Designing an ERP System to Support Major Business Transformation
Iconic integrated communications agency, Ogilvy South Africa, has three offices and 900+ employees. In 2016 they embarked on the ‘Next Chapter’ and as part of this major business transformation program appointed Tangram to implement a new ERP system.

The Requirement
In selecting and implementing Deltek WorkBook, the agency was seeking to create a scalable system to support their growth and specifically:
- Reduce complexity and administration across the business
- Increase collaboration across departments and offices
- Improve their resource management capabilities
The Approach
- Tangram worked closely with key stakeholder’s across offices applying the UNCLE™ implementation process. The team designed workflows and processes to not only meet current business objectives, but also to scale with the growing business.
- Several unique system requirements were identified during the implementation process requiring Deltek WorkBook to develop new features to meet all of the agency’s needs. Tangram wrote the technical briefs, managed the development and tested the solutions on the agency’s behalf ensuring that robust and fit for purpose system solutions were delivered.
- The build and implementation was supported by data gathering sessions, MAPT™ business process mapping workshops, weekly status meetings, and the delivery of tailored on-site training and support sessions in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The Outcome
- A fully configured end-to-end project management system rolled out simultaneously to three office locations and 900 trained employees.
- Transparency across the business of employee utilization, capacity planning and resource management allowing for greater collaboration and sharing of resources.
“I worked with Tangram on our Transformation project and highly recommend Helen and the team to other agencies dealing with change. Tangram has been instrumental in the Ogilvy South Africa transformation process.
Their experience and knowledge of the advertising industry, operations and requirements definition has been the foundation of a successful project. Highly professional and skilled at converting complex requirements and technical design into functionality, Tangram’s detailed approach to business change is unique and reflected in all interactions with the team.”

"Tangram partnered with us on our implementation of Workbook beginning in 2016. The project was not simply an implementation but really entailed a comprehensive business reengineering element. WorkBook provided an integrated set of tools to support a much broader spectrum of our business which hadn’t been possible before.
Tangram and WorkBook were very careful to properly understand our business and lead us to a more optimal model for what is quite a complex business. The result now is a system which covers our whole business and gives full view down to deep levels of detail for those who need it.
There were a number of things we discovered along the way and were able to solve which we can confidently say were due to having a partner like Tangram. There was a quiet confidence in our engagements and we always experienced a careful attention to our needs built on first ensuring a full understanding.
One other thing we were grateful for was a proactive approach to some of our unique requirements and how they could be met. There were occasions when we’d be overwhelmed by what we saw as very complex issues and Tangram would carefully listen and then go away to try a few things and come back soon with an elegant and simple solution. This was always very reassuring and it also helped instil confidence in the system.
We firmly believe that a great part of the success of our implementation was due to partnering with Tangram and we’re very grateful to have this relationship.”

Previous
Next