Investment Bank Faster Delivery
Northern Trust successfully accelerated cloud adoption, delivered a critical project within 100 days, and fostered a cultural shift toward collaboration and continuous improvement.
Case Details
Client: Northern Trust
Date: 2019
Tags: Faster Delivery, Financial Services
Project Duration: 4 Months
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The Background
The European CIO of Northern Trust, a financial institution with over 130 years of heritage, recognised that competitors were leveraging Public Cloud technologies and Agile methodologies to meet evolving client demands. These innovations were providing a distinct competitive advantage, enabling rivals to respond with greater flexibility and speed.
If left unchecked, Northern Trust risked falling further behind, struggling to match the capabilities of its competitors and attract top talent. The European CIO concluded that immediate action was essential – they had to act now to implement a new bold strategy or be eaten by competition.
The brief was:
- Accelerate delivery through the adoption of public cloud.
- Help teams to embrace appropriate agile working practices across EMEA, to accelerate delivery.
- Assess and hack the culture to enable more collaborative ways of working.
The Solution
With support from Adaptavis, a new cross-functional team was formed, aligned towards a common goal of building the Transfer Agency platform within 100 days.
To meet the ambitious target within a tight deadline, the approach combined training with on-the-job coaching to ensure practical application and immediate impact. This strategy fostered a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging teams to identify new opportunities to accelerate delivery. By visualising work, showcasing progress, and amplifying successes, the initiative not only drove momentum but also reinforced a shared commitment to achieving the goal.
The Outcomes
Client Testimonials
As a result of this work, Northern Trust has a good understanding of what faster delivery looks like from both a technical and a cultural perspective. This has enabled us to unblock technology limitations in a way that was not previously possible.
