Contract Value: £30,000
Start Date: May 2020 End Date: Sept 2021
The Challenge
The UK Biocentre was commissioned last year by the UK Government to analyse swab samples to support the national effort against the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first of the 4 Lighthouse labs – the biggest network of diagnostic testing facilities the UK has ever seen.
As part of their growth strategy, the UK Biocentre was looking to engage new clients, whilst continuing to grow operations for the COVID-19 project. There was a recognition from the senior management team that the whole spectrum of services at the centre would need to transform to meet the growth objective, and investment would be required for Digital Transformation.
The Approach
A key part of the criteria focused on providing the UK Biocentre and its staff with an online portal that allowed staff and suppliers to raise and manage tickets, such as Incidents, Requests for Service or Change Requests. No application was in place prior to the Project inception meaning the Centre had a heavy reliance on the manual push and pull of service management services.
Once the solution had been selected AI Digital were then commissioned to undertake the detailed design, development, and implementation of the chosen solution across multiple Service areas. This included HR, Finance, Lab Operations, IT, Facilities Management and Logistics. Each of the UK Biocentre’s Service Leads were actively engaged by the project team to support the required process and system design work. This was on the basis of AI Digitals’ ethos that strong collaborative working is key when implementing such a radical transformation that not only impacts on processes and procedures, but also requires a culture shift in behaviours.
We spent time at the outset, ensuring a clear understanding of the Project’s scope and objectives, both at a Leadership and Service User level. This allowed the team to assess the predicted impact better, and provided a firm foundation for the project, in addition to achieving a collective understanding of its aims.
In addition to tangible drivers such as the implementation of a new tool, the project has people drivers in order to support a culture shift. One of the key people drivers was the need to break down interdepartmental silos by opening up communications, leading to a more inclusive and open company culture. Feedback was sought along all stages of the project to monitor this desired outcome. AI Digital’s 4 ‘D’ approach (Discover, Design, Deliver and Drive) to managing projects, includes the ability to accurately identify, track and ultimately realise the benefits of key project outcomes such as this.
The Result
The implementation was a great success, delivered on time, meeting all the quality standards and on budget. The ADITAS (Resolve) solution chosen by the UK Biocentre gave them a fit for purpose solution that was a great starting point to build further ITSM delivery modules onto as its maturity grows.