Data Management & Integration Solutions Archives

Uncovering the power of Power BI: embedding new practices, empowering users & the handover process

Posted on: 24 April 2025

In our previous blog in this three-part series, we explored the ‘meal delivery model’ for the Power BI platform and the tools and teams required to bring this model and its methodology to life. In the final blog of this series, we’ll assess how new practices can be embedded and users empowered as the solution build is underway, as well as how to effectively carry out the handover process for a seamless go-live.

To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here.

Embedding new practices and empowering your users

To effectively embed new practices and empower users, evaluating training and resources will be fundamental for a successful Power BI migration. Conducting a training and resource assessment to evaluate users’ training needs and ensure they’re equipped with the necessary skills and confidence to use Power BI will be key to maximising its value. Planning a range of training for various users will be particularly impactful in this case, as will offering the right training to the right users. Communicating expectations, project and migration updates and overarching benefits will also be critical, especially when users are asked to contribute and to change established practices.

The handover process

Prior to going live, ensuring the necessary solution documentation is in place for both user and developer reference will be vital. Holding handover sessions for your BI team, your IT team and management, unifying support and resources and making sure the helpdesk is both responsive and reactive to any technical issues that arise will bolster this.

To help determine response times for any technical issues arising, users’ needs that would have arisen during the discovery phase of the project must be understood. Departmental or team champions for non-technical Power BI users can therefore bolster outcomes in these circumstances, and managed support can alleviate the burden of updates and adaptations in fast-changing NHS environments.

Time must be allocated for handover sessions for the BI team, IT team and management. This will serve as an additional opportunity to reiterate the benefits of the new PowerBI solution along with a practical introduction. Consistent monitoring and feedback should be sought out to refine helpdesk processes and continue deriving the full benefits that the solution can provide as the handover stage continues.

While PowerBI is an exceptionally flexible platform and will expand and adapt to accommodate new data and reporting requirements, having the necessary development resources available to make changes and upkeep the solution will be paramount.

How CACI can help

Migrating to PowerBI enables NHS stakeholders to achieve new strategic goals and transform their analytical capabilities. CACI understands the value that migrating to PowerBI can bring, which is why we have developed our own set of best practices and key principles for PowerBI migrations within the NHS. We strive to deliver a seamless migration built on our extensive experience in NHS data and technology, prioritising stakeholder engagement, providing reliable reporting, secure data sharing and self-sufficient BI capabilities for data-driven decision-making.

For more information or help with Power BI project planning, delivery or ongoing managed services, contact us today. To learn more about how you can tap into the power of Power BI, our whitepaper outlines the best practices and methodology that will boost your understanding and usage.

Read the rest of the series here:

Uncovering the power of Power BI: ‘meal delivery’ model & critical resources

Posted on: 17 April 2025

In our previous blog in this three-part series, we uncovered the value of thorough discovery and how to build a successful project delivery framework. Today, we’ll explore the ‘meal delivery model’ for the Power BI platform and the tools and teams required to bring this model and its methodology to life.

To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here.

What is the ‘meal delivery’ model for Power BI?

The ‘meal delivery’ model is an analogy for Power BI data insight in NHS systems, stemming from a challenge of making data insight (food) available to a range of different NHS users (eaters). In this context, there are a range of preferences and capabilities among Power BI users and audiences to consider. Therefore, data architecture must enable the experiences and nuances within them, catering to the specific needs of various users:

Analysts: These users will need direct portal access to usable data building blocks and analytics tools. With the ‘meal delivery’ model in mind, these users will need to select quality ingredients to make a meal for themselves.

Executive users: These users need dashboard access to pull reports from selected datasets. They will want the ingredients packaged and provided along with a basic recipe to make the meal in a way that best suits their individual needs.

Report consumers: Finally, these users will need Power BI reports sent direct to their inbox or accessible from Teams. They will want the meal delivered to them, ready to eat.

The people and tools that make it happen

Using all the insights that have been discovered, a plan can be created to maximise Power BI benefits and meet all identified requirements, goals and constraints. The development process and method will determine the pace of the Power BI implementation and the level of disruption to business as usual. It will also define a team’s size, roles, skills required and cost of resources. An Agile Scrum Project method can be utilised here to maximise developer and user collaboration and allow for continuous improvement across each sprint to incorporate change in a controlled way without derailing the project’s progress.

With Power BI project delivery being split into two workstreams— one being data and infrastructure, the other reporting— this method offers the flexibility to continuously embed best practices and ensure data and infrastructure workstreams do not diverge.

How CACI can help

In the upcoming and final blog in this series, we’ll investigate new practices to be embedded and how to empower your users to ensure a successful handover.

Read our previous blog in the series ‘Uncovering the power of Power BI: discovery & delivery framework’ here

Uncovering the power of Power BI: discovery & delivery framework

Posted on: 11 April 2025

NHS organisations that pursue data transformation will achieve substantial changes in their data-driven decision-making that ultimately improves efficiency, quality and patient experience. Power BI is an optimal contender for NHS organisations seeking a complete data transformation. However, achieving this and reaping its many benefits requires a carefully planned migration process, necessitating a partnership with a reliable data partner that possesses innate experience.

Having worked with many NHS organisations over the years to plan and implement data migrations, this three-part blog series is developed from the principles of our Power BI migration methodology and real-world experience of NHS data projects, sharing key questions you should consider asking and areas to address to ensure a successful migration to Power BI.

As such, the series begins with understanding the value of thorough discovery and how to build a successful project delivery framework. To read our full whitepaper that outlines additional methodology and best practices to unlock all that Power BI has to offer, click here.

The value of thorough discovery

Unearthing all the information that will influence and affect your migration is a vital—albeit lengthy— first step. Skimping on discovery can compromise the solution’s effectiveness.

Stakeholder mapping and collaboration

Stakeholder mapping and collaboration can make a significant impact to help define migration goals, as it will unearth possible issues and harvest key requirements to define migrations goals. Workshops with key stakeholders can aid this process, helping establish users’ needs and gauging their use of the Power BI platform.

Conduct a current state analysis

Reviewing current data architecture, data processing locations and transformation methods will help you intrinsically understand stored data and information flows. During this review, inefficiencies within the operating landscape where your new solution will be situated can be identified and a solid foundation for new data architecture objectives can be built and defined.

Building the project delivery framework

Building a successful project delivery framework will begin with defining features and functionalities required, including visualisations, connectivity, AI functions, data modelling and relationships between datasets. Ensuring you have a single version of the truth that is built on high quality data will also be critical. Reporting and analysis must also be transparent, enabling users and auditors to visualise how figures are produced. To facilitate this, solutions and configurations by audience type should be proposed to ensure users’ needs and Power BI access requirements will be met.

Furthermore, developing a full target data architecture and identifying software/licensing requirements based on an assessment of your current analytics development process and available resources will be an integral part of the development of this framework. Availability will also need to be considered, as will security across all apps, including different access levels and permissions.

How CACI can help

Stay tuned for the next blog in this series, where we’ll explain the ‘meal delivery model’ and the teams and tools that activate it.

How a Digital Twin of an Organisation (DTO) revolutionises strategic decision-making & scenario planning

Posted on: 21 October 2024

Organisations often face challenges in strategic decision-making and scenario planning due to fragmented data, siloed operations, and a lack of real-time visibility across departments. This uncertainty complicates planning for change or responding to external disruptions, ultimately blurring the line between strategy and execution. Consequently, decision-makers may face slow responses, missed opportunities, and decisions based on outdated or incomplete information. Without clear insights into the impact of changes, disruptions, inefficiencies, or unintended consequences when implementing new strategies may seem inevitable.

So, how can decision-makers navigate these challenges and how can Mood support them?

How to bolster strategic decision-making & scenario planning

Effective strategic decision-making, scenario planning and change management require the ability to simulate different options and assess their impact on the entire organisation. By visualising dependencies and potential outcomes, businesses can plan and implement changes with greater confidence and minimal risk.

Organisations need a unified, real-time view of their operations that integrates data from across the business. By connecting strategic goals with operational data, businesses can analyse potential scenarios, simulate outcomes and make informed decisions that align with their long-term objectives.

Why bolstering strategic decision-making & scenario planning is critical

Organisations that make a pointed effort to enhance their strategic decision-making will find themselves adapting quicker to everchanging industry conditions, navigating challenges or risks with ease and staying ahead of their competitors. With a comprehensive and real-time understanding of the organisation, faster and more accurate decisions can be made that will improve agility, alignment between strategy and execution and establish a stronger ability to adapt to market changes and internal demands.

Better scenario planning and change management will also lead to more resilient organisations that can adapt quickly to market shifts or internal changes. Businesses will gain the ability to implement change smoothly, with minimal disruption and maximum impact.

How Mood enhances strategic decision-making & scenario planning

Creating and maintaining a DTO would ordinarily require advanced technical expertise, multiple tools, business change and substantial resources. The complexity of integrating various systems and processes into a cohesive digital model can be daunting. Mood alleviates this.

Mood provides a non-technical, dynamic platform with everything a business needs to create and manage a Digital Twin of an Organisation. It collates data, processes and systems into a single, real-time view and supports detailed scenario planning and change impact analysis by integrating all relevant data, processes and systems into a living digital model.

By connecting strategic objectives to live operational data, Mood enables scenario planning and simulation, empowering decision-makers to visualise impacts and align initiatives with business goals. With Mood, your organisation can make strategic decisions with confidence and agility, as well as simulate the impact of strategic initiatives, visualise dependencies and assess risks before making decisions. The integration and digitisation of the change management process can also be enabled, ensuring that changes are implemented smoothly, with full visibility into their impact across the organisation.

Find out how Mood can transform your business by speaking to one of our experts today.

Unlocking the Power of Government Data: Moving from Siloed Information to Smart Public Services

Posted on: 10 September 2024

Government agencies are collecting unprecedented volumes of data, yet much of it remains untapped, trapped in silos that prevent effective decision-making and service improvements. This data holds immense potential to transform public services by enabling more accurate, timely insights into service delivery, effectiveness, and efficiency. However, the way data is currently collected, stored, and structured often renders it under-utilised or completely unused.

In this blog, co-authored by Ali Nicholl and Nick Turner from CACI, we explore the critical user requirements for a data-driven smarter state and propose a scalable, federated approach to data discovery, access, and sharing. By enabling real-time data access at the point of need, this approach not only empowers better public services but also provides a coherent AI-ready workflow that leverages existing legacy systems without disruptive centralisation, duplication, or increased complexity.

The Challenge: Making Data Work for Everyone

In today’s environment, where both government and industry are under pressure to do more with less, reduce complexity, and comply with stringent regulations, several pain points persist:

Breaking down data silos: Data is often trapped within departmental or organisational boundaries.
Improving data quality: Data accuracy and consistency are compromised without a coordinated approach.
Addressing data custodianship concerns: Worries around GDPR, security, and data misinterpretation hinder sharing.
Ensuring controlled access: Striking the right balance between open access and secure controls.
Managing costs: High expenses related to data transit, hosting, and maintenance.
Overcoming budget constraints: Investment in new systems while maximising returns on legacy assets.
Becoming AI-ready: Adopting new technologies without costly overhauls.

For any system to be truly data-driven, it needs a minimum standard for quality, availability, consistency, and interoperability—without sacrificing security and appropriate access control. It’s the organisations closest to the data sources that have the best insights into managing quality and availability. However, leaving consistency and interoperability solely in the hands of data owners can lead to fragmentation, while expecting any single organisation to manage all data ownership is unrealistic.

The Evolving Solution Space: Technology, Policy, and Attitude Shifts

Recent advances in technology and shifts in policy have begun to address these challenges. Nearly two decades ago, the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations (2005) and the Transparency Agenda (2010) laid the foundation for more open attitudes towards data sharing in the UK. The evolution of cloud technology and API-driven architectures has further improved data accessibility by reducing latency and enhancing interoperability.

For example, the UK Transport Sector has effectively used open data APIs to share real-time transport information with developers and service providers, resulting in over 600 apps that benefit millions of Londoners every day. However, while these methodologies improve access, they do not fully solve the “data silo problem”—where data remains fragmented and lacks context, limiting its utility for broader insights.

A Federated Approach: Keeping Data in Place While Maximising Its Value

Our combined experience at CACI has only reinforced how unsustainable current approaches are. A smarter state needs a smarter approach. A federated approach. A federated approach allows data to stay in situ within its existing silos, accessible through a controlled, consistent, and extensible framework. This approach eliminates the need for costly mass data migrations while still unlocking insights at the point of need. Creating a more equitable democratisation of decision-making by ensuring that the right data is available at the right time.

This methodology aligns with how Health Services in the UK have approached data integration in recent initiatives. Within Social Care Networks, for example, connecting existing systems rather than centralising all data has ensured the Healthcare sector maintains flexibility to access relevant information while adhering to security and privacy requirements.

Understanding Stakeholder Needs: Tailoring Solutions for Maximum Impact

Different stakeholders have different goals and challenges when it comes to leveraging data. Here’s how a federated approach such as ours addresses their specific pain points:

CIOs need timely, reliable data for informed decision-making. Our solution ensures up-to-date insights without the need for complex data migration, helping CIOs set policies and make strategic decisions with confidence.
Heads of Data and CDOs seek to maximise ROI from data assets. We provide enhanced data discoverability and governance, ensuring that those who need access can find and use data efficiently.
Service Owners focus on delivering policy or strategic outcomes. Our approach reduces the under-utilisation of data, enabling service improvements without significant operational disruption.
Data Analysts require consistent and high-quality data for accurate analysis. By maintaining data integrity and enabling seamless integration across sources, we empower analysts to deliver actionable insights.
End Users demand real-time access to relevant data without navigating multiple platforms. Our solution brings data closer to its source, maximising relevance and minimising inconsistency.

Building a Data-Driven Smarter State: The Path Forward

Creating a data-driven smarter state requires lowering the barriers for departments, organisations, and individuals to surface their data and enrich it with context, turning it into actionable insights. A federated approach represents a scalable, flexible, and low-risk path towards unlocking the full potential of government data. The journey from siloed information to integrated insight is not just about technology; it’s about creating an ecosystem where data flows seamlessly, fostering collaboration, innovation, and smarter decision-making across the public sector.

To build this future, we must prioritise accessible, context-rich data and scalable collaboration across stakeholders. The smarter state of tomorrow is within reach if we embrace these principles today.

This blog was submitted to TechUK as part of their “Building the Smarter State Week” and can be found on their website here.

Automating competency management: effective, efficient, accurate

Posted on: 23 May 2024

Having the ability to automate your competency management process enhances your workforce scheduling, improving output and safety

When assigning staff to tasks and schedules, understanding their core competencies is essential. As a stark and wholly unfair example, in a transport organisation you wouldn’t assign an accountant to drive a train. Nor would you ask a train driver to look over your accounts. Understanding an individual’s skills, training and experience is essential. It’s essential to the smooth running of your services and the safety of your workers and end users. Competency management is central to this.

Running schedules in a live and constantly evolving environment such as transport is difficult. There’s the basic schedule to adhere to. Then there are events, often beyond your control, which can curtail even the best laid plans. Being able to respond to these unforeseen circumstances swiftly and accurately is the difference between minimising service disruption and lengthy delays or cancelations.

This goes beyond transport, too. In construction, for example, if there is an accident on site or work isn’t carried out to the required standard, it can cause delays and impact the cost of the project.

The most reliable way of minimising such incidents is by having the right people in the right place at the right time. Your competency management framework plays a vital role in this. It achieves this not only by ensuring staff are trained, skilled and experienced, but also by being made transparent and available across your organisation. The link between training, assessment and scheduling needs to be seamless. Information must be available in real-time and events responded to accordingly.

What does real-time competency management look like?

Automation is key here. Let’s take the example of a train driver being assessed. Their ongoing competence is paramount to the smooth and safe running of services. Regular assessments need to be scheduled, conducted and reported on.

Driver A is due for their assessment. The assessor needs to be notified of the need to assess them and they will then go about conducting the assessment. Once the assessment is complete, they will then need to record the outcome of it. If Driver A has passed the assessment, this information needs to be made available to the driver, their management team and the scheduling team. In this scenario, it’s a case of confirming business as usual.

But what if Driver A fails to pass their assessment? In this scenario, further training may be required as remedial action to rectify their error. If the assessor notes Driver A as having failed, there needs to be a swift chain reaction to this. Driver A must be notified, their managers too, plus the scheduling team. Driver A may need to be removed from duty until such a time that they have undertaken the requisite training. This means, therefore, that the training team must be notified, too, with a view to booking Driver A in for training asap.

The scheduling team will then need to arrange to have another driver cover any shifts that they are booked in for. This triggers its own chain of communication, impacting another driver and their ongoing shifts. Regulations around working hours must be factored in and adhered to.

Automating this process makes it more efficient. Information, rather than being siloed by department, can be shared electronically at the point of input. This means that the driver, their managers, the scheduling team and the training department can all act quickly.

How do organisations automate their competency management?

This is a process that Transport for London (TfL) operates through CACI’s Cygnum software. Assessors are assigned to a list of tube drivers who need assessing, they can see their routes and timings and meet drivers at a station that best suits them. The results are recorded instantly and follow-up activities are automatically triggered.

Assessors access a priority list of drivers on the go through Cygnum. They can see where drivers are due or coming up for assessment. This means they can prioritise accordingly. Using the Cygnum Mobile app, assessors can record results on the go, in real time.

Obviously mobile reception can be an issue on sections of the London Underground. Where this is the case, results are stored offline on the app to be uploaded as soon as possible once reception is available again.

With results recorded in or near to real time, TfL’s training and scheduling teams have accurate and up to date information available to them. For the training team, their list of drivers is demand driven, so those drivers who need to receive training most are put to the front of the queue. This minimises frontline absences.

Ongoing training can be enhanced via automation too. Regular checks, from safety briefings to eyesight checks need to be conducted and recorded. Sending reminders and auto-booking people onto courses makes for a smoother process.

Network Rail operates its training management programme through Cygnum. This enables Network Rail to automate vast swathes of its training operation. Mandatory courses are booked in advance, attendance is accurately monitored and results are recorded and shared across the organisation.

The automation of this enables Network Rail to not only keep abreast of its training courses and who needs to attend, but also to inform schedulers of their outcomes. This is essential in keeping the right people in the right place at the right time.

Conclusion

Whilst automation of competency management can be incredibly useful across any transport organisation, it is only as reliable as the data entered into your system. Bringing data together from across your organisation is essential. Where data become siloed, its usefulness is stunted. Creating a single view requires the input of every department.

Automation can make the crucial task of keeping the right people in the right place at the right time more straightforward. It can alert you and your staff of required upcoming training. Assessments can be scheduled well in advance with results logged instantly. Training can be booked when it’s needed, including in a demand-led fashion. Again, making the outcomes of sessions available to the wider business instantly facilitates accurate and timely decision making.

Ultimately, automation of competency management underpins accurate scheduling. Assigning tasks to staff safe in the knowledge that they are the right people to perform such tasks is essential in transport. In any industry with moving parts, being able to make changes in a live environment is also essential. When schedulers and administrators have to manually trawl through records to evidence the changes they wish to make, it wastes valuable time. Being able to instantly understand someone’s suitability for a task, against their core competencies, skills, experience and working patterns, saves time and keeps services moving.

Automation is undoubtedly challenging to achieve, but the results are well worth it.

Technology and its impact on risk in the rail industry

Posted on: 16 May 2024

How technology is enhancing safety for rail workers at organisations like Network Rail and Transport for London (TfL)

Whilst the UK is in the enviable position of having one of the safest rail networks in the world, that’s not to say that things couldn’t be improved upon. Technology is playing a major role in advancing safety standards and enhancing safety for the rail network’s workforce and passengers. This case study looks at how Network Rail and Transport for London (TfL) are utilising CACI’s Cygnum software to support their efforts in managing the training and competency of their workforce.

Beyond the immediate safety of the workforce, enhancements in training and competency management serve to reduce overarching risk. Risk takes on many forms in the rail industry. Mistakes can lead to health and safety incidents; they can also result in service disruption and delayed projects. If staff aren’t appropriately trained, mistakes are more likely to occur. If staff aren’t assessed, there’s no knowledge and reporting on frontline delivery.

Capturing data and appropriately acting upon it is vital to a successful training and competency management framework. Being able to schedule training and assessments effectively and efficiently, whilst also being able to capture outcomes in real-time, helps organisations to maintain core competencies across their workforce and provide opportunities for career progression, an expansion in the available pool of skills and also the opportunity for re-training and mandatory ongoing training where necessary.

Training management

Training management takes many guises within an organisation such as Network Rail, which has a workforce of over 48,000 people. From mandatory ongoing training courses to more advanced, career progressing initiatives, Network Rail caters for its workforce with the provision of thousands of courses every year across 11 national training centres.

Running this process efficiently is paramount in achieving the desired training outcomes. Where manual processes are involved in inviting staff to mandatory sessions and checking that they have attended, mistakes inevitably creep in. This can result in staff attending the wrong courses, being sent to the wrong location or not attending.

Implementing a technology system can help to alleviate such issues, with automated checking of course prerequisites, auto-booking of staff to mandatory courses at defined intervals, auto-logging attendance on the day (plus any results that are required) and creating efficiency and consistency across the process. This leaves the more manual aspects to exceptions and more complex arrangements.

Furthermore, a robust training management programme enables organisations to diversify and enhance the range of skills available to them within their existing workforce. If places on courses are free, then they can be offered out to the wider workforce. This improves efficiency by helping to keep courses full. Making best use of available training resources by ensuring that courses are run to capacity and any vacant spaces are offered to interested employees who would benefit from the training opportunity, continuously enhances the core competencies and career opportunities available to your workforce.

Each training course costs money to run, from the trainer, the time taken by the employee and the room and facilities used. Finding a way of maximising the results of this expenditure is crucial. With improved visibility of class utilisation via Cygnum, Network Rail can offer out vacant course places to the wider rail industry, thereby supporting other organisations in their training needs and helping to support the wider safety standards of the rail industry.

Competency management

Closely linked to training is competency management. TfL utilises Cygnum to support the ongoing competency management of its 4,500+ Underground drivers. At a basic level, competency management is ensuring that staff are competent to perform their roles. For example that they are appropriately trained and qualified for the tasks they are undertaking. Beyond that, competency management helps organisations to understand the skills at their disposal across their workforce.

It also ties into training where mandatory ongoing training is required to maintain competence for a role. For train drivers, this includes basic aspects such as eyesight checks. It also establishes the triggering of mandatory training where mistakes have been made out in the field. Similarly to Network Rail, TfL can then schedule training at the point of a result being logged. This ensures that all drivers have access to relevant and necessary training to ensure ongoing competence.

To further have assurance on driver competency, TfL carries out ‘on the job’ staff assessments. These are scheduled by Cygnum automatically based on business rules and the driver’s duty rota. Both the assessor and driver are notified instantly. This reduces the manual effort in arranging assessments, making the process more efficient.

When an assessor assesses a driver, they can capture the outcomes on their mobile device via Cygnum’s mobile app, Cygnum Mobile. Results are uploaded to the Cygnum database and any follow up activities are automatically triggered as a result. Cygnum Mobile also includes offline data capture capability, to mitigate poor mobile reception when operating underground.

Improving workforce safety and reducing risk

By running robust training and competency management programmes, Network Rail and TfL are better positioned to monitor the skills of their workforce and ensure that appropriately trained and competent personnel are operating their services. This further helps them to monitor the safety of their networks by ensuring that all operators are compliant with industry safety standards.

Of course, no system can eradicate human error, but technology can help in prioritising workforce safety whilst at the same time encouraging career progression and the expansion of available skills within the workforce. Where the workforce is trained and regularly assessed, incidents can be kept to a minimum and when they do occur, understanding why is made easier. This is because the competencies, training, skills and experience of those involved can be quickly understood in reporting on incidents.

Having a complete picture of skills, experience and the results of regular assessments also supports administrative and scheduling staff and accurately and fairly assigning tasks to appropriate members of the workforce. Having a central view of core competencies set against bespoke business rules facilitates a degree of automation in scheduling, which reduces manual effort, improves accuracy and makes it easier to handle exceptions. Creating a central view of staff skills enhances workforce safety and reduces risk, since it reduces the likelihood of staff being assigned to tasks to which they’re not suitable for.

For more information on Cygnum, please visit: https://www.caci.co.uk/software/cygnum/

How River Island use ResolvID to effectively perform identity resolution on customer data

Posted on: 14 May 2024

Background

River Island is a beloved high street retailer that has brought leading fashion trends to UK shoppers for over sixty years, with both a digital and in-store presence.

When the brand began building a marketing and analytics data technology environment with only a Single Customer View (SCV)— a single record that merges all customer data– available, they recognised the need for a SaaS solution that would be able to perform real-time identity resolution on customer data.

The Challenge

Bringing the entire SCV in-house posed a significant challenge to River Island, having to terminate many data feeds and re-evaluate incoming and outbound data that lacked clarity. The original data feeds were also set up by employees who had since left the business, resulting in a trial by fire with their SCV.

The Solution

CACI configured ResolvID, a cloud native solution hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud infrastructure, to supply River Island with data cleansing, standardisation, identity resolution and deduplication. Developed with a Microservices architecture, the bespoke platform offers significant advantages through its scaling, resilience and flexibility when rapid changes and improvements are required.

ResolvID comprises horizontally and vertically scalable Microservices that perform different functions with a seamless interface to enhance River Island’s accessibility. The solution leverages advanced deterministic name and address matching techniques in conjunction with digital and non-digital identifiers specific to River Island customers and their data. As part of this initiative, CACI took a three-step approach to effectively perform identity resolution on River Island’s customer data.

The Results

Leveraging ResolvID has resulted in many tangible benefits for River Island, including the creation of various customer dashboards to monitor more targeted figures and generate better, more timely data that bolsters targeted customer campaigns. There have also been noticeable improvements in workload efficiencies, such as cutting down the time required to action workloads to increase the team’s focus on refining their future strategy of doing more with their data to retain oversight on customer performance.

Once we swapped to ResolvID, the numbers we got were close enough to give us confidence that the deduplication received from ResolvID worked better than our previous managed service.

Ben Anderton, Technical Lead at River Island, shared how this real-time capability now enables the confident and immediate actioning of data and customer signups to produce effective campaigns based on genuine buying behaviours and generate accurate results.

Read the case study

You can access and download the full case study here.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, please get in touch with us to discuss what strategies and solutions that our team of experts can help you deliver.

NHS data effectiveness planning in the real world

Posted on: 7 May 2024

Let’s talk about what really happens when an NHS Trust initiates a data transformation project, including key factors that determine success

How can NHS Trusts and ICS access the much-discussed potential of their data within the real-world environment of a complex, large-scale, over-stretched, pressurised, life-saving organisation?

Enthusiasm about the power of data is widespread and many leaders and managers have glimpsed a vision of how their organisation and function could transform its planning and service delivery with leading-edge insight. They know the possibility is real, because in their Trust, there are certain highly evolved functions, datasets and systems that form an aspirational benchmark. But in reality, rolling out this best practice consistently, to create an ultimately system-wide transformation, is daunting.

We don’t have easy answers or a silver bullet approach. Every NHS organisation is sophisticated and complicated – optimising data effectiveness demands rigorous focus and a commitment of resources. But we do have best practice examples of successful readiness projects we’ve worked on with NHS Trusts, helping them take the most efficient and cost-effective route to data transformation.

We reached a point where we knew we had to make changes in our technology for future scaling. We had to look not only at the commercials with our existing technology, but at our all-encompassing technology. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

One NHS Trust recently asked CACI to help them develop a comprehensive readiness package for a major data migration. The Trust’s situation was typical, with constantly evolving technology and a wide range of users with different levels of capability and understanding. There were acknowledged weaknesses in understanding fast-changing tools and technologies – the Informatics team had identified the value of engaging a trusted partner to help bridge any knowledge gaps.

Adopting a user-centred approach was key. The Informatics lead was determined to do the right thing for the organisation and knew the value of a focused piece of user engagement that would allow everyone to be heard and have confidence that their concerns were understood and included in the output.

Trust and openness are key to an effective readiness project. Whether you conduct it internally or using an expert third party partner, it’s important that everyone feels comfortable discussing how existing products and services are working in practice. External specialists can bring objectivity to the process, defusing possible defensiveness or concerns about confidentiality by using and explaining a transparent and proven methodology designed to achieve the end goal of better data insight for everyone.

It’s one thing to catalogue data queries and requirements as users express them, but to deliver an effective new solution, Trusts must understand the underlying rationale and how data is supporting critical processes and decisions. Our experts were able to explore and question effectively, so different users’ experiences were fully understood in an organisational context.

A third party like CACI has unique capability to discern what the underlying requirements might be for a successful transition and elevation in technology. Our relationship feels grounded in practicality and addressing real problems. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

For this project, CACI’s Healthcare Insight consultants first analysed the Trust’s existing reporting outputs and infrastructure, to gain a comprehensive view of its architecture. They engaged with internal and external data analytics stakeholders to understand their needs and preferences and to assess the board’s strategic data and reporting priorities.

The output was a detailed report of all quantitative and qualitative findings. From this, the Trust gained new understanding of their existing functions and capabilities and the changes required to succeed in the future.

The next step was to align with the Trust’s data strategy and produce a blueprint for the future, outlining new data architecture, data governance, licensing requirements and enablement. This evidence-based blueprint, compiled by trusted and experienced experts, made it possible for the Trust to create a compelling business case for change. It was a major accomplishment for the Trust’s informatics team that the capital case was approved faster than ever before, taking just ten days.

By approaching this in the way that we have, we’ve overturned a common assumption in the public sector and NHS – that it’s hard to get things done. Actually, with a clear vision and exceptionally good outputs, we’ve been able to move at a pace that’s not normally expected in an NHS setting. (NHS Trust Informatics Leader)

As external CACI healthcare consultants, we have a privileged viewpoint, because we work with a range of NHS Trusts and can identify common challenges, barriers and imperatives. By applying this insight, we help NHS leaders access a system-wide perspective that can make a big difference in achieving their data effectiveness goals.

Get the full picture with our Data Effectiveness white paper

In this blog, we’ve shared an example of our user-centred NHS data effectiveness approach in practice. If you’d like to know more about the rationale and how it’s evolved, as well as how it’s designed to tackle key issues in the complex NHS environment, we’d love you to read our white paper. Download it free now.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how our data effectiveness experience could help your organisation please get in touch with Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.

Ready, set, go! Making change happen in the NHS data ecosystem

Posted on: 29 April 2024

Discover a proven and efficient approach to preparation and planning that paves the way to meaningful data transformation for NHS Trusts

It’s widely recognised in the NHS that harnessing data effectively holds the key to understanding and improving performance. When Trusts and ICS can gather and analyse a full and accurate range of patient and service data, they can better understand and anticipate patient needs and can shape service provision and manage capacity to enhance outcomes for patients.

The will is there to make this happen, amongst managers and clinicians. But the scale and complexity of NHS organisations and their data universe makes it difficult to make meaningful progress. Somehow, NHS leaders need to find a way to understand the dauntingly dense web of data, processes, requirements and systems in their Trust and form a workable plan of action that moves the entire organisation forward.

In your NHS organisation, some functions, datasets and systems may be highly evolved. You may regard them as an aspirational benchmark for the whole organisation. But in reality, rolling out this best practice consistently, within a fully connected data ecosystem, is daunting.

Working hands-on with NHS Trusts, the CACI Health Insights team has evolved an approach that empowers leaders to crystallise their current data reality and desired future state, so that pragmatic action planning is possible. We call this approach Ready, Set, Go. Structured preparation and discovery form a foundation for realistic planning and delivery of priority data effectiveness projects, ensuring synergy between projects and constant progression towards a single, system-wide goal.

The three stages of data transformation

1. Ready…

Readiness is the foundational phase of the approach. This means understanding and documenting current reality, then focusing on stakeholder engagement. Once stakeholders are on-side, you can work with them to define their requirements. Clearly setting out the planned benefits of change and (making sure that there are no unintended side-effects for other stakeholders) brings everyone to a clear vision of the desired future state. During the readiness phase, you’ll also establish standards and processes for quality assurance and governance.

2. Set…

Now that you understand the whole context and have determined the key projects to address, you can lay the foundations for data success by initiating transformation activities. It’s important to set timeframes and allocate resources across the entire transformation programme, so your delivery projects are realistically achievable in harmony rather than competing with each other. You may need to iterate the phasing so that the entire plan of discrete, connected projects is robust. Progressing at pace is key, so stakeholders can see and experience improvements at tangible milestones, but the schedule must be realistic, taking account of available internal and external staff with the right skills, and making sure that vital NHS activities are not hindered or disrupted.

3. Go…

As data transformation projects are completed, you move into a development phase. This means optimising data effectiveness by building the structures and outputs you need to extract ever-increasing benefit and insight for improved outcomes. Targeted learning and development sessions in all functions will enable data users to build their expertise in critical business practices. For ongoing management, you’ll need to use internal or external data experts in a cost-effective way, to maintain, optimise and continually enhance your data, so you can keep pace with new demands and opportunities to improve patient outcomes.

Stepping into the future of effective NHS data

The aspiration for every Trust is a single, complete data platform and analytics solution, providing accurate and consistently formatted data. Following the Ready, Set, Go approach, you can map a path towards seamless provision of historic, real-time and projected data. This will include strong and effective governance for sharing data securely, plus well controlled and monitored access to data for different users.

In the Readiness phase, mapping user requirements reveals the priorities with the greatest potential to transform efficiency and outcomes. In our experience, one of these is provision of self-service analytics and reporting tools that are both powerful and easy to use. By planning your data transformation project to deliver this, you can empower different people, teams and functions to create and tailor queries and reports, regularly and on demand. This cuts down reporting bottlenecks and reduces the pressure on under-resourced analyst teams.

When actionable reports can easily be tailored to the recipient and audience need and level of understanding, with meaningful visualisations and comparisons, you will be able to unlock the full, democratic power and impact of your data to inform strategic and clinical decision-making that improves your most vital NHS performance measures. Adopting the Ready, Set, Go approach can put this transformative outcome within your grasp.

Get the full picture with our Data Effectiveness white paper

For more context about the challenge of unlocking data effectiveness in NHS organisations, our white paper has further detail and examples of how our user-centred approach to defining data transformation priorities can work in practice. Download it free now.

If you’re ready to start a conversation about how our data effectiveness experience could help your organisation, please get in touch with Susan Brooks in CACI’s NHS team.