Janet (UK) manages and develops “JANET,” one of the world’s leading research and education networks, together with an extensive portfolio of computing services. The network and its services are available across the United Kingdom to higher education, further education, research councils and local authorities (in support of schools and community development learning). It serves some 18 million users across the UK.

The challenge

Steering a business to continue to provide excellent service in a rapidly changing environment, especially after a reduction in funding, is not easy. JANET(UK) needed to know how to positively influence the business change and was looking for a framework for monitoring business outcomes, transformation and measuring progress — a set of pragmatic tools to form the basis of a dashboard for the boardroom.

Our answer

We worked closely with JANET (UK) to identify what was necessary to achieve its strategic objectives. We conducted a series of senior management level workshops to establish “as is” and “to be” business models, and the priorities for transformation. We then used systemic modeling to provide a deeper understanding of the sensitivity of cause-and-effect relationships and to identify the high leverage points that impact the business.

“CGI impressed us with its approach to identifying the performance measures that had the most impact on our business outcomes.”
Tim Kidd, Operations Director, JANET (UK)

Based on insights from the systemic model, we created a board-level balanced scorecard with precisely measured KPIs. These tools help focus attention on the things that matter the most — those that lead to real business outcomes. In essence, when the journey is complete, we will have given JANET (UK)’s Board and senior management an effective approach to business performance management — an approach that unlocks enormous business value.

A success story

We have provided JANET (UK) with a clear, precise line of sight to its vision. But that is not all — the journey to aspire, measure and transform has just begun.

Talking about their future direction, Tim Marshall, CEO, JANET (UK) says:

“We are introducing the balanced scorecard not only as a tool for our boardroom but we are also investing in additional models and scorecards to help operational managers deliver better results in their own areas.”

In the future, we plan to cascade the KPIs to a set of lower level measures, aligned throughout the business with ownership at appropriate levels. We are going to synchronize the balanced scorecard with the systemic model so our client can get multiple views of the business, views that integrate past learning, present action and future direction.

Key benefits

JANET (UK) now has:

  • A high-level systemic model of the business
  • KPIs that precisely measure actions and outcomes
  • A strong framework and approach to business performance management
  • A means of guiding the transformation of its business

“CGI’s approach is allowing us to apply measures to our business, telling us if the things we are doing day-to-day remain aligned to our vision and our objectives, and identify and address the causes of any significant variances.”
Tim Kidd, Operations Director, JANET (UK)

Why CGI

We work with you to deliver high levels of value. We have a long-standing record in business performance management and business intelligence. Our consultative approach and our expertise in building systemic models provide you with deep business insight. We invest time in understanding your aspirations and that helps us all be brilliant together. Our approach to BPM enables you to be confident that the right things are being measured. We help put measures in place that tell you if problems are being resolved and whether things are changing as you intended so your business can transform.

“Before we worked with CGI, we had tried measuring performance indicators, but we didn’t run our business by them because we weren’t convinced we had the key ones. We are now confident we will be measuring the right things — the things that really influence the outcomes we want.”
Tim Marshall, CEO, JANET (UK)

Learn more about CGI capabilities for state, provincial and local government.

(Published 2013)