It’s the great challenge – refocusing from transacting processes to analysing data, influencing business leaders and making a positive contribution to the bottom line.

From strategy development and technology selection to programme delivery, specialist learning and project resources, we help you deliver transformation programmes that achieve lasting business change. We have decades of experience supporting global companies with complex initiatives, achieving buy-in at all levels to ensure sustainable success. As a result, our clients transform their support functions into indispensable commercial partners to the business, with the ability to demonstrate clear ROI and performance.

OUR SERVICES

We support you to deliver specific projects, programmes and complete transformations. Whatever stage your project is in, we have a range of services that will ensure your success. Our services include:

  • Benchmarking your function’s current cost, size and performance 
  • Building effective business cases and cases for change 
  • Defining and planning projects, programmes and transformations
  • Designing solutions covering strategy, policies, processes, technology, operating models, team capability, outsourcing and other services
  • Selecting partners for technology, consulting, outsourcing and services
  • Providing subject matter experts and specialist project resources
  • Building effective project teams
  • Providing transformation focused project, programme and change management methodologies and tools
  • Managing change
  • Providing project diagnostics and turnaround
  • Building project and change management capabilities inside Finance, HR and Procurement functions

OUR METHODOLOGY

Too many organisations have undertaken projects in the past and not seen the promised results. Underscore’s proven methodology helps you avoid the common pitfalls and achieve measurable outcomes over the short, medium and long term.

It starts with a simple assessment of the change you are looking to make. From the simplest process improvement project to the most complex global multi-function transformation, we can provide the most appropriate methodology from our toolkit.

Our business focused project delivery methodology places you firmly in control of change. Starting with a structured approach to project scoping, we will help you:

• Plan a course of action that will secure business buy in and sponsorship for the change
• Assess where you are today
• Define where you need to be tomorrow
• Secure the necessary Investment to get you from one place to the other

project delivery

Business stakeholders are engaged at the very start of the project, their input sought and used to help shape project outcomes. On too many occasions, the first time the Business hears about internal projects is just before they go live.

Once your project has begun Implementation, we work as a seamless part of your team, transferring knowledge as we deliver. Your team will have access to practical and intuitive project tools, templates, checklists and guidance that will ensure your project is delivered on time, to budget, with sustainable results.

A common mistake is treating a programme as individual, siloed projects. Whilst each of the projects may deliver on time, on budget and to expected quality, the outcome can be confusion, rework and lower than expected business benefits.

More complex changes that impact multiple processes, systems, and/or team capabilities, organisation structures or jobs require an additional layer of programme management. The steps of the scoping phase are the same as our project methodology but contain a broader scope of activities. The key difference is that during Build, multiple projects need to be co-ordinated and their plans and activities integrated. Change management takes a far greater priority in programme delivery, specifically when transitioning new capabilities out of Build into your business as usual operations.

Underscore provides a pragmatic and proportionate approach to programme management that ensures expected improvements in Finance, HR, Procurement and Business performance are delivered.

Transformation, perhaps one of the most overused and misunderstood words in business today. In our experience, true functional transformation takes a number of years to deliver. Adopting a portfolio methodology for managing multi-year change is often most appropriate, especially where:

  1. the size and scale of the change necessitates a phased approach to implementation, requiring multiple programmes and projects to get you to your destination
  2. your final end state is unknown and often unknowable at the start of implementation

Underscore has developed a proven approach to Finance, HR and Procurement transformation that turns your vision into reality. We achieve this by aligning a long term transformation portfolio of change to your unique circumstances and ambitions.

Your start point may be a major infrastructure programme to build new operating models, systems, processes and teams. Equally, you may require a simpler programme to refine and enhance some of your existing capabilities. Or the most effective approach may be embedding continuous improvement into the DNA of your operational teams. For most multi-national organisations, the reality is a multi-faceted approach with different countries or organisations starting from different places and moving at different speeds.

transformation

There truly is no one size fits all approach to transformation.

We can help build and deliver an appropriate transformation portfolio plan for even the most complex matrix organisation. Then provide you with the expert resources, tools and capability to lead and manage change within your team. Transformation is done by you and for you, not to you.

WHY UNDERSCORE

We’re not your traditional (and costly) consultancy that bolts on to your organisation and takes its expertise with it once the project is finished. We bring a unique perspective to delivering transformational change. As with other consultancies, our founding Directors have many years’ experience delivering large scale Transformation programmes. What makes us different is that we’ve also held operational accountability for some of those functions after they’ve been transformed. We also advise on and lead remediation and turnaround projects, providing a unique insight into the things that can go wrong and how to avoid them. This hard won knowledge has been built into our methodology and accompanying toolkit.

We work as an integral part of your team, transferring knowledge and sharing in the risks and rewards of delivering substantive change. In fact, when we meet with your external partners and suppliers, they usually think we’re part of your organisation. With us, you get experts who are 100% focused on transformation, giving you an agile, responsive team that helps you achieve real, lasting value.

Data Driven

As skilled users of people analytics and data, we produce meaningful market intelligence that benchmarks your HR function, underpins business decisions and directs performance.

Technology Focused

We help you capitalise on the latest Cloud technology and embed it within your function, so you enjoy the business benefits while achieving fast ROI and a low cost of ownership.

Results Orientated

From transformational change to process improvement and cost savings, we’re a partner truly aligned with your business goals. Together we deliver quantifiable and lasting value.