HM Revenue & Customs works with Fujitsu consultants

The customer

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is the UK’s tax authority and was formed in 2005 through a merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.

HMRC is responsible for making sure that the money is available to fund the UK’s public services and for helping families and individuals with targeted financial support. Working with 45 million individuals and 4.5 million businesses, annually it collects around £475bn tax and pay out £40bn in benefits.

The challenge

These are challenging times for public bodies in the UK and HMRC is no exception. The pressure to reduce costs without compromising effectiveness is intense. This has led HMRC to consider new, more flexible ways of working that will increase its operational effectiveness and enable it to maximise the tax yield. During the period of the 2012 London Olympics, HMRC asked its staff to make changes to their working arrangements in order to make fewer journeys within the M25 area, in response to a call from government to ease the burden on London’s public transport. Following the London Olympics, the organisation realised that a mobile working strategy could play a significant part in transforming performance. It would also help the organisation meet new Civil Service Reform and Cost Savings targets.

“During the Olympics we asked people to consider different working patterns. For example, we gave them the technology to be able to work from home. This showed us that we don’t need to be tethered to our desks from nine to five,” explains the HMRC Mobile, Remote and Flexible Working Lead. “We want to build on that experience and formalise a mobile and remote working policy that will enable us to meet civil service reform plans while making our people more productive.”

In order to create a mobile strategy, HMRC asked its IT suppliers Fujitsu and Capgemini to help with the strategic analysis. Both suppliers were part of the ASPIRE outsourcing contract. This was put in place in 2004 and over the last 9 years has delivered the bulk of HMRC’s IT.

“Fujitsu and Capgemini have an understanding of our requirements and how our business operates and have worked to help HMRC define the benefits of a mobile working strategy. While Fujitsu is taking a top down view of the benefits, Capgemini is looking at the existing cost analysis.”

The solution

At the heart of Fujitsu’s approach to this project is a series of workshops that each focus on different HMRC business lines and explore the pros and cons offered by flexible working. Fujitsu’s approach has helped to provide line of sight between HMRC target goals, mapped back to business outcomes, technology capabilities and initiatives.

“These workshops are helping us understand the operational barriers to flexible working as well as the potential benefits. By involving the end-users we can better understand the challenges and opportunities. Fujitsu’s value is as a result of its knowledge of our infrastructure.”

Having teased out the specific requirements from the different lines of business, Fujitsu and HMRC have begun synthesising this information in order to create a profile model and a Roadmap of Capabilities. These examine the impact a mobile and flexible working policy would have on process, infrastructure, security and cost.

“Basically we have taken a three phase approach. The first phase was to create a baseline in terms of how HMRC works today. The second phase is running the workshops to understand the requirements of each part of our business. The third phase is to use that evidence to build a case for change.”

Products and services

• Consulting

The benefit

• HMRC now has a platform on which to build a case for change
• Flexible working could help HMRC increase the productivity of staff and maximise the tax yield. It also provides opportunities to help improve the work-life balance of employees
• Flexible working could also help HMRC control costs in a time of economic austerity

HMRC is considering and evaluating how mobile and flexible working could potentially help it to bring down costs, while improving staff productivity.

“Flexible working isn’t just about working from home occasionally. Nor is it about giving everyone an iPad. Flexible working is about changing the way everyone works and providing tools that can help transform our business. We can ensure our inspectors in the field have real-time access to the right information that will help them be more effective in their roles. Offering more flexible working options can also help improve the work-life balance of employees.”

Conclusion

HMRC’s Executive Committee is now considering the implications of this work and what the Department might want to do in the future.

“The work Fujitsu has done has enabled us to look at how we can most effectively deliver a mobile, remote and flexible working strategy for the Department.”

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