Transport Solutions: TCS Helps its Transformation to an Agile Enterprise

Transport Solutions was a global travel services company with headquarters in the United Kingdom (UK). It had a matrix organization design with 5 lines of businesses (LOBs or verticals) supported by 5 different business units (BUs or horizontals). However, with the entry of smaller and agile new players in the market around 2015, Transport Solutions started experiencing challenges. The organization followed a ‘waterfall’ model of software development with teams from different BUs contributing to the development in a systematic stage-by-stage process. This helped ensure high quality products and services. However, the downside was that the minimum time to market (cycle time from concept to reality) was 26 to 33 weeks depending on the complexity of the product. Everyone was busy doing the work as expeditiously as possible and there was no reason to believe that the cycle time could be reduced further.

The case focuses on the transformation of Transport Solutions from a siloed organization to an agile organization, and the assistance provided by TCS in facilitating the transition. It describes some challenges faced during the transition and the interventions by the management of Transport Solutions and TCS to address those challenges to successfully implement agile.