Introduction
Our client, a Financial Institution with 950 staff based in the City of London, was planning to consolidate its various locations to one new building. The firm had grown through the acquisition of a number of different smaller organisations which were still largely based in their original locations. Each location had their own support services (i.e. mail distribution, facilities management, print-rooms, vending and catering, etc.). There had been no real attempt to stream line the services and very little was known of how precisely the businesses were supported.
We were invited to undertake a services review and utilisation audit with the aim of developing a new support structure and support procedure manual.
Methodology
We determined that the following information needed to be established:
- Types and level of services provided
- User requirements
- Staffing and technical resources used
- Current users of the services provided
- Space usage
Where available we reviewed existing documentation in the form of manuals and guidelines.
We then used a combination of interviews with the support staff and the users of the services to determine the provision and requirements and identifying any mismatches. We used a series of customised MMS as well as short questionnaires / activity diaries to get a more accurate picture.
The information of the various sites were compared with each other and industry standard benchmarking information to determine what the appropriate and desired level of services should be.
Outcome
The information allowed us to define and design the support services for the new building, we created the new support services procedures, defined staffing levels, determined staff training requirements for the new procedures and provided input for the design and procurement of new equipment.
