Transparency data
FCO Government Major Project Portfolio data, September 2018 (csv)
Updated 18 July 2019
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| Project Name | Atlas Programme (IPA ID 2410) | Echo 2 Programme | Technology Overhaul | Washington Embassy Refurbishment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department | FCO | FCO | FCO | FCO |
| IPA Delivery Confidence Assessment (A Delivery Confidence Assessment of the project at a fixed point in time, using a five-point scale, Red – Amber/Red – Amber – Amber/Green – Green; definitions in the IPA Annual Report on Major Projects) | Amber | Amber | Amber | Amber |
| Description / Aims | The FCO's Diplomacy 20:20 goal is to put world renowned expertise, world beating agility and a world class platform at the service of the British Government. This is covered by three key pillars, Expertise, Agility and Platform. The Corporate Capability Programme is part of the 'Platform' pillar of Diplomacy 20:20 and sets out to transform the way in which corporate services are delivered. To support these ambitions the Future ERP Programme (Atlas) is replacing Prism with a new modern and intuitive ERP system called Oracle Cloud. The investment in Oracle Cloud will provide a world class platform which aligns to the Government Shared Services Strategy and the Cabinet Office's global design processes, and provides the ONE HMG platform for the Government operating internationally. | The Echo 2 Programme is a telecommunications infrastructure programme which will procure Connectivity services, as well as Voice and Video services for the British Council, DFID, and the FCO (hereafter referred to collectively as 'the partners'), spanning around 500 offices in over 170 countries. The current contract for these services is held by Vodafone and expired for DFID and FCO in March 2018, and will expire for the British Council in March 2019. An Exit Agreement is in place to manage transition. | • Transformation: The FCO has committed through its corporate objectives to: “Transform the FCO’s ‘Official’ technology and deliver the flexible, reliable and modern tools our staff need to do their jobs” whilst “harnessing digital technology to transform the way that they work”. Technical Overhaul is the transformation programme engineered to meet these objectives by: • Providing reliable, resilient and easy to use technology across our global network • Enabling mobile and flexible working at ‘Official’ where possible, ‘Official-Sensitive’ where necessary • Providing customer interaction and service provisions which are digital by default, delivering information and knowledge management capabilities, encouraging innovation and collaboration | Refurbishment and upgrading of key buildings on our Washington, USA, compound. These buildings currently fail to fully meet health and safety requirements. Further investment in modernising these buildings will futureproof our abiliy to deliver effective diplomatic and operational solutions in our most important global post. |
| Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the IPA RAG rating. | 1. The first DCA review for the FCO was completed 8th - 11th May 2018 and produced a DCA rating of Amber. Since the review the Full Business Case (FBC) for the programme has been approved by FCO Ministers, Cabinet Office and HMT. Following this approval an implementing partner was procured and appointed in September 2018. The Programme subsequently began delivery with the first Initiate and Confirm (I&C) stage of the Programme completed in January 2019. The Programme is currently in the design phase and in the first cycle of Prototype Design (PD1). | Since the last IPA Programme Assessment Review, the programme progressed with the major connectivity procurement phase and the disaggregation of the voice and video services from the main legacy ECHO1 contract. The voice service transition is in flight and is due to complete in June 2019. The Connectivity procurement concluded in early December 2018 with the announcement of Vodafone as the preferred bidder. However, shortly afterwards a legal challenge was launched by the second placed bidder and this resulted in a suspension of the award of contract. Following a legal process a decision was made not to award any contract due to the closeness of the result between the first and second placed bidder. As a consequence the connectivity procurement will be re-run following a review of the underlying technology and commercial strategy. | We are approaching the final stages of the Programme. The UKHQ, PRAS (Reliability and Stability), Wi-Fi and Devices Projects are now complete, and our focus is on the remaining elements of Moving to the Cloud and KE2 (Knowledge Excellence). We continue with a phased approach for the rest of the work. As part of that, the migration of e-mail to the Cloud is now done, P drive (personal) data is in the process of being migrated, and new Team Sites are being created. Transformation work also continues under the behaviours-based Work Smarter campaign, and will evolve as we complete the transition to O365 in the Cloud. Work Smarter is helping to embed the necessary transformational change across the whole network, and is being championed by FCO senior management, who in turn are being supported by a small cadre of tech savvy staff or 'Tech Ninjas' to help them model new behaviours. A wide variety of materials and Technology Learning Adviser support is available to individuals and teams across the global network to enable them to find their best path to meaningful change. | The programme continues to make good progress and remains on track. Amber remains the appropriate Delivery Confidence Assessment. Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stage 3 has now been signed off, the design team are now into RIBA Stage 4 and the procurement process for a contractor is now well underway. Early indications suggest a good level of commercial interest in what is a significant local public sector contract, however, proof of the pudding will be in the quality of final bids. Suggest that the Delivery Confidence Assessment is reviewed at this point. Programme remains on track for design completion, appointment of preferred bidder and submission of Full Business Case (FBC) approval in Spring '19 (subject to IPA Gateway 3 Review). Work on site by Summer '19, with anticipated completion by end 2021. |
| Project - Start Date (Latest Approved Start Date) | 01/07/2017 | 01/09/2015 | 01/11/2015 | 01/01/2017 |
| Project - End Date (Latest Approved End Date) | 30/06/2020 | 31/08/2021 | 31/03/2019 | 12/12/2022 |
| Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule (if necessary) | 2. The Programme was scheduled to complete in June 2020 after the completion of the second phase of the Programme. The original completion date assumed a Phase 1 Go Live date of September 2019. Findings arising from the Initiate and Confirm stage has meant an update to the delivery timeline has been required. The implementing Partner is experiencing delay in developing the tool required to complete the data migration between the existing system (PRISM) and the new system (Atlas). This delay impacts testing after the tool is available. Consequently the Phase 1 Go live date has now slipped to April 2020 with the end of Phase 2 and overall Programme end date now forecast as August 2020. Risks remain around these dates including budgetary pressures requiring a different delivery model (as set out in Baseline WLC narrative). In addition, it has been recognised that further strengthening is required on programme management which is being actively reviewed. | Narrative not provided | In order to support EU Exit planning, we have focussed on rolling out the remaining new O365 functionality (tools for information management and team collaboration) to EU Exit responders and EU Posts, with wider rollout to follow over the summer. We have agreed with the IPA and Treasury that we will consequently extend the Programme beyond the planned end date of 31 March, with an expectation that we complete activity and spend under the Programme by end August, and that we remain within budget as we do this. The IPA will do an Exit review in early July. | The programme continues to make good progress and on track for design completion, appointment of preferred bidder and submission of Full Business Case (FBC) approval in Spring '19 (subject to IPA Gateway 3 Review). Work on site by Summer '19, with anticipated completion by end 2021. |
| 2018/19 TOTAL Baseline £m (including Non-Government costs) | £9.30 | £28.90 | £20.40 | £8.70 |
| 2018/19 TOTAL Forecast £m (including Non-Government costs) | £9.30 | £31.35 | £24.97 | £8.70 |
| 2018/2019 Variance %age | 0% | 8% | 22% | 0% |
| Whole Life Cost TOTAL Baseline £m (including Non-Government costs) | £21.80 | £203.84 | £120.00 | £63.70 |
| Departmental narrative on budget/forecast variance for 2018/19 (if variance is more than 5%) | 3. The 2018-19 Q2 return represented the first Atlas return after joining the GMPP and as such there is no variance presented at that point in time on in-year spend. The full year 2018-19 outturn for one-off Atlas implementation costs are currently estimated at £8.2m (prior to any end year adjustments) versus the Q2 £9.3m forecast (circa -12% variance). In part this variance has arisen due to greater knowledge now being known on the phasing of costs over the course of the Programme. Additionally following the appointment of the Programme implementing Partner (Accenture) in September 2018 spend has been lower than expected due to some delays in Accenture staff reaching the full profile of anticipated staff due to security clearance issues. The FCO has had similar delays hiring planned internal contractors with appropriate security clearances. While 18-19 spend is below the Q2 forecast, activity is also behind the timeline with the overall forecast cost of delivering the Programme likely to be higher. | The baseline costs were taken from the Outline Business Case which forecast costs for 5 years. Subsequently the costs in the approved Programme Business Case show an increase due to costs being forecast for 7 and a half years. | Rollout of the Cloud Services started later than planned, which meant a re-profiling of approx. £3.5m from 2017/18 to 2018/19. This has not impacted the overall cost of the Programme. | Budget variance less than 5% |
| Departmental Narrative on Budgeted Whole Life Costs | The Atlas Programme formally commenced with implementation during Sept 18. At the Q2 reporting date the WLC only showed the one off costs associated with implementing the Programme. The WLC are currently being reviewed to accurately incorporate the full costs of delivering the Programme. These will be presented during the following year. The FCO are working closely with Accenture, their implementation partner, to ensure costs are appropriately managed and full within both the contract limits and the approved Programme budget. | Baseline costs were taken from the Outline Business Case (2016), and these costs have subsequently been revised in the Full Programme Business Case as more detailed information around costs has been gathered. | The Full Business Case part 2 as agreed by HMT and Cabinet Office in April 2017, approved the increase of programme costs to the stated figure. This was due to final contract prices being higher than originally anticipated. This figure is reported in real terms as at 2015 so does not include the effects of inflation. Our current forecasts are within this budget. | Baseline has remained consistent during the developed and technical design stages |
| Annual Report Category | ICT | ICT | ICT | Infrastructure and Construction |
| The IPA Annual Report publishes the whole life cycle costs on projects, based on figures from their Business Cases, whilst the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline (NICP) focuses primarily on the upfront capital investment on a project. Where both documents refer to the same projects, this distinction will be the principal reason for any differences in the data sets published. Other government publications may use different methodologies to derive cost figures | Not set | Not set | Not set | Not set |