THE CLIENT
The Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), was created by Theresa May on the 14th of July 2016. BEIS replaced the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The department is responsible for industrial strategy, science, research and innovation, energy and clean growth, and climate change.
THE CHALLENGE
We were engaged by BEIS to provide guidance and support across the £11 billion GB Smart Metering Programme to lead the technical design and assurance of the Smart Metering End-to-End Architecture. This also included testing and trialling activities for the programme. The programme had an especially high-risk profile as the core components of the end-to-end solution did not exist and had not been designed, hence the need for a discovery phase. This shaped and established the complex digital solutions for GB’s smart metering ecosystem that is now being rolled out. A further challenge was the sheer number of internal and external stakeholders (from industry, GCHQ, central and local government bodies and the third sector) with a wide range of competitive priorities and expectations.
OUR APPROACH
We deployed our team of experienced consultants to join multi-disciplined stakeholders in a shared programme team, that worked cohesively to an agreed programme plan that was clear and ambitious, yet achievable. We developed stakeholder communication plans to ensure all involved parties were kept informed throughout. We derived the Security Architecture using CESG’s IS1 methodology and a five step Trust Modelling methodology and stakeholders throughout the industry were consulted, with trust modelling providing an objective and structured analysis based on a series of business process models agreed by industry. Additionally, we established thorough risk and issue management processes that avoided and mitigated several potentially damaging events.
THE OUTCOME
We were specifically responsible for leading the completion and approval of several key programme deliverables as part of the discovery phase of the programme. Examples of these include:
- a “to be” Target Operating Model for the full Smart Metering eco-system;
- mandatory minimum business process specifications for industry-standard operation;
- a future-proofed End-to-End Technical Architecture for the Smart Metering eco-system;
- detailed requirement specifications for minimum functionality to establish procurement and installation needs;
- managed the development of the specification for the Smart Metering Key Infrastructure (SMKI);
- the cross-industry, cross-party testing and assurance regime; and
- significant elements of the procurement requirements for the national data and network service provider contracts and the evaluation of responses.
We continue to be instrumental in the delivery of this nationally-important programme, most notably in the roles of SMIP Chief Technology Officer and SMIP Security lead.