At CGPN last year, we heard from Head of Information Governance Transformation and KIM Digital Projects, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Helen Paul. Using the recent DESNZ/DSIT/DBT Machinery of Government change as a case study, Helen shared the challenges, risks, and strategies for managing a successful MoG transition. 

Risks and challenges of MoG transitions

Despite how common Machinery of Government (MoG) transitions have become in central government, there are still many challenges that leaders need to be aware of. Data migrations in particular can be especially risky. As Helen explained, ‘You could suffer the potential loss of metadata; you risk opening up sensitive information and you risk losing access to things as links break when information moves from system to system.’ And if that’s not all, you also need to navigate these risks whilst also adapting to new systems and delivering on existing promises.

Success strategies for managing MoG transitions

MoG transitions can be hugely disruptive to an organisation. Whether you’re merging teams or migrating data, you not only need to deliver a seamless transition, you also need to keep the cogs turning and your organisation running smoothly.

So, how can you deliver a MoG successfully? Helen identified three elements that can help limit disruption in your organisation.

• 1 – Stop, collaborate, and listen

Talking about her experience working with Avinade, Helen spoke about the importance of collaboration and making best use of expertise. ‘My team had long serving members of staff who worked in legacy departments. We knew the data, we knew the governance models, we knew our stakeholders, and the policies. However, we did not know Google to 365 migrations… this is where Avanade came in. They brought their expertise of Google to 365 migrations, and we brought our expertise from the organisation.’

This led to Avinade and Helen’s team working hand in hand, and although it took a while to get in sync, there were many benefits to working as a ‘hybrid team’. She explained, ‘Once we got into a rhythm of daily stand ups, joint meetings, sharing board papers, attending each other’s boards, sharing our migration designs and working off the same project plan, we got into a good project rhythm working as one, and that really paid dividends once we hit issues, as every migration does at some point, meaning that we worked together to resolve them rather than just finger pointing so we could resolve them more quickly and efficiently.’

• 2 – The early bird gets the worm

You might think it’s the technology, but when it comes to delivering MoGs, it’s the administrative delays that slow a project down. ‘The longest lead-in time for a migration project is not the installation of the software or the testing. It’s the commercial processes; it’s the security and technical assurance processes.’ To prevent long lead-in times, Helen advised leaders to be upfront about timelines and start conversations with commercial and assurance teams as early as possible.

• 3 – Communication is the key to success

Thirdly, she spoke about the importance of communication and improving efficiency through a change management programme. She explained, ‘It is not a technical programme a data migration. It is a change management programme, and the quality of your change management engine will make the difference between success and failure.’ She continued, ‘One of the biggest risks for our programme was ineffective comms as all our messages around getting ready for migration sat in people’s inboxes or were left unread on the Intranet.’

Prepping for the future: MoG-readiness

Towards the end of the session, Helen offered some final advice to prepare government organisations for the future.

• 1 – Sort out your digital content

In the last decade many departments have adopted a just in case position when it comes to digital information. But according to Helen, this ‘keep it all model’ is not sustainable. ‘Better to spend time and money now sorting out your digital heap than spend time and money later moving unnecessary data between systems. If you’re considering the roll out of Copilot, it will get much better results if you’ve ditched the irrelevant and an out-of-date data sitting on your systems.’

• 2 – Know your people

If you need to get your joiners, movers and leavers processes into tighter shape. – then now’s the time to do it! As Helen explained, ‘In the 2023 MOG, our HR, IT and transition teams all had different lists of the staff who were working in each department, and it was a nightmare to untangle wasting time and resources on something that should have been relatively straightforward.’

• 3 – Know your data owners

‘Keep asset registers up to up to date of the applications your departments use and ensure that applications, workflows and databases all have active owners aside and don’t delay – you never know when the next MOG may be coming.’

Join our future discussions

Thank you to Helen for her expertise and thought-provoking insights. If you’d like to take part in future discussions register your interest to join us at CGPN on 14-15 October!