Insight Specialty Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive for Project Strategies Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide Strategic Planning, Organization Change Management and IT Project management consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Insight Specialty Consulting to accomplish?

• Provide Senior Business Analyst skills and experience to complement our team on a 2-year, $1m consulting engagement for a provincial government initiative.
• Provide stakeholder communication, organization change management and business modeling expertise to the project.
• Provide specific insight regarding the industry environment and challenges the provincial government faced over the span of the project to expand government services in a critical industry.

SOLUTION

How did you find Insight Specialty Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Insight Specialty Consulting over others?

• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Insight Specialty Consulting were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Organization Transformation and onboarding roadmap 
• Project Management - status reports, risk management 
• Communications Planning and Communications content Management Resource planning and estimating Budget planning and estimating HR organization modeling

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The Executive Director in charge of the project valued our expertise and contribution to the project's success. All our fixed deliverables were produced on time, within budget and were accepted by the client.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Insight Specialty Consulting worked with me to manage different aspects of the project for the client. DR. H's deliverables were professional, complete and thorough, and DR. H and colleagues were respected by the client for their professional expertise contributions.

What was your primary form of communication with Insight Specialty Consulting?

In-Person Meeting

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

DR. H is intelligent, highly accomplished and certified in multiple management consulting methods. She brings industry experience, management consulting tools and strategies, project management skills and methods, and organization change experience to any project. In addition she bring a social social awareness and emotional intelligence to any team and to the clients' circumstances. She is an excellent leader, but can also play a defined role with any high-functioning team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Insight Specialty Consulting could have done differently?

Dr. H constantly strives for her own self-improvement, professionally and personally. She is able to take and give advice candidly to her team-mates and able to change tactics, strategies and profile of talents as client needs evolve over the length of a long engagement. So, no - I could find nothing on that engagement that Dr. H could have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive officer at REIBC, which is a member-based organization for people who work in real estate. We have realtors, appraisals, tax consultants, developers, property managers, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Insight Specialty Consulting?

We needed business consultation services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Insight Specialty Consulting does consultations and helps us with different processes. They deal with chapters throughout the province, and they’re able to facilitate and lead us through a discussion that gets us to the final output.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Mandy (Principal). However, our board usually gets involved, so in total there are 13 people working on the project; 12 board members and me.

How did you come to work with Insight Specialty Consulting?

Mandy is a member of our organization, and she understands who our company is. When she started Insight Specialty Consulting, I knew she was a project manager, but I wasn’t sure what she did. We put out an RFP and she had the best response. She drew us to the realization that she’d be able to lead us through what we needed.

In addition, we both have a RI designation, which is a symbol of quality real estate knowledge, experience, and professionalism.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in September 2015. Nevertheless, I still reach out to Mandy very often to have a conversation and get a different perspective.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We had good conversations before the project started, so Mandy totally understood what we were trying to accomplish. Mandy is an intelligent person and it’s refreshing to have someone who you can speak to and get what you need. It’s hard to bring someone in from the outside who doesn’t know us as well as she does.

How did Insight Specialty Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Insight Specialty Consulting performs extremely well for project management. The communication is always open and honest. Mandy is able to ask very pointed questions that we have or haven’t thought about, and she understands the processes. 

She's very clear about being respectful towards one another and is very upfront about that. When things get heated, Mandy calms it back down, which is a great project manager skill. We appreciate it because the entire board can be emotional sometimes.

Mandy is knowledgeable, and she’s able to determine things from a very logical perspective. She can see what’s happening with governance and where we aren’t engaging our members. She’s also very methodical and down-to-earth. I’ve heard from others that she easily adapts to where and what she needs to do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mandy’s knowledge and education stand out; she has her Masters and is working on her Ph.D. The team thinks outside the box, gives us recommendations, and makes us look at things from a different perspective — Mandy really impresses me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing Insight Specialty Consulting could improve on. The reports that come out are good, along with the information. I’m totally satisfied and there’s nothing I can complain about. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and honest; tell Insight Specialty Consulting what you need.