i3Works News & Articles – i3Works Company Updates

Fast Track Consultancy: A Day in the Life

by Freddie Stephenson

What does a fast track consultant (FTC) do exactly? Well, that depends. Depends on what? Predominately, it depends on what projects and clients you are working with, and problems you are looking to solve.

For the past few months, I have been working with two of i3’s clients in our Business Change and Transformation service line. For one client in central government, I am the day-to-day manager for a work package. For the other client, my primary role as a RAID manager for a P3M capability improvement programme within the rail sector.

Announcing our latest charities of choice

We are proud to announce our charity commitments for the next two years.

We have become a corporate Jubilee Partner of The Tree Council: a charity and umbrella body with a mission to care for trees, and official delivery partner of The Queen’s Green Canopy. The Jubilee Partner initiative is a way for companies to support her majesty’s commitment to encourage people plant trees for her platinum jubilee.

We are also supporting Blueprint For All, formerly the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, as a corporate partner. The charity works with disadvantaged young people and communities to help build a future where talent is respected and nurtured irrespective of where it comes from.

The sum of our parts

by Nora Harris, head of Assurance

One of the aspects of working at i3Works that I’m most proud of is that we work as a consultancy, but operate as a family – and this includes our relationships with clients and partners.

Since 2019, I’ve been consulting in Defence Digital, part of the Ministry of Defence, working with a fantastic group of people with a distinct “one team” ethos. i3Works has more than 20 consultants and partners working across eight business areas supporting the development of the Portfolio Integration Office to deliver maturity gains in project controls.

Digital Transformation: The Discomfort is The Point

by James Marwood, head of Business Change and Transformation

Digital transformation is the topic of the moment. Across the public and private sectors, organisations are looking to build and exploit new capabilities and increase the value of existing ones by increasing the take-up and use of digital, data, and technology. Usually, these are focused on improved interactions (with users, citizens, customers, employees, and suppliers), on better understanding and responsiveness to market or environmental shifts, and on driving improved collaboration in internal operations. These are all desirable goals, and especially for the providers of our essential public services who are dealing with significant challenges from volatile demand, a need to be ever more cost-effective and able to deal with effects of major events such as COVID, Brexit and an ageing population.

An offer you can’t refuse?

Are you confident in the quality of your own, or your MSP’s, ITIL- aligned services?

Put them to the test, free of charge.

As the first Axelos consulting partner in the UK to offer ITIL Maturity Model assessments, we would like to invite you to register your interest for us to perform an objective assessment of your service management capability and the maturity of your service value system.

We will be offering free-of-charge ITIL maturity assessments to two random organisations who register an interest, which only i3Works is currently listed to provide.

The Importance of Top-Down Communication

by Alice Greswold, second-year fast track consultant

At i3Works, we value the importance of time. As Covid-19 has shifted our organisation to favour remote working, our calendars can get inundated with back-to-back meetings, making it increasingly hard to fit actioned work in.

I was introduced to top-down communication by our head of Change and Transformation James Marwood during the FTC/PCA Charity Project 2021 as a way to streamline monthly reports that were digressing away from the relevant points and massively overrunning. After that piece of advice, our reports were to the point, timely and succinct. Furthermore, I’ve also found it an important written and verbal communication tool in all my client placements to date.

Transferring skills from academia to consultancy

by Mary Goodwin-Trotman, fast-track consultant

Making a career change is often a stressful time but having been on the Fast-Track Consultancy Programme at i3Works for nine months, the move has been a very positive one. I have already had the opportunity to work on some interesting client projects as well as delivering a successful virtual event for the Genesis Trust. On top of this, I have noticed that many of the transferable skills from my PhD have helped me in the roles I have undertaken to date.

Guaranteed quality, and that’s official

Need proof that we do our utmost to provide the best service for our clients? You got it.

Certified by Socotec, ISO 9001 accredits our quality management system (QMS) and demonstrates our commitment to:

Exceeding customer expectations and providing the highest quality service possible. We aim for 100% customer satisfaction 100% of the time
Conforming to all customer, contractual, regulatory and statutory requirements
Delivering demonstrable value to our customer with a strong focus on pragmatism, value for money and linking output to strategic needs
Training the next generation of P3M Professionals, ensuring they have all the tools and support to gain the qualifications and experience they need to flourish and bring value to future engagements
Blending our in-house expertise with world class associate practitioners, enabling us to provide the ideal team for every assignment, every time.
Establishing, implementing and maintaining a Quality Management System that satisfies ISO 9001:2015 standards
Provide the resources to continually improve our Quality Management System, creating a higher standard of service for our customers
Ensuring all employees are made aware of the quality policy, understand the importance of the Quality Management System and recognise their responsibility to uphold the i3Works quality standards

SMEs: The pick and mix alternative

by Gary Gerrard, marketing and communications consultant

Forrest Gump spoke of life being like a box of chocolates. Admittedly, he goes on to say that you never know what you’re going to get, which suggests that he never bothered looking at the card or on the side of the box that clearly identifies what all the chocolates are.

However, ignoring the erroneous reasoning, the first part of his metaphor stands: Life is like a box of chocolates. You have your favourites, the ones that you’re happy to give away, and the ones that get left there until they’re thrown, still stuck in the box, into the recycling.

Archives to assurance

Six months into i3Works PhD graduate scheme

by Freddie Stephenson

After having passed my viva in late January 2020, the irony certainly wasn’t lost on me when I emerged into a job market that was swiftly ravaged by a global pandemic. I had spent years researching the history of health and medicine in the British Empire for my PhD, spending much of my time uncovering the effects of another pandemic on everyday life. Cue Peter Lamborn Wilson’s famous adage that those who study history are doomed to watch others repeat it.

Whatever the case, it wasn’t great timing. Fortunately, I was able to make ends meet by working as a freelance content writer, while (im)patiently waiting for the right career move to come along.