With a 40-year history, the client is part of the largest financial services group in Africa and provides vehicle and asset finance support to leading international brands.

The client had realised to enable their BA function to meet future business needs and fulfil their mandate of being the bridge between business and IT, they required serious business transformations. Furthermore, strategic business initiatives would also place additional strain on the BA capability in the near and medium term. Due to BSG’s strong BA knowledge and experience, the client approached BSG to assist them in building their BA capability and set up a CoE, to drive BA best practice across the organisation from a central point.

The business had been hampered in introducing changes to drive competitive advantages, due to business analysts delivering too slowly and at huge expense. Through the introduction of a CoE, the business could therefore look at building the sustainable competitive advantage required for future business success. An integral element of future success would be people-related, which prior to the commencement of the project was not a sustainable competitive advantage. The CoE would create an environment focused on developing the business analysts, independent of project execution. BSG’s project approach inculcated the EVP into the BA community, to strengthen the value of business analysts in the broader ecosystem.

• Improved BA productivity and performance through staff effectively being held accountable for performance via clearly defined BA roles, performance management processes (including incremental feedback) and appropriate training
• Consistency and completeness of BA competency development through formalised career development and coaching frameworks, a first for staff
• Increased retention and staff engagement levels through defined employee value proposition (EVP), inclusive of a BA recruitment, induction process defined and operational effect
• Articulated BA delivery methodology through clearly defined processes and standards
• The BA capability has been set up to cater for improved project quality output, delivery times and capacity
• Standardisation and adoption of leading BA practice methods and tools will lead to reduced delivery risk

To meet their goal of becoming the provider of choice on the African continent, the client needs to grow revenue while containing costs. The CoE will enable the client to actively drive down costs while positioning themselves as an organisation that is a world-class leader in quality IT delivery. The revised BA capability will also enable the BA function to assist in driving innovation.