WLT is a global marketing and communication company with a turnover of €1.4bn. The business was in decline due to the market shifting from print to digital services. Before my appointment the IT teams were decentralised to each business unit. After several restructurings we agreed with DHL to divest the business through an auction process.

Before my appointment the IT teams were decentralised to each business unit. There were many legacy platforms due to underinvestment over many years. My role was to implement new digital platforms, renew the infrastructure, reduce costs and improve service. When the decision was taken to divest the business I was asked to lead the divestment process for technology services.

I consolidated the teams of c700, centralised spend, moved to demand/supply operating model and off-shored services to captive and external teams reducing costs by10%. Applying governance to project portfolio (190+) provided transparency and control. Migration of key services to new suppliers reduced costs and improved quality.

New build investment focussed on leading edge SaaS and purchasing platforms to slow customer churn and increase lock-in. For the marketing services business we used agile methods and digital technologies to build a platform which consolidated, stored and processed customers digital assets including film, print layouts and images in many formats. Customers included Zurich, Heineken, Coca Cola and many global brands with over 250,000 users on the new platform.

For central government we provided publishing and digital development including the driving test app, Legislation, GCSE & A level results. Customer communications produced and delivered millions of printed and digital documents for the DWP and companies such as National Australia Bank and Sun Alliance. The infrastructure for these services was migrating to public (AWS) and private cloud platforms

As CIO I was responsible for all the commercial and technical due diligence, presenting the business to the advisors and bidders and setting up the transitional sales agreements.

Marketing services customers were migrated from legacy to a new digital platform. Infrastructure services for the government and financial services customers was migrated to AWS and private cloud. Customer satisfaction scores increased from 4.0 to 6.7. The sale to Advent International was successfully completed in December 2017 and I was retained to advise on the transition.