As you may have seen in the news, BEIS is changing. All our work is continuing in the 3 new departments. This will be our last blog while these changes happen. We'll be back in touch to tell you about the changes and what it means for digital in the new departments later in the year.
To be honest, I’ve never seen our team go full Gandalf on a Product Owner. But if you want to be a gatekeeper to quality, if you really want to improve government digital services, there’s no better place to be than in Digital’s Assurance team.
Being an Assurance Manager means being at the heart of every digital activity in the department, every bit of money spent on technology.
Our role is to help the department deliver better digital services and improve the way we use technology internally. We do this by assessing projects or purchases under the Cabinet Office digital and technology spend controls. And if you don’t get the approvals, you can’t go ahead.
Spend controls are one of the ways the government ensures value for money and improves the quality of what it delivers - both for civil servants, and for all citizens.
The Service Manual sets out how digital services are expected to be delivered and the Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice are the standards against which we measure success.
At the core of everything we do in Digital is taking a user-centred approach or putting user needs first. You’ll see this in almost every government digital blog or story.
And rightly so. A successful service is one that solves a problem: it does what we need it to quickly and easily.
We make sure that when a policy team sets off on their digital journey, clutching a batch of great ideas, they are set up to succeed. We ensure their approach is sensible, proportionate, realistic and meets their user’s needs.
And yes, sometimes that means having to tell a team to stop, to rethink, to replan, to not let them proceed to the next step.
A typical day might start by looking at tool a used by our own teams, making sure it has the right security features and is accessible to all staff.
This could be followed by sitting on an approvals board for one of our partner organisations, approving spend for computing contracts with colleagues from Cabinet Office’s Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO).
In the afternoon you’ll be reviewing the delivery plans for a high-profile energy security service.
Then tomorrow you’re on an evaluation panel for a discovery team looking at a new Net Zero initiative and helping a team plan for their beta service assessment.
You don’t need a set of complicated qualifications to be an assurance manager, we all come from very different backgrounds and professions. A good understanding of government digital helps, as does an unshakeable belief in wanting to make things better. So, if you like:
...then you could be a great Assurance Manager and get out there and help make a difference. Although you do need to bring your own pointy hat and staff.
]]>Hello, I am Enrico D’Annunzio (he/him) the People and Development lead here in our Digital team.
As you may have seen in the news, BEIS is splitting up. Alongside the new-look Department for Business and Trade, we’re also creating two new departments: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
All BEIS Digital’s work is continuing, and there’s going to be a lot of demand for digital skills in the new departments.
I’m going share with you some of my tips on how to apply for a job in the Civil Service, hopefully helping you apply for some of the fantastic opportunities we have available.
I am relatively new to the Civil Service, joining in 2021 after working as an agency recruiter in the private sector. When I began applying for roles in the Civil Service I was fascinated by the process and how it differed from the countless companies I had recruited for.
The Civil Service recruits using a process called Success Profiles. This is just a different way of looking at candidates that means we can assess your application with a wider lens. It takes your transferable skills into account, rather than just your direct work experience.
Transferable skills for digital roles can be assessed through looking at things such as what you do at work, your abilities and potential abilities, and your strengths.
Roles that are part of the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession in the Civil Service have a defined set of skills outlined by the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.
Roles on the framework will have a list of skills needed to work in each role and a brief description of what they mean. We are transparent about the skills required for each role so you can be confident that you are applying for a job that matches your skills.
For example, a Data Analyst will require the skill of data management – understanding data sources, data organisation and data storage. You can see how the same role uses the same skills at different levels at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/data-analyst.
I have a section at the back of my note pad where I jot down things I do at work that make me think “this would be a great interview example”.
We have all been there when we are writing a job application or sitting in an interview and struggle to think of a good example - even though we know we have done this task hundreds or even thousands of times!
Keeping a log of these is a fail-safe way to look back and reflect on the good work you have done, and then pick the best examples for your application or interview.
You can look at skills required for your role in the DDaT framework and use these skills as the skeleton for your example bank.
Most of our applications will require a personal statement. You might also see it called a cover letter or suitability statement.
When writing a statement, tailor it to the role you are applying for. The best way to tailor your statement is to address each essential skill outlined on the job advertisement and let us know how your transferable skills and/or experience make you the right person for the role.
Check the key skills for your role in the DDaT framework looping in key skills noted on the framework for your role into your statement.
I have read many amazing personal statements during my time as a recruiter, I love to hear all about the amazing skills and experience people have. However, personal statements that are curated and address the skills outlined on the job advert stand out.
When looking at a job advert or writing a personal statement or CV you should always look through the essential skills and explain how you can demonstrate these.
It might surprise you that a role maybe two grades above you can be a great match based on essential skills. This has happened to me before - it was great to be assessed on my skills rather than my “time in role”.
The STAR method is a way of structuring the examples you give at interview. It stands for Situation, Tasks, Action and Results.
It’s a fantastic way to articulate an example in a clear and concise way allowing those on the interview panel to easily mark how you have addressed the question.
Read more information on the STAR method and how to answer interview questions.
All the best for your future applications and please keep an eye on our LinkedIn page for candidate application sessions we run virtually!
These sessions cover what we have noted above in more detail and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about the application process.
]]>The BEIS Assistive Technology team makes sure that digital accessibility is always considered in BEIS. This could be supporting our staff with disabilities, or contributing to digital projects.
The ability for all individuals to easily use information technology products and services regardless of any physical or mental impairment they may have. (BCS The Chartered Institute for IT)
It simply means that anything we create for members of the public is as accessible as possible, and that people with disabilities can use the laptops, phones and applications that BEIS provides to read emails or check their details in our HR systems.
Accessibility is a requirement covered by law. The Equality Act 2010 “imposes a duty to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities”.
And the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations 2018 (PSBAR) says that public sector bodies need to proactively make reasonable adjustments to ensure accessibility of services and information.
We are a small team of specialists. We draw on many years of experience supporting people and their use of specialist software and hardware products.
We provide input and give advice to many digital projects.
This week we’ve checked out a design company who are going to do some design work and build a public facing web page for BEIS. We gave advice on our requirement to make sure the website is accessible by being WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliant.
We work very closely with colleagues in Digital and especially our Assurance team and Digital Business Partners to make sure that accessibility is covered appropriately on all shapes and sizes of projects – whether internal or public facing.
Actually, we don’t have many typical days!
We rarely work on two similar issues or provide the same assistive technology support to users, even if they have the same condition.
Each day we respond to requests for assistive technology.
We provide software that enables our colleagues to work if they:
We install different types of software, train the user and then support them afterwards.
We also provide hardware such as:
These requests may come directly from the user or their line manager, or from our facilities team or following an external assessment, from our Health, Safety and Wellbeing team.
We also help resolve issues for these users, for example if a JAWS user (Job Access With Speech, a screen reading software for blind users) can’t read a document or a website we can check what’s happening and give advice to the authors.
We do some light testing using the assistive technology software we have in BEIS and for more complex testing such as public facing websites, we send teams to external companies that can conduct full WCAG audits.
This week we’ve been testing pages for our intranet. We check the pages using the software that’s available at BEIS so we are thinking about accessibility from different angles:
Our testing also covers different devices. In one of the recent big projects we gave some of our users a different type of desk phone that looks like a phone but runs Microsoft Teams. We tested different devices thinking about the type and level of impairment of our users, the type of work being done, and the users' work environment.
We also promote digital accessibility in BEIS. We have resources to help people make their content more accessible to everyone.
We give information on the in-built accessibility features on our laptops and phones, and the assistive technology that can be provided to staff.
In partnership with our Health, Safety and Wellbeing team we also deliver interactive and engaging sessions to all staff that cover digital accessibility and reasonable adjustments. We use quizzes, polls and word clouds - all accessible!
So, no two days are the same and each person and project has very individual requirements which makes our work interesting, hugely rewarding and we believe, a positive experience for our users.
Our team has a large amount of knowledge and experience built up over several years but almost every week we still come across new issues that we haven’t encountered before.
Technical knowledge of the software and hardware is essential but the most important prerequisite for the role is empathy with our customers and potential customers.
Understanding user needs to help them realise their potential in the workplace requires great people skills, patience and communication.
The demand for our services increased greatly over the last few years, especially during the pandemic where we supported additional home working adjustments remotely across the country.
Now we’ve moved to hybrid working we try to provide in-person support for those who are in the office while supporting those still working from home.
We try to build good working relationships with all our users so that they don't hesitate to come back to us for help and advice if they have any issues, no matter how small. We pride ourselves on our customer service.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>‘’That’s a lot of people’’, I thought the first day when I joined the BEIS Digital team as a user researcher. My first meeting was a daily stand-up with more than 20 people on the call. Not only that, but I made the mistake of being the only person with my camera on – a classic newbie move.
Even though everything was overwhelming that first week, as time went on, I found my way around, met other team members and understood who was responsible for what.
As this was both my first Civil Service and purely user research role, I wanted to find out ways to develop my skills and my network, especially with user researchers and product designers from other teams.
If you're new to user research in government, these are some of the things that have helped me along the way, and they might be helpful for you.
If on your first day you noticed a lot of ‘stand ups’, ‘washups’ and ‘huddles’ in your calendar - welcome to the world of agile delivery.
It’s a widely used term, but everyone has their own interpretation. Different projects use different part of agile, but if you know the fundamentals you can hit the ground running.
Agile just means that researching, designing, and building happen at the same time. You’re not building the entire service in one go and finding things wrong with it when it launches.
Instead, you’re continuously speaking to users to find out their needs and to see if what you’re building works for them.
Sometimes you need to adapt to changing timetables. There can be blockers such as not being able to talk to the people you need to. You should think about the people you’re trying to talk to and their workloads. Especially if it’s summer – don’t plan big user research projects when lots of your users will be on leave!
You can still do meaningful research even if it’s a smaller sample than you originally expected, or you can’t get direct access to the users you need to.
Think about using proxy users, or get insights from research that has been done before.
Which parts of user research are you most interested in? Everyone has their own style, so it’s important to find out what’s being done in your department and across government.
Start with an ‘Understanding users and their needs’ course from GDS. This course is it a great introduction to the government’s focus on users and how user research works in government.
Demand is as high as tickets for Glastonbury (almost), so keep your eyes peeled for new date announcements!
However, there are lots of ways to do user research. By learning from other user researchers in government, you can find out what is out there and what suits you.
Which leads onto my next point...
If you don’t know something, chances are someone else has also tried to find about it and has written about it on the user research blog, the GDS blog or other departmental blogs!
You will also find new user research methodologies that you can apply in your own work.
To get started, give these posts a read:
Get someone in your team to invite you to the cross-government digital Slack channel, and check out some of the channels useful to user research like:
You can’t do user research in isolation. Use your team to help you decide what research you do to test the right hypotheses, and what you do with the results to make decisions about the next steps.
In BEIS, I’ve been lucky enough to work closely with service designers, content designers, software developers, business analysts, delivery managers and product owners.
You might be helping out with technical reviews, collaborating on discussion guides, and getting everyone involved in note-taking and analysis.
User research is at the heart of how we build digital services in government.
We're recruiting for a user researcher to join the team. The closing date is 2 October 2022
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>Don’t get me wrong, CSL is a great tool! It’s a tried and tested learning website that reflects the requirements of working in the Civil Service, and all civil servants will use it as part of their career.
It includes traditional subject areas such as policymaking, communication and personal effectiveness, and topics like remote leadership and data analytics.
I’ve found that learning and development for our digital team needs to go beyond online courses.
As People and Development Manager, I want to make sure BEIS Digital has a learning culture that is embedded in every individual, each team, and across BEIS Digital.
I encourage everyone to find courses that interest them. Learning needs are personal to each of us and I want the team to take ownership of their personal development by seeking out learning and development opportunities.
We are committed to staff being able to dedicate 20% of their working hours to learning. That means we stay up to date with advances in the digital profession as well as being able to retrain into other roles within the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession.
The benefits of developing and embedding a learning culture at BEIS are that:
BEIS Digital looks for diverse ways of learning to offer our staff, whether that is virtual or more traditional learning methods such as digital apprenticeships, mentoring, and coaching.
We’ve set up virtual Learning Socials once a month to learn how to use new technology platforms such as Pluralsight and CITF. I encourage everyone to meet regularly with their line managers to review training completed and to discuss new training requirements.
Rather than being all done in the same way, our learning and development:
BEIS Digital is committed to making sure that learning is inclusive to everyone in the Directorate and that everyone can develop themselves in their roles.
BEIS Digital aligns its training against the government-wide DDaT profession so we offer everyone the training they need to stay up to date with advances in our profession in each role, move up to the next level, and move into other roles.
For example: if you are a Software Developer you will be given tailored training that will develop the technical skills you need to build digital products and guide you through the learning milestones that you need to progress in your career.
Offering quality learning and development means organisations can capture and develop engaged, inspired and skilled digital staff. Hiring new staff is expensive and time consuming, especially in the current market of ever-increasing competition for digital skills.
Offering a wide range of highly specialist and bespoke training to enable continuous development and progression is by far the most significant thing we do at BEIS to retain our highly valued staff.
Learning at BEIS is part of the job, it fits what you need and comfortably slots into your day.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>I’m Gary, a Lead Business Analyst in BEIS Digital.
Business analysts work with customers to:
Where a recommended solution involves digital technology we work with policy colleagues and other digital specialists to design, create and test software to meet those needs.
Each day is different, one day you could be preparing requirements for a procurement competition, the next, mapping out a process for a brand-new service or identifying specific metrics to measure the success of efficiency improvements.
A business analyst will help you to use data to diagnose and evidence a problem. For example, what does the data say about the scale, frequency, and root cause of a problem? How does a problem affect your daily business performance?
Secondly, we will work with you and your users to establish the needs for achieving your business goals. We aim to design an experience that not only meets those needs but does so in a user-centred way, improving your ways of working.
Finally, a business analyst will identify solution options to best meet those needs, outlining the pros and cons in areas like costs, timescales, complexity and feasibility. We will consider what benefit each option could bring and how it could be measured to demonstrate its success.
We will work together to iterate and test possible solutions, supporting you through to implementation.
Ideally from the start, so that we can explore the problem space together and make sure we have identified all the users and their high-level needs before we consider how to solve it.
Working with a business analyst during the crucial early stages of an idea or project can save time, cost, re-work and reduce the risk of implementing a solution that does not fully meet business and user needs.
I asked some of our team what the best bits of being a business analyst in BEIS Digital are. This is what they said.
My job is really varied, and no two pieces of work are the same. In the brief time I have been at BEIS I’ve dipped my toes into areas as diverse as offshore coal and gas regulation and the procurement of a new HR system.
The best things about working at BEIS are the people I'm working with, the variety of work, a great collaborative culture and interesting and diverse projects.
It’s exciting that you can put theoretical knowledge gained from training courses into practice by working on high-profile projects.
There is a lot of activity and plenty of opportunities to learn, develop and make a real difference.
Working at BEIS involves working on a broad variety of impactful projects such as those relating to energy efficiency, a hot government topic for reducing carbon footprint in the home.
The flexibility of hybrid working, the support for office equipment at home, and good colleagues have made working at BEIS an enjoyable experience.
Our business analysis team is relatively small but we are a supportive community. The team is driven by shared interests and goals.
Wellbeing is at the forefront of what we do, and we check-in as a team daily so that we can all remain in touch. We talk about our projects and share ideas on how we can improve what we’re doing as a profession.
We hope we've managed to shed a bit of light on what business analysts do at BEIS! Keep an eye on the blog for details on our projects.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>In January 2022 the user-centred design team started a new project to look at improving the way we manage grant activity across BEIS, from designing a grant to monitoring and reporting on grants we have awarded.
For some context, BEIS plans to deliver about £22 billion in grants over the next 3 years. We are one of the top 5 government departments by amount of grant funding given out. We decided to do a pre-discovery because we knew this was a huge topic and a really important project for BEIS.
Some of the team had never done a pre-discovery so we looked for guidance on this project phase, but there was nothing in the Service Manual.
That is why, at the end of our pre-discovery, we saw an opportunity to share our experience. We ran a workshop to share what we learnt during Services Week 2022. Within a few hours of opening ticket sales, all 50 places were filled! So we knew this was a topic lots of people are interested in.
Here’s what we learned.
Pre-discovery is time to understand why your project is needed and find out what you already know about the topic. You are asking yourselves whether there is a problem that needs to be solved.
Pre-discovery is also a chance to gather user research that has already been done on similar projects. However, you shouldn’t do comprehensive user research or attempt to find solutions because it is unlikely that you will have enough evidence to fully understand your findings.
In the discovery phase you will then move on to fully understanding the problem. You are probably not experts on the topic at the start of any project, so pre-discovery forms the basis for a successful discovery.
We needed to know why we had been asked to solve the problem.
The grants team in BEIS gave us their initial problem statement for a digital grants service. We asked lots of questions to challenge this:
We also needed to work out whether we should be looking at solving a problem for the businesses applying for BEIS grants, internal BEIS colleagues, or both.
We spent about 11 weeks in pre-discovery and had a team with lots of different experience, including:
To kick off, we held a workshop to talk about team culture. That was a good way for us to get to know each other - favourite food is always a topic that everyone can talk about!
This exercise also made us aware of personal preferences around working and what kind of team we have in terms of neurodiversity. Ours was leaning more towards the introverted side.
Right at the start of the project we noted our assumptions. This was a really useful exercise. We wrote down our assumptions about users, timescales, cost, technology, any risks or cultural barriers.
We mapped them on a Risk-Impact diagram – what would be the biggest risk if we didn’t address it? And where do we think we could make a big difference? This made it easier to understand what our priorities should be.
We also mapped the stakeholders for our project to see who runs grants in BEIS and who we wanted to talk to during discovery.
The most time-consuming task we did was desk research. This took up the bulk of pre-discovery.
We read through and summarised all the documents we had about BEIS’ past digital grant projects, and how past and current grants are run by policy teams.
These materials were a mixture of service assessments, reports, application forms, guidance and meeting notes. This took a really long time! The whole team pitched in.
We clustered key insights together on Mural to pull out themes in our findings:
That allowed us to see the gaps in our knowledge. In other words, what do we need to know more about?
We also spoke to other departments who are working on managing grants, to learn about the tools they are using and the services they have built or are building.
With that knowledge, we had a clearer picture of what is possible, and what technology is currently available.
Even though pre-discovery is not the place for substantial user research, we needed to talk to some senior stakeholders to understand gaps that we found during desk research. We talked to grants policy team members about their processes, the tools they use and any pain points that they experience.
We knew that senior stakeholders are very busy and that we’d need to talk to them again in discovery. So we decided to start by sending off a survey to get some high-level information about areas that desk research hadn't told us much about.
This wasn’t about finding out all the details – it was about working out what we know and what we need to research in discovery.
As user-centred design specialists, we would like to solve the whole problem and design an end-to-end journey. But in real life there are restrictions: there are budgets, timelines and business needs to keep in mind.
In discovery we plan to choose one area to dig into in more detail, while still having a broad overview of the whole problem.
When we move into discovery we will spend most of our time talking to people: our users and stakeholders have a wealth of information that will help us understand the problem. They are the reason why we are trying to make improvements in the first place.
Not all projects need a pre-discovery. We hope this was useful if yours does!
]]>I’m Penelope Kopala, People and Development Manager in BEIS Digital.
I do all things digital recruitment, working on bringing diverse talent into our digital teams. Getting through the last 2 years of remote working and intensified competition for digital talent has been no easy feat.
However, attracting new staff isn’t our only focus. We are investing a lot more in professional learning and development, inclusion and wellbeing to ensure our staff are supported and continue to develop their careers with BEIS Digital.
We are proud to celebrate our achievement of surpassing the UK technology industry diversity average.
BEIS Digital is currently made up of 37.5% women, which is well above the industry average of 25% in technology roles in the UK. 28% staff are from ethnic minorities compared to a UK average of 15%.
My primary role is as a Senior Digital Business Partner and I am one of the 3 group leads for diversity and inclusion in Corporate Services, which BEIS Digital is part of.
I decided to take up the role as a D&I Champion to be drive forward diversity and inclusion in BEIS, to lead by example, and to share my previous experience of D&I in the NHS and the Metropolitan Police.
Diversity and inclusion have been an important part of all my jobs, and I am keen to share the positivity and benefits they bring to our culture.
The D&I Champions help to build and embed an understanding of diversity and inclusion throughout BEIS Digital. Our team organises events and workshops as well as contributing to the development of our D&I Action Plan sponsored and supported by our leadership teams.
Over the last 12 months the D&I Champions have increased our focus on social mobility, race, faith, neurodiversity, and invisible disabilities. We have worked very closely with colleagues across BEIS to deliver workshops, conducted focus groups and led the Corporate Services Diversity and Inclusion week.
Our collective efforts meant we achieved a 100% diversity data declaration for the department.
The future for BEIS Digital is to be inclusive in all that we do, from our technology to the way in which we deliver it.
The D&I Champions continue to deliver various events and facilitate workshops and plans to obtain regular feedback from colleagues to help guide and understand how well we are doing and in ensuring we meet our Public Sector Equality Duty obligations.
The group is looking at other topics such as age, gender, and other areas of diversity. We will be encouraging participation and innovative ideas from colleagues throughout BEIS Digital.
I have over 20 years' experience in recruitment and recently moved into a role as the HR Business Partner for BEIS Digital and am also one of the D&I Champions.
Having worked in a people focused roles throughout my career and particularly in recruitment I found that blind recruitment has been effective when hiring in the Civil Service.
With blind recruitment the CV reviewing panel cannot see the applicants’ name, demographics, level of educational qualification and educational institutions which helped reduce the unconscious bias or affinity bias the panel may have.
I’ve often been asked about what is different when applying for a role within the Civil Service and for any advice on what to consider when applying for a role within BEIS Digital.
I would recommend:
We encourage diversity of thought and appreciate the value all new joiners bring to our teams. For this to happen we make sure that throughout the recruitment process, from the application review stage to interviews, we don’t just assess the specialist skills and experience needed for the job.
We also assess the behaviours and potential a candidate demonstrates to show they will be successful in the role. This means we hire people who are aligned with our Civil Service values and core professional capabilities.
We offer our staff specialist and on-the-job training, apprenticeships and mentoring programmes to develop their skills.
Follow our blogs to get to know more about our exciting projects, people, and careers in upcoming blogs.
Whether you are at the very start of your career or looking to grow and develop professionally in a new and exciting environment, BEIS might be the next place for you!
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>I'm Karl Hoods, BEIS’ Chief Digital and Information Officer. I wanted to tell you about the amazing team we have here in BEIS Digital and how they're transforming digital services in the department.
We're a team of around 150 professionals working across 7 teams (including Digital, Project Management, Finance, Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) and HR) in 3 locations around the UK.
We work to improve the experience of everyone that interacts with BEIS’ digital services, from BEIS employees to businesses and citizens.
In BEIS digital, we:
Here’s a highlight of some of our BEIS digital teams and what exciting things they’re working on.
Our design, data and delivery team work on internal and public-facing digital services, putting user needs at the heart of everything we do. They are a multi-disciplinary and collaborative team of developers, service and content designers, user researchers, data specialists, project managers and product managers.
They’re currently working on a number of exciting projects, including:
This team delivers new technologies to approximately 12,400 employees across BEIS, the Department for International Trade (DIT) and 8 BEIS partner organisations.
They support our colleagues’ laptops and mobile phones, public cloud services such as Microsoft 365, IT networks, telephone, printing, and VIP support arrangements.
The team spent the last 2 years supporting staff to work from home with reliable and effective IT service available 24/7. They’re now working to support our estates team in welcoming colleagues back to the offices around the UK.
The KIM team:
The People and Development team give BEIS Digital bespoke HR support, including recruitment, workforce planning, learning and development, and capability.
Our KIM team is now working on information governance to automate our information retention and deletion policies and make our documents easier to find.
The shared services team works with our shared service provider to improve our HR, payroll, finance and procurement systems. Standardising processes and working collectively across government gives users a better and more efficient experience, freeing up colleagues to focus on their work priorities.
The team has recently improved user experience on our HR and finance systems and added single sign on to improve security.
None of the amazing work we do and the projects we complete would be possible without talking to the right people in BEIS and our partner organisations.
Our business partnering and assurance team find the right people so we can support and advise digital projects at every stage from coming up with a new idea to go-live.
They work with the department to understand what digital technology is needed now and what might be needed in the future. That means we can make sure that each project is financed and supported by business analysis, user research, and agile delivery teams.
They have:
We’re proud that our digital team plays an active role in creating this future for the UK society and economy.
It is a genuinely exciting time to be playing such an instrumental role in helping the department in:
Over the coming months, we're excited to share more details about the projects we’re working on and the things we've learnt.
Stay up-to-date by signing up for email alerts from this blog.
]]>The BEIS Digital blog has been running, in one form or another, since 2013. In that time we’ve posted about the growth of digital in the department, the launch of GOV.UK and the rise of such newcomers as Twitter, Vine and Periscope.
But in recent years we’ve found it difficult to post regularly, and since 2019 the blog has been mothballed.
With so much digital work going on in the department it feels like the right time to start blogging again. This time we’ll be joined by our colleagues on the digital services side (confusingly called 'BEIS Digital'). So, as well as posts about GOV.UK and digital engagement, you can expect posts on designing digital services and improving user experiences for businesses.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest developments by signing up for email alerts or by following us on Twitter.
]]>