Case Study:

Driving Technology Business Partner Excellence

Our Client

The IT function within a leading long-term savings and retirement business.

Their challenge

To embed a business partnering approach focused on stakeholder engagement, strategic intervention, value creation and empowerment to strengthen business performance and growth.

Why they engaged us

Our deep expertise in business partnering and extensive experience in designing bespoke programmes to help technology leaders broaden their consulting and engagement skills made us the ideal partner.

Our Solution

We collaborated with senior stakeholders and IT team members to identify the priority development areas:

Building confidence and capability to act as true strategic business partners
Enhancing client relationship management and engagement
Improving communication and influence
Taking ownership for personal performance and development
Empowering individuals to lead others and drive success

Business Partner Consulting Excellence programme

We designed and delivered a three-month blended learning programme built around three key elements:

Senior leadership involvement – leaders attended select events and provided coaching support to ensure learning translated into workplace impact.

Targeted learning experiences – participants attended:

- Five in-person workshops – Kick-Off, Delivering Results and Engaging Stakeholders, Compelling Communication and Influencing, Impactful Presenting, and Showcase and Celebrate
- Six online Lunch & Learn sessions – Defining Value, Delivery Excellence, Building Confidence, Executive Reporting, Data Visualisation, and Business Cases

Sustained application – participants used SMART Action Planning guides to set personal development goals and embed new behaviours.

The programme combined practical tools, confidence-building, and real-world application to equip participants for true business partnering roles.

Evaluating outcomes

We evaluated the programme’s impact and ROI, through:

Immediate feedback – capturing participant satisfaction, content relevance, and engagement
Long-term impact assessment – measuring behavioural change and sustained effectiveness over time

Our Impact

A cohort of 20 selected senior leaders attended the programme, achieving the following outcomes:

Increased confidence, self-belief, and empowerment
Clearer understanding of what strategic business partnering means in practice
Increased personal agency to set agendas and drive outcomes
Adoption of a stakeholder-focused, value-add approach
More effective use of stakeholder communication and engagement to build credibility and advance initiatives
Consistent, structured delivery approaches driving efficiency and effectiveness
Enhanced stakeholder reporting through storytelling, improving clarity and inspiring action

Delivering results and sustainable change

Senior leadership observed a step-change in motivation and capability across the IT leadership team. The programme also provided practical tools and approaches that are now being cascaded across the function, accelerating the transition to a business partnering culture.