OSI focuses on

OSI, the management support company, has restyled itself and expanded its services in a bid to differentiate itself from mainstream consultancies. It has launched a “holistic” approach to programme management and will focus on new ways of working with technology, rather than the traditional ways of addressing large-scale business reengineering programmes and IT projects.

“Most often IT infrastructure is too late – implementation takes a long time,” said Fred Evans, chief executive of OSI. “Unless organisations make change an ally and they are resilient, they are going to meet with trouble – acquisition and asset stripping are the only logical steps after that.”

OSI’s new approach follows research by Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas, whose paper, Business Change and Corporate Support Requirements, argues that large-scale BPR programmes and IT projects have failed to bring in the benefits expected by clients because they focus on cost-cutting and reorganisation, rather than new opportunities.

“The sad reality is that all the good things that are happening in organisations are not coming together,” said Coulson-Thomas, chief executive of Adaptation.

“Projects are doomed to failure because certain pieces of the jigsaw don’t fit, combined with a failure to address the people issues. Most senior management turns its back on the most exciting opportunities and fails to use consultants to make use of new technology. Firms focus on making old businesses slimmer, burning out the people physically and emotionally, forcing them to become more dependent on consultants.

“It is impossible for consultants to think holistically because the firm has parcelled out different departments to different consultancies, to avoid allowing one to take over. The ways firms recruit consultants ensure they themselves don’t have to look at all the exciting opportunities.”