Education & Academia

PROBLEM

A nationally recognized law school engaged Major Scale to produce a Business Process Review for the School’s operations. The School realized that they were not operating as efficiently as they could and they believed there might be a non-trivial amount of duplication of efforts across departments as well as a troubling lack of coordination among departments, particularly in the area of public events.

SOLUTION

Major Scale conducted an in-depth study of all departments. The study included an analysis of work flow and procedural practices looking for opportunities for organizational and operational efficiencies.

During the course of this engagement, Major Scale conducted interviews with all twenty nine individual departments within the School to determine where there might be opportunities for improved organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The goal of this study was to identify all such areas of potential improvement.

We approached the analysis of the information we captured using a Shared Services model. We defined Shared Services to mean those common activities conducted by many different departments that could be shared, rather than being duplicated across departments as was then the case.

IMPLEMENTATION

Major Scale’s analysis was grouped into the following areas:

  • Outreach and Contact Management
  • Event Management
  • Shadow IT Systems
  • Internal Communications among Faculty and Staff
  • Measures of Success

 

In three areas we found that a Shared Services model could add substantial value. In the remaining two areas we found that although a strict Shared Services model was not necessarily applicable, the sharing concepts behind such a model could be applied in these areas as well, even if no supporting organizational structures were built.

Overall, we found that the Law School had a number of opportunities for measurable efficiency improvements. The primary deficiencies in the current organization structure were: lack of coordination across departments, insufficient IT systems for supporting collaboration, and restricted information sharing across departments. We found this expressed most often through a recurring theme of “silos” of operation with little (or certainly insufficient) communication and collaboration with other departments. Improvements in all areas except Shadow IT Systems could be implemented at relatively low cost.

We also found that the school was staffed predominantly by a highly skilled, motivated, and conscientious team of professionals working hard to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. The opportunities we identified come not from any perceived deficiencies in staff, but rather in embedded organizational impediments that could be readily addressed.


 

 

Case Studies

Financial Industry A large mortgage lender found itself with outdated systems, insufficient IT talent, and an inefficient business process.

Health Care The leading web site for cardiothoracic surgery needed a business model that would allow the site to become financially self sustaining.

Professional Services The oldest and largest provider of management outsourcing services to the nonprofit association market faced a critical juncture.

Education & Academia A top ranked law school needed to know how to streamline their overall operations.

Government A government agency suffered an embarrassing public project failure and needed to build a PMO.

Manufacturing A boutique manufacturer needed to rethink their entire IT organizational structure.

Elections A large election jurisdiction wanted to improve their election preparation and audit procedures.