Credera secures four finalists in the MCA Awards 2022

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the MCA awards - one of the most highly sought set of awards in the consulting industry. The MCA received a record number of entries and competition has been extremely fierce, with increased entries across its 44 member firms.

We are very proud to announce that Credera has secured four finalists at the 2022 MCA awards, including two project awards and two individual awards. Each of our finalists have been nominated against one of four categories: Commercial Impact, International, Rising Star, and Inclusion Award.

Chris Dean, CEO of Credera said: "In a particularly competitive year, I'm delighted for our finalists. The client projects and colleagues who have been shortlisted epitomise the high calibre of Credera's work and the value we bring to our clients and to the broader consulting industry. I wish our finalists and those of fellow MCA members all the best of luck."

Since 2019, Credera has been a member of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) - the representative body for the UK consulting industry. Each year, the MCA hosts the MCA awards, to recognise the value and impact that consulting has on society and within client organisations. 2022 marks our second year of successfully entering MCA awards for Credera and we are very excited to to be able to present our finalists and their achievements.

Kelly Jackson, MCA Lead at Credera, said: "It’s fantastic for our firm and our people to have another successful year entering such a prestigious set of awards. I’m really thrilled to see the great work that we do for our clients being recognised and our people being awarded for their talent. I’m sending all my best wishes to all of our finalists and those of member firms.”

Read next: Credera secures five finalists in the MCA Awards 2021

We spoke to each of our four finalists to learn more about their project involvement and inspiring professional stories.

Commercial Impact: MHRA

Finalist: Maxon Erinjeri (Programme Representative)

The Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) set a digital transformation agenda to better support the regulation of medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion in the UK.

MHRA initiated the Application Outsourcing Transition (AOT) project in 2020 against a backdrop of heightened public awareness following a government review that highlighted various shortcomings. MHRA were central to the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic with responsibility for vaccine approvals.

The AOT Project was commissioned to replace MHRA’s existing non-compliant application maintenance and support contract with a competitively procured, value-for-money service contract, based on standard government model contracts.

MHRA sought a consultancy partner to augment their technology and procurement skills and appointed Credera to advise on a sourcing and technology strategy to run a competitive procurement. Based on the recommendations, we shaped, designed, and executed the procurement and contracting process, resulting in:

• Cost avoidance in the order of millions of pounds by negotiating release of intellectual property from a third-party supplier

• Newly contracted IT services, procured in a fair and transparent process, that exceed predicted cost reductions in delivering impressive operating cost cuts of 70% from day one

• IT service provider selected being a good strategic fit, meeting the MHRA’s spending objectives and has a benefit: cost ratio of over 5:1, with the ability to support the delivery of the Agency’s future platforms

• A five-year compliant contract, based on the UK government’s Model Services Contract, that can be extended up to five years, subject to approvals and forecast benefits to the UK taxpayer in 2027

• A waiver of contract exit costs secured from the incumbent supplier

We brought a full consultancy skillset to stabilise a position that felt out of control at the outset, where the power was perceived to be in the supplier’s hands. By running the project as an independent third-party, we were able to negotiate with MHRA’s suppliers and bring a more even power balance.

Our independence and government experience also helped embed MHRA into the Department of Health and bring independence to the selection process for the new services.

In tandem, we supported MHRA to update their ways of working to aid transition to their new services. Combined with an upskilled team, MHRA now has a reliable base to deliver future technology transformation in response to the needs of their changing organisation.

The money saved in IT service cost reductions allowed MHRA to focus their time, resources, and budget on making the organisational changes they needed to transform their future operations in response to the government review.

Our successful delivery of the AOT project enables continued protection of critical safety services and provides a strong foundation for the Agency’s digital transformation agenda.

Making such a difference to an organisation in their time of need was a hugely motivating driver and we are delighted we were able to make a difference to the process and the outcomes.

International: BOIP

Finalist: Vassilis Serafeimidis (Programme Representative)

Three European governments (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) came together under the framework of the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) to digitise and accelerate patents applications processing across the region.

In 2011, BOIP built a shared IT platform, the Benelux Patent Platform (BPP). It is used by more than 4,500 patent attorneys globally, and 10,000 regular public users. In 2018, BOIP stakeholders agreed that the platform needed transformation to keep pace with patent applicant expectations.

This project aimed to modernise ways of working and provide a flexible and future-proof platform suitable for further improvements. It was a truly multi-national, multi-cultural collaboration across a range of government organisations, political agendas, legislations, budgets, processes, and languages.

Over 2.5 years, Credera acted as multi-lingual and cultural facilitators, bringing independence to the complex stakeholder landscape. We managed the process from roadmap through procurement, to implementation of a new IT service. Our steer throughout accelerated agreements across borders and delivered a solution that meets modern patent applicant’s needs.

BOIP are now reaping the forecasted benefits including:

• Time and money savings with a fit-for-purpose, shared IT platform

• Dramatic improvement of productivity in applications processed

• Improved customer experience for the IP industry across the Benelux region with delivery of an innovative platform

• Consistent collaboration with global organisations, such as EPO (European Patent Office) and the UN’s WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), for IP application extensions beyond Benelux

• Platform security upgraded with ISO 207001 certification scope extended to cover end-to-end services

We re-baselined the roadmap and maintained it with appropriate rigour over transition governance. An ever-present challenge arose from the three client stakeholders of the three Benelux nations representing three quite different sizes of user communities. Unanimous decisions required from all stakeholders could be a slow process, but we were consistent to ensure fair representation throughout the project.

BPP is an excellent exemplar for global innovation in intellectual property. Adoption of a similar platform has since been implemented by two other national IP offices. There is potential for other countries to follow suit and continue to standardise the patent application process on a global scale.

Ragnar Gustafsson, Director General at BOIP said: “Credera have supported us excellently during the project. It was challenging due to the complexity of tasks required, the many stakeholders from three different countries and the constraints due to Covid. The Credera team leveraged its strong relationships with the ‘new’ supplier (built during the procurement and before), its programme management expertise and its technical knowledge to help the supplier solve the issues, not simply identify them, and bring the completion of the procurement and transition phases within the agreed timeframes.”

Rising Star

Finalist: Matthew Greenhalgh

While I am a recent convert to consultancy, throughout my career I have loved applying technology to support organisations to improve, be more efficient and ultimately make people’s lives better.

A decade of work supporting public sector organisations prior to becoming a consultant brings an added dimension and humility to my way of working.

Since joining Credera in 2020, I have built a reputation that I can be relied upon to step up and develop strong insights amidst the complexities of our client engagements and on internal projects. Specifically, I have:

• Raised collaboration and team performance across two large government organisation clients - improving internal and external communications and taking a people first approach wherever I operate

• Led on an application landscape rationalisation project and data migration approach definition for a major governmental programme

• Been instrumental in running our Credera podcast series, engaging with all levels of the firm to capture our points of view, and successfully driving market awareness for Credera

• Taken on an internal commercial risk management role and expanded it to deliver valuable metrics that are presented monthly to the board, supporting the successful growth of our firm

• Internal responsibility as our public sector sales support lead, where I continue to build on our operating model and demonstrate our supporting software’s importance to our team’s performance.

I am thriving on the opportunities that consultancy brings to influence positive change in our clients’ transformation programmes.

Inclusion Award

Finalist: Kim Warren

I have an intrinsic belief in fairness and the right of everyone to be treated with respect and equal opportunity. Since exchanging academia for consulting, I have found myself at the forefront of championing diversity and inclusion (D&I) within our firm, our clients, and our country.

My story has become more public than I ever anticipated. I first became involved with D&I after attending a trans awareness workshop on a client site in 2018. The connections made that day have supported and encouraged me to:

• Found our LGBTQ+ Network, creating a safe space for all my LGBTQ+ colleagues

• Establish a Diversity function and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) groups. As the firm has grown, I have taken on the Diversity Lead role

• Lead our recent Stonewall Workplace Equity Index application, resulting in a silver award

• Develop a Trans Support and Transition at Work policy which was approved by our Board, communicated to our people, and published online

• Update our EDI policy

• Work with our EDI groups and recruitment team to help make Credera more inclusive

• Support client colleagues to develop their EDI policies

• Drive meaningful change to help make the wider corporate world more friendly and accessible to transgender people, via my Voluntary Director role at Trans in the City

I aim to bring patience, knowledge, and kindness to my workplace, and I appreciate the time Credera gives me to spend time on the day job and the gay job.

Final thoughts

Last year, we secured five finalists in the 2021 MCA Awards and obtained a highly commended award for our work with NHSD. In 2022, we have built on the successes of the previous year and further expanded our MCA award categories into a more diversified portfolio of projects and individuals. 

We would like to wish the very best of luck to all our finalists and the finalists of fellow MCA members in the next stages!