By Julian Goldsmith, 25 February 2009 15:52
NEWS
Â…informal meetings where staff state their current progress on projects and declare what will be completed by the end of the day. It's an approach that means projects are far more likely to stay on target in terms of time and budget.
Another element of the company's staff retention drive included in the Agile methodology is the ongoing participation of business staff in the development process.
Young said some of his staff are embedded within business units - and can even be involved in pitching for new business - so that the IT team is continuously in tune with the business objectives.
The staff retention policy appears to be effective - the loyalty of IT workers at the company is illustrated by the IT strategy team that report directly to Young, none of whom joined the company less than 20 years ago.
This loyalty is echoed right to the top, with CEO Sir Sandy Crombie, who has been at the company for 42 years. Crombie's first 20 years were spent within the IT department and it shows when he talks of how IT is right at the heart of Standard Life's aim to target new customer segments, a move designed to tide it over in the lean years to come.
"[Standard Life's IT] is one of the things that makes us efficient. We haven't got some of the legacy problems of many other businesses which have had lots of acquisitions and merger activity, where they are trying to run a customer base from a variety of different platforms. We've been able for many years to keep investing and upgrading our technology. It allows us compared with other businesses to be relatively efficient," he said.
As Standard Life moves to a low-investment, high-return model, it is forced to shift to new market demographics. Crombie explained that the traditional financial services approach is through advisors who work on a transactional model. These third parties work to seal a one-off deal with the customer but the sales structure means they are not concerned with maintaining the relationship once the deal is done.
"We've shifted our business model away from transactional to maintaining a relationship. It tends to be a wealthier client base, a more sophisticated advisory base, and that sophistication can be provided economically through technology. We'll provide the best advice tools. We'll provide the best support systems in the advisors office that can allow them to view the client's entire wealth base to make updates, to follow projections. It's that technology that allows us to be sure of our place in that partnership," Crombie said last week at the company's Edinburgh headquarters.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below