The context

A mid-sized retailer, squeezed by falling margins and tangled processes, had launched a patchwork of initiatives across business units — many overlapping or even conflicting. Employees felt they were “running like headless chickens.” Seeking a coherent, company-wide program that matched strategic goals and delivered measurable impact, leadership engaged a consulting firm for a 14-week transformation-plan sprint focused on four outcomes: cost control, revenue growth, organizational efficiency, and accelerated technology adoption.

During the engagement the firm validated core data, mapped end-to-end workflows, and captured insights through 15 stakeholder interviews and four cross-functional workshops around topics ‘increase revenue’, ‘maintain cost base’, ‘how to get better organized’ and ‘how to get the full benefits of technology acceleration’. The result was a two-year roadmap of 22 sequenced projects, each fully costed, resourced, and dependency-mapped.

Although the firm's delivery team — three analysts, four subject-matter experts, and a project manager — met the technical scope, the client felt short-changed. Analyst fees seemed excessive. And knowledge transfer fell short. Consequently, they questioned the project’s price, timeline, and overall value, leaving trust in the firm visibly eroded.

Challenges

• Margin erosion, fierce competition, and inventory issues out of control
• Prior big-firm engagements failed: expensive, junior-heavy, limited senior involvement
• Constrained budget, but urgent need for clarity and execution support

Approach

• Ran a rapid, vendor-neutral diagnostic to frame issues, prioritize levers, and draft a project charter (objectives, scope, KPIs, governance)
• Matched specialist firms and freelancers to each workstream
• Assigned a project manager to coach client teams and oversee providers daily.
• Ensured accountability and delivery through continuous side-by-side PMO

Outcome

• Coordinated program with clear accountability and the right expertise at the right time
• Transparent delivery and faster results, without big-firm overhead
• Client gained control, speed, and confidence, with every euro tied to outcomes, not excess staffing

Elevant.AI Approach

The context

CMB.TECH is a fast-growing pioneer in the energy transition, driving innovation across three key divisions:

• H2 Industry, focused on converting diesel applications such as ships, tugboats, trucks, and gensets into hybrid diesel-hydrogen or diesel-ammonia solutions.
• H2 Infra, developing hydrogen and ammonia production and distribution infrastructure.
• Windcat, operating crew transfer vessels for offshore wind farms.

As the company rapidly expanded its activities, its strategy and operational processes evolved organically, in a pragmatic and entrepreneurial way. This fast-paced growth created the need for a more structured approach to strategy execution, business process design, and digital transformation.

CMB.TECH sought to professionalize and digitalize its operations by introducing advanced management solutions — such as a manufacturing execution system for H2 Industry, maintenance and operation platforms for H2 Infra, and crewing and planning management tools for Windcat.

To ensure coherence, speed, and alignment across divisions, CMB.TECH used the Elevant.AI solution to support this strategic transformation.

" Thanks to Elevant.AI, we were able to sharpen our strategy and define our new processes in a couple of weeks instead of months. "

Jef Van de Mosselaer
Program Manager CMB.TECH H2 Industry

Challenges

• Rapid growth across multiple divisions created heterogeneous and non-standardized business processes.
• Lack of unified strategy and end-to-end visibility over operations and project execution.
• Urgent need to introduce digital management solutions across industrial, infrastructure, and maritime operations.
• Limited internal bandwidth to drive the transformation while maintaining day-to-day operations.

• Need to accelerate the project timeline without compromising quality or stakeholder engagement.

Approach

The following steps were executed with the different methodologies available in Elevant.AI. 

• Conducted a rapid AS-IS analysis to map existing processes, organizational roles, and information flows.
• Structured and facilitated strategic alignment workshops to refine and strengthen the company’s overall transformation roadmap.
• Designed the TO-BE processes, ensuring scalability, standardization, and digital readiness across divisions.
• Drafted comprehensive RFPs for digital solution vendors, clearly defining functional, technical, and integration requirements.
• Automated the evaluation and scoring of supplier proposals using Elevant.AI’s smart evaluation models.
• Supported change management to prepare teams for new ways of working and ensure a smooth adoption of digital tools.

• Provided ongoing project management support during solution implementation: scope definition, timeline and resource coordination, risk mitigation, and budget follow-up.

Outcome

• Initial diagnostic and strategy refinement completed in weeks instead of months, accelerating project kickoff.
• Clear and actionable digital roadmap enabling structured implementation across all divisions.
• Automated RFP evaluation significantly reduced selection time and bias in supplier comparison.
• Teams fully engaged in the change process, fostering ownership and adoption of the new digital solutions.

• CMB.TECH now operates with greater strategic clarity, digital maturity, and operational efficiency, positioning itself as a leader in hydrogen innovation.