UK MOD

About The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Digital

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Digital organisation ensures that effective digital and information technology is in the hands of the military and business front line.

Looking in the Right Direction

Defence Digital and Army HQ were looking for an efficient Project and Programme Management tool that is scalable to Enterprise-level and allows easy integration with the existing IT infrastructure. With an annual budget of over £2 billion and a team of around 2,400 personnel, some of the areas within its remit include:

• Leading on defensive cyber strategy, capability development and policy
• Supplying IT to 200,000 users across defence via the MODNet infrastructure
• Supporting global military operations
• Improving innovation and digital information exploitation across defence
• Integrating strategy, planning and performance management
• Supporting over 2,000 defence sites across the UK and globally.

Microsoft’s 365 Project Online solution was the obvious answer for several reasons:

• Microsoft 365 is already used by the MoD’s 200,000 MODNet users.
• Microsoft 365 Power BI has become the primary reporting tool across MoD and easy integration with Project Online.
• Microsoft Project is widely used across the MoD with the licences entitling to use Project Online at no extra cost.
• Defence Digital was already using Microsoft EPM (the on-premise version
  of Project Online) and built up significant skills and expertise.

Partnering with Experience

Defence Digital worked with CPS and its associate Michael Diekmann to support the transition to Project Online. Leading implementation specialist for Microsoft PPM technologies in the UK and a Global PPM Microsoft Partner of the year, CPS has worked with the MoD for nearly 20 years.

Following the successful implementation of Microsoft Project Online onto the MODNet environment, other departments with a heavy PPM workload have chosen to use the same solution. CPS has now helped Army and Defence Business Services to go live with Project Online and is supporting the Navy as it makes the change.

Business Benefits

• Staff are working more effectively using the same software and repeatable processes for the project and programme management.
• Project Online data can easily integrate with Microsoft 365 business systems to improve decision making. This means that Defence Digital and other departments now get high-quality project and programme data analysis, on-demand reports using the latest data, and workflow productivity from Microsoft Power BI and Microsoft Power Automate.
• An important by-product is that Defence Digital now stores and manages its project and program data securely within the MoD’s own UK-based Microsoft data centre. Project Online will remain up to date with regular Microsoft software releases.
• Rather than costing money, the implementation of Project Online saves over £600k each year due to licence consolidation and turning off obsolete legacy systems.
• Project Online is now available across the MoD and any department with access to the MODNet
  infrastructure has the option to use the same PPM solution.

Results

More productive project management through evergreen technology and standardised processes. Better decisions through integrated corporate reporting. Significant costs saved from third party hosting and the ability to reuse software licences.

A word from the team…

We are pleased with the transition to Project Online. We now have a scalable, modern, and evergreen PPM solution that is fully embedded into our ways of working and is available for use across the MoD. The Microsoft PPM solution that Defence Digital put in place has been very successful and is now also used by Army HQ, Navy HQ and Defence Business Services.

Rebecca Alderson, Head of EPMO, Defence Digital