Global Excellence 2020

122 Acquisition International - Global Excellence 2020 30 Acquisition International - Issue 7 2020 Mar20137 Contact Name: Daniel Leakey Telephone Number: 07756247365 Address: 85 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 7LT Web Address: www.difrent.co.uk he Delivery business was founded by Rachel Murphy, Difrent aim to provide outcome-driven services to organisations to meet business and user needs. Rachel became frustrated by the approach of traditional consultancy firms and so with a fresh outcome- focused approach Difrent was born. By leading innovation in business change the firm help flip organisations on their head so that creativity and excellence become synonymous with the services provided. To start Daniel gives us a brief overview of the firm and the clients with whom they typically work with. “Difrent is a digital and business change professional services company with clients across central and local government, healthcare, emergency services, defence and the charity sector. We make a positive impact on the lives of citizens by helping organisations create clear problem statements for their challenges, identifying their users’ needs and agreeing on a clear brief with our clients for desired outcomes. Putting our clients first to deliver the best possible service will remain a key tenement of everything we do. “With our client The British Psychological Society, we took a ground-up approach to their business change programme and started by using tools such as Wardley Mapping to establish situational awareness and create an evidence-based roadmap. We introduced the best practices to their internal teams such as ITIL for the management of their IT department and GDPR compliant data policies and processes. Once we agreed upon the areas of the business that needed improvement, we embarked on the largest programme of transformation in the 120- year history of their organisation.” Working in such a competitive industry means the firm have to be innovative in their approach in order to offer a unique selling point to their clients as Daniel explains further. “As a small (but fast growing) company, we can provide a bespoke service to all of our clients. With dedicated delivery and business change managers leading each of our projects along with our teams we are confident we can remain one step ahead of the curve. At the centre of our work, we focus on excellence in service design, intelligent procurement and delivering on outcomes”. “Our industry has faced many challenges; however, we have addressed some of these by trying not to be rooted in just one location. We have our head office in London, but this is largely administrational and our hub locations in Newcastle, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester and Blackpool provide us with bases to co-locate with our clients.” T Based in London and Newcastle, Difrent are experts in digital transformation delivering business efficiencies to their clients since 2017. Recently, we got in touch with the firm’s Director, Daniel Leakey to find out more about the remarkable accomplishments Difrent has achieved throughout the years. 2020 Award for Excellence in Digital Transformation Solutions - UK As for the working culture in place at Difrent, the firm want their employees to be themselves, as Daniel is keen to point out. “We have a very inclusive, open and transparent culture. As a diverse company, we value our people and with 50% of our leadership team identifying as LGBTQ+, 30% as female and 36% as BAME, we are proud of the opportunities we provide to people from all backgrounds.” As a people-first business the staff of Difrent play a key role in the success of the firm as Daniel goes on to explain. “We have a very flat company structure; our CEO holds virtual open- door sessions every month where everyone in the business can log on and ask her anything. With weekly updates, our teams are kept informed of everything we are working on and we have monthly town hall meetings where our people get to share the work they are doing with the rest of the company. People are measured on what they do and how they do it and we encourage and support development throughout, in fact half of our directors were promoted from within.” Finally, Daniel commented on the future of the firm and what’s in store for 2020 and beyond. “We are taking our business change products and services to the market this year. This is an exciting time for us as these are innovative and accessible ways for our clients to engage with us without needing to make large investment decisions. Through our situational awareness mapping service, we will also be able to help our clients plan their strategies more efficiently. Our internal recruitment team have always been an essential part of our business. They work with our business development and delivery leads to ensure we have the highest possible calibre of people joining the firm. Going forward we will look to grow this team as we expand.” 2020 Award for Excellence in Digital Transformation Solutions - UK