The client's problem
The company had, over several years, several years acquired software development companies in several countries and was now experiencing significant organisational complexity and low group transparency of their IP product portfolio. Further adding to the complexity, their IP software product portfolio was built on many different platforms, both older and newer, all using a multitude of software development tools. Consequently, the company sought to consolidate and optimise their software development operations across the group, including how to optimise the use of resources when maintaining or developing IP software products.
Our approach
Oleto formed a team consisting of very experienced consultants and representatives from all the software development units and began an intense four-month, highly agile and iterative process. The project was structured in four separate, yet highly interdependent workstreams. The first work stream created transparency in the existing software development units' business and how investment decisions were made, e.g., financial figures, IP software portfolios, technology platforms used, target customers. The second workstream focused on determining the current software development methodologies and tools used, as well as the future requirements for each software development unit. The third workstream focused on assessing how the time was spent in each software development unit, as well as defining the future governance setup for managing all software development units in the group. The fourth workstream evaluated the existing performance measurement setup, defined the future requirements and aligned it with the chosen governance approach.
Value delivered
A significantly simplified software development operation, going from +20 different methodologies used to a few and a streamlined group approach to managing the entire software IP portfolio, incl. the investment prioritisation process.