Xerox

The client

With 136,000 employees and a turnover in excess of $22bn, Xerox is the world’s leading document management technology and services company. While operational complexity is inevitable for a global business of its size and scope, the diversity of systems within Xerox’s European operation in the early 2000s had become an issue for the company. In all, over 1,000 disparate, ageing systems were preventing the business from developing more efficient ways of working. Thus the pan-European A2B business transformation programme was born.

How we won the work

A2B – the biggest transformation programme Xerox had ever undertaken in Europe – was mobilised in 2005. However, its sheer scope and ambition meant that keeping it focused, on track and on budget was a major task in itself. Concerns about programme delivery, cost and timescales began to surface over the next couple of years, to the point where we were brought in to review its progress in July 2008.

Scope and objectives

Over an initial four-week period, we were tasked with reviewing the key project deliverables to identify the interventions needed to get A2B back on track. Based on our recommendations, we were asked to take on overall leadership of the programme. That made us accountable for delivering new systems and processes that would change Xerox customer operations in Europe.  Achieving those measures required us to take charge of a large team including several hundred consultants from other firms.

The Berkeley perspective

We knew this would be a huge challenge. But we also knew it would be as rewarding and fascinating for us as it was invaluable to Xerox. First and foremost, such a large and disparate programme team required careful management, with many reports initially wary of the introduction of another consultancy. Thus our six-strong team went in with the express aim of working as, not alongside, Xerox. Board-level buy-in was vital from the start. From there, the ability of our small, high-impact team to integrate seamlessly and credibly into the programme was central to our ability to take everyone else with us.

It’s a testament to the team’s skill and strength of purpose that the first release was implemented across 16 European countries in July 2009, just a year after we came on board. It has improved the way 16,000 partners and 65,000 customers do business with Xerox, as well bringing critical new workplace efficiencies to nearly 4,000 employees. More than that, it’s furnished the Berkeley team with some milestone experiences of our own – not least Jonathan Kennedy, who became a Partner during his time on the programme.