Dominic Carpenter, Author at CACI

Oceans of Data – An Online Hack

Posted on: 29 November 2021

Back in October 2021, CACI took part in the Northumbrian Waters Innovation Festival. One of the events we participated in was the Oceans of Data hack sponsored by Sia Partners – Chris, Ian, Matt and Myself (Paul) all attended remotely representing CACI. The data hack wasn’t scheduled to start until the Tuesday, but a kick-off event was being held on the Monday morning, the highlight of which was an impromptu workout session run by none other than Mr Motivator himself; it was high energy fun and exhausting! If you want to see just how exhausting… watch this.

Taking the rest of the day to recover from that, we got hold of the data sets being provided for the data hack under an NDA and set about our challenge. For the Oceans of Data challenge, we were asked how can we leverage insights from our ocean of operational data to make our services even more reliable and resilient?

“Data introduction: In 2019, NWG invested in Cloud technology to capture and store the vast volumes of data generated by our 30+ SCADA systems – now creating almost 45 million data records per day. While great progress has been made to extract value from this data, we are confident that much more insight can be generated about the performance of our assets, their rate of deterioration and the way they respond to changing operational conditions”.

The data provided was broken down into two broadly distinct sets of data:

Work Order information out of their Asset Management System (Maximo).
Sensor data from their extant SCADA networks across several sewage treatment plants. There was also some supplementary information provided, including an asset classification hierarchy that Northumbrian Water have crafted and a series of SCADA Mimics (high level process flows).

The stated objective of the data hack was to provide a path to holistic analysis of the data, particularly, correlating sensor data to work order data providing a history of activity leading up to corrective work orders. This historic information could then be used in predictive modelling of future failure; thereby turning all the reactive maintenance activity (which is relatively time consuming and costly) into scheduled maintenance activity (which is planned, less disruptive and much cheaper).

Day 1

The hack consisted of presentations by Northumbrian Water around the operating of sewage treatment plants, to provide us with a basic understanding of the business, forming the teams for the hack and a first pass at data analysis; working out what could and could not be done in the rest of the time available.

The event had an amazing mix of people attending, ranging from data scientists and machine learning (ML) experts to software engineering expertise. My team consisted of software engineering specialists, which worked well for our chosen idea as our teams abundant Java and React experience proved invaluable. Along with the experts attending, we could also call on our own ML and data scientists within CACI if we needed any advice.

Having dived into the data, Team CACI decided to play to our strengths and develop something, focusing on the data sets in isolation and hopefully providing Northumbrian Water with a new way of interpreting their data.

Day 2

We spent the day preparing the data into machine readable formats and finalising the approach for the application and then actually building it. We chose to provide a heatmap analysis of the two datasets, with Work Orders being visualised across the asset classification hierarchy and Sensor data being visualised across the SCADA Mimics (high level process flow diagrams) that had been made available.

Day 3

Day 3 was focused on refining the application – bug fixing, visual styling, cutting bits we had no time for (such is the way of the hackathon!) – and creating the presentation, which included the demo that we would show the judging panel.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time on the sensor data visualisation, so that hit the cutting room floor. This allowed us to focus on bug fixing the application and making it look more like the asset classification hierarchy we had been shown – making it relatable to Northumbrian Water.

The afternoon of Day 3 was spent presenting the solutions from all the teams and being judged. As the presentations progressed (Team CACI had opted to go last) a common theme arose: correlating the two data sets was very difficult and to do it with any degree of accuracy/success would require more data.

We were the only team who had made a working proof of concept, while others had focused on presentations. Our interactive website that the judges could play with was well received. The fact that we had used Northumbrian Water’s own asset classification hierarchy was positively acknowledged and provoked quite a bit of interest. We were then subjected to some questioning by the judging panel before they retired to select the category winners.

I am delighted to announce that we won the Best Data Visualisation category:

The CACI data hackathon team really impressed the judges with their solution, a prototype data visualisation to help direct our maintenance teams toward our most problematic assets, structured to represent our asset hierarchy in clear format to enable rapid insights. We enjoyed working with the team who remained enthusiastic despite the challenging task we’d set for them! Thank you and well done.

Northumbrian Waters

Takeaways from the Event

There were a few takeaways from the data hack and the event as a whole:

With preparation, virtual events of this kind can really work, congratulations to Northumbrian Water for putting on such a successful event.
As ever, time is your enemy, the teams only had about 16 working hours available to us to produce something and everybody made the absolute most out of the time allowed.
Finally, this was a team effort, but massive thanks to Chris, Ian and Matt who did all the hard work, I just presented it at the end. Not forgetting Ryan who nominated us, and the Critical National Infrastructure team, for selecting the event.

For more information on the event and our proof of concept expertise, or our wider CACI capabilities, contact us at cni@caci.co.uk.

How to spot a failing outsourced relationship

Posted on: 8 November 2021

A relationship breakdown is never easy, not least when it’s with your IT outsourcing partner. But what makes a seemingly good relationship go bad, and can you spot the signs of impending IT outsourcing failure before it’s too late? To get some insight from both sides of the relationship, we asked Backbone Connect Co-founder and Director, David McLeod, as well as our own CACI Network Services Sales Director, Liam Delaney, to share their outsourcing experiences, reveal the red flags to watch, and the secret to maintaining a successful relationship with an IT outsourcing partner. Here’s what they told us…

1. Communication has broken down

One of the earliest warning signs that your relationship with your IT outsourcing partner is flagging is that the frequency of your communication has dropped. “There’s always a honeymoon period with any new outsourcing relationship – the energy levels are high, and contact is constant,” explains David. “The issues arise when that contact becomes less routine and conversations turn forced and fractious,” he continues.

“Confusion about how a team should communicate with their outsourcing partner can also lead to protracted conversations and frustrations from both sides of the relationship if they’re not clearly defined at the outset,” says Liam. Further, changes over time can significantly contribute to communication barriers. “Through the duration of any long-term outsourcing relationship, team members leave, and a legacy starts to develop, which limits the potential of your outsourcing partnership,” says David. Liam agrees, “Whenever there’s a major personnel change on either side of the partnership, it’s time to review the service and make sure that it’s still meeting your needs.”

2. The vision has become (or already was) blurry

While both David and Liam agree that a successful IT outsourcing relationship is one that evolves over time, Liam highlights the necessity of starting the relationship with clear expectations. “You can’t outsource a problem that you can’t define,” he warns. “Outsourcing partnerships can bring a wealth of expertise and experience into your team as well as achieve cost savings, but you need to be clear on what success you’re looking to achieve.” If the goals aren’t clear, it can be difficult for an outsourcing provider to take effective action.

David also advocates working with outsourcing partners whose cultural values align with your business to ensure longevity in the relationship. “Your business’s culture is the one constant, unchangeable thing, so it should be one of the key measures you use when considering any potential outsourcing provider.” He adds, “Put simply, if you’re wearing t-shirts, and they arrive in business suits, you’re likely to have a problem.”

3. Fingers are being pointed

“When something goes wrong and blame is being thrown around, you stop being on the same team and your pathway forward becomes blocked,” says David. Liam agrees, “A good outsourcing provider is one that acts as an extension of your team, always looking to add value and deliver positive outcomes, especially when tackling an unexpected challenge.”

While it’s important to understand why a problem has occurred, both David and Liam agree that maintaining open, honest and constant communication can ensure both sides of an outsourcing relationship resolve conflicts and challenges together, although David notes that “when you seem to have a stream of issues, a stigma can become attached to the outside party, making it difficult for that partnership to continue effectively if it’s not addressed.”

Liam says that establishing a communications flow which facilitates continuous feedback is one way to avoid minor problems becoming bigger issues, although he also acknowledges the value in a proactive vendor – “At CACI, we’re always trying to anticipate our clients’ potential roadblocks and challenges, so we’re providing solutions before something becomes a problem.”

4. Your contract has become a constraint

A contract provides both parties in an outsourcing relationship the benefit of structure and protection, but it can become a barrier to progress when projects pivot in a new direction. Working with a vendor that can be flexible and offer an element of elasticity in their approach can help to avoid partners becoming stuck in a bind.

However, the size of an outsourcing provider can also impact on how agile a partner can afford to be, warns David. “Smaller organisations are typically more agile than bigger providers, but they can be highly volatile as they grow and evolve, which can lead to issues later. On the flip side, a very large outsourcing provider may not be able to offer the personal, value-add partnership that you’re looking for.”

Liam also advises that businesses pay attention to the finer details when firming up their outsourcing requirement. “It’s important to consider the unexpected and unusual use case scenarios. You can’t capture everything, but having awareness and alerting your vendor of the potential changes and challenges ahead means they can be prepared to act and adapt, preventing your project from coming to a standstill.”

5. You’re not growing together

“A clear sign that your outsourced relationship isn’t working is when you start to feel anchored,” says David. An outsourced relationship that continues to evolve and enhance your business as it grows is one that is truly valuable according to our experts. One way to form a relationship that adds long-term value is to select an outsourcing partner that has a wider capability offering. “I’m always thinking about the longevity of a relationship, looking beyond the initial requirement, and thinking about what else we can do to add value to our clients,” says Liam.

Nonetheless, capability isn’t the only thing to look out for. As Liam explains, having a future-focused mindset is also critical to a long-standing relationship. “I believe that the most successful partnerships are the ones where the provider brings both vision and value. They’re not just focused on what the client currently does, but they’re looking at what else they can be doing to improve.”

However, both our experts noted that, like any relationship, an outsourcing relationship requires investment and trust to realise its full potential. “It’s all about building and nurturing a partnership,” says Liam. David agrees and adds, “Trust is critical, and it’s not established overnight. Take the time to get the basics right – once you’ve got that with the right partner, you can achieve much bigger things.”

Looking for an outsourcing partner to help with your network operations? Contact our expert team today.

Everybody’s talking about value from NHS patient-based costing

Posted on: 2 November 2021

Are you achieving it yet – and is anyone else?

Everyone’s talking about getting value from patient-based costing, but what are NHS Trusts really achieving with this vast body of data?

Compliance is a given, but can it really drive performance improvement or is that just wishful thinking?

Many Trusts are struggling to get beyond the basic data collection, formatting and submission – it’s a massive and ongoing task that can absorb substantial finance team resources. Which is all the more reason for exploiting patient-based costing activities to produce meaningful benefit for patients and healthcare professionals.

Discover 8 ways that NHS trusts are achieving value from their costing outputs in our new white paper on – Patient Level Costing Data

To move away from crunching numbers you need a PLICS approach that focuses on the ‘I’ in the middle – information. That means using reporting tools that are integrally designed to generate insight for the Trust as well as compliant outputs for regulators and government.

We’re working with NHS Trusts around the UK who have uncovered real and important information from their patient costing data. They can:

1. Review analytics in context with a complete overview of the Trust’s patient costs from a single, unified system and approach

2. Combine PLICS data with other Trust performance data for insight into next best actions and performance for key programmes and focus areas

3. Show cost variations for different patient pathways to service managers with clear report formats, so they can close unnecessary gaps

4. Focus on ‘frequent flyer’ patients to redesign more effective services that improve their experiences

5. Integrate all the data for acute, mental health and community services in a newly merged Trust

6. Share meaningful data reports to all stakeholders and service owners so they can identify areas for action

7. Deliver automated quarterly and monthly reporting for performance tracking and continuous improvement

8. Adapt reporting and data to match local requirements, without intervention from the system provider or IT team

If you’d like to find out more about an easier way to turn patient costing data from an admin burden into an opportunity to improve and design health services in your Trust, request your free copy of our new NHS insight paper, Are you getting the most out of your Patient Level Costing data?

It describes how Trusts are using the CACI Synergy PLICS platform and support resources to achieve tangible performance improvements and better patient outcomes from actionable, locally tailored reporting.

Collaborative learning accelerates NHS Trust performance improvements

Posted on: 26 October 2021

How a PLICS user group is helping NHS Finance Teams achieve more

The insights you gain from PLICS can be key to improving patient care and experiences, if you have a strong PLICS solution with leading analytics and your team is empowered to manage and customise it to produce actionable reports.

Trust finance teams in command of a high-performing PLICS process have a position of strong influence and responsibility for sharing information within their Trust that can transform services. They need to be continually alerted to opportunities to use this wealth of data to make informed decisions.

Learning from other teams and Trusts can be invaluable in optimising outcomes from PLICS data and insight. Finance managers who regularly meet and discuss the latest approaches and applications with NHS peers have a head start when it comes to refining and revitalising their Trust’s approaches and sharing their own best practice with others.

Discover 8 ways that NHS trusts are achieving value from their costing outputs in our new white paper on – Patient Level Costing Data

Sharing best practice in an active monthly user group

CACI’s Synergy 4 clients have a unique advantage. They participate in an active monthly User Group for NHS Trusts, run by CACI at no additional charge to participants. The aim is to disseminate best practice and to make sure that Synergy 4 is delivering all the functions and benefits that users and decision makers need in a fast-changing environment.

Synergy 4 experts and users meet every month virtually or in person to discuss how best to drive more value from the PLICS process with Synergy 4. It can be a quick way to resolve the latest challenges and understand how other Trusts are approaching their PLICS obligations.

Head of Customer Engagement Susan Brooks says, “It’s a real win-win, because our Trust clients can share their learning and challenges, helping each other to get the most from the solution. Meanwhile, we’re on hand to answer technical questions and learn as much as we can from users about what they need, so we can continually improve the solution.”

Discovering innovative approaches and resolving challenges

Expectations for Trusts to deliver more value from NHS patient costing analytics are constantly growing. It makes sense to pool resources and expertise in a specialist user group, so Trusts can take back the latest tips and approaches to their teams. With the pace of change in the NHS and with every part of the NHS under pressure, knowledge-sharing and collaboration can make all the difference to delivering more value, more quickly to patients through optimised services.

If you’d like to know more about the User Groups and support that Synergy 4 users enjoy, request your free copy of our new NHS insight paper, Are you getting the most out of your Patient Level Costing data?

It describes how Trust finance teams are using the CACI Synergy 4 PLICS platform and community to optimise the reporting and analysis they provide to decision-makers in their NHS Trust.

Empowering finance is the key to achieving value from NHS National Cost Collection

Posted on: 20 October 2021

Do you have full control of your PLICS solution?

Historically, NHS organisations have prioritised compliance and chosen their Patient Level Information and Costing System (PLICS) based on confidence in compliance and the capability of the solution to deliver the specified data and reports for national analysis.

But as Trusts recognise how resource and time-intensive it can be to provide this mandatary data, there’s a need to think more broadly about what makes for an effective process. And the PLICS system you choose is at the heart of this.

High-maintenance solutions create bottlenecks

Many Trusts find that their solution is high maintenance. If it doesn’t have a user-friendly front-end, IT staff must submit a request to the IT team or the third-party vendor every time they want to make a change or update models or the data structure.

It’s often slow, expensive and difficult to get adaptations actioned by others, particularly if they have other internal priorities. Meanwhile, inconsistent or inaccurate data is compromising the Trust’s ongoing reporting. While the finance team is occupied with negotiations for relatively simple updates, they’re missing opportunities to add real value by focusing on performance improvement insights revealed by analytics.

NHS Trust finance teams want to take matters into their own hands and foster a spirit of innovation and self-sufficiency. If the PLICS system is built around an intuitive user interface, they can dive in and take ownership of every aspect of patient level costing analytics and modelling without relying on anyone else.

Discover 8 ways that NHS trusts are achieving value from their costing outputs in our new white paper

Some Trusts have found a way to foster self-sufficiency

Trust finance teams need a user-friendly system with an intuitive user interface, that’s built to enable adaptation within a secure and compliant framework. That’s the best way to empower the finance team to take full control of data and analytics to produce tailored, relevant reports.

CACI’s Synergy 4 is designed to balance robust compliance and stability with user empowerment. Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust is just one NHS organisation that’s reaping the benefits to deliver improved services and patient care. As their Costing Manager, Clare Jacklin, explains: “We’re reporting on the cost of delivering care to specific types of patients and services and combining that with the ability to dice that by age of patient or type of care that they are receiving. We can fulfil all of these reporting requests a lot quicker than we’ve ever been able to do before, which helps our decision-making process.”

Like to know more about empowering your team to get the most from PLICS? Take a look at our new NHS insight paper: Are you getting the most out of your Patient Level Costing data?

The paper describes how Trust finance teams are using CACI’s Synergy 4 to achieve tangible performance improvements and better patient outcomes through an empowered approach to reporting.

3 network transformation opportunities – and how to make them happen

Posted on: 28 September 2021

With digital transformation initiatives high on many organisations’ agendas and the impact of COVID-19 changing how most of us work forever, network transformation has never been more important.

And the truth is, there are a wide range of network transformation vendors to choose from. But most take a transactional approach to network transformation, delivering little value beyond the basic works carried out.

Rather than an “in and out” service, great network transformation relies on an end-to-end partnership-based approach, with your vendor working closely to understand all your requirements. It can also sometimes mean working across multiple lines of business and projects to deliver network transformation programmes at scale.

In working on multiple network transformation projects with one of our major transportation clients, there were some interesting opportunities we’d like to share. Here are three potential opportunities to be had by working with a network transformation specialist.

Opportunity #1 – Turn spare network capacity into additional revenue

For organisations with vast internal networks, there’s significant opportunity to commercially monetise spare capacity and offer greater flexibility to customers.

With a significant fibre network across its estate stretching tens of thousands of miles, our client realised that any spare capacity could be used for commercial applications to help generate additional revenue.

Using an end-to-end delivery process, we developed and launched a dark fibre service to help our client deliver connectivity as a service, in a way that was repeatable and efficient.

We kicked off the project by mapping out the client’s service lifecycle to identify any capability gaps. Once this was established, we brought together a selection of our client’s stakeholders virtually and ran interactive workshops to walk through draft processes, focusing on providing end customer service.

Following a successful service launch, several end customers now use our client’s services, with our client driving continuous improvements across the network. And we’re now working with our client to deploy the service across its wider network and develop a service model and approach for future deployments – allowing our client to develop its offering.

Opportunity #2 – Tackle customer complaints to strengthen relationships

In large organisations, it can often be a challenge to discover and resolve issues that directly impact customers. Following the regionalisation of our client’s legacy telecom assets, our client found that many of its asset managers were concerned about whether its legacy voice estate was fit for purpose.

Working with our client’s leadership team, we devised and managed a service improvement plan, which involved understanding the issues and what was needed to resolve them.

To help stakeholders mobilise the plan, we set up management reporting processes and acted as an intermediary between our client’s leadership and account management teams.

In just four weeks, we helped our client reach a resolution around its legacy voice estate, and moved the focus to other areas of concern – delivering improved service to our client’s regions.

Opportunity #3 – Dramatically reduce data centre costs

Outdated technology can be a significant drain on resources. And while it can be all too tempting to throw money and resources at the problem, this strategy can often cause more problems than it solves.

Our client had an ageing data centre infrastructure which was interfering with its ability to deliver a reliable service. What’s more, it was keen to ensure its mission-critical applications were always available. With its legacy technology approaching end of life and support, we recommended an infrastructure migration.

We worked closely with key stakeholders to create a test organisation at the start of the project to support the migration, helping our client build two new data centres with modern technology stacks.

Ensuring a thorough assurance process was used throughout to maintain regulatory compliance, we oversaw the design, implementation, and migration phases. And to confirm all programme deliverables were managed correctly, CACI developed a project management and testing platform using Jira and Zephyr.

By working closely with our client throughout the project, we helped the company save £40K and delivered the project two months ahead of schedule. Looking to the future, we’re now working with our client in an advisory role, helping it to shortlist an operating partner.

Network transformation: a world of opportunity

While network transformation opportunities can be wide-ranging and cover several lines of business, it’s important to select an outsourced vendor that also understands the importance of being a familiar point of contact.

Often embedded in clients’ teams for maximum impact, our end-to-end services allow our clients to benefit from a portfolio of skills and resources, helping them free up their teams to focus on more strategic activities.

To find out more about how we can help you design and implement network services – and even unite third party stakeholders – across your organisation, get in touch with our team of experts today.

7 signs that your company needs to outsource IT

Posted on: 21 September 2021

From reducing costs to meeting tight project deadlines and accessing specialist expertise, there are many advantages that come with outsourcing IT, but when does outsourcing offer the most benefit to businesses? We asked Brian Robertson, Resource Manager at CACI, to reveal the common signs that indicate a business would be better with an outsourced IT solution.

1. Your IT costs are high

Are budget worries keeping you up at night? Cost control is the most obvious reasons for businesses outsourcing IT. Indeed, a 2020 study by Whitelane Research found that 71% of UK businesses said that cost reduction was the main driver for outsourcing IT. But, is outsourcing really cost-effective?

“Just having a couple of IT specialists on your payroll can really rack up costs,” says Brian. It’s not just high salaries and the cost of employee benefits that are a concern. Companies that opt to run in-house IT departments also face the costs of purchasing, maintaining, and upgrading hardware as well as purchasing the software they need. “With outsourcing, these fixed costs become flexible, allowing you greater control of your budget,” says Brian.

2. You have skills gaps

The severe shortage in tech skills has long been a challenge for businesses, but as Brian explains, “The pandemic put organisations across every industry on a fast-speed trajectory to digitalisation.” He adds, “now, the focus is to keep that momentum going, but we’re seeing that many of our clients are looking for very specific expertise in a fiercely competitive and increasingly expensive marketplace.”

With recent research by ManpowerGroup finding that 69%, of employers globally are struggling to find workers with the right blend of technical and interpersonal skills, it’s clear that many businesses are fighting a losing battle. “This is where working with a trusted IT outsourcing partner can prove to be a strategic move,” says Brian. “A good outsourcer will always assess their client’s requirements holistically – matching skills and experience as well as cultural fit with end goals.”

3. Your IT infrastructure is outdated

“IT infrastructure is a vital component in every business, but it can become a huge drain on productivity, not to mention a growing security risk if not invested in,” warns Brian. He adds, “However, upgrading an outdated infrastructure is a resource investment that many lean I.T departments can ill-afford, creating a stalemate situation that prevents a business from maintaining competitive advantage.”

Therefore, if a business is struggling to maintain and manage its day-to-day IT operations, outsourcing may provide a practical solution. In addition to unlocking access to the latest and greatest tech, working with a reliable IT outsourcing partner will ensure your IT operations are optimised for enhanced performance, releasing your in-house staff to focus their efforts on achieving your business objectives.

4. Your business is vulnerable to security threats

Cyber security breaches are increasing. According to a survey released by GOV.UK last year, 46% of UK businesses and charities reported a cyber attack during the year, with 33% of those claiming they experienced a cyber breach at least once a week in 2020 – up from 22% in 2017.

The growing sophistication of cybercrime puts immense pressure on in-house teams as they struggle to stay on top of critical security practices such as 24/7 networking whilst also maintaining the myriad security systems they have in place. As Brian warns, “When it comes to cyber security, it’s not just a case of having the right technology in place, you need round-the-clock specialists that have the experience and expertise to utilise those tools and prevent potential threats before they become a problem.”

The global shortage in professionals with the right security skill sets are an additional challenge for businesses as they struggle to recruit and retain the specialists they need. Partnering with a trusted IT outsourcer can provide a cost-effective and reliable solution, as outsourcing removes vulnerabilities by ensuring a business’s security defences are ‘always on’.

5. Compliance is a concern

While cyber security is one concern, ensuring regulatory compliance is another, particularly in heavily regulated industries such as financial services. Failure to comply can lead to reputational damage and hefty fines, but to ensure compliance, organisations must have the capability to implement, maintain, monitor, and accurately report on IT infrastructure and security processes. As Brian explains, a partnership with a reliable IT outsourcer can offer significant value to a business that is under pressure to maintain compliance, “As well as providing the necessary resources and expertise to ensure compliance, an outsourcing partner will keep abreast of regulation changes, so your business is always one step ahead.”

6. You need flexibility

When you’re embarking on a new project, getting the right people with the right skill sets in place can be a difficult task. While upskilling your existing team members can be beneficial, inexperience coupled with a limited bandwidth can pose major risks to your project delivery as well as have a negative impact on your day-to-day operations. These problems are more acute if your delivery deadline is tight.

“Hiring new talent in-house is an option, but often it’s not the best one if a project is short-term or requires a range of specialist skill sets,” explains Brian. In these instances, partnering with an IT outsourcer can provide the most strategic, timely and cost-effective route forward because solutions are tailored to your specific needs. “Clients also gain from the insights and expertise of an experienced team – with the added benefit of elasticity to adapt if requirements change,” says Brian.

7. You need niche expertise

More budget-friendly than hiring a team of in-house specialists, and more reliable than challenging your existing team, outsourcing IT is often the most effective option when it comes to delivering projects that require niche expertise such as cyber security. Brian also highlights the benefit of introducing an outside perspective, “One of the most overlooked benefits of outsourcing is that businesses don’t just get access to specific skills and knowledge, they get to tap into a whole wealth of experience.”

“That’s why it’s so important to look for an IT outsourcing partner that has a proven record of proficiency and delivering results. Knowing what’s worked before, how to handle specific challenges, and what pitfalls to avoid –is truly invaluable to finding the solution that’s really going to work for your business.”

Looking for a reliable IT outsourcing partner? Share your requirements with our expert team today.

Why data insight projects fail and how to succeed – Part 4

Posted on: 20 September 2021

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates. Part 1 dealt with outcome misalignment and the problems of a project failing to align with business strategy. Part 2 dealt with estimates and what problems they can cause. Part 3 dealt with project scopes and why they are so important. This time we look at what underpins any successful project, time and resources.

Time and resources – without people, there is no project

As we mentioned in part 3, your estimates will also include estimating the time and resource you’ll need on a data insight project.

Building any project delivery schedule relies on realistic timelines, which can be difficult to produce for projects your team may not have executed before. While elements may be familiar, more and more large projects such as cloud implementations put IT teams on unfamiliar ground, making accurate timelines incredibly hard to estimate (even if everyone is available for your project 100% of the time!).

Reaching out to 3^rd parties that specialise in the kind of project you are undertaking can help you set a realistic project time estimate and schedule, helping you better manage your internal stakeholder’s expectations of time to delivery and not feeling burdened by unforeseen delays.

This can be especially useful on Digital Transformation projects where data is a critical point, as specialist 3^rd parties can support you on understanding the resource requirements based on your data maturity and current BI tools.

It is important to select the right supplier for your organisation. There are three key areas to validate that the 3^rd party are the right fit.

Firstly, a strong technical acumen is important; a common trait amongst 3^rd parties will be their ability to deliver through a competent delivery team who are well skilled in the chosen technology.

Secondly is a clear awareness within your industry. Understanding the subtleties of your industry is vital to being able to create and support effective solutions. There is no one-size-fits-all for data, so it is important that you are able to maintain and enhance your reputation by developing outputs which are focused and relevant.

The third, and most important area, is that the arrangement is a partnership. The best projects are those where collaboration is built into the core of the delivery. Each business has unique nuances that mark it out from the competition. Being involved throughout means these nuances are guarded and the context of the project remains relevant and specific to your business. When considering procuring the services of a 3^rd party, it is important that you are not dictated to, particularly with complex data projects. On conclusion of a project, you want your staff to feel confident to be self-sufficient in the management of the developed solutions, so it is imperative the project looks at developing staff skills as well as delivering high quality outputs.

Alongside this, it goes without saying, people are the key resource on any project – without people, there is no project. Many IT teams report being overstretched, often working on too many projects at the same time, or on projects with too few resources available to meet deadlines.

The initial scoping process should give the chance for an open discussion about which resource is needed and when on a project, as well as how much of their time each project team member (often with a workload outside of the project) will need to spend on the project on a weekly basis.

Defined roles in projects allow for clear differentiation of responsibilities. The previously accepted approach for data insight projects to be delivered was by those within IT. There is more of a need now than ever before that the driver of data projects is the business users who will utilise the output. Ensuring subject matter experts are available to feed into the requirements phase to contextualise complex data constructs and also to provide their feedback within user acceptance testing to prove the validity and usability of the output is essential.

Risk

Underestimate time or manpower on a project and your project might not fail completely, but it’s far more likely to run dramatically past it’s delivery date by weeks, months or in some cases even years. These delays create other bottlenecks around the organisation and can cause a break down in trust between you and stakeholders from not keeping your promises. Avoid this entirely by being realistic with your time estimates and seeking outside insight into requirements where your organisation has a knowledge gap.

Reward

Understanding the current state of play with the moving parts in your project helps you understand what resource you need. With this insight, you’ll be able to meet your deadlines by securing the right people for your project at the right time.

Our customers often reach out to us at the beginning of new data projects for aspects such a current data maturity assessment or infrastructure assessment that supports them in structuring their projects and allocating the right resource. Once into a project, our customers know that as a trusted partner, if they need some extra support from us, they can pull from our bank of services at any time to ensure they deliver and meet their data goals.

Conclusion

Throughout this series, we’ve covered outcomes, scope, estimates and resource planning, and it’s clear that when it comes to big IT projects, there are a number of risk factors that can cause a project to fail, run over-time or over-budget.

When we begin to mitigate these risks by taking the appropriate steps at each stage, projects are more successful and other benefits such as improved stakeholder relationships and employee job satisfaction begin to filter through.

Through planning, detail and communication, projects are infinitely more likely to be successful, however this can be easier said than done for busy IT departments who are usually juggling multiple projects in parallel.

This is why CACI’s Business Insight Group partners with customers and can support them at any point of their data journey, from aligning their outcomes through to post implementation training.

Find out more about our services that help you succeed in Digital Transformation projects.

Why data insight projects fail and how to succeed – Part 3

Posted on: 13 September 2021

In this 4-part blog series, we look at some of the common reasons data projects fail and the key underlying solutions that can help businesses improve project success rates. Part 1 dealt with outcome misalignment and the problems of a project failing to align with business strategy. Part 2 dealt with estimates and what problems they can cause. This time we look at why a project scope is so important.

Scope of the project – the devil is in the detail

In order to deliver a solution that everyone understands and is happy with post project completion, a clearly understood project scope is essential. This details what you are and are not going to deliver.

Project teams encounter challenges frequently during projects with additional requirements creeping in that were outside the initial scope. Through the previously mentioned outcome alignment and relevant stakeholder engagement during the scoping process, the risk of unforeseen “new requirements” (that either cause your project to run over time or budget) can be significantly reduced. This is not to say that the project cannot be agile to change but having a laser-focus on the outcomes and scope provides a solid foundation to effectively control such change and manage stakeholder expectations.

This process is often rushed in a bid to see projects kicked off faster, but without a well-defined scope there is a risk the development team may not have the full picture of what needs to be delivered and stakeholders may have mis-aligned expectations as to what is in the plan.

When considering how to scope a data insight project, there are some key considerations that will allow for effective planning:

Inputs

Data: clarity on WHAT information is needed. This element needs to consider whether or not the requirement information currently exists; if it does, where is it? If it does not, how can it be obtained?

Quality: the delivered solutions will only be as accurate as the data feeding them. It is important to understand within the scoping exercise how that data quality can be managed.

Knowledge: there are a large number of people who can manipulate and utilise data. The value in your business is those that can appreciate the CONTEXT of the data. These are key stakeholders who can explain the ‘why?’ and ensure the final output is relevant.

Outputs

Delivery: some projects will require a single output produced at a particular point in time, others will benefit from outputs delivered at regular intervals to inform the users. The method of delivery to those users is also important – do they have to retrieve the information from a location or will it be delivered to them via email for example.

Audience: it is important to consider two things with the audience – knowledge of the data and the position held in the business. More senior stakeholders will require strategic information to make decisions, service teams will require operational level data to be able to perform their day jobs. It is also important that enough information is provided. Some consumers will have a more intimate knowledge of the data so will not require as much explanation, but others may need additional detail for clarity and confidence in making decisions.

Intended use: If the purpose of the development is to be able to forecast future activity, it is not enough to provide the audience with just the current position; there is a need for historic data to map trends and start to look at how that may be influenced moving forward. Conversely, if the purpose is to performance manage a member of staff, only providing a forecast of potential future performance is not adequate to be able to analyse historic activity.

By aligning your outcomes at the very beginning, this should help inform the scope of the project, as there will already be a level of agreement on what the project needs to help the business achieve.

Risk

Without a full project scope, delivery may not resemble what everybody expected. This could be the result of a 3^rd party not having the full project requirements, or an internal stakeholder expecting something different than what was planned. Mitigate this risk by producing a full and detailed scope of your project.

Reward

Fully detailed project scopes keep everyone on the same page, specifically your project team and internal stakeholders, as well as any 3^rd parties involved in your project. Scoping provides an element of project transparency that ensures you’ll be able to better manage expectations.

Project structure and process, especially in the beginning phases of a project are critical to set the tone for what is to come, which is why our team of experts have developed a project framework with criteria and process at each stage to support delivery of successful projects. Find out more about the Fusion framework here.

In part 4 of this series, we’ll be covering the all-important areas of time, resource and people on your project.