Financial services client taps Coeus for end-user assessment

Coeus Consulting has delivered a thorough assessment of End-User Services for a client in the financial services industry. The consultancy helped the client benchmark its End-User Services compared to other similar sized organisations, to help determine the cost and quality needed to either outsource them or develop them inhouse.

End-User Services (EUS) is a key component of the digital transformation journey – and since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, this has only become more apparent, as end user devices have become essential to connect staff working from home to their customer, colleagues and teams.

When EUS is not optimised, it can restrict a user’s ability to fully interact with systems, which usually stems from service design or underlying infrastructure issues, resulting in the limitation of flexible working models, losses in productivity, and even lower staff satisfaction and retention. Even after lockdown ends, the shift toward hybrid working means the dependencies of performant and reliable EUS will still continue to grow.

Companies need to be proactive in deciding how to proceed with EUS delivery then, as illustrated by a multinational financial services organisation with more than 30,000 employees, which recently approached Coeus Consulting. The client was looking to ensure its End-User Services (EUS) were providing best value to the business. The client was at a crossroads, unsure whether in order to meet the needs of a modern, forward-thinking organisation it should deliver EUS in-house, or source them from a specialist third party provider.

Both routes come with specific pros and cons corresponding to the type of organisation potentially outsourcing EUS. While the in-house approach normally achieves better customer satisfaction as it allows for a more direct approach, an outsourced provider can help reduce the overall cost of service, and bring onboard a wealth of technical expertise to accelerate the delivery of technology transformation, without the long-term costs of permanent staff.

In the case of the client, making a choice between these two options was proving difficult, as the organisation was unable to accurately assess the IT service provider market to weigh up its possible commercial benefits. Attempts to assess the market failed, as the company could not collate the data and construct the models necessary to evaluate the options, while a lack of capacity and engagement from the stakeholders within End User Services also held the sourcing evaluation back.

According to a statement from Coeus’ website, the client’s Director of EUS and the procurement team reached out to the consultancy as a trusted partner, tasking it with cutting through the complexities to supply an impartial assessment of EUS at the company, and to provide insight into the marketplace and potential commercial offerings. The assessment took on three different facets, determining whether EUS at the client was of a high enough quality and good value, or if it would be more efficient to source services from market providers.

First, Coeus completed a data capture and current state review of the client, looking at its current operating model, financial breakdown, structure and head count, supplier information, performance data, strategy documents and planned transformation initiatives.

The firm then collated these findings into a benchmark against industry domain models, including a maturity and value calculation compared to competitors of the client. Finally, Coeus developed recommendations which included actions to improve each sub service within EUS on quality and or cost, strategic options, and a cost benefit analysis.

In the end, the client’s CIO stakeholder group welcomed these insights, remarking on the clarity and transparency of Coeus’ overview of the EUS within the organisation. With this in hand, the client was able to weigh up its needs compared to similarly sized organisations, and determine the cost and quality standards its EUS needed to meet.

In turn this was used to provide a market assessment and potential benefits of externally sourcing services, delivering an effective value assessment for the organisation.