2006
PA triumphs, winning six top prizes including Overall Winner, at 2006 Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Management Awards
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04 April 2006
PA's work for the Georgian Government and USAID wins Overall Winner at Management Awards
PA Consulting Group, the leading international management, systems and technology consultancy, has won a total of six awards, including the coveted Overall Winner ‘Platinum’ prize, at the tenth annual Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Management Awards, announced in London last night. PA also won five Gold Category Winner awards. The Overall Platinum prize was awarded for PA’s work with the Government of Georgia and the US Agency for International Development.
In the eight years that PA has entered the awards it has received an unprecedented 32% of the top awards. This includes winning the Overall Award on four occasions and securing 16 Gold Category Winners. No other consulting firm in the UK comes close to matching this record, and this year no other consulting firm was given more than two top awards.
Every year the MCA, the industry body for management consulting firms, organises the Management Awards to recognise excellence in client work. An independent panel of senior business figures, journalists and academics, selects the most value-adding, innovative and successful assignments. This year the MCA received over 140 entries to the Management Awards, a record number.
PA’s 2006 awards include:
- Overall Winner, Platinum award - USAID and the Georgian Government
- International category, Gold award - USAID and the Georgian Government
- Operational Performance (public sector), Gold award - ACPO and the Home Office Police Standards Unit
- Change Management (public sector), Gold award - HM Revenue & Customs
- Technology (private sector), Gold award - Severn Trent Water
- Change Management (private sector), Gold award - Westinghouse Rail Systems Limited.
The Platinum prize was awarded for PA’s work with USAID and the Government of Georgia in transforming the largest Georgian state-owned energy company, the United Energy Distribution Company (UEDC). UEDC was notorious for corruption, too many staff, an ineffective workforce, and mismanagement - in all, a major contributor to Georgia’s energy crisis.
Often braving personal danger, PA’s people battled corruption throughout the company and improved its performance. UEDC is now providing customers with reliable supply for the first time since the country’s independence. The company is paying its taxes and foreign energy suppliers in full, and paying higher salaries to its people, in full and on time. It is repaying debt and is re-investing to improve customer service. The UEDC’s new anti-corruption stance has inspired others: the sight of a once-corrupt company undergoing such a transformation has been a boost for public morale and shows what could be achieved at a national level. And all this was achieved with only minimal external investment.
Alexander Khetaguri, First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Georgia, said:
“PA took on the challenge of reforming a company that many felt was impossible to turn around. We consider the reform of the UEDC to be one of the most - if not the most - important successes to date in our energy reform programme.”
Jon Moynihan, PA ‘s Executive Chairman, said:
“Our work on the Republic of Georgia assignment is not only a ground breaking piece of consulting work, it is also a first for our industry - in having a consulting firm take over direct management of any organisation in such dire straits as the UEDC. The awards are a fine testament to PA’s unique style of value-adding consulting and a tribute to the client and consulting teams that delivered these winning assignments.”
Bruce Tindale, Chief Executive Officer of PA Consulting Group, added:
“We are delighted that the MCA has once again recognised the quality of PA’s consulting work and the value delivered to our clients’ organisations. For the eight years that PA has entered these awards we have enjoyed unprecedented success in the competition. It is a great endorsement for us that the MCA has given our work the independent recognition it deserves. Congratulations to our clients and to all the PA consultants involved in delivering this great work.”
More detail on other winning case studies follows in the notes to editors.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
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| Heather Smith |
| PA Consulting Group |
| 123 Buckingham Palace Road |
| London |
| SW1W 9SR |
| United Kingdom |
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Tel: +44 20 7312 4975 |
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Fax: +44 20 7312 4639 |
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E-mail:
heather.smith@paconsulting.com |
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Notes to editors
More information on the winning assignments, together with photographs, is available.
Full details of PA's MCA 2006 successes, including downloadable files of all the winning case studies, are available at: http://www.paconsulting.com/news/award_winning_work/
The Management Consultancies Association (MCA)
The MCA was formed in 1956 to represent the consultancy industry to its clients, the media and government. Management consultancy is an increasingly important industry for the UK economy with revenues for 2004 estimated at just over £10bn. MCA members represent around 65% of the UK consulting sector, employ approximately 40,000 consultants and work with the FTSE100 and all government departments. Nine of the top ten UK-based consulting firms (by consulting fee income) are members.
As well as setting and maintaining standards in the industry, the MCA supports its member firms with a range of services including events, publications, interest groups and public relations. The Association also works with its members to attract the top talent into the industry. The MCA provides advice on the selection and use of management consultants and is the main source of data on the UK market.
More information on PA’s other winning case studies in 2006
Gold Award: Operational Performance category (public sector) - ACPO and the Home Office Police Standards Unit
PA worked closely with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), 23 police forces and the Home Office Police Standards Unit (PSU) to develop Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) from initial concept to proven policing tool inside two years.
ANPR has established itself as a powerful crime detection tool. ANPR-enabled police officers proved 10 times more effective than conventional police officers. Now being rolled out nationally, the programme is seen as vital to the Government’s objective of bringing more offenders to justice.
During an 18-month pilot ANPR teams made 16,570 arrests (75% for non-driving offences), seized 1,480 stolen vehicles, recovered stolen goods worth nearly £1.4 million, confiscated 329 weapons and detected over £3 million of excise duty evasion. Road safety benefits included detection of almost 5,000 defective vehicles and 46,000 driving offences.
Gold Award: Change Management category (public sector) - HMRC
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) urgently needed improved productivity, particularly in processing self-assessment tax returns, to meet demanding quality and efficiency targets. PA worked with HMRC to trial Lean management techniques to achieve this, including a focus on hourly performance metrics and a culture of performance management and continuous improvement.
PA’s extended Lean trials have been dramatically successful. Results indicate that productivity has risen by over 30%, quality improved by over 75%, and the time taken to process a tax return reduced from 36 days to 5.
Gold Award: Technology category (private sector) - Severn Trent Water
To meet its goal of becoming the UK’s leading water company, Severn Trent Water (STW) knew that it needed to overhaul its contact systems for its eight million household and business customers. These systems were disparate and unwieldy, and affected customer service. They threatened its competitive position, and this would worsen if, as many think likely, the UK water industry is deregulated. In that new environment, customer loyalty and satisfaction would gain even more strategic importance.
PA Consulting Group helped STW to take a unique and innovative approach which not only met its customer objectives in the current, regulated market but prepared it for the future. Within six months PA delivered a system based on existing processes, and built on existing IT infrastructure, that kept critical operations running smoothly while flexible enough to adapt to market changes. Since the system was introduced customer service has improved dramatically, attracting praise from the regulator, Ofwat. Complaints fell by 30% and customer issues resolved at first contact increased by 36%. The system reduced operational expenditure in STW Customer Relations Directorate by 20% per annum through more effective working practices.
Gold Award: Change Management category (private sector) - Westinghouse Rail Systems Limited
WRSL’s key customer, Network Rail challenged the signalling industry to reduce the cost of delivering signalling contracts by approximately 30% over five years. In practice, this required the industry to improve productivity by over 40%, to protect margins - a massive challenge in a cost-sensitive market, but one WRSL knew must be met to secure the future of its business.
Within just 12 months PA helped WRSL reduce contract costs by over 30%, enabling it to win key new contracts. WRSL achieved this in a heavily regulated industry without compromising safety or undermining the morale of workers. WRSL continues to improve productivity and competitiveness.
About PA
PA Consulting Group is a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm. Operating worldwide in more than 35 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of 3,000 people, whose skills extend from the initial generation of ideas, insights, solutions and new technology, all the way through to detailed implementation.
From the development of innovative strategies and solutions right through to their successful delivery, all of our work and support is based on deep sector insight and expertise. We work across the private and public sectors, with particular strengths in financial services, energy, life sciences and healthcare, government and public services, manufacturing, defence, and telecommunications. We help our clients to design optimum strategies for growth, deliver effective IT that improves business performance, mobilise human resources, deliver complex programmes and major business transformations, and develop breakthrough products and processes through our unique applied technology capability.
As an employee-owned company, with no audit arm nor exclusive alliances with third-party vendors or service providers, we are answerable only to ourselves and our clients. This independence means the advice we give to clients, and the work we deliver, are based only on what is best for our clients’ business. We will, however, work in non-exclusive alliances on specific programmes when it is in the best interests of our clients.
PA’s independent, benefits-driven approach is founded on our strength in innovation, our responsiveness to our clients’ needs, and our unyielding focus on delivery:
Innovation. Innovation comes in a variety of forms - in how customers' needs are identified and satisfied, in business models, in motivating and aligning staff, in the use of technology, and many more. PA has an unsurpassed track record in innovation, from developing pharmaceutical anti-counterfeiting measures and wireless technologies, to helping launch an innovative online bank, to development work that is helping alleviate poverty and boost the economies of developing countries.
Responsiveness. We recognise that each client and each problem have their own challenges and issues. Our solutions are therefore tailored to our clients’ specific circumstances, drawing on the deep industry insight of our consultants. Our relationships with clients are characterised by respect, flexibility and collaboration, and we pride ourselves on the speed of our response and the dedication of our people.
Delivery. At PA, delivering client value is ingrained in our culture. We focus on detailed implementation, with a renowned track record of delivering innovative solutions that achieve lasting change. At PA, we see projects right through to the finishing line - and beyond - delivering significant and measurable value to our clients.
PA: Innovation. Responsiveness. Delivery.
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