Data Engineering Archives

How Consumer Duty compliance is changing client communications

Posted on: 15 June 2023

How is Consumer Duty compliance affecting client communications?

Consumer Duty is rapidly changing the way Financial Services businesses communicate with clients. It is also causing consumers to re-evaluate the value of advice they receive from financial service advisers, and how financial institutions segment clients and offer relevant products and services.

On 30 April 2023, the UK adopted the new Consumer Duty obligations, and financial service providers and firms concluded their review of their existing open products. The changes that Consumer Duty brings impacts the way financial service providers interact with new and existing clients. Therefore, it is now more important than ever to ensure that you and your business are equipped with rich, actionable insights into your customers, to help you understand where to focus your Consumer Duty activities to ensure compliance.

What are the most impactful challenges currently resulting from Consumer Duty compliance?

Solidifying customer communications. You must show that the essential steps to understand customers’ needs and improve communications are being taken to remain compliant.
Identifying and supporting vulnerable customers. Vulnerability indicators change over time, therefore, without adequate customer knowledge, determining the diverse needs of your customers will be difficult.
Lack of strategy for maintaining and nurturing customer relationships over their policy, resulting from limitations of technical debt and data capabilities.
Inability to provide relevant offers or leverage existing customers to attract new customers when you do not know who your customers are.
Future proofing your business becomes compromised without the insights to initiate transformational change. Your brand will need to remain relevant for customers and adhere to their customer experience expectations.

The steps CACI takes to make a difference for your business

We support Consumer Duty compliance across several key requirements, including:

Supplying support beyond the strategy – understanding customers and improving communications.
Developing a testing process to help you understand your customers and find areas for improvement.
Accelerating Consumer Duty delivery and showing progress through an innate understanding of your customers’ diverse needs.
Providing a comprehensive view of all customer communications, assessed for suitability against Consumer Duty and amended as needed.
Scoring and evaluating your performance against key Consumer Duty metrics.
Bringing in all channels to support customers.

Our process guarantees that you will be solving Consumer Duty compliance issues as they arise to secure a successful future for your business. We break this down into four steps:

1. Audit:

We work with you to gain an understanding of your existing communications, technical capabilities and data available, for communications improvements to be made effectively.

2. Campaign strategy, testing & delivery:

We then identify initial tests to show iterative improvement and implementation of the defined methods of communication that will meet Consumer Duty standards.

3. Customer strategy:

We create robust segmentation to define where there is headroom opportunity and who your priority audiences are. We also define the customer journey to activate your segmentation and strategy accordingly.

4. Contact strategies & use cases:

Finally, we develop detailed contact strategies for the execution of your customer journey, and identify technology and data use cases that will inform your future architecture and technology roadmaps.

How CACI ensures your business meets Consumer Duty compliance: real-time example

When one business with a range of financial products that fall under Consumer Duty recognised that they did not have an established amount of internal experience, they approached CACI to ensure that Consumer Duty compliance was addressed with each of their products, tailored to the customer audiences they served.

We highlighted several opportunities that the business could leverage through our capabilities, including:

Understanding the business’ customer base and identifying headroom opportunities to drive growth.
Creating engagement strategies that would protect and support their customers throughout their relationship.
Rapidly improving insight led capability by enriching, leveraging and harnessing their potential of customer data.
Demonstrating the power that a 360° view of the business’ customers and market would have by blending their data with our own to analyse customers, identify opportunities and learn how they could serve customers more compliantly and effectively.

Why you can count on us to support your Consumer Duty compliance initiatives

Our extensive experience with Consumer Duty paired with our unique data capabilities allows us to define market opportunities and key audiences that will deliver immediate growth and engage audiences of the future. We translate rich, quantified insights into actionable strategies to deliver targeted, personalised and omnichannel programmes that will guarantee success.

Contact us today to find out how we can support you and your business ahead of the upcoming Consumer Duty deadline.

How CACI supports the wealth management customer journey

Posted on: 26 April 2023

It is now crucial for wealth managers and financial service firms to better their consumer understanding. They can do so by ensuring they are well-versed in the entire consumer lifecycle and journey, understand optimal communication techniques required for effective customer marketing, collect enriching customer-centric data to tailor marketing and distribution effectively, and establish innovative ways of measuring these areas to remain compliant.

Access to insightful demographics on the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviours of investors within the market can help drive improved distribution performance, revenue growth and increased client engagement. This crucial investment market knowledge can be provided by CACI.

How does CACI support a firm’s wealth management customer journey?

Through a detailed understanding of current investor behaviour needs and growth opportunities, CACI can support businesses by quantifying acquisition opportunities across regions to inform effective growth and investor engagement strategies.

Once businesses have been equipped with the appropriate datasets to target high net worth individuals (HNWI), CACI can support the optimisation of marketing performance across channels and help businesses improve their distribution performance through digital, direct and intermediated channels to drive improved marketing return on investment, increased customer acquisition and better investment retention performance.

CACI offer a range of support for wealth managers and firms to meet customers’ needs while ensuring compliancy, including:

Support in better understanding existing investors.
Understanding the market and identifying opportunities, particularly in identifying how and where to acquire HNWI.
Determining where potential and current customers are located, as well as their value.
Receiving demographic data and behavioural insights on investors to better understand the customer landscape.
Demonstrating compliance with Consumer Duty, with meeting customers’ needs remaining at the heart of what CACI do.

How CACI use data science & analytics to support the wealth management customer journey

CACI’s data science & analytics services have three primary capacities to support the enhancement of the customer journey:

Using pre-existing information on younger investors in wealth managers and firms’ portfolios to build bespoke datasets. CACI’s multi-sector knowledge and access to unique lifestyle datasets enables the building of this bespoke consumer data insight, providing wealth managers and firms with a detailed picture of the opinions, preferences and spending potential of HNWI.
Modelling prospects for HNWI based on demographics.
Assessing firms’ historic data to determine how HNWI already in their portfolio achieved this position by tracking their movements and identifying signals and triggers, to enable modelling of future investors.

CACI’s wealth management customer journey support: real-time examples

How CACI’s Fresco solution supported one business’ customer acquisition & marketing strategy

CACI’s Fresco solution was employed at one business to establish a granular understanding of existing investors. This allowed for the development of a targeting propensity score, which enabled the pinpointing of potential investors that would be most likely to join the business. CACI then identified and mapped opportunities across the UK, considering regional differences and high value areas to target. Detailed insight into prospects supported the development of a consistent marketing targeting strategy within the business, which was also rolled out across traditional and social media.

Results:

Development of a targeted audience strategy focusing on high propensity and high value audiences.
Reduction in digital marketing spend.
Increase in digital marketing ROI (return on investment).

How investor segmentation, personas & geographic data application transformed a business

CACI developed investor segmentation, detailed personas and geographic counts to support a market sizing initiative requested by one client.

The resulting data uncovered hundreds of variables at an individual level and provided rich insight into a range of traits and characteristics. This not only supported the business’ understanding of its current customers, but of the wider UK investment market. CACI developed personas to help the business gauge an in-depth view into consumer behaviour, insight into the market and the potential reach for key segments. Finally, geographic mapping helped the business understand acquisition and growth potential across catchments and regions, and cross-sell models were developed to support the immediate activation of distribution and marketing activity.

Results:

The business experienced steady and sustainable growth in its acquisition, retention and reactivation.
Increased investment values were received from both new and existing investors.
The business was equipped with actionable insights to help inform ongoing and future marketing and office location strategies.

Throughout this blog series for the wealth management industry, we break down the opportunities for businesses to attract and retain high-net-worth individuals. Continue reading at the links below:

Blog 1 – Four barriers wealth managers face when attracting & retaining customers

Blog 2 – How to identify, attract & retain high net worth individuals

Blog 3 – Three reasons why wealth & asset managers need young investors

Whitepaper – Acquiring new high net worth clients – What wealth managers need to know

To find out more about how CACI can support your wealth management customer journey, contact our team of data experts today.

Three reasons why wealth & asset managers need young investors

Posted on: 14 April 2023

While wealth and asset managers may have developed a sophisticated and loyal base of investors, it is no secret that their client base is ageing and shifting. There have been noticeable changes in both the types of customers and their behaviours, whereby moving away from traditional investment styles and seeking out alternative areas of wealth to gain market share have become commonplace.

So, why would wealth and asset management firms benefit from having younger investors in their client base?

Their trajectory to wealth has high earning potential for wealth management businesses

Reaching the broader and untapped market of high-earning young investors has become critical for wealth and asset managers to continue to be successful. Supporting potential investors who are en route to wealth inheritance, who may find themselves in a position to sell off a thriving business in the near or distant future, or whose career path suggests high earning potential, are all inviting factors to drive wealth and asset management firms to acquire younger clients.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) is someone who either earns more than £300,000 per annum or has net assets of more than £3,000,000. Firms with a client base that is more likely to pass down their wealth generationally are left to wonder the amount that might one day be re-invested into the firm, while young investors are more likely to distribute their wealth differently as a result of their current life stage and emerging alternatives, such as Crypto currencies. While the average new and younger potential investor may, for example, only bring ~£100k in assets to the table, potential exists for this investor to be on the trajectory towards becoming a high-net-worth individual.

Their financial industry knowledge is superior

Young investors building or inheriting their own wealth are often more knowledgeable (and environmentally conscious) about their financial options than previous generations.

With 80% of 18-24-year-olds having reportedly invested in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) stocks according to the Saltus Wealth Index 2022, their expectations on the importance of sustainable or green investments may likely differ, and they may be inclined to ensure that ESG factors such as how the businesses they invest in respond to climate change, water management, health and safety policies are likely to be considered. These investors may also be more likely to consider whether investments meet global standards for sustainability reporting (GRI) in transparency and accountability.

They are not afraid to take their services digital

The investor arena has increasingly filled with entry-level investors who have lofty expectations for customer service, especially with digital services. They are aware of the capabilities of self-sufficient online investing; therefore, they expect the same level of speed and ease of use in all their financial affairs.

How can wealth management businesses identify and secure young investors?

Without a comprehensive understanding of the behaviours and traits of potential younger investors, firms may struggle to target the right investors through their own initiatives, or target young investors at scale through digital channels. CACI is equipped with robust data that can provide valuable insight into potential investors at scale across the UK, garnering information on who the potential clients are, what they like, and what they do. CACI can also track existing clients’ signals and triggers to model with future investors in mind.

Blog 1 – Four barriers wealth managers face when attracting & retaining customers

Blog 2 – How to identify, attract & retain high net worth individuals

Blog 4 – How CACI supports the wealth management customer journey

Whitepaper – Acquiring new high net worth clients – What wealth managers need to know

Is your firm looking to attract younger investors? Get in touch with us by clicking the link below to find out how you can achieve this.

How to identify, attract & retain high net worth individuals

Posted on: 23 March 2023

The distinction between attracting and retaining high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) within the existing investment landscape can feel like a blurred line for many wealth and asset management firms.

With new rules released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2022, which demanded increased consumer protection for financial services consumers, it is now more important than ever for firms to leverage data to improve customer experiences and outcomes.

As a result, firms may now be experiencing the impact of lacking the necessary customer-centric data to effectively and compliantly deliver positive experiences and outcomes. Understanding the steps that must be taken to ensure that wealth management firms are digitally safeguarded, while adopting customer-first practices and identifying the HNWI they would like to attract, will be critical.

How do wealth & asset management businesses know who to attract?

It is through enhancing customer data that is backed by demographic, lifestage, lifestyle and attitudinal insight that will enable wealth & asset management firms to better understand, reach, and serve customers. Without having the right data available, they will risk lacking an integral understanding of who to attract.

Wealth products were historically sold by independent advisors who knew the local area and could identify the ultra-wealthy with ease, including where they were likely to be, often by word-of-mouth. This is no longer the business model for many wealth management firms looking to identify potential business at scale and deliver direct sales to new investors who expect a different type of engagement.

What major challenges do wealth & asset management businesses face in attracting & retaining high net worth individuals?

Competition for investment

The everchanging investment landscape has caused wealth and asset management firms to re-evaluate existing investor experience approaches. To keep up with the changes in client demands, firms that lack integrated insight and digital engagement capabilities will find themselves at a disadvantage against competitors, and unable to provide the tailored experiences investors now expect.

Cost of living

With no definitive end in sight for the cost of living crisis, there is increased interest in targeting affluent individuals from across sectors, many of which are mature in their data and digital capabilities. Wealth Management firms will experience increased competition and pressure for those available assets. Firms are tasked with reassessing their customers’ journey end-to-end to determine how to effectively safeguard against these unpredictable times.

What techniques should wealth & asset management businesses use to retain investors?

Effectively identifying and catering for the right customers

No two customers are the same, and firms that may have opted for a traditional approach that meets the needs of all customers will quickly realise that personalised and customised experiences for each unique customer is the best way forward. It is integral for firms to understand what their clients want and where they are seeking out financial products that meet their unique needs, to help them access the right products. This approach will allow customers to gain the most use of their tailored solution and will encourage them to remain with the firm for future support in their financial endeavours.

Utilising consolidated data to retain customers

Firms that effectively utilise consolidated data will notice long-term growth and can leverage this to outcompete their competition. Firms have client data, but without an understanding of how to enrich it, decipher it and make use of it to improve their customers’ experiences, they will not determine how to retain customers effectively. Customising solutions for clients that are built on demographic, attitudinal and behavioural insight will be paramount for this.

Acting upon customers’ short and long-term needs

Firms need to better understand the current and future needs of investors to appeal to a wider investor audience. Those that acknowledge the need for enhanced client understanding can introduce insight into their business that will drive improved customer-first experiences and outcomes.

How can CACI help?

Consumer Duty is an authoritative intention that will guarantee trust between financial institutions and consumers. Firms must innately understand their customers to adapt their products and drive messaging that effectively engages them and improves results, whilst also ensuring compliance with the directive.

CACI is uniquely positioned to support businesses through agency, consultancy, data provider and system integration capabilities, all of which work in conjunction to drive value for your business. Our services and data products work in conjunction with our strategies and values to continue to connect firms with their customers.

Blog 1 – Four barriers wealth managers face when attracting & retaining customers

Blog 3 – Three reasons why wealth & asset managers need young investors

Blog 4 – How CACI supports the wealth management customer journey

Whitepaper – Acquiring new high net worth clients – What wealth managers need to know

To find out more about how CACI can support you, contact our team of data experts today.

How to find the right IT outsourcing partner

Posted on: 17 March 2023

Looking to work with an IT outsourcing provider? Finding the right partner to deliver your requirements can be a tricky and time-consuming process. But, done right, a successful outsourcing relationship can bring long-term strategic benefits to your business. We asked our experts to share their top tips on how to find the right IT outsourcing partner.

Evaluate capabilities

Having the right expertise is the obvious and most essential criterion, so defining your requirements and expectations is the best way to start your search.

When it comes to narrowing down your vendor choices, it’s important to consider the maturity of an organisation as well as technical capabilities. “The risk of working with a small, specialised provider is that they may struggle to keep a handle on your project,” warns Brian Robertson, Resource Manager at CACI. Inversely, a larger organisation may have the expertise, but not the personal approach you’re looking for in a partner. “Always look for a provider that demonstrates a desire to get to the root of your business’s challenges and can outline potential solutions,” Brian advises.

Find evidence of experience

Typically, working with an outsourcing provider that has accumulated experience over many years is a safe bet; however, Daniel Oosthuizen, Senior Vice President of CACI Network Services, recommends ensuring that your prospective outsourcing provider has experience that is relevant to your business, “When you bring in an outsourcing partner, you want them to hit the ground running, not spending weeks and months onboarding them into your world.” Daniel adds, “This becomes more apparent if you work in a regulated industry, such as banking or financial services, where it’s essential that your provider can guarantee compliance with regulatory obligations as well as your internal policies.”

So, how can you trust a provider has the experience you’re looking for? Of course the provider’s website, case studies, and testimonials are a good place to start, but Daniel recommends interrogating a vendor’s credentials directly, “A successful outsourcing relationship hinges on trust, so it’s important to get a sense of a vendor’s credibility early on. For example, can they demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your sector? Can they share any details about whom they currently partner with? And can they confidently talk you through projects they’ve completed that are similar to yours?”

Consider cultural compatibility

“When it comes to building a strong, strategic and successful outsourcing partnership, there’s no greater foundation than mutual respect and understanding,” says Brian. Evaluating a potential provider’s approach and attitudes against your business’s culture and core values is another critical step in your vetting process. As Daniel says, “If you share the same values, it will be much easier to implement a seamless relationship between your business and your outsourcing partner, making day-to-day management, communication and even conflict resolution more effective and efficient”.

While checking a company’s website can give you some insight into your prospective provider’s values, it’s also worth finding out how long they’ve held partnerships with other clients, as that can indicate whether they can maintain partnerships for the long-term.

However, Daniel says, “The best way to test if a provider has partnership potential is to go and meet them. Get a feel for the team atmosphere, how they approach conversations about your challenges, and how their values translate in their outsourcing relationships.” Brian adds, “Your vision and values are what drive your business forward, so it’s essential that these components are aligned with your outsourcing provider to gain maximum value from the relationship.”

Assess process and tools

Once you’ve determined a potential outsourcing provider’s level of experience and expertise, it’s important to gain an understanding of how they will design and deliver a solution to meet your business’s needs. “It’s always worth investigating what tech and tools an outsourcing provider has at their disposal and whether they are limited by manufacturer agreements. For example, at CACI, our vendor-agnostic approach means we’re not tied to a particular manufacturer, giving us the flexibility to find the right solution to meet our clients’ needs,” Daniel explains

Speaking of flexibility, determining the agility of your potential outsourcing provider’s approach should play a role in your selection process. “There’s always potential for things to change, particularly when delivering a transformation project over several years,” says Brian, adding “that’s why it’s so important to find a partner that can easily scale their solutions up or down, ensuring that you’ve always got the support you need to succeed.”

Determine quality standards

Determining the quality of a new outsourcing partner’s work before you’ve worked with them can be difficult, but there are some clues that can indicate whether a vendor’s quality standards are in line with your expectations, says Daniel, “A good outsourcing partner will be committed to adding value at every step of your project, so get details on their method and frequency of capturing feedback, whether the goals they set are realistic and achievable, and how they manage resource allocation on projects.”

Brian also recommends quizzing outsourcing providers about their recruitment and hiring process to ensure that you’ll be gaining access to reliable and skilled experts, “It’s easy for an outsourcing provider to say they have the best people, so it’s important to probe a little deeper. How experienced are their experts? How are they ensuring their talent is keeping up to date? What is their process for vetting new candidates? All these questions will help to gain an insight into an outsourcing provider’s quality bar – and whether it’s up to your standard.”

Assess value for money

For most IT leaders, cost is one of the most decisive factors when engaging any service; however,
when looking for an IT outsourcing partner, it’s critical to consider more than just a provider’s pricing model. “Contractual comprehensiveness and flexibility should always be taken into account,” says, Brian. “A contract that is vague can result in ‘scope creep’ and unexpected costs, while a rigid contract can tie businesses into a partnership that’s not adding value.” He adds, “Ultimately, it comes down to attitude, a good outsourcing provider can quickly become a great business partner when they go the extra mile.”

Daniel agrees and advises that IT leaders take a holistic view when weighing up potential outsourcing partners, “Look beyond your initial project, or resource requirements and consider where your business is heading and whether your shortlisted providers can bring in the skills and services you need. After all, a truly successful outsourcing partnership is one that can be relied on for the long haul.”

Looking for an outsourcing partner to help with your network operations? Contact our expert team today.

Four barriers wealth managers face when attracting & retaining customers

Posted on: 10 March 2023

Navigating everchanging expectations from customers, as well as new rules from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to ensure that increased consumer protection is in place, has led wealth managers to not only find new ways to better understand their existing clients, but innovate ways to identify and attract new high net worth individuals (HNWI). This has caused many wealth management firms to scramble to increase their digitisation and customer-first policies quickly and effectively.

The ability to define these HNWI and UHNWI can be cumbersome, especially when the HMRC, FCA and individual banks and wealth managers all use varying criteria to measure this. Wealth and asset management firms looking to grow their business through the acquisition of these individuals will have to consider the importance of overarching data and scalable transformation to do so.

While you may recognise the need to better understand your clients, legacy practices and technology can often hold you back. Currently, we have noticed four major barriers in attracting and retaining customers:

1. Sparse investor data to inform decision making

Building a high-net-worth portfolio of investors requires the right financial products. Financial and consumer data products that identify people with incomes above £100k are far and few. This makes differentiating between an investor earning £100k and an individual with a £500k annual salary complicated, and identifying and targeting high-net-worth groups a challenge.

You cannot rely on your clients’ intergenerational wealth either as, once it is passed down, it is often the case that inherited wealth will be spent or not reinvested. However, if it is reinvested, it is often done with other brands, as different investor groups have different needs. This can leave you questioning how much wealth will actually remain with your client.

2. Lack of understanding of current and future investors’ needs

Once you acquire a new HNWI investor, utilising your cross-sell and upsell capabilities to extract the most benefit from their available wealth will be crucial. The ability to understand your clients is paramount, including both present and future needs in order to establish a long-term relationship.

Consumer Duty has been introduced to make firms more accountable over the suitability of their products and services, to meet the needs of those they are sold to. You will need to review the entire investor lifecycle and journey, revisit how and what to include in your marketing strategies, and establish new ways to measure all these areas to remain compliant and trusted.

Outreach to younger target investors

Younger investors are not as likely to behave as their older counterparts. For example, they may not necessarily attend the same in-person industry events, and often need to be targeted and communicated with via digital channels or social media. They will also want to manage their assets via digital platforms to be more self-serving. This means you need to work harder to intrigue and engage with younger investor audiences.

3. Maintaining GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance

By attempting to reach your target investors via additional or new channels, you must consider data protection and GDPR. Substantial penalties can come with breaches; therefore, you must ensure that any data handling is done carefully and correctly. Plus, you need to provide clarity to your audience as to where you have sourced their data from and why you are legitimately contacting them.

4. Delayed response towards technology-first approaches

The last five to 10 years have seen a significant move towards digital transformation and customer-first policies, particularly with banks and building societies. While this ongoing transformation has been relatively steady for some sectors, the wealth and asset management sector has struggled to adapt.

To appeal to investors, brands must now adopt and embrace digital practices by implementing business models that will facilitate customer-led and technology-first transformation.

How can CACI help?

CACI is already a trusted partner to leading wealth and asset management firms, supporting investor acquisition and retention through predictive analytics and data solutions.

Throughout this blog series for the wealth management industry, we break down the opportunities for businesses to attract and retain high-net-worth individuals. Continue reading at the links below:

Blog 2 – How to identify, attract & retain high net worth individuals

Blog 3 – Three reasons why wealth & asset managers need young investors

Blog 4 – How CACI supports the wealth management customer journey

Whitepaper – Acquiring new high net worth clients – What wealth managers need to know

Or to learn more about how CACI can help your firm overcome barriers in this area, explore our services or get in touch.

How to create a successful M&A IT integration strategy

Posted on: 11 March 2022

From entering new markets to growing market share, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) can bring big business benefits. However, making the decision to acquire or merge is the easy part of the process. What comes next is likely to bring disruption and difficulty. In research reported by the Harvard Business Review, the failure rate of acquisitions is astonishingly high – between 70 and 90 per cent – with integration issues often highlighted as the most likely cause.

While the impact of M&A affects every element of an organisation, the blending of technical assets and resulting patchwork of IT systems can present significant technical challenges for IT leaders. Here, we explore the most common problems and how to navigate them to achieve a smooth and successful IT transition.

Get the full picture

Mapping the route of your IT transition is crucial to keeping your team focused throughout the process. But you need to be clear about your starting point. That’s why conducting a census of the entire IT infrastructure – from hardware and software to network systems, as well as enterprise and corporate platforms – should be the first step in your IT transition.

Gather requirements & identify gaps

Knowing what you’ve got is the first step, knowing what you haven’t is the next. Technology underpins every element of your business, so you should examine each corporate function and business unit through an IT lens. What services impact each function? How will an integration impact them? What opportunities are there to optimise? Finding the answers to these questions will help you to identify and address your most glaring gaps.

Seize opportunities to modernise

M&A provide the opportunity for IT leaders to re-evaluate and update their environments, so it’s important to look at where you can modernise rather than merge. This will ensure you gain maximum value from the process. For example, shifting to cloud infrastructure can enable your in-house team to focus on performance optimisation whilst also achieving cost savings and enhanced security. Similarly, automating routine or manual tasks using AI or machine learning can ease the burden on overwhelmed IT teams.

Implement strong governance

If you’re fusing two IT departments, you need to embed good governance early on. Start by assessing your current GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) maturity. A holistic view will enable you to target gaps effectively and ensure greater transparency of your processes. In addition to bringing certainty and consistency across your team, taking this crucial step will also help you to tackle any compliance and security shortfalls that may result from merging with the acquired business.

Clean up your data

Managing data migration can be a complex process during a merger and acquisition. It’s likely that data will be scattered across various systems, services, and applications. Duplicate data may also be an issue. This makes it difficult to gain an updated single customer view, limiting your ability to track sales and marketing effectiveness. The lack of visibility can also have a negative impact on customer experience. For example, having two disparate CRM systems may result in two sales representatives contacting a single customer, causing frustration and portraying your organisation as disorganised. There’s also a significant financial and reputational risk if data from the merged business isn’t managed securely. With all this in mind, it’s clear that developing an effective strategy and management process should be a key step in planning your IT transition.

Lead with communication

Change can be scary, and uncertainty is the enemy of productivity. That’s why communication is key to a successful merger and acquisition. Ensuring a frequent flow of information can help to combat this. However, IT leaders should also be mindful of creating opportunities for employees to share ideas and concerns.

If you are merging two IT departments, it is important to understand the cultural differences of the two businesses and where issues may arise. This will help you to develop an effective strategy for bringing the two teams together. While championing collaboration and knowledge sharing will go a long way to helping you achieve the goal of the M&A process – a better, stronger, more cohesive business.

How we can help

From assessing your existing IT infrastructure to cloud migration, data management and driving efficiencies through automation, we can support you at every step of your IT transition.

Transitioning your IT following M&A? Contact our expert team today.

Eight crucial steps for Telcos to get TSR ready

Posted on: 1 February 2022

Following the introduction of the Telecommunications (Security) Act into UK law in late 2021, all telecommunications providers will soon need to comply with ‘one of the toughest telecoms security regimes in the world’ or risk financial penalties up to £10m.

With the clock counting down for Telcos to enter a new era of security, we consider the critical steps for providers to prepare for the regulatory road ahead.

1. Identify your gaps

Understanding your current state is the first step in achieving a successful transformation. A full audit of your security strategies, plans, policies, and effectiveness will expose your weaknesses and gaps, enabling you to take the right actions to protect your business and ensure compliance.

2. Prioritise your most pressing threats

While gathering data can provide better visibility of your network, taking reactive action to lower your risk isn’t the most efficient approach. Establishing levels of prioritisation will ensure your resources are being used to reduce risk in the right areas.

3. Get the right people in place

From gap analysis to operating model design, programme delivery, and reshoring, it’s likely you’ll need more people in place and new competencies developed. Getting the right partnerships and people now is key to getting ahead.

4. Incorporate legacy issues into your planning

Today’s telecommunications industry is built on multi-generational networks, and legacy systems continue to underpin critical infrastructure. While extracting these systems is not going to happen overnight, dealing with your legacy infrastructure should be an integral part of planning your implementation of the new Telecoms Security Framework.

5. Implement transparent designs

Failing to disclose evidence of a breach could result in a £10m fine, so built in transparency and traceability are key to your programme. Consider the likely information requests that are to come to ensure your design changes enable clear tracking and reporting.

6. Embed a security-first focus

Mitigating the risks facing the UK’s critical national infrastructure is the driving force behind the TSRs, and telecommunications providers will need to ensure that this mindset is embedded in the everyday. Buy-in from the business is core to any cultural shift, so align your leadership with a shared, cross-functional vision and get some early delivery going to build gradual momentum.

7. Prepare for more legislation

In November 2021, the Government announced The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill (the PSTI) to ensure consumers’ connected and connectable devices comply with tougher cybersecurity standards. As cybersecurity evolves, so will the threats to organisations, and telecommunications providers must be prepared for more regulatory oversight.

8. Embrace the benefits of built-in security

Ultimately, security that is built in rather than bolted on will enable providers to offer better protection and performance for customers, as well as foster trust with greater transparency. While the industry may not have been seeking the Telecoms Security Act, its passing prompt action to remove the constraints of old and reimagine and reshape to seize the opportunities of a new era.

For more information about TSR, download The impact and opportunities of the Telecoms Security Requirements report.

7 key things you need to know about the Telecoms (Security) Act

Posted on: 27 January 2022

The introduction of The Telecommunications (Security) Act into UK law late last year marked the arrival of a new era of security for the telecommunications sector, where everyone – from executive to employee – is responsible for protecting the UK’s critical network infrastructure against cyber attacks.

However, embedding a security conscious culture from top to bottom requires significant resource and expertise to steer towards success. With the clock already counting down, telecommunications providers are under pressure to begin their TSR compliance journey whilst ensuring that existing change programmes stay on track. Here, we consider the key considerations for communications leaders to ensure successful navigation and utilisation of the obstacles and opportunities that lie ahead.

Clear visibility is critical

Protecting your network, applications and data has never been more critical. However, blind spots, missing data, and the risk of dropped packets make management and protection of these challenging, not to mention the scale and complexity of many providers’ hybrid network infrastructure. Nonetheless, providers must ensure they are able to monitor security across the entirety of their network and can act quickly when issues arise.

Security and service quality will need to be carefully balanced

Whilst enhancing security is the ultimate goal of the Act, this cannot be at the cost of network performance. Outages themselves can put providers in breach of the regulations.

Security scanners are a key line of defence for network security, helping to identify known vulnerabilities which can be exploited if the correct mitigation steps aren’t followed, so ensuring you have a robust vulnerability management process is critical. Incorporating the right vulnerability scanning tools and following the required change management processes to correctly implement tools will help to secure your network whilst minimising any potential performance impact to your existing infrastructure or service outages.

Auditing abilities are a new superpower

Demonstrating compliance with the new legislation may pose a significant challenge to providers, particularly as they attempt to flow down security standards and audit requirements into the supply chain. However, implementation of robust auditing processes to identify and eliminate weaknesses and vulnerabilities are a must for keeping providers on the right side of the regulations.

Knowledge is power

With any significant legislature change comes a period of uncertainty as businesses adapt to change, so getting to grips with the new regulation changes ahead of the game is key. Many providers have already begun the search for talent with the technical skills and experience to deliver their TSR programmes; however, with the jobs market at boiling point, some providers may find utilising external partnerships provides a more practical route to successful delivery as well as a means to upskill and educate internal teams.

You’ll be tested

In 2019, OFCOM took over TBEST – the intelligence-led penetration testing scheme – from DCMS and has been working with select providers on implementation of the scheme. Whether through TBEST or not, providers will be expected to carry out tests that are as close to ‘real life’ attacks as possible. The difficulty will be in satisfying the requirement that “the manner in which the tests are to be carried out is not made known to the persons involved in identifying and responding to security compromises.”[1] Providers may need to work with an independent vendor to ensure compliant testing.

Costs are still unclear

While the costs for complying with the new regulations are still undermined, an earlier impact assessment of the proposed legislation carried out by the government indicated that initial costs are likely to be hefty: “Feedback from bilateral discussions with Tier 1 operators have indicated that the costs of implementing the NCSC TSR would be significant. The scale of these costs is likely to differ by size of operator and could be of the scale of over £10 million in one off costs.”[2].

Culture may challenge change

Technology will, of course, be at the forefront of communications leaders’ minds, yet the cultural changes required to successfully embed a security-first mindset are of equal importance and must be considered in equal measure. Change is never easy, particularly when there is a fixed deadline in place; however, delivery that is well-designed and meticulously planned is key. Ultimately, the onus will be on leaders to craft a clear vision – achieving network security that is intrinsic by design – as well as mapping out the road to get there.

Looking for more information about TSR? Download The impact and opportunities of the Telecoms Security Requirements report.

[1] The Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2021 [draft]

[2] The Telecommunications Security Bill 2020: The Telecoms Security legislation

Oceans of Data – An Online Hack

Posted on: 29 November 2021

Back in October 2021, CACI took part in the Northumbrian Waters Innovation Festival. One of the events we participated in was the Oceans of Data hack sponsored by Sia Partners – Chris, Ian, Matt and Myself (Paul) all attended remotely representing CACI. The data hack wasn’t scheduled to start until the Tuesday, but a kick-off event was being held on the Monday morning, the highlight of which was an impromptu workout session run by none other than Mr Motivator himself; it was high energy fun and exhausting! If you want to see just how exhausting… watch this.

Taking the rest of the day to recover from that, we got hold of the data sets being provided for the data hack under an NDA and set about our challenge. For the Oceans of Data challenge, we were asked how can we leverage insights from our ocean of operational data to make our services even more reliable and resilient?

“Data introduction: In 2019, NWG invested in Cloud technology to capture and store the vast volumes of data generated by our 30+ SCADA systems – now creating almost 45 million data records per day. While great progress has been made to extract value from this data, we are confident that much more insight can be generated about the performance of our assets, their rate of deterioration and the way they respond to changing operational conditions”.

The data provided was broken down into two broadly distinct sets of data:

Work Order information out of their Asset Management System (Maximo).
Sensor data from their extant SCADA networks across several sewage treatment plants. There was also some supplementary information provided, including an asset classification hierarchy that Northumbrian Water have crafted and a series of SCADA Mimics (high level process flows).

The stated objective of the data hack was to provide a path to holistic analysis of the data, particularly, correlating sensor data to work order data providing a history of activity leading up to corrective work orders. This historic information could then be used in predictive modelling of future failure; thereby turning all the reactive maintenance activity (which is relatively time consuming and costly) into scheduled maintenance activity (which is planned, less disruptive and much cheaper).

Day 1

The hack consisted of presentations by Northumbrian Water around the operating of sewage treatment plants, to provide us with a basic understanding of the business, forming the teams for the hack and a first pass at data analysis; working out what could and could not be done in the rest of the time available.

The event had an amazing mix of people attending, ranging from data scientists and machine learning (ML) experts to software engineering expertise. My team consisted of software engineering specialists, which worked well for our chosen idea as our teams abundant Java and React experience proved invaluable. Along with the experts attending, we could also call on our own ML and data scientists within CACI if we needed any advice.

Having dived into the data, Team CACI decided to play to our strengths and develop something, focusing on the data sets in isolation and hopefully providing Northumbrian Water with a new way of interpreting their data.

Day 2

We spent the day preparing the data into machine readable formats and finalising the approach for the application and then actually building it. We chose to provide a heatmap analysis of the two datasets, with Work Orders being visualised across the asset classification hierarchy and Sensor data being visualised across the SCADA Mimics (high level process flow diagrams) that had been made available.

Day 3

Day 3 was focused on refining the application – bug fixing, visual styling, cutting bits we had no time for (such is the way of the hackathon!) – and creating the presentation, which included the demo that we would show the judging panel.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time on the sensor data visualisation, so that hit the cutting room floor. This allowed us to focus on bug fixing the application and making it look more like the asset classification hierarchy we had been shown – making it relatable to Northumbrian Water.

The afternoon of Day 3 was spent presenting the solutions from all the teams and being judged. As the presentations progressed (Team CACI had opted to go last) a common theme arose: correlating the two data sets was very difficult and to do it with any degree of accuracy/success would require more data.

We were the only team who had made a working proof of concept, while others had focused on presentations. Our interactive website that the judges could play with was well received. The fact that we had used Northumbrian Water’s own asset classification hierarchy was positively acknowledged and provoked quite a bit of interest. We were then subjected to some questioning by the judging panel before they retired to select the category winners.

I am delighted to announce that we won the Best Data Visualisation category:

The CACI data hackathon team really impressed the judges with their solution, a prototype data visualisation to help direct our maintenance teams toward our most problematic assets, structured to represent our asset hierarchy in clear format to enable rapid insights. We enjoyed working with the team who remained enthusiastic despite the challenging task we’d set for them! Thank you and well done.

Northumbrian Waters

Takeaways from the Event

There were a few takeaways from the data hack and the event as a whole:

With preparation, virtual events of this kind can really work, congratulations to Northumbrian Water for putting on such a successful event.
As ever, time is your enemy, the teams only had about 16 working hours available to us to produce something and everybody made the absolute most out of the time allowed.
Finally, this was a team effort, but massive thanks to Chris, Ian and Matt who did all the hard work, I just presented it at the end. Not forgetting Ryan who nominated us, and the Critical National Infrastructure team, for selecting the event.

For more information on the event and our proof of concept expertise, or our wider CACI capabilities, contact us at cni@caci.co.uk.