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Sectors We Work In

Alastor has worked with clients of all sizes, from large international blue-chip companies to smaller organisations, across a range of business sectors.

Most of our services are process-based and so can be applied to multiple business sectors, but we also understand many of the key business drivers that affect the environment in which specific organisations operate.

We have worked in the UK, across Europe, in the US, the Middle East, the Far East and South Africa.

For more information, please contact us.

Retail

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in a number of retail sectors, across multiple channels.
Sectors include fashion, household, jewellery, health and beauty and DIY.
Channels include large supermarkets, catalogue and online retailers.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Fashion – IT Strategy. Worked with the senior management team of a global luxury brand to develop the global IT strategy, governance and systems routemap in support of a major global expansion that has delivered a 50% increase in revenue and doubled profits.
  • Catalogue Retailer – Business and IT Strategy. Worked with the MD and IT Director of a catalogue sales company to identify the likely cost of a move to a direct sales and distribution model. The costs identified led to the decision to divest the company, rather than invest in the required business and IT changes.
  • DIY Retailer – Outsourcing/JV. Worked with the senior management team of a DIY retailer to resolve bathrooms, kitchens and conservatory installation issues – a major growth area that was generating unacceptable remedy and warranty claims. Worked with the management team to establish a joint venture with a partner specialising in installation management, generating savings in excess of £15m and eliminating significant capacity barriers.
  • Jewellery Retailer – Performance Improvement. Worked with the senior management team of the largest global jewellery retailer to identify major service improvement and cost reduction opportunities in HR and payroll, identifying direct savings of between 20% and 33%.
  • Household Goods – Strategy and Outsourcing. Developed a business-led IT strategy for this national retailer, and subsequently assessed the business case for outsourcing and established a “proxy bid” to compare options. Also carried out a number of operational performance reviews.

Logistics (Supply and Distribution)

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the distribution and supply sectors, including shipping companies, international airlines and other distributors.
We have also carried out logistics reviews and delivered allied consulting services to clients in other sectors – a number of our engagements in retail and manufacturing, for example, relate to distribution.
Before moving into consultancy one of our directors was responsible for the design, development and implementation of a major automated warehouse for Unilever.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Global Shared Service Centre – Process Improvement. Developed and implemented purchasing, sales, logistics and accounting processes in a Shared Services Centre in Switzerland for a major US paper manufacturer. The improved controls and procedures supported explosive sales growth without increased costs, enabling most national and all (non US) regional offices to be closed.
  • Container Terminal Operator – Outsourcing Performance Improvement. Worked with one of the world’s largest operators of container terminals with 50+ container terminals (spanning 31 countries and five continents) to identify strategic savings opportunities from consolidating services, and outsourcing engineering maintenance, shared business services and IT.
  • Shipping Company – E-Procurement. Worked with the global procurement function of a container shipping line to identify, select, define and implement pilot e-procurement projects across different categories of supplies and services.
  • Training in Inventory Management. Designed and presented workshops on the use of advanced inventory management and forecasting techniques to support enhanced customer services at reduced costs and inventory. This course was initially presented as a two day workshop for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and more recently for specific clients and their customers.

Manufacturing

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the manufacturing sector in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the US.
Our work has ranged across a number of sectors including food, brewing, health and beauty, automotive, construction, consumer electronic and paper manufacturing (including pulp, tissue and corrugated packaging).
Before moving into consultancy one of our directors was responsible for the commercialisation of innovative production planning processes developed by the advanced mathematics faculty at Imperial College.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • White Goods Manufacturer – IT Strategy. Worked with the IT services subsidiary of a major international manufacturer of white goods to redevelop the IT strategy, following the consolidation and outsourcing of many of the core technical services. This resulted in the development of new (global) governance structures and cross-charging mechanisms to differentiate the impact of IT unit cost reductions from the effects of increased business volumes. This further led to improved decision processes and improved relations with the operating divisions.
  • Food Manufacturer – IT Process and Organisation. Developed and helped to implement a new IT organisation structured against key IT delivery processes. Reviewed projects against benefit criteria to focus and reduce portfolio.
  • Mobile Phone Company – Outsourcing. Worked with the German subsidiary of a major global mobile phone operator to outsource all IT activities (including the mobile network operations and all applications management and development). The negotiations generated significant reductions in running costs of €6m per year and released €20m cash in time to fund a Christmas promotion of handsets.
  • Electronics Manufacturer – Programme Management and Outsourcing. Managed the senior management seeking to outsource the global IT infrastructure covering 800,000 client systems for a major electronics manufacturer. Managed the subsequent vendor assessment, board presentation and contract negotiation process. This generated annual savings in excess of €20m per year.
  • Paper Manufacturer – Project Director. Operated as Project Director of the international logistics review for a US based pulp, bleached board and kraft manufacturer. The project resulted in a new international sales organisation structure, reallocation of responsibilities between manufacturing and sales, simplification of the US based distribution process and a partnership programme with key customers. The project identified benefits and savings of $109m.
  • US Biotech Company – Outsourcing. Worked with a US-based biotech business to develop the most appropriate IT sourcing strategy to support a major service improvement in line with significant corporate growth.
  • Paper Company – Software Selection and Performance Improvement. Improved business processes and selected package software to support enhanced business in the areas of manufacturing, finance and HR for this paper and packaging company.
  • Construction Industry – IT Strategy. Developed an IT strategy for a builder and operator of retirement homes to support continuous growth of international operations, to support delegation of authority and reduce administrative complexity. Managed the IT function through the transition period.
  • Automotive Industry – Cost Reduction and Performance Improvement. Managed the review of the cost structure of two automotive parts manufacturing plants. This resulted in the design of a faster product development and engineering process to support specialist markets, rationalisation of product lines, the introduction of manufacturing cells and statistical process controls. This ultimately enabled the closure of one of the manufacturing plants and consolidation of the remaining production requirements.
  • Packaging Company – Performance Improvement and Training. Supported a highly innovative global packaging company and its customers in the implementation of significantly enhanced manufacturing processes in the Saudi Arabia based plant that supported the company’s Middle East markets.

Extractive Industries (Mining, Oil and Gas)

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the extractive industries, mostly based in UK and Europe, but covering global operations and global investment portfolios.
Our work in the extractive industries is largely in the mining, oil and gas sectors.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Oil and Gas Company – Procurement. Managed the procurement of an integrated accounting package for the recently acquired Dutch joint venture oil and gas field operating subsidiary of a UK-based oil exploration company. The package had to support the reporting and statutory requirements in the Netherlands (where the operations were based), Norway (where some of the oil and gas fields were located), Italy, and the UK (where the headquarters of the joint venture partners were based).
  • Mining – Benefit Realisation. Worked with the senior management team of a diversified natural resources group to identify major performance improvement opportunities flowing from the implementation of common SAP based processes. Identified significant “headroom” for improvement, well in excess of the required $500m. Worked with the CFO and project management team to ensure that the benefits will be delivered.
  • Oil and Gas Industry – IT Cost Reduction. Worked with a major oil company to develop a migration plan to a single worldwide consistent desktop environment to reduce complexity, improve systems reliability, enhance systems security and reduce costs by US$300m.
  • Oil Industry – Project Management. Worked on a project to implement ERP enhancements required to meet SEPA requirements. Managed the implementation for a number of European countries.
  • Oil Industry – Benefit Realisation and Procurement. Reviewed blending plants and refinery systems throughout Europe for a multinational oil company, including joint venture sites, to identify the benefits of implementing common systems, common interfaces and reporting structures to integrate with a European-wide architecture. Advised and participated in the procurement of pan-European materials control systems for blending plants.

Leisure (Travel and Entertainment)

Alastor has worked with a range of clients across the leisure sector, particularly in travel and entertainment.
We have worked with international airlines, travel companies and companies in the recording and broadcasting industry.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • International Airline – IT Value Improvement. Worked with each of the divisional directors of a large international airline to maximise the value from using IT as part of a programme to improve annual profits by £1bn, following the devolution of central IT budgets to the individual business units.
  • Cruise Operator – Portfolio Management. Advised the board of a major cruise line operator to help plan and prioritise an inventory of 18 major strategic systems initiatives. Structured the initiatives into three portfolios (customer facing and sales distribution, logistics and supply, finance and HR) to support initial capacity growth of 37% within existing resources. Identified additional savings of £1.8m initially and £3m annually thereafter.
  • Travel Company – Merger Advice and Outsourcing. Managed the due diligence process for the merger of two travel companies. Advised on the subsequent consolidation of outsourced services (IT and business process) to reduce cost and improve performance.
  • Record Company – Systems Selection and Process Improvement. Worked across Europe to define common business processes and associated business benefits for logistics, warehousing and sales order processing. Managed the accelerated selection of packaged software using our “Agenda Based Selection” approach to meet those requirements.
  • Entertainment Company – Training Programme. Ran a management training programme for the Dutch subsidiary of a major distributor of entertainment products including CDs and DVDs. Topics covered include problem solving, facilitated workshops, effective team management, coaching and empowerment.
  • Performing Rights Society – Benefit Realisation. Worked with the senior management team at PRS for Music to support the development and implementation of a major portfolio of projects to ensure that the project plans were robust and focused on the delivery of significant change and business benefits.
  • Music Company – Benefit and Process. Established the business benefits associated with changing processes for managing international royalties and structured the programme to deliver new systems and realise benefit.
  • Gaming Company – Performance Review. Reviewed the overhead costs structure for the operator of a national chain of betting shops. Reorganisation of the property and systems functions generated initial savings of 15% and ongoing savings of 10%.
  • Business Travel – E-commerce. Worked with the team developing a new service line for business travel, based on e-commerce principles, the use of web-enabled applications, call centres and voice recognition technology, with the long term objective of changing the pricing structure of the industry.

Financial Services

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the financial services industry, including retail and investment banking, building societies, insurance, investment management and factoring.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Bank – Risk Management and Organisation Design. Worked with the Chief Executives of a major bank to implement the same rigorous portfolio and risk management process to the IT project portfolio that was applied to the commercial operations of the bank. This led to a redesign of the organisation structure, including joint business and IT staffing, career planning and skills development. Implemented end to end customer focused processes and service portfolios resulting in improved operational stability and a headcount reduction of 10%.
  • Insurance Broker – Project Director. Ran a major project for a large global insurance broker. The objective of the project was to improve client acquisition and retention in the mid-market sector by streamlining risk acquisition and placement processes.
  • Insurance Company – IT Improvement. Worked with the global IT Director of a major international insurer to assess and quantify the benefits flowing from improved global co-ordination of IT and consolidation of data centres. Savings in excess of £10m were identified, as well as opportunities to enhance the resilience of systems and consistency of global services. Identified additional opportunities to reduce the cost of complexity following a number of acquisitions.
  • Building Society – Benefit Realisation. Helped to build a process for quantifying business benefit associated with a change project portfolio of £300m and to implement a more rigorous process for assessing the individual projects as well as the portfolio against benefits.
  • International Bank – HR Improvement. Worked with the Global HR Director of a major global Bank to identify core HR competencies and redesign the global HR function to focus on value added services and the effective management of outsourced transaction processing.
  • Building Society – Purchasing Improvement. Redesigned the purchasing procedures of a large building society and introduced the purchasing life cycle concept, generating initial savings of £6m, as part of a pilot application of an integrated performance improvement and systems development methodology.
  • Global Bank – Shared Service Centre. Helped implement the pilot shared service centre for handling all paper transactions for the UK subsidiary of a large global bank.
  • Insurance Company – Cost Reduction. Worked with the subsidiaries of a major international insurer to identify the costs of complexity (following a number of acquisitions) and explore methods of reducing those costs.
  • Global Bank – Process Definition. Defined business processes for internal service provision at a global bank.
  • Financial Services – Business Process Redesign. Worked with a major financial services company to redesign its sales force structure, processes and supporting IT, following the merger of a number of different operations and to respond to a proposed regulatory change.
  • Global Insurer – Business Change. Worked with the COO of the London branch of a major global insurer to review the commercial arrangements for systems to manage the global risk portfolio, to implement significantly enhanced governance procedures across the international offices, and to bring the global risk portfolio project back under control.
  • Factoring Company – Organisation Change and Cost Reduction. Worked with the factoring subsidiary of a large bank to restructure and redesign its factoring operations to reduce costs and to deliver improved and measured client service levels, supported by implementing nationally consistent processes. This enabled the operations to cope with additional volumes without growth in complexity and administrative overheads.
  • Insurance Company – Outsourcing. Helped an insurance start-up, which had been set up to combine sophisticated risk and capital analysis with traditional insurance underwriting, to outsource all IT and back office functions.

Membership Organisations and Professional Services

Alastor has worked with a range of professional bodies and membership organisations, as well as professional firms as clients, including lawyers, accountants and corporate finance specialists.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Membership Organisation – Strategic IT Review. Reviewed the IT strategy of the Wine Society, leading to changes in governance processes and organisation structure.
  • Membership Organisation – Strategic Development. Helped to build and implement the strategy for a membership organisation in the direct marketing sector, leading to the development of enhanced services relating to B2B and B2C data and the creation of a virtual consultancy.
  • Performing Rights Society – Benefit Realisation. Worked with the senior management team at PRS for Music to support the development and implementation of a major portfolio of projects to ensure that the project plans were robust and focused on the delivery of significant change and business benefits.
  • Professional Body – Strategic Development and Procurement Advice. Helped the Royal Institute of British Architects to develop of a new strategic direction for RIBA’s commercial competitions advisory service, with additional support to align RIBA’s offerings with European (OJEU) procurement legislation.
  • Corporate Recovery – Process Redesign. Advised a “big four” accountancy firm on the redesign of processes in the Corporate Recovery function. The Shared Service Centre supports significant improvements in the Corporate Recovery function, at reduced costs, utilising integrated workflow and accountancy software to ensure seamless integration of the national practice.
  • Accounting Firm – Global Vendor Management. Worked with one of the “final four” major accounting firms to create a global service management function in the Netherlands covering all IT supplies. The service catalogue provided a hierarchy of performance measures that enabled the Global Vendor Management function to move beyond the measures of failure (remedies) to measuring genuine service improvements.
  • Professional Firm – Training in Change and Benefit Realisation. Worked with a major, global consultancy to introduce change and project management techniques to “Make Change Stick”. Trained the internal consultancy teams and then worked on assignments with the teams, applying the tools and techniques and mentoring the client teams.
  • Law Firm – Performance and Process Change. Worked with a large regional law firm to support a significant expansion of services on a UK-wide basis. This required the redesign of core processes, the implementation of shared service centres to support the increased transaction workload, and the implementation of e-commerce applications to support customer acquisition.
  • Association of MBAs – Leadership. Chaired the Board of an international membership organisation during the development and implementation of a new strategy to replace declining revenues from financial services and replace these with paid for services for members, commercial organisations and Business Schools. Iebe also chaired the International Accreditation Advisory Board where he assessed Business Schools.

Public Sector (Government, UN, Health & Education)

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the public sector. In the UK, we have worked for central government departments, government agencies, local government, the NHS and schools and colleges.
We have also worked for the United Nations in Rome and central government departments in the Netherlands and UAE.
We have particular experience of working with schools and colleges in both public and independent sectors, developing and implementing ICT strategies and helping institutions to manage change and realise benefit from their investment in that change.
Work we have done in the sector includes:

  • Department of Health/Local Authorities – Benefit Realisation. Worked on a strategic programme to quantify potential benefits from implementing new government policy in the area of adult social care across all local authorities in England and Wales, building a business case, helping to firm up policy and briefing the relevant minister.
  • United Nations World Food Programme – Procurement. Advised a large UN agency on the procurement of a worldwide integrated accounting and logistics systems in the Rome head office and eighty regional offices, to enable the agency to meet UN and sponsoring organisation reporting requirements (including public and private sector bodies) as well as the operational needs of field operatives.
  • Highways Agency – Information Strategy. Worked with the UK Government Agency responsible for the major roads network to develop an information strategy to make better use of existing assets and road capacity without the need to build additional roads, with the objective of significantly reducing congestion.
  • Department of Health – Business Process Improvement. Within a central government department, managed a team of business analysts and subject matter experts to prioritise sustainable efficiency improvements of £1bn in Adult Social Care across 150 local authorities in England.
  • Ministry of the Environment – Outsourcing. Worked with the Ministry in The Hague to develop a consistent benchmarking structure for outsourcing 7,000 client systems and 200 servers. The benchmark structure covered the current performance benchmark, proxy bid for outsourcing, benchmarking of supplier offers and tracking of supplier performance over the timescale of the contract, including the quantitative and qualitative benchmarking of supplier performance. The study identified annual savings of €3m.
  • NHS Blood and Transplant – IT Organisation. Advised on the most appropriate design for a recently-merged IT department.
  • Civil Aviation Authority – Benefit Realisation. Developed and delivered executive training courses to instil an approach to effective investment appraisal and benefit realisation.
  • Government Department – IT Organisation. Worked with the management team of a large government department to develop a new IT organisation structure to integrate multiple technologies (including e-commerce) and improve service delivery with reduced costs. Led the future state process and organisation design activities that identified significant cost reductions.
  • Government Department – Outsourcing. Worked with the senior management team of the government department responsible for all infrastructure projects in one of the UAE states to outsource all IT activities. We were asked to intervene during the final stages of contract negotiations to ensure that the client had the appropriate commercial and legal protection in place. Despite the many clauses and schedules that were originally identified as being missing, the client was able to progress to signing the contract with all appropriate protection in place within two months.
  • NHS Trust – Procurement Advice. Supported a major regeneration programme in South London, including managing the strategic procurement of a design team (architects, landscape designers, engineers) and advisers to develop the business case for site redevelopment. Additionally, advised another NHS Trust on a similar procurement process through a design competition.
  • CCG – Strategic Development. Board facilitation to quantify the strategic direction, priorities and outcomes for two new Clinical Commissioning Groups in Essex.
  • Local Government – Strategic Planning and Benefit Realisation. Worked with a major Local Authority in the Midlands and the local Primary Care Trust to develop an integrated and shared vision for adult social care in 2020. We worked with the clients to translate the vision into specific actions and used these to review the current LA and PCT projects to identify those that were redundant (generating savings), reprioritising those projects that were relevant, and identifying those specific additional projects that were required to deliver the vision.
  • Naval Dockyard – IT Strategy and Cost Review. Reviewed the IT strategy of a large Naval Dockyard (including responsibility for submarines) to ensure that it supported the business requirements at an appropriate level of risk, resulting in a recommendation to scrap the planned development of a £7m materials control system.
  • Sevenoaks School – IT Strategy. Helped to develop a clear IT strategy aligned to the School’s objectives, together with structuring a change programme and a well-defined set of objectives and measures.
  • New Build College – IT and M&E Strategy. This College of Arts and Technology on the south coast of England was a £65m new build that sought to use ICT to enhance the teaching and learning experience. We worked with the Principal and her management team to develop a common language covering all the functions of the College (admin, teaching, learning, resources and ICT) and a comprehensive ICT strategy. We also developed the specialist IT-related mechanical and electrical requirements for the new build.
  • New Build School – IT and M&E Strategy. Worked on a £32m new build for a school for boys, with particular responsibility for the ICT strategy and IT-related M&E components. The objective of the ICT strategy is to deliver a step change in the use of ICT (the school is a Mathematics & Computing Specialist School) within a sustainable (technology and cost) environment.
  • Business School – Accreditation. Carried out the first business school accreditation in Europe under the Bologna Accord, resulting in the Dutch Government Department for Education granting MBA degree-awarding powers to the business school.

Not for Profit / Third Sector

Alastor has worked with a range of clients in the not for profit/third sector.
Work we have carried out for clients in the sector includes:

  • Environmental Agency – Aligning IT. Advised a major agency responsible for the regulated recycling, reprocessing and recovery activities of its members in the UK on how to structure IT to support volume growth as well as the increasing service expectations of its members, while retaining the flexibility to respond to regulatory changes.
  • Housing Charity – Strategic IT Advice. Carried out of a strategic review of IT service delivery leading to significant changes in strategic direction, organisation, governance and process.
  • Aid Charity – IT Improvement and Management. Advised a worldwide charity on the recruitment and appointment of an IT Director. Acted as interim IT Director during the recruitment process. Subsequently worked with the new IT Director to develop a framework for portfolio management of short, medium and long term IT project planning. This facilitated resource allocation, elimination of duplicated activities and identification of systems dependencies across local, regional and global initiatives.
  • Association of MBAs – Leadership. Chaired the Board of an international charity during the development and implementation of a new strategy to replace declining revenues from financial services and replace these with paid for services for members and commercial organisations.
  • Major Charity – Accreditation. Carried out the first business school accreditation in Europe under the Bologna Accord, resulting in the Dutch Government Department for Education granting MBA degree-awarding powers to the business school.