IT Solution Architecture & Design Archives - Page 4 of 4

Newham Council

Posted on: 24 June 2021

The challenge

Newham Council serves a population of 310,000 and has one of the largest cohorts of pupils in London. It processes in excess of 5,000 reception applications and around 4,000, Year 7 applications every autumn. In addition, it must allocate school places in response to 7,000-8,000 in-year applications per annum.

The council had an existing geographic information system (GIS) that was used to calculate home to school distances to help allocate school places according to strict over-subscription criteria, including which catchment area and parish children live in. This system was very cumbersome and did little to speed up what was a time consuming, complex and stressful task for the council’s school admissions team.

Checking the distance measurements was a rigorous task and an inefficient use of team leader’s time. Newham Council wanted to focus on the family and avoid mistakes so every child received the correct school offer. If, for example, home-to-school distances were inaccurately calculated, it could lead to an increase in appeals, substantial administrative and legal costs, damaging negative publicity and a loss of trust in the community.

While council staff found the demands of the admissions process complex, so too did parents, carers and guardians. Many families found it hard to understand how places were allocated, and high volumes of calls were made to the council’s call centre every year requesting information on home-to-school distances and the precise catchment boundaries. These telephone enquiries were costly for the council, weren’t always helpful for parents, carers and guardians, and the information between the front and the back end systems did not always match.

The solution

Newham Council implemented a two-fold approach, in partnership with CACI they developed a new distance measuring system which rapidly calculates accurate catchment and distance information for each pupil and their school preference. It also integrates with the council’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) to give accurate, up-to-date address information.

CACI and Newham Council also worked alongside Esri UK to implement a geographic information system (GIS), named School Locator app, which integrates with CACI’s admissions system. The app acts as a public-facing web portal, where parents, carers and guardians can see catchment areas, Catholic parishes, closest schools, interactive maps and the all-important home-to-school distances tie-breakers (both shortest walking and straight line), most of which would previously have been impossible for the public to determine without contacting the council by telephone.

The results

The implementation of CACI’s more accurate admissions system and integrated School Locator app, enables the council’s school admissions team to work more productively, processing applications more quickly and efficiently. Significantly, this solution has given Newham Council true confidence in the rigour of its school admissions process and reduced risk. Newham Council’s admissions decisions are now based on even more accurate location information and the same criteria are applied consistently to all applications.

The greatest benefit, for Tracy Jones, Head of Pupil Services at Newham and her team, is the clarity the solution delivers for residents. Schools and families can now simply visit a web portal to see exactly which catchment area pupils live in, identify their nearest schools and calculate distances. There is now complete transparency between the information the council and the parents sees, resulting in complete openness about school admissions decisions.

Newham Council typically handles more than 1,500 school admission appeals a year, at a cost of around £50 each. If the recent implementation of CACI’s admissions system and Esri’s School Locator App were to decrease this figure by just 20 per cent, it would save Newham Council £15,000 a year. By reducing the odds of appeals progressing to judicial review, the new system could potentially save the council many more tens of thousands of pounds.

Hackney Youth Justice service

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Hackney Youth Justice Service works with multiple agencies in the London Borough of Hackney to reduce youth offending and reoffending, and mitigate the impact of crime on families, communities and victims. Information sharing between these agencies is critical to managing the risks and vulnerabilities associated with young people, their families and the community.

The challenge

Hackney Youth Justice Service stores files about young people in its service using a document management system, Open Text eDocs. Adding data to this system was very manual and time consuming, and involved sourcing information from multiple systems. This opened up the risk of error and sharing the wrong information with the wrong people, as well as making data sharing very difficult.

The solution

CACI integrated eDocs with the ChildView youth justice application, ensuring all documents are accessed from a single source. Integration works both ways, so when a file is added to eDocs it is immediately added to the person record in ChildView. The system is used by youth offending workers to access documents from across the council and other agencies including social care and health services.

The results

Since adding an integration layer between eDocs and ChildView, Hackney Youth Justice Service has been able to save considerable time in storing, sharing and acting on information. And because documents are now stored in one place they have also been able to save on IT storage and associated costs.

“The difference that integration between eDocs and ChildView has made to our service cannot be understated. Something as simple as having every single document all in one place saves us time and money, and ensures we are acting on the right information all the time.”
Brendan Finegan, Service Manager, Hackney Youth Justice

Brighton and Hove

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The challenge

Prior to 2013, Brighton and Hove’s Children’s Centres did not have a centralised Management Information System. Data was managed in an ad-hoc manner, primarily through the use of Excel spreadsheets. This made the production of accurate reports a very labour and time intensive task.

Like all Children’s Centres teams across the country, Brighton and Hove were facing an ever increasing dependence on the production of quality information, to demonstrate their impact to Ofsted and to help shape service delivery in the future.

Brighton and Hove also recognised the importance of establishing a robust process around the chosen system, ensuring that all Centres were using it in a uniform way, with a Central Administration team managing core data and producing central reports. The implementation of CACI’s Children’s Centre Manager (CCM) system has enabled a uniform set of activities to be designed and defined by their associated KPI targets.

The solution

Brighton and Hove City Council ran a competitive tendering process early in 2013. CACI’s CCM system demonstrated the unique ability to tailor the solution to satisfy their needs. Following the tendering process and contract award, Brighton & Hove worked closely with CACI to ensure that the implementation of the system was a success.

As well as the core functionality around managing families, services and attendances, Case Work and Reporting, Brighton and Hove also purchased two additional modules – Barcoding and Messaging, which allow for time saving around attendance recording through the implementation of barcoded registers and membership cards. To enable the Centres to identify specific groups and send pertinent messages (e.g. details of the next smoking cessation course to ‘Smoking Parents’) the Text Messaging module has also been implemented.

Results and benefits

Brighton and Hove’s Children’s Centres’ integration with Health led to information on new births being directly imported into the CCM on a regular basis. This has resulted in greater data accuracy, substantial time saving on data input and the ability to easily combine data sets across NHS and Council systems. CACI developed a procedure which handles this upload automatically; skilfully and patiently negotiating the data security protocols of two large, public organisations.

The solution has resulted in standardisation of attendance data across the entire service, which has meant a systematic approach to assessing performance, more confident completion of OFSTED Self Evaluation Forms and better transparency and accountability to the Advisory Groups that govern each centre.

“Moving from our existing attendance management system to CACI’s CCM felt like a daunting task at first, but the confidence, experience and clarity of guidance they offered during the planning stages was exceptional, and the resulting migration was faultless. Following the painless implementation project, the ongoing support has been responsive and dedicated. I’m yet to find a problem they can’t solve, and the people are quite nice too.”
Ben Miles, Performance Analyst, Brighton & Hove City Council

IT Solution Architecture & Design

How we helped complete a fast, efficient and secure migration to new IT infrastructure

Posted on: 24 May 2021

When the insurance business of a company splits off from it’s parent, it marks the beginning of a new era.

But before the company could begin operating independently, it had a major technical hurdle to overcome – establishing its own IT estate. This meant migrating critical data & services from the infrastructure it previously shared with it’s parent company.

“A migration of this scope represents some serious risks.”

To make matters even more complex, the company was tasked with doing this all against the clock. Following the separation, the business was given a finite time to migrate from the shared infrastructure – after which point, it would be charged significantly for its use.

AGAINST THE CLOCK: MIGRATING QUICKLY, SECURELY AND COST-EFFECTIVELY

Major network migrations are rarely simple. But when you’re a financial services company with primarily digital operations, a migration of this scope represents some serious risks.

Firstly, the migration had to be executed in an extremely secure way, so that data and services remained as secure as possible in transit. Secondly, there had to be a secure new environment waiting for the company’s data and services. Finally, the whole process had to be completed with minimal disruption, as each minute of downtime could potentially cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost revenue.

“This was the beginning of a new era for the company, so the technology had to be right”

On top of those challenges, the migration also had to lay the foundation for future success. From start to finish, the process had to be cost-effective and fast – but a simple quick fix wasn’t an option. This was the beginning of a new era for DLG and the technology foundation it established would play a huge role in determining how successful that era was going to be.

TOTAL NETWORK SUPPORT

To help meet the immediate need, the CACI Network Services team built a team of 8 highly skilled Network Engineers, Consultants and Service Delivery Managers to help the company complete its ambitious migration strategy.

The underlying technologies would be Routing and Switching, Security and Load Balancing across Cisco, Fortinet and F5.

“Seamless migration of users & services to the new environment”

After the new infrastructure was implemented, the CACI team supported the seamless migration of users and services into the new environment. Our service team then remained within the company to resolve any potential issues with the network infrastructure and provide all the specialist network skills needed to succeed.

THE OUTCOME: A FAST, SECURE MIGRATION – AND A LASTING RELATIONSHIP

The result was total success. The migration was carried out in the desired time frame and the new infrastructure and migration process met the company’s demands. Most importantly, downtime was kept to an absolute minimum.

“Against the clock (and the odds) the entire project was a resounding success.”

It laid the foundation for a faster, smarter future. It also started a valuable ongoing relationship between the company and CACI. Our experts remain inside the company providing direct support and helping to manage the organisation’s infrastructure.

What’s more, we have engaged with other business units within it, delivering exciting new projects and helping the insurance provider do and achieve more.

NEED HELP MIGRATING OR MANAGING YOUR NETWORK?

Networking isn’t just about innovative transformation projects using the latest technology – sometimes you just need to lay the foundations for reliable, secure, and predictable digital operations. At CACI, we have all the skills you need to execute any networking project – from major cloud initiatives, to routine migrations and the management of core networking technology.

Find out how we could support your next project and become a trusted, reliable extension of your core IT team.

The five hallmarks of a great Life Cycle Management (LCM) strategy in Financial Services

Posted on: 10 May 2021

As more organisations take advantage of AI, machine learning, and the internet of things (IoT) technology, ensuring network devices and infrastructure are supported, maintained, secured and up to date will be critical. Not least in financial services, where in 2019, US regulators fined Capital One $80 million for a breach of its data.

A well-structured and achievable life cycle management strategy is essential for all organisations so choosing the right LCM partner can make a huge difference to your operations and free your IT teams to focus on more impactful and innovative activities.

Based on our experience of running multiple large scale LCM programmes within enterprise clients, we have put together 5 core competencies which you should look for when choosing your LCM partner.

Hallmark #1 – They’re quick to react and can deliver at scale

Large infrastructure refresh projects are, by their very nature, time consuming. But while it’s important to do a good job, this shouldn’t come at the expense of project schedules or budgets.

That’s why it’s important to look for an LCM partner that doesn’t just have the right skills, but can also effectively communicate at any level and demonstrate sound planning with outcome-based objectives. In addition, they should also show a proven track record of successful project delivery – at scale, and in a way that adapts to changing requirements.

With the right resources and management, it’s possible to deliver both speed and scale.

Hallmark #2 – They take complete process ownership

Fast-paced, dynamic environments need strong leadership and experienced people to take control. Without them, projects can quickly run over time and budget, and even create more problems than they set out to address.

Your supplier should have the confidence to liaise with not just you, but other suppliers along the chain. They should always be looking at things from a holistic perspective and looking towards creative, collaborative, progressive solutions rather than playing the blame game if there are delays.

An LCM vendor that’s willing to take complete control of your process is usually easy to spot, as they’ll have a track record of going above and beyond their basic requirements. It’s something any trustworthy vendor will be keen to demonstrate from the off.

Hallmark #3 – They work in partnership to achieve a shared goal

Rather than a transactional customer-supplier relationship, the best LCM vendors take a collaborative approach that considers the entire project lifecycle. This way, your vendor can better spot time and cost-saving opportunities, and identify and mitigate risks before they impact your operations.

By treating an environment as an end-to-end ecosystem – including working effectively with all your relevant suppliers – your LCM vendor can decide on the best way to replace your infrastructure, while causing the least disruption.

It’s an approach that’s paid dividends for one of our Investment Banking clients. By providing a bridge between the bank’s IT engineers and its physical infrastructure suppliers, we were able to save them £100,000 just by swapping out a single component type.

Hallmark #4 – They focus on communication (but know when to take the initiative)

The biggest roadblock to effective project management is poor vendor communication with you and your suppliers, which can lead to longer project cycles and wasted resources.

It’s a simple concept, but one that far too many LCM vendors get wrong – especially in the Enterprise arena.

By choosing an LCM partner that focuses on multi-stakeholder communication, you can be safe in the knowledge that critical project decisions are being made based on accurate data and facts – supported by previous experience – and communicated to you in a way that keeps you in complete control.

On the flip side, your time is precious, and you don’t always want to be consulted at every stage. So, it’s also important that you trust that your partner has the skills, experience and confidence to make decisions on your behalf where appropriate, and only come to you when necessary.

Hallmark #5 – They have significant, demonstrable experience

The key attributes of a great LCM partner are nothing without the right experience. An experienced vendor will be familiar with your goals and able to see your project from a different perspective – offering valuable advice based on their past client successes.

Simply, experience is the driver that can save you time and money, and even help give your devices and infrastructure the longevity to stay reliable and secure well into the future.

LCM should be a partnership, not just a vendor relationship

Technical failure in financial services organisations is simply out of the question. So for many, it can be all too tempting to throw money and resources at a solution.

But the truth is, LCM requires a more nuanced approach, supported by open communication, end-to-end project management, and skilled IT engineers capable of making the right decisions – no matter the size or scope of the project.

At CACI, we pride ourselves on having the agility to help our clients react quickly, supported by the scale to reliably complete projects on time and within budget.

What’s more, our skilled project managers and engineers have decades of experience delivering LCM for some of the world’s biggest financial institutions, so you can be safe in the knowledge your needs are being taken care of.

To find out more about our collaborative approach to life cycle management, take a look at our network services capabilities.

Asset+

How tactical network automation can help banks respond to a changing financial sector

Posted on: 15 February 2021

The financial services sector has undergone seismic change – even well-established institutions are feeling the pressure from leaner margins and agile new competitors. In response, they’re hungry for new ways to drive efficiency, create revenue streams, and offer enhanced value to customers.

That dual demand – to unlock innovation and agility while cutting process costs – lands squarely at the door of IT.

A smarter, leaner finance sector needs responsive, cost-effective IT

At CACI, our specialists are used to helping financial institutions to optimise their network infrastructure. And we see every day how smart, tactical use of network automation can play a role in meeting the challenge by reducing workloads, improving quality, and meeting regulatory standards.

Automated switch checks improve visibility and accelerate ACI migration

It’s perhaps easiest to see the impact of tactical network automation in an accelerating and de-risking a major project, like network migration.

Next-generation data centre infrastructure is a key foundation for modern, data-driven banking. But achieving that transformation can often encounter unexpected and time-consuming obstacles.

For example, switching from a legacy system Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure can mean executing thousands of commands across hundreds of devices to define the migration requirements of each VLAN.

Instead of doing this manually, we built a script in Python 3, combining community-built packages to connect to each switch, translate the device output, and arrange the data into an easily manageable database.

It quickly extracted the information needed for migration planning and execution – preventing significant project delays, while eliminating the risk of human error.

MAC address checks de-risk migration in advance

Likewise, with ACI each IP address can correspond to one MAC address only. Any switches in the legacy infrastructure that exceed this limit could have a catastrophic effect. Finding them in advance of a migration is crucial – but extremely time-consuming. And missing one is a significant risk.

So on-site professionals from CACI built a solution to attach to each switch and create a report detailing which boxes have two MAC addresses or more.

Again, the automation saves potentially hundreds of engineer hours, and gives confidence that the migration can proceed without the risk of human error.

Self-service port provisioning saves hours and improves service

BAU processes can also benefit from automation – and here, the impact builds cumulatively over time.

For example, server deployment teams rely on fast, accurate port provisioning. As well as the initial configuration, each request requires extensive testing, and when completed manually the work can total dozens of engineer hours per week.

So we developed a proof of concept for a self-service system, where requests are made through a front-end web portal, but the provision and testing are automated.

As well as releasing engineer time and reducing risk, the solution prevents internal clients waiting for their request, accelerating their own work in turn. It also eliminates variations in naming and other standards, and documents each process for compliance purposes.

Bulk element configuration proves compliance without headcount

That compliance element demonstrates why automation is such a good fit for a regulated industry like finance. Because it can do more than just save time and headcount; it can provide documentation.

Each script in an institution’s library serves to document network requirements to be followed by engineers in future, and prove compliance with the relevant network engineering, security, and data sovereignty standards. And because the program is created to fit the bank’s own policies, conformity is built in.

Meanwhile, by eliminating manual configuration errors that could bring down key production environments, automation helps to avoid serious service outages that could result in sanctions from the financial conduct authority.

Quick, tactical wins with a long-term business impact

In these and dozens of other ways, we’ve deployed network automation to solve tactical issues, save financial institutions time and money, and facilitate faster, smarter working.

But the long-term cumulative effect is even more significant. The client always owns the IP in each script we’ve written and the program performs its task repeatably. That means the automation will go on saving time in future – so every solution we create makes the organisation that much more efficient and effective – ready to compete in tomorrow’s financial market.

If you’d like to discuss how we can use network automation to ease your migration, streamline your processes, or make you more efficient, please contact our Network Services experts today.