Subscribe to our newsletter to receive business tips, learn about new funding programmes, join upcoming events, take e-learning courses, and more.
Take the first step to successfully starting and growing your business.
Join for free)
Posted: Fri 8th Mar 2024
Deloitte has partnered with Enterprise Nation to launch a pioneering SME Ecosystem Initiative to help more of the UK's tech start-ups and early-stage businesses deliver valuable public-sector contracts.
The initiative gives talented digital firms better access to life-changing opportunities to grow their business. Those businesses get the support they need to become supplier-ready and overcome the hurdles they face in bidding for work on large government contracts.
As Emma Jones CBE, Enterprise Nation's founder, says:
"Accessing public-sector work in this way can act like an accelerator for SMEs. Government contracts are solid, they pay within 30 days, and small firms get to work with incredible machines like Deloitte."
Deloitte Digital recently teamed up with 848 on a contract to help build a mobile app and customer relationship management platform for a government client. Read on to learn more about the successes of that often complex but ultimately rewarding project.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) was introducing a new mobile app for commercial vehicle testers. The app would not only give the testers access to richer information, but would provide a more flexible interface to support the testers' work and record the outcome of their tests.
At the same time, the agency was looking to transform the digital user experience (UX) for its network of Authorised Testing Facilities (ATFs), where vehicle tests are carried out. These improvements would help those facilities agency manage both their bookings and their payment accounts with DVSA.
Watch this webinar to hear how you can be part of the Deloitte SME ecosystem for public-sector contracts:
DVSA tasked Deloitte Digital with building the vehicle testing mobile app and supporting CRM services with ATFs – this was known as the Commercial Vehicle Services (CVS) project.
The agency had certain ideas for how to evolve its engagement with ATFs. One idea was an on-account balance feature that would allow ATFs to lodge funds and use them to pay for services later.
Deloitte's solution was originally based around integrating with an enterprise-wide CRM system within DVSA. However, to see the benefits from CVS earlier, DVSA decided that the CVS project would proceed with the design and build of a MS Dynamics-based CRM system that DVSA could adopt more widely in the future.
As the scope of the project expanded from integrating with a CRM to designing and building a local system, Deloitte took the opportunity to add extra specialised support to its team by bringing 848 on board. Working together, the key collaborators could address two major challenges:
How to demonstrate that a customer relationship management (CRM) system could be configured to create a viable way of providing ATFs with the digital services they needed.
Once demonstrated, how to plan, design, build and test a solution to meet those needs.
848 provided an experienced team to examine the needs of the project and determine whether a CRM system could be configured to meet the client's needs.
It called on certain subject matter experts, who helped explain to DVSA what the solution would entail and how it would work alongside its existing technology and tools.
848 and Deloitte worked together to put together a delivery plan for the project that included proposed costs and was tailored to DVSA's different users. Satisfied with the plan, DVSA gave the two key collaborators the go-ahead to build the CRM.
An 848 delivery team worked on designing, building and testing the CRM. The work was planned in two phases.
Creating the new CRM and establishing how it would connect with the other platforms it was to work alongside.
Configuring and customising the client's CRM system to support the app's core features.
Members of 848's customer service and sales teams provided support throughout to onboard users and bring them up to speed with the new systems. The work involved using MS Dynamics CE and BC technologies as the platform for the solution.
Key to the first wave of work was the ability to integrate with DVSA's central payment and finance systems – something that was completed successfully before Deloitte and 848 left the programme in 2021.
One significant outcome of the project was DVSA being able to replace several of its older systems with the new platform. Added to that, some of its main business processes – such as onboarding service providers and scheduling field service work and service bookings – became more efficient once all the systems had been integrated.
All in all, the new CRM solution gave DVSA a platform for a "single source of truth" and laid the foundations for the entire organisation to become more information-driven in its approach.
Public sector contracts aren't just for the big players. With the government actively encouraging SMEs to take part, your business could be exactly what buyers are looking for. Register now
