Collaborative Working

Fundamental to the Ministry of Defence Smart Acquisition policy is its strategy for driving down through life costs, which in many cases requires a new way of doing business. Central to this strategy is the belief that all Stakeholders - MoD and Industry alike – should have the ability to be able to access and share relevant business processes in a secure, easy to access, manner. This need to ‘intelligently collaborate’ is driven by the complexity of the defence systems now needing to be designed, built and supported, and by the need to achieve the objectives of a ‘Better, Faster and Cheaper’ through-life solution as mandated in the Smart Acquisition policy.

In complex organisations and extended enterprises, the business processes frequently rely on data held in many disparate systems. This inevitably leads to some data being duplicated, possibly in slightly different forms, and other data, which would be useful, being unavailable to other users . The larger the enterprise, the more problems this inefficient data management is likely to cause. By bringing together those elements of data required to support a defined business activity across the enterprise, and making it available to all, major benefits can be realised across the whole business.

By combining active process management within a robust document and content management architecture, LSC Group has developed a business process methodology that embodies the two essential characteristics of strong document and content management, overlaid by a sophisticated workflow engine for process automation that can be exploited through a RLI-compliant web portal. This we call a Collaborative Working Environment (CWE).

At the heart of the CWE is Project Office, the function of which is to act as a single repository for all information related to the efficient management processes for the business at hand. Project Office ensures that all documents are properly secured and configured, and are available to all authorised users immediately and simultaneously. Stakeholders can be certain that they are always using the latest information to allow them to make business critical decisions in a timely and qualitative manner, and reduce the margin for error. Within the wider CWE, business processes can be analysed, re-engineered and automated through the application of the workflow engine to create ‘Lean’ processes, and the ability to measure and manage performance across the extended enterprise.

The integration of commercially available tools (Plumtree, TIBCO Staffware Process Suite and Formtek Orion) provides a coherent business process management environment allowing all stakeholders to efficiently participate in a ‘joined up business’. With the infrastructure well established, the on-going implementation methodology is to address discrete business processes in turn, and to conduct business analysis, process modelling and implementation in a nominal 3-month period. Each opportunity for process automation is identified through a stakeholder workshop and subject to management approval based on a clear cost benefit appraisal. This methodology enables the business community to exercise total flexibility in the order in which business processes are addressed, thus ensuring maximum cost benefit to the partners within the CWE.

LSC Group experience in the development and deployment of CWEs is based on well-proven experience in both the Air and Sea environments where the CWE is now the catalyst for business and process improvement, disseminating data that supports the stakeholder business improvement focused activities. A typical example of this in practice is where LSC Group has created the infrastructure for a CWE between Devonport Management Limited and the MoD Warship Support Agency Submarine Support Integrated Project Team for the upkeep and refit of nuclear submarines. This is now developing into a highly innovative business critical system, delivering significant value to the submarine support enterprise, and has more than 1100 users across MoD and Industry. In total, LSC Group is now developing and deploying collaborative working in support of more than 1500 users.