Context
Carey Group is a Guernsey-based trust and fiduciary services provider with around 75 employees. They were relying on multiple aging systems for trust management, billing, and accounting—many of which were nearing end-of-support. Data was scattered across platforms, and billing processes lacked efficiency. Recognising the need for a modern, consolidated platform, Carey Group turned to CBO to help procure and implement a single solution.
Approach
CBO began with a thorough inception phase to clarify strategic objectives and outline high-level requirements. With that groundwork in place, the team organised a “beauty parade” of potential software vendors, ultimately narrowing the field to two contenders. Both vendors were invited to a paid discovery phase, which allowed them to refine pricing for a fixed-price tender and gave Carey Group insight into each vendor’s capabilities.
Following a structured procurement and evaluation exercise, NavOne was selected as the preferred solution. CBO then oversaw the implementation, guiding the project from inception through go-live and into a Phase 2 mop-up of outstanding requirements and reporting improvements.
CBO’s key differentiators included the careful, proportional application of best practice, as well as charging only for actual time spent rather than idle hours. Being local made it easy to collaborate with Carey Group in person whenever needed. The team ran formal monthly project boards and weekly informal team check-ins, supplemented by workshops to nail down requirements and reengineer processes. They even converted a main meeting room into a dedicated testing space for up to eight staff members, complete with progress updates and chocolate-covered coffee beans to keep morale high.
Impact
All targeted processes—client onboarding, timesheeting, invoicing, accounting, debt management, and reporting—were improved in line with initial objectives. Although there was predictable early-stage resistance from some users, CBO’s strong change management focus helped shift attitudes from cautious to enthusiastic in the months following go-live.
Beyond efficiency gains, the new solution enabled Carey Group to adapt their operating model and bring more support functions in-house, which delivered noticeable savings and boosted reporting capabilities. Additionally, Carey Group found the revised solution setup offered a more flexible framework for evolving IT needs beyond the immediate project scope.
Client Feedback
Carey Group were thrilled with both the end result and CBO’s delivery approach. They felt well-supported when vendor resource challenges arose, appreciating CBO’s commercial management skills in negotiating a robust contract with tangible remedies. Overall, Carey Group credits CBO’s industry best-practice approach—applied with pragmatism and a focus on collaboration—as a major factor in the project’s success.
