Building and Delivering a Transformation Strategy

The biggest transformation project to ever take place in higher education

Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) is one of the largest universities in the UK. With over 33,000 students, they recognised they needed to embark on a Student Journey Transformation Programme which, in the end, was one of the largest transformation projects ever to be seen in the sector, placing MMU firmly as an innovation leader in its field.

Deliverables:

Student Insight (persona mapping), Digital strategy, Business Process Analysis, Nicco

8000

business processes re-engineered

system integrations

The Challenge

Not for the fainthearted – we slashed delivery times by a staggering 71%

MMU recognised they needed to enhance every aspect of their student journey if they were to continue being a key player in higher education. This challenge was not for the fainthearted. Higher education notoriously moves at a slow pace, so we knew we had to hit the ground running to deliver an exceptional service at an exceptional pace. And that’s exactly what we did. What should have been a 24-month long project took us a rapid 7 months to complete – unheard of in higher education and we’re tremendously proud.

MMU had years’ worth of technical debt, a serious number of inefficient business processes, and a siloed way of working. They needed significant support to help build the strategy for change, unpick the unmet needs of the students, and get right down to the root cause of the challenges within the institute that had a direct impact on the overall student journey.

What we did

Using a comprehensive method to understand, capture and articulate the required business outcomes, our team of 15 worked tirelessly on-site to identify what exactly MMU students desired.

We challenged the current ways of thinking, leaving no stone unturned to make sure we did things the right way for MMU.

Discovering the who the student is: Student interviews, student personas
Measuring the student experience: Experience mapping to uncover how tasks are currently being undertaken throughout the student journey
Uncovering the root cause of issues within the institute
Designed a strategy and business case for the student journey transformation
Supporting an independent procurement for the student management system
Requirements gathering from a process led perspective to re-engineer over 8000 business process

How do you deliver pivotal insight for a successful transformation?

To successfully deliver a transformation project of this scale, it was crucial we embarked on a rigorous discovery process to give MMU rich and deep insight into their students to understand their needs, wants and desires. By doing so, we unearthed the many business processes and organisational that were damaging the student experience and causing major setbacks in the journey.

Discovery

We worked with MMU to get into the student’s shoes. To transform the journey, we had to know the student like the back of our hands. So, by interviewing students and creating personas, we gave MMU their student on paper. Armed with this information, we mapped out the desired journey, and this formed the basis of the strategy. It rapidly became clear where the challenges were within the institute, from a business processes standpoint to a technology standpoint, and this was the catalyst for serious change.

A design to deliver results

From this thorough baseline of understanding, we built the digital strategy with the students’ needs at the very centre. We helped MMU re-engineer 8000 business processes and assess and select the most appropriate technologies that would deliver the results both staff and students wanted to see.

Breaking down barriers

Equantiis brought together the team at MMU and equipped them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and resources to ensure this way of thinking and delivering future proof solutions became a cultural change within the organisation. To see true success, everyone must be aligned and guided by the vision and principles set out from the start, and so, we brought everyone together as one united team all working towards the same goal.

“What Equantiis were very good at was galvanising that team, helping us pull together that one team and operating as one team for one university and one way of doing things.”

Andrew Kemp – Transformation Director

Long lasting results

This ground-breaking transformation project delivered a whole host of results that cleared the way for a successful future full of opportunities for MMU.

Not only did we deliver these results at a pace no one thought possible, we made sure the team at MMU understood exactly what the transformation project was going to achieve. 2 years on, MMU are still using the methodology that Equantiis set out from the start and we’re proud to remain their trusted partner. Our relationship with MMU continues to flourish and we’re now working on multiple workstreams across the university.

"Equantiis has worked flexibly and as an integrated partner working with University colleagues and has delivered at speed whilst adding value and challenge to our project and supporting colleagues in understanding the change and transition."

Andrew KempTransformation Director

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