Matrix cluster of policy departments, which is to standardise on Workday systems, is led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and also features the Cabinet Office and Treasury
A nine-department shared-services cluster of Whitehall’s most policy-centric agencies has awarded deals worth £25m for consultants to provide support with implementing new technology as well as “change, engagement and transition services”.
The Matrix cluster – one of five departmental groupings which are each standardising on a shared back-office software infrastructure – is led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Also contained within the Matrix set of agencies is: the Attorney General’s Office; Cabinet Office; Department for Business and Trade; Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Department for Education; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; Department of Health and Social Care; and HM Treasury.
On 3 February, DSIT entered into a trio of two-year consultancy contracts on behalf of the Matrix programme. All three engagements can be extended by a further term of 12 months.
Two of these – both related to implementation support, and potentially worth a cumulative total of almost £18m, inclusive of VAT – were signed with Veran Performance, a London-based firm specialised in HR and finance transformation.
The third agreement will be worth up to £8m and covers “change, engagement and transition services”. This deal was awarded to KPMG.
The smaller of the two deals signed with Veran, also valued at up to £8m, is intended to provide the shared-services scheme with “expertise and knowledge on cloud and service implementations to deliver a range of data-specific outputs and outcomes within departments”, according to the text of the contract.
Specific services to be provided are likely to include “definition of data migration strategies and refinements… [and] data extraction and cleanse services”.
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The supplier will also provide “work packages of functional business analysis, business architecture and design”, covering services such as “analytical services to departments on HR, finance and payroll design, testing and building”, as well as “cross-functional design services to departments around user experience, service and process architectures, accountabilities, customer value, capabilities and measures, workflows and digital assistance”.
The other contract signed with Veran is intended to provide “specialist… support of the technical implementation of the new Matrix ERP system”.
This support will manifest “across a range of workstreams drawn down” during five defined stages of delivery: discovery and mobilisation; design and build; deployment; sustain and legacy; and strategic implementation support.
Services delivered under the terms of the agreement will include “policy Harmonisation and convergence”, as part of which the supplier will “provide design insights and expertise to inform and support policy redrafting and documentation updates”, according to the contract.
Elsewhere, Veran will “assure security postures for the Matrix solution” and “assure and act as the Matrix technical expert/advisor on the alignment of Matrix solution config and build to departmental systems, government service [manuals] and other third-party services such that the end solution meets” the requirements of the shared-services project.
The contract awarded to KPMG will address the Matrix programme’s need for services including “identification and management of departmental networks and stakeholders to facilitate and drive change and transition in departments”, according to the contract.
Other services covered by the engagement will include “delivery of as-is mapping for departments, comparing proposed operating model with existing [model] to understand the impact on people, ways of working and organisational structure”, as well as “delivery of change impact assessments within departments, understanding the business and user impacts of the new ways of working arising from the new operating model and technology”.
In October, the Matrix grouping became the second of the five clusters created by the government-wide shared-services programme to enter into contracts with its respective core software and system integrator partners: Workday; and Cognizant. The deals signed with the two tech firms are worth a cumulative tally of £173.2m, once VAT is included.
In late 2022 Veran was retained by the Matrix programme on a two-year £6.5m contract to serve as a “business design partner” for the scheme, and support the project team to create “a converged system and service model”.
Alongside Matrix, other clusters featured in the shared-services programme include: the delivery-focused Synergy collective of the DWP, Home Office, Ministry of Justice and Defra; a Defence grouping for the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces; an Overseas cluster largely comprised of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office; and the HMRC-led Unity cluster, which also houses the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
