Bio UK

Project and Portfolio Management Advisory Services

Our Project and Portfolio Management Advisory Services help organisations develop, mature and adopt best practice in project and programme governance and strategic portfolio management, enabling them to plan and deliver cloud services and digital transformation within a structured framework. This achieves expected improvements in customer service, operational effectiveness and ROI.

Features

• Modular scope, from basic project management to full portfolio governance
• Flexible approach, from “Rapid Insight” reviews to “Deep Dive” transformation
• Waterfall, Agile and Hybrid methodologies, Mode 1 / Mode 2
• Full project lifecycle; business case, design, delivery and service transition
• Structured Portfolio frameworks, linking strategic planning to practical delivery
• Fully integrated resource planning and management, driving up productivity
• Business outcomes, adoption and ROI focussed, not just technical milestones
• Leveraging Bio’s IPR and library of processes and documentation
• Independent assessment and recovery of live in-flight projects/portfolio
• Ongoing periodic health-checks and support to help embed sustainable change

Benefits

• Stems time and budget over-run, assuring project and portfolio ROI
• Proven processes adapted to customer environments, leveraging Bio’s experience
• Consulting based on practical operational experience, not just textbook/theory
• Transformation driven by action-oriented execution plans and hands-on support
• Business decision-making empowered by creation of insightful Management Information/Dashboards
• Bringing insight from working with cloud providers, telcos and end-users
• Familiarity with public sector reduces onboarding, accelerating Bio’s impact
• Highly cost-effective phased consulting, prioritises investment for optimal return
• Vendor and system agnostic, ensuring impartial, objective advice
• Bio’s expertise and practical experience accelerates operational capability development

£45.00 to £175.00 a unit an hour

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 gcloud@bio.uk.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

253892000075114

Contact

Sales Team
0845 003 9092
gcloud@bio.uk.com

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: Many organisations look to drive service transformation and cost efficiencies through cloud hosting or software services, but fail to achieve expected operational and customer service benefits or ROI because of capability shortfalls in how they:; ; - Prioritise and govern their portfolio of investments; ; - Align investments to strategy; ; - Plan and manage project delivery; ; - Plan for how technology will be adopted and operated in life.; ; Our Advisory Services develop these fundamental organisational planning and governance capabilities. We assess current project and portfolio capabilities from a people/process/technology perspective and benchmark these against our own reference models. We design practical target frameworks to resolve identified gaps, and work within organisations to implement and embed sustainable processes ensuring effective planning and delivery of digital and cloud transformation.; ; Our expertise comes from both theoretical and practical experience of delivering projects ourselves; managing complex portfolios through their lifecycle from business case, through design and delivery, to live service and user adoption.; ; In addition to providing governance frameworks that empower organisations to plan and implement cloud solutions, we are also able to independently and impartially review in-flight projects, and where appropriate, recommend remedial actions or take over those projects to bring them back on track.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: Bio’s Advisory Services are specifically aimed at developing the skills and capability of an organisation’s people, processes and systems, by assessing maturity against an objective model, comparing this to best practice for managing digital transformation and cloud migration projects, and helping those organisations and individuals move up the maturity scale.; ; Formal training in project and portfolio management can be provided on a catalogue or bespoke basis. However, organisations frequently implement, embed and sustain change more effectively through “hands on” operational engagement with Bio; we can share practical “real world” experience rather than “textbook theory”. These learning and development assignments are structured around specific processes or operational areas, and involve “on the job” coaching, mentoring and knowledge sharing, whilst tracking improvement in quality and output of the in-house teams.; ; We also provide periodic health-check and audit services, ensuring the skills and capabilities we developed are maintained and evolve on a “continuous improvement” basis.; ; As an example, an Acute Health Trust handed over responsibility for running their Project and Portfolio Management Office to Bio on an interim basis so we could provide additional skills and capacity to operate it effectively day-to-day whilst improving processes and maturity from the inside.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: Bio’s Advisory Services help buyers with cloud migration, not by providing technical or service architecture, but by building the necessary organisational portfolio and project governance capability to effectively plan, execute and realise the benefits of successful cloud and digital transformation programmes.; ; We do this by:; ; - Exploring existing portfolio and project governance capability; ; - Baselining this against our best practice models, spanning Agile, Waterfall and Hybrid, leveraging our practical experience with other organisations; ; - Defining a “target state” for portfolio and project governance maturity, including “gap analysis”; ; - Developing, with in-house teams, a detailed, pragmatic and executable action plan to bring the governance framework, including people, process and technology, up to the necessary standard to successfully deliver cloud migration; - Embedding our subject matter experts within the organisation to support customers through the operational and cultural change process; ; - Where necessary, providing operational project and programme management resources to provide assurance, recovery or resource “top-up”.; ; For example, we were engaged by a Local Authority to review their strategic portfolio planning and project governance approach, using a tailored framework to effectively deliver strategic digital transformation and cloud adoption plans. We have similarly supported two Health Trusts in improving portfolio governance.
• 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: In our experience, many organisations focus too heavily on the technology aspects of Cloud migration, without sufficient attention to detail on:; ; - Defining clear and measurable outcomes; ; - Creating realistic delivery plans; ; - Planning user adoption; ; - Forecasting and managing resources; ; - Managing dependencies between initiatives.; ; Consequently, they rarely realise all of the expected benefits.; ; Bio’s Portfolio and Project Advisory Services help buyers overcome these issues and achieve quality assurance and performance testing in three ways:; ; 1. Helping them build the governance capabilities (people, process and systems) within their own organisations that are necessary to successfully manage portfolios of Mode 1 and Mode 2 projects to deliver clearly defined business outcomes and expectations of time, cost and quality; ; 2. Providing peer review on delivery plans, test plans and quality assurance measurements and reports; ; 3. Independently and impartially reviewing the status and health of change portfolios, and/or individual projects within those portfolios, making recommendations on where initiatives are on track, where remedial action is needed, and defining recovery plans.; ; Additionally, through our “Project and Portfolio Management as a Service”, we are able to directly provide additional operational resources as needed to “top up” in-house resources and bring projects back on track.

Security testing

• Security services: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: No

Service scope

• Service constraints: Bio’s core business helps our customers manage digital transformation and business change, from small projects through to complex, multi-faceted programmes.; ; Our service portfolio is modular, flexible, and unconstrained. It includes operational and consulting services across:; ; - Business case management; ; - Project and programme management; ; - Strategic portfolio management; ; - Service transition and service design; ; - Adoption and success planning; ; - Business change management; ; - Product lifecycle management.; ; The scope of specific engagements are tailored to each customer’s requirements and documented as a baseline reference.; ; We are technology and vendor agnostic, complementing service providers and end users alike.

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Many of our customers choose to undergo our engagements partly using remote resources, with collaboration through email, phone, video and instant messaging, although the nature of our advisory engagements can necessitate a proportion of face-to-face activity.; ; We typically respond to emails relating to live engagements within one hour or less during normal working hours.; ; We respond to non-project requests within four hours or less.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Support levels: Through our modular Portfolio and Project Advisory Services, we tailor support services to meet customers’ specific requirements.; ; With regard to Project Management Advisory, this includes:; ; - Advising on business case creation; ; - Providing subject matter expertise into solution design and vendor selection processes; ; - Project governance from “kick-off” to closedown; ; - Planning and managing user adoption; ; - Managing ongoing product lifecycles.; ; We can also advise on end-to-end programme management across multiple workstreams, including those delivered by in-house resources and third parties.; ; We provide full portfolio management advisory services, improving the tracking and managing of requirements at a strategic level as they come into the demand pipeline, monitoring health, dependencies and key risks across all live projects, tracking benefits realisation, and managing forward forecasting and planning of resources.; ; We also provide “peer review” and quality assurance of plans, documentation and live projects and portfolios.; ; All of these capabilities can be delivered as “advisory services” (helping to evolve and improve customers’ own in-house teams and processes), but we also have parallel “operational services” (undertaking tasks and activities on behalf of our customer) which can top up in-house capacity and capability.; ; Hourly rates vary from £45 to £175 excluding VAT, depending on scope.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • Annual external online Data Protection and Cyber Security awareness training
  • Screening to SC level for specific client engagement

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

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

  Fighting climate change

  As an eco-conscious organisation, Bio is committed to minimising/reducing the total number of GHGs (greenhouse gases) it produces through its day-to-day operations and fully supports the UK Government’s Carbon Reduction Policy and its ambitions to achieve carbon net zero by 2050.; ; Cloud services have an extremely low carbon footprint and, by adopting a fully cloud based strategy, Bio has moved away from costly, inefficient legacy IT infrastructure; as a result our legacy servers and associated equipment racks have been decommissioned. This enables the organisation to innovate and scale long-term, but also forms a key part of our Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity strategy. We actively promote the use of cloud-based tooling and technologies (including Microsoft Teams) to reduce travel needs and minimise carbon emissions, and facilitate quicker, more productive and collaborative meetings with key stakeholders. As a result, environmental sustainability is built into the delivery of our G-Cloud services, eliminating hardware, paper, printers and associated materials. We also make use of electronic signatures for all contractual documentation – both customer facing and internal – which further reduces use of printing and paper, removes the requirement for physical document storage, and shortens the time and effort required by all parties to achieve contractual completion. ; ; Bio’s employees are all home-based and deliver the majority of services remotely and on-line. As a result, Bio has no permanent office space, and minimal employee travel other than that necessary to meet with customers for “on-site” commitments or essential internal workshops for goals that cannot feasibly be achieved remotely. This further minimises our environmental impact, and also reduces operational costs.; ; We also work with our customers to help them to further develop their own sustainability strategies to achieve a net zero carbon footprint through their business processes and in the services they supply.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Bio is an SME service provider and is therefore acutely aware of the negative impacts that COVID-19 has had on smaller businesses and the UK economy. Consequently, we’re fully committed to supporting the UK Government’s recovery efforts; to help businesses and communities manage and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and to create employment, re-training and return to work opportunities.; ; In the context of COVID-19, Bio has invested heavily in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of its workforce, implementing effective social distancing, remote and flexible working arrangements. All employees were provided additional equipment (e.g. monitors, keyboard and mouse, etc.) to support home working and given a £250 budget to purchase any items such as office furniture that could further improve their working conditions and comfort. This approach has enabled employees who are personally affected, or have family members, within vulnerable groups, to continue working and delivering services to our customers whilst effectively shielding.; ; A number of Bio’s services have been used by its customers to directly assist them in their own COVID recovery strategies. For example, the Enterprise Portfolio Review Service has been used by a Local Authority to assess planned activities and re-prioritise effort to focus on projects essential to underpin COVID recovery, and take into account the impact of key resource absences. We also had a team of PMO and Project Management resources supporting the delivery of a “Build Back Better” strategic COVID-19 recovery and operational improvement programme for a major NHS Trust.; ; To further support the local communities in which we operate recover from COVID-19, Bio also makes a substantial donation each quarter to a charity, with a different charity nominated by employees each quarter.

  Tackling economic inequality

  A substantial proportion of Bio’s employees and management team live in the North West, North East and Yorkshire, and as such, Bio recognises and understands the importance of tackling economic inequality and levelling up the UK.; ; To support relevant sector-related skills growth, Bio continues to recruit its workforce from the local areas in which we operate. Our inclusive and accessible recruitment practices and homeworking model provide equality of opportunity for disadvantaged and/or disabled people into employment. Where possible, we will also provide support to staff for educational attainment relevant to their role and future aspirations, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications. However we also recognise the importance of “on the job” coaching and mentoring alongside formal training in order to develop the capability, experience and confidence of our people and enable then to progress their careers with Bio. We have multiple examples of taking on employees in more junior roles and progressing them into higher capability positions. Operating an in-house “talent pipeline” in this way not only enables us to continue offering opportunities to less experienced individuals, it also provides benefits to our business, and in turn, our customers, in terms of increased loyalty, job satisfaction and reduced attrition.; ; Further, we fully support flexible working, with many of our employees working flexible hours during the day, and, in many cases, 4-day weeks. This enables individuals to balance employment with personal commitments such as childcare, helping to ensure potential employees are not excluded from the workforce if not able to work within traditional patterns. This flexibility helps tackle economic inequality, but also brings value to Bio and our customers by widening the available pool of talent and experience that we can recruit into our business and deploy into customer operations.

  Equal opportunity

  Bio is fully committed to breaking down barriers, eliminating discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities and access for all, regardless of their protected characteristics, including disabled people. We embed these values in our business policies and practices across all areas of employment; for example, recruitment, training, career development and promotion.; ; Our inclusive and accessible recruitment practices provide equality of opportunity for disabled people into employment. For example, by publishing job advertisements that avoid language which might deter people with disabilities from applying, we will help secure more jobs for disabled people in our workforce. We also provide reasonable adjustments and additional support for employees with physical, sensory and hidden disabilities, such as purchasing specialist equipment including supportive chairs and standing desks.; ; To continually identify and tackle inequality in employment, skills and pay, we monitor our workforce to ensure it proportionately reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate. For example, over 50% of Bio’s workforce, (including management roles) are female. We actively recruit across all age groups; and our commitment in this respect is reflected in the wide range of ages across our employees at all levels. We undertake equal pay audits, and also have a number of robust measures in place to support in-work progression and help people in our workforce to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to Bio’s service portfolio. We are implementing Personal Development Plans for each employee, tailored to their career development aspirations and underpinned by personal incentive rewards.; ; Bio works closely with our upstream and downstream supply chain partners to mitigate and manage modern slavery risks through policy, governance and procurement practices. Our own pre-employment checks include appropriate due diligence activities to identify, assess, monitor and mitigate the risks of modern slavery in the delivery of services.

  Wellbeing

  At Bio, health and wellbeing are more than just enablers of employee engagement and organisational performance. We recognise that promoting awareness of/supporting health and wellbeing in the workplace and wider community can make a real difference to employees’ lives, the economy, and society as a whole. We are therefore fully committed to developing and embedding health and wellbeing in the organisation’s culture and the delivery of our services.; ; We invest heavily in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of our workforce. We have a qualified Mental Health First Aider (MHFA) within the team. Our MHFA not only responds to requests for advice and counselling from the team, they also proactively promote a wellbeing agenda, through regular e-mail hints and tips, slots at our online team meetings, and sending monthly newsletters to all employees to increase awareness/understanding of the importance of wellbeing.; ; Our management team holds regular 1-2-1 calls with team members to maintain a positive and constructive personal relationship with them such that our employees are more readily able to raise concerns and issues. Whilst we endeavour to reduce travel under our climate change agenda, we recognise the value that face-to-face interaction can have in supporting wellbeing, building team spirit and mitigating the risk of isolation. With this in mind, we hold “all hands” company update meetings twice a year in a central location.; ; Bio has also invested in a Health, Wellbeing and Employee Benefits package for all employees, provided by “Reward Gateway”. This solution provides an extensive range of online tutorials, courses and advice for health and wellbeing, a confidential telephone counselling service, and discounts against a wide range of shopping and entertainment venues. Bio also provides all employees with private medical insurance.

Pricing

• Price: £45.00 to £175.00 a unit an hour
• Discount for educational organisations: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 gcloud@bio.uk.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.