How Orkney Islands Council is tackling housing affordability, education accessibility and fuel poverty

Challenge

The full case data exchange functionality enables Tameside Council to share and receive all the data held on a young person’s case. “It was taking so long to manually input the data associated with a full case,” explains Louise Hope, Data and Analysis Lead. “Our business support function has been getting busier, with more work in referrals meetings and taking notes, resulting in less time for admin tasks such as this. We put together a business case for using the full case data exchange functionality and implemented it.”

“Essentially, we wanted to save time. It has also helped us to improve the accuracy of our data; the data otherwise is only as good as the person inputting it. If they make mistakes and miss things, then our data is poorer as a result.”

Solution

The full case data exchange functionality in ChildView enables youth justice services to send and receive all data recorded on a young person with other youth offending teams (YOTs) using ChildView. If young people move services, their record can move with them.

“We use it to send and receive cases with other YOTs,” says Louise. “We would like to use it for everything but have found that there is some confusion around the process with other YOTs, whereby they only send us the asset rather than the full case. Once other YOTs understand the process, it will improve it further.”

Results

One of the main benefits of the functionality is to save time and improve efficiency. At a time when services are getting busier, this is a helpful facet of the full case data exchange. “Absolutely we’ve saved time through using the functionality,” says Louise. “Although it’s tough to say exactly how much time because each case is a different size. I would say, however, that we save at least a couple of hours on a standard case. Also, if the data is being input manually, we would never ask someone to add all contacts, for example; they would be attached as a pdf. So, we get a richer base of information whilst saving an average of two hours.”

A richer base of information helps YOTs to pick up information more easily and understand the context and nuance of a young person’s journey. Where information gets lost or incorrectly recorded, vital information disappears with it. “It’s certainly beneficial to have all of the information and all of the contacts,” concludes Louise.

Testimonial

Having a rich seam of data makes it much easier to find information. You can see where that information has come from, with an evidence base and contacts of who recorded what. If we have any questions, it makes it very easy to follow up with that person. There’s also increased confidence in the data that we have as a result of the improved accuracy of the data being added to our system. With accuracy and a trail of contacts, it makes each young person’s journey more transparent to us.

Louise Hope

Data and Analysis Lead, Tameside Council

Case study

How Synergy4 simplified the merging of two Trusts into Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Summary

Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a provider of mental health, learning disability and community support services. Following the merging of the Trust with Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Trust in 2020, Black Country Healthcare Trust was tasked with combining two vastly different costing systems and strategies into a singular costing service and line reporting system. This proved to be no easy task, as Dudley and Walsall’s costing system was Synergy3, while Black Country Healthcare Trust had their own bespoke internal system. The differences between the Trusts’ costing of their services further amplified these difficulties. However, a pre-existing contract with CACI proved to be the key to streamlining this uniquely complex circumstance.

Industry

Healthcare

Products used

Synergy

Challenge

Merging two Trusts into one

This major change came with extensively different processes that had to be identified and differentiated. Unifying two teams also proved to be extraordinarily difficult for the Trust while keeping up with the demands of day-to-day tasks.

Learning a new system

The different systems that the Trusts were on and the necessity to quickly move to a new, singular system was a colossal change for the team, with its difficulties augmented by the substantial changes made to costing methodologies.

Adjusting cost centres within the Trust’s childhood account

This included adjusting the lengths, descriptions and meanings of the cost centres to ensure information remained correctly organised and that no information relating to either Trust was removed.

Maintaining cohesion while importing

When running imports through the Trust’s activity or costing data, ensuring all elements were executed sequentially proved to be difficult.

Solution

CACI equipped Black Country Healthcare Trust with Synergy4, a comprehensive patient level information and costing system specifically designed for the NHS. This system made the environment available for the Trust to work with two separate methodologies throughout the transitional merging period and securely organise pre-existing child accounts and allocation methods. Through Synergy4, the Black Country Healthcare Trust could deliver accurate patient-level costing and accurately report on findings. CACI was also tremendously understanding of the Trust’s unique merging circumstances, which simplified the complex transition of unifying two systems into one.

According to Mandip Bal, Lead Costing, Reporting and Finance Systems Accountant at Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, “The support and understanding offered by CACI was substantial, which enabled us to transition onto that new system.”

CACI supplied unwavering training and support to the Trust throughout the entire project and merger, ensuring that the Trust was well versed in Synergy4’s functions. This support was crucial for the effective translation of knowledge with consultants, which began with a paper written by CACI outlining how the costing journey would progress throughout the merger.

“Upon reading [this paper], I was in immediate agreement from our Trust,” Mandip explained. “We were able to confidently advise on the separation and visualise how the model would merge into one following the merging of the Trusts.”

Results

Operating two unique systems was highly complex, and the impact that CACI’s support had on the transition period and successful merging of the two Trusts did not go unnoticed by the wider business.

“Working with [CACI] is always very pleasant… The support available along with the helpdesk, especially at the project implementation stage, was helpful,” Mandip explained. “After we went live, the support desk was particularly helpful for the business. Whenever I’ve asked questions or enquired about different developments, CACI has always offered solutions or more information. I can deal with everything now through CACI, so quite a few efficiencies in terms of administrative tasks were achieved as well.”

The Trust now confidently runs a single system and has consistently met reporting and national costing deadlines as a result. Following updates made to the National Cost Collection guidance, CACI also ensured the Trust’s system was up to date to further assist with minute details amidst the transitional merging period.

Black Country Healthcare Trust is keen to explore new developments to Synergy4 as they become available and continue to receive CACI’s support to further enhance their system in the coming years.

Learn more about Synergy

Case study

How Northern Ireland Trusts successfully adopted Synergy, CACI’s patient level costing solution

Summary

Migrating to and developing a patient level costing solution (PLICS) programme has been a prominent topic of conversation for the costing community in Health and Social for years now, especially following its successful adoption within other jurisdictions. Trusts and the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) alike have recognised the value of integrating a PLICS programme to enhance analytical capabilities and the quality and granularity of Health and Social Care (HSC) financial information. By integrating a PLICS programme, providers and commissioners would be able to better understand how resources are used to identify opportunities for cost reduction, improved efficiencies and achieving clinical level ownership.

As an increasing number of Northern Ireland Trusts began reaching the end of their original costing systems’ lifetimes and a drive to deliver PLICS data as quickly as possible, a decision to initiate a tender process was made.

Although the tender process – managed by colleagues in the Business Services Organisation Procurement and Logistics Service (BSO PaLS) – was lengthy, CACI’s patient level costing solution, Synergy, came out on top thanks to its costs and exceptional quality, along with CACI’s project team’s demonstrated understanding of the Northern Ireland landscape through their previous experiences.

Industry

Non-Profit

Products used

Synergy

Challenge

Eilis Calvert, Head Accountant in Financial Performance within the Strategic Planning and Performance Group of the Department of Health, shared: “The project team at CACI was great at bringing people along this very challenging journey on a very tight deadline and keeping us all right, so that we were able to achieve what we needed to in that first year.”

Working with such large data volumes and patient level data was unfamiliar territory for the costing teams, leading to teams having to upskill in these areas. Patient level cost allocation only began (and through a new system) in 2023, changing the pre-existing costing methodology from what the teams had been using for several years prior. With a plethora of data to review and a new system to work with, the cost review challenge was substantially heightened.

The implementation of Synergy began in January 2023, with Trusts trained up on the new system within the year, including working on a pilot model and completing a cost submission. Despite Eilis recalling this time as one of intensity, she is proud of what the HSC costing community have achieved.

Solution

The scope of Northern Ireland Trusts differs from NHS in other UK jurisdictions. While the Northern Ireland Trusts lean heavily on the work of NHS England and NHS Wales in developing patient level methodology, Eilis recalls the significant work that had to go into developing methodology and guidance for other elements specific to Northern Ireland, such as social care and adapting datasets to fit the electronic patient data collected in Northern Ireland. Reporting requirements also differed for these Trusts, such as the inclusion of Programmes of Care.

CACI helped the Trusts overcome these differentiation challenges by developing additional guidance aspects and modifying software to process data and report in the necessary capacity that would meet HSCNI’s unique needs. CACI’s project lead provided continuous support and advice through to the final cost submission being made. A constant flow of communication was maintained between CACI and the Trusts, ranging from ad-hoc calls to the creation and delivery of formal reports. CACI’s communicative approach ensured that a collective understanding was met across the Trusts, with Eilis sharing that CACI was “very supportive of everyone’s individual needs while ensuring that the department received the consistency that they required”.

Results

According to Eilis, Synergy’s ability to deliver high-quality PLICS product and data insight with ease and flexibility would address each of the Northern Ireland Trusts’ needs, especially gaining a better understanding of their population. Previous systems costed in aggregate, resulting in a lack of visibility or granularity that Synergy could rectify. In addition, some Trusts previously needed to take additional steps to populate the necessary NI costing template following the completion of the costing process, which Synergy 4 would output directly and significantly reduce time for Trusts.

“Prior to [Synergy], we used higher-level costing data, but the devil is in the details, so getting that level of granularity [was critical] to help us to really understand the whole patient journey, especially as our healthcare system covers social care,” Eilis explained.

Working with CACI on the PLICS data was helpful, although not without its challenges. The Northern Ireland Trusts are continuing to work with CACI this year to further develop and implement individualised validation and cost review dashboards to ensure Trusts will be equipped to meet their needs and deadlines as they arise.

Learn more about Synergy

Case study

How North Somerset Council has taken advantage of E Forms in ChildView

Summary

North Somerset Council has been using CACI’s ChildView since 2013. As part of its drive to derive more benefit from the system, the council began using ChildView’s E Forms functionality in 2022. Designed to give ChildView customers more flexibility in creating, linking and designing reports, E Forms enables councils and those tasked with improving outcomes for vulnerable young people to gain more insight into their work. Building up a database around youth justice work enables councils like North Somerset to gain deeper insight and understanding of their work.

Industry

Healthcare

Products Used

Challenge

“We made the decision to purchase the E forms module following the recent demonstration of its functionality to us by CACI,” says Nicola O’Driscoll, Principle Business Intelligence Lead at North Somerset Council. “The additional functionality gives us the ability to create and add our own forms and assessments, allowing North Somerset to report at a more granular level. As a result, this will aid effective targeting of resources, give greater management oversight, providing real depth and breadth of those risk and safeguarding factors that affect the children and young people we work with.”

Being more agile with the creation of forms and reporting enables youth justice workers to define the data that they need, not just work with pre-defined data capture fields. This helps teams research into and report on areas of their work in a more flexible manner.

Solution

Getting started with ChildView’s E Forms module was easy for North Somerset.

“In terms of the training the group experience was very diverse, from being highly experienced with the application to being novices,” explains Nicola. “All participants were able to follow the training and the feedback I have been given was “this was one of the best training sessions I have ever attended. The instructor was really clear and engaging and was able to answer every question. It was a really positive, inclusive experience. Following training there has been an incredibly high level of enthusiasm from everybody to get stuck in. Huge thanks to Carol, who was fantastic.”

Results

Link forms together
Create unique forms tailored to North Somerset Council’s bespoke process
Locally designed forms that can be reported on
Printable versions of each form.

Case study

How Mood helps NSCHT drive business value out of their information

Summary

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust (NSCHT) is a leading provider of mental health, social care, learning disability and substance misuse services in the West Midlands. It is one of only two specialist mental health Trusts rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Trust needed to improve the management, dissemination and availability of meeting outcomes, committee reports and project work. The Trust’s overall aim was summed up in the promotional strapline for the project: “All our actions. All our projects. All in one place.”

Company size

1,000 – 5,000

Industry

Healthcare

Products used

Challenge

The Trust had a robust – albeit complicated – matrix of inputs/reporting from frontline managers into documentation in various formats. Directors and leaders (particularly executive directors) had to individually review Action Logs from Highlight Reports, Board Papers and Committee Assurance Reports to view the Trust’s management landscape.

As a result, two clear goals were set:

Increase the Trust’s efficiency

Enable faster achievement of the Trust’s core strategic objectives by reducing the incidence of missed or overdue actions

Solution

CACI’s Mood no-code software augmented NSCHT’s secure web access in the following critical ways:

It created an opportunity to develop functional solutions rapidly along with trial designs with users.

It offered the means to create interlocking functional “modules” and initiated the Trust’s building of three capabilities which formed the foundation of their new Unified Knowledge Layer (UKL):

Meeting Manager
Action Manager
Personal Dashboard

Meetings are set up using Meeting Manager, where users can assign attendees, set out agendas and supply links to papers, allowing attendees to access everything they need in one location. Notes and actions can be captured during or after the meeting and are available to everyone. Actions can be assigned following the meeting and can be edited in Action Manager. Interested parties can then view the outcomes, papers and more in this single place, including browsing back to earlier meetings. Filters also allow for focus on a single meeting type, theme or even a single accountable owner.

Actions, whether from a meeting, project checkpoint or even a performance review can all be input directly into Actions Manager.

Alternatively, actions can be uploaded in bulk from a spreadsheet. Actions can be viewed through several filter-enabled lenses, such as an executive owner, action lead, topic, project, overdue, etc. They can be updated online and are visible instantly to all interested parties.

The Personalised Dashboard gives a user immediate visibility of all actions assigned to them. This presents a clear view of priorities so they can provide updates or delegate as necessary.

Added beneficial features include the solution’s Single Sign-On design, which links the Active Directory and removes the need to sign into UKL. It also includes Access Controls, where certain information can be available only to a restricted, need-to-know audience.

Results

NSCHT is now equipped with new digital functionality and is currently implementing it across the wider organisation. The Trust regards the UKL as one of the primary choices for implementing new, digitised management information and intelligence – including upcoming new modules for stakeholder engagement and Active Listening.
With fewer actions missed or completed late, various initiatives are now completed more efficiently, with less time spent on chasing updates. Management time is also more dedicated to items with the greatest priority and senior management are better able to gauge the landscape to assess the general health of activities.
Mood’s no-code design helped the Trust rapidly design a prototype alongside key Trust staff and make it available for trial. While the solution was developed incrementally, user value was delivered from an early stage.

CACI has been delighted to work with NSCHT and enjoys the working relationship, leadership and creative input received from the NSCHT team throughout the process. The Trust’s leadership team is keen to continue broadening the use of UKL both through encouraging use by all staff and by extending functionality over the next few years into new modules delivering added capabilities.

Testimonial

We are delighted to announce the launch of an exciting new way for our people to manage their actions, meetings and projects – the Unified Knowledge Layer (UKL).

Liz Mellor

Chief Strategy Officer, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS

Testimonial

The launch of the UKL is the culmination of a two-year project, initially begun as a key deliverable of the Corporate Recovery Group. It will be rolled out in a sustainable, phased period over the Spring.

Liz Mellor

Chief Strategy Officer, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS

Case study

How Milton Keynes Youth Offending Team uses ChildView to support its work

Summary

Milton Keynes Youth Offending Team is part of the multi-agency youth justice partnership involving Milton Keynes Council, Thames Valley Police, Education and Public Health. The team began using ChildView, CACI’s specialist youth offending information system, in 2009, following migration from their previous YOIS System. ChildView is used by 31 multi-disciplinary workers at Milton Keynes Council and the team has 160 active youth justice cases at the time of writing.

Industry

Education

Products used

Challenge

As the Youth Offending Team used a system of spreadsheets to process and record information, they realised that ChildView would provide an integrated whole service recording and reporting solution to reduce and enhance oversight across cases and referrals into and out of its services.

“ChildView can hold all the information we need and allow active case management,” says Phil Coles, Business Support and Information Manager at the Milton Keynes Youth Offending Team. “I know some YOTs have issues with aspects of their youth justice work. Generally, I’ve found that these issues are due to not having defined business processes that support (or dictate) the recording practices. Using a system like ChildView helps us to define our processes, whilst maintaining all our data in the same place.”

“An example of this is the active management of referrals. By using agreed recording processes, we can instantly see which cases have been referred to another agency and whether they have reviewed the case yet. Then we can see when they accept the case and, finally, when they complete their work for us. This used to be managed in folders, then it became a spreadsheet but – by mapping processes – we’ve now got it to a single ChildView report which has a variety of views for each type of referral and whether it’s active or complete. We are also able to provide all stats that have been requested so far, for example how many referrals have been made (or completed) during a period.”

Need to upgrade from using spreadsheets to process and record information

Integrate whole service recording to reduce and enhance oversight across case and referrals

Solution

“I’ve always had excellent support from CACI when making queries or raising issues,” says Phil. “There have been times when a resolution has taken time to arrive at, but they are always worked on. Raising queries is very straightforward and the team is always quick to respond.”

CACI, as part of its service level agreement, responds to all ChildView support queries received by 5 p.m. on the same day. This helps clarify how issues and queries are dealt with and provides practical next steps. The support desk is staffed from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, with 24/7 web support call logging available as well.

Results

With the underlying importance of the complex work increasingly undertaken by the team, risks can be captured and tracked in near real time. This facilitates holistic case formulation to ensure vulnerable young people in the area achieve the best possible responses. To this end, being able to report on activities and send and receive data in real time on incidents and cases is vital.

“I have written about 150 reports, many of which contain multiple views, and have found that ChildView facilitates rapid access to information for myself and my team,” says Phil. “We are able to store all necessary documents within the application and are just looking at using the communications module to further integrate letters into the system.”

ChildView’s built-in reporting functionality has also supported Milton Keynes YOT. “It’s sufficient for the majority of requests that we receive,” adds Phil. This helps meet the service’s needs, with relevant information captured in locally-defined reports. ChildView also uniquely transfers whole case data records between YOTs, increasing accuracy and reducing the effort and risk in tracking young people as they move localities.

Being able to send, receive and view the full case management story, relational history and context swiftly and securely simplifies YOT’s engagement and formulation of an effective response with incoming cases, innately understanding each young person’s circumstance.

Testimonial

I’ve always had excellent support from CACI when making queries or raising issues. There have been times when a resolution has taken time to arrive at, but they are always worked on. Raising queries is very straightforward and the team is always quick to respond.

Phil Coles

Business Support and Information Manager, Milton Keynes Youth Offending Team

Testimonial

“My team and I have generally found ChildView to be easy to use. It does what we need it to do and I haven’t been asked for anything that I haven’t been able to get out of the system.”

Phil Coles

Business Support and Information Manager, Milton Keynes Youth Offending Team

Case study

How InView regenerated Croydon Health Services’ data capabilities

Summary

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust is a mid-sized hospital in Croydon that provides acute and community care through services and departments ranging from A&E, adult and paediatric critical care to outpatient and inpatient treatment and community services.

Prior to partnering with CACI over a decade ago, the Trust did not have their own data warehouse. Their in-house and bespoke systems were built using tools like Microsoft Access and SQL Server, which challenged their ability to load their structured data properly and time-efficiently. As a result, the Trust conducted a tender to enlist support for this, and after gauging the simplicity and ease with which CACI could help them meet their data warehouse optimisation needs, established a partnership.

Company size

4,000+

Industry

Healthcare

Products used

InView

Challenge

Croydon Health Services’ entire in-house, bespoke system had been run by one person. This presented a risk to the organisation, particularly in the event of any changes made to statutory submissions or to the Healthcare Resource Group (HRG).

Husein Kermali, Head of Information Systems at Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, explained the Trust’s thinking in opting for a more organised route that would guarantee their protection by working with an organisation as opposed to an individual to oversee the entire system.

“One of our reasons we chose to go with [an organisation-led] warehouse in the first place was so things like the HRG group, the statutory submissions and anything that comes online from us from an NHS perspective would be something that we knew that warehouse would be capable of delivering.”

Bespoke system only run by one person

At risk if any changes were made to statutory submissions or HRGs

Solution

The Trust implemented InView back in 2011-2012 as a one pass system. CACI created Extract, Transform & Load (ETL) processes through InView based on pre-existing system knowledge and an understanding of what Croydon Health Services endeavoured to do with their data from the point of partnership.

A few years later, in conjunction with their existing data provider, the Trust went from PIEDW extracts to Nautilus 835 extracts, which resulted in CACI taking over a significant amount of the ETL process for the Trust. The positive working relationship between the Trust and CACI built up the Trust’s confidence in the difference CACI could make for their data processing capabilities.

“We know that CACI is always there when we’ve got issues, we know that [CACI] knows the detailed processes very well. [CACI] also work for a multitude of Trusts… so they know they’ve seen all the issues that we’re having in other Trusts, and what all the Trusts are trying to do,” Husein explained. “I think with that kind of vision, [CACI] can see a lot more than we can. I think that makes CACI a great partner to be with.”

Results

When the CDS010 was retired and 011 E CDS came online a few years ago, Husein flagged that “if [the Trust] did that in-house, that would have been a lot of work.” According to Husein, CACI had the extracts ready for this through InView, CACI’s modular data platform, easing Croydon Health Services’ involvement in the process.

“With the simple product upgrade of InView, [CACI] had all the elements within their product already. We just had to populate the fields that we needed. The output that was delivered was then ECDS 011 compliant, which saved us a lot of time,” Husein continued. “[CACI] did all the testing… we just had to make sure that we filled in the elements that we needed for the easy desk submission, so that was amazing because it saved a lot of time.”

Croydon Health Services has also benefitted from being involved in the ETL process throughout its development by CACI. The supplementary documentation provided at the end of any piece of work with CACI has given the Trust unrestricted access to changes made through InView or ensuring that everything they wished to capture had indeed been included.

The Trust has applied their learnings from CACI’s processes to successfully implement their own data quality (DQ) reports and dashboards that highlight potential problems and look up issues through a warehouse load process. The processes followed by their Data Quality team have also ensured that when data now goes through to the data warehouse, those issues disappear.

Learn more about InView

Testimonial

We know that CACI is always there when we’ve got issues, we know that [CACI] knows the detailed processes very well. [CACI] also work for a multitude of Trusts… so they know they’ve seen all the issues that we’re having in other Trusts, and what all the Trusts are trying to do. I think with that kind of vision, [CACI] can see a lot more than we can. I think that makes CACI a great partner to be with.

Husein Kermali

Head of Information Systems, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

Case study

How InView enhanced Stockport’s data collection & processing capabilities

Summary

When Stockport NHS Foundation Trust first looked to procure a data warehouse, they were adamant about choosing a provider with a proven track record and experience of delivering products and services to the NHS. Following recommendations and success stories from other users of CACI’s NHS data warehouse solution, InView, it was clear that a partnership with CACI would guarantee Stockport a smooth process with a mature and established provider.

Industry

Healthcare

Products used

InView

Challenge

Stockport needed one platform that would contain all data in one place to simplify the collection process and help the team regain control of their data. Over the years, numerous reporting database tables evolved to the point that multiple individual servers were created. This resulted in many duplications with multiple databases across multiple tables, data not being consolidated or structured, analysts having to work across servers and inconsistent information being produced. Having one unified platform would ensure that everyone would pull data from the same source and would avoid analysts working in silos and creating their own new sources of data. A consolidated data platform would provide much needed resilience and structure.

Stockport also wanted to take control of their statutory data processing and reporting. They needed flexibility and control over their own data developments, including more automated data submissions and reporting.

Simplify process by having one platform to host all data

Issues with duplications in the database

Need more control over data processing and reporting

Solution

CACI’s InView equipped Stockport with a mature data platform that has defined all statutory returns and commissioning datasets. It supports the team’s existing grouping and pricing processes and significantly reduces their month end manual processing, freeing up their time to dedicate their efforts to additional data analysis instead.

Through InView, the team also gained access to a unique support desk headed by a team of CACI’s technical experts, ensuring that any issues arising at Stockport could be mitigated precisely and timely.

“You don’t normally get someone that could just as easily have developed the product on a support line. [Our CACI support lead] knows InView inside out… not only does he know the products, but he also knows NHS data quite well,” Rory MacDonald, Lead Analyst at Stockport, explained.

“We have a lot of confidence in the fact that CACI’s [team of customer care individuals] understand NHS data and keep up to date on policy decisions to be able to respond quickly to changes,” Debbie Hope, Chief Data Officer at Stockport, continued.

Stockport was also able to identify gaps in the recording of patient observations, with a customised InView module specially developed by another one of CACI’s delivery support leads to enhance Stockport’s reporting capabilities. Through InView, the team could rest assured that all statutory elements would be addressed and that building any added functionalities within the platform would be done quickly and easily.

The latest enhancement that CACI’s delivery support lead is developing for Stockport is for their audiology data extraction and collection, whereby data is extracted from their system and data quality reports are being created to find any issues. This helps Stockport streamline some of their diagnostic waiting times reporting.

Results

According to Rory, CACI’s consultancy and support has far exceeded the organisation’s expectations. “The consultants were all really good in terms of both their technical expertise and dynamic advice,” he commented.

There was a noticeable reduction in the overall time spent processing overnight. After setting up a delta load, Stockport realised that every piece of information in their system dating back from the 1980s was being copied over. This process took progressively longer each day because the amount of data being copied over was continuously increasing. They worked with CACI on setting up a delta load where they could identify using interface messages, pull any necessary information and load it into the data warehouse, which significantly sped up the processing time.

“It’s available to be reported on from early in the morning,” Rory explained.

The enhanced data warehouse solution allowed Stockport to produce their own national CDS extracts. “We were reliant on and restricted to the pace of our PAS supplier previously for the development of those extracts when there were national changes,” Debbie explained. “We’ve removed that reliance and taken full control of those national extracts.”

Stockport was also able to move away from manually processing commissioner assignment within the PAS system. “It was a very manual process for using the contracting functionality within our patient administration system to assign the Commissioner for who pays for a particular piece of activity,” Rory explained. “Now that we’ve got all the national commissioner assignment method (CAM) rules written in the data warehouse, we’ve been able to switch off the functionality on the PAS system and transform the work of our data quality team.”

The Trust’s future ambitions include completely switching off all of the old servers with the legacy reporting databases so that the organisation can have only one development server and one production server for the data warehouse. They are also keen to increase the provision of real-time reporting. CACI will continue to support Stockport by analysing patient flow and frequently refreshing in-patient data to help Stockport understand exactly who is in the hospital at that time, what service they may be waiting for and how waiting times can be reduced, and overall support with the maintenance of their data warehouse.

Learn more about InView

Testimonial

We have a lot of confidence in the fact that CACI’s [team of customer care individuals] understand NHS data and keep up to date on policy decisions to be able to respond quickly to changes.

Debbie Hope

Chief Data Officer, NHS Stockport Foundation Trust

Case study

How CACI provided MoD a Compass Audit Solution for the Submarine Delivery Agency

Summary

The Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) is a part of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) that procures and project manages the construction of future Royal Navy submarines. It also supports those in service working with Navy Command and the Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO).

Within the SDA is the In-Service Management Team (ISM), handling quality assurance and performing periodic engineering audits to ensure processes are correctly followed when delivering equipment parts. During these audits, non-conformances may be identified which require attention, resulting in actions which must be tracked to completion.

ISM required a new capability to automate the management of this work and improve governance.

Company size

1,000 – 5,000

Industry

Defence, National Security

Products used

Challenge

ISM wanted a tool that would secure the audit process and better support operations by decreasing the probability of actions being missed or delayed. Easy access to previous audit outcomes would help preserve team knowledge.

Equipment failure could occur with associated potential safety issues due to the inability to track non-conformance actions.

Experience was being lost as staff are normally moved to new posts every two years.

Lessons from previous audits were not always applied due to limited information accessibility.

Efficiency needed improvement. Previous tools used to manage audit work (e.g. Excel and SharePoint) required significant overheads to track and manage the audit calendar.

Solution

The solution needed to be self-sufficient in that all details of the item being audited could be input to the tool and the audit team assigned. In addition, ISM looked for a significant reduction in elapsed time to complete each audit.

The SDA chose CACI’s Mood software to underpin their solution because of how well it lends itself to extending capabilities through the addition of new modules. COMPASS Submarines was initially developed to manage documented business processes and CACI could weave in a new audit module that would avoid users needing to log into separate software tools.

The new tool digitises the recording of audit details such as non-conformance findings and related actions. This is underpinned by a workflow with alert emails triggered by activities like adding or updating audits or a non-conformance needed to be acted upon.

Scheduled emails act as reminders, such as when an audit is due. This is a successful instance of Mood software’s ability to be customised using JavaScript to deliver extra functionality to the end solution.

Results

Efficiency is improved through system-driven working rather than relying on personnel knowledge and human driven processes, leading to:

Strengthened governance resulting from auditable evidence of findings being captured and tracked.
Reduced likelihood of recurring issues.
Management overhead surrounding audits have been significantly lowered, allowing a reduction in FTE dedicated to the tasks.
Improved knowledge retention, as outcomes of latest and previous audits are readily available.

The audit module is available to other parts of Defence, however, its value as an engineering audit compliance tool isn’t limited to a Defence context. We’ll be exploring new uses and are actively looking at extending the solution design to be relevant to other types of audits such as the complete range of ISO standards.

Testimonial

We’re proud to share that the audit module was recognised with an award at the SDA Improvement Awards in November 2022.

Submarine Delivery Agency

Case study

How CACI provided a Digital Twin concept for Defence Fuels Enterprise

Summary

The Defence Fuels Enterprise (DFE) is responsible for managing fuel logistics for the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD). They ensure the efficient supply and distribution of fuel to various military operations and facilities. DFE’s operations include overseeing fuel movements, stock holdings and ensuring timely delivery to support military activities. DFE sought to enhance their operations by understanding past fuel movements and predicting future events at air stations. To minimise adoption risks, they sought a digital twin concept — a real-time digital counterpart of any system that provides a virtual representation of simulated situations, allowing potential operational changes to be modelled before implementation.

Industry

Defence, National Security

Products used

Challenge

The Defence Fuels Enterprise (DFE) needed to understand the past and predict near and distant future events regarding fuel movements within an air station. Therefore, CACI developed a proof of concept (PoC) to test out the application of a digital twin design in collaboration with the MoD’s Defence Fuels Transformation. This PoC identified three use cases of increasing sophistication that would broadly cover the digital twin concept and help the DFE overcome their visibility challenges, including:

Understanding what has been happening:

Showing fuel efficiency, holdings and asset utilisation issues.

Predicting the near future:

Supplying an ‘early warning’ of upcoming situations that could lead to issues.

Testing further reaching change:

Enabling changes to an air station to be made and tested as though they were happening.

Solution

Drawing on our Mood data visualisation platform, our digital twin PoC followed best practice principles, selecting use cases, benefits and engineering based on CACI’s DevSecOps methods, through readily available technology and services. Carried out over three months using Agile sprints, the PoC provided several supportive methods to solve DFE’s challenges, including:

A front end that allows operators to interact with, track or control what it does. Our PoC included a user interface giving direct interaction with a visualisation of the structural model.

Structural models that act as the central definition for everything else the twin does. For instance, a ‘Bill of Materials’ of the system to be twinned could be created, laying out all components and connections.

Our PoC demonstrated the potential of a data pipeline, collecting information from real-time sensors or business systems and managed by an app, using declassified data from BFIS for fuel movement and FFMT for stock holdings.

Predictive models trained on historical data to predict future events with high accuracy.

Machine learning models for prediction, using historical data to create an ‘early warning system’ for refuelling vehicle demand.

Simulation models for testing changes, integrating a Defence Fuels Enterprise simulation model to test unit operations with different refuelling vehicle configurations.

Our PoC defined an appropriate architecture, implemented a Digital Twin solution using only available cloud technology and skills and demonstrated a low-cost front end. Offering faster, more objective information, it proved its ability to generate cost savings in the hundreds of thousands (per month, per base) and productivity benefits.

Results

All three use cases from our PoC showed improvements that would support a human decision-maker. The project’s many achievements included:

Defining the architecture of a ‘digital twin of the enterprise’ suitable for the Defence Fuels enterprise.
Implementing a digital twin solution to define a ‘simplest possible’ example for each use case.
Showing that such a solution could be built using cloud technologies and skills readily available to the MoD based on models, data pipelines, machine learning and simulation.
Demonstrating a low-cost front end that provides decision-making support and encourages the enhanced automation of decision processes.

Case study

How CACI helped optimise utilisation of storage capacity across the MoD estate

Summary

The MoD is the UK’s second largest landowner, in possession of 1.1 million acres across the UK (2% of the country’s landmass). Land Usage and Management is crucial to the MoD’s operation and CELLA is paramount in carrying out these critical activities.

In 2020, the Warehousing and Distribution Optimisation (WDO) began a programme to better understand and manage the estate. The WDO needed a central repository that would supply a consolidated view of the wider MoD landscape to bolster planning and decision-making. The solution needed to offer evidence and operational data for the MoD’s ability to function, with a high standard of consistency, accuracy and analytical reporting. This was crucial to the WDO’s objective of increasing efficiency and using reliable evidence to manage efforts, storage capabilities and limitations.

Company size

10,000+

Industry

Defence, National Security, Transportation & Logistics

Products used

Challenge

The MoD struggled to easily understand the space it maintains and the attributes of its various storage locations. This restricted their planning and decision-making for military operations or civil requirements, particularly storing PPE reserves during the COVID-19 pandemic. Warehousing and other storage facilities were managed on an individual basis without a centralised database or management system, and data storage was often highly siloed.

The WDO decided upon a bespoke solution delivery approach, as there was no readily available commercial off-the-shelf tool that met their complex requirements. The system needed to prompt users (via email) to provide updates, with the frequency of updates having to be configurable based on need (e.g. data for short-term storage facilities should be updated more often than longer-term facilities.)

The data held on the solution needed to be comprehensive, including everything from basic facility type to state of repair and security factors.

Understanding the space available and its attributes

Restrictions on planning and decision-making

Solution

CACI worked with the WDO to optimise and classify their raw data and understand usage and users’ needs. Using Mood’s no-code software, CACI rapidly deployed an integrated solution that put relevant information at the fingertips of decision-makers.

A one-click/two-click navigation created an optimal user experience and encouraged the MoD’s goal of promoting self-sufficiency. Standardised terms and references enabled users to search the entire system, additional permissions-based access could be granted for those users who require it and automated email reminders prompted efficient action.

The Mood platform CACI delivered allows the input data to be filtered and combined in multiple ways to supply answers to operational and planning challenges, such as readiness for military or civilian emergency operations. Functional aspects such as the frequency of automated prompts is configurable to meet local conditions. Data can be exported for secondary reporting (e.g. using Power BI tools).

The frequency of email reminders can be configured on a site-by-site basis to ensure data is updated for sites where storage requirements change regularly while keeping effort low for sites used for long-term storage.

Results

Over 300 buildings are now listed within this tool and WDO users are working towards achieving comprehensive estate coverage. The WDO’s understanding of their operational assets and storage buildings has improved, helping them decide whether particular locations or sites are right for particular actions to optimise their estate. Since delivering the first phase of this programme, we have extended the CELLA capability by adding:

Self-sufficiency: As the solution was being handed over to a central support desk, we ensured that wherever possible, users could maintain the solution themselves and not rely on CACI.

User-specific information: Users’ home screens were updated to showcase information immediately, allowing them to focus on what needed to be done.

Streamlined administration: Users can now access all necessary information about storage sites in one place without having to telephone individual sites and speak to multiple people. Stored items can be located and, just as importantly, storage opportunities can be identified quickly.

The CELLA Data Management Tool (CDMT) team are now working their way around the country to load further sites and hardstandings into the tool. This will give the MoD greater insight into their estate of buildings that is expanding in the face of global instability.

Testimonial

Since transferring to Joint Support in April of this year, the CELLA team have secured multiple storage successes, which will already see savings to the MOD of several million pounds over the next few years. As CELLA continues to mature and understanding of its potential grows, these figures will undoubtedly continue to rise.

Wing Commander Duncan Serjeant

Ministry of Defence (MoD) Joint Support

Case study

How Air Inform operationally supports the Royal Air Force

Summary

RAF Digital supports the Royal Air Force Air Command through the provision of operational and capability analysis. The scope of this support encompasses air missions, people, goods, reconnaissance, surveillance, air transport, refuelling and air interdiction.

In such a complex organisation that is at the heart of British Defence, some decisions made can be of national criticality. The RAF must be confident that all relevant information is available without delay to decision makers, at any location, at any time.

This intelligence is also vital in planning change. For instance, if an airframe is being considered for retirement, what impact will that have on other equipment and services, and what altered support arrangements will follow?

With this in mind, the RAF needed a Digital Twin to be able to view the connected operational landscape and make informed plans, reliably and efficiently. This is where CACI’s support came in.

Company size

10,000+

Industry

Defence / National Security

Products used

Challenge

Defining these information services and understanding their complexities was the first challenge.

Air HQ Commands a complex range of mission capabilities and activities, which are dependent upon information delivery across a large portfolio of information systems and services.

Designing a solution that would ensure the data collected would be to the right level of detail.

While all relevant intelligence was already in existence, it was in silos—geographically dispersed and in the heads of SMEs, on spreadsheets and other documents in differing formats. In many instances, the amount of detail presented a “wood for the trees” problem, and many sources were not easily understandable. A lack of any unifying information system meant that in a typical situation, decision makers would have to telephone SMEs and others in multiple locations to gather information and make significant efforts to assimilate that information into a usable format that could inform decision making.

SMEs, along with most other personnel, move post every two years, meaning that expert knowledge is lost.

Solution

At a top level, the requirement was to help RAF Digital drive mission-focused information system transformation across all Air domain Mission Vignettes.

Core to the requirement was to deliver knowledge of what equipment is in place, and where, so that operations such as air missions can successfully proceed. This requires a single view across 25 platforms, 4500 information services and 120 mission vignettes.

RAF Digital sought a service that could assemble data in consistent formats from multiple sources, relating to a variety of equipment and services. The solution needed to:

Be interrogatable using many filters.
Produce reports both in tabular and highly visual styles to aid understanding.
Be consistent in presentation of data despite inconsistent input sources.
Maintain up-to-date information through an ongoing managed service with CACI to continue to deploy our skilled business analysts.

This is where Air Inform came to be. It is a software tool that enables a user to see how the RAF is organised in terms of information flows, modelled in terms of aircraft and operational capabilities.

Critically, it enables RAF decision-makers to understand the data exchanges required to support a mission, including pre-flight, during flight and post-flight phases, and the systems required to support these exchanges. Hence, these decisionmakers can easily answer questions such as what systems are required to support a deployment and what operational capability a system underpins and, thus, identify vulnerabilities and redundancy and inform replacement programmes.

At the heart of Air Inform is a complex operational architecture. A workshop process was key to eliciting the information, understanding connections and establishing the optimum depth of detail. During this initial phase of joint application development, both CACI analysts, SMEs and other stakeholders created an effective working partnership.

Following the architecture’s development, CACI created a system for intelligence collection and analysis and overlaid it with visual models to present actionable intelligence from multiple perspectives to end users. Key features include scenario modelling and inter-dependency visualisations by mission as well as platform and information systems (Ground, Air & Space).

Security was also important: the system can be air-gapped, and a version classified as “secret” is available.

In terms of technical capabilities, Mood software was used as an object-oriented approach for the visualisation of components to create metamodels and define the relationships between features in a solution architecture.

Results

Air Inform is now embedded within the organisation and is effectively supporting decision makers which not only saves time, but improves the quality and speed of their decisions. Several benefits have already been recognised, including:

RAF Digital can now plan effectively for replacement of airframes.
Interdependencies are now better understood, meaning that changes can be made without unexpected gaps in service provision that could affect the RAF’s ability to deliver its commitments.
Financial management is now supported, helping to avoid over, or premature, spend.
Intelligence is no longer bleeding out as people move on, thus maintaining the integrity of the knowledge base.
New personnel can now quickly understand their working landscape.
Security is now protected through more secure data transfers.
Data architecture now identifies inefficiencies and drives improvements.

If Air Inform was removed, more personnel would have to be deployed back to managing and analysing data, with a less accurate and speedy outcome. Flt Lt Connor Maguire MEng RAF, elaborated on the vital role that CACI’s support has played in achieving their goals.

The architecture-based structure of the solution means that going forward, extensions to functionality can be identified and planned for with confidence. Several opportunities are now under consideration, including the ability to view and act upon equipment obsolescence or end of life data.

Testimonial

CACI’s support has been pivotal to capturing and modelling our Enterprise Architecture, in a format that aligns to our operations. In line with our strategic aim to continually improve efficiency and effectiveness of our investments, this architectural modelling of complex mission capabilities improves understanding which enables more effective future Air Capability planning.

Flt Lt Connor Maguire, Master of Engineering (MEng), Royal Air Force

Master of Engineering (MEng), Royal Air Force

Case study

Supercharging Hotter Shoes’ customer experience strategy with Fresco segmentation

Summary

Hotter Shoes is the UK’s biggest footwear manufacturer. It’s a digitally led, omnichannel specialist footwear brand with a clearly defined, large and growing target audience.

Company size

5,000

Industry

Retail

Products used

Fresco

Challenge

Hotter already had a strong heritage in direct-to-consumer marketing when Stephen Shawcross, Senior Global CRM Manager, joined the company four years ago.

Stephen explains: “Like many retailers, we had an abundance of data but it was fragmented. Our first challenge was to bring all the data we had together. We created a true omnichannel single customer view (SCV) that included online, store and contact centre order data, footprint 3D scanning and augmented reality fitting data, web browsing data and email engagement data.

Bringing all data into one location

Creating a single customer view

Solution

CACI’s Fresco data stood out from the competition to offer the level of dynamic detail that Hotter needed. The CRM team was able to match 98% of consumers that order from Hotter to a CACI segment, at an individual customer level.

CACI’s consultant provided “amazing” support for Stephen and the team, with initial training and advice about data mapping and regular check-ins to make sure they have everything they need.

Stephen says, “The big appeal of Fresco was being able to map to an individual customer. A lot of profiling customer systems offer flat pen portraits but aren’t necessarily actionable. CACI matches a customer to a segment and means you can do something with it in real time. We immediately stepped up the level of personalisation beyond buying and browsing behaviour to supercharge our Customer Experience Strategy.”

Results

The combination of buying behaviour, digital engagement, foot-scan data and CACI demographics means Hotter Shoes’ marketing is hyper-relevant and offers true personalisation at scale.

Stephen explains:

“At the highest level, we personalise based on CACI segment, recency, frequency, monetary value (RFM) commercial segmentation and channel preference across all customer touchpoints.”

Hotter is able to create relevant, personalised website homepage images, messages and email content as well as Google pay per click ads, social media posts and direct mail. The profiling is specific and sophisticated – there are currently 27 different direct mail variants. We can prospect with social media marketing, finding and targeting lookalike audiences.

Hotter is also exploiting the Fresco data to support acquisition among new customer groups. Beyond their traditional market of customers aged 55+, the firm is looking to attract the next generation. Fresco segmentation is helping the team identify the most likely personas and to design messages, campaigns and products that will appeal to them.

Learn more about Fresco

Testimonial

Our relationship with CACI supports Hotter Shoes’ focus on driving marketing agility and delivering customer-centric, hyper-relevant shopping experiences. Consumers’ expectations are ever-increasing, and we are striving to provide our customers with communications that serve not just brand messages but also talk to them as individuals.

Stephen Shawcross

Senior Global CRM Manager, Hotter Shoes

Case study

Hackney Youth Justice service – A single citizen record

Summary

Hackney Youth Justice Service works with multiple agencies in the London Borough of Hackney to reduce youth offending and reoffending, and mitigate the impact of crime on families, communities and victims. Information sharing between these agencies is critical to managing the risks and vulnerabilities associated with young people, their families and the community.

Industry

Education

Products used

Challenge

Hackney Youth Justice Service stores files about young people in its service using a document management system, Open Text eDocs. Adding data to this system was very manual and time consuming, and involved sourcing information from multiple systems. This opened up the risk of error and sharing the wrong information with the wrong people, as well as making data sharing very difficult.

Manual and time-consuming process involving multiple systems

Potential risk of error and compliance issues

Difficulty with data sharing with relevant people

Solution

CACI integrated eDocs with the ChildView youth justice application, ensuring all documents are accessed from a single source. Integration works both ways, so when a file is added to eDocs it is immediately added to the person record in ChildView.

The system is used by youth offending workers to access documents from across the council and other agencies including social care and health services.

Results

Since adding an integration layer between eDocs and ChildView, Hackney Youth Justice Service has been able to save considerable time in storing, sharing and acting on information. And because documents are now stored in one place, they have also been able to save on IT storage and associated costs.