Selected Case Studies

University of Iowa - Strategy: Driven by the rising costs of IT infastructure, student expectations, and the need to integrate with other major IT systems, this client needed to move beyond the tactical usage of e-learning.

Problem  : Due to the University's culture of collegiate autonomy (the 11 colleges on campus tended to make their own decisions) and past problems with centralized IT projects, there were few people who felt that the University would be able to select one vendor platform and have the whole University support the decision.    As a result, the University had been stuck for over two years supporting multiple e-learning platforms, wasting precious time, money and staff resources.

Solution:  HBO Systems facilitated the formation of a Core Group, made up of representatives from across the University whose mission was to explore how e-learning was currently being used and to document the institutions' strategic needs.  Based on this assessment's recommendations, the Core Group led a process to select a single e-learning platform, establish quantitative measurements of e-learning usage, and highlight critical policy issues that must be addressed.

Results:  The University of Iowa, contrary to their own expectations, was able to select a single platform which has been generally supported by the whole campus.  They are now in the midst of implementing this system, with significant savings over supporting multiple systems, and there is now a new model o fhow to run collaborative projects for the entire University.

International Supply Chain Solutions Provider - Strategy:  This software and systems provider was a leader in the technology underlying supply chain solutions, but had not been able to translate this technology lead into sales growth.  A new executive team had recently been put in place to turnaround the company.

Problem:  Due to poor management, the software development organization had created a bureaucratic, process-heavy culture which enabled them to protect themselves from previous management.  Unfortunately, this culture resulted in the company not having released a new product in over 2 years.

Solution:  HBO Systems introduced new Agile Software processes to the company and opened up communications among the executive, sales, development and customer support groups.  In addition, HBO Systems was asked to directly manage the release of their flagship project.

Results:  In less than one year, the company completely changed their software development process and culture and successfully released the new major release of their flagship product, allowing the company to be stabilized during the turnaround.

                       
Orderzone.com - Strategy: Grainger was sponsoring a new multi-vendor digital marketplace which would allow business purchasers to buy indirect materials from many companies at one site with one invoice.

Problem:  The project was mired in disputes between the corporate sponsors and the services company producing the software.  The relationship and project were so broken that all payments had been stopped and the sponsors were considering cancelling the contract and transferring all work to in-house.

Solution:  Phil Hill was brought in to help the project get back on track and to formulate a new working arrangement between the partners.  A public news conference was scheduled with the CEOs from 6- billion dollar companies scheduled to announce the new marketplace.

Results:  Within one month the project and relationship were repaired to the point that vendor payments were re-started.  Within another 6 months the project was complete, leading to the public opening of the revolutionary new website on the exact date promised by the corporate CEOs.  At the time, this site was ranked the 4th best business-to-business website, and it eventually led to the merger with Works.com.