Cloud Service Design

The Crown Consulting Group Listed on G-Cloud 12

We are please to announce that we are once again listed on the G-Cloud framework. We have revised our services to further compliment the project delivery phases outlined in the Government Digital Services Manual. These services can be consumed individually or collectively depending on your specific requirements.

In this post we are going to look at our new Cloud Service Design. All our services and listings can be found directly on the Digital Marketplace.

Our Approach

We have designed our service offerings to align with the Government Agile Delivery project phases. Furthermore, we have adopted and work against the Service Standards and Technology Code of Practice to further complement our clients. At a high-level, our services include;

• Cloud Strategy & Roadmap: Designed to help our clients identify their goal and aspirations by taking a holistic look at their organisation. The objective of which is to create a working, measurable and sustainable strategy that will support any organisation moving to and adopting cloud services.

• Cloud Service Discovery: Discovery is about understanding the problem and/or aspirations in question. We then set to refine the problem by building a contextual understanding of the users, their frustrations and objectives. We look to understand the current working practices, constraints and business rules.

• Cloud Service Design: Having identified a series of options based on the Discovery output, this is where we start to refine those options into potentially viable services. By refining these with users we uncover further considerations enabling these to be addressed early. Further, at this stage we take a holistic view of the service and catalogue all entry and end points.

• Cloud Service Delivery: Taking the most refined option from Design we work at developing this service in the real instance. Depending on the service we may operate a small pilot here, this helps to ensure the accuracy and alignment to the users’ needs.

• Cloud Service Support: Having transitioned the service into a live environment we can continue supporting the development of enhanced features and further aligning the service to expectations.

Cloud Service Design

At this stage we start looking at potential solutions that would meet the needs identified within our discovery stage, at a high level this will include prototyping and building concepts which focus on;

• Testing the critical assumptions and risks identified within Discovery;

• Ensuring the solution addresses the entire problem from a holistic standpoint;

• Ensuring the service is joined up and can be used by the different user personas; And

• Ensuring the service meets all accessibility and pricy requirements.

Risks and Assumptions

Having identified high-level and prominent risks and assumptions during Discovery this is where we start to test those assumptions and address the risks. Where further insight is required this will be gathered so we can understand the impact, or potential impact, of the consideration. We use this stage as an opportunity to test our theories and thought processes. For the most likely solution we then conduct a viability study to outline the feasibility of delivering the service in light of the findings. We adopt a holistic approach to ensure we cover aspects concerning people, process and technology. A key consideration at this stage is normally surrounding how legacy technology platforms can integrate with the potential solutions.

Solving the Problem

The heat of what we want to achieve is being able to solve problems for users and make life easier and more convenient. As such, we consider the following steps to ensure we are solving the whole problem in a holistic and sustainable manner;

• We sanity check the scope to ensure it aligns with the user needs and expectations;

• We ensure the problem statement is considered and drives output;

• We ensure the use journeys we have document the whole process, not simply the area of change;

• We make appropriate recommendations where dependant operations will be impacted;

• We conduct comprehensive due diligence to ensure service continuity;

• We ensure a collaborative open working relationship is maintained and continually focus on delivering knowledge transfer, where desired;

• We make the process as simple as possible for users and optimise other sources of data input to avoid duplication and re-keying; And

• We consider our risks and assumptions that may impact the service.

Service Continuity This is where we dive into the wider canvas of the service. We have found that it is rare a service is contained to a single department or team. The first step is ensuring we have sufficient documentation surrounding the customer journeys which rely on external segments. Having sight of these points allows us to make informed decisions surrounding the usability and accessibility of the service.

Accessibility Standards

We ensure we align all our potential solutions to WCAG and UK Legislative guidelines. In addition, we consider the general accessibility of the service, this is typically based on the user personas and expected usage.

Additional Support

We can conduct a series of ‘Health-Checks’ against your current systems, architecture and infrastructure. We complete a series of Gap Analysis reports which aim to identify where your existing “As-Is” state needs to change to support your desired future “To-Be” state. From experience we have found this due diligence effort to be a critical step in supporting any initiative. Ensuring there is adequate provision to support your new solution/ service is key in delivering a positive user experience. Where there are updates required we are well placed to support in addressing these gaps and helping you to design a network that will support your immediate goals but also give you the room to grow which will be based on your strategy, your aspirations and your business model. Having considered in detail your network provision we are then able to progress and help with additional design services which will support you in delivering a joined-up sustainable solution;

• Operating Model – Assessing, analysing and illustrating what changes need to be made to your overall operating model to support you in delivering your goals and objectives. We highlight key recommendations in ensuring your operating model is complimentary and supportive of the digital world;

• Service Design – Looking at how the quality, accessibility and general user experience will can be improved following your implementation and ensuring these changes are considered in conjunction with your initiative;

• Process Design – In order to achieve the maximum benefit from any investment it is critical to consider and, where necessary, re-design process to work effectively with your new technologies. End-to-end identification, illustration and consideration is key here as it will support you in breaking down silos between teams and departments. All of which have the potential to hamper your efforts and minimise your success in the long-term.

• Organisational Design – This is where we consider your people, culture and appetite for change. Having the right solution and effective process is critical but will fail if your people are not adequately trained and supported in how to work with these new tools. Attaining this support is a critical, and often undervalued, step in achieving your long-term objectives.

• Procurement Model – The digital world and adoption of cloud services and solution means the tradition procurement model needs to be addressed. We aim to help you foster partnership style relationships with your technology/ service providers. In the same way we work, the emphasis needs to be on collaboration and communication.

We then start to work on a detailed delivery plan which highlights key milestones, interdependencies and factors in circumstantial elements. Having this detailed allows us to generate comprehensive plans around methodologies and approaches. Having completed this we work with our clients to start looking at possible solutions that would address the business need. Having identified these, we can then start to look at early provider/ partner engagement activities to initiate procurement and ultimately the strategy.

Service Benefits

• Clear picture of how people, process and technology aspects interrelate;

• Very strong working knowledge of GDS principles and practices;

• Agile and waterfall methodology specialists;

• Solution development that aligns to business demand;

• Strategic partnership mentality rather than supply & demand;

• Clear cost analysis highlighted through delivery plan;

• Greater cost control and transparency, AND;

• Access to our wide network of highly skilled professionals.

Service Features

• Help converting your strategy into manageable deliverables;

• Highlighting key interdependencies;

• Performance assessment of network and infrastructure capabilities;

• Designing a cloud infrastructure that will support your business;

• User centric design of scalable and flexible cloud solutions;

• Designing a solution to enable your future goals and aspirations;

• Holistic design covering people, process and technology;

• Completely impartial independent advice;

• Delivery plan showing key milestones and achievements, AND;

• Business buy-in to support your transformation.

Deliverables

Our Cloud Design service has been designed specifically to help you translate your strategy initiatives into manageable deliverables. At this stage, we focus heavily on ensuring your infrastructure and network is sufficiently provisioned to support your objectives. Additionally, we work with you to help you design your organisation complement your aspirations. Depending on your scope our Cloud Strategy service will aim to deliver;

• Detailed ‘Resilience-Check’ reports of your existing solutions, network and architecture;

• Comprehensive Gap Analysis reports relating to your current “As-Is” state and your desired future “To-Be” state;

• The presentation of detailed recommendations based on the above to help ensure your desired state will be well provisioned and supported;

• Detailed Operating Model, illustrating how will your organisation can adapt allowing you to continue delivering benefit to your customers, we ensure this does not focus completely on the future state and consider how you may support your customers during your transition and future journey stages;

• Service Design, transformation in the digital world will often require a degree of operational change. This may relate to the way your services are provisioned and/ or consumed;

• Process Design, implementing a new service/ solution is likely to mean a level of process optimisation is required to help you attain maximum benefits, AND;

• Detailed Cultural Change Design, this is often one of the most critical and unfortunately overlooked steps in enabling sustainable lasting change. Ensuring your culture and people are well trained and capable of using the technology is fundamental in achieving your goals.

In addition to our key service deliverables outlined above there are a number of additional elements we consider as part of any transformation work. We feel by exploring these elements we can help our clients arrive at a solution which will really complement you, these include;

• Green IT;

• Sustainability & Carbon Impact;

• New Ways of Working;

• Partner & Supplier Model;

• Procurement Model;

• Shared Services & Collaborative Working, AND;

• Outsourcing Model.

Throughout all our work one of our main objectives is consistent. That objective is to provide a service/ solution that is individual to your business and will be designed and delivered in a way that will complement your operations and support your further growth. We believe that every business is different and should be addressed to that degree.

About Us

When we formed in 2015 our objective was, and still is, simple. We aim to deliver a comprehensive service that is designed to help our client deliver transformation value to their organisations. We act with complete integrity, practice collaborative working wherever possible and operate a completely transparent open policy. Our clients are at the heart of what we do and what we aim to achieve. We believe that every business is different and subsequently there are no two problems the same. As such, an individual approach is required. We believe that nobody knows and understands your business better than you. We want to work collaboratively to embed this knowledge into the recommendations and work we deliver. We put our clients needs and objectives at the heart of what we do. We are completely independent so are best placed to offer impartial unbaits advice. Throughout our work we aim to upskill your people by effective knowledge transfer and inclusion, so you are well placed to continue delivering sustainable results into the future.

Our Values

• Integrity – We respect the values and views of our clients. We consistently honest, open and genuine and always work in a transparent way;

• Collaboration – We believe that nobody knows your business and situation better than you. To deliver a complementary sustainable solution we work openly with our clients. Additionally, this supports our approach to knowledge transfer and your sustainability through upskilling;

• Trust – We trust, and put great weight, on each other’s ability to follow through on their commitments and do the right thing. We aim to create lasting relationships with our clients which are mutually beneficial; 

• Individuality – Your business is unique as are your aspirations, culture and targets. We embrace this in everything we do and always strive to deliver a solution that will complement that individuality;

• Simplicity – We adopt an ethos of simplicity in everything we do. Where possible we try and remove any unnecessary barriers, simplify complexities and present our approach, recommendations and work in a clear precise way that everyone can understand

Conclusion

We are proud to have our services once again listed on the G-Cloud framework and are excited to continue our journey in supporting our clients.

We are going to explore our service offerings in greater detail in the coming weeks. This, in addition to all our publications, will be available on our Company Blog.

Additionally, please feel free to Contact Us.