~ 4 min read
Marlborough’s independent leadership, experience and positive energy restored control, rebuilt confidence and accelerated delivery, securing a seamless go-live and significant, lasting benefits on a high-risk global outsourcing and process optimisation programme.
Posted Nov 7, 2025
Critical transformation to modernise global settlements operations was faltering (£50bn in daily transactions)
12 months behind schedule, escalating costs (£1.5M/month)
Pressure to decommission legacy IT
Low confidence/ high risk
Seamless go-live & uninterrupted service
Enhanced customer experience & operational performance
Significant cost avoidance & reputation protected
Client upskilled/ lasting capability
A leading global wholesale bank, processing over £50 billion in daily trades and 20,000 SWIFT payments, embarked on a major business process and IT transformation to modernise its settlements operations and transition critical services to a new outsourced delivery model.
The programme aimed to modernise global settlements operations, maintain service continuity and optimise business processes while implementing new systems and infrastructure to enhance performance and customer experience, all under tight regulatory and operational constraints.
The transformation faced several significant challenges:
Business Processes & Operating Model: fragmented legacy processes.
Technology Fragmentation: outdated architectures limiting agility & interoperability.
Customer Experience: increasing risk of service instability and reduced resilience.
Data Silos: dispersed data restricting insight & decision-making.
However, the transformation had fallen significantly behind schedule and confidence across teams had eroded. The programme’s scale and sensitivity were significant, incorporating the transformation of mission-critical systems and processes, handling £50bn of transactions daily. Failure would have carried severe operational, financial and reputational risk.
Initially engaged as Agile Coaches, including as Lead Agile Coach through the organisation’s adoption and success with Agile ways of working, Marlborough had already established a proven reputation for partnering with client teams to deliver outstanding results while upskilling permanent leaders and teams.
We were subsequently appointed by the Chief Operating Officer, working in partnership with the Head of Business Operations, to intervene on this mission-critical transformation: To achieve a successful go-live that was, at the time, seen as possible but not probable.
Marlborough deployed a senior team. Our role evolved rapidly from advisory to hands-on leadership, bringing the experience, structure and positive energy needed across stakeholder groups to restore control, rebuild confidence, accelerate delivery and ensure a seamless go-live on this high-risk global outsourcing and process optimisation programme.
Injected transformation leadership & reestablished control: simplified complex governance & introduced a single transparent plan tracking progress and risk.
Created executive visibility: replaced inconsistent supplier reporting with fact-based reviews & daily checkpoints, giving leaders confidence in delivery.
Aligned all stakeholders: strengthened collaboration between business, operations & service provider teams around a shared plan for success.
Restored delivery discipline: established focus & injected pace to deliver against target outcomes and expectations.
Injected pace & energy: embedded agile ways of working through daily stand-ups, dashboards, and focused planning sessions.
Restored prioritisation discipline: helped teams differentiate critical issues from background noise, ensuring effort aligned to business value.
Created delivery rhythm: introduced visible metrics, rapid risk escalation & resolution to achieve momentum.
Energised teams: fostered collaboration, trust and a shared sense of progress across teams (client across functions, system integrator & service-providers).
Clear Go/No-Go decision-making: identified the need for, challenged & defined clear Acceptance Criteria that were executive-friendly, setting out the required levels of Connectivity, Functionality and Service to guide readiness decisions.
Replaced uncertainty with confidence: ensured everyone understood what was required to deliver, go live, and operate effectively post-implementation.
Applied proven tools and techniques: used Marlborough’s tried-and-tested approaches alongside client processes to drive accountability and manage dependencies on the critical path.
Led cutover strategy and planning: designed and governed the end-to-end cutover playbook, including dress rehearsals and validated roll-back capability.
Ensured rigorous testing and readiness: coordinated business, IT and service-provider teams through multiple testing cycles to confirm system integrity, data accuracy and operational readiness.
Provided hour-by-hour cutover leadership: taking ownership & instilling necessary control & confidence.
Enhanced go-live critical care: led activities to strengthen business readiness for a smooth transition to new services and processes.
Ensured post-go-live stability: directed stabilisation through dedicated response teams, enhanced monitoring & controlled releases.
Protected service continuity: led a seamless transition to business-as-usual operations with zero business interruption.
Strengthened client delivery capability: supported permanent teams with practical tools, templates and disciplines for ongoing use.
Benefits realisation: setup basis for tracking & driving benefits and celebrating success.
Marlborough leadership alongside our client was instrumental in achieving major business transformation success.
Global Head of Service Architecture
Achievements included;
“In a very difficult situation, you’ve brought order and progress, so thank you.”
Head of Finance
“All the great things that got done, you were there for most, if not all of them. We definitely wouldn’t have achieved them without you.“
Chief Operating Officer (COO)