Development of DHL information systems shared services centre in Prague
Client company & industry sector
DHL (Part of Deutsche Post World Net), Logistics Sector
Scope of the assignment
Following Deutsche Post’s acquisition and integration of logistics giants DHL and Danzas, the new DHL had its Information Technology (IT) operations scattered across Europe. Yet Global IT Managing Director Stephen McGuckin needed to improve IT service levels whilst simultaneously delivering a double-digit percentage reduction in costs.
Under the leadership of Programme Director Alex Pilar, DHL successfully completed one of the most audacious IT services projects ever seen in Europe; a €500 million investment that relocated its IT Services Leadership Team and 600 IT servers running mission critical applications “24x7” to a greenfield location in Prague, and recruited over 900 IT professionals to populate the new organization.
Catalise guided DHL in three key areas; Investment Management, Programme Management and Transition Management. At all times using minimal external resources and leveraging DHL’s internal capabilities.
Description of deliverables
Investment Management
- Reassessment and expansion of original business case
- Investment strategy
- Business case and funding proposals
- Project budgets
- Financial governance controls and procedures
- Maintaining management focus on project finances
- Managing and reporting of government grants and incentives
Programme Management
The key deliverables that Catalise supported included defining and establishing the Project Management Office (PMO) function:
- Organisation (activities, roles, responsibilities and resources)
- Processes & Procedures
- Production of an integrated plan
- Supporting change management initiatives to key employees
- Providing a cultural awareness framework for all the resources who worked across national boundaries
Transition Management
In just twelve months, over 900 staff of more than 45 different nationalities were recruited/transferred to the new centre.
Catalise supported DHL’s HR team, defining the HR plans, processes, procedures, organisation and policies. This work included wide ranging support in the areas of:
- Recruitment
- Training & Development
- Policies & Procedures development
Approach used
Catalise were engaged to develop an implementation strategy to ensure the overall success of the programme, and provide additional coaching and “hands on” support to the internal team.
Catalise’s approach was to split the programme engagement into three major activities:
- Investment Management – Evaluation, transformation and return on investment (ROI)
- Programme Management – Planning, controlling risk, project delivery
- Transition Management – People, organisation and communications
Using proven Catalise disciplines based on best practice, the programme was realigned, with many new and enhanced process and procedures designed and implemented in a matter of weeks.
Outcomes of the assignment
Despite the programme complexity, it exceeded its financial goals:
- Project costs -Below business case
- Benefits realized - Over €10million higher than the Business Case
The level of ambition and success in execution of DHL’s IT Services Centre - the largest investment in the service sector in the Czech Republic - has been recognised at National and European levels. - In 2004 DHL Information Services was named "Investor of the Year" in an award co-sponsored by Czech Invest, the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Czech Association for Foreign Investment.
- The success of this investment has been acknowledged by the European Commission. In July 2005 the EC confirmed the IT Services Centre as one of the three best cross-boarder investments in Europe.
- Peter Kruse, CEO of DHL Express Europe, accepted the European Investment Award at the La Baule World Investment Conference.
Other relevant information
The client team gave the following quotes:
- “The complexity and sheer scale of this project should not be underestimated and the extraordinary success could not have been achieved without Catalise”. Alex Pilar, IT Services Centre Programme Director
- “Confidence in the relationship existing between Catalise and DHL at every level is reinforced by this success.”, Pascal Adam, IT Services Centre Programme Manager.
