Maintaining competitive advantage while complying with RDR
This UK-based company is a major player within Life and Pensions. A member of the FTSE 100, it has over £100billion funds under management. Like all businesses in this sector it has to meet the needs of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) programme. The speed at which it can achieve compliance with RDR is a source of competitive advantage. That is why it engaged Practicus to support the rapid delivery of its RDR programme.
The programme
RDR is a fundamental change to the financial services industry, entailing root and branch analysis of the way financial services business operate. This Life & Pensions business was determined to be ahead of the pack, navigating the challenges and delivering an RDR compliant business early. To this end, it began an £11m RDR programme and engaged Practicus at a time when the full ramifications of RDR were unclear.
Practicus deliverables
- Determining scope of the programme, i.e. clarifying the impact of RDR on the business and the marketplace
- Working with Marketing Director of Investment & Pensions to understand the new market proposition needed to meet compliance and maintain a competitive position
- Project Management of UK Individual Protection RDR project
- Defining Baseline Project Initiation Documentation
- Developing Baseline Business Case and Benefits Realisation
- Baselining Project Plan for Delivery, followed by detailed project plan for Detailed Design stage
- 3rd Party engagement as required
Challenges
Not only was the full impact of RDR little understood at the time the programme was initiated, this company was also undergoing several major acquisitions, which meant other programmes converging to deliver at the same point.
Efforts to obtain clarity around the scope and impact of RDR had to be met with equal rigor around understanding evolving operations and how they would change as a resultof M&A activity.
Stakeholder engagement and management was fundamental to success - not just for delivering clarity butfor ensuring that difficult decisions affecting organisational design were made in a timely fashion by senior executives and third parties.
Tools & techniques
- Client in-house methodology and PRINCE2
- Stakeholder management
- Benefits realisation
- 3rd party management
- PracAssure© reporting on performance and issues
Skills Transfer
Practicus shared lessons learned from other projects on RDR and collated those of 3rd parties in order to lead a series of workshops with all key stakeholders.
Business Benefits & Outcomes Delivered.
Within 9 months, the company has gone from a situation of operational and regulatory uncertainty to a position where it has clarity, a new market propostion and a roadmap for change. In other words the business has the strategy and detailed plan it needs to maintain competitive advantage while complying with RDR. The work is now entering the final phase for implementation in partnership with Practicus.
