Technology Value & Performance
Programme Design & Delivery
Case study · Energy & Resources
Water & wastewater utility: Architecture assurance that became the architecture team
Client
A regulated UK water and wastewater company
Challenge
2 years into a 5-year, CEO-sponsored digital programme, 3 platforms were on schedule – but nobody could say whether they’d deliver coherently against the strategy
Services
Technology Value & Performance
Programme Design & Delivery
Timeline
8-week diagnostic → 26-week embed → 4-year retained team
3
enterprise architecture risks prioritised, reshaping 12 months of investment
4 yrs
from first diagnostic to retained architecture team
5
architects in the managed team, plus on-demand specialists
The situation
Three major platforms, each on plan. The question the CDO couldn’t answer was whether they added up to the digital strategy the CEO had sponsored – or three separate futures.
What we did together
A multi-lens enterprise architecture assurance review with the CDO’s stakeholders came first. Then we embedded senior solution architecture in one platform for 26 weeks. Then a fully managed digital architecture team as a service: a chief digital architect, senior and programme architects, with data, security and process specialists drawn from the network only when value was confirmed.
“We only paid for what moved the programme forward.”
Chief Digital Officer
Architecture review with platform leads.
What’s different now
Three risks were prioritised and 12 months of investment re-sequenced. Operating model, security governance and information governance frameworks were established for the flagship platform. What started as a small diagnostic became a 4-year partnership – each step earned by the last.
