Engineered scale for a challenger bank, enablin lending to grow from £1.8bn to £4.0bn+, deposits to £4.5bn, and profits to more than double.
Context & Challenge
King's College London, one of the UK's leading universities, needed to reposition IT as a strategic enabler rather than a back-office function. After years of constrained budgets, systems were fragmented with limited transparency on costs and value. With a new institutional strategy launching, King's needed an operating model that simplified overlapping systems and aligned digital investments with education, research, and societal impact.
Our Role & Approach
As the sole UK implementation partner of the Business Technology Standard, we partnered with the CIO Office to embed the BTS framework across the IT function. We facilitated collaborative workshops with IT and business stakeholders to build a shared language and structured approach to digital transformation. We applied service- and function-based thinking to rationalise systems, developed service product strategies aligned with business priorities, and introduced methods for activity-based costing and benefits realisation.
Key Outcomes Enabled
IT repositioned strategically: Shifted IT from a back-office function to a strategic partner embedded in the university's business strategy
Systems rationalised: Consolidated overlapping HR and finance systems, reducing redundancy and maintenance costs while improving staff and student digital experience
Value transparency achieved: Activity-based costing enabled granular tracking of IT spend and business value, improving investment decisions
Agile delivery accelerated: Incremental delivery models replaced waterfall approaches, accelerating time to value across digital initiatives
Sector leadership established: Positioned as BT Standard leader in UK higher education, prompting engagement from six other universities
