When delivery confidence drops, or transformation stops connecting to practical business outcomes - that is usually when I get the call. ERP, CRM and digital transformation across manufacturing, public sector, healthcare and financial services.
"If any of these sound familiar, tell me what's happening."
Get in TouchGraham D. Rae Associates provides interim programme leadership at board and C-suite level. I am typically engaged directly by the CIO, CTO or FD, brought in at points of complexity - when a programme needs a steady hand, a go-live is at risk, or transformation has stopped delivering against the business case.
Founded and led by Graham D. Rae - Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Chartered IT Professional (CITP), with accredited memberships across marketing, interim management, computing, engineering and board-level leadership. An unusual combination of independently assessed credentials across all three professional disciplines - engineering, IT and marketing.
"Enough years to have seen most programme problems before. Still hands-on enough to help fix them."
I work directly with clients, alongside consultancy partners, and through interim engagements - whichever model best suits the organisation and the brief. Where a programme calls for specialist skills beyond my own, I bring in trusted delivery partners rather than carrying a bench of permanent staff. The operating model is flexible. The approach is not.
Call it interim, consultant, contractor - the label has never much mattered. Here to fix the problem, not worry about what is on the business card.
Charterships
Professional Memberships
Twenty plus years in, the certificates confirm the standard. The track record is what actually gets programmes delivered.
Having sat on the technical, commercial and delivery sides, I also manage the joins between the internal team and the supplier - where assumptions and expensive mistakes appear. On one ERP and CRM programme, that caught £30,000 of unnecessary change before it was built and billed.
70% revenue growth on a board-approved e-commerce programme. Zero service disruption across 4,000 housing properties. Not activity measured in tasks completed - business results measured in numbers that hold up in a board pack.
Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional. Both independently assessed against recognised professional standards. That is why clients trust the judgement, not just the job title.
Manufacturing, public sector, financial services, charity, global NGO. Different regulatory environments, different stakeholder structures, same pattern recognition applied and the same standard of delivery.
Available for genuine Outside IR35 engagements, running my own limited company - not managing a plan on someone else's behalf, but operating with the same commercial accountability a business owner carries. That changes how risk, scope and stakeholders get handled.
Not every engagement starts from scratch. Some begin with broken supplier relationships, lost governance, or stakeholder confidence already gone. Wherever the programme is when I arrive, the job is the same - get it back to a state where the plan can be trusted.
From programme recovery and stabilisation to full end-to-end transformation across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central, Field Service and beyond.
Brought in when a programme has lost direction and nobody is quite saying so out loud. Restoring governance that actually makes decisions, and momentum the business can see.
Client-side leadership across the business, supplier and technology on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Business Central and Field Service implementations. Challenging requirements, design and delivery decisions before gaps become expensive changes.
A system going live is not the same as change being delivered. Connecting people, process and technology so the investment actually produces the outcome it was built for.
Applying the same governance, adoption and business-value discipline to Microsoft Copilot and AI enablement that should apply to any other technology investment.
Programme governance design, PMO establishment and board-level reporting. Finding out what is really happening, which risks actually matter, and what the board needs to know before it becomes a surprise.
Making sure the business is ready, not just the system. Cutover planning, UAT management and hypercare that stand up on the day, not just on paper.
All engagements are anonymised or referenced with permission. The outcomes are real. Click any case to expand.
Business Central ERP & CRM Sales - two-year engagement - fixed go-live
A UK manufacturing business required full ERP and CRM replacement - moving from legacy systems to D365 Business Central and CRM Sales. Complex CPQ configuration, multi-site operations and a fixed go-live deadline.
Led end-to-end programme delivery across ERP, CRM and CPQ workstreams. Managed migration of 10,000 contacts, coordinated UAT, cutover planning and go-live across production and sales. Delivered Copilot AI enablement alongside core implementation.
Full go-live on the fixed deadline. 50 users live across sales and manufacturing. CPQ operational from day one. Business performing on the new platform with full hypercare through stabilisation.
Programme recovery & operational handover - 4,000 properties - fixed contractual deadline
A London borough required recovery and handover of a complex 16-year PFI Housing Management contract - 4,000 properties, 2TB of legacy data across 40+ sources, four external suppliers and a fixed contractual go-live that could not move.
Led programme recovery from point of instability. Rebuilt governance, re-engaged 20+ C-suite stakeholders. Managed full data migration into Northgate ERP/CRM and Oneserve FSM. Coordinated 50 TUPE staff transfer with day-one working capability.
Full operational handover on the fixed contractual deadline. 4,000 properties live. 50 TUPE staff transferred with day-one capability. Zero disruption to housing services across all workstreams.
Stalled CRM implementation recovered and delivered - complex stakeholder environment
A major national charity had a stalled D365 CRM CE and Adobe Campaign implementation. Delivery had lost momentum, governance had broken down and the MSP supplier relationship had deteriorated significantly.
Rebuilt governance, re-engaged stakeholders across Business, IS, CISO, Marketing and GDPR functions. Realigned MSP supplier contracts. Managed POC, pilots and 4TB legacy data migration and ETL reconciliation.
Programme delivery restored. D365 CRM CE and Adobe Campaign live. Stakeholder confidence rebuilt. Data quality assured at go-live through rigorous migration and reconciliation.
Board-approved business case - 70% revenue growth - fixed go-live
A financial services organisation required a mobile-optimised B2C e-commerce warranty platform delivered within global banking governance. A £2M board-approved business case with a fixed commercial go-live date.
Developed and owned the £2M business case through board approval. Led end-to-end delivery across platform design, development, integration and go-live - navigating complex global banking governance while maintaining commercial pace.
Platform delivered on fixed go-live. 70% customer revenue increase achieved post-launch. Business case outcomes met and evidenced to board.
4,000 users - 100 sites - international programme delivery
A major international humanitarian organisation required a global digital platform rollout across 100 sites and 4,000 users worldwide. Complex international stakeholder environment and varied infrastructure conditions.
Led international programme delivery across 100 global sites. Managed distributed teams across multiple time zones, coordinated local implementation partners and maintained governance across a complex international stakeholder structure.
Global platform successfully rolled out across 100 sites and 4,000 users. Local operational capability established at each site with training, support and handover.
Built from experience of what goes wrong on programmes - and what good looks like. Use them to understand where you are before picking up the phone.
15 questions across six areas: people, scope and delivery planning, risk and reporting, go-live and hypercare, technology, and data. Instant RAG status and health score, with prioritised recommended actions. Print or save as PDF to share with your SRO or board.
Run the Health Check17 questions across People, Process, Technology, Data and Commercial. Find out in 2 minutes whether you're ready to shortlist suppliers, compare the market, or need to close gaps first. Print or save as PDF.
Use the Online Tool13 questions across sponsorship, capacity, data, governance and delivery readiness. Identifies whether your programme has the foundations to deliver, or whether the gaps are already forming. Print or save as PDF.
Take the Assessment12 questions across leadership, use cases, data readiness and people. Helps your organisation understand where it sits on the AI readiness spectrum, from unaware to actively deploying. Print or save as PDF.
Take the AssessmentScore your programme initiatives against 14 weighted categories. Adjust the weights to reflect what matters in your organisation. Priorities calculate automatically. Used on live programmes to align stakeholders and manage scope.
Use the Online Tool Download Excel - prefer to work offline or share with your team? Download the Excel version.I operate across three routes to market - whichever model best suits the organisation and the brief. Available for genuine Outside IR35 engagements.
Not every programme problem needs a six-month interim. Sometimes a few days of experienced, independent challenge is enough to establish what is really happening and what needs to happen next. If it needs someone to stay and sort it out, I can do that too.
Working directly with the organisation from brief through to delivery. Full accountability, clear scope, measurable outcomes.
Embedded alongside or behind an existing consultancy engagement - bringing programme leadership where it is needed most.
Through interim agencies and managed service providers - available immediately, proven from day one, outside IR35.
Before you approve the change, accept the supplier's answer, or commit more money - an experienced independent view can be worth having.
The questions clients and search engines both ask most often.
A programme health checker is a structured assessment tool that evaluates the health of a programme or project across key dimensions such as people, process, technology and data. It produces a RAG status (Red, Amber, Green) and health score to give programme managers, sponsors and boards an honest, structured read on delivery confidence.
An interim programme manager provides experienced, temporary leadership for complex programmes, particularly those in recovery, at risk of failing, or approaching a critical go-live. They take accountability for delivery, restore governance, manage stakeholders, and ensure the programme has the structure and momentum to succeed.
RAG status stands for Red, Amber, Green: a traffic light system used to report programme health. Green means delivery is on track. Amber means there are risks or issues requiring attention. Red means the programme is in distress and requires intervention. A fourth status, Black, is sometimes used to indicate a programme in crisis where delivery to the current plan is not realistic without significant intervention.
Programme recovery is the process of stabilising and redirecting a programme that has gone off track, typically due to scope creep, poor governance, stakeholder misalignment, data problems, or supplier issues. It involves diagnosing the root causes, restoring confidence, re-baselining plans, and putting the programme back on a credible path to delivery.
Hypercare is the intensive support period immediately following go-live of an ERP or CRM system. It involves elevated levels of technical and business support to resolve issues quickly as users begin working with the new system in live conditions. Clear hypercare exit criteria, defining when the programme can stand down from elevated support, are essential to avoid open-ended commitments.
An Outside IR35 engagement is one where the contractual terms and actual working practices support a genuine independent business-to-business relationship rather than employment for tax purposes. Status is determined for each individual engagement. For clients, this typically means working with an independent professional who operates through their own limited company, providing flexibility and access to experienced interim talent.
Whether your programme needs clearer direction, calmer delivery, or reconnecting transformation to operational reality - feel free to get in touch directly. Every message gets a reply, usually within 24 hours.
Clarity. Communication. Control.