A major provincial transit agency, responsible for a provincial transit fare payment service, had embarked on an ambitious modernization plan for that service with the following strategic objectives:

·        Improve the Client experience (where a Client isa transit delivery agency)

·        Improve the Customer (end-user) Experience viaaccess (multi-channel) and equity

·        Modern payment methods for an improved Customer Experience

·        Lower the Total Cost of Ownership of the transitfare collection service

In support of their strategic objectives, the client organization desired to move to a multi-vendor ecosystem supported by best-of-breed solutions and vendors for the modernized fare collection solution.  In order to support this transformation, the provincial transit agency retained GEF to develop a target operating model (TOM) to support the future state multi-vendor environment the transit agency envisioned.

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One of the significant challenges facing Canada’s health system is the need to improve the management of prescription medication. Since 2016, our Client has been working with the provinces and territories and other stakeholders to establish a multi-jurisdiction e-Prescribing Solution (“PrescribeIT”) that would facilitate better, safer, more cost-effective and more appropriate prescription drug use by Canadians.

Within a two-year timeframe, the objective of the program was to develop and conduct a limited production release of PrescribeIT that allowed prescribers (i.e. doctors) to transmit a prescription to a patient’s pharmacy of choice electronically. During this time, GEF exclusively provided program management services to provide short and long-term planning, strategic alignment, leadership, subject matter expertise, program &project management, operational oversight, negotiation, monitoring, and risk management to ensure the successful roll-out and Pan-Canadian implementation of the program.

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GEF was engaged by a leading Canadian healthcare organization that champions childhood cancer care to understand the business processes from end-to-end (current state), as it relates to its survivorship and aftercare programs, and then was charged with developing future state requirements in order to make recommendations in support of a long-term roadmap. GEF also compiled an inventory of business processes and made recommendations for greater efficiency and closer alignment to the client's strategic goals.

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GEF conducted a Hospital Utilization and Efficiency Review for the Pharmacy function at one of the largest hospitals in Ontario, Canada, with the goal of improving utilization, effectiveness and efficiency in order to optimize aspects of this important business and clinical functions. This included:

·        Analyzed the current state (“as is”) environment

·        Established benchmark productivity rates and KPI’s for the current pharmacy drug distribution processes identified (e.g. Dispensing First Doses of Medications, Missing Medication Doses,Overrides in Automated Dispensing Cabinets)

·        Identified opportunities for improved efficiencies within the current workflow

·        Conducted an external scan (“benchmarking”) and analysis of other comparable hospital inpatient pharmacy KPI’s, to assist in making recommendations to the hospital

·        Developed a cost efficient future state (“to be”) pharmacy service model for the hospital within an electronic health record environment to identify, evaluate and support like processes in the future electronic health record environment, which included the replacement of the current Pharmacy Information System, implementation of a Computerized Prescriber Order Entry, moving to an electronic Medication Administration Record, and bedside barcode verification, prior to medication administration.

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Our Insurance client identified a need to enhance and transform the way it recorded and managed its Financial, Procurement and Human Resource information – they had long since outgrown their highly customized legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and so they embarked on a business transformation for their ERP.  They competitively procured GEF to assist them with their business transformation.  

Objectives

1. To illicit and document comprehensive business, functional and non-functional requirements

2. To prepare a conceptual future-state target operating model (TOM), and,

3. Perform the analysis and gather the information required for a business case, so that the client organization could prepare a business case in order to decide whether to proceed with the Procurement phase of the project

Challenges Encountered

Challenge #1 – Stakeholder Resistance to Change: Some stakeholders preferred to not make any changes to the status quo while redesigning processes.  Mitigating Steps: GEF facilitated group sessions where GEF educated stakeholders on best practice and new technologies available to improve processes and efficiency. GEF also met with the client’s Organizational Change Management (OCM) team members to perform a project OCM assessment, highlighted the degree of change that each Finance team would see with a new Finance System implementation, and highlighted change challenges to senior leadership.

Challenge #2 - Future State Technology Capabilities and Possibilities not well-known: The Client stakeholders were not aware of technology improvements and best practices for Procurement, HR, and Finance.  Mitigating Steps: GEF explained technology improvements and best practices to stakeholders throughout the workshops and prepared and delivered presentations to educate stakeholders and illustrate best practices (e.g., Payroll transformation for HR and Payroll groups, three-way matching for Finance group, spend management for Procurement group), issues with current practices, and transformation benefits and recommendations. Also, GEF held a Q&A session for workforce management for the Client Operations managers, so that they could ask questions about issues they experienced and what functionality was available to address those issues.

Outcomes and Critical Success Factors
The outcomes of this project were redesigned and documented Procurement, Finance, and HR processes, documented detailed requirements and other related artifacts to support the ERP system procurement, and the analysis and information required for the business case. i.e. successful completion and acceptance by the Client of all deliverables referenced earlier. The critical success factors included (1) Strong & Extensive Client Stakeholder Involvement (2) Open, Frequent Communication with Key Stakeholders (3) Project Management & Time Management Best Practices.

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