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Case studies / College of Law
The College of Law is the largest provider of practical
legal training in Australasia and one of the oldest and most respected in
the common law world. In its 30 year history it has trained over
20,000 students, currently educates more than half of Australia’s legal
graduates each year, and offers more than 100 seminars as part of its
continuing professional education program.
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Neville Carter, College of Law Managing Director, said
that the College had been looking for a way to strengthen internal
processes, “We were gearing up for a national and regional expansion
supported by a central services hub, and I was concerned that our internal
systems were not portable or robust enough to support that.”
The College decided to implement ISO9001, both to improve
its internal systems, and also to provide an example to law firms of the
benefits of quality system implementation.
“Frankly, I was surprised at how effective the program
was. We had a noticeable lift in our annual staff morale survey.
We also managed to reengineer a number of processes,” said Carter. |
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"Everyone here has been
affected."
Neville Carter, Managing Director
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“And there have been major external benefits; it has
allowed us easier access to several Federal Government programs, and helps
us to differentiate ourselves from other providers, such as universities.”
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There had been two false starts: one in the late ‘90s,
which used internal resources but failed to achieve the momentum needed to
sustain it, and another unsuccessful attempt later which used a quality
consulting firm. The College then engaged Realisation.
Rob Hale, Corporate Services Director, said that
there were numerous areas where more process rigor provided
benefits. “Our old purchasing process was that purchasing ‘just
happened’. There were no particular problems caused by that,
but we have now rationalised purchasing so that we can gain quantity
discounts - we expect to be able to measurably reduce our costs just
through this one action.
“Realisation has taken us light years ahead - what
they’ve done is fantastic for the College. Our processes are now
visible, and reflect what people actually do. The corrective action
system had made everyone here in effect accountable to everyone else, which
is a major cultural change.” |
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"Realisation has taken us
light years ahead"
Rob
Hale, Corporate Services Director
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Perry Andronos, Director of IT and Organisational
Development, said he was impressed with the Realisation methodology:
“Realisation immediately set out to understand our business, and they
achieved that understanding very very quickly. They took a practical
and people-centered approach, and identified what was really important.
I was delighted.”
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The executive management of The College had concerns about
the cost of the exercise, but at the end of the day they decided to go
ahead. “I’m glad we did,” said Andronos. “Now we’ve
been through it, I can’t imagine how we got by before. The benefits
we are seeing now are enormous, in terms of consistency across business
units, our ability to institute and control change, and a marked reduction
in our operational risks and costs.”
Andronos has this to say about the improvements:
“Something nearly miraculous happens when you get a documented common
understanding between people who work together. Without that, you get
constant disagreement and confusion about policies and processes.
I’m delighted to say that this kind of confusion has all but disappeared
at College of Law. Realisation has delivered a fundamental change in
the way we work together.”
MD Carter agrees, “Everyone here has been affected.
Realisation have converted a number of people to thinking in terms of
process capability, which is a vital insight. There’s a lot of pride
here in what we have achieved.” |
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"... delivered a
fundamental change in the way we work together."
Perry
Andronos, Director of IT and Organisational Development |
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