How to Shift a Slow Company Into High Gear

Move, Inc., operator of the expansive real estate search engine for new home and rental listings as well as the popular site, Realtor.com, had acquired ten different businesses and needed to reconcile information management systems and integrate billing, order fulfillment, auditing, and revenue functions. Many consulting companies that had been previously brought in to fix the situation failed to do the job. Move Inc.'s high-powered board, comprised of Amazon's founder and top quality executives from Apple and Microsoft Corp's MSN business, sought an exceptionally talented visionary who was technically skilled and savvy at building a unified team. That talented visionary was Manish Bhansali. But cleaning up MOVE.com's systems and restoring credibility to the company was not going to be such an easy task.

The Move Board mandated that the financials needed to be improved and the system cleaned up and standardized across the different divisions of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). MOVE selected Oracle SOA Suite for the platform to unify customer information, integrate applications, and create a flexible architecture that could accommodate future applications. They then chose to team with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), a Diamond Level Partner in the Oracle PartnerNetwork.

Manish Bhansali presented his plan to consolidate, restructure, and implement a scalable back office structure to meet Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements and provide for future growth. Unanimously, the Board accepted the plan with a $30-million budget and stipulated that Bhansali would report directly to the executive steering committee comprised of CEO, COO, and CFO and he would provide periodic updates to the Board on the progress.

Not surprising, the greatest resistance came from managers who were comfortable doing things the way they had been doing them and viewed change as a direct threat to their operations. Undeterred, Bhansali defined the complex problem, designed solutions, and implemented strategies to put the company back on course. He reached out to the various groups, convinced them of the benefits to their operations, and secured their support. He selected eight direct reports and managed 250 on-site and offshore staff.

Bhansali communicated the strategic plans and weekly updates to the CEO, CFO, and COO. He developed a 5-year roadmap to support business development objectives. They slashed costs 75 percent by consolidating systems through technical migration and renegotiating contracts. They retired about 16 different systems they were using. They replaced a 300-person staff in India with 10 people working in California.

The new team reduced compliance costs by 80 percent by establishing automated controls and consolidating back office activities in an ERP system. They leveraged service-oriented architecture (SOA) to establish uniform advertisement, fulfillment, and back office platforms. In addition, they seamlessly migrated legacy applications and website without affecting the revenue stream. Prior to the implementation, it took several days to complete the billing based on the complex rules. It was reduced to just a few minutes, enabling timely recognition of revenue.

The improvements were so dramatic that in 2007 Oracle recognized Move, Inc. with the Oracle Excellence Award. Manish Bhansali is justifiably proud of the Excellence Award designation. MOVE.com is since stronger than ever with its stocks on the rise in 2012 and a strong forecast and a jump in demand for online services.

Karen L. Monsen is a freelance writer with over 20 years of experience working with business and technical professionals to improve their written documents and business presentations. Ms. Monsen spent the past eight years as a self-employed freelance writer and training designer and consultant. Prior to that, she worked eleven years for Franklin Covey Company and Shipley Associates as a Senior Consultant. In her previous nine years, she served as a Senior Training Specialist for Texaco's Comptrollers Department as they implemented a corporate-wide Total Quality Improvement Process and the Technical Training Coordinator for Getty Oil Company's Exploration and Production Technology Division. Most recently, she has been assisting Laurie Pehar-Borsh PR (LPBPR) in writing and revising resumes, bios, and career success stories to be used on social media profiles and business and personal Websites.