Projects

We have managed projects and assignments for a range of clients from small businesses to large government departments.  Our particular focus is on providing project management and business consultancy services.  Past projects and assignments include:

• Budget reviews and cost containment strategies;
• Efficiency reviews and business process improvement;
• Effectiveness audits and programme reviews;
• Project review and project management;
• Programme management;
• Market research;
• Business case development;
• Investment options analysis;
• Organisational design;
• Change management;
• Competitor intelligence;
• Benchmarking;
• Review and redesign of financial accounting processes (AR, AP, credit etc);
• Business process design and redesign and implementation;
• Workflow analysis;
• Strategic and business planning;
• Conversion of goals and objectives to operational plans;
• Health sector processes and systems
• Earthquake engineering and emergency management;
• Information system requirements analysis;
• Information systems design;
• Stakeholder consultation;
• Software testing;
• Data migration.

Sectors within which Hague has provided services include:

• The Health and Disability sector including ACC, Ministry of Health, District Health Boards and providers;
• Core public service including Department of Conservation, Department of Labour, Ministry of Health
• Earthquake engineering and emergency management including Earthquake Commission, NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering;
• Tertiary Education sector including Wellington Institute of Technology and Whitireia Community Polytechnic
• Banking and Finance including BNZ, Colonial, National Bank;
• Transport including TranzRail
• Information Technology solutions, Human Resources and Recruitment, Training

Hague has implemented information systems from many IT vendors including:

• The Simpl Group Ltd
• ERM Live Limited
• Cortell
• Sequel Software Ltd (now Red Rock Consulting)
• Cobek Software Ltd

Our clients trust us to deliver high-quality project management and consultancy services.  The depth and breadth of our in-house expertise plus our strong network of experienced independent consultants ensure we continually meet this demand.

We offer our clients a commitment to quality by:

• Investing our time to understand their aims, needs, issues and bounds
• Providing a pragmatic approach to a successful solution
• Ensuring we deliver measurable results
• Always offering value for money

Case study 1 - Programme management - new information system in health sector

The National Needs Assessment and Service Coordination Information System – ‘Socrates’

From 2006 to 2008, the New Zealand Ministry of Health funded the development of a web-based National Needs Assessment and Service Coordination (NASC) Information System.  It was named ‘Socrates’.  This is the first national database of disability support services in New Zealand, and quite possibly the first in the world.

The Needs Assessment and Service Coordination agencies are known as NASCs.  NASCs facilitate a process with a disabled person and their family to identify their strengths and disability support needs.  They give information, plan supports, and provide access to supports including family and community supports and those funded by the Ministry.  Socrates collects information from the 15 Ministry of Health-funded NASCs and stores it securely in a central database.  Relevant information is in turn sent to the Ministry of Health’s payment processor, HealthPAC.

Hague Consulting Limited’s role as Programme Manager

Hague Consulting Ltd was contracted by the Ministry of Health to manage the Socrates programme.  This included the work to design, develop and implement Socrates and the new data standards and business processes required.  Hague provided the following services from a Programme Management Office and test lab at its premises in Thorndon, Wellington:

• Programme management including ROI, RFP, stakeholder consultation, planning, monitoring and reporting, risk and issues management, project management of projects within the programme of work
• Specialist services including requirements gathering, initial business analysis, data cleansing, data migration, software development for data migration, data migration testing development of health sector compatible data standards, management of application user acceptance testing, liaison with software developer, project management of these packages of work
• Planning, organisation and running of stakeholder consultation workshops, regular stakeholder communication

Why was this information system required?

Up until Socrates was developed, the 15 NASC information systems were primarily provided details of services to be funded to the Ministry of Health (HealthPAC) and recorded very basic details about clients.  Each NASC operated a separate standalone database.  The information collected in the separate NASC databases was not comprehensive or in a standardised forma.  It was of limited use to the Ministry in defining the demographics of clients and the services they receive.  Recording the information and sending it to HealthPAC was based on a combination of paper based and electronic methods.  This process was labour intensive and could result in data errors and data loss which directly impact on provider payments. Hague recognised this problem and designed an improved process and provided requirements for a system to support that process.

What does Socrates do?

Socrates collects and stores accurate information from each NASC and sends relevant parts of this information electronically to the provider, and to the Ministry of Health.  This benefits providers, NASCs, and DSD.  It also helps reduce the number of provider invoice lines rejected by the Ministry of Health's payment systems due to data errors.  In particular Socrates:

• Creates a common database of people with disabilities receiving DSD-funded support services
• Records consistent information in the common database, on the needs assessment and service coordination information for people with disabilities and the costs of services delivered
• Creates clear audit trails for DSD-funded disability support services
• Generates reports for both DSD and NASCs to assist budget forecasting and service planning
• Delivers electronically validated information to HealthPAC in order that payments can occur.

The Socrates system was built from scratch by The Simpl Group Ltd, a software services company that have developed a number of innovative solutions in the healthcare industry.

Case study 2 - Project management HRIS implementation

In 2008/2009 Hague project managed the client side of a new payroll system for the Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec).  Hague also provided consulting, business analysis, process design, data migration and software testing services.  WelTec selected ERM Live as its new Human Resources Information System (HRIS) in 2008 and chose to implement the payroll module as the initial step towards its first integrated HRIS.  WelTec chose the relatively new software provider primarily for its workflow-based approach.  ERM Live is based on the Microsoft CRM platform with an interactive kiosk function for staff to view and update details.  ERM Live provides WelTec with many features not present in its legacy software and careful analysis and data migration has been necessary to achieve the benefits of the project.