Watchmist has a long history of providing consultancy services into Financial Institutions - over 27 years. Projects have typically been technology focussed, but always include Business change and optimisation.
The founder Michael Elson has held senior management positions within several Investment Banks and during this time has experienced the challenges of delivering complex matrix-managed projects alongside large scale, off-shore vendors and their teams. The challenge ultimately requires investment, not of money specifically, but of time and effort.
It is a common mistake to believe
that when working with vendors that the effort required on
the client side is reduced to nothing - this is simply not
true and particularly so when
dealing with off-shore vendor resources. It takes time to set
expectations, find a productive way of working and to build the trust
and relationship needed for a large scale projects to work.
It is here that Watchmist provides the special
adhesive to making these types of projects successful.
We bring the expertiese of dealing with off-shore
and near-shore vendor based engagements and insert the
Project Management and Delivery Specialists close to the
client for increased transparency, accountability and close proximity to the key decision makers.
Our aim is to take the problem away from the client
and to own the challenge from day one of the engagement. By
providing a local team with successful track record of
working in such conditions the broader team becomes
effective sooner, trust is built quickly and demonstrable
results appear earlier which assures the client that the
project will be successful. This is a simple recipe, but a
reliable and well proven one and should not be
underestimated.
The
solution starts with having experienced Management in close
proximity to the client and an established off-shore team
coming from the Master Services Vendor and it is here that
Watchmist has experience in abundance.
Watchmist has experience of delivering consultancy direct into large businesses and whilst this is becoming increasingly harder to achieve with Banks reducing their preferred supplier lists down to just a handful of suppliers, this type of engagement still takes place and it is crucial that projects are delivered on-time and to budget to maintain reputation.
Watchmist has agreed terms with several of the big Consultancy firms who specialise in off-shore and near-shore project delivery. Such firms increasingly recognise the key benefits of having on-shore local expertiese to work closely with the client and at the same time help drive, co-ordinate and direct the off-shore teams.
Watchmist has been involved in a variety of projects, ranging from Client Internet Access "Autobahn" (Tier 1 Inv. Bank / €100m), Big Data Project (Tier 1 Inv. Bank / €66m), Dodd Frank (Tier 2 Inv. Bank / €50m), Regulatory Reporting and Control (Tier 1 Inv. Bank / €50m).