CACI has been providing a week of work experience for computing students at Callywith College in Bodmin for the past four years. The projects established by CACI provide students with the opportunity to develop valuable computational skills. The work experience encourages students to showcase some of the APIs offered by the Met Office, given CACI’s involvement with aspects of them as part of various Rowe and CNI projects. Students this year made use of the Global Spot API that is available via Weather DataHub on the Met Office website.
Callywith College students’ task for 2025
During summer 2021, the RNLI saved the highest number of lives during water sport incidents in 19 years. As a result, the brief for the students was to create a prototype website that promotes safety in the water, with a key focus on checking the conditions beforehand, which is where the Met Office Open APIs come in. Instructions on how to access the Global Spot API via Weather DataHub were provided as a starting point. The students had to piece together the code to be able to make the relevant decisions for the data they required.
Getting started was a challenge, since many of the students hadn’t heard of an API or used JavaScript before. The course instructors guided the students through the opening phase of their project. After seeing the wide range of services offered by the Met Office, the students soon became increasingly ambitious with their plans.
An interesting observation during the week was how widely AI is used by students. It’s the first resource they go to when there’s a concept they don’t understand, instead of a more traditional Google search. The various tools were great for providing a starting point to get the students up and running. The downside of these tools on the other hand was that a couple of the teams just let AI do everything.
How CACI supported the process
Justin Turner, senior technical consultant at CACI, supported the students throughout the course. Going desk to desk, he was able to support the students, provide guidance and assess their development throughout. “I really enjoyed it and it was brilliant to see the students, many of whom were reticent to get involved at first, embrace the challenge, learn new skills and apply them to the task,” says Justin. “It was rewarding to see how much they could achieve in a short space of time and to hear their positive feedback at the conclusion of the task. Hopefully it highlighted to them how much they are capable of achieving and encouraged them to take up further opportunities. The task itself and the concept of doing a presentation at the end of the week was initially daunting for many, so hopefully the experience has provided a confidence boost too.”
Enhancing presentation skills
The Callywith College students had to present their projects at the end of the week so we could decide who the prize should be awarded to. This was the first presentation many of the students had done, another important experience for them.
It was great to see the work the students had produced, with many going above and beyond the brief. One team periodically retrieved data from the API for several fixed locations and cached them in a database for efficiency, while the winning team put data from the response into a formula to get a score for how suitable the conditions are for certain water sports. Deciding on a winner was extremely tough and there was a lot of deliberation beforehand.
The value of new experiences
CACI is keen to support more colleges and students in this way. By bringing this group of students together for a week, it was great to see them embrace new challenges whilst learning valuable news skills in coding and presenting.
Get in touch with our team to discover how CACI delivers real-world impact through secure, scalable solutions built for mission-critical environments.
RAF Digital is a key component of the RAF, driving digital transformation and innovation. As the RAF becomes more data-centric, there is an increasing demand for mapping information flows, understanding the technology used to consume this data and managing associated costs.
The RAF Digital Architecture Function (AF) provides assurance and actionable guidance to programmes and projects from an Information Defence Line of Development perspective. As it continues to evolve in support of Air’s digital transformation, there is a growing need to enhance governance, collaboration and consistency across programmes while operating within a broad and complex stakeholder landscape. Documenting artefacts and fostering a culture of reuse that reduces time, risk and cost are crucial as the AF matures, which led to the development of the Digital Services Register: a comprehensive repository of architectural patterns, services and standards for reference.
THE CHALLENGE
Historically, architectural artefacts were often developed in isolation, resulting in duplicated efforts and inconsistencies. This prompted the AF to adopt a more structured approach to knowledge management and improve continuity, decision-making and the reusability of architectural artefacts.
As the function matures, its ways of working will naturally evolve to meet new demands and challenges. During this transition, external expertise will be vital in shaping best practices, refining methodologies and contributing to the development of architectural artefacts. Collaborating with industry partners will also help ensure that the AF remains agile, effective and well-positioned to support Air’s long-term digital strategy.
THE SOLUTION
To address the challenges faced by the RAF Digital Architecture Function (AF), the Digital Services Register was created to ensure the RAF would maintain consistency and efficiency in developing and deploying their digital solutions. Supplementary SME knowledge was also provided on the scoping and costing of new services, including offering guidance on best practices, identifying risks and aligning new projects with the RAF’s digital strategy to further support this.
Experienced solution architects with a solid background in the Air Domain were also employed, working closely with desk officers and collaborating with other industry partners to refine the definition of Information Defence Line of Development (DLoD) services. A key focus was determining how these services, along with architectural patterns and standards, could be effectively documented within the Digital Services Register.
Throughout this process, the solution architects utilised a range of industry-standard tools to develop and manage architectural artefacts. However, after careful evaluation of various solutions, Mood’s no-code software was identified as the most suitable platform for the development of the Digital Services Register. This decision was driven by Mood’s ability to provide an intuitive and user-friendly interface while maintaining the rigour of formal architectural modelling.
Although the Digital Services Register adhered to the ArchiMate notation, its accessible design allowed end users to create ArchiMate-compliant artefacts without requiring prior knowledge of the notation. Additionally, through the use of a Model Exchange File, data could be seamlessly imported or exported into other tools.
THE RESULTS
The Digital Services Register documents over 60 services and nearly 80 standards, creating a comprehensive knowledge repository. Supported by a robust governance model,it allows different permission groupings to perform specific functions within the tool. Administrator privileges have been granted to desk officers within the Architecture Function, enabling them to manage and maintain the tool independently without relying on support from CACI.
Initially rolled out to architects, the tool has since been expanded to include desk officers and programme stakeholders. The Digital Services Register is accessible via MODNet laptops, with login facilitated through seamless single sign-on technology. This means that users can collaborate cross-boundary, fostering an interactive and engaged user community.
Each service in the register is accompanied by metadata, including completeness and confidence scores, as well as point-of-contact details, equipping users with insight into the reliability and thoroughness of the information. Additionally, the tool features graphical representations that illustrate the relationships between services, highlight their specialisations and demonstrate how they connect to relevant standards. These visual aids further enhance the tool’s usefulness for users across the RAF.
Now that the tool has been handed over to the desk officers, it has entered a phase of continuous improvement. To ensure the information remains accurate and relevant, monthly workshops are being organised by the desk officers. These workshops will focus on updating and refining the content, fostering ongoing collaboration and ensuring the tool evolves with the development of new services and standards.
The register has the potential to fulfil an essential component of the work the Design Authority will do to cohere digital system evolution for the RAF. Understanding what the current state of the ecosystem iswill be vital to making the right decisions to move it forward. A place to curate this will be essential, and I think the Digital Services register can play that role and evolve as needed. The combination with guidance through elements of the design processes required was a surprise bonus.
– Philip Bates,Technology Consulting Director, Darter
As a trusted partner for organisations seeking to implement and evolve complex, bespoke CRM solutions using Microsoft Dynamics, CACI’s work with a luxury vehicle manufacturer conglomerate over the past decade has exemplified our ability to deliver high-impact, continuously evolving platforms that support critical functions.
In this blog, we’ll uncover the challenges that this manufacturer faced in the absence of a bespoke CRM solution and the benefits they’ve been able to realise once integrating this new solution with CACI’s support.
Understanding the power of CRM solutions
The luxury vehicle manufacturer’s Key Account Management team is responsible for managing fleet sales, accounting for approximately 40% of their global vehicle sales, equating to billions of euros annually. Fleet sales involve a highly complex and customisable product (vehicles) sold under constantly shifting market conditions, regulatory environments and customer-specific pricing structures. With this in mind, the manufacturer needed a CRM solution that could:
Handle intricate pricing logic and discount structures
Integrate with multiple internal and external data sources
Adapt rapidly to changes in product offerings, market conditions and geographies
Scale across brands and European markets
Provide a single source of truth for pricing and account management.
The difference CRM solutions would make
To achieve this, CACI built and continues to maintain a bespoke pricing and account management tool on Microsoft Dynamics Customer Experience (CE). This solution includes:
Custom APIs and integrations with the manufacturer’s internal systems and external data feeds
Bespoke code to support complex pricing logic and real-time quote generation
Advanced data management to consolidate and process information from diverse sources
Continuous customisation and improvement, ensuring the platform evolves with the manufacturer’s needs
Migration to Microsoft Azure, modernising the infrastructure for scalability and performance.
In doing so, the manufacturer has enhanced:
Speed and accuracy: The tool enables the generation of accurate, real-time pricing for complex fleet deals, reducing turnaround time and improving customer satisfaction
Revenue protection: By ensuring pricing precision and agility, they maintain a competitive edge against industry rivals
Scalability: The platform has been successfully rolled out across multiple European markets and adapted for use with other brands
Strategic partnership: CACI’s decade-long collaboration with this manufacturer reflects a deep understanding of their business and a shared commitment to innovation.
Why this matters to other organisations & how CACI can help
CACI’s Microsoft Dynamics capability is ideally suited for organisations that:
Sell complex, customisable products (e.g. in automotive, logistics, FMCG or retail)
Operate in dynamic markets with evolving pricing, regulatory or customer requirements
Require deep integration with existing systems and data sources
Need a continuously evolving CRM platform rather than a static, off-the-shelf solution.
While CACI’s expertise is strongest in the Customer Experience module, we also support other Dynamics modules (excluding Finance, which typically requires accounting SMEs). Our strength lies in delivering bespoke, high-performance solutions that go far beyond basic configuration, leveraging our back-end development expertise in .NET, Java, and Azure to build platforms that drive real business value.
If your organisation is grappling with complex sales processes, diverse customer needs or fragmented data systems, CACI’s approach to Microsoft Dynamics could be the transformative solution you need. Our work with this luxury vehicle manufacturer demonstrates how a tailored, continuously evolving CRM platform can become a strategic asset, driving revenue, efficiency and competitive advantage.
Get in touch with our expert team at CACI to explore how a bespoke solution can drive efficiency, scalability and competitive advantage for your organisation.
Successful change management goes beyond strategising, requiring clear characteristics to be outlined to ensure long-term transformation. In the first of this two-part blog series, we explored common pitfalls arising in change management and how Mood can help mitigate them. Today, we highlight the characteristics that make for successful change management and how Mood can help your change management efforts succeed.
What are the characteristics of successful change management?
A successful transformational change is characterised by several key elements that ensure the change is not only implemented, but embraced, sustained and delivers long-term value. Incorporating these characteristics would increase the likelihood of transformational change being successful for organisations that pursue it, driving long-term growth and resilience. With this in mind, organisations should consider the following core characteristics for successful change management:
A clear vision and strategic alignment
Transformation must be driven by a well-defined purpose and objectives that align with the organisation’s long-term strategy. Doing so requires leadership to clearly and consistently articulate why the change is necessary, what success should look like and the overall vision across all levels of the organisation.
Strong leadership and sponsorship
Senior leadership must actively champion the change and visibly commit to its success. To do this, change sponsors should be delegated to provide the necessary resources and authority to drive the initiative forward. Since leaders model the desired behaviours, they will set the tone for the organisation.
Employee engagement and inclusive involvement
Employees at all levels must be involved in shaping the change rather than just being passive recipients. Two-way communication channels, for example, would allow employees to voice concerns, ask questions and contribute ideas. This would foster a culture of trust and transparency, reducing resistance.
An effective communication strategy
Messages about the change should be tailored for different audiences within the organisation. Communication must be continuous, addressing uncertainties and reinforcing the benefits of change. Storytelling and real-life examples must also be used to create emotional connections with the transformation.
An agile and adaptive approach
Flexibility must be embraced by the organisation, allowing room for adjustments based on feedback and changing circumstances. Pilot programmes or phased rollouts should be conducted to help test and refine the approach before a full-scale implementation. Continuous learning and improvement mechanisms should also be considered to keep the change relevant and effective.
A strong change management framework
A structured methodology (such as Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, ADKAR or Lewin’s Change Model) would help guide the process. Clear milestones and metrics would help track progress and demonstrate quick wins. Furthermore, change champions and influencers could help embed new ways of working within teams.
A cultural and behavioural shift
The transformation must be supported by a culture that embraces change, learning, and innovation. Employees must also be encouraged to adopt new mindsets and behaviours that align with the change. Recognition and reward systems, for example, can help reinforce these desired actions and attitudes.
Strong governance and compliance
Governance structures ensure accountability, decision-making, and compliance with regulations. Risks must be proactively identified and mitigated to prevent disruption. Data-driven insights should also be used, balancing qualitative and quantitative data to guide decision-making throughout the transformation.
Investment in skills and capabilities
Training and development programmes would equip employees with the skills needed for the new way of working. Organisations can further invest in their employees by providing knowledge-sharing opportunities and mentoring support in adapting to change. Digital tools and automation should also be leveraged where possible to facilitate new processes and efficiencies.
Sustainable change and long-term commitment
The transformation should not be treated as a one-off project, but as a continuous journey. Mechanisms must be established to embed changes into everyday operations and ensure they are sustained. Regular reviews should also be undertaken to assess whether the transformation is delivering the intended benefits and make necessary adjustments.
How Mood supports effective change management
Failure to effectively manage change can lead to wasted resources, employee disengagement and missed opportunities. Mood can counter this by ensuring change initiatives are not only well-planned, but actively supported through collaboration, visibility and governance.
Through Mood, the necessary structure and flexibility to manage complexity, mitigate risks and achieve successful transformation in the form of a comprehensive platform is provided by addressing these key challenges:
Enabling holistic change planning: Mood allows organisations to break down complexity and structure change initiatives in meaningful ways. By providing a visual and interactive representation of business challenges, it helps organisations scenario-plan solutions, provide insights into organisational structures and understand dependencies.
Driving collaboration across the organisation: Mood facilitates engagement from all stakeholders, encouraging different departments and teams to contribute to change initiatives. By providing a shared platform for input and iteration, alignment and transparency are promoted while resistance is reduced.
Providing real-time visibility: Decision-makers can access a centralised, always-up-to-date view of change initiatives. This visibility ensures potential risks and opportunities are identified early and acted upon accordingly.
Maintaining compliance and governance: With security, governance and auditability, Mood provides the necessary controls to maintain compliance with industry regulations and organisational policies.
Supporting continuous improvement: Unlike traditional rigid change management approaches, Mood is flexible and scalable, enabling organisations to iterate and refine their strategies as they gather new insights, ensuring change initiatives remain relevant and effective.
To learn more about how Mood can support your organisation’s change initiatives, contact us today.
National Rail Open Data (NROD) provides the public with access to a large number of operational data feeds to encourage both greater interest in rail and the development of innovative products that are of use to passengers and the rail industry. CACI processes and manages the NROD platform with the aim of providing continual and easy access to users.
Challenge
Network Rail provides a variety of data in different formats from XML, JSON and rail proprietary data structures. These are received with varying levels of frequency from static data to real-time data updated at up to 100 messages per second during peak hours.
Our instruction from Network Rail was for the data to be made available with no obfuscation or filtering applied to make it as accessible and easy to use as possible.
Solution
To achieve this, we offered options for users by providing some conversions (such as to JSON) and enriching data with metadata. We also used AWS infrastructure and highly available components like AWS ECS (Elastic Compute Service) and S3 (Simple Scalable Storage) to improve access and availability.
Users were provided a portal for account management, allowing them to change details such as their username and password and access links to documentation and endpoint information for the data to aid their use and interpretation. A separate portal manages access for industry clients invited by Network Rail, allowing them to connect to a more stable platform for use in industry applications.
Results
NROD is now used by an engaged, passionate community of over 600 registered users who apply the data in a variety of ways. Since the data was first made available, a range of websites and apps have been created, including Open Train Times, which provides real-time arrival and departure information for each train company and helps passengers plan their journeys, along with Recent Train Times, demonstrating individual trains’ performance and helping users assess the punctuality of different train services to plan their journeys accordingly.
CACI has been collaborating with industry clients and representatives of the broader public client community in a working group to give updates and receive feedback on how best the community can be served. We also discuss enhancements and how to collaborate to address users’ needs at quarterly meetings.
A Grafana dashboard has been developed to keep users informed on the system’s status, including message rates, message latency of the main feeds and an update field showing system downtime updates.
To ensure NROD is accessible to as many audiences as possible, we have worked with Network Rail to provide the same data within the Rail Data Marketplace (RDM), adding to the 100+ other rail data products now available on this platform.
Testimonials
Network Rail’s Open Data is essential to supporting the development of new applications and services in rail. CACI’s expertise in large scale infrastructure, complex datasets and real-time feeds is key to this, ensuring that the user community of developers and rail professionals always has access to the data and that it is easy to use. By directly engaging with users, CACI continually improves the service, further enabling innovation in rail.
– Chris Stanley, Head of Asset Data at Network Rail
Change is a constant in modern organisations, yet successful change management remains a significant challenge. Many transformation initiatives fail due to poor planning, lack of cross-organisational collaboration, and insufficient control and governance. In this first blog of our two-part series, we uncover the common pitfalls in change management and demonstrate how Mood can provide a structured, collaborative and controlled approach to ensure success.
What are the pitfalls of change management?
Despite the best intentions, managing large-scale change can cause organisations to encounter challenges from siloed planning and a lack of engagement to poor visibility and a slow adaptation to evolving needs.
The rigidity of traditional change management approaches may restrict continuous iterations or improvements, creating missed opportunities for value realisation. Due to typically isolated and misaligned departments and teams, unidentified risks and inefficiencies can arise. Resistance and a lack of buy-in may also come from stakeholders not actively involved in decision-making, and without a centralised view, the impact of changes across the organisation may not be understood by decision-makers. Furthermore, inadequate control over change processes can lead to non-compliance and operational risks.
Mood can help organisations alleviate the challenges associated with change management by offering the opportunity to revise change initiatives in ways that are both meaningful and comprehensible for stakeholders across the business. Its visual and interactive capabilities enable organisations to devise solutions and gain insight into organisational structures to better understand dependencies. Continuous improvement is also supported through Mood’s scalability and flexibility, allowing organisations to continuously refine their change management strategies for ongoing relevance and effectiveness.
Understanding employee psyche during workplace transformation
At CACI, we have seen the aftermath and consequential damage of failed change initiatives on employees, with the root cause always being a lack of thought for those who were affected by decisions made without their input.
For employees, large-scale organisational change can be an unsettling and complex experience. The transformation process often triggers a range of emotional and psychological responses, which, if not properly managed, can hinder the success of the initiative. For example, employees may worry about their job security, altered roles with the expectation of the need to learn new skills and take on extra responsibility or changes in their daily routines. A lack of clear communication can amplify these fears, leading to resistance. Sudden changes may also cause a sense of a loss of control, making employees feel powerless. When employees are not involved in shaping the transformation, they may become disengaged or even obstructive.
Uncertainty and increased workloads during a transition can also create stress, affecting employee wellbeing and productivity. Furthermore, if previous change initiatives have failed or lacked transparency, employees may view new transformations with suspicion.
Despite any resistance met towards change, it is imperative for organisations to view this as an opportunity for growth, innovation and career development. Providing clear pathways for upskilling and involvement is one vital way to foster a more positive response.
Understanding these psychological dynamics is crucial for change leaders. By addressing employee concerns through transparent communication, inclusive decision-making and continuous support, organisations can enhance engagement and reduce resistance. Mood boosts employee morale by encouraging cross-departmental contribution and collaboration around change management initiatives. As a shared platform, its alignment and transparency reduce resistance.
How Mood supports effective change management
Organisations that fail to manage change effectively risk wasted resources, employee disengagement and missed opportunities. By leveraging Mood’s capabilities, businesses can ensure that change initiatives are not only well-planned, but actively supported through collaboration, visibility and governance.
Mood provides the necessary structure and flexibility to manage complexity, mitigate risks and achieve successful transformation in the form of a comprehensive platform by addressing these key challenges:
Enabling holistic change planning: Mood allows organisations to break down complexity and structure change initiatives in meaningful ways. By providing a visual and interactive representation of business challenges, it helps organisations scenario-plan solutions, provide insights into organisational structures and understand dependencies.
Driving collaboration across the organisation: Mood facilitates engagement from all stakeholders, encouraging different departments and teams to contribute to change initiatives. By providing a shared platform for input and iteration, alignment and transparency are promoted while resistance is reduced.
Providing real-time visibility: Decision-makers can access a centralised, always-up-to-date view of change initiatives. This visibility ensures potential risks and opportunities are identified early and acted upon accordingly.
Maintaining compliance and governance: With security, governance and auditability, Mood provides the necessary controls to maintain compliance with industry regulations and organisational policies.
Supporting continuous improvement: Unlike traditional rigid change management approaches, Mood is flexible and scalable, enabling organisations to iterate and refine their strategies as they gather new insights, ensuring change initiatives remain relevant and effective.
Managing multiple vendors has become a logistical nightmare for many businesses as the tech landscape evolves. Between ballooning vendor lists, overlapping services and spiralling costs, the need for effectivevendor consolidationhas become greater than ever.
Vendor consolidation isn’t just a trend, it’s a strategic move that empowers businesses to optimise their systems, reduce operational inefficiencies and drive meaningful cost savings. If your business is looking to achieve cost optimisation and streamline operations, this blog outlines the five key steps CACI recommends taking to successfully execute vendor consolidation.
What is vendor consolidation and why does it matter?
Over the past decade, IT innovation has led to an explosion of niche solution providers with expert capabilities. With the number oftech vendors increasing tenfold from 2012 to 2023, multi-vendor models that have worked in the past now introduce complexities, redundancies and inflated management costs. By consolidating vendors, businesses can:
Simplify vendor relationships
Improve service integration
Strengthen security postures
Reduce shadow IT risks
Achieve significant cost efficiencies.
However, rushing into consolidation without a thoughtful approach can create more problems than it solves, which is whya strategic framework is essential.
CACI’s five key steps to perfecting a vendor consolidation strategy
Define your vendor consolidation goals
The first step to successfully consolidating is clearly defining what the goals and desired outcomes are.
Are you aiming to:
Lower operating costs?
Streamline vendor management?
Reduce security vulnerabilities?
Improve service quality?
Before taking action, identify your pain points, consider future growth strategies, assess regulatory compliance requirements and prioritise your goals. Your consolidation efforts must align with broader business strategies, not just short-term savings. These factors will then guide the entire process and help measure success once the consolidation is complete.
A clear visionwill provide a roadmap to measure success once the transition is complete.CACI works across multiple verticals and is well placed to advise on and provide industry best practise. We can complete a requirements assessment to support this step to align with a business’ goals and provide a strong foundational step for consolidation.
Assess your current vendor landscape
Before you optimise, you must diagnose.
Large and varied vendor estates often result from aggressive growth periods,prioritising expansion over efficiency. This leads to underutilised software, overlapping services and unmanaged contracts, complicating the accurate measurement of the value being brought to the business.
A strategy must therefore begin with assembling a detailed inventory of:
Vendors
Products/services
Service-level agreements (SLAs)
Contract expiration dates
Internal stakeholders.
Once the full landscape has been mapped, a deep analysis of how each product is performing should be completed and each vendor should be evaluated through both objective and subjective lenses:
Objective evaluation:
SLA performance
Incident history
Service costs versus delivered value
Service duplication across vendors
ROI and proven cost savings to date.
Subjective evaluation:
Strategic importance to your business
User experience and training support
Vendor flexibility, transparency, and reputation.
Gathering this information and conducting interviews with key users will help build a holistic vendor profile. Knowing who truly delivers value and who doesn’t will guide strategic decisions. Considering security architecture will further impact strategic decision-making. Firewalls, for example, are vital as the first line of defence against cyber threats. However, businesses can often manage a diverse array of firewalls from multiple vendors. This flexibility can complicate security and compliance due to organic security policy growth from new applications and services, rapid deployment of policy changes to meet project deadlines, temporary fixes to address immediate issues which are not revisited and more.
To remedy this, CACI’s network automation experts have developed a Firewall Optimisation Assessment to generate actionable insights, analysis and remediation suggestions for network security appliance configuration. With over 20 years of operational experience in network security engineering across many businesses, we undertake assessments across leading security device vendors including Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco and Checkpoint.
Are you confident that your firewall configurations are consistent and easy to manage? That there are no security weaknesses such as overly permissive policies or insecure protocols? That the rulebase is necessary and not leftover from testing? That the policies are configured according to industry best practice? If not, CACI can help.
Eliminating the need for reworking firewall RFC change requests
Scaling your firewall for security posture
Validating your security posture against known assessment criteria
Progressing towards implementing governance-as-code.
Communicate your goals and priorities to vendors
Transparency with current vendors is crucial. By communicating goals, priorities and current challenges to vendors, more information can be gathered on the full capabilities of what each product and service can offer. Through this, opportunities for expanded partnerships or service integrations can also arise. Key areas to examine include:
Managed services experience
Industry expertise
Service range and frameworks
Innovation capacity
Governance standards
Global and local resource presence.
Often, a single vendor may offer additional services you currently purchase from others. At CACI, we regularly uncover these overlaps, offering clients enhanced solutions across network services, logistics, and mar-tech platforms.
Tip: Use third-party analyst reports like Gartner Magic Quadrants to benchmark vendor capabilities against the broader market.
Develop and implement a transition plan
With insights in hand, it’s time to build your strategy.
Prioritise vendors that:
Can cover multiple service areas
Maintain high standards of quality, security, and support
Offer strategic partnerships, not just transactional relationships.
At this stage, address critical risk factors:
Contractual obligations and penalties
Regulatory and compliance impacts
Potential downtime risks.
Perform a thorough ROI analysis, weighing financial metrics alongside strategic benefits like increased agility, improved compliance posture, and enhanced integration. This risk assessment will significantly improve the efficacy of the transition plan and prevent new challenges from emerging during the consolidation process.
Best practice: Phase your transition for minimal disruption. Pilot smaller changes before scaling consolidation efforts across the business.
Continuously monitor and optimise
Vendor consolidation isn’t a “set it and forget it” process. Ongoing monitoring and trackingis key.
Establishing clear KPIs and SLA benchmarks to measure vendor performance will contribute hugely to the successful management of ongoing, optimal operations. Conduct annual evaluations to:
Identify new consolidation opportunities
Validate vendor alignment with business goals
Maintain cost and performance optimisation.
Regular reviews foster a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring your vendor strategy evolves alongside your business. CACI offers both shared and dedicated managed services which can provide 24/7 monitoring, helping businesses continuously improve, develop and innovate to achieve optimisation goals.
Common pitfalls to avoid during vendor consolidation
While consolidation offers powerful benefits, be mindful of these common mistakes:
Over-consolidating: Diversification can mitigate risk. Avoid relying solely on one provider for critical systems.
Underestimating transition complexity: Budget time and resources for integration, training and risk mitigation.
Ignoring stakeholder input: Early engagement with users ensures buy-in and identifies potential friction points.
Focusing only on cost: Strategic value, security posture and service quality must weigh heavily in decisions.
By navigating these challenges thoughtfully, you can realise maximum benefits without unintended setbacks.
How CACI can help you master vendor consolidation
At CACI, we understand that vendor consolidation is more than an operational exercise — it’s a strategic transformation. Our team partners with businesses to:
Map vendor ecosystems
Identify strategic partners
Design transition roadmaps
Mitigate consolidation risks
Drive operational efficiencies.
Ultimately, any consolidation exercise needs to enhance a business’ capabilities, increase efficiencies and drive agility. If, based on these considerations, your business is ready to move forward with strategic vendor consolidation, CACI is working with multiple clients to explore and implement strategies to optimise their systems, improve operational inefficiencies and drive cost-effectiveness. Ready to elevate your vendor consolidation game?
Contact CACI today to learn more about our tailored vendor consolidation strategies and how they can help you streamline operations, enhance resilience and position your business for future growth.
When people talk about digital twins, they often picture a virtual representation of a physical thing such as an airplane, allowing simulation of changes to design and measuring against different variables to see the impact of those changes. This leads to innovative designs, because the risk of R&D is greatly reduced when able to test hypotheses in the safe space of the virtual world.
The beneficial impact of digital twins doesn’t endwith physical assets, however.The same principles can be applied to whole systems, be it the communications system used on board that plane or the whole ecosystem required to get the plane safely off the ground, with the right passengers, the right baggage, the right fuel and the right flight plan.
Whether a sprawling international hub with thousands of flights per day or a smaller airport like the one we visited in Staverton, digital twins can enable rapid optimisation and growth and great reductions in waste and errors. So, what are three pivotal ways in which digital twins can make a difference?
A Digital Twin — a virtual replica of a physical asset or a system capable of revolutionising how regional airports manage their resources, optimise operations and plan for the future. Gloucestershire Airport, servicing private aircraft, helicopters and even emergency landings, is the perfect example of where this innovation could have a real, immediate impact.
1. Fuel Management: beyond just “how much?”
Fuel is the lifeblood of an airport’s operations, and in smaller airports, every litre counts. By deploying sensors on refuelling tanks and storage facilities, airports can continuously monitor both the quantity and quality of fuel in real time. Moisture ratings, contaminant detection and temperature controls would ensure fuel meets strict aviation standards, minimising the risk of supply issues or quality failures.
Using historical demand patterns combined with predictive analytics, adigital twin could forecast fuel usage trends, allowing smarter resupply scheduling. Not only would this optimise operational costs, but it could also reduce the carbon footprint associated with frequent, unnecessary fuel deliveries.
2. Full operational visibility:from touchdown to take-off
Imagine a live, data-driven view of the entire airport, from a helicopter’s landing and its passengers’ disembarkation to baggage handling efficiency. A digital twin could integrate sensor data, RFID tracking, business systems and operational logs to create a single pane of glass for airport managers.
Delays in passenger flow? The system would spot them instantly. Baggage bottlenecks? Highlighted before they become a passenger satisfaction issue. Even emergency landings could be better coordinated with real-time scenario simulations.
3. Learning from the past and testing the future
One of the most powerful advantages of a digital twin is its ability to simulate “what if” scenarios without touching the real-world setup.
Historical analysis: Why did baggage handling slow down during the last peak season? Where could staffing have been more efficient?
Virtual experimentation: What happens if a new refuelling procedure is trialled? What’s the impact of changing the location of helicopter landing pads?
By creating a safe environment to design and test improvements virtually, smaller airports could avoid costly, disruptive errors and implement proven optimisations with confidence.
How CACI can help you reap the benefits of digital twins
Digital twins aren’t reserved for the world’s largest airports or organisations. They offer just as much— if not more— value to smaller, agile organisations where every efficiency gain translates to a significant operational advantage.
The future of aviation infrastructure isn’t just about scaling up. It’s about scaling smart,starting with embracing the power of a digital twin.
Discover more about Mood’s cutting-edge advancements in digital twins with our latest video, created in collaboration with CyNam. We delve into real-world applications of digital twins, offering insights into how these virtual replicas can address challenges and drive innovation.
The world of intelligence gathering has evolved dramatically. While infiltrating clandestine meetings in darkened rooms still has its place, today, a wealth of informationresides online waiting to be unearthed and analysed. This blog post explores how investigators can leverage Clear and Dark Web data holistically together to gain critical insights and solve complex cases.
A Familiar Landscape: Clear Web Investigations
The Clear Web, the internet known to most that’s neatly indexed by standard search engines, is a treasure trove of publicly available, readily accessible information. Easy for investigators to search through, the Clear Web is a great starting point for building a comprehensive picture of a subject or situation for several critical intelligence investigation use cases:
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) collects and analyses information from search engines, social media platforms, news sites, public records, and company websites to identify assets and connections between individuals, track movements, and establish timelines.
Social Media Analysis unlocks goldmines of personal information using social profiles, posts, photos, and connections to understand subjects’ interests, relationships, activities, and sentiment and help identify potential threats, track individuals, and understand group dynamics.
Media Monitoring helps track public sentiment and potential threats by looking at news articles, blog posts, and forum discussions to provide context and insights into events, individuals, organisations and cultural trends.
Background Checks to verify identities, uncover criminal histories, and identify financial connections using public records such as court records, property records, and business registrations for risk assessment and due diligence.
The Deep and Dark Web: the hidden depths of the Internet
This Clear Web, however, represents a tiny fraction of the Internet’s information. Over 95% of this content resides below the surface of the Clear Web, in what’s known as the Deep Web. At its most basic, anything behind a subscription, encryption or password, counts within this.
For investigators needing deeper insights for more complex investigations, a sub-section of the Deep Web, the Dark Web, is a far more valuable, albeit challenging, information landscape.
The Dark Web is a hidden part of the internet, accessible only via specialised browsers, often TOR (The Onion Router) browser, a modified, open-source version of Firefox. TOR anonymises web traffic using an encryption technique originally developed by the US Navy. It hides IP addresses and browsing activity by routing traffic through multiple nodes. This layered encryption ensures strong anonymity, protecting user privacy even if individual nodes are compromised.
Most people perceive the Dark Web to be a place synonymous with illicit activities. And it’s true that illegal marketplaces and forums for drugs, weapons, stolen data, illegal pornography, counterfeits, Malware and other criminal activities exist there –c.57% of its activities according to 2020 research.
However, the Dark Web also serves as a platform for secure communication and legal cryptocurrency trading, attracting whistleblowers, activists, and individuals seeking privacy, including those living under regimes with limited freedom of speech. The BBC, CIA and Facebook all have TOR sites on the Dark Web for this reason. Ultimately, the Dark Web’s anonymity, while exploited by criminals, makes it a valuable source of intelligence.
A complex shifting world: the challenge of Dark Web Investigations
To effectively use the Dark Web for intelligence, investigators need specialised tools, in-depth knowledge, refined techniques, and a keen awareness of ethical implications for these critical use cases.
Tracking Criminal Activity by monitoring illegal marketplaces to identify sellers, buyers, and track the flow of illegal goods. This is where effective Dark Web analysis tools are vital to help deanonymise individuals and generate intelligence to disrupt criminal networks.
Identifying Cyber Threats: Cybercriminals often discuss vulnerabilities and sell stolen data on Dark Web forums. Monitoring and carefully engaging in these forums can help investigators identify threats and prevent attacks.
Investigating Financial Crimes: Cryptocurrency transactions used in Dark Web marketplaces for legal and illegal trading – the most famous Bitcoin – can be difficult to trace. Investigators use specialised tools and techniques for blockchain data analysis to identify criminal individuals.
Uncovering Insider Threats: The Dark Web’s anonymity can embolden individuals to leak sensitive information. Investigators can monitor forums for leaked data and identify potential insider threats within organisations.
Sourcing Human Intelligence (HUMINT): While challenging, Intelligence investigators can establish contact with individuals who possess valuable information. Particularly useful for organised crime, terrorism, or other sensitive investigations.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations in Clear and Dark Web investigations
The Clear and Dark Web present both unique and shared investigation challenges requiring specialised skills, tools, and strategies:
Sheer volume of data on the Web makes it difficult to pinpoint relevant information.
Encryption of communications and transactions further complicates access to crucial evidence.
Crimes often span multiple jurisdictions, requiring national and international cooperation and collaboration.
Data fragmentation across various platforms and databases also requires extensive effort to piece together information.
Privacy laws and regulations add more complexity to obtaining data. Investigators must always operate within the bounds of the law, ensuring any intelligence collected can be used as admissible evidence in court.
The Dark Web has its own particular challenges:
Anonymity is thesingle most challenging factor which prevents linkages to real-world identities
Heavy encryption of transactions and communications further hinder interception and decoding of information, requiring specialist tool proficiency, cryptography and blockchain capabilities.
Human Analysis: while the sheer volume of Dark Web data necessitates using sophisticated tools to cut through the noise, careful analysis is vital to avoid false attributions.
Trends in the Evolving Investigation Landscape
The world of online intelligence gathering is constantly evolving, requiring investigators to adapt their techniques accordingly:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies are both a challenge and opportunity to investigators. AI deepfake imagery, voice and video, AI-generated illicit content, cryptocurrency laundering and AI-automated cyberattacks, phishing and chatbots will require investigators to constantly adapt their techniques.
Big Data Analytics tools can process and analyse the exponentially growing large volumes of data, revealing hidden connections and potential insights about complex criminal networks or individuals’ motivations that would be impossible to detect manually.
Blockchain Analysis will be an even more critical skill for investigators given the growth of new cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR) with highly advanced cryptographic techniques that mask transactions and dynamically change IP addresses, even as Bitcoin can now be ‘cracked’. With central banks also integrating cryptocurrency into operations, it’s clear its continuing adoption and acceptance for both legitimate and illicit transactions will remain a focus.
Decentralised Web (Web3), while slower to develop than predicted, just like AI presents both opportunities and challenges for investigators. Web3’s decentralisation, blockchain technology, and token-based economics, will require new tools and techniques to effectively investigate its platforms.
Focus on Privacy and Data Protection is an increasing challenge for investigators. New regulation like the UK’s incoming Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, Brazil’s General Personal Data Protection Act (LGPD) and India’s Personal Data Protection Bill mean investigators must be mindful of the latest legal and ethical frameworks they are operating under. Investigators must always adhere to such regulation and obtain proper warrants and authorisations before accessing sensitive information.
The Integrated Approach: Combining Clear Web and Dark Web Intelligence
The Clear Web and the Dark Web are both valuable sources of intelligence for investigators. The Clear Web offers a wealth of publicly available information, the Dark Web provides access to hidden data and insights that can be crucial to solve complex cases. By effectively combining intelligence from both realms and adapting to the increasingly complex technological landscape, investigators can gain a significant advantage in their pursuit of truth and justice.
This integrated Clear, Deep and Dark Web approach provides investigators with a broader, more nuanced understanding, yet the sheer volume, fragmentation and type of data means it’s a significant technical and practical challenge to navigate. It typically requires using multiple specialist tools and robust investigator skills, set against the dynamic nature of the Web itself.
DarkBlue: a user-friendly platform for integrated Web intelligence investigations
This fundamental challenge of scale, scope and complexity was the reason behind CACI developing our DarkBlue Intelligence suite.
DarkBlue offers investigators a user-friendly, single OSINT platform to undertake holistic, complex investigations on the Clear, Deep and Dark Web efficiently, ethically and safely.
DarkBlue leverages the intelligence that CACI has been scraping from across the Web including Tor, I2P, ZeroNet, OpenBazaar and Freenet for over 10 years, amassing billion of pages of data and capturing sites long since deleted.
Included in the suite is DarkPursuit tool, which provides the user with a safe, anonymous browsing environment that obfuscates technical details that could be used for attribution or tracking. DarkPursuit integrates multiple specialist tools and allows investigators to seamlessly transition between search findings, multiple live environments and analysis.
DarkPursuit’s new CluesAI feature helps investigators deanonymise individuals and entities on the Dark Web more efficiently, helping tackle its biggest – and growing – intelligence investigation challenge.
CluesAI automatically gathers potentially identifying information like email addresses, cryptocurrency wallet details, and port scans from the Dark Web. It cross-references this information against DarkBlue’s extensive database and uses generative AI to identify connections and patterns. It then generates reports that summarise and highlight potentially deanonymising information, providing investigators with actionable leads in one click.
As the Web in all its forms grows in complexity and size – particularly with the growth of Web3 and cryptocurrency, it’s vital that investigators can stay ahead of emerging threats to help protect national security and combat criminal activity.
DarkBlue – and CACI’s OSINT as a Service offering – provides investigators with the critical tools and support from experienced intelligence experts to support your critical mission.
Contact us today to discuss how we can supercharge your investigations.
In our previous blog in this series, we uncovered the key characteristics of digital twins, their advantages and challenges and what organisations that adopt a digital twin can expect to gain from it. Today, we’ll examine Mood’s unique approach to constructing digital twins and how it can support organisations.
What is Mood and what approach does it take with digital twins?
Mood’s platform addresses the challenges of creating digital twins by offering a highly flexible and customisable solution that caters to specific organisational domains. Mood’s approach is centred on three key pillars:
Agility and flexibility
Mood enables the creation of agile digital twins that can be rapidly adapted to an organisation’s unique requirements. Whether it’s a specific industry, business model or operational process, Mood’s platform provides the tools needed to build a digital twin that accurately represents the organisation’s domain in the virtual world.
Integrated data and consistency
Mood’s platform integrates data from multiple sources, ensuring that the digital twin is truly reflective of the real-world state. This integration is key to maintaining clarity and consistency across the organisation, allowing for more accurate analysis and decision-making.
Rapid deployment and optimisation
Mood offers services that accelerate the deployment of digital twins, allowing organisations to start benefiting from their virtual models in a shorter timeframe. Its continuous monitoring and real-time analysis capabilities also enable rapid optimisation of operations, providing a significant competitive advantage.
Common questions about digital twins
1. How is a digital twin different from a simulation or a 3D model?
While simulations and 3D models are static representations often used for specific scenarios or time points, a digital twin is a living, dynamic model that continuously updates based on real-time data. Digital twins provide a more comprehensive and accurate view of the current state of a system and allow for ongoing monitoring, predictive analysis and decision-making, far beyond what static models or simulations offer.
2. Do digital twins require IoT (Internet of Things) technology?
While IoT technology is a common and effective way to gather real-time data for digital twins, it is not strictly required. Digital twins can also be built using other data sources, such as enterprise systems, manual inputs and historical data. However, IoT devices enhance the digital twin’s ability to reflect real-time changes where physical assets are critical, making them particularly valuable in dynamic environments.
3. Are digital twins only applicable to manufacturing and physical assets?
No, digital twins are not limited to manufacturing or physical assets. They can be applied across a range of industries and domains, including healthcare (e.g., patient monitoring), urban planning (e.g., smart cities), logistics (e.g., supply chain management) and even service-oriented sectors. Any process or system that can benefit from real-time data integration and analysis can potentially utilise a digital twin.
4.How difficult is it to create and maintain a digital twin?
The difficulty of creating and maintaining a digital twin depends on the complexity of the system being modelled, the availability and quality of data and the technology stack used. While some digital twins can be complex and resource-intensive to develop, there are also more straightforward and scalable solutions available. With Mood, your digital twin can start small, returning instant value and iteratively scaled based on priority. Maintaining a digital twin requires ongoing data integration, model updates and regular performance evaluations to ensure it remains accurate and relevant, so a single platform acting as the lynchpin can be hugely beneficial.
How Mood can help
Mood’s platform and professional services offer a unique solution by providing the flexibility, integration and agility needed to develop and maintain effective digital twins. By leveraging Mood’s capabilities, organisations can achieve a new level of operational clarity and efficiency, ensuring they remain resilient and competitive in the face of ongoing challenges.
For organisations lacking the confidence to build their own digital twin from scratch, our consultants work directly with our customers to help them, ensuring they have the skills they need moving forward. Contact Mood today to begin your journey towards an agile, data-driven future.
