The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) builds, maintains and services the infrastructure needed to support defence and is one of Britain’s largest infrastructure organisations. The DIO managed estate comprises roughly 1.8% of the UK, plus sites overseas in over 20 countries. There are 4,000 sites and 135,000 built assets worth over £20bn. Some 4,500 staff work for DIO supporting the estate and managing 370 contracts and 170 suppliers.
DIO wanted to transform to deliver better services, generate savings and become more customer focused. They asked PA, with Capita and Aecom, to support them in the design and implementation of the Future DIO transformation – an ambitious programme that included delivery of delegated funding, culture change, asset management professionalisation, new commercial strategies and continuous improvement programmes.
Key areas of focus across the programme that have delivered tangible benefits for the DIO include:
- Corporate clarity – a new corporate strategy, corporate KPI reporting mechanism and clarity in governance structure have enabled greater clarity for the organisation and greater control for the DIO’s senior leadership
- Customer focus – a newly designed and implemented customer support model providing strategic advice and information to enable the MOD’s Front-Line Commands to make better infrastructure decisions
- Operational delivery effectiveness – a newly designed and implemented regional model supporting a greater customer focus, better integration with budget holders and a more responsive delivery organisation
- Commercial transformation – the first ever externally published Commercial Strategy for the DIO, endorsed by the Secretary of State and put forward for an industry best practice award. This strategy is now being implemented, with commercial organisational redesign, new ways of working and a transformation in processes designed to improve market engagement and change the way DIO delivers major procurement programmes.
- Asset management and decision support – opportunities for significant efficiencies through better informed investment decision making enabling more targeted investment in assets have been identified and targeted across the organisation.
- Cultural change – the definition of a cultural vision for the DIO, supported by behavioural intervention programmes, senior leadership support, and underlying measurement of cultural performance have all been developed to support positive cultural change.
- Leadership & people development – 40 leadership events, 279 days of leadership training, 1340 leadership learning experiences and over 75 individually tailored learning assessments have been delivered to senior leadership over the course of the programme
DIO’s transformation and change team worked together with PA’s consulting support to design and deliver these major changes. Strong programme leadership, confidence and flexibility helped DIO’s leaders to develop trust in the direction, capability, aims and approach of the transformation programme. Collaborative working has ensured that the programme was delivered to plan, with deliverables met and major outcomes such as the delegated funding model, successfully delivered on-time in April 2018.