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"CA's solution is superbly aligned with 'The Manpower Way', and provides our IT leaders with the tools they need to manage resources and projects on both a local and global basis." |
The power to succeed
Manpower is one of the world's leading employment services providers, helping more than 400,000 clients each year fill job vacancies in 72 countries.
The company was founded in the US in 1948 when two lawyers couldn't find administrative staff at short notice. Over the next five decades, Manpower has grown to provide temporary staff to some of the world's biggest companies.
The focus of Manpower's work is on raising productivity through improved quality, efficiency and cost-reduction across their total workforce, enabling clients to concentrate on their core business activities.
Meeting customer needs
Today, temporary employees, such as short-term contractors and consultants, represent a fifth of the corporate workforce. While demand for temporary staff remains strong, global employers increasingly require services around outsourcing, offshore partnerships and managed services.
Manpower has expanded internationally to meet the needs of this changing market, and most of its offices operate with a high degree of autonomy. However, this independent model has created its own challenges.
Until recently, each office had its own IT systems and processes, meaning that senior managers could not easily see what was happening across the business. In addition, Manpower wasn't able to benefit from economies of scale when purchasing new IT equipment.
Creating Consistency
In 2003, Rick Davidson was appointed as global CIO of Manpower, with a mission to consolidate the company's highly distributed IT organization by improving visibility and reducing operating costs.
At the heart of the strategy was a new, common set of global IT management processes known as "The Manpower Way."
To help establish this unified approach to IT, Manpower needed consistent processes across all its sites. This consistency would not only allow the company to improve performance but also eliminate redundant and non-standard technologies.
Good IT governance
To ensure that all its global offices were complying with the new IT processes, Manpower deployed a project and portfolio management solution from CA.
This solution provides IT and business leaders with a single, integrated platform to access information about any IT application or system within the company. The CA Clarity solution also allows managers to track technology investments and ensure that these are aligned with IT and business priorities.
"Our approach of 'governing globally, managing locally' is based on a business philosophy of leveraging global efficiencies while encouraging local entrepreneurship and innovation," says Davidson. "CA's solution is superbly aligned with "The Manpower Way," and provides our IT leaders with the tools they need to manage resources and projects on both a local and global basis."
Intelligent insight
The key benefit of CA's project and portfolio management solution is that, for the first time, Manpower has visibility of its IT operations in every part of the world. As Dan Greer, Manpower's Director of Front Office Systems and IS Governance, explains, "We have total insight and control into every aspect of IT. We can now ensure that projects are delivered on time, on budget and are aligned with business objectives."
This increased visibility has enabled Manpower to:
- Identify and eliminate duplicated or redundant systems
- Cut the implementation time for business change initiatives
- Develop a unified IT strategy and simplify its management processes
For example, as part of its adoption of the Manpower Way, the company has created regional data centers that provide hosting and other services to multiple offices. This — along with the reduced number of applications — has lowered IT spending by at least 10 percent. This money can then be invested in strategic initiatives that drive the business forward and add value to Manpower clients.
Robbin Hill, Manager of Global IS Governance for Manpower, comments, "Top down leadership, consistent IS processes and Clarity's flexibility: together these enable our IS teams around the world to lead in the creation and delivery of services that enable our clients to win in the changing world of work."
Content posted on: 16 July 2007
