Providian Trust: Tradition and Technology Essay

occupancy organisation Context/Key Business Drivers* Providian believe was headquartered in New York. In 1994 it was the 10th largest provider of fiscal and fiduciary services through its network of 216 branches. * The order has 3 divisions, allowance and Institutional leave Services, personal Trust and Trust Operations * The companys lending productsincluding residential and commercial mortgages and consumer and corporate loans. * The Company tardily slipped away from profit powerfulness and competition due to the lack of efficient business adjoines and information technology.* Michael LeBlanc the Senior VP of Trust, Investment and Treasury took the initiative to handle the get wind and mention the problems faced by Providian Trust. Le Blanc was required to not upright implement the pertly technology but also improving Providian Trusts business processes by implementing Access Plus, a major(ip) software product system developed by Select One. * With a budgeted cost of $1 8 million and lead-time of 20 months the board finally approved the pick up in April 1994. * The Key Drivers behind this new initiative was intense leaf node ask on the part of PITS division. Low operational efficiency outdated coverage systems, lack of control and discipline in the trust division all made the case quicker.Initiative Objectives/Benefits* Increase Control and Discipline- * PITS and Personal Trust Employees (front office) and Trust Operations Employees (back office) constantly blamed each other in case of any fault. The New centralized system is supposed to add-on accountability, improve transparency and force discipline across divisions. * As mentioned in the case the clients had to wait for 2 to 3 months to get a statement. To light the cycle time and improve operational efficiency was a major objective. * more or lesstimes due to inaccurate or late statements Providian had to waive or discount fees, which some times cost the company between $2 $5 M illion. * The total expected saving by implementing these changes was supposed to be inline with $9.2 million e precise year.Initiative challenges* Most of Providian trust officers had 20-30 years of bring forth in managing client relationships at a personal level and had neer used or touched a personal computer. The old nurture employees were extremely reluctant and resistant to change. The implementation of these changes required employees to become much sales and service oriented instead just answering and responding to client phone calls. * Internal Auditor Peter Storey was a strong critique of the whole process. * Todd Benari, the vice president of Trust Operations, headed the project counselling team of 15 representatives formed Le Blanc. Le Blanc had no project management experience himself so he relied heavily on his very inexperienced project management.ResultsI believe even though the logical thinking behind the project is very strong and praiseworthy, and my understa nding of the case, I am skeptical about the possible success of the initiative. * Lack of proper leadership because of LeBlanc inexperience in project management and Le Blanc seems to be the lonesome(prenominal) person driving the project. A major reason I discover was resistance of round to changes. The Human Resources poor management and awful clock did not help the cause. The decision to reduce the full time staff by 25% or 180 employees further sent a wrong signal and the resistance to change was employees way of expressing consult and emotions.* Lack of proper time and quality management has created unexpected roadblocks and hurdles. The Simulations resolve Environment (SWE) testing was originally planned to check the effectiveness of the new tool. The unrealistic initial deadlines, SWE testing never got introduced and LeBlanc was not feeling well-to-do enough. His concerns were validated since the main users where mostly technologically handicapped. Due to lack of suff icient testing it is next to impossible to understand the potential problem that they may face in the future after implementation and also to bang what kind of training is required by the employees to accept and adopt the change. LeBlanc Admits to beingness bull headed and does not listen or take into considerations and ignored concerns of PITS and Personal Trust officers.Relevance and analysisRelevance * I would like to take up the points discussed and mentioned above- * Clear Channels of Communication, communicate the changes (via the CEO) to all employees, then identify and address the reasons for resistance. * Get employees involved in the reengineering process and participate in the process and explain the need to do so? * Have realistic and possible timelines Compile a detailed project plan. Divide the project into flyspeck milestones and set realistic deadlines against each milestone. Keep track of actual board vs. planned progress on a regular basis. Implement g rim internal and external audit process to ensure quality is not compromised for the sake of meeting deadlines.Learnings-We face organizational changes in real-life. Some of these changes can be very drastic. We as managers may have an IT footing or may not have an IT background. The success of the project does not always depend on our knowledge of the change, in our case the IT substructure update it depends on a managers project management skills. There ability to track and maintain time, cost, human resource management and communication skills. .