Earlier this year RPS were invited to be featured in Business Focus Magazines’ special issue which focused on supplier relationships at the BBC. Read the full feature below.
For the last 10 years Reed Professional Services has enjoyed working with organisations such as the BBC, Barclays, GE Capital, BMC, BSkyB and the Royal Mail Group, to name a few. Over that time the valued relationship Reed Professional Services has with these organisations has grown from strength to strength. From providing complex project management, to supporting business critical IT systems, to software and app development. Reed Professional Services have become a trusted partner in a wide variety of mutually beneficial relationships that have been the backbone of many high profile projects, and it is the level of trust which exists between client and supplier that forms the cornerstone of Reed Professional Services principles.
For those unfamiliar with Reed Professional Services, your first thought may be that their role is to support recruitment, and yes whilst they are a member of, and benefit from being part of the Reed Group, a group with over 50 years history and an annual turnover of over £1bn, Reed Professional Services are their own unique entity within the group. Their structure allows them to operate as a boutique consultancy with all the flexibility and agility that this brings, whilst their proven experience at managing high-level and technology-forward projects puts them right at the cusp of modern project and technology solutions.
Services offered by Reed Professional Services to support their clients’ covers a broad spectrum of areas. This includes assured Project Management, covering everything from setting up a dedicated PMO service, to managing tenders and e-procurement, Through to:
- Software design and build, from implementing agile workflows to testing and launch IT Outsourcing, which can include providing both internal and external solutions.
- Application software and solution design, ensuring your business outcomes.
- Coaching and Development to ensure smooth transitions and effective business change.
What you won’t see when you work with Reed Professional Services is a restrictive list of off the shelf products, tools or fixed service areas. Their focus is on solving your problems, using their pedigree built on a vast range of experience and proven methodologies to do so.
Indeed, regardless of the specific area of delivery, Reed Professional Services’ focus is placed on partnering with their clients to offer tailored solutions that are fit for the brief, not one size fits all. Through conversation, focused analysis and critical assessment they create solutions that can utilise existing infrastructure, whilst providing access to unique skills to complement and enhance client delivery where they need it most.
As a flexible provider of project solutions and consultancy, they are able to help manage either a single piece of the puzzle, integrating as needed with other work streams, teams and suppliers, and equally, they’ll excel at designing and managing the whole jigsaw giving the right care and attention to every single piece until it’s complete. What always remains true is that the same focus and dedication applies in both situations.
It is this ability to work in a scaled way, across multiple disciplines, which enables Reed Professional Services to help their clients grow. By offering coaching and development and change management support as an ongoing consideration, Reed Professional Services ensure that their clients benefit from a continuing knowledge exchange which is built on a bed of trust and shared objectives. This is one of the prime reasons why many of the names you’ll find in Reed Professional Services’ client base are long-term customers with ongoing project growth. This may be through embedded business critical IT Managed services, such as that successfully deployed at the BBC, which has regularly renewed since launch, or via a continual stream of ad-hoc projects. This has seen Reed Professional Services offer support in a wide range of areas, including software design and testing of major consumer applications for video on demand consumption, through to online insurance purchasing solutions, right the way to assisting clients in selecting the right solution for them via managing e-procurements and tenders.
We only need to look to some of the recent project and client highlights from the Reed Professional Services team to understand that they are considered an invaluable partner to all of their clients, be that in Media, Banking, Software, Technology Integrators, Retailers or Broadcasting. Their portfolio of customers reads as an extensive resume of well-known names, including Barclays, Royal Mail, Youview, BMC, BskyB, GE Capital, and of course, the BBC. The one thing that reads true across each of these projects is that Reed Professional Services consistently deliver on time and in budget, which is what leads to these clients returning to them again and again.
Managing Partner Phil Bull describes what it is about the company ethos that enables them to keep this high standard of delivery.
“I think what is clear again and again with Reed Professional Services is that our agility and tailored approach is key. We are able to help provide access to focused knowledge that results in assured outcomes enabling our clients to achieve their project goals and deliver the required business value they need with the least risk, meaning our clients spend their time driving their business, not worrying about change.
We are able to provide a partner eco system that offers our clients a flexible approach to delivering complex change. Our clients see us as partners, rather than suppliers, and we ensure our measures of success are fully integrated with theirs.”
With over 500 projects successfully delivered in partnership with the BBC in the last ten years and 1000’s of other projects for their portfolio of clients, this is a prime example of this dynamic at work. It’s a relationship that offers real value across the board, built on a foundation of understanding, of flexibility and of real-world business application. By listening first, and then tailoring the approach to best fit, Reed Professional Services have developed a customer relationship of which they are incredibly proud. It’s a relationship which is results focused, adaptive, and forward thinking whilst at all times ensuring ‘business as usual’ remains unfaltering. This approach is something which is ingrained within the Reed Professional Services DNA. So each of their customers’ benefits from this same highly personalised approach which has value and efficiency at its core.
To define Reed Professional Services in a nutshell? “We work with our customers and align to their needs to apply consultancy and delivery that fits the brief, large or small. We talk tech, but value clear dialogue. We think big, but we never lose the detail. We can act fast, but we are always considered, we take the pain away from change” – or to put it more simply.
PROBLEM SOLVED
