Bev Parry

Established and developed the project management function to align with the strategic direction of the company, introducing best practice project management within the organization.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer for Business Services, a key SUEZ R&R UK Board member.

Leading a geographically dispersed team of ~17-20 Project Managers, Business Analysts and Mobilisation & Business Improvement specialists in a direct and matrix management environment.

Managing an annual operating budget of £1.2m and a project portfolio budget averaging ~£10m, with benefits varying by project.

Key Achievements:

• Recruited and developed a highly competent team of project professionals to deliver strategically aligned, business led projects across the diverse Recycling & Recovery business in the UK using a variety of agile and waterfall methodologies
• Introduced and embedded project management principles, guidelines, methods, processes, and governance
• Developed and established the concept of a ‘change plan' which I am the overall budget-holder for - annual budgets range from £5m to £17m, depending on business priorities and strategic direction
• Raised the profile of Project Management to ensure transparency of projects across the organisation, driving discussions and decisions at Board level on resourcing (£ and people) and prioritisation

Key Projects / Programmes:

• Led a significant programme spanning 9 functional areas to separate the R&R UK business from SUEZ Group following acquisition, including integrated IT system separation
• Integration to IT systems and management of change following merger and acquisition activities
• Replacement of an end-of-life procurement system with a world class Purchase to Pay system - Coupa
• System development, implementation, and mobilisation of new residential collection services contracts
• End-to-end Customer Relationship Management through the implementation of Salesforce and interconnected systems
• Selection and delivery of new Fleet and Transport Management systems and processes
• Development of a solution which enabled the collection, billing, and disposal of excess weight in bins
• Implementation of SAP Financials and circa 100 interfaces to downstream systems

Leading a team of 41 Centrica employees in several sites across the UK and 18 indirect employees in India, providing business critical reporting and support across all levels and areas of the FCA regulated British Gas Residential Services businesses, allowing true visibility and informed business decisions.

A member of the British Gas MI Leadership Team, reporting to the Director of Management Information.

Managing an annual operating budget of £2.25m plus a change plan budget of circa £0.25m.

Key Achievements:

• Played a key role in the definition of the strategy and roadmap for MI across British Gas, taking the lead on defining the Technology strategy with Information Systems and Data Insight teams
• Led the transition of the British Gas MI reporting estate, consisting of 200 operational and performance reports, following implementation of a new SAP CRM system
• Provisioned an offshore function for British Gas Residential Services MI, contributing to a benefit of £1.2m per annum
• Developed rationalisation plans to reduce the reporting estate by circa 20% within 1 year, enabling greater focus on partnering with the business to capitalise on value adding opportunities
• Introduced change management principles and guidelines to ensure appropriate understanding, assessment, business prioritisation and implementation of changes to the MI estate
• Ensured the provision of regular and ad-hoc reporting, analysis, and insight to support the business in assuring and demonstrating satisfactory performance, as well as compliance to the FCA and other regulatory bodies
• Tangibly improved accuracy of the reporting estate, with a key focus on executive and external reporting

Transformed an existing administration-focused team into a respected authority on Project & Portfolio Management, driving performance through the definition and implementation of appropriate governance and controls frameworks, standards, processes, and tools.

Reporting to the Head of IS Performance and leading a team of 4 direct reports.

Key Achievements:

• Key role in the definition of the strategy for the Three-Year Change Plan for Centrica Energy IS, whilst conducting rigorous review and challenge of the in-year delivery schedules and priorities with senior sponsors
• In-year Change Plan forecast brought back into line from £33m at LE3 to an actual spend of £25m at year end
• Established a cross-business unit Portfolio Management Office within Centrica Energy IS
• Sponsored the development, implementation and roll out of a new Project & Portfolio Management tool (Clarity) across Centrica Energy IS
• Introduced financial and delivery performance reporting and controls across the change portfolio

Led the assessment, approval, and delivery of a complex portfolio of circa 134 change projects totalling approximately £90m, tracking to ensure financial and commercial priorities were delivered.

Developed processes, governance frameworks and systems to enable their effective management and communicating what the governance and process requirements were to circa 100 change professionals.

Reporting to the Head of Change and leading a team of 4 direct reports.

Key Achievements:

• Streamlined and simplified the Prince2 based Project Lifecycle Framework in British Gas Residential Energy
• Improved efficiency of the Portfolio Management team by 25%
• Developed a project resourcing model to enable effective management of assignments and workload, implemented across circa 60 personnel and 100 change plan projects
• Introduced processes and reports to enable more effective management of the change portfolio

In my earlier career, I held roles as Business Systems Manager (Large Systems), Project Manager, Business Analyst, Customer Service Manager and Administration Assistant in businesses across the Centrica Group.

Key Achievements:

• Managed a programme to remove duplicate systems following the world's largest SAP for utilities and Europe's largest Siebel implementation (at that time), managing a budget of £3.3m and realising benefits of £10m per annum
• Stabilised a complex and interdependent suite of large systems to introduce resiliency. Working around the implementation of the billing system replacement programme and achieving a cost reduction of £4.3m
• Direct and matrix management of internal teams and external suppliers to successfully deliver a variety of complex projects and programmes, combined team size ranging from circa 10 to 150+
• Planned and implemented a number of high-profile IT projects to support time-critical energy price changes, while delivering parallel projects to enable the introduction of innovative marketing propositions. Reduced the time needed to effect systems changes by 50%
• Managed business readiness activities for British Gas' first ever (2002) domestic gas price increase
• Played key roles in acquisitions, and the identification, planning, and implementation of subsequent merger activities