IT Outsourcing - Impact Executives

Project: IT Outsourcing

Organisation: Vivista

Industry: Technology

Role: Programme Manager

A Criminal Record

There can be few interims who've been involved in a programme of such national strategic importance as James Shapland. Shapland joined the IT consultancy Vivista last September to manage the implementation of the NSPIS Case Preparation and Custody Programme across the police forces in England and Wales.

As its name suggests, the IT programme is designed to help the police manage an individual's case from the point they are arrested, through custody and being charged, to completion of the court process. It will revolutionise the way the police deal with criminal cases nationally, given its objective to standardise the wide range of different systems currently in operation across both the police force and the court system.

Developing IT Applications

It took Vivista several years to develop the applications, which involved hundreds of its staff, but the sheer scale and complexity of the implementation and integration challenge prompted it to look outside the organisation for someone with the appropriate expertise and experience. It appointed Shapland, an IT specialist with an impressive background in business change and systems integration gained in blue-chip organisations such as the BBC and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Reporting directly to the Director for Public Safety, who is responsible for Vivista's public sector clients, including the police, ambulance, fire and coastguard services, Shapland's remit as programme manager was to manage the relationship with the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO), the programme's primary customer, and to ensure that the programme was delivered, implemented and integrated with the different police forces' own systems as effectively as possible.

Shapland is also responsible for delivering support and consultancy. He manages a team of approximately 300 people, and works closely with project teams from PITO and the different police forces.

The programme is high profile and highly political, linked as it is to Home Office objectives on the Criminal Justice System and the police service as a whole. Through PITO Vivista reports to the Home Office, which has a steering group, focusing exclusively on the project. Shapland also liaises with the National User Group, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and with Criminal Justice IT (CJIT), which manages the programmes in the Criminal Justice System.

Close Communication

As well as regular contact with the police forces, Shapland is in close communication with representatives from the various different arms of PITO, including development, implementation management, business benefits management, communications management, support and maintenance - not to mention his counterpart programme director.

"There is intense political pressure surrounding this programme, and it is characterised by a constantly shifting set of political issues," explains Shapland. "That makes it crucial to develop very close relationships with all our stakeholders." Shapland's exclusive focus on the programme since he joined has given it much-needed momentum. The system is now operational in 11 police forces, with a further 12 due to be up and running by March 2005, and complete roll-out scheduled by the end of March 2006.

Shapland is also overseeing major development projects to integrate the system with police force crime and intelligence systems, and coordinating with initiatives to integrate with a national systems programme for the Magistrates Courts and the Crown Prosecution Service. "For example," he says, "we are adding a big range of new functionality that will allow the integration of our case preparation and custody system with police force crime and intelligence systems. This will help forces address the recommendations of the enquiry into the Soham case undertaken by Sir Michael Bichard."

Reorganising the programme

A further element of Shapland's role is to reorganise the way the programme is being managed by Vivista and PITO to reflect the increasingly complex range of challenges it needs to meet - not least helping the different police forces manage the transition. "The development and implementation phases and teams were effective in themselves, but we needed to get out of our silos and work more cross-functionally in a more flexible, multi-disciplinary way," says Shapland.

He has also brought about improvements in planning and management reporting - both to Vivista's central customers and to the programme team's own managers - in order to provide a clearer view of progress and challenges at any given point. Though Vivista holds the development licence for the criminal justice and custody programme, the Government has bought the intellectual property rights, which means, in theory, that it could tender out any part of the programme if PITO is dissatisfied in any way with the service Shapland's team provides. "As such, a crucial part of my role is to ensure we provide optimum service and value for money," he says.

He is clearly doing all right so far. In June Vivista made him permanent - he is now called Criminal Justice Programme Manager - so that he could see the programme through. "I like the company," says Shapland. "There is a very strong pool of talent here, but I felt I could bring the benefit of a structured management consultancy way of working."

What's more, he says, the programme, with its political pressure and demanding targets, is "one of the most fascinating, challenging and kaleidoscopic I have ever worked on." It is also, as he points out, "genuinely useful, and will convey huge value to the police and Criminal Justice System in this country, and to the nation as a whole."

The Client - Vivista Chief Executive - Bruce Brain

Q: Why did you look for an interim executive to manage this programme?

A: The programme structure formed more quickly than we had first anticipated and therefore required a programme manager. There was only one person internally we felt could undertake this role but he was already in a key role. We had some positive experience of using interim management previously through Impact Executives, so we decided the only way to get a high quality candidate in the time was through an interim appointment.

Q: What value do interims bring?

A: Using the right supplier of interims produces high quality candidates who are not generally looking for full-time employment. Because of the nature of the interim role, interim executives have wide experience of a number of companies and therefore bring new thinking to an organisation.

Q: What value has James Shapland brought to the programme?

A: James has brought structure, discipline and knowledge of large it programmes. He also has the necessary political skills to operate in a volatile and heavily political environment.

Q: What has been James's contribution?

A: This is a high-pressure, difficult programme with a long history of conflict between the various stakeholders. Through bringing together the necessary disparate elements of the programme and gaining the confidence of all the stakeholders, he has helped substantially reduce conflicts.

The Interim

44-year-old IT Specialist James Shapland spent his early career working on software development and project management at the BBC. He subsequently managed projects under contract in the NHS and private sector organisations such as Sea Containers, before moving to Price Waterhouse at the beginning of 1991 to work on strategic consulting projects and systems integration programme management. While at Price Waterhouse he spent periods of time in Asia and Eastern Europe, working on large business change and systems integration programmes, including the national roll-out of world bank-funded IT systems for the Polish and Hungarian governments. He also managed regional programmes for Ericsson and a number of oil companies.

In 2001 he left what had become PriceWaterHouseCoopers and struck out on his own. His first job as an interim was managing a global CRM programme for london-based marketing and media conglomerate IMP, and he undertook consultancy roles for a range of clients before joining Vivista.