Fast, focused technology delivery

Nuclear Accountancy dataflows track positions and movements in stocks of qualifying nuclear materials at and between nuclear operators, principally in support of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Safeguards.

The resulting monthly B2B XML dataflows between operators, regulators and IAEA Vienna are high-volume and national-security-critical. The underlying semantic data model is highly complex. Systems and environments are subject to nuclear security requirements.

We helped the client to stabilise a new accountancy product and its associated product hosting and ITIL services. We then optimised the operating model: automating workflow and data quality checks in order to hit tight monthly timelines.

In the background, we agile-project-managed the offshore software development team and built a DevOps capability to “shift-left” on software quality. We then put in the foundations of an Azure cloud data and BI/Analytic platform.

Finally we documented the platform ready for handover to internal teams.

Universities need to engage with thousands of current, prospective and past students; they also need to run large businesses with complex services and estates. Data is high volume and needs to be maintained securely.

We spent 6 months executing a classic BA discovery of strategic objectives, current state, target state options, roadmap and initial transition plan. We interviewed over 130 staff from the Board down through all business units. Having agreed priorities and roadmap, we then worked with a core project team to get started on critical priorities and some low hanging fruit, including initiating a Snowflake repository and a BI/Analytics Centre of Excellence.

Motor Data Providers sell data related to specific vehicles and vehicle types, eg for buyers looking at vehicle history, or for the trade when pricing their stock. Data is sourced from the police, insurance companies and the motor trade. Volumes are high and service availability and performance are critical.

We helped with a lift-and-shift project to move incoming and outgoing dataflows and web services from an IBM mainframe to Azure web-services running under Kubernetes. Consultancy involved defining the current and target state platforms and developing the business and infrastructural backlog, including capturing the new web service specifications.

Our client was moving their Student Information System to SITS, a popular hosted platform. This can be a complex process, particularly in understanding the different curriculum and student models.

We interviewed over a hundred staff working either in delivering or using the current state systems, and provided data mapping and cleansing specifications between the current state and target via a central semantic model, and then coding for transformation between Oracle source and MSSQL target via Talend.

Large supermarkets have a complex supply chain network, with logistics planning, tracking and accounting required at all stages: from forecasting and purchasing through warehousing, transport and customer delivery and returns.

We helped our client to define requirements for moving Customer Home Delivery to a new set of suppliers, with impacts on customer experience through to stock and cash accounting. We engaged with stakeholders in all parts of the current state process and produced a target-state model, backlog and roadmap for implementation.

We were brought in to help the client acquire and implement multiple new systems. After identifying current state and target requirements, we engaged with potential suppliers before helping the client to select target systems. Target state roadmap and implementation plans were agreed and handed over to the business for implementation.

Retail insurance is subject to strict regulation controlling the description and selling of products and services, the rights of customers, taking of commissions etc.

We were asked to propose and then produce a solution usable by the compliance monitoring function, and externally auditable.

As part of Discovery we constructed MSSQL datamodels of telephony and sales data, and implemented a prototype Apache Tomcat-based solution to demo real-time data capture and analysis to senior management.

Requirements and roadmap were approved and handed over to the internal dev team for live implementation.

Immigration systems are used to manage Visa applications; databases are large, complex and secure; processing errors can seriously impact both the customer and business.

We provided multi-year support for a number of data projects requiring expertise and rapid delivery in Oracle PL/SQL and/or small VBA or Web front-ends. New Services were defined and brought into operation under business governance.

Fund Managers work on behalf of clients to manage their securities portfolios. Underlying requirements include pricing, trading and settlement capability of complex instruments in multiple markets, with tracking of liquidity, leverage, exposure, cash/stock accounting and interfaces to multiple systems supporting the above.

We were asked to coordinate business analysis for a new FM product across all the different workstreams, including look-through into constituent composite funds and instruments. We delivered the target-state requirements and assisted with vendor selection and roadmap.

Our client had identified an opportunity in providing full-stack Fund Management services to the MENA countries, including extending pricing, trading and banking support through Saturday and Sunday. Fund back-office operations would move from London to Kolkata, and banking would follow-the-sun through NY, London and HK.

We supported implementation of the cash and stock reconciliations, in particular building stakeholder confidence in integration of all the new cash and stock providers and global flows.