Rescuing a stalled website and e-commerce relaunch for a global life sciences organization
A global life sciences organization’s website and e-commerce upgrade was a year late and $1 million over budget, with vague requirements, an unresponsive vendor and no governance. We took over project management, stood up governance and a steering team, selected a new vendor, and saw the new site and e-commerce portal through to a successful launch.
- Client
- Global organization providing biological products, standards and services that support scientific research
- Scope
- Website and e-commerce portal upgrade and redesign
- Our role
- Project audit, project governance, client-side project management, steering committee leadership, organizational change management and vendor selection
- Follow-on
- Retained to manage the client’s enterprise-level projects
A digital project with no owner and no guardrails
The client’s website and e-commerce platform is how researchers around the world find and buy its products, so the upgrade mattered. By the time we were engaged, the project was a year past its delivery date and $1 million over budget.
The project had been run under an agile approach that was never clearly defined, without a client-side project manager or a steering team to make decisions. The vendor had become non-responsive and uncooperative. When we arrived, the project was facing:
- Requirements that were incomplete or vague
- A non-responsive, uncooperative vendor
- An agile methodology that was not clearly defined
- No client project manager assigned
- No steering team
- No project governance
What we put in place
Project audit
An independent review of scope, requirements, budget and vendor performance, giving leadership an honest view of where the project stood.
Project governance
A governance structure with defined decision rights and escalation, and a steering team that had not existed before.
Client-side project management
We took over project management on the client’s behalf, giving the business one accountable lead.
Project and steering updates
We led all project status and steering team updates, so leadership had a consistent view of progress, cost and risk.
Organizational change management
We led change management activities so the teams who depend on the website were ready for the new platform.
New vendor selection
We led the selection of a new vendor to replace the one that was no longer delivering, and brought it into the project.
A successful launch, and a broader role
Website and e-commerce launched
The client successfully launched its new website and e-commerce portal.
A vendor that delivers
A newly selected vendor replaced the one that had stalled the project.
Governance in place
A steering team and clear project governance replaced ad hoc decision-making.
Enterprise project management
The client kept our team on to manage its enterprise-level projects.
Is your program off track?
We bring named senior consultants who take ownership of the plan, the vendors and the steering conversation, and get stalled programs to go-live. Let’s talk about where yours stands.