our partner Alliantist using their unique collaboration tool, pam. It is proof that the combination of change management services and best-practice tools for driving change and innovation is a very attractive proposition for our clients".
Work with The Pensions Regulator re-initiated
WCL in conjuction with our events partner The Live group have been reappointed by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to plan stakeholder engagement events to communicate and explain the forthcoming fundamental changes to pensions requirements for SME's (Employer Compliance Regime). Click here to read the original case study.
WCL takes key role in new Creative Media Services Contract
Creative Choice, a Community Interest Company of small to medium sized organisations, have been appointed to deliver the Department for Education's innovative new framework for outsourced Creative Media Services (CMS).
WCL is one of the 12 founder members of Creative Choice (www.creative-choice.org), and will fulfil the independent Account Management role for CMS-commissioned services, which include PR, events, branding & design, photography, writers/web editors, video/film making, and creative digital services.
The CMS contract covers a three to four year period and is open to all government departments, non-departmental public bodies and the wider public sector.
The contract allows for a single, integrated company to deliver account, campaign and supply management of core creative media delivery services. The partnership is dedicated to building an agile and much wider supply chain selected from more than 150 small to medium sized communication organisations nationally and regionally to ensure best value and competitiveness.
Clients can access Creative Choice via a procurement portal or use the dedicated telephone number for assistance. Creative media organisations who wish to become part of the wider supply chain can also register via the Creative Choice website www.creative-choice.org.
CMS is the result of work between the DfE, the Central Office of Information (COI), the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) (latterly the Efficiency Reform Group at Cabinet Office), and the Government Communications Network (GCN) towards agreeing a strategy for rationalising the existing framework arrangements for government marketing and communications services in order that more expenditure is concentrated through fewer frameworks. It will provide a complementary delivery strand to the new strategic framework announced recently by the Cabinet Office designed to further improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government communications.
WCL is delighted to be carrying out the independent Account Management role for this important cross-Government contract. Kieron White, WCL’s MD, says: “being awarded a contract of this significance is testament to WCL’s outstanding reputation across Government. We are looking forward to working with the other Creative Choice founder members to continue to deliver a great service for our clients.”
New College Nottingham appoints WCL
We are delighted that New College Nottingham have appointed us to assist with a collaborative ownership approach to optimise the financial return on NCN's three estates and its assets.
June 2011
BUPA appoint WCL
WCL are delighted to announce their first piece of work with Healthcare insurance giant BUPA. Supporting one of their key internal change programmes, WCL will be proving change, programme and project management services for an initial 6 month period. WCL Director Neil Watkins said "This is our first piece of work in this important and growing sector, so we are delighted that BUPA chose WCL. We believe that our combination of high quality people and our proven approach to delivering will help make BUPA even more successful".
World Vision appoint WCL
WCL are assisting World Vision to improve the way in which its brand promise to customers and stakeholders are delivered, ensuring that the WV personality and values are reflected in how staff act in all internal and external interactions.
May 2011
Outsourcing and Shared Services Conference
WCL's Managing Director, Kieron White, presented our Collaborative Ownership approach at the Outsourcing and Shared Services Conference in May 2011. Please click here to view or download the slides.
TSIP Website launches - www.tsip.co.uk
We're proud to announce that TSIP have launched their new website. TSIP is a WCL Group company, and is an advisory social enterprise that aims to combine academic research and rigour with strategy and delivery support to solve some of the most intractable problems in society.
Please go to www.tsip.co.uk to view the site.
March 2011
The Case for a Chief Customer Officer (CCO)
Doug Leather of our partner in Africa, REAP Consulting (Pty) Ltd considers why more and more organisations are appointing CCOs. Please click here to read the article.
Customer Management - Back to Basics
Mark Hollyoake and Peter Lavers consider how organisations should take stock of the changed market conditions in which we operate in 2011, and how going back to the sound fundamental principles of customer management will help businesses positively respond to and serve a more sophisticated, savvy and demanding customer base.
Please click here to read the article, or here to download it as a pdf.
Nedbank Business Banking has been rated as one of the World's top customer management organisations
Peter Lavers conducted the CMAT™ assessment of Nedbank Business Bank in November 2010 via our African partner REAP Consulting (Pty) Ltd. He was delighted to find an organisation that has successfully turned the theory of customer centred business into reality. There’s a perception that ‘all banks are the same’, but Nedbank Business Banking has truly invested in differentiating themselves from their competitors via exceptional customer management delivered through their decentralised accountable business model.
CMAT™ is the private sector version of WCL's C3CA capability assessment tool.
Meeting the ASB Challenge Seminar
TSIP hosted a seminar on ASB in conjunction with the London Metropolitan University on Thursday, March 10th. The guest speakers were Prof Simon Hallsworth of London Metropolitan University; Paul Dunn, the Programme Manager for London on ASB; Jerry Rabot of TSIP; Ed Sherry, Programme Manager, the Metropolitan Police; and two of London's innovating housing associations - Catalyst Housing Group and Peabody. Please click here for more information.
February 2011
The Principle of 'Choice'
Stephen Bediako of TSIP explores how choice-based interventions could be used to tackle youth issues and street crime. Click here to read the article.
December 2010
WCL and Auxo launch social housing research initiative: Housing Sector Landscape Changes - for better or worse?
2010 was a significant year of change for the public and charitable sectors. Consistent with these significant shifts in emphasis, the housing landscape is also changing, but for better or worse?
The short survey explored sentiment across the housing sector and is aimed at building a picture of where professionals and thought-leaders see the risks and opportunities in the new landscape.
November 2010
WCL launches C3CA - a new approach to improve Customer Focus, Commercial Acumen and Cost Efficiency in Service Delivery and Outcomes
The pressure is on in public sector service delivery operations to think differently, and act quickly & decisively to cut costs without detrimentally affecting customer service and outcomes. This new approach - only available from WCL - addresses the three critical ‘levers’ that will enable success - Customer Focus, Commercial Acumen and Cost Efficiency - the "three Cs". Please click here to read the article or here to download it as a PDF.
WCL present Master Class at the Association of Colleges (AoC) Annual Conference
The session ran on the morning of Wednesday 17 November, and was entitled "Alternative approaches to merger: how innovative collaborative models are benefitting the sector".
It was a ‘how-to’ case study of a new approach to develop collaborative models that share services between colleges, achieving up to 25% savings and sharing functions that reach wider than traditional shared services.
The practical session demonstrated how these ‘by the sector, for the sector’ collaborative models deliver the quality and efficiency improvements of merger, whilst maintaining the benefits of individual College brand and identity.
Please click here to view or download the slides presented at the session.
How to make segmentation a reality at the customer facing level
Peter Lavers and Mark Hollyoake address the critical issues of implementing needs-based customer segmentation. Please click here to read the full article.
WCL welcomes The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) on-board
 We are delighted to welcome TSIP into the WCL family. TSIP is led by Jerry Rabot and Stephen Bediako and helps its clients solve some of the most intractable problems in society.
TSIP will have its own website soon, but in the interim please click here to find out more and contact Jerry or Stephen.
October 2010
London Councils announce merger of all services
The news that Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham councils have announced a possible merger of all of their services to create a single ‘super council’ that could be bigger than Glasgow or Leeds comes as no surprise. Click here to read about WCL's range of Collaborative Ownership models for locally shared services.
Fresh thinking on anti-social behaviour: look at the data, all of it!
Jerry Rabot responds to the HMIC report on policing anti-social behaviour. Please click here to read the full article.
Spending Review - the Impacts on the Education and Skills Sector
For a short analysis of the main impacts of the October 2010 Spending Review on the education and skills sector, please click here.
In-dealer Customer Experience improvement
In this article, Peter Lavers considers the complexities that automotive companies face in consistenlty delivering their desired brand experience to prospects and customers, and introduces a new approach to delivering real improvement. Please click here to read the full article.
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