Industries
Public services built to last
Digital services for citizens and the systems behind them, designed to be usable by everyone and maintained for decades by the people who own them.
Talk to our public sector team
What is changing
Public bodies serve everyone, including people who would rather not use a screen, and their systems are expected to last far longer than most commercial software. Agencies are replacing paper and old casework systems with services that are simple to use, open to scrutiny and affordable to keep running.
Budgets are set years ahead, and a failed project is a public matter. Plans have to be realistic from the first day.
The most valuable thing a supplier can leave behind is a team inside the agency that can run and change what was built.
Three shifts in public services
Services shaped around life events
Moving home, having a child, starting a business: people want one service, not five departments and five forms.
Old casework, finally retired
Casework systems built decades ago are reaching the end of support. Replacing them is the largest technology risk many agencies carry.
Capability that stays in house
Agencies want to own their services, not rent them. That means skills, documentation and code left behind on purpose.
By the numbers
Public services, measured
- 96%
- Of applications completed online without help, on the citizen services we have redesigned.
- 100%
- Of our public services audited against current accessibility standards before launch, and again each year.
- 8 months
- Average time from go-live until an agency's own team runs a new service without us.
- 40%
- Lower running cost five years on, compared with the systems replaced, across four public programs.
KIASA delivery records for public sector clients, 2019 to 2026.
What we do
How we help public bodies
We design with the public, build in the open where we can, and plan the handover from the first week.
Citizen services
Services designed with the people who use them, including those with access needs and those who need help to get online.
Experience designCasework modernization
Old casework systems replaced in stages, with each team moved only when the new service does everything it needs.
Application modernizationData sharing and APIs
Agencies sharing data safely through documented APIs, so citizens are not asked for the same thing twice.
Integration and APIsSecure foundations
Hosting, identity and security built to public standards, and tested regularly by people who think like attackers.
CybersecurityIn-house capability
Pairing, training and documentation so the agency's own team can run and change the service after we leave.
Workforce enablementStrategy and business cases
Options costed honestly and sequenced in stages small enough to succeed, before any money is committed.
Strategy and advisory
Service design
One service for one life event
A person who has just moved home does not think in departments. They want to update their address, their council tax, their parking permit and their children's school once.
We map the event from the citizen's side, then work across the teams involved to build one service in front and connect the systems behind. Every version is tested with residents, including those who use assistive technology and those who prefer the phone.
See experience design
Handover
Handing over is the plan
A public service may run for thirty years. The supplier who builds it will not be there for most of them, and should not need to be.
From the first week, agency staff work in our teams. They write code, run releases and lead research alongside us. By go-live they own the service, and our role shrinks to advice until it is no longer needed.
See how we workOur work in action
What we have built with public bodies
Ardmoor City Council
A city moves 120,000 households to an online council tax account
Paying, changing details and applying for discounts in one account, with phone support kept for those who need it.
Explore
Northvale Revenue Agency
A revenue agency retires a 30-year-old casework system
Replaced in five stages over three years, with the agency's own team running every release by the end.
Explore
Wexholm Courts Service
A courts service lists hearings online and cuts adjournments by a fifth
Parties see and confirm hearing details in advance, so fewer cases are delayed by missing information.
Explore
What we think
Reading for public sector leaders
Research report
The maintenance dividend
Public bodies carry some of the oldest systems in use. How the best performers spend less keeping them running.
Research report
Security debt: the quiet risk on the balance sheet
Unpatched public systems are a risk to citizens' data and to trust. A way to measure it and pay it down.
Perspective
Green software is mostly just good software
Public commitments to net zero include the carbon cost of digital services. Where to start measuring it.
Perspective
Why the second year of a cloud migration matters more than the first
A move to the cloud is not finished on the day of migration. What agencies should plan for in year two.
Our leaders
Public sector leads
People who have built services for the public, and stayed to see them used.
Margaret Achterberg
Industry Lead, Public Sector
Worked in local and national government digital teams for fifteen years. Leads our work with councils and agencies.
Emeka Obi
Service Design Lead
Designs services around life events, and tests them with residents who find screens hardest.
Yasmin Farouk
Digital Capability Lead
Plans and runs the handover, so an agency's own team owns its service from go-live.
Build a service the public can rely on
Tell us about the service you need to change. A partner from our public sector team will reply within two working days.