We recommend these tools and techniques to help you be more effective in your IT and back office cost reduction initiatives 

We aim to use the most appropriate, effective tools and techniques for each individual project. Whilst every client engagement and project are unique, we have found that there are a few powerful techniques that have proved their value our clients over numerous assignments. If you need to use proven methods to make rapid improvements in or more aspects of your organisation's performance then click on the relevant link below to get a head start towards great results.

In the exciting times of the booming frontier, it was said that there were only two kinds of gunfighter “the Quick and the Dead”. Thankfully in business your life doesn’t literally depend on the pace and accuracy of your decision-making and execution – it only feels like a matter of life and death.

Making good decisions quickly and executing them rapidly with confidence remains the key trademark shared by high-performing organizations. We can all share this ideal objective and yet many times in the real world we can find that the way forward on key business initiatives is unclear, resulting in unnecessary stress and frustration in our attempts to get important things done. So what can we do to help improve our performance?

The RACI technique can help you make and then execute strategic business decisions with greater pace and confidence.

'A picture is worth a thousand words'. Thus, when one needs to understanding a process and all its intricacies clearly, e.g. in order to improve or redesign it, drawing a diagram or map of it is very powerful.

Typically, two versions are drawn: the current state of the process and the required state. If the current process is performing reasonably well, then it is appropriate to document it in sufficient detail that the documentation can be used to train new staff and inform continuous improvement activities. If the process is in need of radical overhaul ('re-engineering') then it is normally only useful to document it to a sufficient level of detail to identify the trouble spots and opportunities for improvement.

In the 1950s, W. Edwards Deming introduced the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle for continuous improvement. The Six Sigma® methodology uses the Define, Measure, Analyse, Design, Verify (DMAIC) continuous cycle.

Both of these cycles are a process - indeed, a culture - for institutionalising continuous improvement in an organisation.

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These techniques aim to get at the root causes of a problem and not just the symptoms. Kaoru Ishikawa, a Japanese Quality pioneer, introduced a very visual 'Fishbone' diagram that helps a whole team focus on this and get rapidly to consensus.

The problem is put at the 'head' of the backbone of a fish and categories of likely causes are added as the 'bones'. Each cause discovered is added as a sub-bone to the appropriate category and is subjected, in turn, to further analysis (sprouting its own 'bones'), until the root causes are discovered. The 'Five Whys' approach can be used, where the problem is analysed to five levels, give or take a level, until it is clear that the root causes have been found.

This simple but powerful risk management technique helps you increase your ability to deliver projects and programmes more successfully.

The aim is to ensure that you are able to understand, manage and communicate the key risks standing in the way of your success. Sponsors can quickly comprehend key issues and challenges and what needs to be done. It's a simple and transparent method for building confidence in your ability to deliver.

If you would like to hear how you could deliver powerful solutions to your pressing Service issues with a great deal less time and effort than you might currently expect, why not ring John Corr on +44 20 7748 2225 for an initial discussion of your situation and specific challenges.