Background
A leading U.S.-based fiber network provider, known for its reliability across healthcare, education, and enterprise sectors, faced a pivotal moment. With rising demand for managed services, leadership launched an initiative to unify the business functions—Sales & Marketing, Engineering, Construction, Managed Services and Support—into a seamless, technology enabled operating model.
At a Glance
What Mattered Most
Design a future-ready operating model that aligns cross-functional teams, improves collaboration, and equips IT to support the full customer journey through integrated systems.
What We Noticed
Siloed operations created fragmented views of the customer, shaped by departmental boundaries. Due to ongoing restructuring efforts to support a new strategy, leadership had an opportunity to envision an unified operating approach.
What Changed
Operating Model
Integration diagram
initiatives added
to roadmap
Strategic Process
workshops
conducted
workshops conducted
Challenge
The CEO recognized that to scale effectively, the organization needed a unified operating model that aligned all customer-impacting functions and provided a single view of the customer journeys. Despite its strong market position, the company was constrained by fragmented operations and siloed teams. Resource limitations, post-acquisition integration challenges created challenges and bottlenecks. The goal: 1) break down silos, elevate collaboration, 2) deliver a command-view customer journey, and 3) prepare to execute a new 3 to 5-year strategic vision. Technology leadership also desired to leverage this opportunity to identify then fill gaps in its IT architecture.
Solution
We partnered with the executive team to design and implement a Target Operating Model that would align strategy, people, and technology:
- Led multiple functional workshops to map current-state processes and identify pain points
- Led collaborative design sessions to define the future-state operating model
- Partnered with IT to prepare for updates or changes required for handoff points
- Developed a transformation roadmap and high-level timeline to guide execution
- Monitored roadmap progress, crucial initiatives, and risk for updates to the senior team
- Promoted a culture of collaboration and transparency across Sales, Finance, IT, Engineering, Construction, and Customer Support
Outcome
For three months, we helped the organization attain clarity and innovate cross-functional solutions
- Enhanced cross-functional collaboration through integrated systems and shared goals
- Improved decision-making with a clear roadmap and visibility into strategic initiatives
- Streamlined operations by identifying process gaps and aligning IT capabilities
- Increased strategic visibility via a prioritized IT portfolio and executive alignment
- Faster, more informed decisions through a unified roadmap and shared accountability
- Stronger leadership cohesion with a common vision understanding of sister functions
Conclusion
The partnership positioned the company to be proactive in understanding the entire customer journey and resolving challenges of low cross-functional collaboration. With a unified operating model and aligned leadership, the organization was positioned to elevate its value to customers and support its growth strategy.
