International SOS: Platform Product Management

ISOS Workforce Resilience Platform Playbook

Research on Platform Transformations

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ISOS Workforce Resilience Platform Playbook

A comprehensive plan for building a world class product platform that exceeds customer expectations

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View Executive Summary⁠

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Overview

International SOS is embarking on a transformation initiative to consolidate its portfolio of 52 products and services onto a unified digital platform that will improve customer engagement with workforce resilience capabilities.

This project plan provides a comprehensive blueprint to guide teams in executing this complex undertaking focused on elevating the employee and customer experience through an integrated offering delivered on a robust, cloud-based platform.

The plan covers business context and vision, implementation strategy, workstreams, roadmap, governance, risks, communications, change management, and success metrics. It draws on proven practices for large-scale product and platform consolidations, tailored to International SOS's specific environment and constraints.

By following this detailed plan, International SOS can minimize disruption for customers globally while executing an incremental transition that retires legacy systems and redundancies over an approximately 18-24 month timeline.

The result will be a simplified product portfolio unified through shared services and data models that enhances value for employees and customers alike. International SOS will emerge with a modern tech stack primed for agility, innovation, and accelerated growth in fulfilling its purpose of safeguarding clients’ employees worldwide.

The plan provides concrete guidance, but it is intended to be a living document refined as lessons are learned through execution.

1. Business Context and Vision

Establishing the strategic rationale and objectives for the transformation initiative

Statement of Purpose

This project aims to consolidate International SOS's portfolio of 52 disconnected workforce resilience products into a unified digital platform. This transformation will simplify and improve the experience for employees and customers by providing integrated capabilities through a single access point.

Overview of International SOS

International SOS is the world leader in medical and travel security risk services. The company has over 12,000 employees operating in 1,000 locations across 90 countries. International SOS assists organizations in protecting their global workforce wherever they travel or work. Services range from 24/7 medical and security assistance to advisory services and training.

Strategic Goals of Transformation

Simplify access to International SOS's capabilities through a unified digital platform

Improve employee productivity and satisfaction by reducing toggling between systems

Enhance customer experience and engagement with seamless integrated workflows

Increase operational efficiency and scalability with consolidated infrastructure

Accelerate innovation velocity on a modern tech stack

Reduce costs by sunsetting redundant offerings and consolidating tooling

Desired Future State

Key benefits of the consolidated platform:

Single sign-on access for customers to all offerings

Intuitive navigation and workflows for employees and customers

Integrated assistance for seamless end-to-end service delivery

Modern, scalable architecture to enable rapid innovation

Consolidated data and insights for proactive risk management

Reduced overhead through retirement of redundant offerings

This future state delivers simplicity for employees and customers while positioning International SOS for accelerated growth through improved agility and efficiency.

Benefits of Consolidated Platform

For employees:

Improved experience via seamless access to integrated capabilities

Higher productivity via simplified workflows

Increased satisfaction through modern interfaces and tools

For customers:

Unified access to International SOS service offerings

Streamlined assistance and service delivery

Improved risk management through integrated data/insights

Easier administration with one platform

For International SOS:

Increased customer engagement and loyalty

Faster innovation cycles and time-to-market

Reduced costs through platform efficiency

Stronger competitive differentiation

Key Terms

Workforce Resilience: Ability to anticipate threats, adapt to changing risks, withstand disruptions, and rapidly recover.

Assistance Services: Advisory, operational and rescue services for health, safety, and security risks.

Digital Transformation: Using modern digital technologies to radically improve performance and reach.

2. Strategy

Defining the long-term platform vision and key decisions shaping the implementation approach

Long-Term Vision

The long-term vision is for International SOS to become the leading integrated digital platform for workforce health, safety, and security. This platform will provide comprehensive capabilities to organizations seeking to build workforce resilience.

Key elements of the vision include:

Becoming the undisputed market leader in workforce resilience solutions

Leveraging an integrated platform model for much greater scale and growth

Providing the most complete and proactive risk management capabilities

Embedding International SOS assistance into customer workflows globally

Utilizing data-driven insights to predict and mitigate risks before they occur

By consolidating point solutions into an integrated suite and extending reach through digital channels, International SOS can achieve this bold vision over the next 5 years.

Defining the Market and Constraints

The market for workforce resilience solutions is highly competitive with point solutions across medical, travel, security, and insurances services. Key constraints include:

Competitors owning niche capability areas

Customer reluctance to adopt new workflows and platforms

Technical debt and fragmentation from years of accumulated complexity

International SOS must thoughtfully consider these constraints while radically simplifying and improving its offerings through the transformation initiative.

Key Decisions

To enable the platform vision within marketplace constraints, International SOS needs to make key decisions including:

Build a custom platform for maximum control, flexibility, and differentiation

Utilize external partners selectively for acceleration or specialized capability

Take an incremental vs. big bang approach to minimize customer disruption

Invest in change management and communication to drive adoption

Maintain legacy systems and redundancies during transition period

Build in-house expertise in modern software architecture and development

By making bold bets coupled with mitigating transition risks, International SOS can deliver substantial value to customers and employees through the transformation.

3. Budget & Cost Rationalization

Outlining the the costs and strategies for maximizing value

Complexity Analysis

A thorough analysis will identify and quantify areas of unnecessary complexity that generate excess cost across the 52 disconnected products. This includes:

Overlapping and redundant product capabilities

Customer and usage data for niche products with limited adoption

Customizations driving disproportionate support and maintenance

Multiple disjointed systems generating technical debt

By assigning tangible cost figures to different forms of complexity, the transformation initiative can target high-value simplification opportunities.

Identifying Hidden Costs

In addition to the above visible sources, a diligent analysis is required to surface hidden costs of complexity, including:

Allocated overhead for maintaining low-volume niche products

Higher testing and compliance costs from fragmented systems

Duplicate development, security and UI/UX work across products

Lost opportunity cost from technical debt and disjointed architecture

Shedding light on these less visible costs further builds the case for consolidation and helps shape infrastructure simplification strategies.

Cost Reduction Strategies

Specific approaches to drive cost optimization through simplification include:

Sunset redundant product capabilities and service offerings

Consolidate business logic, data, and architecture across products

Reduce customizations through platform standardization

Streamline tooling, systems, and workflows

Leverage shared components and APIs for reuse and consistency

Insource specialized capabilities previously provided via partners

Substantial cost reduction and efficiency gains can be realized through simplification. Annual cost savings targets should be defined and tracked.

Financial Governance

Establish a fiscal management framework and controls for the transformation program budget

Conduct regular reviews of project accounting, actual spend versus budget, and realization of cost savings

Provide financial transparency through regular financial reporting and cross-functional visibility

Implement approval processes and decision gates for significant expenditures

Monitor realization of cost reduction targets and adjust strategy as required

Institute an internal auditing process to ensure diligent fiscal governance and accountability

The transformation will involve major budgetary commitments that require robust financial oversight and controls to ensure resources are utilized effectively. Rigorous financial governance will provide the transparency and discipline needed for fiscal responsibility and realization of projected cost savings.

4. Workstreams

The scope, objectives, risks, and plans for core capability areas

(a) Architecture & Technology

Defines the technical strategy and infrastructure for the new platform

Objectives

Design a scalable, flexible, and unified platform architecture

Modernize technology stack to enable velocity and innovation

Establish core services, APIs, and components for reuse

Migrate product data and traffic incrementally to new architecture

Decommission legacy systems after migration

Scope

Evaluation of current solutions and technical debt

Definition of target architecture and technologies

Development of shared core services and platform foundation

Data migration planning and execution

Creation of standards and guidelines for engineering teams

Incremental migration of products/capabilities to new architecture

Requirements

Scalability to support high-demand scenarios

Flexibility to support rapid iteration and innovation

Security and compliance for sensitive applications

Integration capabilities to connect internal and external systems

Reliability and monitoring to maintain 24/7 operations

Cloud-native design for agility and total cost of ownership

Constraints

Incremental migration to minimize business disruption

Maintaining legacy systems until replacements stable

Coordinate extensive integrations across products/partners

Avoid huge upfront capital investments

Partial retention of legacy systems where needed

Risks

Significant technical debt accumulates during migration

Legacy architecture fails before migration complete

Scope creep from absorbing adjacent capabilities

Underestimating effort required for incremental migration

(b) Information Architecture

Streamlines and structures data and content for findability

Objectives

Simplify and optimize IA for finding, understanding, and using information

Standardize taxonomies, navigation, labels, and metadata

Improve findability of capabilities for employees and customers

Overview

1. Business Context and Vision

Statement of Purpose

Overview of International SOS

Strategic Goals of Transformation

Desired Future State

Benefits of Consolidated Platform

Key Terms

2. Strategy

Long-Term Vision

Defining the Market and Constraints

Key Decisions

3. Budget & Cost Rationalization

Complexity Analysis

Identifying Hidden Costs

Cost Reduction Strategies

Financial Governance

4. Workstreams

(a) Architecture & Technology

(b) Information Architecture

(d) Data & Integrations

(e) Development & Testing

(f) Program Management & Governance

Wave 1 - Build New Platform Foundation

Wave 2 - Migrate High-Value Capabilities

Wave 3 - Sunset Redundant Offerings and Legacy Systems

6. Governance

Governance Priorities

Governing Bodies

Tracking and Oversight Processes

7. Risks and Mitigation

Risk Management Approach

Top Risks

Mitigation Strategies

8. Communications and Change Management

Communications Plan

Communication Delivery

Change Management

Preparation and Assessment

Stakeholder Engagement

Reporting and Analysis

A. ‘Working Backwards’ Press Release

B. Additional Resources

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