Three-month mobilisation of a large Train Operating Company

The Client

The client was the successful bidder for a large train operating company.

The Challenge

The franchise award was announced later than expected, giving the client only three months to mobilise. The client needed to:

• find suitable office space and accommodation for around 100 people, near the incumbent franchisee;
• resource the team;
• manage two clients; and
• re-map part of the franchise.

Why CAS Max?

We had worked to secure the franchise, managing the bid and contractualisation phases of the project. So we had a deep understanding of the details of the bid, and could match this with previous successful mobilisation experience.

What did we do?

We needed to work quickly and efficiently to meet the mobilisation deadline. The plan, risks and assumptions were developed with the Workstream Leads and then presented to all stakeholders for sign off.

The programme was managed on a strict weekly cycle with weekly detailed reviews and updates of the programme plan, assumptions and risks. These were discussed at internal governance meetings and presented weekly to both clients and other interested parties.

We made sure that the newly-appointed team understood the scale of the task and worked together to ensure we met all of our commitments..

The Outcome

The franchise was awarded its certificate of commencement prior to the Start Date along with evidence of all Start Date and pre-Start Date obligations.

After the franchise began, we managed the contributions to the client’s lessons learned. All internal lessons learned were captured through a questionnaire and workshop for future mobilisations by the parent company.