CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd

Software Portfolio Management

Software portfolio management is a key part of CMC's P3M service line which has successfully delivered solutions across central and local government, defence, and large commercial organisations for many years. Our talented, security-cleared consultants and teams have the expertise to address challenges in diverse settings at all levels of complexity

Features

• Tailored portfolio strategy development including portfolio selection and prioritisation criteria
• MOP and best practice portfolio processes and governance arrangements
• Effective resource allocation to optimise and align with strategic objectives
• Holistic and integrated risk management at all portfolio levels
• Detailed reporting, dashboards, and metrics supported by AI technologies
• Comprehensive investment management including project cost-benefit and alignment analyses
• Strategic alignment processes driven by organisational strategy and business objectives
• Optimised support and engagement for boards, stakeholders and decision-makers
• Continuous portfolio optimisation adjusting for changing market conditions and priorities
• External view and challenge on portfolio strategy and direction

Benefits

• Portfolio designed to deliver value and objectives for individual organisations
• Robust portfolio structures that establish clear oversight, accountability and compliance
• Resource allocation that maximises ROI and value while minimising waste
• Increased portfolio resilience due to early risk identification and mitigation
• Accurate view of detail and 'big picture' enabling informed decision-making
• Project investment choices that deliver the maximum strategic contribution
• Responsive strategic optimisation aligns portfolio with evolving business priorities
• Improved senior buy-in and portfolio leadership increasing success probability
• Enhanced efficiency due to continuous portfolio review and adjustment
• Broader threat appreciation leading to improved prioritisation and delivery

£400 to £1,300 a unit a day

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at bids@consultcmc.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

214040848027885

Contact

Pippa Shimmin
01633 492 030
bids@consultcmc.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: In today’s fast-moving digital climate, organisations must manage their investments effectively and dynamically to deliver value and maintain alignment with strategic objectives and priorities. This is especially true when implementing cloud technologies and ways of working. Proper planning is essential whatever the delivery vehicle or methodology. ; ; Our integrated, holistic approach combines flexible planning with expert business analysis and change management to ensure that our delivery strategies are optimised for success in your environment and incorporate change activities from the start. Our specialists are experienced in applying multiple delivery methodologies (e.g. waterfall, agile and hybrid) at all levels, so can adapt to plan and deliver in the most efficient way incorporating the most appropriate governance and control mechanisms. They understand complex change and the priorities of digital organisations, so can develop strategically aligned business cases, the right information to inform key business decisions, and the activities and communications necessary to keep your people on-board and engaged throughout a cloud transformation. ; ; We provide advisory, delivery planning, optimisation and recovery services at portfolio, programme and project levels, including increment and sprint planning as well as traditional P3M planning and monitoring. We tailor our approach to your requirements, environment, culture and delivery needs.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: Our training services are designed to support the effective implementation of cloud software and hosting services to optimise adoption and utilisation, deliver planned benefits and maximise return on investment. ; ; During the design of your cloud programme or project, we will develop a skills framework outlining the knowledge needed by different impacted roles in your organisation for the change to be successful. We will then work with your people to build awareness of the transformation and undertake a training needs analysis to determine the gap between the skills and knowledge needed for success and that currently in place. We can subsequently help you identify and implement the best learning solutions for each group whether that be training local trainers, more formal internal training or specialist external courses. ; ; We can support the reinforcement activities needed by go-live to ensure your people are able to operate confidently in your new environment. This includes setting up communities of practice to share learning and receive expert briefings, facilitating coaching and running topical workshops. ; ; We can provide executive and team level agile coaching, delivery education (agile, waterfall and hybrid) and change management training to help sponsors, managers and teams deliver cloud projects, programmes and portfolios effectively.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: Effective management is vital to the setting up or migration of cloud services to ensure coordinated delivery and the alignment of outcomes with an organisation’s strategy and culture. Our integrated, holistic approach to service delivery ensures that we analyse the right information to allow delivery and change activities to be identified and planned alongside one another. Whether an agile, waterfall or hybrid deployment, we start with the end in mind. ; ; At the portfolio level, we can help you to define or redefine your portfolios, assess delivery maturity and put strategically aligned frameworks in place. We can support programme and project definition and setup, making sure pragmatic, robust governance and controls are implemented to support the selected delivery approach and that plans are created and monitored appropriately. We can support the setup and management of PMOs, undertake program increment or sprint planning and help to build your teams’ capabilities. We will design data migration, transition and communications activities with your people and will support them throughout the change. We ensure risks are managed effectively and that benefits are identified, measured, monitored and, ultimately, realised. We can supplement your people with our experts, working as one team, to ensure seamless, blended delivery.
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: No

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: Successful cloud transformation depends on effective quality assurance and performance testing, that is, ensuring that the right quality controls, processes and delivery capabilities are in place. Our integrated, holistic approach to service delivery means we will produce a tailored quality management approach for your cloud programme or project ensuring that the selected quality controls are appropriate to its scale. ; ; During planning, we will develop appropriate quality criteria and product descriptions to define how your requirements will be met and checked. We can support many types of quality check whatever the delivery approach, from peer and specialist reviews, to technology and software testing using different methodologies. We can reach out to leading SMEs if required and will incorporate quality activities into waterfall plans, programme increment and sprint plans, and definitions of done to ensure effective delivery coordination. We can carry out health-checks of your portfolios, programme or projects (whether agile or waterfall) to assure the quality of your delivery while also capturing lessons learned and running reviews and sprint retrospectives to identify potential improvements. ; ; Our P3M maturity assessments will help you understand the effectiveness of your delivery capabilities while our consultancy and recovery services can help resolve any issues found.

Security testing

• Security services: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: No

Service scope

• Service constraints: No specific constraints.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Support levels: We do not offer technical support services as they are not relevant to the services we provide, however CMC resources work flexibly to support the delivery of pre-agreed customer requirements; our consultants are available to speak to on the phone, via collaboration platforms or via email as our customers require. Standard availability is Monday-Friday 09.00-17.30hrs, but we do flex according to customer needs. We are used to working remotely and to adopting hybrid working. We are experts at facilitating workshops and other meetings virtually using collaboration tools e.g. MURAL, as well as face-to-face. We designate account managers who act as the primary point of customer contact, and assure quality and customer satisfaction.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Citation ISO Certification Limited
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 13/03/2024
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: All consultancy services are in scope of our ISO 27001 certification.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  CMC takes our environmental stewardship responsibilities very seriously for both our consultancy delivery and internal operations. We are proud to say that we are already a zero-carbon supplier, achieving net zero in February 2022 through emission reduction and offsetting. We will continue our emission reduction approach, and offset carbon (via the Woodland Trust) where emissions cannot be avoided.; ; As a consultancy, all of our carbon emissions lie within Scope 3 of the HMG Environmental Reporting Guidelines with the chief contributors being travel and utility consumption (home-working and office). We will reduce these as far as possible by minimising travel and face-to-face meetings while promoting public transport and car-sharing. We will ensure that appropriate environmental measures are in place for staff working in the office (e.g. automatic lighting) or at home. We will continue to invest in green IT and virtual collaboration tools to optimise remote-working. This allows us to provide our services to and collaborate with customers without the need for travel by either party. We honed these services during lockdown and now find them as effective as running workshops in physical environments. Our consultants will promote carbon emission reduction strategies across all business activities, including customer service delivery.; ; CMC has held ISO:14001 environmental management system accreditation for over 10 years and we review our environmental policy against relevant legislation, guidance and policies at least annually. Our supply chain is selected using a rigorous PQQ, evaluating supplier environmental policies, ethical manufacturing practices and use of recycled or recyclable products. Policy commitments are set for all staff to reduce environmental impact, minimise pollution, meet environmental legislation and reduce use of water whenever possible.; ; We monitor our environmental impact, including customer delivery, using UK Government and industry standard calculations. We will provide relevant reporting for G-Cloud customers as required.

  Covid-19 recovery

  We understand how difficult the current situation is with significant numbers of people still affected by the impact of COVID-19. We are proud to say that we retained all our staff throughout the pandemic and did not make anyone redundant. We additionally contracted two people within CMC who were made unemployed due to the pandemic, both of whom are now working in high growth sectors. For us, as an SME consultancy, this represents 4% of our workforce. We will continue to seek opportunities to provide employment for those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and commit to interview anyone in such a position provided they meet the minimum job criteria.; ; As a company, we have invested in the IT and collaboration tools required to optimise remote-working. This allows us to provide our collaborative services to customers through digital workplaces without the need to travel. Tools such as MURAL enhance our virtual delivery. We have honed these services during the lockdown period and find them just as effective as traditional workshops in physical environments. We will be glad to share our experience and practices with G-Cloud customers to aid their COVID-19 recovery if required.

  Tackling economic inequality

  CMC is committed to creating new jobs and skills and to increasing the diversity of our staff and supply chain to address economic inequalities, particularly in high growth areas of activity. We will recruit people for their attributes and talents and develop them to make the most of their skills, while working in partnership with other organisations to deliver cohesively as one team.; ; For each opportunity, we will determine the skills required and the availability of matching consultants. If necessary, we will advertise the role either for permanent staff or within our supply chain. We will also seek opportunities to develop more junior apprentices/consultants e.g. placing them alongside an experienced consultant.; ; Our inclusive recruitment processes utilise multiple routes to avoid conscious/unconscious bias and attract diverse candidates, including ex-offenders, and people with neurodivergent conditions and/or disabilities. We offer multiple entry points including apprentice, a graduate development pathway and experienced consultant. Our employment practices follow the Good Work Plan and we have a continuous learning culture. We support our consultants to achieve relevant professional memberships and key qualifications, supported by coaching/mentoring from our SMEs. Our Community of Practice contains our consulting toolkits and online webinars and learning.; ; Opportunities for subcontracting will typically be SMEs (including start-ups) or freelance consultants, selected from our extensive pool of trusted associates. If the best candidate is in our wider supply chain, we will select them over permanent staff. We focus not only on the capabilities, but also the cultural and values fit of our subcontractors. Ethical behaviour is mandated within our supplier contracts including compliance with relevant corporate policies and those of our clients. We are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code, and accredited Living Wage Employer.; ; We will minimise cyber security risks by maintaining our ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditations.

  Equal opportunity

  As an SME and Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) founded on highly ethical values, CMC cares about disability employment and tackling workforce inequality. Our inclusive recruitment and employment practices maintain parity across our workforce in relation to training, employment, skills and pay. Similarly, our structured approach to skills development and in-work progression ensures that all people are treated equally. These principles apply to everyone, including those with a disability or from disadvantaged or minority groups.; ; We explicitly demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive workspace and challenging attitudes towards disability through:; - Participating in the MIND Workplace Wellbeing Index.; - Adopting the Mental Health at Work Commitment and standards.; - Founder member of Neurodiversity in Business.; - Signing the Armed Forces Covenant, pledging to support Armed Forces personnel and families.; ; Our active employee-led Equality, Diversity & Inclusion group with Board-level representation monitors our commitments and employment conditions, identifying areas for improvement or awareness-raising, and implementing plans to address these.; ; We will continue to follow open, inclusive recruitment practices to attract a diverse range of applicants. We will ensure that pay, on appointment and ongoing, is based on comparable skills and experience regardless of disability or other protected characteristic. Any EOT profit-share is distributed equally regardless of role or level.; ; We seek opportunities to support skills development and in-work progression. All our consultants, including those with disabilities, receive ongoing development and recognised qualifications, both in their specialist profession, and wider to increase their consulting opportunities. Our well-established Community of Practice encourages cross-workforce learning on a range of topics for all staff. We create opportunities for staff to demonstrate skills at higher levels. Anyone meeting the criteria in our skills frameworks is promoted and paid accordingly.; ; We will gladly share our experience and practices.; ; Although not required we have issued a Modern Slavery Statement.

  Wellbeing

  CMC is committed to supporting the health and well-being of our staff and improving community integration. Our wellbeing framework is built on the Mental Health at Work Commitment standards; our employment practices are based on the Good Work Plan’s principles (including equitable pay, strong staff communications and engagement). All managers complete mental health awareness training; we have above the recommended 1:10 ratio trained Mental Health First Aiders to staff.; ; Our successful wellbeing approach centres on our employee-led Wellbeing Group with Board-level representation. This identifies areas for improvement or awareness-raising, implementing plans to address these. It runs regular events aligned to topical themes alongside our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Group, including external speakers. We will open relevant sessions to G-Cloud customers to influence wider wellbeing. We can also support customer wellbeing activities e.g. establishing a wellbeing team and champions, creating a calendar of topical events, or suggesting feedback channels.; ; Our wellbeing achievements were recognised by winning the Welsh 'Workplace Wellbeing' Award 2022. Additionally we achieved Silver 'Achieving Impact' in 2023 from our first participation in MIND's Workplace Wellbeing Index. ; ; CMC has a very strong sense of community exemplified by our well-established Community of Practice. This thriving forum encourages staff to share their expertise and creative, innovative ideas in a safe, non-judgemental space. External speakers also join us regularly. This builds confidence which supports positive wellbeing, reinforced by coaching and mentoring. We support communities through charitable donations, fundraising events and direct action e.g. mentoring support for a local school competition.; ; We have established multiple successful Communities of Practice for our clients, and will gladly support G-Cloud customers to do so. We are also experienced in creating internal, integrated communities such as user networks, super user groups and change agent networks. Our approach is collaborative throughout, working closely with users and other stakeholders.

Pricing

• Price: £400 to £1,300 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at bids@consultcmc.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.