Vantage Group is a 200-person professional services firm that had built a strong market reputation over fifteen years. As the firm grew, the informal project delivery model that had served it well in the early years began to break down. With no standardized framework guiding how engagements were run, outcomes varied widely depending on who was leading the project — and senior leaders were spending an increasing amount of time compensating for the inconsistency.
Challenge
Vantage Group had built a strong reputation on the strength of individual client relationships, but as the firm grew, that model stopped scaling. Project delivery depended too heavily on institutional knowledge held by a small number of senior staff. New project managers had no consistent framework to work from. Outcomes varied widely depending on who was leading the engagement.
By the time Vantage engaged Meridian, project overruns were common, client satisfaction scores were declining and senior leaders were spending a disproportionate amount of time rescuing projects rather than developing new business.
Approach
Meridian spent the first two weeks mapping Vantage's existing project delivery process from end to end — interviewing project managers, senior staff and clients to understand where the breakdowns were happening. The findings pointed to three core issues: no standardized project kickoff process, unclear ownership of client communication at key milestones and no consistent framework for identifying and escalating project risk.
Meridian then designed a new project delivery framework built around four phases: scoping, kickoff, execution and close. Each phase was documented with clear ownership, defined outputs and escalation protocols. The framework was piloted on three active projects before full rollout.
Results
Project overruns fell by 62% in the six months following implementation. Average project delivery time shortened by three weeks. Client satisfaction scores, measured through post-project surveys, climbed to 91% — up from 74% the year prior. Senior leaders reported spending significantly less time in reactive mode and more time on business development and client strategy.
