CASE STUDY · BUS FRANCHISING & OPERATIONAL READINESS
Greater Manchester &
Liverpool City Region
Connecting transport policy with the operational, technology and supplier readiness needed to implement bus franchising.
The delivery challenge.
Bus franchising changes how services are commissioned, governed and operated. Implementation depends on more than the policy decision: operations, customer services, fares and ticketing, finance, depots and supporting systems need to work together.
Across Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region, Stephen’s assignments focused on translating that complexity into coordinated readiness and delivery activity, making requirements, responsibilities and dependencies clear.
TfGM: Bee Network readiness.
At Transport for Greater Manchester, Stephen supported business readiness and testing for the Bee Network bus reform programme. The work connected operational requirements with the readiness of technology and supporting services ahead of the transition.
- Coordinated business readiness and testing activity across interconnected operational and technology areas
- Worked across customer, finance and operational systems, including Dynamics 365, SAP and vehicle-location and passenger-information systems
- Helped teams identify readiness gaps, dependencies and the evidence needed to support implementation decisions
LCRCA: mobilisation and systems coordination.
At Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Stephen brought experience from the Bee Network transition to the bus franchising programme. The assignment covered mobilisation and operational readiness before expanding into IT workstream leadership.
The work connected operational and technical stakeholders around the future service requirements, the scope of supporting systems and the activity needed to prepare for implementation.
- Led the IT workstream and clarified systems scope and implementation-planning requirements
- Mobilised business analysis and supported business requirements and process-mapping workshops
- Coordinated operational and technical stakeholders, workstream interfaces and technology dependencies
- Supported future-state operating model development and operational readiness activity
The practical contribution.
The two assignments brought programme discipline to the connection between service design and implementation. They helped make operational requirements, systems scope, workstream dependencies and readiness gaps more explicit, giving teams a clearer basis for planning and decision-making.
This experience informs Three Oaks’ approach to complex transformation: connecting specialist workstreams, coordinating delivery partners and helping sponsors understand what needs to be ready before change can be implemented.
About this experience.
These were assignments undertaken by Stephen Wiseman before Three Oaks Consulting was incorporated. They are presented as the founder’s professional experience, rather than as Three Oaks commissions.
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