SIMON WARD
Leatherhead, Surrey
01372 360778 / 07775 900881
simoncward@btinternet.com
PROFILE
I am a self-motivated and innovative professional seeking a contract/interim position with a focus on business transformation and programme
management. I have a proven background and over 15 years’ experience as a consultant and a business improvement professional in customer
relationship management, loyalty and marketing strategy, customer experience, process and organisational improvement and business change
strategy.
I have excellent communication and presentation skills and am able to establish lasting working relationships with stakeholders, board level
management and global teams, as demonstrated by the success of my career to date. Utilising effective leadership and project management skills,
I manage cross-functional teams and continually ensures objectives are met on time and within budget. During my career I have successfully driven
service improvement and cost reduction programmes and am passionate about customer satisfaction and loyalty. I am task orientated and delivery
focussed and excel in fast paced, high pressure working environments.
KEY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERTISE
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Stakeholder Management, Programme and project
management (MSP Practitioner; PRINCE 2 Practitioner)
Managing business transformation and change across
multi-disciplinary teams, creative thinker (MBA)
Analytical and problem solving skills
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Business improvement (Six Sigma Green belt), Business
Process Re-engineering (BPR)
Relationship building/CRM/customer experience improvement,
influencer
Direct marketing and loyalty (DipDM)
ACHIEVEMENTS
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BT Global Services - Deployment of Genesys Call Routing: Successfully rolled out a call routing and voice recording solution across UK
service centres within 6 months that delivered cost savings of £2.6mio (5 year NPV)
BT Technology & Service Operations: Delivered £1.2mio of cost savings in the form of reduced calls, faults and visits through a Service
Incidents recovery programme. Reduced overall time to notify in the event of a service incident by 30% through the deployment of improved
network monitoring tools, reducing inbound calls to BT Retail by 5%.
BT Global Services – Business process re-design for delivery of IP Clear product managing a team of six sigma black belts and internal
process improvement team.
BT Global Services: Carried out a systems audit to identify opportunities for optimisation and rationalisation. 150 systems identified with
£1.5mio. cost savings
BT Global Services: Disparate research activity managed in different parts of BT Global Services. Reorganised the entire global customer
insight programme - consolidated the programmes, selected a new supplier and created a high performing team
Telekom Austria: CRM strategy engagement led to the achievement of Eur 10 mio of cost savings
Vodafone Ireland: resolving customer satisfaction, improving complaint resolution and upselling as a result of consulting engagement
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Associate Consultant/Interim Manager
Sward Limited
2013 - Date
Various short term contracts undertaken in the area of project planning, business process transformation and customer segmentation:
Equinix – Business process re-design for EMEA marketing operation for this global data centre organisation (Current)
The Hay Group – Project planning and business process improvement – developed a transformation project plan and mapped processes to
support a new business model across multiple geographies for global HR consultancy. (May – July 2014)
Oxford University Press – Ran workshops with client teams and senior management capturing ‘as is’ processes for customer initiated tasks and
information sharing and defining ‘to be’ processes. Delivered detailed Visio process maps and presented to senior team. (Nov 13 – Jan 14)
Royal Society of Chemistry - Facilitated workshops with business teams and senior management to capture the existing campaign management
processes. Created existing and defined target process in Visio. Gathered user requirements for a customer database. (Nov 13 – Feb 14)
James Walker UK – Defined a customer segmentation framework for top customers via a 2 day workshop session with the senior executive team
for this global manufacturing company (Sept 13 – Nov 13)
Head of Business Improvement
BT PLC
2004 - 2013
Head of Service Transformation, BT Technology & Service Operations
Nov 2011 – June 2013
 Programme manager for a cross line of business improvement programmes, responsible for transforming how the business detects,
notifies and manages major service outages across the copper and Fibre network. Established governance and reporting and introduced
key measures of success / KPIs
Simon Ward
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Delivered £1.2mio improvements to date in form of reduced calls, faults and visits
Head of Systems Requirements and Automation, BT Global Services
March 2007 – Nov 2011
 Accountable for multi-channel contact strategy for voice solutions and GS online
 Managed the relationship between the Global Customer Service Operations teams and the Design organisation ensuring that user
stories and requirements were developed, business cases raised and solutions and benefits delivered
 Tracked delivery, benefits realisation, user adoption, change management, developed and presented post investment reviews to the
Investment Board
 Managed systems budget of £7mio. Ensured the delivery of systems improvements that reduced cost, increased revenue and achieved
improvement in ‘Right First Time’ delivery for assurance of products and services and fulfilment of orders
Programme Manager, Deployment of Genesys Call Routing and Verint Voice Recording
Sept 2008 – Oct 2009
 Defined a strategy for introducing skills based routing to drive efficiency and increase productivity across the UK Service organisation
 £1.5mio investment paid back within 9 months. Biggest contributor to headcount savings within BT Global Services in FY 2009 / 10
 Developed programme brief and strategy for improvement. Defined programme structure and mapped existing projects / identified gaps
 Assembled a project team across BTGS and BTID, defined work packages, built a plan and established governance (Prince 2)
 Defined work packages, defined the governance model, assembled virtual team and created delivery plan
Service Operations Professional Community Lead
May 2006 – Aug 2008
 Leadership and strategic direction of a professional community of over 6,000 people engaged in Provision, Assurance and Engineering
 Successfully launched the community. Ensured the skills of 5,000 managers and team members were captured and validated
 Introduced forums for knowledge sharing and promoted training and up-skilling of the community members
Head of Customer Insight, BT Global Services
April 2005 – May 2006
 Responsible for all qualitative and quantitative customer satisfaction research, results reporting and setting of annual customer satisfaction
targets. Maintained direct relationship with VPs across the global business
 Led a team of 20 research management professionals, managed a research programme, with an annual budget of £2mio
 Achieved successful negotiation of annual targets with in-country managers and UK directorate leads
 Multiple programmes in operation. Consolidated the research with a single agency resulting in a £500k saving to the company
Head of CRM and Customer Experience, BT Wholesale Markets (Contract role)
April 2004 – April 2005
 Consultant role; created a CRM Strategy, Vision, ideal Customer Experience and requirements for key transformation programmes
 Initiated external market study, developed a value based customer segmentation model which allowed accounts to be ranked by
opportunity. Communicated segmentation to sales teams via a series of workshops
 Developed a CRM Roadmap, set out a path to realising benefits, worked alongside a technical integration team which resulted in a
number of tactical releases generating a 5% increase in revenue and cost savings of £900k
 Managed a project to define contract and ensured that the service capability matrix reflected Wholesale Markets customer requirements
Principal Consultant
eLoyalty
2000 – 2004
Telekom Austria: Customer Relationship Management Strategy: Interviewed the senior management team, identified the CRM solution
initiatives, assessed the capabilities required to deliver benefits and prioritised them in relation to financial impact and the strategic business goals.
Telewest, Customer Marketing Strategy and Profiling: The company did not know who their ‘ideal’ customer segments were and what made
them attractive to the business, or what elements of the service proposition customers valued. Designed an approach, facilitated workshop
sessions with a senior / middle management group and set up a mechanism for account scoring by field sales and customer focus groups
involving a sample of accounts and prospects. As a result contacts were prioritised in the sales automation system, enabling effective targeting.
Reuters, Customer e-Service Strategy and Organisational Development: Developed an organisational structure design for a new service centre in
Geneva, created job descriptions, set up KPIs, contact centre metrics and reporting specifications. Created a detailed cost model and designed an
employee performance and incentive scheme. The planned opening date of the centre was brought forward by 3 months – earlier benefit realised.
Vodafone Ireland, Customer Strategy and Business Case: Vodafone wanted to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and improve upselling,
cross-selling and campaign effectiveness. Identified key business metrics and conducted internal / external CSAT surveys to demonstrate impact.
Dupont: Designed a CRM Strategy to improve Dupont’s understanding of its customers' needs, demonstrated how to use information to drive
business and increase profitability. (Role based in Atlanta)
United Health Group: Project managed successful migration of Appeals and Complaints database from ACCESS to SQL. (Based in Minneapolis)
Programme Development Director
Loyalty Management International Ltd
1997 – 1999
Worked with FTSE 250 companies (Tesco, Lloyds TSB, Centrica, Debenhams) at senior and board level, developed efficient and effective loyalty
solutions. Led a credit card loyalty project for a UK high street bank, created detailed financial models for a high street supermarket loyalty card
programme and a department store chain, developed a business plan for a multi-retailer coalition project involving a bank, utility companies and a
petrol retailer and presented a detailed report and findings at board level.
EARLY CAREER
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American Express Bank Ltd: Manager. Unibank Plc: Manager. Credit Analyst: ING Bank, Midland Bank, Barclays Bank
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS & EDUCATION
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Prince 2 Practitioner (2013); Managing Successful Programmes – MSP Practitioner (2012); Six Sigma Green Belt (2006); Direct Marketing
Diploma – IDMA (1999); MBA, Cranfield School of Management (1997)
Simon Ward
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