Aptus Strategy Consulting
324 South Elm Street, Suite 300
Greensboro, NC 27401
[email protected]
aptusstrategyconsulting.com
Case Study: Regulatory Compliance
SITUATION
The transportation industry is highly regulated and our client was faced with a short timeline to comply with a
change that impacted a fundamental tenet of their OEM business model: service delivery through their dealers.
In contrast to past requirements, regulatory compliance in this case did not involve only product changes to
improve emission reduction goal attainment. Rather, it required manufacturers to make available emissionrelated service information about their vehicles (including service manuals, technical service bulletins, on board
diagnostics descriptions, and diagnostic tools) to all service providers in the repair industry at a fair and
reasonable price – so-called “right to repair” legislation. At the same time, the requirement to share information
with 3rd-parties created a new type of commercial opportunity. This situation was different from previous
regulatory responses by our client and it would require close coordination of technical and commercial work
streams and stakeholders over a global span.
APPROACH
Like many projects, understanding the current state
Steering
Committee
is the first step. At the time of our engagement there
were already many eyes on the issue. Technical
was characterized by multiple participants lacking a
focal point for cross-functional activity. In other
words, “who’s got the ball?” was a big question. To
Project
Manager
Regulatory
Agencies
development was well on its way but the situation
Commercial
Work Team
Pricing
Engineering
Work Team
Industry
Associations
Regulatory
Affairs
IT
address this, three key coordination mechanisms
North America
Training
Sister Brands
Global
were put in place:

A Governance Model was established to ensure effective coordination and communication of activities
and decisions;

A Project Charter brought together the objectives, methodology, and responsibilities for common
understanding of all stakeholders; and,

A RACI matrix defined the specific roles and responsibilities of the ten disparate stakeholders.
Once these mechanisms were established, the approach turned to activity planning and execution. This effort
employed “classic” project management tools for activity planning:

A holistic timeline with milestones and critical path identification;

A single Activity Plan with activity descriptions, responsibilities, due dates, status, and complicating
factors; and,
Aptus Strategy Consulting
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Aptus Strategy Consulting
324 South Elm Street, Suite 300
Greensboro, NC 27401
[email protected]
aptusstrategyconsulting.com

Risk tracking including impact and likelihood analysis.
Execution, for some activities, simply included status monitoring and assistance or escalation of identified
obstacles. Oftentimes, the obstacles were not so “simple” since they extended into other departments that
required awareness and motivation in line with the project objectives. For other activities, we filled gaps in areas
such as benchmarking, opportunity identification, organizational design, regulatory submittals, and 3rd-party
web portal design.
The third and final step of our approach was a strong dose of effective communication. The importance of this
cannot be underestimated. Who, when, and what information to share were critical determinations. We
structured a communication plan around a regular cadence of internal and external information sharing
sessions, each with agendas specific to the task and audience.
RESULTS
There were several important outcomes to this work. First and foremost, failure was not an option – regulatory
compliance was achieved on schedule. The various work streams were aligned and joined to deliver a solution
accepted by state and federal regulators. This delivery included these four elements:

3rd-party access to information: Service Bulletins, Product Manuals, Schematics, and Recalls;

3rd-party access to diagnostic tools: Remote download of OE software, Developer specifications, and
Re-publishing license agreement;

3rd-party access to training: Model year-specific courses related to emissions equipment; and,

Service delivery descriptions: Process details using common scenarios and FAQs.
The second outcome was the realization of a new commercial opportunity. New revenue sources were enabled
with daily, monthly and annual subscription price levels set relative to value received and horizontal market
benchmarks. Care was taken to protect the preferred dealer channel and changes were implemented with their
awareness and agreement. Future revenue stream opportunities were also identified including partnerships
with independent service providers for expanded part sales, higher service contract support levels for existing
customers, and new account conquest opportunities with multi-branded fleets.
The third outcome was the establishment of work flows and organizational changes to ensure long-term
compliance. Aptus had filled a short term need but the compliance requirement extended beyond the project
end. Before this project, compliance was viewed as a cyclical need with ownership scattered across functions.
We secured acceptance for a recalibrated organizational design to enable proactive issue identification,
coherent strategy development, and response synchronization around future regulatory requirements.
If you would like to discuss this topic in more detail, please contact us at [email protected].
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