Cloud Service Discovery

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 Discovery. 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 Discovery

Our Cloud Service Discovery has been designed to align with the Government Digital Services Discovery stage. As with all out services, we promote working in full collaboration where possible and continually sharing results and updates. Our Service Discovery stage is focused on building an understanding of the problem and what the options may be to offer an appropriate resolution. Additionally, a big focus at this stage is understanding, from a contextual standpoint, the service users and customers.

The four main areas for consideration at this stage include; 1. A contextual illustration of the users and customers; 2. Constraints; 3. Identification and refinement of the problem; And 4. Opportunities to offer improvements.

User Needs This is where we focus on building an understanding of the users and customers of the service. Our objectives here include;

• Understanding how and why users are accessing the service;

• Problems they are facing when accessing and using the service;

• Elements they like about the current service; And

• What they feel would make the service better in the future.

We find having this degree of understanding helps when refining options and ensures we are in a good position to deliver options and recommendations that will address these needs. However, we go further than documenting pain-points and nice-to-have functionalities. We take a holistic approach and build a contextual illustration of the users. By adopting a holistic approach, we take the context away from purely technology considerations and factor in people, cultural and process elements too. Doing this allows us to illustrate the problem on multiple levels and helps to identify a set of appropriate options. At this stage we will look to deliver customer journey maps, user personas and service models.

Constraints This is where we look at understanding elements which will impact the delivery and shape of the service. Typically, we identify four main types of constraints; 1. Contractual; 2. Legislative; 3. Business Rules; And 4. Technology.

Further, we refine these into two categories. Firstly, the elements that are out of control of the project and will impact directly how the service is delivered/consumed depending on the outcome of this assessment a call will be required to say if the project should continue. Secondly, those considerations which are softer by nature. Typically, these are elements that can be addressed to offer a more viable service in the future. Having both the hard and soft constraints identified early will allow a decision to be made as to the viability of continuing with the project. Further, where the project is able to continue having sight of the soft constraints will help inform developing an approach that will tackle these early-on.

Problem Identification & Refinement This is where we look to identify the problem. Quite often there are multiple issues that need considering and refining these into a universal problem statement involves understanding what the business is trying to achieve and what the gaps are preventing them from meeting that objective.

Typically, we consider;

• What the team is trying to achieve;

• What they are trying to achieve that objective;

• What, if any, performance measures have been put in place to monitor the service;

• Breaking down assumptions and general concerns;

• What the problem does not contain (what is working well); And

• What data is available to support the findings.

Refining the problem statement is useful as it acts as a measure throughout the project lifecycle and serves well when doing the final benefits assessment. For example, it helps to identify the priority for development, the features required in the service and allows us to construct themes and subsequently epics and user stories that all link back to the problem.

Improvement Identification The benefit of developing a holistic and contextual understanding of the customer, the user and the service along with the wider process journey helps to identify opportunities for improvement. Naturally, the objective here is to outline improvements for the service in question. However, taking a wider approach allows us to identify potential improvement opportunities elsewhere which will help to optimise the overall service offering. All our work is done, where possible in complete collaboration, we encourage knowledge transfer and information/outcome sharing. Where potential opportunities have be identified elsewhere, we highlight these as appropriate.

Service Benefits

• Problem identification and alignment;

• In-depth analysis of user objectives and frustrations;

• Journey mapping by segment and persona;

• Contextual understanding and illustration of the problem;

• Identification of quick win opportunities;

• Detailed illustration of potential solution/s;

• Internal and external constrains considered;

• Holistic approach, which includes consideration of people, process and technology elements;

• Collaborative customer centric working approach; And

• Completely impartial independent advice.

Service Features

• Clear illustration of how people, process and technology elements interrelate;

• In-depth understanding of users, their objectives and frustrations;

• Illustration of multiple potential solutions;

• Quick win opportunities identified and highlighted;

• Partnership mentality throughout rather than supply and demand tactics;

• Clear cost control and transparency;

• Access to our wide network of highly skilled professionals;

• Services which have been designed to complement GDS Standards and Approach; And

• Service Standards and Technology Code of Practice adopted internally to further compliment service delivery.

Deliverables

The service has been designed to help you identify and refine the problem, gain a contextual understanding of the users along with the wider business context and to identify a series of potential opportunities for improvement. At a high-level, we will deliver;

• A comprehensive user research study;

• Customer journey mapping;

• User personas;

• A refined Problem Statement, supported by relevant data;

• A holistic illustration of the As-Is landscape, including business processes, data and systems;

• An initial traceability matrix linking themes to the problem statement;

• The inclusion of Epics, where appropriate, on the traceability matrix;

• A complete ‘Discovery Report’, including a recommendation around project progression; And

• A series of detailed possible outcomes to address the problem.

Our approach encourages a holistic view where we consider the wider context of the business and focus on People & process in addition to technology. Delivered to the same timescales this approach often presents additional opportunities which are outside the scope of the project in question. Where opportunities like this are identified these are communicated clearly with you and are 100% obligation free. Additionally, where a project may be in the pre-Discovery stage, we are happy to work with you to take those initial steps. For this we would typically include;

• Analysis of the opening problem/request;

• A high-level problem statement;

• Detailed meeting notes and actions surrounding the initial contact;

• A comprehensive Discovery proposal; And

• A series of recommendations with regards next steps.

The items outlined above are our general offering. We work in an Agile way meaning that we are happy to alter our outputs based on your needs. We offer a structure but not a prescribed way of doing things. Our approach is to work in complete collaboration and deliver sustainable results.

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.