RNLI

About

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the UK's fifth largest charity with an annual operating budget in excess of £110M. Efficient financial and information management is therefore critical to the successful operation of its 233 lifeboat stations in the UK and Republic of Ireland and ultimately enables the RNLI's predominately volunteer crews to save more lives at sea.

Challenge

The RNLI's lifeboat service in the UK receives no government funding and as well as raising voluntary income and running a fleet of 331 lifeboats, the RNLI is also involved in a wide range of corporate projects. These include the development of a new national training centre - The Lifeboat College, the expansion of a beach lifeguarding service in SW England and implementation of major Information System upgrades to support all areas of business including an expanding mail order sales company.

Business processes are supported by a number of major applications and the RNLI saw it as vital to improve the potential for success on every type of project by introducing a corporate project management best practice framework and to establish common ways of working across the organisation.

The RNLI's objectives also incorporated a need to enhance synergies between the organisation's business community and the IS department as well as improve project planning and control and provide more effective support for online collaborative working between teams.

Solution

The RNLI's IS department already had a set of methods for the implementation and maintenance of their systems which had been developed during the early 1990s. RNLI's Head of IS, Richard Miles, approached independent IT consultancy, NCC Group to independently review the existing methods and make recommendations to ensure that they remained fit for purpose and delivered industry best practice.

Charles Watton, Finance and IS Director, the project's internal board sponsor, also played a pivotal role in driving this programme of change from within the business and making sure that the corporate benefits were widely communicated.

After extensive research, consultation and assessment, NCC Group developed best practice approaches to meet RNLI's objectives. These are:

• Project management method: Based on PRINCE2 principles that have been developed to support the management of both IS and non-IS projects, large and small;
• Maintenance method: To cover the end to end process of managing a problem/change from initiation through to final resolution;
• Business analysis and specification: Based on structured analysis and specification principles yet also considering emerging best practice such as rapid application development and Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

Results

Miles commented: "The benefits of a corporate approach to project management are already being felt. The ease of access to the method and the clear approach takes away the mystique and fear associated with formal methods. Staff are giving their full support and coming on board and we now expect all our future projects to run much more smoothly".

"The charity market has become increasingly competitive so we have had to improve our business practices in order to enhance the success of our charity. Working with NCC Group provided an expert independent external view to best practice in the market place and has enhanced our methods and procedures."

Roger Rawlinson, Head of Consultancy, NCC Group commented: "We recognise that an increasing number of our clients in the not for profit and public-sectors are faced with major project and programme issues, and as a result are failing to realise the available benefits of a corporate approach to project management and developing information systems. Whilst there are established methods and standards in the marketplace, organisations such as the RNLI do benefit from a tailored solution, fit for purpose, addressing their own organisation's culture and environment. By using expert independent advice to assist in the process, this approach offers a real opportunity to ensure IS provides a truly effective corporate benefit."

Quote

"The charity market has become increasingly competitive so we have had to improve our business practices in order to enhance the success of our charity. Working with NCC Group provided an expert independent external view to best practice in the market place and has enhanced our methods and procedures."

Richard Miles, Head of IS, RNLI

Challenge

The RNLI's business processes are supported by a number of major applications and the organisation saw it as vital to improve the potential for success on every type of project by introducing a corporate project management best practice framework and to establish common ways of working across the organisation

Solution

The RNLI approached NCC Group to independently review the existing methods and make recommendations to ensure that they remained fit for purpose and delivered industry best practice

Results

The RNLI now benefit from a clear approach to project management, taking away the mystique and fear associated with formal methods

The RNLI are confident that all future projects will run much more smoothly