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Scroll down or choose from the list to see more about our services: Core Services Business - IT Alignment Other Services and Capabilities Portfolio Management
Core Services
The importance of recognising information as a vital business asset cannot be overstated. As such, the alignment between the business and IT parts of an organisation is a crucial one. The role of CIO has become ever more popular in both the private and public sectors in the UK, but how many of these people are actually the CITO? Is the focus really on the information or the management and support of the infrastructure? The business also needs to know that the IT organisation is working towards the visions and goals of the business. Equally, IT needs to know where the business is heading and what support it requires. Without this alignment, the business will not be able to realise its goals (especially as IT becomes ever more ubiquitous) and IT will create projects for itself, further reducing its effectiveness. Parachute Consulting provide clear advice, guidance, and hands-on support to help organisations become and stay more aligned.
Knowledge and Information Management Knowledge Management is a large subject and one that is often misunderstood and so not capitalised on by organisations. Based on the importance of information – a component of knowledge – as mentioned in our Business – IT Alignment service, ensuring that your knowledge is managed, controlled, and exploited is essential for any organisation concerned with managing its costs. Parachute Consulting have a range of tools and techniques that help to identify an organisation’s knowledge management needs. We identify areas for improvement and focus on delivering measurable change that will reduce the cost of managing knowledge and information as well as presenting opportunities for further exploiting the knowledge that the organisation has. Our acclaimed report ‘Understanding Knowledge Management – A Parachute Consulting Guide,’ which contains a number of case studies from across the public sector, can be found here.
Having a clear picture of where you are going is important for any organisation, public, private, or voluntary. Translating this picture into a set of real and tangible activities that will take you towards realising that vision is essential. Aligning a suite of change initiatives, whether they be large programmes or small projects, to the overarching target direction is key. Parachute Consulting provide a ‘critical friend’ role in the development of a vision, supportively challenging the vision to ensure that the organisation understands what it is aiming for. We also help organisations to translate their vision into a clear delivery strategy, an initial business plan, and a set of change initiatives.
At its simplest, innovation is about change; the successful exploitation of new concepts in products, processes, and practices that will change, for example, the effectiveness of a business or the dimensions of a market. This, though, only considers innovation in a singular sense: the introduction of an idea. It provides no light on how numerous ideas can be realised in a way that does not see the organisation in a constant state of disruption. Business innovation is about having mechanisms for understanding the impact that an idea will have on an organisation, its competition, and its markets and being able to implement those ideas in an efficient and cost-effective way. It also means having the environment to spawn, recognise, and develop ideas in the first place. Parachute Consulting has a deep understanding of innovation processes and how to make an organisation more innovative, supported by a range of tools and techniques. For example, in 2007, Parachute Consulting contributed information on innovation to the Cabinet Office’s ‘Service Design Principles’ report; you can read the report here. Our brand new report ‘Understanding Innovation – A Parachute Consulting Guide’ is now available - you can find out more here.
Other Services and Capabilities
Portfolio Management Portfolio Management includes structures and approaches that enable organisations to plan and manage their projects. Parachute Consulting help to establish and run valuable Portfolio Management functions that focus on delivering for the business.
Enterprise Architecture & Integration Enterprise integration is concerned with understanding the information that is valuable to the business, who needs to use it, and how it is currently managed. Enterprise architecture is focused on designing and implementing the services, structures, and solutions to pass that information around the business and to manage it all successfully. Parachute Consulting understand the challenges involved in enterprise integration, whether the business is a single entity or a large federally-structured collection of organisations, and provide advice and techniques for working towards a more integrated business.
Service Oriented Architecture Read Parachute Consulting’s views on S-O-A in The Salamander Organisation’s INSIGHT Magazine here.
Organisational Governance
Programme & Project Management
Facilitation & Event Management
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