Department of Trade and Industry

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Department of Trade and Industry - Government case study

Fujitsu, the prime contractor for the DTI's IT Services worked closely with the DTI to develop a strategy and IT solution that would change the way business support operated.

The Challenge

The DTI works with businesses to drive up UK productivity and competitiveness. Each year the DTI invests over £400 million in business support, to fund initiatives to nurture new ideas and generate economic growth. The most common methods of support are grants, loans and the provision of advice and information.

The DTI recently found that over time more than 200 schemes had been created. Research showed that this assortment of schemes and their associated brand names was confusing UK businesses and that a greater focus on economic rationale and a more corporate approach to performance management were needed.

The DTI therefore initiated the Business Support Transformation Programme (BSTP), led by the Business Support Unit, to address the situation.

DTI realised that data they were collecting to evaluate the schemes was often inconsistent and the measurements in use were not wholly meaningful. This was making useful evaluations of long-term effectiveness very difficult and in turn meant that the data could not support strategic decision-making.

From the outset they wanted to ensure that any new IT Management Information System met the latest e- Government standards. Both public and private sector stakeholders, who help deliver the business support products, would then be able to use it.

The Project began with a review of the approach and purpose of business support.

“We had no holistic view of business support. We needed to be able to define our purpose, easily describe our strategy and ultimately measure our success,” said Liz Liston-Jones, Head of Monitoring, Analysis and Evaluation at Business Support DTI.

The Solution

Critical to the success of the project, and to determine and prioritise required business outcomes, a core team of Fujitsu consultants facilitated workshops and structured interviews with key stakeholders. Fujitsu, the prime contractor for the DTI's IT Services worked closely with the DTI to develop a strategy and IT solution that would change the way business supportoperated. Monitoring, Analysis and Evaluation became the team's mantra and a key approach to the overall business transformation.

The existing DTI schemes were replaced with 10 strategically focused products e.g. “Grant for Investigating an Innovative Idea” and “Collaborative Research and Development”. An Investment Committee was also established to ensure that newly available data would be used to decide how funds should be allocated.

Fujitsu's consultants developed an integrated IT platform and a comprehensive suite of IT tools to drive significant business change. The solution addresses the collection, collation and presentation of management information, enabling the Business Support Unit to monitor, administer and evaluate the products and establish the benefits to the UK economy.

The data capture and administration tools that Fujitsu created are crucial to evaluation and monitoring. They support the collection of customer, project, financial and measurement data from Product Managers and third party Scheme Administrators. Using XML the tool automates the data collection for each business support product, so now data from any source or format can be collected.

The new system saves the Business Support Unit time and money. XML defines data content and structure and includes a degree of content validation placing responsibility on scheme administrators for data quality. It has also revolutionised the way new products are integrated into existing business processes. As a result, the cost of such activity has been radically reduced from £150,000 to around £10,000.

The development of the Monitoring, Analysis and Evaluation (MAE) Database was central to addressing the Business Support Unit's key challenge. Containing business and product data, for example the status of scheme funding or product uptake, Fujitsu designed the database with business users in mind and it can easily adapt to changing requirements.

Fujitsu needed to create a performance management framework and chose the balanced scorecard. This method provides a clear view of identified measures and targets and then scores them against agreed quantitative and qualitative measures. CorVu software was chosen with the Fujitsu team providing solution architecture, design and implementation to ensure the solution met the Business Support Unit's specific needs.

“The team can now continually improve the product portfolio, marketing and delivery. We can also carry out analysis to make funding decisions more informed and effective,” Liz Liston-Jones concluded.

The Benefits

Fujitsu’s successful business change programme at the DTI has used IT to set in motion new ways of working that deliver real business benefits:

Reduced Cost of Change - business processes have been revolutionised and the cost of change reduced by 90%

Effective Decision Making - ability to view and analyse business support activities holistically has enabled informed strategic decision-making

Efficient Investment - capability to show the outcomes of the business support, so that activities and spending can be directly linked to the value generated

Increased Focus on Business Objectives - activity clearly aligned to agreed business objectives

Greater Flexibility - an XML based data capture system means product and process changes are easier

Improved Data Quality - data quality is inherent as data forms are automatically validated when created.

The Implementation

“The Fujitsu-led team brought creativity and insight to our specific business challenges and now our work on business support will remain valuable and sustainable,” said Fields Wicker-Murin, Chair Investment Committee.

Fujitsu provided a holistic approach to the project to enable the monitoring, analysis and evaluation of the DTI's business support product portfolio. PRINCE2 and DSDM project management methods were used alongside a variety of technologies including CorVu, XML, JAVA and J2EE. Microsoft SQL Server was used as the platform for the data repository and the associated data services.

The Expertise

With over 30 years of experience supporting government departments, Fujitsu has a proven record of delivering solutions that make business processes more effective and deliver significant return on investment.

“The new business support programme is at the forefront of the DTI's drive to increase UK productivity and competitiveness. It's a great example of how we can better understand our customers' needs, and ensure our support is targeted, effective and sustainable,” Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.