The Football Association
Supporting IT transition and outsourcing at leadership level for The Football Association
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key fact
The FA is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for all aspects of the game from grass roots football to the England national side.
Working with the senior management team to develop a future strategy for IT
Challenge
The Football Association (FA) has been English football’s governing body for more than 150 years. The new FA senior management team recognised the impact that technology and social media are having on its services for fans and participants at all levels of the game. The FA engaged Mason Advisory to provide an IT health check to identify any opportunities for improvement in terms of people, processes and technology.
The FA was also in the midst of changing its IT support model, and needed help in achieving a tight deadline.
Solution
Mason Advisory performed a rapid assessment of the current state of IT and the potential changes required to deliver The FA’s strategic priorities. The assessment covered IT processes, internal capability, customer feedback, sourcing, and service delivery, and highlighted areas where improvements could support better IT delivery for the organisation.
As a result of our recommendations, Mason Advisory was re-engaged to work with The FA on the contract to outsource its IT service and infrastructure support. The FA had a challenging deadline to meet to ensure that the contract was in place. We worked with the team to develop the requirements, responsibilities and costs into a clearly defined series of contract schedules. Once this was complete, our consultants worked with The FA and the supplier to achieve a mutually satisfactory contract.
As a trusted adviser to The FA, Mason Advisory went on to provide an interim CIO to maintain and improve service during a change in the leadership team and provide assurance during the transition to the outsource provider.
“Mason Advisory worked closely with our team to identify significant risks in our IT transition plan and quickly identified a clear plan to reduce these risks in the IT outsource contract.”
Andrew Crean, Finance Director, The FA
Outcome
The FA received a business-focused set of recommendations to drive its future investment in IT. The commercial and operational risk of outsourcing IT support has been significantly reduced with a contract that has greater clarity of responsibilities, costs and levels of service.
Operational risk during the outsourcing transition was also mitigated by engaging an experienced interim CIO. This CIO also ensured that there was no drop in service during the transition in the leadership team, particularly on the four major delivery programmes that underpin the future business strategy.
The FA now has a trusted IT assurance partner in Mason Advisory that provides ‘joined up’ strategic planning and technical advice in a language that can be understood by the whole of the business.
“Mason Advisory delivered an excellent blend of business, technical and commercial skills coupled with a pragmatic approach focused on the real business needs of the organisation.”
Martin Glenn, CEO, The FA