MXA was engaged by the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business (Employment) to conduct a health check on the Technology and Services Division’s (TSD) business and operating model. This process involved workshopping with executive stakeholders and preliminary analysis of options available to TSD to potentially improve the business model in the future.
Since 2013, TSD (and its predecessors) have provided IT services to Employment, to the Department of Education (Education) and to a number of other government clients. TSD’s business model has been in place for over five years, designed to manage ICT complexity on behalf of these clients.
Since its inception, there have been significant shifts in government strategy, technology and commercial offerings. TSD and its clients underwent a review of whether the TSD business model continues to be fit for purpose given the direction of the business, technology and government landscape. The review sought to identify potential options to address a number of pain points. In particular, concerns were raised surrounding the flexibility and cost of TSD’s current ICT service offering.
MXA were engaged to conduct this business model review and facilitate the conversation between Employment and Education to identify the cost and potential benefits of business model options available to TSD. The review answered the following questions:
We engaged with TSD, Employment and Education stakeholders to identify the current state of the business model, the challenges, and the opportunities for improvement. Data from TSD and wider government was obtained, driving the development of a high-level cost model of a preferred set of TSD options.
We assisted executive leadership of Employment and Education to reach a mutual understanding of, and agreement upon a framework to assess the options for consideration. This allowed senior leadership to clearly understand the degree of business change and cost associated with various options in a comparable manner. Preliminary costings were formulated based on comparative analysis of current state operations, and similar projects experienced across government. The rigor of this analysis was tested with stakeholders across both Education and Employment and presented this to the executive to inform future decision making.
Through our engagement, we captured a detailed snapshot of the current business model, technology landscape, and service inventory of TSD. This documentation informed a preliminary set of options for the executive consideration, including an understanding on the impact of change on current business. These findings, costs, recommendations and future state overviews helped inform executive decision makers when deciding whether there is value in pursuing any of the potential business model options.
