Goal
The primary objective of the organization is to formulate a comprehensive five-year strategic plan designed to tackle the significant challenges impacting its core business, adapt to the dynamic and ever-changing environment, and cater to the increasingly diverse community it serves. This plan aims to identify and address potential obstacles, leverage emerging opportunities, and ensure resilience and sustainability in the face of evolving market conditions. By engaging stakeholders, incorporating innovative approaches, and prioritizing inclusivity, the organization aspires to strengthen its foundations, enhance its service delivery, and foster long-term growth and success.

Challenge
The organization faces multifaceted challenges, primarily stemming from the diminishing returns on its traditional service model of renovating dilapidated homes to create affordable housing. This model, once highly effective, now struggles to meet the growing and diverse needs of the community. Compounding this issue is a demographic shift from a mostly homogenous racial and economic group to a community with multiple demographic personas, each with distinct needs and concerns. The organization's ability to provide tailored solutions is becoming increasingly strained, necessitating a reevaluation of its approach to remain relevant and impactful. Given its limited resources, the organization must develop a more robust internal infrastructure to address these new challenges effectively. This entails enhancing operational efficiency, investing in staff training, and leveraging technology to better understand and respond to the community's evolving needs. Strengthening partnerships and seeking innovative funding opportunities will also be crucial. By building a more resilient and adaptable framework, the organization can better allocate resources, improve service delivery, and continue to fulfill its mission amidst the changing landscape.

Solution

• Work with key stakeholders to walkthrough long-term journey of organizational vision
• Address what are key challenges facing the organization and rate how it is meeting those challenges
• Discuss what opportunities have not been leveraged or taken
• Work with all stakeholders to develop tangible plans with realistic implementation objectives to drive strategy over multiple years.

Result
Triforce facilitated numerous development sessions involving executive leadership, key staff, and board members, incorporating valuable community input to craft a comprehensive five-year strategic plan. This plan aims to transform and pivot the organization’s approach to effectively support its chosen community. Developed alongside an implementation plan, it provides a clear roadmap for focusing and organizing efforts to achieve strategic objectives using both existing and future resources. Additionally, Triforce developed project and program tools to assist staff in executing these objectives at a tactical level, ensuring a cohesive and efficient progression toward the organization's goals.

Goal
The goal is to develop a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for the organization, preparing it for a future where BCP events are increasingly likely and impactful. This plan will consider the organization's limited resources and staffing, ensuring it can effectively maintain operations and support the wider community during such events. By addressing potential challenges and creating robust strategies, the BCP will empower the organization to sustain its critical functions and fulfill its mission, even in the face of significant disruptions.

Challenge
The challenge lies in developing a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for a community organization with very limited staff and resources, yet operationally diverse, managing multiple properties in various stages of construction. Each property requires a tailored response in the event of a BCP occurrence, adding complexity to the planning process. The plan must address these diverse needs while remaining feasible within the organization's constraints, ensuring that all properties and operational facets can continue functioning effectively during disruptions. Additionally, the organization and its staff are relatively immature in their understanding of the importance of a BCP. There is a need for education and awareness-building to emphasize why such planning is critical. Staff must recognize the potential impacts of disruptions and the necessity of preparedness to safeguard the organization's mission and services. Cultivating this understanding is essential to ensure that the BCP is not only developed but also embraced and effectively implemented.

Solution

• Structure a modular BCP framework that can be quickly divided, implemented and/or updated as necessary.
• Utilize familiar terminology that mimics existing industry and usage of the organization, in this case community development
• Review critical processes and documentation, specifically noting weaknesses and gaps that should be addressed
• Implement extensive education and training with all organization staff and establish an ongoing training and refresher schedule to build up organization muscle memory

Result
The BCP created is a combination of a living document, templates, and processes designed to enable the organization to react effectively and prepare in advance for BCP events. This dynamic plan equips staff with the necessary tools and guidance to take appropriate actions before, during, and after an event, tailored to the specific type of disruption. By providing clear, actionable steps and adaptable resources, the BCP ensures that the organization can maintain continuity and swiftly address any challenges that arise, safeguarding its operations and community support initiatives.

Goal
The organization required a multi-million dollar grant program to facilitate community broadband initiatives nationwide, incorporating several core requirements. This included the capability to collaborate with a secondary primary partner and the creation of a flexible operational framework. The program needed to be designed, implemented, and managed for at least a year, with the possibility of extending beyond that period. Additionally, the plan included a seamless transition of program responsibilities to internal staff, ensuring sustainability and continuity of the broadband initiatives long-term.

Challenge
The challenge was to design a comprehensive grant program from the ground up, encompassing the creation of an overall framework, system implementation, and governance structures. This program needed to function effectively and seamlessly within the existing organizational culture and operations. The selected system needed to support grant application portals, automated workflows, and tracking and reporting tools, all integrated with current financial and operational systems to ensure continuity and efficiency. Furthermore, a key objective was to drive a low-cost, robust system capable of rapid expansion, ensuring the program could handle increased grant volumes and future enhancements without significant additional costs. Additionally, robust governance structures were essential to ensure program integrity and compliance. Overall the grant program would need to be sustainable and scalable, effectively supporting the organization's goals.

Solution

Result
We successfully designed, implemented, and managed a grant program for the client, overseeing the distribution of over $2 million in grant funds through multiple rounds, in partnership with a national bank. The program was executed across a broad national geographic area, accommodating diverse grantees and their varied needs, all aligned with the client's goal of expanding broadband internet access to underserved communities. This comprehensive approach ensured effective fund allocation, addressing specific regional challenges and fostering significant progress in bridging the digital divide.

Goal
Provided strategic, operational, and process advisory services to support the client's organizational realignment, aimed at driving greater efficiency and effectiveness. This involves evaluating and optimizing how functions are performed, streamlining processes, and identifying opportunities for improvement. Additionally, we assess specific roles and skill sets to ensure that the right talents are in place to meet the organization's goals. Our comprehensive approach includes developing tailored strategies to enhance operational workflows, implementing best practices, and providing ongoing support to facilitate a smooth transition and sustained performance improvements.

Challenge
The client faced a critical need to reassess their operational structure, prompted by the challenges posed by the Covid-19 epidemic. Traditionally, their operations heavily relied on onsite collaborations, extensive national and global travel to engage with partners, and the use of events, all of which became severely restricted due to pandemic-related restrictions. Senior leadership recognized this period as an opportunity to evaluate whether there were more effective ways of operating that could drive greater value while reducing operational costs. This reassessment involved exploring alternative modes of collaboration such as virtual meetings and remote work, leveraging technology to maintain partnerships and engagement without the need for extensive travel and in-person events. The goal was to adapt their operational model to be more resilient and cost-effective in a rapidly changing environment, ensuring continued effectiveness in achieving their organizational objectives.

Solution

• Perform a Skillset utilization analysis to determine allocation and gaps in existing skillset
• Perform a time study analysis for every staff member to determine how time is spent working on job and other functional activities
• Identify and analyze how key factors impact level of effort staff members dedicate to specific activities to address potential process inefficiencies

Result
The resource work activity analysis conducted on the collective organization and individual staff members provided a comprehensive overview of how time and resources were allocated across key categories such as projects, reporting, planning, and training. It revealed insights into the extent to which individual staff members engaged in collaborative efforts with other teams versus focusing on their core individual activities and ad hoc tasks. This analysis enabled management to swiftly identify any misalignments within the organization, as well as areas that were either underutilized or potentially overburdened. By pinpointing these dynamics, management could make informed decisions to optimize resource allocation, enhance efficiency, and better support organizational goals, ultimately fostering a more streamlined and effective operational environment.

Goal
Engagement was to create a methodology and framework for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the Indigenous Connectivity Summit, an annual event dedicated to addressing internet connectivity challenges specific to tribal communities. This framework aimed to establish systematic and standardized reporting mechanisms that would assess various aspects of the event's outcomes, participant satisfaction, and overall impact. By capturing comprehensive data through this evaluation process, the framework would not only support continuous improvement of future events but also provide robust metrics and insights that could be leveraged to attract and secure funding from stakeholders and funders interested in advancing digital inclusion efforts for Indigenous communities. This strategic approach aimed to ensure that the Summit not only met its immediate objectives but also contributed substantively to ongoing efforts to enhance internet connectivity and digital equity for tribal nations.

Challenge
Develop a comprehensive approach to evaluate the Indigenous Connectivity Summit to demonstrate its effectiveness and utility. Central to this was identifying and defining the data requirements that would translate into actionable metrics. These metrics were essential not only for improving future events but also for providing potential funders with a clear, quantifiable understanding of the event's impact on the participant community. The data requirements needed to capture various dimensions of the event, such as participant engagement, satisfaction, and the tangible benefits experienced by the communities as a result of the Summit. By focusing on these actionable metrics, the framework aimed to demonstrate the event's value and effectiveness in a transparent and measurable way, thus enhancing its appeal to current and prospective funders.

Solution

• Develop an overall framework that provided context and objectives of the event and how they would be measured to either show success or required areas of improvement
• Development of survey template, process & procedures to execute and adjust survey
• Guide and training of both the framework, methodology, tools and templates associated with the evaluation.

Result
Along with the overall framework, another critical factor included the tools, templates, and methodology to operationalize the collection, analysis, and reporting of event data. This involved creating user-friendly surveys and feedback forms designed to maximize participant response rates without detracting from their event experience. Ensuring high-quality data collection required standardizing processes to maintain data integrity and consistency, allowing for reliable year-over-year comparisons. The framework also needed to include detailed guidelines and training for event staff on how to implement these data collection methods effectively. By providing a systematic approach to gathering and analyzing feedback, the evaluation framework ensured that the Summit could continually refine its strategies, demonstrate its impact compellingly to funders, and ultimately achieve its goal of improving internet connectivity for tribal communities.

Goal
Collaborate with the primary client in project managing the renegotiations with one of their key vendors, ensuring that the necessary services, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and financial parameters were clearly defined and agreed upon to the satisfaction of both parties. This involved thorough preparation, strategic negotiation, and effective communication to align the vendor's offerings with the client's operational needs and budgetary constraints. The objective was to secure a mutually beneficial agreement that enhanced service delivery, ensured accountability through robust SLAs, and optimized financial terms to support the client's long-term business objectives.

Challenge
The challenge of working and collaborating across multiple divisions, from operations to legal, required a deep understanding of how various processes and operations functioned within the organization. This understanding was crucial to effectively negotiate and develop Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that were expected to endure throughout the five-year agreement. Each division had unique requirements and expectations, necessitating thorough communication and coordination to ensure that all perspectives were considered. The operations team provided insights into daily workflows and essential service needs, while the legal team ensured that the terms and conditions were compliant and safeguarded the organization's interests. Aligning these diverse inputs into a cohesive negotiation strategy was critical for establishing SLAs that were comprehensive, realistic, and sustainable.

Solution

• Work with key operational divisions to access key process control steps that would be used to develop and update SLA requirements
• Work with key legal personnel to translate operational requirements and language to contractual legal conditions
• Work with vendor negotiation team to prioritize and resolve potential pain points and roadblocks as part of negotiations
• Work with senior management on both sides to find mutually beneficial incentives to ensure contract negotiation milestones were met

Result
By applying project and change management fundamentals to the negotiation process, the client achieved over $20 million in contracted savings. This structured approach ensured that all aspects of the negotiation were meticulously planned, monitored, and executed, fostering clear communication and effective problem-solving. The result was a set of more robust contracts that provided greater clarity, transparency, and accountability for all parties involved. Both the client and the vendor left the negotiations satisfied, with agreements that not only met their immediate needs but also established a solid foundation for their long-term partnership.

Goal
The goal was to develop a comprehensive Third-Party Risk Management program for the client's Procurement Organization, encompassing the creation of detailed policies, processes, and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. This program aimed to systematically identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with third-party relationships, ensuring that all procurement activities were conducted with a high level of due diligence and compliance. By establishing a robust framework, the program sought to enhance the organization's ability to manage vendor risks proactively, safeguard operational integrity, and foster stronger, more secure partnerships with vendors.

Challenge
The challenge was twofold: first, to improve the current operational execution of various Third Party Oversight management and procurement activities within the organization; and second, to develop a mid to long-term strategic roadmap for systematically addressing ongoing operational risk controls in these areas. Enhancing the execution of these activities required a thorough assessment of existing processes, identification of inefficiencies, and implementation of best practices to streamline operations. The goal was to ensure that the organization could manage third-party relationships more effectively, minimizing risks and maximizing value from procurement activities.

Solution

• Work with various divisions across company to capture existing processes as it relates to engaging third party services and products
• Identify weaknesses in process both from a control and operational perspective
• Design and develop a more integrated process based on vendor engagement life cycle from solicitation through offboarding including all tools, templates, processes and procedures to execute.

Result
Specifically, the services provided focused on five main workstream activities. These included: Risk Framework Assessment & Enhancement, which aimed to strengthen the identification and management of third-party risks; Governance Framework Assessment & Enhancement, to ensure robust oversight and accountability; Reporting and Analytics Development, to improve visibility and data-driven decision-making; Exam/Audit Finding Mitigation Support, to address and resolve any compliance issues; and Program Development Change Implementation, to ensure that changes were effectively integrated into the organization. Additionally, the project involved developing an Operating Model and defining Business As Usual (BAU) activities, ensuring that the new processes and controls became part of the organization’s regular operations with an adaptable procurement and third-party oversight function, capable of managing current challenges and anticipating future risks.

Goal
Company no longer had visibility or control into their supply chain due to several years of aggressive expansion. The objective was to go in and assess where there were deficiencies and gaps along the entire supply chain and determine a short, mid and long term solution to realign and re-organize the entire supply chain.

Challenge
Due to poor controls and intensive market growth company had lost inventory control in their supply chain to such a degree that it had become a material gap weakness. Objective was to not only assess the current state of supply chain operations, but provide a short, medium and long term solution for redesigning all E2E processes associated with the supply chain.

Solution

• Observe and provide process assessment on the current operational state at key warehouses, including identifying gaps/weaknesses and providing mitigating solutions
• Develop and implement national standardized warehouse management processes including demanding planning, inventory control, spares & RMA, warehouse support center, and KPI metrics
• Assess and provide 3PL partner recommendation to provide company with E2E supply chain logistic support
• Developed transition plan, documentation and process, for migrating users from previous methodology to new methodology including developing and delivering training material.

Result
Completed full process assessment review and implemented new warehouse controls and processes nationally. Warehouse management methodology and infrastructure implemented to allow company to successfully manage market expansion plans. Provided senior management with detailed roadmap plan for long term solution to further reduce inventory management costs, maintain control and leverage more flexibility.

Goal
To establish an 8 week leadtime for product delivery After Receipt of Order (ARO) for over 90% of potential system configurations from the typical 12 – 16 week ARO.

Challenge
Lead Operational team in developing and implementing a strategy that would support the supply chain with lean manufacturing principles and align with “pull” process to create an overall integrated platform strategy that met an 8-week ARO.

Solution

• Develop and implement an integrated “pull” process for high “A” dollar parts by designing inventory safety protocol process to properly balance inventory flow
• Designed and developed process to measure and control material needed for over 3000 (B level) parts. Process was designed to reduce supply chain inefficiencies and maintain inventory control with management visibility.
• Provided management an in-depth analysis of the inefficiencies surrounding the core groups affected by the supply chain: warehousing, buyer/planners, and accounting.

Result

• Successfully allowed company to balance inventory costs with build flexibility to meet its 8 week ARO target for 90% of system configurations.
• Greater visibility and accountability along entire supply chain
• Identified potential future improvements that would allow company to make further savings by shifting certain operations and inventory to 3PL providers.

Goal
Replace 20-year legacy Conference Booking System with a new web-based booking system.

Challenge
Implement a new 3rd party booking system to replace existing legacy system. The legacy system spanned globally over 5 regions, with each having slowly been customized to fit that specific region’s needs. Implementation of new system required that all associated operations had to be standardized for maximum effectiveness.

Solution

• Map out all existing operational and business processes to understand key similarities and differences across each region and office.
• Use developed “As Is” process maps to develop new “To Be” maps that would bring standardized processes globally
• Customize, install, test new booking system.
• Established global call center operations in Bangalore and Salt Lake City to manage enhanced customer service features
• Develop & execute training and communication for new processes and software system for all key users
• Provide extensive outreach and implement hotline/help desk for end users to answer end user questions during transition period

Result

• Fully implemented new booking system for over 30+ office across 3 regions globally
• End User clients received enhanced user enabled and personalized customer service offering that streamlined operations.

Goal
Review, develop and implement new global/local service framework for Hospitality Operations, allowing the group to bring more consistent service offerings to end users.

Challenge
Utilizing new global booking system and enhanced service operations as leverage to develop and lead new global operational framework to better align various divisional operational groups (25 operational groups); including new service level model, staffing model, KPI’s and communications strategy.

Solution

• Develop vision, strategy and development plan for Hospitality Operations group
• Review all existing operational areas for staffing alignment, established SLA’s and job descriptions for both internal and vendor supported activities
• Realign and develop transition plan to gradually shift activities and roles to better align with new vision and strategy
• Develop core Training Program and tools for continuous improvement and training & education of all Hospitality Operations staff

Result

• Strategic implementation map outlining how Hospitality Operations will transition from existing form to new framework
• Better alignment and communications across all groups and functions within the group that allowed clear understanding by all individuals of roles & responsibilities
• Training program and tools created that will allow for the continuous improvement and growth of the group

Goal
Redesign current processes for main manufacturing center as part of the greater company transition from a traditional MRP based system to an ERP based system.

Challenge
Review all existing order management, forecasting and shop floor processes to determine what changes would be required as part of the ERP replacement.

Solution

• Create process maps of all existing processes for key manufacturing functions and areas
• Work with ERP implementation team to determine new processes required to replace existing process
• Develop training material and process documentation outlining new processes
• Provide training and post-implementation support after launch of new ERP system

Result
Successfully transitioned company from MRP based system and process to ERP based system and process.

Goal
Facilitate and support company PMO team in the implementation of PeopleSoft ERP implementation.

Challenge
Ensure that PMO team successfully managed and guided company in the implementation of Peoplesoft 8.9 system including managing against budget and timeline while identifying potential gaps and risks.

Solution

• Provide general guidance and support for implementation efforts, including project analysis, and end-to-end process review
• Provide critical path analysis, gap analysis and mitigation solutions for major modules.
• Provided quality assurance review of overall program status in relation to meeting Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Result
PMO was successful in leading company divisions through ERP implementation with minimal disruption to day-to-day activities

Goal
Develop multi-year Operating Plan and methodology that would be the guide to how the organization would execute against established vision and strategic initiatives.

Challenge
Work with executive leadership to create a cohesive Operating Plan that incorporates all key initiatives from Marketing, Product Management and Business Development. Create a framework and methodology that would provide the processes to drive strategic alignment within the organization.

Solution

• Provide overall PM guidance and support for multiple projects throughout the organization.
• Develop a set of key strategic and key performance metrics for new business development and strategic alliances.
• Support upper management in decision-making processes based on operational and financial trending, qualitative modeling and strategic alignment relevance.
• Work with senior management in developing continuous improvement, EVM and SWOT efforts within the organization.
• Provided direct analytical and operational support for the Marketing division to ensure strategic and financial alignment of marketing activities with business development initiatives.

Result
Developed framework and methodology to allow executive leadership and senior management to execute and monitor a multi-year Operating Plan to execute desired strategic goals and drive organization’s vision.

Goal
To process map the entire parking payment process from parking customer receiving parking ticket to deposit or credit transaction to understand if there were any gaps that could lead to control issues.

Challenge
MWAA had never completed an operational assessment had never been completed on parking operations to understand how all different aspects worked together, people, systems and process that represented over $70 MM of revenue annually.

Solution

• Determine all key parking operational activities based on payment transaction and oversight scope
• Perform and capture a Level 3 process map for every aspect of each identified parking activity including process step, systems and individuals in contact
• Perform scenario analysis to stress test how well the process, systems and people react to various situations and if enough controls were in place to ensure payment security

Result

• Client now had a full operational mapping of parking payment operations including applicable systems and resource allocation
• Client had a full assessment review of potential control gaps which could then be used to determine if necessary investment was necessary to mitigate.

Goal
Work with company’s Technology Division to institute enterprise-wide solutions address material weakness gaps to Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes identified during a SOX audit.

Challenge
Company’s SDLC program & processes were deemed to have material weaknesses as a finding from a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) review. Due to this the entire SLDC process needed to reviewed to create new processes that provided better controls to address the material gaps.

Solution

• Designed and implemented new processes and artifacts to increase governance control framework for software development lifecycle projects.
• Defined and integrated requirements from all groups under Operations & Technology to create a cohesive, standardized implementation plan for project planning.
• Developed transition plan, documentation and process, for migrating users from previous methodology to new methodology including developing and delivering training material.

Result
Technology Division successfully implemented new and improved SDLC methodology that enhanced decision making and offered greater control points for software program/project development. This addressed any concerns that were identified as part of the SOX audit.

Goal
To create an in-house vendor management system that would be the platform to manage vendors used by leading financial services firm globally.

Challenge
Design of the system required to meet wide range of internal and regulatory stakeholders and flexible enough to evolve as the firm’s vendor management program evolved. System design, development and deployment were constrained by tight regulatory deadlines and limited development resources.

Solution

• Develop an ongoing process to provide continuous loop of requirements, development design and feedback between key stakeholders, Vendor Management Office and development team.
• Develop framework for continuous design improvement and requirements/development pipeline.
• Develop framework and processes for system implementation and enhancements that included communication of program, process and system changes, training and introduction of basic project management structure and disciplines.

Result

• Sustainable system development framework and process that allows the Vendor Management Office to continuously capture ongoing requirement changes and translate them to system design improvements.
• Provide the foundation for training and development for various firm users of the system on a global scale.