Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
The Disconnect
Giving DCMS resource and confidence for a successful ERP implementation.
Meet Michelle Leong, Deputy Director for Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and departmental lead for the Matrix programme; a collection of nine government departments tasked with procuring and implementing a single ERP solution along with a single HR and Finance shared services provider.
With the DCMS and central programme teams rapidly growing, there was an increasing reliance on the few people with previous ERP/Shared Service implementation experience to take on programme roles and support decision-making. Michelle quickly became a bottleneck and was unable to provide her department with the assurance they needed whilst working directly with the central programme.
To maintain pace, and ensure the skills and capability for the duration of the multi-year programme, Michelle needed a supplier who could augment and bolster the DCMS team with the right experience and culture, and who had a willingness to develop and upskill civil service teams.
Michelle was looking for a supplier with ERP and Shared Service implementation experience to work seamlessly with her senior leadership team, and alongside the central programme as a trusted programme partner and advisor.
The Fix
When we bid for the contract and progressed through the evaluation period, we immediately understood her challenge.
When it comes to implementing ERP systems for shared services, if you’re not fully involved in the system design, there’s a real risk that the system ends up not being fit for purpose. Which means staff don’t use it and end up going ‘off’ system (and back to using spreadsheets.) Michelle wanted to be right in the thick of it, designing an end-to-end service optimised by technology with her department’s best interests at heart.
“I needed people with expertise and experience to help me deliver. Swift brings me options, helps me work things through and make the right decisions.”
– Michelle Leong, DCMS Deputy Director
With three parts to this large-scale programme (which is ongoing), we started with the preparatory work for an ERP system and shared services implementation. This prep stage was critically important because DCMS would be the first department to go live on the new ERP system.
We started by getting a thorough understanding of DCMS operations, talking to subject matter experts to understand the ‘as-is’, and hosting workshops to map out a blueprint for future services.
How we help get your project unstuck
Our guiding principles and values:
Developed data extract routines.
Provided a data-migration team to understand how to assess and extract data, ready to be uploaded to the new system.
Designed the Chart of Accounts (ERP financial building block) for all 9 departments.
Developed a data archiving and retention strategy.
Played an active role in the tech procurement process.
Helped to define the shared services transformation strategy.
Finally, we were asked to critique the business case built by the Central team. As a result, our economist ended up building a new economic model for the entire programme.
“Swift has led the account segment design and convergence work for the Matrix. They have won the respect and trust of colleagues and departmental design leads for their thorough, well-communicated and organised approach, which strikes a balance between unique department needs, future flexibility and maximal convergence. The Matrix’s chart of accounts design has helped drive and will be partly incorporated into cross-government common CoA design.”
– Richard Holyoak, Data & Tech Lead, DCMS Matrix Programme team
Most importantly, the Swift team worked (and continue to work) with DCMS as an extension of their department. And as with all our clients, we have a ‘do-it-with-you’ approach so there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’.
The Output
DCMS are now fully prepared for the ERP and shared services implementation which is due to kick off in September 2024 with an anticipated go-live two years later in April 2026.
Michelle is confident that she has everything in place to begin the implementation and is thrilled to have been at the forefront of the whole programme (despite being the smallest department). She knows that the new system and service will have DCMS’s best interests at heart.
And DCMS are so impressed with Swift’s approach, skills and values, that we’ve been asked to support critical gaps within the Central Matrix Team in Economic Analysis, and both Technical and Service Programme Management.
Grappling with an ERP or shared-services implementation?
Email us on info@swiftstrategies.co.uk or call us on 020 4576 0275.