Change Portfolio Management, Programme Management, Assurance, Information Security & Privacy and IT Service Management in Chester

PHASE 8 CHANGE LTD was established in 2018 to provide tailored support, guidance and advise to organisations, to help them establish new or improve existing Business Change, PMO or IT Support functions.

Whether an organisation needs specific support in targeted areas and capabilities, or longer term contract and interim support, OUR DIRECTORS are experienced technology leaders with over 20 years combined experience in managing IT, Business Change and Information Security departments and delivering or providing board level assurance on important change programmes.

It is our ‘hands on’ experience that frames the P8C approach to delivering our services and we describe our approach as proficient, collaborative and flexible. In short, if there is a problem or issue with your IT department, your change team, or a strategic project or programme, we will almost certainly have seen it and fixed it before. Our services and capabilities cover five core domains and twelve supporting sub domains.

Change Portfolio Management

P8C provide expert advice & guidance on establishing new, or improving existing change and PMO functions. Focusing on capabilities, resourcing, processes and governance, our approach is underpinned with a risk-based approach to control and governance ensuring that only value-added controls and governance checkpoints are applied.

We understand the importance of balancing control with delivery. Having established multiple new change portfolio functions, including recruitment, developing teams and establishing the processes essential to the effective management of an organisations project portfolio we know how to add value quickly and help get your change portfolio process under control.

Effective Project Portfolio Management Accelerates Business Strategy

Whether you have an existing portfolio management office (PMO), or are exploring the opportunities to set up your first team, we are able to apply our practical experience to help your teams develop and support the management and delivery of your portfolio of change projects.

We understand that all projects utilise the same limited resources (people, financial, time, IT assets, data) and without effective co-ordination and management, missed milestones, cost overruns and delays in realising benefits are inevitable.

Effective management of a balanced portfolio of change projects which are aligned to your strategic, regulatory and operational objectives, will enable the overall acceleration and realisation of your business strategy.

A Risk Based Approach to Change Portfolio Management

Our approach to effective change portfolio management focuses on the principles of:

Earlier pro-active business engagement
Clear visibility of pipeline & active projects on the portfolio
A risk-based approach to control and governance

Each project in a change portfolio is different and the approach to control and governance should reflect this, ensuring a value added minimum-mandatory level of oversight.

Programme Management

Experienced in delivering strategically important programmes, and ensuring their effective and controlled delivery achieves stated business outcomes. We specialise in interim programme management to recover change initiatives that are experiencing difficulties and require a reset, ensuring we hand off our responsibilities to an organisations internal resource once a programme achieves steady state and is under control.

Assurance

We deliver independent programme assurance with a focus on providing ongoing or event-based assessment and confirmation that the programme as a whole is on track, is applying relevant and appropriate practices and procedures, and that the workstreams, activities, outputs and business rationale remain aligned to the organisations stated objectives.

The P8C approach to effective programme assurance focusses on providing an ongoing or event based independent assessment and confirmation that the programme is on track, applying relevant and appropriate practices and procedures, and that the approach, scope, outputs and business rationale remain aligned to the business objectives.

We Firmly Believe That

Effective assurance activities should operate outside of the responsibilities and pressures of day-to-day programme or project management
An assurance team works on behalf of the sponsor and the company's board, taking instruction from and providing guidance and advice to each of these stakeholder groups. But it also works collaboratively with the programme manager/director, providing support and focusing on the important controls and issues which will improve delivery certainty
Ultimately, good programme assurance allows the sponsor and board to focus on making decisions and managing risks with the knowledge that an independent expert checked that the programme is being managed effectively on their behalf, that risks carried by the programme are visible and that the information upon which they are being asked to make decisions is accurate

Information Security & Privacy

In a changing threat landscape, with an active regulator, and multiple recognised standards (IS027001, NIST, COBIT), it can be difficult for small and medium sized organisations without the support of large internal compliance and risk teams to assure that their security controls are appropriate and operating effectively.

Having worked in technology and security leadership roles for multiple years, at P8C we are able to provide expert guidance and advice on security and privacy control effectiveness (technical and procedural), and can work with organisations to identify and align control gaps to organisational risk appetite.

Our approach to working with clients to assess the current capability & maturity of their IT operational teams has been developed with over 10 years of experience leading and managing IT departments across multiple organisations. Our insights, experiences, and the challenges we have resolved have enabled us to develop a flexible approach to reviewing IT departments for strengths and weaknesses, and working with the IT leadership teams to produce and execute continuous improvement plans.

IT Service Management

Expert guidance from experienced IT leaders on improving existing IT service and support functions. We have expertise in integrating and consolidating IT teams, processes and tools as a result of mergers & acquisitions and delivering enhanced, cost-effective IT services through delivery of IT service improvement plans and cost controls.

Experience Matters

Working with clients to complete a review of the processes, procedures, controls and resources within their IT function, P8C utilise a framework which is aligned to recognised international standards.

There are a number of IT service management standards, each with its own strengths, the two most recognised being ITIL and COBIT. We do not prescriptively adopt either of these standard for our reviews as the complexity, and management overheads can often overwhelm the review process and the target client. It is essential that before deciding on a particular standard, that organisations understand how a particular approach will align with their own needs, culture, objectives and corporate risk appetite.

IT Service & Operational Maturity

The P8C IT assurance framework covers the full scope of IT strategy and operational services and although distinct, is aligned to the COBIT standard. This framework enables us to communicate to all stakeholders (technical & non-technical) using common and consistent language.

It enables all stakeholders to visualise the full scope of the review, and to easily identify areas to prioritise for focus.

The P8C model covers 7 streams and 37 individual process domain & control areas which will form part of an enterprise wide IT service operating model.

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