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Business Monitor International

Financial publisher based in the City of London.

With significant year on year growth, IT systems which couldn't cope and with offices recently opening in Singapore and New York - we helped BMI scale and professionalise their technology platform.

Increased effeciency

Agile development, improved communication and team collaboration, streamlined business processes

We introduced Agile development, improved communication and team collaboration, streamlined business processes...

Strategic Advice

C-level consulting to board Directors and business stakeholders

We provide C-level consulting to board Directors and business stakeholders, definition and implementation of a company technology strategy, senior hires and recruitment planning...

BMI provides data, analysis, ratings and forecasts on country risk and industry sectors for 170 markets. Its customers and clients span more than 140 countries worldwide, including more than 400 of the Global Fortune 500 companies.

Businesses, banks, financial service companies, governments, academia and research centres have all come to rely on BMI's analysis, data and forecasts - and have done so for 25 years. The company was awarded the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in 1997.

BMI is a wholly independent company, headquartered at Blackfriars, London, with foreign offices in Singapore and New York. The company currently employs over 170 staff and in excess of 40 specialist analysts and researchers across the globe.

The problem

In summary BMI suffered growing pains and business scalability problems across their technology systems, processes and people.

The previous technology infrastructure was outdated, running on legacy hardware and was difficult to support in a consistent way. The IT helpdesk and service delivery model to internal and external customers was not managed efficiently, without metrics, feedback or continuous improvement.

External auditors had identified weaknesses with business and accounting process. These issues primarily related to the lack of robust core software to manage these processes and to control, validate and constrain the data quality within.

Internal business process and workflow for editorial (content generation) through to production (product delivery) lacked efficiency and was unable to scale with rapid business growth.

BMI's internal and offshore (outsourced) development teams were not being effectively managed from a technical development perspective. Development team members lacked the guidance and leadership of an experienced technical team lead. Project deliveries were late and not in agreement with user requirements, expectations of senior business stakeholders were not being managed.

Technology lacked any strategy or roadmap at an executive level. No formal representation of the technology group was made at board level to the Directors and other senior business stakeholders.

Our solution

CG Consultancy worked with BMI over an 18 month period to deliver the following headline items:

  • Technology strategy and guidance at C-level (board / executive stakeholders). CG Consultancy assigned an interim CTO (Chief Technology Officer) reporting to the CEO.
  • Delivery of initial technology plan and short-medium term roadmap aligned to business objectives.
  • A full-time Technology Infrastructure consultant was assigned to BMI to execute short term emergency projects. Existing business critical Novell platform was upgraded, hardware replaced and relevant backup / disaster recover policies put in place.
  • CG Consultancy managed the external recruitment process for the source and selection of a permanent Head of IT, in line with medium-long term company objectives. The Head of IT hire overlapped with onsite consultants to ensure continuity and hand over.
  • External audit points were reviewed and requirements produced to identify a business critical subscription-fulfilment software system, replacing a legacy system and to include integration with industry recognised accounting [Sage] and CRM systems [SalesLogix].
  • CG Consultancy project managed the procurement of the new subscription-fulfilment platform [THINKSubscription] including; the migration of the existing legacy application and associated data, external vendor selection for the integration of accounting and CRM interfaces, new system implementation project and also staff training, support material and handover.
  • A full review and plan for BMI's internal software delivery capability. This resulted in CG Consultancy assigning a Senior Development Manager (Technical Project Manager) consultant to BMI full-time for a 12 month period. Actions included; restructuring the development team accordingly, introducing Agile methodology across development team, improving team communication with daily stand-ups and collaborative tools, creation of project delivery plan for short-medium term, introduction of BMI Programme Office with formal project governance (PRINCE2) and reporting to business stakeholders, dedicated resource for business analysis and project management.
  • CG Consultancy conducted an in depth front-to-back audit of the editorial thru production process which is core to overall product delivery. Audit findings identified a number of initiatives and requirements to be untaken by CG Consultancy:
    • Formation of a task force of senior stakeholders across business units, to trial a pilot project introducing a streamlined and scalable approach to product delivery.
    • Delivery of the pilot concept, project management and board level reporting of results. Subsequent roll-out of pilot to live business users.
    • Documenting an RFI/RFP for an industry recognised editorial CMS and production workflow system from established vendors [i.e. MarkLogic, Documentum, nstein, K4, Drupal, Woodwing, EidosMedia, Escenic, RSuite] .
    • Staffing plans to detail restructuring and additional hires to support scale up of business volumes and growth of BMI product set.

The results

A key validation of our work with BMI was the subsequent due diligence audit carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers. This was conducted as part of the deal process between our client and Spectrum Equity Investors. Spectrum went on to make a substantial non-controlling equity investment in BMI in September 2009 see the press release for more details.

With significant year on year growth, IT systems which couldn't cope and with offices opening in Singapore and New York - CG Consultancy helped BMI scale and professionalise their technology platform, process and people, across the business.

Technology infrastructure. This area has received considerable investment with key staff hires, extensive hardware refresh project utilising the latest virtualisation technology and a responsive IT Helpdesk which follows recognised ITIL standards. Service delivery to end customers (internal and external) is measurable and follows a continuous improvement model.

Senior technology strategy and leadership. The short-medium term plan has been executed in partnership with the board and supplemented with key permanent staff hires, including CTO (ex Head of Online at Financial Times).

Software development. Agility, efficiency and formalised processes are now recognised attributes of the BMI development teams and their outsource partnership. Agile methods have helped improve efficiency and communication across the project teams, in addition to allowing them to respond faster to changing business requirements.

Implementation of industry recognised systems. Legacy systems are in the process of being retired and replaced with established systems from recognised publishing technology vendors.

Business process scalability and efficiency. Following the success of the editorial-production pilot, which demonstrated improved staff efficiency, control, management and ability to scale - this was rolled out as a working model for a large proportion of new and existing products.

We continue to enjoy a close working relationship with Business Monitor and provide consultancy on an ongoing basis.

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Clients

"I can strongly recommend CG Consultancy (particularly for rapidly growing SMEs with growing pains) - for recruitment, for highly professional project management of critical systems improvements and optimization of business processes, and for strategic direction and advice. The quality of the consultants sourced by CGC in the areas of Web Development and IT Infrastructure has been consistently high, while they have also assisted in sourcing and vetting several full-time senior hires, including Head of IT & Infrastructure, and CTO. As a rapidly growing company, Business Monitor International (BMI) outgrew its technology base and systems without at first realising it. CGC helped us to quickly and cost-effectively overcome these problems, so that we can continue to scale the business."

Jonathan Feroze, CEO
Business Monitor International