Helping the Army strengthen its Digital Backbone

A trusted partner across the MOD, Civica has helped Army HQ implement data governance, quality, architecture and digital upskilling.

Over the past 12 months, Civica has supported Army HQ’s Project THEIA (the digitisation of information and digital technologies to improve operational and business decision-making) and implemented production of the Army Command Standing Order (ACSO) 18/08 the Data Governance & Coherence Directive.

This drew heavily on Civica’s understanding of the MOD Data Strategy produced within Defence Digital and its subsequent implementation and policing across the Delivery Teams.

By operationalising and standardising ACSO 18/08, Civica and Army HQ can deliver a central and cohesive data governance framework across the Army’s Directorates, plus deliver an associated, extensive digital upskilling programme.

Global leader in public sector software

David Duggan is Civica’s MOD Senior Account Director. Civica is the UK’s largest software company focused on the public sector, and supports about 3,000 customers across defence, local, and central government, education, health and care and the blue light service areas across 10 different countries.

Civica also supports national bodies across the UK, including the Northern Ireland Department of Health, for which we developed the COVIDCare NI and CovidCertNI apps during the pandemic.

Supporting DE&S for the last four years with its Enterprise Data Management (EDM) programme, Civica has developed a comprehensive, multi-functional and successful approach to addressing MOD’s data management and data knowledge requirements, utilising a Data Management Association framework to address the MOD’s data architecture, data governance, and data quality requirements.

Data upskilling

The establishment of a curriculum and developing, or sourcing, the content that is required to deliver the data upskilling programme for defence, is a key priority for both the Army and Civica.

Duggan adds that Civica “use as much as we can of the existing infrastructure and training materials. As well as repurposing these materials, we establish what good data governance looks like and the operating model needed for the Army to establish their data covenant. So, we're bringing all of that together to achieve tangible outcomes.” 

Digital Backbone – the foundation of a strong defence

Civica works across different defence organisations, as it embodies what Director Chief Data Officer MOD, Caroline Bellamy, would call a “data mindset”, as the MOD continues to build a “digital backbone” that connects sensors, effectors and decision-makers across military domains and with its partners, in a bid to “enable faster, data-driven decisions and improved operational and corporate outcomes,” Bellamy told dataiq.global.

This commitment to an “enduring data pan-defence capability,” in which data embeds into a defence operating model, requires partners like Civica to effectively deliver the data mandate.

Mark Humphries is the Consultancy Director at Civica and Chairman of DAMA UK, the leading professional membership body for data management professionals in the UK. Humphries adds that Civica are “hugely experienced across defence, applying DAMA principles to help the MOD to address their large, complex and unstructured data governance, literacy and quality needs. Many of our people are security cleared, so we're trusted across defence from that point of view.’

“The Army is implementing ACSO 18/08 to establish effective data governance and data management across all directorates and capabilities. They need to do this so that when they are making evidence-based decisions in the future they are confident that the data they are using is reliable, fit for purpose, timely and readily available; in short they need to know they can trust the data that they are using.”

Read the full British Army's digital report here.

Article by Alex Tuck, Technology Magazine.