01 THE ENGAGEMENT AT A GLANCE

Business areas

Finance, commercial reporting and procurement

Engagement period

Approximately two years – Ongoing

Capabilities

Business intelligence, reporting, automation, data quality, continuous improvement and project management

Denova’s full-time employees work within the client’s teams, supporting both recurring operational responsibilities and defined improvement initiatives.

The organisation’s requirements covered several connected areas.

Its finance team needed to maintain monthly finance and commercial reporting while developing dashboards, improving data quality and introducing automation. Alongside this, transformation projects across finance and procurement required specialist input and coordination.

The organisation also needed cover for key roles during maternity leave.

These requirements called for different skills and levels of involvement. Some activities required continuing ownership and familiarity with monthly reporting cycles. Others needed focused delivery effort, specialist expertise or temporary cover.

The challenge was to bring those capabilities together in an arrangement that could evolve with the business.

Denova’s embedded model provided a practical way to access complementary skills within one continuing relationship.

The client could draw on colleagues working across BI, reporting, automation, continuous improvement and project management, with support shaped around its priorities.

The cost and flexibility of the model helped make a broad engagement sustainable. As requirements developed, the organisation could extend Denova’s involvement into additional activities and responsibilities.

This created room for the relationship to grow over time, with colleagues contributing to new work while retaining the knowledge they had gained from earlier delivery.

Denova colleagues became part of the client’s working teams, contributing to its priorities and developing an understanding of its processes, systems and expectations.

The client played an active role in making this successful. It treated Denova team members as colleagues, gave them context and empowered them to take responsibility.

That approach helped colleagues understand how their individual tasks connected to wider business needs. They could build relationships, ask informed questions and bring their experience into subsequent work.

Denova supported the relationship through the ongoing management, training and mentoring of its full-time employees. The client provided business direction and the environment in which those colleagues could contribute effectively.

The engagement’s success depended on both sides maintaining that commitment.

Over approximately two years, the scope grew to include a varied mix of reporting, systems delivery, automation, data improvement and operational cover.

As colleagues spent more time in the business, they accumulated knowledge of its reporting requirements, finance processes and transformation priorities. That knowledge remained relevant as they supported further initiatives and took on additional responsibilities.

The team’s contribution developed across both ongoing work and change delivery. Colleagues could help build a solution, understand how it was used and apply that experience to later requirements.

This continuing involvement allowed the relationship to develop beyond the value of any individual deliverable.

06 DELIVERY SUMMARY

What Denova colleagues delivered

Contribution during the engagement

Together, these activities demonstrate the breadth of support available through the engagement: specialist delivery, recurring responsibilities, improvement work and temporary cover.

07 BENEFITS

The benefits of the model

02

Flexibility as priorities developed

The engagement accommodated different types of demand, including ongoing reporting, defined implementation work and maternity cover. Support could develop as the organisation’s requirements changed.

04

Knowledge that continued to add value

Colleagues’ understanding of the business developed through their involvement in its operations and projects. That accumulated knowledge provided a stronger foundation for subsequent work and helped the team contribute with greater context.

05

Support across delivery and everyday operations

The engagement connected improvement activity with the recurring work of the finance function. Denova colleagues contributed both to building new capabilities and to carrying out the reporting and operational responsibilities around them.

The client’s willingness to empower Denova colleagues was central to the engagement.

By including them in the team, sharing business context and trusting them with meaningful responsibilities, the organisation created the conditions for them to develop knowledge and contribute over the long term.

Denova’s colleagues brought specialist skills, commitment and the ability to apply what they learned across a growing range of activities.

The result is a relationship in which the model’s cost and flexibility are strengthened by the way both teams work together. Over time, that combination has supported a broader engagement and an increasingly informed contribution to the business.

HOW WE CAN HELP

Looking to build capability across finance, Data & BI or procurement?

Talk to Denova about an embedded team that can support your current priorities and develop with your organisation’s needs.

01 THE ENGAGEMENT AT A GLANCE

Functions supported

Procurement, procurement systems and accounts payable

Engagement length

Just over one year and ongoing

Support provided

Procurement management, Zip improvements, approval controls, process governance and AP cover

Distinctive model benefits

Shadow buddy support, flexible deployment and returning colleagues who retain knowledge of the business

The client needed practical support across connected procurement and finance activities.

Within procurement, this included improving approval workflows and matrices, resolving system issues and making Zip work more effectively around the organisation’s processes. An embedded procurement manager also helped strengthen ownership, governance and coordination across the function.

Alongside these improvements, the finance team faced an urgent capacity gap when a critical AP colleague departed with limited handover. Essential processing needed to continue while the client addressed its longer-term staffing requirements.

The level and type of support required changed throughout the engagement. The client needed a way to respond to these demands while keeping expenditure aligned with available budgets.

Denova provided embedded colleagues who worked within the client’s teams, supporting daily operations and improvement priorities.

Because these colleagues are full-time Denova employees, the relationship extends beyond an individual assignment. Knowledge accumulated during a deployment can remain within the Denova team when the client’s immediate requirement changes.

In this engagement, colleagues worked with the client for around six months, rolled off for a few months as budgets became constrained, and subsequently returned. Their understanding of the organisation’s processes, systems and stakeholders provided a valuable foundation for resuming support.

The client could adjust capacity and expenditure while retaining access to people who already understood its business.

Denova’s shadow buddy arrangement added another layer of continuity. An assigned backup colleague learns the relevant processes, helping reduce dependence on a single individual and supporting cover in the event of absence or departure.

The engagement depended on close cooperation between Denova colleagues and the client’s procurement, finance and wider business stakeholders.

Our colleagues worked with the people using the processes each day to understand where requests stalled, which controls needed attention and how changes could fit the organisation’s needs.

This collaboration helped connect system improvements with practical operational requirements. It also allowed colleagues to build the context and working relationships that remained valuable when they returned to the engagement.

Over the course of the relationship, Denova supported several needs:

• Improving procurement operations: addressing workflow gaps, approval routing and issues within and around Zip.
• Embedding procurement management capability: providing ongoing ownership and supporting the development of clearer governance.
• Responding to an urgent finance gap: deploying AP support following the departure of a key team member.
• Adapting to budget constraints: reducing deployed capacity when required and bringing familiar colleagues back when support was needed again.

The value of the relationship grew through this combination of operational support, improvement work and continuity between assignments.

06 DELIVERY SUMMARY

What our team delivered

Value to the client

07 BENEFITS

The benefits of the relationship

02

Greater control over expenditure

Support could be reduced during periods of budget pressure and increased again when requirements and funding allowed.

04

Resilience around important roles

Shadow buddy support helped address the risk of essential processes depending entirely on one individual.

05

Value across connected functions

The relationship supported both procurement improvements and finance operations, giving the client access to a broader range of capabilities as priorities evolved.

The success of this engagement reflects contributions from both organisations.

The client worked with Denova colleagues to share context, establish priorities and make improvements practical. Denova provided people who took ownership, developed their understanding of the business and brought that experience back into later assignments.

Over just more than a year, the relationship has shown how flexible support and long-term continuity can work together. The client has been able to change the level of support it uses while continuing to benefit from the knowledge accumulated through the partnership.

HOW WE CAN HELP

Looking for procurement or finance support that can adapt as your requirements change?