Engagement Summary
Monticello Consulting Group was engaged by a Fortune 500 banking institution to streamline the adoption of technology change standards, improve internal communications, and facilitate external reporting. Financial market participants must adhere to high quality standards when executing critical technology programs. Regulatory agencies are not only concerned with operational risk in the adoption of new technologies, but also want to ensure that critical legacy applications are changed following a strict and controlled process.
The Monticello team was tasked with the development of best-practice change standards. The standards provide change program teams with guidelines in three fundamental pillars: Adoption, Reporting and Training, as illustrated in Exhibit 1. Monticello started this engagement by establishing adoption metrics that drive high quality deliverable standards. As a next step, our team established a robust reporting framework that supported the monitoring and communication of program conditions and status. Many of the reports were automated to improve overall program efficiency. Lastly, the team assembled a knowledge base of reusable job aids and reference documentation to ensure that change teams adhere to consistent implementation standards.
Exhibit 1
Case Study Detail
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) ensures banks regulated in the United States operate in a safe and sound manner. Our client, subject to a Matters Requiring Attention (MRA) notice from the OCC regarding technology processes and delivery controls, established enhanced technology change policies and standards. Monticello’s Change Management and Financial Services Advisory Team was brought in to support multiple technology teams within fixed income sales and trading. Our clients include technology leaders and executives who are working very closely with their front office business partners. Our mandate was to empower and upskill their program managers and technology team leaders to arm them with the capabilities to efficiently plan and execute while adhering to critical standards.
ENGAGEMENT OBJECTIVES
Change Standards Adoption:
Monticello developed a change standards tracker containing over 1,500 data points spanning 10 delivery programs, and 50 sub-projects representing over $55M in technology investments. Automated tool helped eliminate delivery delays and compliance breaches.
Internal quality assurance reviews and audits were conducted regularly. Weekly Readiness Reports served as an early indicator of success or failure by grading over 80 controls per program.
Communications & Reporting:
Monticello developed technology performance reports and standardized the output with intuitive metrics that allowed traders to quickly evaluate overnight processes and completion status.
Monticello automated management reporting by using code to transform raw data into summary decks for daily and weekly executive reviews. Additional reports aimed at improving planning accuracy were semi-automated into emails directed towards technology leaders on a weekly basis to accelerate planning decision making.
Using Tableau™ software, Monticello’s Data Visualization Team developed and released strategic and actionable reports to technology leaders and executives pertaining to code releases success rates.
Training & Skill Building:
Paramount to our services is Monticello’s deep understanding of change standards and our ability to transfer that knowledge to program and project managers in a consumable way. We created job aids through SharePoint™, Wikis, artifacts such as templates and samples, and led weekly touchpoints to provide timely and clear guidance.
Additionally, Monticello’s team helped prepare the organization for external audits.
BUSINESS VALUE
Monticello Consulting Group is a leader in change management and digital transformation. Our team of highly skilled consultants has extensive experience introducing change to organizations through the use of technology. By leveraging our proven methodologies, we successfully supported the adoption of enterprise technology change standards that ensure compliance, lowered operational risk, and achieved 98% on-time deliveries.
