Outsourced Project Management that will transform your business
We ensure your projects are executed – on time, within budget, and in line with your vision.
Where is your business heading next? What is the project that needs to be
delivered to propel your business forward… towards new markets… to new ways of operating to long-term growth?
Whatever your objectives are – be it new physical or digital infrastructure, achieving customer-service excellence, or business-process improvements – we have the project management skills and experience to make it a reality. We are your outsourced Project Management team, expertly handling the projects you don’t have the time to manage yourself.
“You should be very proud of all your achievements. Think you might be the ‘hire’ of my career … on behalf of Link, a huge thank you for your contribution … the standout for me was how you managed all interested parties to remediate a complex issue … A use case of how to manage change. Bravo!"
Speed, agility, collaboration, and rigorous attention to detail
The essential components of successful project management
Through MBR, we handle your time-sensitive and business-critical projects. We are the external project management team you call upon whenever you have a business-improvement project that you cannot manage in-house due to lack of time or resources. You need change, but you also have a day-to-day operation to run. That’s where we come in. We’ll be central to your project for as long as we’re needed. Once we’ve achieved your goals, we step back. No long-term commitment.
Knowing how to get people working together
Expertise in motivation and leadership is fundamental to project management. A good project management team isn’t always subject-matter experts. Our job is to coordinate the work of the subject-matter experts – to bring a diverse set of teams, skills, and technologies together for a common goal. It’s all about communication and collaboration. We ensure everyone knows what’s required of them and how their input links to the input of others – and how everyone is working collectively to achieve a successful project. We, as effective project managers, cut through the silos; we get disparate teams working together as colleagues; we help you achieve your business vision and strategy.
“Rachel is a full-of-energy, project-delivery professional. Rachel was not only tenacious, but a listener – and for such complexity, listening, digesting and then delivering were all skills in her capability tool kit.”
A Project Management Team that Gets Things Done
The only kind of project management you’ll ever need
We are a team of experienced project managers, led by Rachel Williamson, who has been driving change for over 25 years in various sectors including her own business and as a Program Director of a telecoms company. Our brand, MBRUK, represents a collective of skills and experience that you can depend on.
The vision for your project comes from you. We gather the technical elements from the assembled team. The delivery is our responsibility. We manage the schedule and the budget, provide motivation, direction, and leadership, and ensure everyone is aligned towards the same goal. Our priority is to identify potential bottlenecks long before they become a problem, facilitate collaboration within the project team, and ensure that everyone understands how their individual input contributes to project success.
As project management is our main focus, we are not distracted by the daily demands of running a complex business. We dedicate our time to integrating the various aspects of your project, delivering it with minimal fuss and maximum impact.
What customers and collaborators say about me
Previous projects brought to life
Examples of lasting and successful change
Migrating European financial call centres to a performance-boosting, cloud-based platform
An international financial institution, operating in nine European countries, had found a unified comms solution for its 900 staff. The plan was to move from its mixture of legacy on-premise and cloud PBXs to an 8×8 cloud-based UCaaS platform within a Citrix virtual desktop infrastructure.
Earlier attempts to migrate UK locations had not gone so well, and the teams at those locations had lost a little faith in the new technology. Since the institution relies on the one-to-one rapport it generates with its customers, it had to fix the issues before it could risk any further roll-outs.
The institution needed a dedicated project manager who could bring all the stakeholders and technological strands together, reignite passion for the solution, and create an environment in which success was the logical outcome. My task was to understand the technology, build camaraderie and a can-do mindset, and lead the team that would deliver success.
It was a steep learning curve for all of us, but our forensic and inclusive approach teased out the evidence that made the problems identifiable and fixable. Step by step, we rolled out to larger contact centres, resolving fresh issues at each stage until we could make the final, company-wide release that unlocked huge quality and
performance improvements.
Technical due diligence leads seamlessly to new system deployment
When Link Financial (Link), a major European finance house that relies on the telephone to support customers and provide first-class service, was evaluating the acquisition of BCMGlobal (BCM), a European loan servicer, it needed support. It called us in at MBR-UK to evaluate and understand how BCM’s systems operated and integrated with telephony. Link wanted to understand in detail what was in place and, more importantly, to know what was needed to successfully fulfil the needs of its teams. Following acquisition, we project-managed the decommissioning and installation of a new system in the first three of five locations. Full replacement took just eight weeks and achieved substantial savings. Throughout the process, we created comprehensive templates for system replacements, while working closely with the local teams to allow for seamless current operations and subsequent migrations following our exit. Planning and discovery: To understand how the sales and service teams operated across it’s four territories, we engaged with users through site visits and face-to-face conversations. We fully immersed ourselves in their style of operation. The result was a comprehensive and useable report that described the telephony upgrade requirements that would deliver maximum efficiency with minimum disruption. Project management and migration: Following due diligence, we were asked us to stay on to project-manage the migration from the old telephony systems to the new at three sites across the UK, Ireland and Italy. Our broad-ranging approach provided for a seamless transition and ongoing support. We covered everything from technology demonstrations and coaching to hand-holding and training for support teams to allow for ongoing operations. The entire end-to-end journey across all three locations took just eight weeks. During that time we deployed new equipment and systems, and achieved significant cost savings at each stage. Transition and exit We concluded our work by compiling a comprehensive suite of documentation for the client to complete the project seamlessly after we finished. The idea was to give Link everything it needed to continue supporting the newly migrated locations and to be self-sufficient over future system migrations at the remaining locations. So we provided cookie-cutter templates covering everything from equipment and suppliers, to the training and coaching tools that would enable maximum speed and efficiency of technology take-up. We wanted to leave our client feeling fully satisfied with the end-to-end project and services we provided. Testimonials “I had the pleasure of working with Rachel on a significant project, and I cannot recommend her highly enough … a driven and passionate project manager, deeply committed to the success of the projects she undertakes … Rachel demonstrated exceptional accountability, consistently holding our vendors to high standards and ensuring that the project stayed on track … One of Rachel’s standout qualities was her cost consciousness, and she diligently sought opportunities to save money without compromising the quality or integrity of the project … an invaluable asset to any team.” Indy Matharu, IT Director, Link Financial “Rachel is a super project manager, who has managed to deliver an extremely complex migration from
Getting a retail start-up connected and trading in record time
A retail business was eager to generate early sales by opening stores quickly and trading immediately. It did not want to wait for the installation of physical telephony services. The challenge was to develop and prove a concept for a cost-effective, telecoms and data solution with the capability for instant deployment. By bringing in all the technical teams early, I achieved exceptional collaboration and fast-tracked innovation. The result was a concept ready for multi-site roll-out to over 160 stores.
Design and delivery of a new business division
A complex project to create a new revenue source – a multi-million-turnover unified-comms operation – for an established mobile telephony business. The project required a new supplier-compatible billing platform and a full technical and support team. It also needed buy-in from the existing business to facilitate cross-selling. By 2021, the operation was generating over £3m a year and accounted for more than 30% of the business’s turnover. Customer-service levels across the business were so high, O2 named it Direct Partner of the Year four years in a row.
Deploying a new cost-saving WAN and voice network
A social housing charity needed to set up a new WAN with a larger capacity together with a new voice network and contact centre. The challenge was to do it without any downtime and before the current supplier’s contract ended. By pulling all stakeholders – multiple suppliers and the internal team – together, I made sure that everyone understood what was needed of them. As a result, we collectively delivered in full and within budget.
Regulatory upgrade to 20,000+ phone numbers
A household name in the insurance industry had to upgrade its 0845 numbers to meet a regulatory timescale set by OFCOM. This project was complicated by the fact that multiple departments used these numbers. To achieve success, all of them had to be brought on board. For efficiency, we broke the project down into phases aligned with business priorities. Under my project-management, all the numbers were changed on time, and the customer achieved regulatory compliance.
Speedy deployment of a multi-site contact centre
A UK energy company wanted to upgrade its existing unified comms voice platform to an omni-channel solution and create a single contact centre for its UK and South African operations. I had to complete the entire project within three months to generate the business benefits at speed. In this case, the project over-achieved. It provided all the required benefits – and more.