TeamSnell Successfully Completes Cervantes Trophy, 200 Nautical Miles Left to Qualify for the RORC Rolex 2013 Fastnet

May 6, 2013 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

At 22:32 pm local time on Saturday 4th May TeamSnell crossed the Cervantes Trophy finish line at the entrance to Le Havre harbour. This gave TeamSnell its critical first 100 nautical miles towards a total of 300 that TeamSnell has to achieve in offshore races this summer to qualify for the RORC Rolex Fastnet 2013 race in August this year.

Organised by RORC, in association with the Société des Régates du Havre and the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS), the Cervantes Trophy race kicked off on Saturday 4th May from the RYS line taking the fleet across the channel to finish in Le Havre.

In strong thirty knot (Beaufort Force 7) winds TeamSnell, racing its’ Beneteau First 40.7 yacht Parallel Blue, had a good start and kept pace with the other 16 yachts in IRC Class II. The total entry comprised of 104 yachts with competitors from Belgium, Britain, France, The Netherlands and Russia.

TeamSnell with its Anglo Canadian Dutch crew was at a disadvantage from the start with the unexpected absence at the last minute of two of its key crew members. Dutch bowman, Jan Meijer, experienced logistical difficulties traveling from Amsterdam and the mainsail trimmer, Peter Buckley, fell ill on the eve of the race with suspected food poisoning. Despite this, and the rough sea state which had several crew members succumbing to severe sea sickness, TeamSnell completed the race in just over 12 hours finishing mid-class.

Watch leader and downwind helmsman Jeremy Millar, a former Canadian Olympic sailing team trialist commented: “this was an awesome first race for TeamSnell in challenging conditions. Our training to date has paid off and the team is really starting to work well together. Its a great base for all our crew and Skipper Ivan Snell. I am convinced we will do even better in the next qualification race at the end of May.”

Filed under: TeamSnell Sailing
Tagged:

Snell Consultancy Director – Guest Speaker at the SAP Magic Circle

March 14, 2013 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Today, Thursday 14th March 2013, in a session on programme implementation best practice Ivan Snell, Snell Consultancy Director, and Matt Dobbins, Head of SAP (UK) Consulting Services, spoke to an audience of over 100 SAP customers and partners on the benefits of programme quality gates, adopting a thorough testing approach and utilising early planning for testing entry and exit meetings. The venue was the Magic Circle’s infamous London headquarters close to Euston train station.

Ivan and Matt drew on their experience of recently delivering one of the largest ever global forecasting and planning implementations, utilising SAP’s Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) software application, to a UK based oil and gas UK based major.

Ivan described the critical decisions that were made to choose his clients implementation partner. “There was no way this strategic project for the Group Finance Head of Planning and Group Financial Controller could fail” he said. He continued: “Why would you not choose the company that wrote the software, as your implementation partner, provided you had the highest confidence it could deliver? The outcome was highly successful with the project being delivered on time, to budget, with the expected levels of data accuracy in the financial consolidated statements achieved”. He closed off the session saying: “The project has been highly acclaimed with industry recogn14thition and, of course, Matt and I have been rewarded with promotions in our respective organisations”.

Filed under: Project Delivery
Tagged:

TeamSnell Enters the RORC Rolex Fastnet 2013 – 11th August 2013

January 7, 2013 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Snell Consultancy is proud to announce that today it entered a yacht to race in the RORC Rolex Fastnet 2013, sponsored through the TeamSnell sailing brand.

Sunday 11^th of August 2013 will see over 300 yachts setting sail from the start line off the Royal Squadron at Cowes for the Western Approaches of the Solent before sailing along the South West coast of England, out into the Irish Sea to the famous Fastnet Rock and back to the finish four to five days later in Plymouth Sound.

“The RORC Rolex Fastnet is one of the most challenging and demanding yacht races in the world. Despite being held in the summer you never quite know what the UK weather is going to do and there have been some years with extremely severe weather conditions. Since the Fastnet disaster in 1979 all yachts and their crews’ safety equipment has improved without recognition and the race is now extremely professionally managed by RORC and the prime sponsor Rolex who stipulate mandatory training and pre-qualification criteria for all competitors. Even so, it is not to be taken lightly and the safety and security of the yacht and its crew will be paramount, not only throughout the race but also during the training and mandatory RORC qualification races” said Snell Consultancy director, Ivan Snell.

The Rolex Fastnet Race is the culmination of many months of preparation and planning; starting from today when the entry opens online, through qualifying and on to the day of the race itself. TeamSnell wishes all its fellow competing yachtsmen the very best of luck and fair winds this summer during the qualification races and the event itself.

Filed under: TeamSnell Sailing
Tagged:

SAP BPC Planning & Forecasting Business Transformation, Programme Managed by the Snell Consultancy, Awarded the Silver Award of the SAP UK and Ireland Quality Awards in the Large Implementation Category

January 6, 2013 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

A planning & forecasting business transformation programme which the Snell Consultancy programme managed for a global oil & gas company headquartered in London, UK, has been awarded the silver award of the SAP UK and Ireland Quality
Awards in the large implementation category.

Snell Consultancy director, Ivan Snell, seen here receiving the award with our client’s business and IT sponsors said: “we are delighted for our client that the programme has been awarded such an accolade and proud to have taken such a leading role in its successful delivery”.

Each year, SAP presents awards to recognise customers who have achieved excellence in planning and executing their SAP projects, delivering significant benefits to their organisations. SAP announced nine winners, who were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze accolades. Each winner showcased the quality processes they put in place during planning and implementation phases, clearly demonstrating how fundamental they had been to the overall success of the project, resulting in significant benefits to their businesses.

The judging panel was made up of representatives from SAP and external experts who judged against strict criteria including adherence to SAP’s Ten Quality Principles, demonstration of time-to-value and a focus of how quality excellence was achieved through the entire implementation cycle.

“Successful implementations require focus, direction and clear quality standards. These customer projects were not easy tasks and deserve the recognition they have received with these awards. These prestigious customers make the extraordinary look ordinary, excelling in execution and delivering significant business benefits,” said Tim Noble, Managing Director for SAP UK & Ireland.

Noble continued; “Through the SAP Quality Programme, we aim to work even closer with our partners and customers and ensure that their software implementations are successful, providing fast time to value. I would like to extend my congratulations to each and every one of the customers and partners we recognised through this programme.”

Final Preparation Over, One Week to Go to the Virgin Active London Triathlon 2012 and Almost £2,000 Raised for Sparks

September 16, 2012 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Snell Consultancy Director, Ivan Snell, completed his fourth and final`warm up’ triathlon, the Lidl BananaMan Triathlon, at the beautiful Eton Dorney Lake over the week end of the 15^th / 16^th September. He successfully completed the race, made up of an 800m swim, 31.8km bike ride and 7.5km run in just under two hours. This was the final event in a six month training plan to prepare Ivan for the Olympic distance at the Virgin Active London Triathlon 2012 on Sunday 23^rd September.

Speaking after the race Ivan said: “It went really well. I felt a lot more comfortable in the water than I did the last time I competed here in May. London is going to be a completely different event with so many people racing, there are over 500 starting with me in my wave, and the distances for the Olympic event are longer but it is really great to have now completed everything I set out to do this year in preparation for the big day. I have had amazing support also from my family, friends and work colleagues. We have nearly, so nearly, reached the target of £2,000 in sponsorship for Sparks for children’s health and there is still one week to go!”

Race	Finish	Swim	Cycle	Run	Overall Pos’	Cat’ Pos’
09-Apr-12 Thames Turbo Sprint Race #1	01:26:55	00:11:07	00:45:31	00:24:04	302 / 506	50 / 92
19-May-12 Eton Super Sprint	01:16:27	00:08:49	00:40:14	00:22:15	338 / 766	67 / 168
15-Jul-12 Upton Upon Severn Sprint	01:12:54	00:02:45	00:43:31	00:23:50	37/131	19/52
15-Sept-12 Eton Lidl BananaMan Sprint	01:59:37	00:16:42	01:01:43	00:35:36	124 / 271	19 /41

Ivan Snell is raising money for the Sparks for children’s health charity by racing in the Virgin Active Olympic distance (1,500 swim/40k cycle/10k run) London triathlon on 23^rd September 2012. He has been racing in a number of shorter distances `super sprint’ and `sprint’ triathlons this summer as training for the big event. For more information on Snell Consultancy charity fund raising please go here. For the opportunity to sponsor Ivan please visit his Sparks charity fund raising page here.

Filed under: Charity Fund Raising
Tagged:

SAP BPC Planning & Forecasting Business Transformation, Programme Managed by the Snell Consultancy, Selected as a Finalist in the BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards 2012

September 16, 2012 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

A planning & forecasting business transformation programme which the Snell Consultancy programme managed for a global oil & gas company headquartered in London, UK, has been selected as a Finalist in the BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards 2012 – Project Excellence Section. We are delighted for our client and for SAP that this programme has been selected as one of the finalists out of the 476 entries to this year’s Awards and proud to have taken such a leading role in its successful delivery.

It represents an extremely well deserved accolade for all three organisations. In the words of Stuart Sumner, Editor of Computing: “The UK IT Industry Awards are rigorously judged and to be announced as a finalist is a great achievement.”

David Clarke MBE, Chief Executive Officer, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, said: “Congratulations to the finalists; they can be proud of their achievements in reaching this stage of our prestigious Awards. Through the Awards we aim to demonstrate not only the innovation and professionalism of those working in IT but also the importance of IT in delivering business and social benefit.”

The BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards are a platform for the entire profession to celebrate best practice, innovation and excellence.

Global Energy Market Leader – Global SAP Business Objects Planning & Consolidation (BPC) Implementation, Finance Organisation

June 19, 2012 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Snell Consultancy is pleased to announce the live implementation of a business transformation programme for one of its global clients. The programme, delivers the next generation planning and forecasting solution for a global energy market leader. The solution took twelve months in total to design, build and deploy and is enabled by SAP® BPC™ 7.5 for NetWeaver, (a part of SAP’s Enterprise Performance Management, EPM, portfolio). BPC™ is now in live use by the global energy market leader’s community of finance planning and cost centre managers across five continents in over 25 countries. BPC will enable the organisation to accurately and effectively aggregate bottom up financial planning and forecasting data into a single version of the truth to inform corporate strategy and investor communications.

Snell Consultancy Director Ivan Snell managed the programme delivery involving a team of over fifty SAP specialist consultants responsible for the BPC™ solution build and integration, client and contract staff. He said: “this has been a remarkable achievement for everyone including our Blue Chip British client, a world leader in natural gas, SAP (UK) and the Snell Consultancy. At this time it is the largest SAP® BPC™ deployment in the world delivered with SAP as the integration partner. BPC replaces our client’s legacy solution with improved reporting capabilities and the benefits of a unified, predictive performance platform that delivers core business forecasting and planning process functionality and features from a single enterprise-scale application and database.”

Such large scale global programmes are highly complex and carry substantial levels of risk to the businesses that undertake them. Snell Consultancy’s provision of interim capability addressed the complexity and mitigated the risks through effective engagement with all impacted stakeholders, forming a strong integrated winning team, setting up an effective programme organisation governance structure and tightly managing the integration partner’s delivery against its’ contractual obligations.

Ivan Snell’s Training Pays Off with a PB Time at Eton Super Sprint Triathlon, 19th May 2012, and Over £1,000 Raised for Sparks

May 22, 2012 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

In only his second triathlon ever Snell Consultancy director, Ivan Snell, beat his previous triathlon `super sprint’ time by over ten minutes. The race took place on Saturday 19^th May at the fantastic Dorney Lake, which will be one of the venues for the 2012 Olympics.

Speaking about the race and his first open water swim in a lake Ivan said: “despite the new experience of swimming in the cold, twelve degree, water of Dorney Lake compared to the twenty-eight degrees of Hampton pool for my first tri, with no visibility and having to navigate my way amongst eight-four other competitors in my wave, I was out of the water quicker than my first race”. Ivan continued: “there were times, though, at the start of the swim, that the thought of quitting did cross my mind. I am glad I didn’t though as I finished in a much quicker time overall than my last warm up race and I knew I could not let down everyone who has sponsored me so far’.

Race	Finish	Swim	Cycle	Run	Overall Pos’	Cat’ Pos’
09-Apr-12 Thames Turbo Sprint Race #1	01:26:55	00:11:07	00:45:31	00:24:04	302 / 506	50 / 92
19-May-12 Eton Super Sprint	01:16:27	00:08:49	00:40:14	00:22:15	338 / 766	67 / 168

Ivan Snell is raising money for the Sparks for children’s health charity by racing in the Virgin Active Olympic distance (1,500 swim/40k cycle/10k run) London triathlon on 23^rd September 2012. He is racing in a number of shorter distance `super sprint’ triathlons this summer as training for the big event. For more information on Snell Consultancy charity fund raising please go here. For the opportunity to sponsor Ivan please visit his Sparks charity fund raising page here.

Filed under: Charity Fund Raising
Tagged:

Snell Consultancy Sponsors Entry to AAM Cowes Week 2011

May 17, 2011 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Snell Consultancy is proud to announce that it will be supporting the entry of a J109 into this year’s Aberdeen Asset Managment Cowes Week between the 6th and the 12th of August.

TeamSnell participates in a number of regattas and competes in events over the course of a year on various yachts but this will be the first time that it has supported an entry into the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week as it is now known. Ivan Snell, one of the founding directors of The Snell Consultancy said: “given the competitive nature of the J109 one design fleet in the UK and the new phase of the regatta with Aberdeen Asset Management onboard for the first time, this will really be a great event this year”.

There is the opportunity to join Snell directors, our key partners, customers and suppliers in sampling the traditions, charm and unique atmosphere of the World’s oldest, largest, most famous and most fun annual yachting regatta.

Filed under: TeamSnell Sailing
Tagged:

Social Computing Value Case

June 2, 2010 by Ivan Snell · Leave a Comment

Social Computing is firmly on the CIO radar but CIO’s are asking `Where is the Value?’

No one could argue that Social Computing is still a nascent technical or social phenomenon. Its evolution can, after all, be traced back the creation of bulletin boards. According to a recent research report, The Value of Social Media Report, published by Econsultancy, 81 per cent of the companies it surveyed expect their social media budgets to increase over 2010. Services such as Twitter and LinkedIn have become important platforms for businesses to build relationship with customers, generate feedback and market products.

The major technology providers all have established offerings now such as, for example: Microsoft’s newly launched Sharepoint 2010 which has a major investment in social computing; IBM’s Lotus connections integrated into multiple points of the IBM stack; and, Opentext with its acquisition of the Vignette Collaboration platform release 7.0. There are a host of specialist vendors out there too such as Jive, Telligent, Atlassian and Google.

The functional areas that Social Computing is comprised of can broadly be described as being the following:

Blogs – associated with corporate communications
WiKis – often used at project, department and divisional levels to build up information
Social Media – allowing end users to upload valuable lessons learnt
Forums / Discussion – enabling informal ways to build up self-help

Despite the seemingly numerous applications that Social Computing has in a corporate environment senior IT executives, continually under cost pressures, want to know what the return on investment is. As Stef Shoffren, of Avanade UK, commented during his presentation on `Social Computing in the Enterprise Comes of Age’ at the British Computer Society (BSC) that CIOs “want to know where is the true value?” He added: “to say, if you don’t start implementing [social media applications] you will not attract a new workforce into the company is not really a very compelling revenue case”.

The Social Computing Value Case

Borrowing from Stef Shoffren’s categorisation it seems sensible to assess the Social Computing value case from both the inside and the outside of the organisation’s firewall. i.e. supporting inward facing business processes and supporting outward facing business processes.

On the inside of the firewall the benefits of Social Computing can be attributed to the value of social community, ratings and commentary, and social unified communications.

The value of social community – relates to the knowledge locked up inside people’s heads. Providing the ability for people to describe their skills can help build a profile which is easily searchable. This enables the organisation to build more dynamic connections so its staff can easily find experts in the organisation.

Ratings and Commentary – such as tagging helps people find content and social bookmarking allows users to share, organise, search and manage resources.

Social & Unified Communications – feeds provide a way to deal with social overloads and provide up-to-second information on whom in a particular community, such as an on-line subject matter expert network, is immediately available on-line.

On the outside of the firewall it is easier to think about the use of social computing in the context of enabling new product development and design processes, customer service and customer fulfilment processes and those associated with the tactical marketing mix. The still emerging benefits of Social Computing centre on crowdsourcing and brand enhancement.

Crowdsourcing – the term crowdsourcing, coined by Jeff Howe and Mark Robinson in the June 2006 issue of Wired magazine, describes the web-based business model that harnesses the creative solutions of a distributed network of individuals through what amounts to an open call for proposals. The value to an organisation is immediately obvious. Some often cited benefits include, for example:

An organisation can tap a wider range of talent than might be present in its own organisation
Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly
By listening to the crowd, organizations gain first-hand insight on their customers’ desires
The community may feel a brand-building kinship with the crowdsourcing organisation, which is the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Brand Value Creation and Customer Acquisition – conversations are already taking place about an organisation’s corporate, product, service brands and if it can participate it can shape the outcomes. Above brand enhancement, social media provides a low cost, transparent and immediate way for organisations to reach their target markets. The question, as Steve Latham, of Spur Interactive, has pointed out is how an organisation sees the engagement process (visit, registration, participation, content creation and informing others) in terms of translating intent at each stage into a monetary value. He provides an extremely compelling case study of Sage Stores 500% ROI on its `back-to-school’ social networking site aimed at the underserved female teens markets.

Driving out the Organisation’s Social Media Strategy

Stef Shoffren, of Avanade UK, concluded his presentation by suggesting that “not a lot of Blue Chips had implemented social computing for a ROI – more for experimentation”. It would be extremely interesting to know on what grounds this conclusion is based on. Maybe the initial intent for the early adopter organisations is `experimentation’ not business case driven ROI which can be extremely hard to formalise for any emerging new technological innovation. Asking what the value of social computing is may not be the best question a CIO could ask. A better question might be; `given our organisations social media strategy, how can the IT function deliver the services to support it in the most cost effective way optimising existing platforms and new market offerings?’

Filed under: Social Media
Tagged:

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Pages