Strengthening defence capability through a complex IT transformation

A Joint Venture (JV) defence manufacturing organisation was formed to fulfil a contract to manufacture a new Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) variant for the British Army, and to deliver a contract which was awarded in 2021 to deliver upgraded, fully digitalised  battle tanks to the British Army. They had not recently manufactured vehicles, instead providing an In-Service Support capability to existing army assets. This transformation included both re–establishing a manufacturing capability at its midland HQ as well as separating (or ‘carving out’) its complete IT estate from its UK co-parent. 

There were three key challenges that we needed to address to ensure successful delivery:
 

1. To move to a new greenfield network and datacentre – The formation of the JV required separation of the IT systems from its UK co-parent company onto a Greenfield network and data centre solution built as part of the project through a 3rd party IT provider.  Through the process, the customer had to upgrade many of its critical business applications to achieve MOD-accredited standards. This involved providing a modern, organisation size appropriate, end-user compute workplace to enable secure hybrid working, facilitate modern manufacturing practices and complex supply chain operations. In addition to the new network setup, the project included the testing and handover of the support and ongoing run services to the new platform of mixed Cloud and On-Prem IT solutions

2. To provide an ERP solution for the new JV – The long-term plan was to adopt the newly formed SAP S/4 HANA corporate application based on a global template, however, the timing of this did not work with initially required timescales, and so the decision was made to carve-out a SAP ECC6 instance from the existing platform. In parallel to the separation there needed to be an upgrade in capability in ECC6 so the JV could execute manufacturing processes efficiently.

3. To manage complex engineering data across two logically and physically separated entities – The JV wanted to deploy a Product Lifecyle Management (PLM) system called PDMi so it could transfer product management data and drawings of the Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) in a secure and controlled manner to its international subsidiaries. This system would also enable international Engineering functions to collaborate across borders in designing and developing new product variants. This PLM system was based on Siemens Teamcenter application and would need to sit alongside the existing two instances of Teamcenter, each serving different product platforms. 

Without separating from its co-parent’s IT, the JV  would not have the IT solutions, autonomy and flexibility to support the required manufacturing capability needed to deliver its two contractual obligations to the MOD.  

The newly formed JV did not have enough Programme, IT or Change resources of its own, nor experience of this scale of change delivery.  They asked Project One to lead the portfolio of change and the major IT programmes and to help hire the team of contractors necessary to fulfil all the various programme roles. 

They needed support with shaping the new IT solution, and determining how best it could be delivered. Project One set up a formal and documented governance structure to make decisions more quickly and to make them stick.  

The team instilled stability and continuity and were able to provide a safe pair of hands whilst the organisation and their key suppliers were subject to frequent organisational changes. 

The changes needed to be delivered into an in-flight business, already undergoing substantive change and with major commercial imperatives and milestones to be hit.  The programme needed to not just be a technical implementation, but a business-focussed change that flexed around constraints on business resources and timelines. 

The IT Service Provider did not have the internal capability to deliver change (as opposed to run) and had several resource challenges.  Project One had to lean in and shape their work and focus their delivery.  

It is not commonplace to change the entire IT stack in one go! This needed focussed programme management and detailed planning to ensure delivery. 

The organisation achieved their objective of being on their own accredited network allowing them full control of the IT solution stack, priorities and support models necessary to support the growing and changing business demands. 

The new IT environment will help the business to more efficiently meet customer goals and better respond to the inevitable changes.  

Project One oversaw the supplier ramp-up and delivery of the new IT solutions, and provided the “intelligent customer” function and assessed the readiness, competence and capability of the supplier.  This work flagged a number of capability and readiness gaps within the supplier and required significant input from the Project One team to steer both our customer and the supplier towards a successful outcome. 

The delivery of the new enterprise IT solution was delivered in timescales that were as fast as it was sensible to go and following rigorous testing and dress rehearsals, resulting in a transition that was smooth and did not hinder critical business operations.  Shortcomings identified in the supplier were addressed and mitigations put in place to increase the likelihood of success. The JV set-up now have the infrastructure and systems they need to deliver industrial manufacturing of military vehicles, and the platform from which it can continue to make incremental changes to enhance its business processes. 

Project One value add:
 

• The organisation needed experienced and independent programme and project management capability to both drive the incumbent IT supplier, to prepare the business for the significant changes the programme would deliver and to facilitate better ways of working/adoption of new technology by the staff      

• Expectations of the senior Executive and the needs of the staff were met. Project One plugged the capacity and capability gaps within this growing organisation (which more than doubled in size over the duration of the assignment)

• As you don’t do this level of change every day, there was not an in-house team capable of leading a change of this scale or the programme governance/controls.  Project One brought not just the right experienced resources but was able to create a programme leadership team that helped to build a contract delivery team which integrated into the existing organisation and IT Services vendor 

• The Project One team was able to work effectively up and down the organisation structure, and took time to understand the business requirements and constraints that would shape successful delivery 

• We brought governance and control to the delivery, ensuring that the programmes were tracked using clear metrics and that the right level of stakeholder messaging was provided to the executive team 

• Leading by example, Project One demonstrated a structured and pragmatics approach to project delivery to drive progress.